Scaling Frustrations Two things have come up in spades lately for me that are frustrations for me as a CEO of a high growth company. These are both people related — an area that's always been the cornerstone of my leadership patterns. That probably makes them even more frustrating. Frustration 1: Worrying that I don't get completely candid feedback from deep in the organization. I've always relied on direct interactions with junior staff and personal observation and data collection in order to get a feel for what's going on. But a couple times lately, people had been warning me (for the first time) when I've relayed feedback with comments like, "Of course you heard that — you're the CEO. People…
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Leadership
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…
Stuck In Legal, Responses
Stuck In Legal, Responses Well, I certainly struck a nerve with my Stuck In Legal rant/post last week. As of now, there are 32 comments on the blog — my typical post generates 0-1 — and I've picked up between 50 and 75 new followers on Twitter, probably mostly because Fred tweeted about the post. Most of the comments on the blog were cheering me on; a couple were from lawyers, one well reasoned and another just a counter rant against stupid business people that had one or two good points buried in it. You can certainly click through the link above if you want to read them. But two comments didn't get put on the blog, which I thought…
Stuck in Legal
Stuck in LegalIf I had a nickel for every time I heard from someone on our sales or business development team that a critical contract, to which both sides had agreed on the fundamental business terms, was "stuck in legal," I'd be rich. Maybe not rich enough to pay all the world's legal bills, but that's a separate story. I completely understand the need for contracts and lawyers to review them — and sometimes, they do have to be long and complex. But here's what I don't understand: Why companies' legal departments or outside counsel aren't directed to be as efficient in doing their work as their other departments Why companies insist on using their standard form of agreement if…
Return Path Makes The List of "Best Places to Work" in Colorado
Return Path Makes The List of “Best Places to Work” in Colorado Long-time readers of this blog no doubt understand my central philosophy when it comes to management. I believe that people come first. When employees are happy they make our clients happy. Happy clients happily pay for our services, which tends to make our investors happy. When you start with the people, everyone wins. At Return Path we invest a lot in our people. And we invest a lot in Team People – what we call “Human Resources” – to support those people. So what a great honor to see all that hard work and investment pay off in the form of a “Best Places to Work” honor! The…
Book Short: A Twofer
Book Short: A Twofer My friend Andrew Winston, who is one of the nation’s gurus in corporate sustainability, just published his second book, this one from Harvard Business Press — Green Recovery: Get Lean, Get Smart, and Emerge from the Downturn on Top. It builds on the cases and successes he had with his first book, Green to Gold (post, link to book), which came out a couple years ago and has become the standard for how businesses embrace sustainability and use it to their financial and strategic competitive advantage rather than thinking of it as a burden or a cost center. Green Recovery is a shorter read (my kind of business book), and it hits a few key themes:…
New Shoes
New Shoes This isn't really a post about new shoes, I promise. Remember, I live in the world of pattern matching and analogies. But I did go running yesterday morning — my first run in a new pair of running shoes. I usually get new running shoes every 3-6 months, depending on how much mileage I'm logging. And I find the same thing every time: I may not realize I'm uncomfortable running in the old shoes, but the minute I put the new ones on, I realize just how far the old ones had deteriorated and just how much better life is in the new ones. Same model shoe – just a fresh pair. And I run faster, stronger, and…
Book Short: Bringing it on Home
Book Short: Bringing it on Home Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors wasn’t Patrick Lencion’s best book, but it wasn’t bad, either. I think all six of his books are well worth a read (list at the bottom of the post). And in fact, they really belong in two categories. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job (post, link), The Five Temptations of a CEO (post, link), and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive (post, link) are all related around the topic of management. Death by Meeting (post, link), The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (post, link), and Silos, Politics and Turf Wars, on the other hand, are…
Book Short: Entrepreneurs in Government
Book Short: Entrepreneurs in Government Leadership and Innovation: Entrepreneurs in Government, edited by a professor I had at Princeton, Jim Doig, is an interesting series of mini-biographies of second- and third-tier government officials, mostly from the 1930s through the 1970s. The book’s thesis is that some of the most interesting movers and shakers in the public arena (not elected officials) have a lot of the same core skills as private sector entrepreneurs. The thesis is borne out by the book, and the examples are interesting, if for no other reason than they are about a series of highly influential people you’ve probably never heard of. The guy who ran the Port Authority of New York for 30 years. The guy…
A Network of Teams, Not an Integrated System
A Network of Teams, Not an Integrated System We were in and out of the hospital a lot back in March/April for the last few weeks with one of our kids (she’s ok now). One of us was with her 24 hours a day for the 10-11 days she was hospitalized, with lots of down time, which gave me lots of time to observe health care in action. While she ultimately got very good care at a very good hospital, it was incredibly clear to me that the hospital functioned as a network of teams, not as an integrated system. The nurses were great. Followed their routine practices and responded to doctors’ orders on cue. Same with the nursing assistants. …