Stephen Covey
Vice Chairman, FranklinCovey; Author, The 7 habits of Highly Effective People
Strive for Moral Authority
Most people define greatness through wealth and popularity and position in the corner office. But what I call everyday greatness comes from character and contribution. Sometimes people who possess the wealth and prestige also have everyday greatness, but not that often in our celebrity-obsessed culture, because they are primarily focused on what's in it for me. I'm in favor of achievements - degrees and wealth and that sort of thing. Still, those achievements convey formal authority but not always moral authority. The only way to acquire moral authority is through your character and contribution, to live in such a way as to merit the confidence and the trust of other people. Moral authority is especially important to business. This is because in order to reduce costs, increase production, and nurture a culture of innovation - all of which are important criteria in today's global economy - you've got to have high trust among your workers and partners. Why? Because everyone involved needs to sacrifice. If you don't have high trust, none of those things will happen. You can't fake high trust.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Eric Schmidt
CEO, Google
SUCCEED WITH SIMPLICITY
Silicon Valley companies have a tendency to develop these systems that rely on complexity. But it produces things like the personal computer running Windows. Google from the beginning focused on the simple search box, the simple search page.
We have the tiger by the tail in that we have this huge phenomenon of personalization. Now we need to make it simpler for people. We are trying to shape the innovation going forward from here and get things more integrated, make Google more integrated. This is a big change in the way we run the company. In the past the philosophy has been "get this done, get it built, and get it out." But continuing that, we would end up with hundreds of products named X-Google, and people can only remember five products.
CEO, Google
SUCCEED WITH SIMPLICITY
Silicon Valley companies have a tendency to develop these systems that rely on complexity. But it produces things like the personal computer running Windows. Google from the beginning focused on the simple search box, the simple search page.
We have the tiger by the tail in that we have this huge phenomenon of personalization. Now we need to make it simpler for people. We are trying to shape the innovation going forward from here and get things more integrated, make Google more integrated. This is a big change in the way we run the company. In the past the philosophy has been "get this done, get it built, and get it out." But continuing that, we would end up with hundreds of products named X-Google, and people can only remember five products.
Kevin Rose
Founder, Digg
Let the Users Run the Show
Letting users control your site can be terrifying at first. From day one we were asking ourselves, "What is going to be on the front page today?" You have no idea what the system will produce. But stepping back and giving consumers control is what brought more and more people to the site. They have a sense of ownership and discovery at the same time. If you give users the tools to spread and share their interests with others, they will use them to promote what is important to them.
We have 17 employees, and we have 4,500 submitted stories a day. We could hire more staff, but that's not what the site is about. It's about allowing users to define the site and police the site themselves.
Founder, Digg
Let the Users Run the Show
Letting users control your site can be terrifying at first. From day one we were asking ourselves, "What is going to be on the front page today?" You have no idea what the system will produce. But stepping back and giving consumers control is what brought more and more people to the site. They have a sense of ownership and discovery at the same time. If you give users the tools to spread and share their interests with others, they will use them to promote what is important to them.
We have 17 employees, and we have 4,500 submitted stories a day. We could hire more staff, but that's not what the site is about. It's about allowing users to define the site and police the site themselves.
Michael Dell
Founder and Chairman, Dell Computer
Think Big
Today the world has about 1 billion people using PCs and connected to the Internet. We've made great progress, but we have almost 6 billion people left who have yet to be connected. As our world becomes more connected, the price of being left behind will only grow. Approximately two of every three people in the United States have direct access to a computer. Some countries, like South Korea, are well ahead of the United States in connecting their citizens and in the use of fiber-optic connections that are dramatically faster. Rapidly emerging countries like China, India, and Brazil are also adding Internet users at incredible rates.
