HR
The first time I heard the VC adage "you can never fire someone too early," it rubbed me the wrong way. It sounded harsh and unfeeling. It seemed flippant. It felt trite. It seemed, frankly, like one of those things people say in the press box, but never
Leadership
Say you're an experienced executive joining a new company. When you start, you inherit a team of people. The first thing you must realize is that over time, "the team" will silently transform into "your team." Warts and all, you're going to
CEO
In the past year or so, two of our competitors have abruptly transitioned their CEOs and both have perpetuated a lot of mythology about what happens and/or will happen in such transitions. As someone who's run two startups as CEO for more than a combined ten years,
Management
I remember years and years ago attending a training class for job candidates on how to improve their interviewing skills. The crux of the course was this: * Most people are bad interviewers. * Since they don't know what to ask, you need to tell them what they need to
Management
It was HP co-founder, David Packard, of all people, who came up with one of my favorite quotes on marketing, specifically that "marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department." This quote is often mentioned in the same breath as these famous Peter Drucker
IPO
From everything I've heard for a long time, Jeff Weiner is a wonderful guy and great CEO. In addition, LinkedIn is certainly a great company, so please don't view this post as dissing either Jeff or the company. I will say, however, that I found media
Management
This post reviews Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin’s new book, From Impossible to Inevitable, which is being launched at the SaaStr Conference this week. The book is a sequel of sorts to Ross’s first book, Predictable Revenue, published in 2011, and which was loaded with great ideas about
Leadership
“I am 100% behind my CEOs up until the day I fire them.” -- Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital I’ve always loved that Don Valentine quote although, like many great quotes, it took me a while to really understand it. In short, it means that the board of directors should either
Leadership
I can't remember when I first heard this great parable, and despite Googling around couldn't find it online [see footnote], so I thought I'd take a moment to re-tell this pointed story here. One day an employee is asked to write a proposal
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
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,
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
