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Carlos Brito of AB-InBev: Three Things Make for a Good Leader...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:13:46 -0400

Carlos Brito of AB-InBev: Three Things Make for a Good Leader (by stanfordbusiness)

Lessons:

- leaders can be formed/trained

- 3 things make a leader a) delivering results regularly b) doing it with the team and c) doing it right, so it’s repeatable

- how do you lead? a) have a dream and convey it to team.

- many of the keys to success are very simple. the difference between the best and the good is whether you actually do it .

- owners are the best because owners are responsible for all the consequences. they have to earn it every day.

- know the difference-makers. know the must-haves.

- you cannot build a great company if you believe in short cuts. there are no short cuts.

Leadership Speaker Series: Les Wexner - Builder of The Limited...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:33:13 -0400

Leadership Speaker Series: Les Wexner - Builder of The Limited Brands/Stores

Lessons:

- read about leaders to becomes a better leader

- a complete leader has 3 characteristics a) whole person b) an educator c) a catalyst and sponsor of change

- leaders need to use influence, rather than authority to cause change

- patient decision-making: allow yourself to think things through. understand when exactly you need to give an answer, and say you’ll get an answer to them before that date. be patient in decision-making. allow yourself to sleep on it. there is always some difficulty, some unintended complexity that’s difficult to predict immediately.

- leaders really learn from their lessons

Howard Schultz (4/4/11) - How Starbucks Fought for Its Life...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:02:41 -0400

Howard Schultz (4/4/11) - How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul

Thoughts::

- everything matters. attention to detail. 6 of 8 or 5 of 7 is failure.

- only attribute you can build with consumers is trust. a long term relationship.

- what does it mean not to be a bystander

- andy grove “only the paranoid survive”

- “get big and stay small”

- during times of crisis, you need to narrow your focus, know what business you’re in, what is your core purpose, what are your values? you can’t fight all battles.

Dennis Crowley (by kevinrose) Just teach yourself what you need...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:24:50 -0500

Dennis Crowley (by kevinrose)

Just teach yourself what you need to know to accomplish your goals. Don’t let your degree be limiting.
Ship and get feedback.

Chris Sacca interview (by kevinrose) Be creatively and...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:44:57 -0500

Chris Sacca interview (by kevinrose)

Be creatively and shamelessly scrappy

Birchbox - go way above and beyond to do anything and everything...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:41:30 -0500

Birchbox - go way above and beyond to do anything and everything for the customer to make them absolutely love you.

Birchbox: Advice To Founders Move fast by trying stuff and...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:17:11 -0500

Birchbox: Advice To Founders

Move fast by trying stuff and testing it, learning, and moving on.

One thing I’ve learned, however, is the importance of ensuring your test and the results are as correctly done as possible.

Awesome video from Systrom. Key take aways: Put your product...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:54:25 -0500

Awesome video from Systrom.

Key take aways:

Put your product out there fast and get feedback and quickly adapt.
Nail your beta by using it to build demand for your upcoming product. Ensure your beta testers can have an awesome experience by themselves.
Be able to answer the 3 problems your product solves. Balance the magnitude of the products you’re solving with focus and frequency.

Drew Houston at Startup Bootcamp. So many takeaways, but the...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:28:03 -0500

Drew Houston at Startup Bootcamp.

So many takeaways, but the most basic is this: even though he’s so young, Dropbox is his 6th startup. He has failed in some form 5 times before Dropbox.

If you’re at all interested in building companies, know that even the people who are most successful, seemingly flawless people have tried and failed a few times.

I need to take this advice as well.

Ron Conway at Startup School 2011. He talks about the...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:14:37 -0400

Ron Conway at Startup School 2011.

He talks about the characteristics of and stories about defining entrepreneurs.

No other person has more stories or expertise in this area. Watch and enjoy.

Mark Zuckerberg at Startup School 2011 (by johncdavi) This is a...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:38:51 -0400

Mark Zuckerberg at Startup School 2011 (by johncdavi)

This is a great video. Simply by listening, you glean that he just thinks differently; somewhat reminiscent of Steve Jobs.

