How Google Works

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How Google Works talks about how to succeed as a company in a fast growing era and digital age. Their answer is to attract smart creatives and give them an environment where they can thrive and scale. The author also focuses on corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision making, communication, innovation and dealing with disruption.

Google’s early principles were simple but powerful: constantly focus on the user, always hire as many great software engineers as you can and perhaps the most important part, give those engineers freedom. Google was managed with informal meetings of small engineering teams. Eric Schmidt and Rosenberg took advantage of the opportunity given to them to create a business plan to take on Microsoft. To carry out this task, they invested more time in learning new ways of managing these smart creatives who are not shackled by organizational structures and defined rules. Using this process, the new management methods being learned were documented and this book gives insight into how Google works, providing a series of steps in the development of a company.

CULTURE: Culture is an important consideration when starting a company. Google imbibed the culture of close interaction among employees from inception to date. The culture was deliberate to reduce envy of other colleagues facilities. Collaboration was highly prioritized which has helped in increasing integration. It had been discovered that smart creatives care about where they work to produce their best of work. Google’s culture was an intentional “established a culture of saying YES!” Equally important to saying yes, is to start things which lead to experiences, which in turn leads to an increase in knowledge.

STRATEGY: The author moved on to the principles of Google’s strategy which are:

Bet on technical insight, not market research. Technical insight either increases functionality or reduces the cost of a product significantly. Almost all successful Google products were developed using this strategy. Google search was and it is better than any other search engine because the founders worked out how relevant a web page is to a search query based on which other pages are linked.

 

Optimize for growth and not for revenue. In order to achieve something, you need to be able to grow quickly and globally. Google resisted the urge to make money by placing advertising on its homepage and instead focused on improving and investing in the search engine.

Let great products grow the market for everyone. Keep your product open by adhering to standards and sharing computer code for example: losing control but gaining scale and innovation.

TALENT: In the organization, talent cannot be substituted with any amount of business strategy. Google’s recruitment process is carried out by the interviewee’s potential future peer. The most important thing they look out for is passion, growth mindset and character.

DECISION: There is more to decision making than just making the right decision. The timing, the process of getting to a decision and the way the decision is carried out is extremely important. The author dove deep into Google’s decision making process and principles and they were implemented.

COMMUNICATION: Effective leaders share information rather than keeping it to themselves. As a  leader, knowing the details is very key. This requires asking the right questions and getting the right answers even if it’s not good news. Emails aim to respond quickly. Emails are meant to be clear and straight to the point. There shouldn’t be any content there that people can skip.

INNOVATION: Thinking big is vital and provides a unique advantage of giving creative smart people more freedom to express themselves. One thing that Google has found in it’s process is that big challenges often attract big talent.

In conclusion, when making decisions, think more about the future and how it will impact the outlook.  Schmidt and Rosenberg believe that with enough data and skills, any problem can be figured out and therefore solved. Computers were and will continue to design, to make lives easier and better but for yet more people. The future is bright and technology will transform practically every field.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS
Keypoint #1:  The Basis of success with product excellence is iterating, at speed.
Keypoint #2: Determine who runs the company based on performance and passion not based on function and experience.
Keypoint #3: Optimize for scale not revenue.

One Last Thing

“The most valuable result of 20 percent time isn’t the products and features that get created, it’s the things that people learn when they try something new.”
― Eric Schmidt, How Google Works

THE 21 IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF LEADERSHIP

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The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership was written out of many studies and observations John Maxwell has carried out on leaders in various sectors like business, politics, military, sport and most of all his personal leadership experience. He poured out his heart into this book by giving us 21 laws that can help you become the most powerful and effective leader. The principles of leadership do not change over time, only the application does. These principles or law brings consequences; people will either follow you or they will not. It will depend on your mode of application. These laws when applied in real life form the foundation of leadership.