The lesson for entrepreneurs here is that the opportunities for people in all of these countries - driven by improved access to technology - are already transforming their economies. While technology is helping to build a wealthier world (and also a better world in which more people can get more of their needs met), we must be mindful of the other 6 billion people whom we have yet to connect. Consider this the digital opportunity of a lifetime: connecting the next billion users and beyond. Businesses and individuals have an essential role to play in expanding digital access. It isn't a burden or a social obligation that must be met, but rather a two-dimensional opportunity: first, to improve lives by making technology more accessible to more people; and, second, to expand our markets by increasing digital access throughout the world. Everybody can play a part.
Founder and Chairman, Dell Computer
Think Big
Today the world has about 1 billion people using PCs and connected to the Internet. We've made great progress, but we have almost 6 billion people left who have yet to be connected. As our world becomes more connected, the price of being left behind will only grow. Approximately two of every three people in the United States have direct access to a computer. Some countries, like South Korea, are well ahead of the United States in connecting their citizens and in the use of fiber-optic connections that are dramatically faster. Rapidly emerging countries like China, India, and Brazil are also adding Internet users at incredible rates.
The lesson for entrepreneurs here is that the opportunities for people in all of these countries - driven by improved access to technology - are already transforming their economies. While technology is helping to build a wealthier world (and also a better world in which more people can get more of their needs met), we must be mindful of the other 6 billion people whom we have yet to connect. Consider this the digital opportunity of a lifetime: connecting the next billion users and beyond. Businesses and individuals have an essential role to play in expanding digital access. It isn't a burden or a social obligation that must be met, but rather a two-dimensional opportunity: first, to improve lives by making technology more accessible to more people; and, second, to expand our markets by increasing digital access throughout the world. Everybody can play a part.
Chad Hurley
Co-founder, YouTube
Give Your Startup a Fighting Chance
1. Test first. Launch your product or service before you have funding. See how people respond to it before you have a PowerPoint and business plan - have something people can use, and go from there.
2. Seek outside feedback. As you start building the product, don't assume that you know all the answers. Listen to the community and adapt. We had a lot of our own ideas about how the service would evolve. Coming from PayPal and eBay, we saw YouTube as a powerful way to add video to auctions, but we didn't see anyone using our product that way, so we didn't add features to support it.
3. Give partners what they want. Approach your business partners with concepts that they can get their heads around, and try to respond to their needs. An interesting example is what we've done with the music labels. With Warner and others, we saw an opportunity to protect the labels' rights and create a new market. Now we can do things like add music to people's travel videos. It allows users the freedom to create and to do it legally
Co-founder, YouTube
Give Your Startup a Fighting Chance
1. Test first. Launch your product or service before you have funding. See how people respond to it before you have a PowerPoint and business plan - have something people can use, and go from there.
2. Seek outside feedback. As you start building the product, don't assume that you know all the answers. Listen to the community and adapt. We had a lot of our own ideas about how the service would evolve. Coming from PayPal and eBay, we saw YouTube as a powerful way to add video to auctions, but we didn't see anyone using our product that way, so we didn't add features to support it.
3. Give partners what they want. Approach your business partners with concepts that they can get their heads around, and try to respond to their needs. An interesting example is what we've done with the music labels. With Warner and others, we saw an opportunity to protect the labels' rights and create a new market. Now we can do things like add music to people's travel videos. It allows users the freedom to create and to do it legally
Howard Schultz
Chairman, Starbucks
Dare to Be a Social Entrepreneur
The rules of engagement around building a brand have changed significantly over the past 10 to 15 years. Where companies at one time could spread their message through traditional marketing, consumers now seek an enduring emotional connection with the companies they patronize. The foundation of that connection is the most important characteristic of building a world-class brand: trust. Trust with your people and trust with your customers.
In the early years, we tried everything we could to exceed the expectations of our customers. But we knew that to achieve that goal we had to first exceed the expectations of our people. That was never more evident than in 1990, while we were still a private company that had yet to turn a profit. That was when we provided comprehensive health care to all of our employees, including part-timers. We also passionately believed that our people should share in Starbucks's success through ownership in the form of stock options - what we call "bean stock." It's hard to imagine advocating such expenses while we were building the business. This was not an expense but rather an investment.
