Berkshire Hathaway’s Shareholder Letter is a must read and this one is no exception. Continuing last year’s scolding of the sub-prime mortgage banking industr, my favorite lines included these: John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, aptly dissected the recent behavior of many lenders: “It is interesting that the industry has invented few ways to lose…
Category: Management
Is Founder Control in Public Companies a Good Thing?
Another high profile company going public has decided to maintain control while selling a majority of the economic stakes in the company to the public. This time it is Al Gore as a founder of Current Media. I certainly agree, the company’s shareholders have a right to decide the control structure they want to…
4 hour work week…
The 4 hour work week is an interesting and educational book, even for those who would not choose to work only half a day each week. It pushes you to think about different ways to get your job done and to think differently about which activities you keep inside and which you push to others….
Gazelles Growth Summit – Day Two
Day two included another round of interesting speakers. We began with a horse of a different color as Paul Orfalea, Founder of Kinkos, shared his store, advice and leadership style (close the door and let the kids run the store). Then we moved on to customer satisfaction and the Net Promoter Score as described by Fred Reichheld,…
Gazelles Growth Summit – Day One
The annual Gazelles Growth Summit began today in Las Vegas with a host of interesting speakes. Robert Bloom was first at the podium to discuss his new book Inside Advantage. It is a good read and I will write a separate post on it soon. Bloom is full of real life examples from his long…
Build for Value
Even though the most likely outcome for a successful technology company is via an acquisition, I have never liked the idea of planning for it. Plans and actions then often go away from what will help our customers and help us succeed in the market to what would ABC Inc. like to see in an…