  1. LAW OF THE LID:  The law of the lid states that leadership ability is a determinant of a person’s level of effectiveness. This means that your effectiveness is determined by your level of leadership. When your level of leadership increases, you become more effective. An increase in effectiveness directly affects the level of success.
  2. LAW OF INFLUENCE:  Leadership is different from every other subject matter such as management or entrepreneurship. The true definition of a leader is determined by the level of people he has influenced. Your followers are the proof that you are a leader, nothing more or less.
  3. LAW OF PROCESS: Maxwell explains five different phases of leadership growth. He also explains that what sets a leader apart from their followers is their ability to learn, develop and improve their skill.
  4. LAW OF NAVIGATION:  A true leader is a leader with foresight. Leaders chart the course for their team because they have full vision of where they are going, understand the challenges and risk and also understand the right set of people needed to achieve the vision.
  5. LAW OF ADDITION: This law defines the ability of a leader to add value by serving others and making things better for them.
  6. LAW OF SOLID GROUND: The foundation of leadership is trust. Trust is built when a leader is consistently competent and displays remarkable character. Character conveys potential and builds respect.
  7. LAW OF RESPECT: In this book, Maxwell explains six ways leaders gain respect and how to access and improve your level of leadership. Leaders tend to stand out while others follow because they are perceived to be stronger.
  8. LAW OF INTUITION: We relate and see people based on who we are so leaders also see things with leadership bias. Maxwell explains in detail various ways a leader can apply their leadership bias and how to improve their leadership intuition.
  9. LAW OF MAGNETISM: You attract who you are. It’s as simple as that. People are drawn to others with similar characteristics like attitude, ability, leadership ability, energy level, etc.
  10. LAW OF CONNECTION: The key to connecting with people is by relating to them as an individual even if they are in a group. There is a need to connect with people emotionally as a leader before you can move them to action. Maxwell shares a bigger picture of how you can connect with yourself and others.
  11. LAW OF THE INNER CIRCLE: Your inner circle is the group of people you turn to for advice, support and assistance. These people must be chosen intentionally. They must be people who display excellence, maturity and good character in everything they do.
  12. LAW OF EMPOWERMENT:  The important thing in empowerment is believing in people. Most leaders refuse to empower others due to three key reasons: resistance to change, desire for job security and lack of self-worth. In this book, John Maxwell sheds more light on how to improve your self-worth and empower others.
  13. THE LAW OF THE PICTURE: Exceptional leaders understand the irreplaceable role of vision. A vision shows the picture of what is to be achieved. Therefore, for a leader to communicate it effectively, he/she has to model the vision by setting the right example and showing the way. This act of modeling gives the followers credibility, passion and motivation to carry on with the vision.
  14. THE LAW OF BUY IN: The secret is people buy into the leader first before buying into the vision. They listen to people who they trust, believe in and feel they are credible and worth going along with.  When followers buy into the leader and the vision, then they are ready and willing to follow such leader through any challenge and success.
  15.  THE LAW OF VICTORY:  A Good leader must take responsibility for all actions, be creative and transfer his success and passion to his followers. Failure or quitting is not an option on a leader’s list.  Maxwell wrote ”one thing victorious leaders have in common is that they share an unwillingness to accept defeat.” As a result, they take responsibility for the success of the team and do what it takes to lead the team to victory.
  16. THE LAW OF BIG MO: Momentum is a leader’s best friend. An organization or team with momentum can successfully pass through any obstacle, and momentum is a determining factor between winning and losing. It makes you unstoppable. In this book, Maxwell shares several characteristics of the Big MO and how to access where we are.
  17. THE LAW OF PRIORITIES:  Don’t just get busy, get productive. The heart of the law of priority states that leaders understand that activity is not about accomplishment. This means prioritizing requires leaders always to think ahead, to know what is more important and how it all relates to the vision. Maxwell discusses the Pareto principle and other key factors that help in setting a priority list which are Requirement, Reward, and Returns.
  18. THE LAW OF SACRIFICE: This law gives a glimpse of what leadership life is.  A leader might be looking glamorous on the outside, but the secret behind his true leadership is that he has sacrificed and still sacrificing. The hidden secret behind success is the sacrifice. And a true leader does not only sacrifice but also put others ahead of him.
  19.   THE LAW OF TIMING: Leadership is not only about how to lead but discerning the right time to take action. Maxwell summarizes his statement by saying “taking the wrong action at the wrong time leads to disaster and the right action at the wrong time leads to resistance while the wrong action at the right time leads to a mistake”. This shows that leadership ability goes beyond leading.
  20.   THE LAW OF EXPLOSIVE GROWTH: You can attain explosive growth when you choose to lead leaders and not followers. To lead leaders, you have to focus on the strength and not weaknesses, treat everyone differently and invest quality time into others rather than spending time together. Maxwell summarizes this law by saying leaders who develop other leaders experience incredible multiplication effect in their organization that can be achieved in no other way.

 

  1. LAW OF LEGACY:  This is the final law in this book. The law of legacy states that a leader’s lasting value is measured by succession. What do you want to be remembered for? Maxwell summarizes the life of a leader by saying that “achievement comes when they do big things by themselves. Success comes when they empower followers to do big things for them. Significance comes when they develop leaders to do great things with them. Legacy comes when they put leaders in the position to do great things without them.” He ends the chapter with the thought, “our abilities as leaders will not be measured by the buildings we built, the institutions we established, or what our team accomplished during our tenure. You and I will be judged by how well the people we invested in carried on after we are gone.” This is the greatest challenge of  a lifelong pursuit of leadership, but it is also the only thing that will matter in the end.

Undoubtedly, you are eager to know other laws of leadership. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership not only explains the laws but include several tips on how to apply the laws. Do not hesitate to feed on the richness of this innovation.

KEY POINTS

Key point #1: Leadership is built on trust and compounds over time

Key point #2: Leaders attract who they are.

Key point #3: Leaders must learn, grow and develop.

