3 ms·

A lot of people here are assuming that NVIDIA doesn’t do 1:1s because Jensen doesn’t do them. This is wrong. I’m Org3 (Jensen is Org1, so I’m one level below Je

A lot of people here are assuming that NVIDIA doesn’t do 1:1s because Jensen doesn’t do them. This is wrong. I’m Org3 (Jensen is Org1, so I’m one level below Jensen but don’t report to him). I have regular scheduled 1:1s with my Org2 manager. I have regular scheduled 1:1s with my Org4 reports and also with some of my Org5 and Org6 team members (on a reduced cadence as you would expect.) I don’t have 40 reports either - more like 15. It’s not true that NVIDIA doesn’t value professional development. It is true that Jensen is a special leader. He founded NVIDIA 30 years ago. No one leading a big tech company has the experience Jensen has. The whole company benefits from his vision. He is not always right, but he does learn fast and he works harder than anyone I know.

gmerc 3y ago
This is commmon in organizations who have their founding leaders still active. Because they built the operation ground up and have the trust chains in place. The moment you have significant turnover of these leaders (any overall as a result of flagging growth) you are in reorgs territory
- kccqzy 3y ago
  We all agree how important these founders are. But founders can't be in the company and working so hard forever. To me the more interesting question is what kind of structures the founders should leave to ensure good management even after the founders have left.
  - working_nut 3y ago
    Key man risk is real
    - cyanydeez 3y ago
      Risk is mostly that you hire an MBA who's compensation relies on 6month intervals
  - gmerc 3y ago
    The leader/management dilemma is a dilemma and so far has evaded any solution. Some countries like Singapore explicitly tried to solve for it and still are, objectively failing. Cycle: - Great Leader arises from a group of aligned leaders, more equal than his peers - Competing non aligned leaders are purged, creating strong execution momentum - The fellow leaders start hiring managers to take care of the day to day - Eventually leaders churn and managers take their place because they know the organization and finding aligned leaders is close to impossible. - Rinse and repeat - Eventually the Great leader (if he does not expire / retire) is surrounded by people who know how to run the organization within the box, but have never been allowed to think out of the box. All their success was in fact knowing how to maximize the inner workings of the box and not rocking the boat. - Leader leaves, game of thrones ensues. This is in full display in most political parties. Take Germany or the UK: the qualifications to become leader are entirely different from the skillset to run the country (Hence the endless supply of prime ministers in the Uk who seem increasingly mediocre or downright incompetent). They absolutely know how to play the game to take the throne (chiefly loyalty to the cause) - but once on the throne, having to lead, requires entirely different skills they don’t possess.
_feus 3y ago
A while back when I was just out of college, I had an interview at NVIDIA, so I requested to add Jensen on Linkedin. Not only he accepted the request, he even replied to my message with some advice and good wishes. It was a very heartwarming and a cool thing of him to do.

gmerc 3y ago

This is commmon in organizations who have their founding leaders still active. Because they built the operation ground up and have the trust chains in place. The moment you have significant turnover of these leaders (any overall as a result of flagging growth) you are in reorgs territory

kccqzy 3y ago
We all agree how important these founders are. But founders can't be in the company and working so hard forever. To me the more interesting question is what kind of structures the founders should leave to ensure good management even after the founders have left.
- working_nut 3y ago
  Key man risk is real
  - cyanydeez 3y ago
    Risk is mostly that you hire an MBA who's compensation relies on 6month intervals
- gmerc 3y ago
  The leader/management dilemma is a dilemma and so far has evaded any solution. Some countries like Singapore explicitly tried to solve for it and still are, objectively failing. Cycle: - Great Leader arises from a group of aligned leaders, more equal than his peers - Competing non aligned leaders are purged, creating strong execution momentum - The fellow leaders start hiring managers to take care of the day to day - Eventually leaders churn and managers take their place because they know the organization and finding aligned leaders is close to impossible. - Rinse and repeat - Eventually the Great leader (if he does not expire / retire) is surrounded by people who know how to run the organization within the box, but have never been allowed to think out of the box. All their success was in fact knowing how to maximize the inner workings of the box and not rocking the boat. - Leader leaves, game of thrones ensues. This is in full display in most political parties. Take Germany or the UK: the qualifications to become leader are entirely different from the skillset to run the country (Hence the endless supply of prime ministers in the Uk who seem increasingly mediocre or downright incompetent). They absolutely know how to play the game to take the throne (chiefly loyalty to the cause) - but once on the throne, having to lead, requires entirely different skills they don’t possess.

_feus 3y ago

A while back when I was just out of college, I had an interview at NVIDIA, so I requested to add Jensen on Linkedin. Not only he accepted the request, he even replied to my message with some advice and good wishes. It was a very heartwarming and a cool thing of him to do.