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This approach is designed to conserve resources and funnel information up from far-flung silos to a small set of decision-makers.
Three powerful technology trends
Internet, Mobile & Cloud
Internet has made information free, copious, and ubiquitous—practically everything is online.
mobile devices and networks have made global reach and continuous connect...
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cloud computing10 has put practically infinite computing power and storage and a host of sophisticated tools and applications at everyone’s disposal...
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In economic terms, when the cost curves shift downward on a primary factor of production in an industry, big-time change is in store for that industry.
Today, three factors of production have become cheaper—information, connectivity, and computing power—affecting any cost curves in which those factors are involved.
The result of all this turmoil is that product excellence is now paramount to business success—not control of information, not a stranglehold on distribution, not overwhelming marketing power (although these are still important).
“In the old world, you devoted 30 percent of your time to building a great service and 70 percent of your time to shouting about
it. In the new world, that inverts.”
Google[x], a team working on some of Google’s most ambitious projects, built the first prototype of Google Glass, a wearable mobile computer as light as a pair of sunglasses, in just ninety minutes.
Don’t tell me, show me.
user smart.
No matter the industry, she understands her product from the user or consumer’s perspective better than almost anyone.
Not every smart creative has all of these characteristics, in fact very few of them do. But they all must possess business savvy, technical knowledge, creative energy, and a hands-on approach to getting things done. Those are the fundamentals.
business plans aren’t nearly as important as the pillars upon which they are built.
Most companies neglect this. They become successful, and then decide they need to document their culture. The job falls to
someone in the human resources or PR department who probably wasn’t a member of the founding team but who is expected to draft a mission statement that captures the essence of the place.
The difference, though, between successful companies and unsuccessful ones is whether employees believe the words.
The traditional office layout, with individual cubicles and offices, is designed so that the steady state is quiet. Most interactions between groups of people are either planned (a meeting in a conference room) or serendipitous (the hallway / water cooler / walking
through the parking lot meeting). This is exactly backward; the steady state should be highly interactive, with boisterous, crowded offices brimming with hectic energy. Employees should always have the option to retire to a quiet place when they’ve had it with all the group stimulation, which is why our offices include plenty of retreats: nooks in the cafés and microkitchens, small conference rooms, outdoor terraces and spaces, and even nap pods. But when they go back to their desk, they should be surrounded by their teammates.
“think outside the box” (which has to be the most inside-the-box phrase ever uttered),
Your parents were wrong—messiness is a virtue
Messiness is not an objective in itself (if it was, we know some teens who would be great hires), but since it is a frequent by-product of self-expression and innovation, it’s usually a good sign.34
Hippos are dangerous in companies too, where they take the form of the Highest-Paid Person’s Opinion.
“tenurocracies,”
“it is the quality of the idea that matters, not who suggests it.”
“obligation to dissent”.
The rule of seven
We’ve worked at other companies with a rule of seven, but in all of those cases the rule meant that managers were allowed a maximum of seven direct reports.
Organize the company around the people whose impact is the highest
One last organizational principle: Determine which people are having the biggest impact and organize around them. Decide who runs the company not based on function or experience, but by performance and passion.
“Your title makes you a manager. Your people make you a leader.”
This does not mean you should create a star system, in fact the best management systems are built around an ensemble, more like a dance troupe than a set of coordinated superstars.
You should never be able to reverse engineer a company’s organizational chart from the design of its product.
As the old saying goes: If you want something done, give it to a busy person.
Remember the childhood riddle about knights and knaves? You are on an island with knights, who always tell the truth, and knaves, who always lie. You stand at a fork in a road. One way leads to freedom, the other to death. There are two people standing there, one a knight and the other a knave, but you don’t know which is which. You get to ask one yes/no question
to determine which way to go. What do you do?42 Life is something like that island, only more complicated.
(Tom Peters: “There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.”)
You must always be firm with the people who violate the basic interests of the company.
This is applicable for life as well.
“My first word of advice is this: Say yes. In fact, say yes as often as you can. Saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to new experiences, and new experiences will lead you to knowledge and wisdom. … An attitude of yes is how you will be able to go forward in these uncertain times.”
kanban system
We have no idea what your venture is or even your industry, so we won’t presume to tell you how to create a business plan. But we can tell you with 100 percent certainty that if you have one, it is wrong.
In fact, it’s fine to have a plan, but understand that it will change as you progress and discover new things about the products and market.
This rapid iteration is critical to success,
but equally important is the foundation upon which t...
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“pliancy to roll with the punches in this vertiginous environment.”
doomed-for-obsolescence-before-the-ink-dries
dries
Bet on technical insights that help solve a big problem in a novel way, optimize for scale, not for revenue, and let great products grow the market for everyone.