 

One Last Thing

“Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Need to Be Needed

Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Want to Be Succeeded”

― John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

The $100 Startup

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The $100 startup by Chris Guillebeau is an insightful book that contains many real-life case studies. It describes the possibility of starting and running a successful business with a tiny team. It also gives great insight on how you can start a small business of your own, giving you the ability  to live on your own terms- from positioning yourself, finding your audience and prospects, creating your products or services, marketing, scaling and leveraging.

 

Guillebeau identified three key areas to start a business: a product/service people are willing to pay for, a group of people who are willing to pay for it such value and a way to get paid. To succeed in business, you need to merge your passion and your skill with something that is useful and essential to other people. If you focus on providing value above all else, your business will be successful. The value in this sense means ‘helping people.’ A vast majority of people want more of some things (money, time, love) and less of other things (debt, stress, pain). The key is to focus on your added value or what pain you take away to improve their life. Give people what they really want and not what you think they should have or want instead.

The author explains that not every passion or hobby is really worth building into a business and as incredible as it sounds, not everyone will want to have a business based on passion or hobby. Many ‘follow-your-passion’ businesses are built on something indirectly related and not the passion or hobby itself. There’s nothing wrong with a hobby, but if you’re operating a business, the primary goal is to make money, that’s it. Short term or long term, just make sure that making money is the focus.

A ubiquitous characteristic of successful startups is that they operate on a “plan as you go” basis. This gives the startup the opportunity to respond to the changing needs of its customers yet still get your business out as soon as possible with a bias toward action. One common mistake is thinking about your audience in terms of categories such as age, race, and gender. Instead, Chris Guillebeau recommends thinking of them in terms of shared beliefs, interests and values. A survey to understand customers and prospect is a good strategy, as long as it is concrete. The more specific and shorter the better.

When creating an offer, think carefully about the possible objections and then respond to them in advance. There is a difference between a good offer and a great offer, urgency. Immediately after a customer purchases something, that customer is hiring you. Look for small but meaningful ways to go above and beyond their expectations. They are not just buying a product or service from you, they are walking the experience with you.

It is vital to work on your business daily. Part-time or full time, work on your business every day and focus that work into key activities that improve the customer experience. Avoid just by responding to an urgent needs that accurate.  

Perhaps one of my favorite takeaways from this book is the advice to leverage skills and contacts. This approach places you in more than one place at the same time with outsourcing, affiliate recruitment, and partnerships. Ideally, you should be able to grow the business without dramatically increasing the workload, allowing you to scale without hiring more people when you make careful choices.

Select two to three metrics that are the lifeblood of your business, then check them monthly.  

In conclusion, a business that is scalable is both teachable and valuable. If you ever want to sell your business, you’ll need to build teams and reduce owner dependency.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: Keep it simple
Key point #2: Value action over plans
Key point #3: Set your own terms

One Last Thing
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.” —JOHN LE CARRÉ”  ― Chris Guillebeau, The $100 Startup

Good To Great

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Jim Collins, an established management consultant, identifies and evaluates the factors and variables that allow a company to transition from merely good to truly exceptional in his classic,  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t. “Great”is a very subjective term, but Collins successfully defines it by a number of metrics, including financial performance, the highest the market average sustained by several periods of time. Using this particular criteria, Collins and his research team exhaustively cataloged the business literature and finding a handful of companies that matched their predetermined criteria for greatness.  

Throughout the book, Collins addresses different components that build the bridge that guides the transition from good-to-great. Among these components, we find management, operational practices,  personnel, behaviors and attitudes that are both effective and yet mutually incompatible to the good-to-great transition.

Using the criteria described above, Collines selected the following eleven companies: Abbott, Fannie Mae, Circuit City, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens and Wells Fargo.  The most crucial factor in the selection process was a period of growth and sustained success that far outpaced the market or industry average.

Collins  begin the process of identifying and explaining the unique factors and variables that differentiate good and great companies. One of the most significant differences in the quality was the leadership in the firm. Collins goes on to identify the followings five levels of leadership:

  •    The highly capable Individual: Leaders who contribute using their skill, know-how and good habits.
  •    The contributing Team Member: Leaders who are able to use their expertise and knowledge to help their team succeed.
  •    Competent Manager: Leaders who are capable of organizing the team to reach pre-determined objectives efficiently
  •    Effective leaders: Leaders who are able to create the commitment from their team to pursue a clear and compelling vision vigorously. They are also able to build a high-performing team
  •    Lastly, the Great Leaders: leaders with all the abilities of the four levels plus a unique combination of will and humility. It is the combination that makes them a great leader.

An actual level 5 leader often has a long-term personal sense of investment determination and profound humility.

Collins went further to identify the nature of leadership. He specifically states that getting the right people takes precedence over strategy, vision and almost everything. The “who” must be put before the “What.” The most valuable asset of a company is not the people but the right people. It is not just the quality of leadership that is essential to be great but the quality of the people in the team. Collins gave three principles that will help you maximize your most significant asset to become great.

