3 ms·

From my very limited experience, my take away from this post is: Extremes are harmful. Be balanced. So: Right ‘strategy’ in place before doing anyth

by xtacy 15y ago

From my very limited experience, my take away from this post is: Extremes are harmful. Be balanced. So: Right ‘strategy’ in place before doing anything Is important, but not at the expense of actually executing it and spending all the time on: reams and reams of text written... I agree it is important to have: Flexibility to do random things But not at the cost of completely doing random things without an end goal. The balance is hard to strike, but is something to strive for!

sriramk 15y ago
Post author here. This is very true. This post was me trying to figure out where the 'right way' to do things lie. Here's the problem. On one hand, you have the lessons from Google being too random and them winding up at 'more wood, fewer arrows' On the other hand, I've seen first hand the effects of a bunch of very smart people focused on one strategy - which happens to be the wrong one. If you look at Microsoft in the early 2000s, their strategy around how to deal with the web and recognizing the threat it posed to Windows is out of the book. I've seen some very smart people articulate why it's the right thing to ignore search and ads in 2004/2005. And obviously, it was horribly wrong. As someone who wants to run a company, I find it fascinating to study how companies deal with these situations and how you can design your culture to avoid it( and without the fix being 'be as talented as Steve Jobs'). I hope the post doesn't come across as bashing MSFT as it isn't about that - MSFT is a good reference model for myself personally since I saw how internal decision making worked there.
- xtacy 15y ago
  In hindsight decisions always horribly wrong/right. But more than always being right, I personally think it's more important to step back and admit that you might actually be wrong and take necessary steps to correct. This summer I was at MSFT as an intern, and I was quite surprised to see some groups which take bold steps despite many criticising them. Unfortunately, the overlords with all their experience, should know better.

by xtacy 15y ago

sriramk 15y ago

Post author here. This is very true. This post was me trying to figure out where the 'right way' to do things lie. Here's the problem. On one hand, you have the lessons from Google being too random and them winding up at 'more wood, fewer arrows' On the other hand, I've seen first hand the effects of a bunch of very smart people focused on one strategy - which happens to be the wrong one. If you look at Microsoft in the early 2000s, their strategy around how to deal with the web and recognizing the threat it posed to Windows is out of the book. I've seen some very smart people articulate why it's the right thing to ignore search and ads in 2004/2005. And obviously, it was horribly wrong. As someone who wants to run a company, I find it fascinating to study how companies deal with these situations and how you can design your culture to avoid it( and without the fix being 'be as talented as Steve Jobs'). I hope the post doesn't come across as bashing MSFT as it isn't about that - MSFT is a good reference model for myself personally since I saw how internal decision making worked there.

xtacy 15y ago
In hindsight decisions always horribly wrong/right. But more than always being right, I personally think it's more important to step back and admit that you might actually be wrong and take necessary steps to correct. This summer I was at MSFT as an intern, and I was quite surprised to see some groups which take bold steps despite many criticising them. Unfortunately, the overlords with all their experience, should know better.