Growth can cover up a lot of mistakes, and it has an intoxicating quality that sometimes makes it hard to see the need to continue to make investments ahead of the growth curve. Think of investments in your company as a metaphor for building a 100-story tower: You need to first lay a solid foundation to support future growth.
Chairman, Starbucks
Dare to Be a Social Entrepreneur
The rules of engagement around building a brand have changed significantly over the past 10 to 15 years. Where companies at one time could spread their message through traditional marketing, consumers now seek an enduring emotional connection with the companies they patronize. The foundation of that connection is the most important characteristic of building a world-class brand: trust. Trust with your people and trust with your customers.
In the early years, we tried everything we could to exceed the expectations of our customers. But we knew that to achieve that goal we had to first exceed the expectations of our people. That was never more evident than in 1990, while we were still a private company that had yet to turn a profit. That was when we provided comprehensive health care to all of our employees, including part-timers. We also passionately believed that our people should share in Starbucks's success through ownership in the form of stock options - what we call "bean stock." It's hard to imagine advocating such expenses while we were building the business. This was not an expense but rather an investment.
Growth can cover up a lot of mistakes, and it has an intoxicating quality that sometimes makes it hard to see the need to continue to make investments ahead of the growth curve. Think of investments in your company as a metaphor for building a 100-story tower: You need to first lay a solid foundation to support future growth.
Turn Your Passion Into an Empire
Rachael Ray
Chef, Author, and Entrepreneur
You have to be open-minded when those early opportunities present themselves. Take advantage of them, whether they're going to make you a lot of money or not. I did 30 Minute Meals for five years on local television, and I earned nothing the first two years. Then I earned $50 a segment. I spent more than that on gas and groceries, but I really enjoyed making the show and I loved going to a viewer's house each week. I knew I enjoyed it, so I stuck with it even though it cost me.
I've also learned that you can't be all things to all people. Whatever it is that you're successful at, that has to be the No. 1 goal. In my case, it's accessibility. So all of my products have to be usable, accessible, affordable. The olive oils we're developing with Colavita will be priced to be competitive with every other affordable olive oil. We chose to be in grocery stores, not fancy food stores, because that's where most of my audience shops. Our pots and pans have to be heavy-bottomed and sturdy but also affordable. Decide what it is that you are and then stay true to that thing. My brand is based very much on how I live my day-to-day life.
Chef, Author, and Entrepreneur
You have to be open-minded when those early opportunities present themselves. Take advantage of them, whether they're going to make you a lot of money or not. I did 30 Minute Meals for five years on local television, and I earned nothing the first two years. Then I earned $50 a segment. I spent more than that on gas and groceries, but I really enjoyed making the show and I loved going to a viewer's house each week. I knew I enjoyed it, so I stuck with it even though it cost me.
I've also learned that you can't be all things to all people. Whatever it is that you're successful at, that has to be the No. 1 goal. In my case, it's accessibility. So all of my products have to be usable, accessible, affordable. The olive oils we're developing with Colavita will be priced to be competitive with every other affordable olive oil. We chose to be in grocery stores, not fancy food stores, because that's where most of my audience shops. Our pots and pans have to be heavy-bottomed and sturdy but also affordable. Decide what it is that you are and then stay true to that thing. My brand is based very much on how I live my day-to-day life.
Chris DeWolfe
Co-founder, Myspace
Keep Social Networks Social
The key is to be true to your community's norms and values. You can't just force yourself on people and try to sell them something they don't want - that's good advice for marketers generally, but particularly on community-driven sites like MySpace. You have to find ways to add value to your members' lives while being consistent with your brand's identity.
Co-founder, Myspace
Keep Social Networks Social
The key is to be true to your community's norms and values. You can't just force yourself on people and try to sell them something they don't want - that's good advice for marketers generally, but particularly on community-driven sites like MySpace. You have to find ways to add value to your members' lives while being consistent with your brand's identity.