  1.    When in doubt, don’t hire – Keep looking
  2.    When you need to let go of the wrong people, act right away. But do not overlook the possibility that the right person might be in the wrong position.
  3.   Put your best people on your biggest opportunities.

Another defining characteristic of the companies Collins defined as great is simplicity. Collins used the metaphor of the hedgehog to illustrate the principle that simplicity can sometimes lead to greatness.

Equally, Collins shares that the simplist way to transform from Good to Great is often not by doing many things well, but instead, by doing one thing better than anyone else in the world. Usually it takes time to identify that single thing that you can be great at, but those who do successfully identify it are often rewarded with singular success. Collins suggests using the following three criteria to expedite the process to find it: 1) Determine what you can be best in the world at and what you cannot be best in the world at; 2) Determine what drives your economic engine; and 3) Determine what you are deeply passionate about.

Good to Great has become a classic in leadership and business. If you are in a leadership position or planning to do so, grab a copy and be ready to move from Good to Great.

THE BIG THREE – KEYPOINTS

Keypoint #1:   Companies need to create a climate where the truth is heard.

Keypoint #2.    Good to great companies are motivated by inner compulsion of excellence for its own sake.

Keypoint #3.    Always confront uncomfortable truths head-on, but never lose faith that you’ll work it out.

 

One Last Thing:

“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”

― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

The Back of a Napkin

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B.i.L Bite of The Back of The Napkin

The back of a napkin outlines why visual communication is effective and how to make it more effective. Dan Roam explains how to solve problems and sell ideas using pictures. He explained that if a drawing is used properly, it is more powerful than a Spreadsheet or a PowerPoint chart. It can help crystallize ideas and communicate in a way the audience gets to understand more effectively.  He further explains the framework for selecting the most appropriate diagrams for certain situations as well as a framework for problem-solving.

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Visual thinking is an universal talent, including those who could not put figures on paper. You have three basic visual thinking tools which are eyes, mind’s eye, and hand-eye coordination. The visual thinking process has four steps:

Look: which deals with collecting and screening.

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See: which deals with selecting and clumping. It basically collects everything, lay it all out where you can look at it and establish a fundamental coordination, establishing answers to who/what, how much/many, when, where, why, how and as). Then sort and prioritize.

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Imagine: this deals with seeing what is not there

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Show: this deals with making it all clear. Showing in itself has three steps which includes:

●    select the right framework

●    Use the framework to create the picture

●    Explain the picture to someone else

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Another powerful concept explained in the book is the S.Q.V.I.D process. Roam argues (quite correctly) that even when you know generally hat you would like to draw, there are numerous ways to draw it depending on what on what point you are trying to convey. He illustrates this with a story of an apple.  Suppose you wanted to communicate the idea of an apple to someone who doesn’t know what apples are. Would you draw a picture of a single apple (simple) or an entire orchard (elaborate)?  Would you draw an apple pie (vision) or the recipe and steps to prepare one (execution)?  He continues through other questions, eventually labeling it the S.Q.V.I.D approach which encourages you to consider the following qualities when communicating with a visual. This involves generating five quick drawings for the presentation.

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●    Simple VS  Elaborate

●    Qualitative VS quantitative

●    Vision VS Execution

●    Individual  Attributes VS Comparison

●    Delta VS Status quo

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Another powerful tool in the book is the Six W’s. If this sounds familiar from previous concept is because it actually is.

The six (6) W’s gives us six ways to see and show problems:

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●    Who and what: refers to the challenges relating to things, people and roles. In visuals, draw a portrait

●    How much: refers to measuring and counting. In visuals,  draw a chart

●    When: refer to scheduling and timing. In visuals, draw a map

●    Where: refer to the direction and how things fit together. In visuals, draw a timeline

●    How: refer to how things influence one another: In visuals, Draw a flowchart

●    Why: refer to seeing the big picture: In visuals, draw a multiple variable plots

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Combining the SQVID and the 6 W’s will give a visual thinking codex. For each of the six ways of seeing there is one corresponding way of showing. For each one of these six ways of showing, there is a single visual framework that serves as a starting point.

In conclusion, any problem can be made clearer with a picture and any picture can be created with the same set of tools and rules.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Keypoint #1:  Everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking.

Keypoint #2: All good pictures do not need to be self-explanatory but they do need to be explainable.

Keypoint #3: Many problems can be solved more easily and ideas conveyed better with pictures rather than words.

One Last Thing

“The single greatest challenge to leaders today (and that includes thinkers, teachers, managers, presidents, parents, CEOs, designers, salespeople, students—all of us) is this: We have to make more increasingly complex ideas more clear, more quickly and more persuasively than ever, to more audiences who are more informed and have more access to more information than ever.”

― Dan Roam, Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don’t Work

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Peter Drucker is known to be the most famous management author of the century. This book does not treat innovation as an academic subject but outstandingly written with rich organizational life examples using management view. The author focuses on how innovation and entrepreneurship can be learned and applied by anyone. He wants everyone to have the mindset of changing how they do things to make a massive difference.

