Monthly Archives: May 2012
Facebook’s IPO and Hacker Leader
On May 18th Facebook’s IPO lumbered to close at $38 and change, barely above the opening price but valuing the firm at over $100 billion. Quite an accomplishment for a company started in a college dorm in 2004 as “thefacebook” and one “not originally created to be a company,” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. We use the metaphor of the Triple Crown in horseracing to illustrate the endeavor to build excellent, ethical, and enduring organizations. So, we ask, is Facebook an emerging triple-E organization? To us, excellent means exceptional performance, making your numbers in your chosen field. Facebook’s $3.6 billion in revenue and $1 billion in profit last year are stunning, as are its 800 million+ monthly users. But Q1 revenue and profits were down. Facebook lags in the sizzling-hot …Continue Reading
I’ll Have Another and the Triple Crown Quest
The quest for the Triple Crown is on. Big time. I’ll Have Another is in the hunt for the Triple Crown of thoroughbred horseracing, the most elusive championship in all of sports. It’s been 34 years since Affirmed won the Triple Crown. Since 1875, only eleven horses have earned that honor, racing within a short span of five weeks to victory in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. Now the stables of J. Paul Reddam with trainer Dan O’Neill and jockey Mario Gutierrez have positioned I’ll Have Another to win this coveted crown, joining legends like War Admiral, Citation, Secretariat, and Seattle Slew in the pantheon of champions. I’ll Have Another has won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. On June 9 the eyes of the sporting …Continue Reading
Leadership and the Quest for Excellence
Getting results is one of the preeminent tasks of leadership. “The world is not interested in the storms you encountered,” says Norman Augustine, the aerospace businessman and former U.S. Army official, “but in whether or not you brought the ship in safely.” Perhaps he took his cue from Winston Churchill. When asked about the Allies’ aim in World War II, he replied, “I can answer in one word. It is victory.” Exemplars can be found in different domains. We associate excellence in leadership development with General Electric and its famous Crotonville training programs. We associate excellence in brand management with Procter & Gamble. Among hospitals the standard of excellence is set at places like Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General, and Mayo Clinic. It’s a fair question today to ask whether achieving …Continue Reading
Now What? A Call for Better Leadership
Is it just us, or are we bombarded by negative news? • NewsCorp scandal and cover-up • A Goldman Sachs exec resigning in disgust in an op-ed read around the world • Walmart corruption in Mexico • Hyperpartisanship and focusing on scoring political points instead of solving real problems What do all these negatives have in common? Failures of leadership. Fed up with bad leadership? We are. Concerned about the state of the world? Us too. But we remain optimistic nature nonetheless. We have an abundance mentality, not a scarcity worldview. (Check out Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, a good read.) We believe we don’t have to re-slice the same-sized pie. With the right leadership, we can make the pie bigger …Continue Reading