My learnings:

The biggest takeaway for me: It is important, in and of itself, to think differently and to do things differently than what others are doing to solve similar problems. Be able to articulate exactly why and how you are different from others. Have that be a constant reminder.
You know that he’s got a massive vision. At 6:10, he talks about conversations from sophomore year in college, when he would have conversations with friends about the direction in which the world was moving. They envisioned an API that made everything you did online social. When you think about it, that’s huge. The lesson: have a huge, huge vision.
Management and building a company share the same principles as engineering = take a problem and decompose it into smaller problems. When you do this, you’ve thought the problems through and there is clarity in the output, whether it be in the code or in the management structure.
Inflection points in social software: In the same way CD-ROMs faded away in the face of internet based software, we are reaching an inflection point where most of the connections on the web have been established. That being the case, web products that are not social are going to fade away in the face of web software where your friends are there with you and fundamentally involved in the product experience.
“The point of Facebook is not to use the features of Facebook,” According to Zuckerberg, “it’s to connect and share with the people in your life.” Lesson learned: tie the use of your product to the meaning you’re bringing to the world and let that be the message people come in contact with with interacting with your product.
This is obvious, but you must do only what you love; what you are fundamentally passionate about. Approach the opportunity from the long term perspective. Get into it for the long term.

Web 2.0 Summit: Vic Gundotra and Sergey Brin, ” A...

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:49:56 -0400

Web 2.0 Summit: Vic Gundotra and Sergey Brin, ” A Conversation with…” (by OreillyMedia)

Extremely impressed at Vic’s answers. Not sure if it’s true, but it sounds like they are approaching things intelligently.

Learning:

Anytime someone talks about rolling something out slowly, saying we’re taking our time, “trying to do it right”, regardless of whether it’s going well, it sounds like you know what you’re doing.
It’s endearing when a person takes ownership over an issue. Vic took personal blame for Google+ being unavailable for Google Apps users.
Behind all the polish from a public speaking perspective, he still was not able to answer the key question which every consumer-facing product head has to answer: how is regular usage of the product looking? Are people using your product more and more? Not a good answer there.

(via Dropbox startup lessons learned 2011) This is so good. Will...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:25:10 -0400

(via Dropbox startup lessons learned 2011)

This is so good. Will add commentary soon.

My thoughts on Sean Parker's @sparker Email to Spotify's Daniel Ek

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:56:00 -0400

My thoughts on Sean Parker's @sparker Email to Spotify's Daniel Ek :

Read it here.

Learnings

Parker users the word ‘experience’ 11 times in his email, using phrases like ‘you’ve built an amazing experience,’ ‘the details would have resulted in the wrong user experience,’ ‘you nailed the core experience around which everything else can later be built,’ ‘the bias toward web apps over desktop apps has lead to a broken user experience,’ ‘you have surpassed the product experience we built at Napster in so many ways,’ and the list goes on. Yes, he refers to features, but it’s all about the experience those features come together to create. Importance is on the user experience you create.
Core values of a product are the themes of your product narrative. What are the characteristics of the core user experience? He articulated them to be a) convenience, b) speed/responsiveness, and c) sampling/discovery of music. This is obvious, but defining the characteristics of your core user experience, *rather than tactical features*. These are the section titles of the narrative of your product, below which you have chapters, which are the interactions and experiences, and then, finally, features that paragraphs of text. That sort of hierarchy allows you to back into features rather than start with them, ensuring a cohesive story.
Product sequencing. Parker says, “You’ve done a great job with sequencing. You nailed the core experience around which everything else can later be built…As product designers we can never have exactly what we want, when we want it. We have to start by understanding the really important parts and build that core functionality first, then build additional features around that core. Getting serious leverage in the marketplace (distribution) is the most important first order goal.” Having a vision is one thing. Defining the best way to get there so that you bring the essence of what you want to bring to the world to light, while achieving your first order goal of distribution is the hard part.
How to pitch getting involved. There’s something to be said about concise emails when reaching out to people. Sure. Then you have this two thousand word essay wordily articulating how Parker, possibly only outside of Ek himself, has thought more deeply and accomplished more in digital music than anyone. This pretty paves the way for what Parker then calls an ‘offer of assistance.’ I’ll provide it verbatim. “Let me know how I can be helpful to you with Facebook, platform, viral optimization, investment, etc. I’m eager to participate in all these ways and more.” Lesson here: if you really do have value to offer, if you really do have passion for people you are trying to work with, convey it. Be a little more concise than Parker, though, and know that you’re not Sean Parker. At least not yet (so you may not get a response, etc).

"Twitter is looking to Apple as a mentor of sorts in its aim to focus on delivering one service, and..."

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:47:48 -0400

“Twitter is looking to Apple as a mentor of sorts in its aim to focus on delivering one service, and one service only. “Those guys [at Apple] are an amazing partner for us. When they think about products and enhancing products they think about editing them,” Costolo said. “[At Twitter] we’re going to offer simplicity in a world of complexity… they’re a corporate mentor to us.””