This book gave a meaningful and provocative definition of innovation. Peter Drucker began by teaching innovation and entrepreneurship in the mid-1950’s putting into writing his experience from the past three decades of testing his ideas. He derived his examples from the experiences he had as a consultant and the experience of people he mentored and taught.

He started by drawing his readers attention to a mystery: why in the American economy between 1965-1988, despite the recession, oil shock, inflation in some government and industry, there was still a massive job growth. Most people describe the growth as “hi-tech”. The key technology driving job growth is not widget or gadget but entrepreneurship management. The force of entrepreneur is always more significant than the current state of the economy suggest Drucker. Huge successes recorded by great influencers such as Mc Donald was majorly due to better management of a service previously run by mom and pops owners.  Everything, from the production of the product, selling technique, the way it was served, and the package was refined beyond belief. It was not the ‘hi-tech’ thing but doing things in a different, better and meaningful way and in the process creating new value.

 

In this book, Drucker sees entrepreneurship has a way of doing things differently. It is not a personality trait but a feature to be observed in people’s actions and functionality. Entrepreneurs are made to upset and disorganized. He/she is a wild card that generates wealth through creative destruction. They deal with uncertainty but still have the ability to explore change and respond positively and intelligently to change.  Embracing changes and trying out different things is the best way to invest resources. Entrepreneurship becomes risky when simple and well-known rules are violated. They become less risky when it is systematically managed and purposeful.

 

Innovation, on the other hand, is simple and often has nothing to do with technology or inventions. Science and technology are the least promising of all sources of innovation, Drucker suggests. He says in reality, innovation result to success when you take advantage of an unexpected change in the society. Innovation becomes a great deal when it meets the market through the catalyst of entrepreneurial management then your start creating things of great value.  Good innovation is always much focused. It is not about trying to do many things but just one thing excellently well. The most successful products are those that save effort, time, money and save their users from thinking. People do not purchase a product but what the product does for them. The bigger picture of innovation is to provide satisfaction where there was none before. The book concludes with Drucker giving a clearer picture of what the future holds.

The Big Three – Key points

Key Point #1: Entrepreneurship and it advises to invest in resources, explore change and respond positively to it.

Key Point #2: Innovation and it advises to innovation should save time, energy and provide satisfaction where there is none.

Key Point #3: People do not purchase a product but what the product does for them. The bigger picture of innovation is to provide satisfaction where there was none before.

 

One Last Thing

“Entrepreneurs, by definition, shift resources from areas of low productivity and yield to areas of higher productivity and yield. Of course, there is a risk they may not succeed. But if they are even moderately successful, the returns should be more than adequate to offset whatever risk there might be.”

― Peter F. Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Lean Startup

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This book conveys the concept of validated learning (trying out new ideas and measuring its effect on potential customers to ascertain its effectiveness) and build-measure-learn feedback loop. It introduces a systematic approach to measure the progress of a project at startup. A start-up has its vision that employs a strategy such as product roadmap, business model, view of partners, competitors and customers. The result of the strategy used is the product. Strategy changes occasionally, product changes continuously while vision rarely changes.

A startup is designed to create a new product under uncertain conditions. Successes from these scenarios come from constant experimentation and learning from experts experience. A lot of learning is involved in the startup process and the most important thing is to figure out validated learning. The goal is to learn and know what the customers want and discard everything else.

 

As a startup, do not delay charging your customers as many startups do. Eric affirms starting with a low-quality prototype, charging customers from start date and using low volume revenue target for accountability.

One of the cores of Lean Startup model is the Build-Measure-Learn loop. Once an MVP is built, the goal is to make use of user feedback to iterate upon the product. After building an MVP, test the riskiest assumption first and then put it out for early adopters. Then define a baseline metric, a hypothesis to improve the metric and set out experiment targeted towards the same metric. As soon as you get the result, choose whether to persevere or pivot. Wealthfront pivoted from gaming platform/virtual stock trading to E-commerce service that offers money management by money managers.  Most entrepreneurs are afraid of failure thereby delaying the pivot. Also, due to vanity metrics and unclear success hypothesis, most entrepreneurs suffer from unnecessary regret for delaying the pivot. There are various types of pivot, some of which are customer segment Pivot, Zoom in Pivot, Customer need pivot, Business Architecture pivot, Value capture pivot amongst others. It is important to copy the essential features not just the superficial features when pivoting.

As the product grows, customers begin to patronize the product. Customers built overtime inform others about the product or end up purchasing the product again. Consequently, the product grows and achieves a product/market fit. When product/market fit happens, it leaves no room for doubt.

Likewise, as the startup grows, it has to adapt to changing customer base. Every company has to deal with four types of work. These include: launching a new product, scaling it for broad adoption, combating its commoditization by incremental improvement and maintenance of the product in the long run as part of the company’s product line. All steps are essential, but the last step can be a bit difficult for an entrepreneur.

