Culture
I can't tell you the number of times people I've worked with over the years have said, “I'll get it to you tomorrow," and then don't. Sometimes they take a few extra days. Sometimes, amazingly, they don't get it
Startups
I've written before about the curse of the megaround which can happen, for example, when a startup raises $100M at a unicorn valuation and I've described before what typically happens next: * The company is under great pressure to invest the money to drive strong growth. Late-
Leadership
One time, back in the day at Business Objects, we were all flying back from Paris to San Francisco, when the plane pulled ten feet back from the gate and then stopped. The pilot announced that we were taking a delay of several hours. Frustrated, one of our board members,
Planning
"In preparing for battle I have always found plans useless, but planning indispensable." -- Dwight Eisenhower "God laughs when Man plans." -- Yiddish proverb "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." -- Mike Tyson "Plan your work. Work your plan." -- Grandpa
Communications
Ever hear this story? VP of Marketing: "OK, well, you know, pretty good." VP of Sales: "Why are you hemming and hawing?" VP of Marketing: "Well, I could tell they didn't love it." VP of Sales: "Do you know why? I
Management
Change is hard in business. A few things routinely get messed up: * Pulling the trigger. Think: "wait, are we still discussing this change or did we just decide to do it." I can't tell you the number of times I've heard that quote in
Management
When I listen to senior executives talk about their first- and second-line managers, I sometimes get pretty concerned. That happens when I hear what I call "good enough" thinking. "She's doing a solid job, but nothing too inspirational." "He's not
Management
"The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of the ages, may be preserved by quotation." -- Isaac D'Israeli Browsing my tweetstream I ran into this wonderful website the other day and instantly retweeted it, but also made a note to come back to have a deeper
Sometimes leaders have second agendas: * CEO: I want to win for my shareholders and prove I can take a company public. * Founder: I want to win for my shareholders and destroy the great evil at Microsoft. * Volleyball coach: I want to win the league and prove to the world that
AR
Say you’re considering going out to dinner in a city you’ve never visited before and there are two different surveys of local restaurants that you can use to help choose a place to eat: * Survey 1, which is taken by randomly asking customers leaving restaurants about their experience.
M&A
As mentioned in my recent Curse of the Megaround post, some companies that find themselves flush with cash and under heavy pressure to grow, decide to embark on dubious acquisitions to help shore up the growth story. As one reader it put it, you can summarize your megaround post with
Bubbles
With what everyone seems reluctant to call a bubble in late-stage, private financing in full swing, I thought I'd do a quick post to drill into a concept I presented in my 2015 predictions post, something I call the curse of the megaround. We will do that