Sergey Brin
Co-founder, Google
Succeed With Simplicity
Simplicity is an important trend we are focused on. Technology has this way of becoming overly complex, but simplicity was one of the reasons that people gravitated to Google initially. This complexity is an issue that has to be solved for online technologies, for devices, for computers, and it's very difficult. Success will come from simplicity. Look at Apple, the success they have had, and what they are doing.
We are focused on features, not products. We eliminated future products that would have made the complexity problem worse. We don't want to have 20 different products that work in 20 different ways. I was getting lost at our site keeping track of everything. I would rather have a smaller set of products that have a shared set of features.
Co-founder, Google
Succeed With Simplicity
Simplicity is an important trend we are focused on. Technology has this way of becoming overly complex, but simplicity was one of the reasons that people gravitated to Google initially. This complexity is an issue that has to be solved for online technologies, for devices, for computers, and it's very difficult. Success will come from simplicity. Look at Apple, the success they have had, and what they are doing.
We are focused on features, not products. We eliminated future products that would have made the complexity problem worse. We don't want to have 20 different products that work in 20 different ways. I was getting lost at our site keeping track of everything. I would rather have a smaller set of products that have a shared set of features.
Ron Sargent
Chairman and CEO, Staples
Practice Extreme Differentiation
In our business, a lot of chains sell the same product at the same price. So we redesigned the stores to make it a simpler, easier shopping experience. We made getting rebates much easier. We've come out with a lot of new products. We hold over 50 patents. We have quick checkout and knowledgeable people, we're well-stocked with all items, and there's a Staples.com kiosk in every store. Figure out why a customer would drive by your competitor to come to you.
Chairman and CEO, Staples
Practice Extreme Differentiation
In our business, a lot of chains sell the same product at the same price. So we redesigned the stores to make it a simpler, easier shopping experience. We made getting rebates much easier. We've come out with a lot of new products. We hold over 50 patents. We have quick checkout and knowledgeable people, we're well-stocked with all items, and there's a Staples.com kiosk in every store. Figure out why a customer would drive by your competitor to come to you.
Paul Jacobs
CEO, Qualcomm
Don't Mess With a Good Thing
The transition from Irwin Jacobs to me went smoothly because I was not looking to change the entire direction of the company. I wanted to push even harder toward what he started: turning the phone into much more than a device for making calls.
There was no management disruption because the senior team has worked together for many years, and we are all friends. Together, we've been able to find new business opportunities and new technologies while we deal with increased attacks from competitors.
CEO, Qualcomm
Don't Mess With a Good Thing
The transition from Irwin Jacobs to me went smoothly because I was not looking to change the entire direction of the company. I wanted to push even harder toward what he started: turning the phone into much more than a device for making calls.
There was no management disruption because the senior team has worked together for many years, and we are all friends. Together, we've been able to find new business opportunities and new technologies while we deal with increased attacks from competitors.
Marc Benioff
Chairman and CEO, Salesforce.com
Be an Industry Disruptor
My four rules are: Build a great product, build demand in any way you can, make sure you have a distribution organization to fulfill the demand, and make sure your customers are happy - and that is the first rule, by the way. Those are the four elements. Is your product better than anyone else's - is it easier, more efficient, simpler? Can you explain to people how it's better? Can you position it correctly in their minds? That's what you're talking about - consciousness. When you talk about disruption, a market is just a group of people. Can you sell it, distribute it, get people to try it? Can you get it adopted? Then if you get that customer satisfaction, it starts all over again.
Chairman and CEO, Salesforce.com
Be an Industry Disruptor
My four rules are: Build a great product, build demand in any way you can, make sure you have a distribution organization to fulfill the demand, and make sure your customers are happy - and that is the first rule, by the way. Those are the four elements. Is your product better than anyone else's - is it easier, more efficient, simpler? Can you explain to people how it's better? Can you position it correctly in their minds? That's what you're talking about - consciousness. When you talk about disruption, a market is just a group of people. Can you sell it, distribute it, get people to try it? Can you get it adopted? Then if you get that customer satisfaction, it starts all over again.