A startup must pass through the learning stage, experiment hypothesis, build MVP, measure MVP, decide if to persevere or pivot, grow to adapt and innovate.  

The Big Three – Key Points

Key Point #1:

Measure the startup progress using the build-measure-learn feedback loop.

Key Point #2:

A startup is designed to create a new product under an uncertain condition, successes from these scenarios come from constant experimentation or learning from experts experience.

Key Point #3:

Every company has to deal with four types of work: Launching a new product, scaling it for broad adoption, combating its commoditization by incremental improvement and maintenance of the product in the long run as part of the company’s product line.

One Last Thing

“We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”

― Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Crucial Conversations

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Crucial Conversations focuses on how to handle disagreements and high stakes communication.  Crucial conversations are what is keeping you away from achieving your desired results. This book is written on the understanding that when you are stuck in any situation,  it is this crucial conversation that is keeping you away from achieving your best result. When you learn how to manage conversations effectively and efficiently, you can accomplish your desired outcome. This book also focuses on how to hold such a conversation in a positive state when surrounded by highly charged emotions.

DEEP DIVE INTO THE BOOK
Kerry and Co. listed seven essential models to manage and hold a crucial conversation efficiently and nicely.

1. Start with the heart: Stay focused on what you really want. Understand that the only person you can directly control is yourself before going into any conversation. You have to manage your mindset and emotions. It is challenging to change others but easier to improve oneself. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to your motive when you find yourself moving towards silence or violence.

2. Stay in Dialogue: Learn to look. When conversations turn crucial,  failing to see what’s going on at the moment is why we often miss or misinterpret the early warning signs. The sooner we notice that we are not in dialogue, the quicker we can get back to the discussion. To avoid turning a healthy conversation into unhealthy, you must :

 

  • Learn to look at the content, the context and the conditions
  • Look for signs when things become crucial
  • Learn to watch for safety problems
  • Look and see whether others stakeholders are moving towards silence and/or violence
  • Be self-aware of possible outbreaks of your style under stress


  1.  Make it safe: The safer people feel around you, the more of an open conversation they will have with you. This can be done from an authentic place of compassion and curiosity. We need them to tell us everything and sometimes listen to them from the beginning. The more you listen, the more their emotions will subside, the more open they become and the more willing they are to listen to us. The opposite is also true. The more significant the fear, the more likely they will either close down or fight back. Closing down can take the form of masking (where they pretend to agree or pretend they are listening), avoiding or withdrawing. There are four paths of powerful listening: Ask, Mirror, Paraphrase ad Prime.

    4. Don’t hook by emotions: A crucial conversation is highly charged by emotions. The very first thing you must do is to name that emotion. Is it anger? Frustration? Hurt? Disappointment?  Emotions must be understood very nicely. So how can you engage in an honest conversation without closing them down? This requires a mix of confidence. Five tools to use are:
     1. Share the fact
     2. Tell your story
     3. Ask for the other person’s story
     4. Talk tentatively
     5. Encourage testing

    5. Agree on a mutual purpose: It is essential to find a mutual objective. There are four skills to get back to the mutual purpose.
     1. Commit to seek mutual purpose
     2. Recognize the purpose behind the strategy
     3. Invent a mutual goal
     4. Brainstorm a new strategy

    6. Separate facts from the story: We choose what story to tell ourselves and when a particular story drives us in the wrong direction, we can choose to tell a different story.
    Skills for mastering our story:
    1. Act: notice your behavior
     2. Feel: Get in touch with your feelings
     3. Tell a story: Analyze your stories. What story is creating these emotions?
     4. See/hear: Get back to the facts. What evidence do I have to support this story?

    7. Agree on a clear action plan: the ultimate goal of a conversation is to take action. If action is not taken, all healthy talks in this works will lead to disappointment and hard feelings. Reaching the point of shared meaning does not mean we will have a successful outcome. There are some pitfalls such as a lack of making a decision, making a wrong decisions or no action made to follow the decision.

    To help overcome these pitfalls, there are four questions to determine which way to go.

1. Who cares. Don’t involve people who don’t care.
 2. Who knows. Who has relevant expertise to help to make a fruitful decision?
 3. Who must agree. Who are the people who could block the implementation later on if  involved in the decision making now?
 4. Wow many people must be involved. Try to include as few people as possible.

In conclusion, if people learn the skills to handle crucial conversation at any moment, it will make their life more smooth and successful. At any given point in our professional or personal life, we need to have serious and crucial conversations with people who will have a different mindset, values and emotions. The wisdom and techniques in this book make it doable.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS
Keypoint #1: The safer people feel around you, the more open of a conversation they will have with you.
Keypoint #2: The only person you can directly control is yourself.
Keypoint #3: A useful story creates emotions that leads to healthy actions during any dialogue.

