Management
I often get asked by technical founders what business / marketing / strategy books they should read. While there are many excellent relatively new books (e.g., The Lean Startup), the primary purpose of this post is to list a set of classic business books that most (older) business people have read
Leadership
In business we have a sad tendency to copy success blindly. I remember the first time I read about this I didn't even understand what I was reading: "Nothing in business is so remarkable as the conflicting variety of success formulas offered by its numerous practitioners and
Grateful Dead
As a long-time Grateful Dead fan, I have to say that I was advantaged in understanding how the Blown to Bits problem would affect digital media businesses. You see, for years, the Dead had changed the business model of the music industry, choosing to use albums as a loss leader
Boards
I once asked one of my board members which CEO ran the best board meetings across his portfolio companies. His answer was, let's call him, Jack. Here's what he said about him: * Jack got the board deck out 3-4 days in advance of the board meeting
Management
Congratulations! If your company is like most, you've recently finished a (hopefully) solid 2013 and, from an EPM perspective, completed your 2014 annual planning process. Before we get too excited, however, let’s ask one quick question: did you just make a plan or a budget? In business,
FP&A
I'm always struck by how often good business ideas, conceived with the best of intentions, get flipped upside-down when applied by some managers. A favorite example is the 3x pipeline rule about which I've already blogged (see The Self-Fulfilling 3x Pipeline Coverage Fallacy). Another might be
Management
I was talking to a startup CEO the other day and he said: Sales is From Mars, Engineering is From Venus Sure. Two things typically go wrong in this relationship. One is that you have a strategic alignment problem. The other is that you're treating sales and engineering
Management
Question from a reader: How much does my general manager need to know about my department? Frankly, he/she doesn't seem that interested in what we're doing or spend that much time with us -- which I suppose is a good sign in some ways. On
Grateful Dead
For a change of pace, I thought I'd do a quick post with some of my favorite quotes. * "In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable." -- Dwight Eisenhower * "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing
Management
A friend of mine who played football at Stanford, back when Bill Walsh was coach, told me a great story the other day. He said that, according to Walsh, there were three types of players. * Those who need a kick in the butt. * Those who need a hug. * Those who
Management
Dear Dave: I think the art of negotiation is dead. Over the past two years we have won over prospects on our product capabilities, but then lost out on price to inferior products. In all recent cases the prospect never once negotiated with us for a lower cost but clearly
Management
Since I've had the good fortune to work at small, large, and small-that-became-large software companies, people sometimes ask me about the pro's and con's of working at companies of different sizes. Let's start with the basics. At a small company: * You generally