Andrea Jung
Chairman and CEO, Avon Products
Reinvent Yourself, Not Just the Company
Last year the momentum of Avon's business turned abruptly from five years of record-breaking sales growth to a major slowdown. And it became clear to me that Avon had to reinvent itself - and I had to reinvent myself along with it. You can't ask an entire company to change and not change yourself. I have set higher expectations for myself and our people, I've raised the level of accountability, and as an organization we have become more focused and disciplined. Avon and I are both still in a period of reinvention, and I believe in order to remain competitive, the process should never end.
Chairman and CEO, Avon Products
Reinvent Yourself, Not Just the Company
Last year the momentum of Avon's business turned abruptly from five years of record-breaking sales growth to a major slowdown. And it became clear to me that Avon had to reinvent itself - and I had to reinvent myself along with it. You can't ask an entire company to change and not change yourself. I have set higher expectations for myself and our people, I've raised the level of accountability, and as an organization we have become more focused and disciplined. Avon and I are both still in a period of reinvention, and I believe in order to remain competitive, the process should never end.
Brad Anderson
CEO, Best Buy
Make Gender Parity Pay
Women are redefining the consumer electronics business. They spend more than $55 billion each year on consumer electronics and influence 90 percent of all purchases. You've got to be crazy to not pay attention to that. The challenge, then, is how do you change to be more appealing to such an important group of customers?
The easiest way to do that? Leverage the insights of the thousands of women who work for the company! They are your greatest resource. Most businesses underutilize the perspectives of employees who are dying to be heard and hungry to make the business better. In our case, the talent in our stores absolutely needs to reflect our communities. That means about half of the employees in each of our stores should be women - a goal Best Buy is still trying to meet. In fact, we've seen a dramatic increase in comparable stores where there is good parity between male and female employees.
CEO, Best Buy
Make Gender Parity Pay
Women are redefining the consumer electronics business. They spend more than $55 billion each year on consumer electronics and influence 90 percent of all purchases. You've got to be crazy to not pay attention to that. The challenge, then, is how do you change to be more appealing to such an important group of customers?
The easiest way to do that? Leverage the insights of the thousands of women who work for the company! They are your greatest resource. Most businesses underutilize the perspectives of employees who are dying to be heard and hungry to make the business better. In our case, the talent in our stores absolutely needs to reflect our communities. That means about half of the employees in each of our stores should be women - a goal Best Buy is still trying to meet. In fact, we've seen a dramatic increase in comparable stores where there is good parity between male and female employees.
Tim O'Reilly
Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media
Put Yourself at the Center of the Action
The rules for marketing a conference like our Web 2.0 event are pretty much the same as those for marketing anything else. Here are the ones we follow.
1. Be first. This is one of the immutable laws of marketing. Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic? Lindbergh. Who was the second? No idea.
2. If you can't be first, create a new category so you can be first. Who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic? Amelia Earhart. New category. We didn't have the first Web conference out there, but when we applied "Web 2.0" to the category, we created something new.
3. Position yourself at the leading edge of a new wave. The way to make sure you recognize the next big wave is by watching what I call the alpha geeks. You find people who are cool, by whatever metric you want to apply. It would be the same thing if you were marketing sneakers. And then you find out what the cool people are doing and you spread the word about it. This isn't to say there aren't audiences for whom cool might not be the right measurement, but it works for us.
4. Tell a big story. We don't market products narrowly. We market big stories about the industry, things that matter to a lot of people. In 1992 we came out with The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog. Instead of marketing the book, we marketed the Internet using the book, and said the Internet is coming and by the way here's a book where you can learn about it. In planning Web 2.0 in 2003, we came up with a goal to reignite enthusiasm in the computer industry. We said, here's something that distinguishes the companies that survived the dotcom bust, here is something that is bubbling up again, so we gave it a name - Web 2.0 - and started telling a story about what was new and important in technology. Sometimes giving it a name helps people to see it.