One Last Thing
“The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.”
― Kerry Patterson, Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

The First 20 Hours. How to Learn Anything Fast

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The First 20 Hours was written with an intention to enlighten people on how to rapidly acquire a skill. The key to learning any skill is to have a clear definition of what you think will be “good enough” and focus on the small parts that make that “good enough” skill. The author, Josh Kaufman, tailored the three major areas of this book towards principles to learn effectively. He organizes them in three key components:

1- Rapid Skill Acquisition

2- Effective learning

3- Effectiveness of the approach

RAPID ACQUISITION SKILL

Rapid skill acquisition is a way of breaking down a particular skill into the smallest pieces possible for easier processing then identifying which of those pieces are most important and deliberately practicing those elements first.  There are four steps in RapidSkill Acquisition process.

First you need to deconstruct the skill into the smallest possible subskills; the second step is to learn enough about each subskill in order to practice intelligently and self-correct during practice; the third step is to remove any mental, emotional and physical barriers that may get in the way of practice; and lastly, practice the most important sub-skills for at least twenty hours.

EFFECTIVE LEARNING

Any time you start practicing something new, your skills will naturally improve in a very short period of time. The key is to start practicing as soon as possible. Not thinking about practicing or worrying about practicing, but actually practicing. By just simply practicing, the skill set will start escalating. To guarantee the process of practicing is effective, take into consideration the following:

1.    Identify mental models and mental hooks.

2.    Talk to practitioners to set expectations.

3.    Eliminate distractions in your environment.

4.    Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization.

5.    Create scaffolds and checklists.

6.    Make and test predictions.

7.    Honor your biology.

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE APPROACH

Not only does Josh talk the talk, but he also walks the walk when it comes to the principles guiding Rapid Skill Acquisition and effective learning. To put them to the test he chose six skills he was interested in learning,

•    Yoga

•    Programming

•    Touch typing with a Colemak keyboard layout

•    Playing Go

•    Windsurfing

•    Ukulele

Josh puts 20 hours into practicing each skill and he didn’t withhold the feedback. A more significant part of the book is devoted to his experience in these skills. Briefly, programming which is one of his “wants to acquire” skills was a big hit. He wanted to create a functioning web application.  But guess what, He did not spend the precious hours stuck in textbooks, NO, he rather focused on basic elements of creating a program and then applied a “build – test – fix” approach to honing it into a working prototype. He utilized the full 20 hours, 10 of which were spent on research and the remaining 10 on the programming.  In the end, he had a couple of working software solutions. It was a breakthrough.

On a final note, the only time you can choose to practice is today. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month or next year. Today. So, to all my life learners and self-taught folks… when you wake up in the morning, you have a choice and this book helps you to make the right choice. Stop procrastinating and start learning. It will take just 20 hours.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1 – Always make the next skill you’re going to learn the one you’re most excited about.

Key point #2 – Think about emotional and real-life obstacles beforehand.

Key point #3- Initially, focus on quantity over quality.

One Last Thing

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

― Albert Einstein

The Amazon Way

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John Rossman, a former Amazon executive, weaved his own war story at Amazon around their 14 leadership principles. He colorfully brought them to life using personal and insightful commentaries. The Amazon Way reveals the leadership ‘secrets’ behind one of the most disruptive companies in the world. While these stories are no secret, Rossman effectively aligns them with Amazon’s guiding principles that can be applied to all decision making processes, both business and everyday life, and can be used every day by every employee.

The Amazon 14 Leadership Principles:

  1. Obsess over the customer
  2. Take ownership of results
  3. Invent and simplify  
  4. Leaders are right – A lot
  5. Hire and develop the best
  6. Insist on the highest standards
  7. Think Big
  8. Have a bias for action
  9. Practice frugality
  10. Be vocally self-critical
  11. Earn the trust of others
  12. Dive deep
  13. Have backbone – Disagree & commit
  14. Deliver results

 

  1. Obsess Over the Customer

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and deduce even their unwanted needs. Most times, we only listen to what our customers want and fail to go deeper into what they really need or what they could need in the future. Nothing replaces a “nothing but awesome, beyond this universe” customer satisfaction. Being obsessed over the customer is the central dogma in every aspect of Amazon From the website login page, the actual site, the display of products and services, to how they managing complaints. In a nutshell, yes the customer is not always right, but Amazon makes sure that your process and experience does not make you, the customer, realize that.    

  1. Take Ownership of Results

Every employee at Amazon acts as an owner. From the leader to the guy helping loading trucks, no one says, “that’s not my job.” They always work on behalf of the entire company. If there’s a more effective way to clean the toilet, they will test and implement. Amazon believes that Senior employees should also relate with customers, answer queries, go out for interviews or make a couple of sales calls. These strategies will help get first-hand feedback and truly understand the user/customer and instead of a filter version. Regardless of your role in the organization, everyone is responsible for taking ownership of delivering the best customer experience possible and the small details that it involves.  Amazon’s compensation plan rewards long-term thinking – in as much as employees typically get stock options rather than lavish salaries or excessive perks. Take absolute responsibility for everything under your purview, even that which is done by some other team. Have a fall back for them so you can own the result and not blame it on someone else.