- Twitter CEO: Apple is our corporate mentor — Tech News and Analysis

Apple iPad: Steve Jobs Keynote Lesson: The best CEOs are able...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:56:00 -0400

Apple iPad: Steve Jobs Keynote

Lesson: The best CEOs are able to very clearly articulate 5 key things about their products, illustrated in Steve Jobs’ iPad keynote:

Market Positioning - Where exactly does your product fit into its ecosystem?
Capabilities - What are the specific things it does very well?
Differentiators - What do you do better than your competition?
Visuals - What does it look like?
Demos - What does it feel like?

"There aren’t any committees at Apple, the concept of general management is frowned on, and..."

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:54:35 -0400

“There aren’t any committees at Apple, the concept of general management is frowned on, and only one person, the chief financial officer, has a “P&L,” or responsibility for costs and expenses that lead to profits or losses. It’s a radical example of Apple’s different course: Most companies view the P&L as the ultimate proof of a manager’s accountability; Apple turns that dictum on its head by labeling P&L a distraction only the finance chief needs to consider. The result is a command-and-control structure where ideas are shared at the top — if not below. Jobs often contrasts Apple’s approach with its competitors’. Sony (SNE), he has said, had too many divisions to create the iPod. Apple instead has functions. “It’s not synergy that makes it work” is how one observer paraphrases Jobs’ explanation of Apple’s approach. “It’s that we’re a unified team.””

- How Apple works: Inside the world’s biggest startup - Fortune Tech

Learnings:

No P&L’s*

Functional groups rather than divisions

*Well, not really NO P&L’s. But only one person in the company, the CFO, thinks about them. In other companies, the P&L is the one determiner of success. Very interesting.

Larry Page & Q&A with Eric Schmidt at Zeitgeist Americas...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:13:50 -0400

Larry Page & Q&A with Eric Schmidt at Zeitgeist Americas 2011

Larry Page gave an introduction to what he’s doing with Google.

3 learnings:

User focus and fast iteration is, according to the Google CEO, the keys to Google’s success.
Fast decision making is essential. He said, ‘There’s never been a good, slow decision made by a company. They are always good fast decisions.’
Finally, think creatively about any possible way to address the problem you’re trying to solve. Google is trying to sell ads. People spend 2 hours a day commuting in their cars. Although self-driving cars don’t make sense for Google on the surface, when you think about what the user could be doing, namely watching Google TV or doing Google searches, you can imagine the captive audience they’ll achieve for their ads, which is a brand new revenue opportunity.

Jeff Immelt of GE: Leaders Must Drive Change (by...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:28:00 -0400

Jeff Immelt of GE: Leaders Must Drive Change (by stanfordbusiness)

Sometimes it is discouraging how hard it is to build something new; that there is often so much friction.

Lesson:

Immelt basically says this is par for the course. Paraphrased, he says that if you want to change the world - if you want to build anything of consequence, more people are going to hate you than love you.

Seems counter-intuitive, yes, but I think the statement is meant to illustrate the manifold difficulties associated with change, while underscoring the need for perseverance, knowing that the change, while difficult, is for the best.

Thoughts of Facebook and their changes to the newsfeed definitely come to mind here, and look how that turns out…

"For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap..."

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:14:19 -0400

“For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) because they are afraid to hurt their initial business. Eventually these companies realize their error of not focusing enough on the new thing, and then the company fights desperately and hopelessly to recover. Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.”

- http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflections.html

Issues with how this was externally communicated aside, it is simply amazing to me that Hastings was able to be so bold as to ‘pivot’ (and a bold pivot at that) after 14 years of building one company. It’s easy to say that the decision to split the companies was an obvious one, but I would argue that is the case only in hindsight.

These types of big decisions (splitting into 2 companies) are hard even in small companies. Doing so with such a loyal and established customer base is extremely risky.

Even in this post, I think he missed 2 opportunities for messaging this change optimally:

First, Hastings justifies the split saying that each company will be better because of it. He could have made a stronger connection between the unique company being better and the tangible improvement for the consumer. The focus, in the blog, seems simply to be how ‘things will be the same’ or minimizing the degradations of user experience. There will be optimizations, and Reed could have also given a little more focus on that.

He also could have gone into any sort of depth on the reasons for the price hike. If he would have conveyed the ‘reality’ Netflix is facing, as Bill Gurley puts it, and then tied it to the changes, users would have full context, and therefore would have been more understanding of the new pricing. Netflix users, myself included, love the service, but sometimes forget the realities associated with getting that content. Not that customers should have to worry about these things, but simply having a high level understanding of how the Netflix business works could engender more appreciation for the amazing service.

What do you think?