5. Make it an A-list party. Conferences are really like parties, and an A-list party is one where A-list people are in attendance. You figure out who are the really important people to invite and get them to show up as speakers or as guests. Then everybody wants to be there. If you don't know who the important people are, you shouldn't be doing a conference.
6. Care about the attendees. There are a lot of lousy conferences that pander to sponsors. They end up creating an opportunity for boring speakers who are paid shills for their companies. We still get a few of those, but we really try to police it. Think about who the audience is and what works for them, and deliver high-quality content.
Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media
Put Yourself at the Center of the Action
The rules for marketing a conference like our Web 2.0 event are pretty much the same as those for marketing anything else. Here are the ones we follow.
1. Be first. This is one of the immutable laws of marketing. Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic? Lindbergh. Who was the second? No idea.
2. If you can't be first, create a new category so you can be first. Who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic? Amelia Earhart. New category. We didn't have the first Web conference out there, but when we applied "Web 2.0" to the category, we created something new.
3. Position yourself at the leading edge of a new wave. The way to make sure you recognize the next big wave is by watching what I call the alpha geeks. You find people who are cool, by whatever metric you want to apply. It would be the same thing if you were marketing sneakers. And then you find out what the cool people are doing and you spread the word about it. This isn't to say there aren't audiences for whom cool might not be the right measurement, but it works for us.
4. Tell a big story. We don't market products narrowly. We market big stories about the industry, things that matter to a lot of people. In 1992 we came out with The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog. Instead of marketing the book, we marketed the Internet using the book, and said the Internet is coming and by the way here's a book where you can learn about it. In planning Web 2.0 in 2003, we came up with a goal to reignite enthusiasm in the computer industry. We said, here's something that distinguishes the companies that survived the dotcom bust, here is something that is bubbling up again, so we gave it a name - Web 2.0 - and started telling a story about what was new and important in technology. Sometimes giving it a name helps people to see it.
5. Make it an A-list party. Conferences are really like parties, and an A-list party is one where A-list people are in attendance. You figure out who are the really important people to invite and get them to show up as speakers or as guests. Then everybody wants to be there. If you don't know who the important people are, you shouldn't be doing a conference.
6. Care about the attendees. There are a lot of lousy conferences that pander to sponsors. They end up creating an opportunity for boring speakers who are paid shills for their companies. We still get a few of those, but we really try to police it. Think about who the audience is and what works for them, and deliver high-quality content.
to do
Give Your Startup a Fighting Chance
1. Hire smart. Setting the DNA of a company starts with the founders, and hiring is the No. 1 pitfall for young ventures. Don't compromise on quality, verify passion, stay focused on doing one thing really well. The motivation should be to build something of value for the long term.
2. Define the market problem. Rather than rush to form a venture, think hard about the problem you're solving. Break it down into easily understandable pieces so you can explain it first to yourself.
3. Simplify the solution. Set specific goals and milestones to get you to a stage of validation; that ensures that your efforts and energies will be well spent. At that point, be flexible and open to changes. It's better to have half a product with a brutal triage of features at launch than to have a half-assed product.
1. Hire smart. Setting the DNA of a company starts with the founders, and hiring is the No. 1 pitfall for young ventures. Don't compromise on quality, verify passion, stay focused on doing one thing really well. The motivation should be to build something of value for the long term.
2. Define the market problem. Rather than rush to form a venture, think hard about the problem you're solving. Break it down into easily understandable pieces so you can explain it first to yourself.
3. Simplify the solution. Set specific goals and milestones to get you to a stage of validation; that ensures that your efforts and energies will be well spent. At that point, be flexible and open to changes. It's better to have half a product with a brutal triage of features at launch than to have a half-assed product.
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