  1. Invent and Simplify  

Amazon has built-in systems that identify less than perfect customer experiences and then provides refunds, then works to perfect the customer experience. Amazon innovates at scale. Employees are expected to design and build innovations which will make things better for millions of customers and tens of thousands of partners.

Determine what your customers need and walk backward, even if it means learning a new skill.  Simple sells much more than complex, so think big. The most radical innovations are those that help others unleash their creativity.

  1. Leaders are Right – A lot

Develop robust frameworks for decision making. Great leaders use it all the time and articulate to the team for effective decision making. Embed real-time metrics right from the start of an initiative.  Avoid minimization framework. Sometimes, we have to ask ourselves the question of “will I regret having done this/not having done this when I am 80?” This helps give a good perspective of things that might seem confusing now and helps to separate the short term from the long term. It is easier to stop things from happening then it is to make things happen. Leaders at Amazon understand details and metrics two to three level deeper than leaders at most other companies. Flourishing companies are filled with bright people who have the authority to achieve but also the confidence that if they fail, somebody will pick them up, dust them off and give them another chance.

  1. Hire and Develop the Best

Here is a question that you will hear every day, at every meeting or informal conversation among Amazonians. How are we raising the bar here? And this is even more important when hiring new staff members.  As part of the hiring process, Amazon has a team of Bar Raisers. It is the responsibility of the Bar Raiser to assess if the candidate is bringing to Amazon a set of values and skills that is making Amazon better. Every new hire should not just match Amazon values, but bring extra value that will raise the bar of Amazon as a whole. Amazon’s hiring process is famous for its rigor. It is not unusual for potential new hires to go through twenty or more interviews over a five- or six-week period before a decision is made.

  1. Insist on the Highest Standards

Amazon leadership expects nothing less than every employee thinks and act like a leader or, at a minimum, a leader in training. This approach forces every  Amazonian to step us their game and keep raising the bar for themselves and for the team.

  1. Think Big

One of the most impactful leadership principles for me is this one, mainly because of the point of view of the Amazonians, in the thinking big process. For someone to continually think big, they have to destroy the previous paradigm. The must move away from the way they were thinking yesterday. For this reason, for every Amazonian, every day is DAY ONE. To keep up with Bezos and his leadership, you have to come prepared to “go big in your thinking or go home.” As a reminder, a building in Amazon’s headquarters is labeled DAY ONE. It is a reminder of the mindset under which you should be every day.

  1. Have a Bias for Action

The status quo is not a status. It is mostly an insult for Amazonians.  Amazon’s leaders err on the side of taking action. To promote action, every quarter, the company holds an all-hands meeting where awards aligned with Amazon’s values are given. By far, one of the most prestigious awards is named the “Just Do It” award, which encourages leadership to try new things all the time rather than suffering from analysis paralysis. This is another reminder of the high tolerance for initial failure that the organization promotes.

  1. Practice Frugality

Amazonians don’t spend resources on things that would not be of importance to customers. All resources (money, time, energy) are managed with a frugal mindset. This breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and innovation. The bottom line is that it doesn’t take a genius to throw money and complexity at a problem. Amazonians are expected to know better.

  1. Be Vocally Self-critical

“Open your Kimono”. In Amazonian-lingo, this means that you are expected to be open to criticism and to speak up when things are not going as planned.  Doing that is more comfortable than covering things and hoping for the best. Open your Kimono or go home.

  1. Earn the Trust of Others

Jeff Bezos’ expectations of his leadership is to operate in the same way he works with them. Everyone should contribute to an atmosphere of trust at Amazon. The key is to encourage everyone to embrace and live the 14 principles and when in doubt, or conflict, Amazonians should contrast the conflict or doubts versus the principles.  

  1. Dive Deep

For Amazonians, there is no doubt in what ownership means. Ownership equals accountability. Therefore, Amazonian leaders understand the expectations of getting involved in the details of every project they are responsible for.

  1. Have a Backbone – Disagree & Commit

Often Jeff Bezos describes Amazon’s culture as being an intense-friendly environment. No PBS (Political Bull Shit) is allowed and everyone expects people to challenge each other. This includes Bezos and his ideas and he demands robust conversations.

  1. Deliver Results

These principles are designed with one goal in mind: delivering the most amazing customer experience, beyond the level of quality expected, on time and as a team.

In conclusion, Amazon’s leadership principles are tactical in nature however they drive everyday decisions and actions. If we take into consideration that Jeff Bezos holds the record as the wealthiest person in modern history and Amazon, the most disruptive organization of our time, any leader should pay close attention and use the 14 principles as prescriptions for their teams.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Keypoint 1: The very best kind of customer service is no service at all – everything just works.

Keypoint 2: The first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging that it exists.

Keypoint 3: Minimize time and energy spent on routine interactions and instead spend time on innovation.

One Last Thing

“If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor to do something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.” – Jeff Bezos