What Gets Said vs. What Gets Heard I’ve been on the edge of a few different situations lately at work where what seems like a very clear (even by objective standards) conversation ends up with two very different understandings down the road. This is the problem I’d characterize as “What gets said isn’t necessarily what gets heard.” More often than not, this is around delivering bad news, but there are other use cases as well. Imagine these three fictitious examples: Edward was surprised he got fired, even though his manager said he gave him repeated warnings and performance feedback Jacob thought his assignment was to write a proposal and get it out the door before a deadline, but his manager…
Category
Business
Book Short: Innovation and Discipline
Book Short: Innovation and Discipline The Puritan Gift, by Kenneth and William Hopper, is a bit of a mixed bag. The authors have a wonderful point to make — that American businesses have thrived over the centuries due to a mix of innovation and discipline that descended from the country’s Puritan roots, and that when they lose their way, it’s because they diverge from those roots. The book is also an interesting, if somewhat cursory, history of American industry. And it playfully debunks some great myths of corporate American life over the last 50 years. But the book has a few too many moments where assertions aren’t supported by data — where its theories overreach into explanations of other aspects…
A Perfect Ten
A Perfect Ten Return Path turns 10 years old today. We are in the midst of a fun week of internal celebrations, combined with our holiday parties in each office as well as year-end all-hands meetings. I thought I would share some of my reflections on being 10 in the blog as I’ve shared them with our team. What being 10 means to me – and what’s enabled us to make it this long: It means we’ve beaten the odds. Two major global economic meltdowns. The fact that 90% of new small businesses fail before they get to this point. Probably a higher percentage of venture backed startups fail before they get to 10 as well We’ve gotten here because…
Powerpointless
Powerpointless We tried an experiment last week at a Return Path Board meeting — and not just a regular Board meeting, but our once-a-year, full-day (~9 hour) annual planning session attended in person by all Board members, observers, and executives. First, a little background. We have been driving two important trends over the years at our Board meetings: 1. Focusing on the future, not the past. In the early years of the business, our Board meetings were probably 75% “looking backwards” and 25% “looking forwards.” They were reporting meetings — reports which were largely in the hands of Board members before the meetings anyway. They were dull as all get out. This past meeting was probably 10% “looking backwards” and…
Book Short: Sloppy Sequel
Book Short: Sloppy Sequel SuperFreakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the original Freakonomics, either. I always find the results of “naturally controlled experiments” and taking a data-driven view of the world to be very refreshing. And as much as I like the social scientist versions of these kinds of books like Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Blink (book; blog post), there’s usually something about reading something data driven written by a professional quant jock that’s more reassuring. That’s where SuperFreakonomics fell down a bit for me. Paul Krugman has described the book in a couple different places as “snarky and contrarian.” I typically enjoy books that carry…
Book Short: Chip Off the Old Block
Book Short: Chip Off the Old Block I have to admit, I was more than a little skeptical when Craig Spiezle handed me a copy of The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey, at the OTA summit last week. The author is the son of THE Stephen Covey, author of the world famous Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as well as The Eighth Habit (book, post). Would the book have substance and merit or be drafting off the dad’s good name? I dog-ear pages of books as I read them, noting the pages that are most interesting if I ever want to go back and take a quick pass through the book to remind me about it…
If this madness all ended tomorrow, I would do…almost nothing
If this madness all ended tomorrow, I would do…almost nothing (This post originally appeared on FindYourNerve on October 21) I don’t know what you call the last 12 months of global macroeconomic meltdown. I’ve taken to calling it the Great Repression. In part because it’s somewhere in between a Recession and a Depression, in part because it’s certainly repressed the wants and needs of startups and growth companies the world over. And it makes for good cocktail party chatter. Someone asked me a question the other day, which started off with “Now that the recession is over…” I can’t even remember the end of the question. I got lost in the framing of it, mostly because I’m not convinced it’s…
Why I joined the DMA Board, and what you can expect of me in that role
Why I joined the DMA Board, and what you can expect of me in that role I don’t normally think of myself as a rebel. But one outcome of the DMA’s recent proxy fight with Board member Gerry Pike is that I’ve been appointed to the DMA’s Board and its Executive Committee and have been labeled “part of the reform movement” in the trade press. While I wasn’t actively leading the charge on DMA reform with Gerry, I am very enthusiastic about taking up my new role. I gave Gerry my proxy and support for a number of reasons, and those reasons will form the basis of my agenda as a DMA Board member. As a DMA member, and one…
Another Only Once Moment, Sort Of
Another Only Once Moment, Sort Of I’ve never handed over the reins of a company before (no, I’m not leaving, and we aren’t selling Return Path). But I did the other day, for the first time. As many people know, last year we reorganized the company to focus entirely on deliverability and whitelisting and spun out Authentic Response, a company in the online market research business, into a completely separate entity. Since then, I have been CEO of both companies. Although Return Path has had more of my focus — Authentic Response had excellent day-to-day leadership under Co-Presidents Jeff Mattes and Rob Mattes — I’ve still been working in both businesses. Today, we officially announced the hiring of my replacement,…
Ten Characteristics of Great Investors
Ten Characteristics of Great Investors Fred had a great post today called Ten Characteristics of Great Companies. This link includes the comments, which numbered over 70 when I last looked. Great discussion overall, especially for Fred’s having come up with the list on a 15-minute subway ride. Fred used to write a series of posts about VC Chiches, and I would periodically write a Counter-Chiche post from the entrepreneur’s perspective. This post inspired me to do the same. So I’ve taken 15 minutes here, pretended I’m on the subway, and here is my list of Ten Characteristics of Great Investors, in no particular order: Great investors know how to give strategic advice without being in the operating weeds of a…
Book Short: Go Where They Ain’t
Book Short: Go Where They Ain’t Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne isn’t bad, but it could literally be summed up by the title of this post. I think it’s probably a better book for people who aren’t already entrepreneurs. That said, there are two chapters that I found pretty valuable. One is called “Reconstruct Market Boundaries,” which is a great way of thinking about either starting a new business or innovating an existing one. It’s a strategy that we’ve employed a few times over the years at both Return Path and Authentic Response. It’s hard to do, but it expands the available territory you have…