Humility and Leadership Go Hand in Hand
There is a fundamental truth here. Pope Francis and the Harvard Business School are aligned.
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Jerks And The Start-ups They Ruin
Perhaps the premiere of Season 4 of “Silicon Valley” twigged me to share this post. but despite the title, the HBO series only connection may be the now viral “mean jerk time algorithm.” The real “Silicon Valley jerk” has been around for decades, buried with all the other dirty laundry. Uber’s Travis Kalanick has only brought it front and center at this moment. It is something of a conundrum as some of the jerks are also the most successful. We all now know about the “bad” Steve Jobs. Oracle for years had a very bad reputation that came directly from Larry Ellison himself. Microsoft was long known as a “sweatshop” with a highly negative culture led by Steve Ballmer. Even venture capitalists themselves have caught the disease as evidenced by Reid Hoffman and the late Tom Perkins of KPCB. The best assessment I have heard is that these aggressive unrestrained corporate cultures destroy their own goals. Or better yet, the saying that “culture trumps strategy.”
Vancouver Technology Industry On Verge Of New Era
The Vancouver technology industry may well be on the verge of an extraordinary period of growth. Global, national, and regional factors appear to be aligning in ways that could create an extraordinary economic opportunity for the Lower Mainland which could not have been anticipated. Vancouver has been an endless topic of discussion about its comparability (or not) to Silicon Valley, the historical Canadian investment conservatism, and the lack of other resources necessary to create the “secret sauce” that makes a region achieve critical mass. That may be changing if only the convergence of factors is grasped and exploited.
Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Culture Destroys It’s Own Goals
UPDATE: KALANICK VIDEO SURFACES. Suffice to say, people are angry with Uber, and things aren’t getting better. This is actually deja vu all over again. We have seen this before in Silicon Valley. The hubris of a company founders or founders creates an ugly overly aggressive and unrestrained culture in its employees and before long things begin to unravel. This has been quietly observed at Uber for some time, and can be gleaned by its own actions as reported in the press. Now, new self-inflicted cracks are appearing. More than 200,000 people have deleted the UBER app off their smart phones in the past month. After former employee Susan Fowler Rigetti published a detailed blog post about the sexual harassment and discrimination she allegedly experienced at the company, people began deleting the ride sharing-app again. As more and more employees have spoken out about the alleged poor working conditions, Uber’s customer base is dwindling … and the company is getting desperate.
Why The Biggest Tech Companies Are Not In Canada
Mayo0615 Reblog from July 22, 2013 It dawned on me that my blog post from July 2013, still has particular relevance to the current situation in Canada. I discuss the longer term structural issues confronting Canadian entrepreneurs and Canadian venture capital. Boris Wertz, founder of Vancouver’s Version One Ventures is also crucial to this discussion. […]
Canadian Startup Case Study Underscores Canada’s VC Challenges
UPDATE: It is worth noting that this 2012 case study on a company in British Columbia, Mobile Data International, and its CEO Barclay Isherwood, attracted the ire of followers of Werner Erhard, prominent San Francisco New Age cult leader, with similarities to L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. It is a lens into New Age cults at that […]
Tough Love From Silicon Valley For Tough Times
Heidi Roizen is a very well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur. I first met Heidi years ago at a European COMDEX event in Nice when she was still in her entrepreneurial phase. Since that time she has gone on to fund numerous startups, and is now a Partner at Draper Fischer Jurvetson. In this […]
Engineer Into The Workforce
Engineer into the Workforce presentation to The University of British Columbia, School of Engineering, 4th year Capstone Project course. November 2, 2016
Six Ways To Make The Most Of Your Internship
I ran across this recent HBR article and thought it would be helpful for management students contemplating an internship or co-op employment as part of their degree program. Such programs are a highly valuable way to gain experience, and to find career-focused employment. This is particularly true in this challenging employment market. I would even go so far as to suggest that it may even be a workable strategy for recent graduates still searching for that opportunity that will kick start their careers. Get an informational interview and make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Building Personal Resilience
I have been giving some serious thought to the importance of personal resilience in times of adversity. Terry Fox comes up as a prime example of resilience that has inspired people all over the World. But how do such people develop it? Can it be learned? It is a character trait that appears difficult to measure, only appearing in certain people and not others when faced with a severe personal challenge. It is something that all management professionals should ponder carefully because such challenges will most certainly appear in their careers.
David Mayes
