Transformation rarely happens in perfect conditions. Sometimes it happens during executive departures, a rocky return, and a phone call on your birthday telling you that you're now the CEO. In part two of this conversation, Rebecca Carr, CEO of SmartRecruiters, an SAP company, joins Hiring Happy Hour for a candid look at one of the most defining chapters in company history: rebuilding momentum internally, pivoting SmartRecruiters into an AI-first organization, and navigating the company’s acquisition by SAP, all at the same time. What follows goes far beyond strategy decks and vision statements. At a moment when many companies slow down under the weight of acquisition and organizational change, Rebecca shares how SmartRecruiters accelerated, launching Winston into a market that was not fully ready and driving adoption to nearly 60% of all jobs running through the platform, a remarkable number at a time when most AI products struggle to achieve sustained enterprise usage. But this conversation is about more than AI. It is about what innovation actually looks like inside a global enterprise: moving quickly without losing trust, creating clarity during uncertainty, and building a culture willing to execute before every answer is fully known. From rebuilding organizational confidence to navigating acquisition, Rebecca shares an honest look at what transformation demands from modern leaders: conviction, adaptability, and the courage to keep moving while the future is still taking shape.Takeaways: Ship the vision before the market catches up. Waiting for industry consensus before moving on AI is how organizations fall behind. SmartRecruiters launched and drove adoption of Winston, the platform’s AI interface, while competitors were still debating the concept — and built a separation that's now measurable.Adoption is the real proof point, not the product itself. A strong launch means nothing if people don't use it.Nearly 60% of all jobs flowing through SmartRecruiters now use Winston — in an environment where the industry average for AI product adoption sits around 15%. Getting there required change management, internal champions, and a rollout strategy that's as deliberate as the product itself.Enterprise transformation and innovation can coexist if you're intentional. Navigating a major acquisition while simultaneously evolving your product vision is only possible when leaders are radically transparent about where the business is and what it needs to do next. Rebecca held both in motion by keeping the team informed, focused, and moving.Create conditions for bold thinking, then actually act on what comes out. The best strategic ideas rarely emerge from structured planning sessions. When Rebecca asked her team at a company offsite to bring back the craziest ideas on the planet, she got a product roadmap. Some of those ideas are still in flight today.Speed is a strategic asset, not a byproduct. In a crowded market, the organization that moves with both conviction and urgency creates its own differentiation. From launching Winston to closing an acquisition with one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world, pace itself became part of SmartRecruiters’ value proposition. Confidence shown to the market is its own signal. Rebecca's "dance floor" analogy captures something every TA leader navigating a competitive landscape needs to hear: confidence shown to the market, even imperfect confidence, projects readiness and attracts the right partners before the window closes.Change management is an innovation problem, not just a people problem. Getting an enterprise to adopt new technology at scale means solving for trust, clarity, and momentum, not just capability. Treat rollout as a strategic challenge equal to the product build itself. Quote of the Show: “If you have a goal, and you have passion behind it, you have to believe in it as a leader” - Rebecca CarrLinks: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rebeccajcarrWebsite: https://www.smartrecruiters.com/ Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/
