Insights on leadership, entrepreneurialism and management
Scaling and Asparagus
Read moreStartups are too often like asparagus. Asparagus is an odd food. It grows very quickly (which makes it a profitable crop), but it grows mainly by storing water, and because of this it contains only a few nutrients. A...
Celebrating Silicon Valley Endurance
Read moreSilicon Valley is learning the difference between price and value, which is also the difference between bottle rocket and enduring companies. A recent Economist article, “Empire of the Geeks,” celebrated Silicon Valley while warning about its insular financing model....
Smarter CEOs: How to manage your presence
Read moreSeth Godin recently identified some reasons why CEOs can be stupid, and he almost found the central theme (almost, but not quite). CEOs are human, and as such they fall prey to human emotions. One of the trickiest human...
Building Boomerang Employees
Read moreBoomerang employees are proof that your corporate culture is healthy. “I knew that Micrel was the best place that would allow me to grow and develop,” said one of our boomerang bunch. Long ago I noticed that Micrel has...
How Leaders Do Better Than Their Best
Read moreFamed Admiral Rickover once stunned Ensign Jimmy Carter (yes, a future U.S. President) who had admitted to maybe not doing his best while being enrolled in the Naval Academy at Annapolis. “If not your best, then why not?” the...
Bottle Rockets and Hoists
Read moreHere in Silicon Valley, most startups are like bottle rockets: they fly fast, look great, explode and vanish in a puff of acquisition smoke. Others are like hoists in a factory, doing unexciting but predictable work while building an...