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I Write Letters to CEOs

johnwdefeo.com

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Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#81

Post by jacquesm »

erikb wrote: post #75
ordinaryperson wrote: post #19

Years ago I wrote a letter to Paul Raines, then the CEO of Gamestop. Mainly I complained how terrible the store experience was. Whereas Apple stores feel like an avant-garde museum Gamestops feel like the inside of a Chuck E. Cheese circa 1987 -- games everywhere, no real organization, no marketing of individual titles or genres, it's just grabbag nonsense of plastic container after plastic container. Days after I se…

I love how you simply declined the offer. What a balsy move.

I would have taken him up on it. If an issue is important enough to me to write the CEO of a company then it would have most likely been important enough to me to respond pro-actively to a meaningful response. Otherwise what's the point of writing such a letter in the first place?

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#82

Post by scandox »

erikb wrote: post #74

This looks like a lot of fantasy confidence. For instance, even if you are quite rich, it's unlikely that Colgate-Palmolive would consider you really an "investor". And of course if you write something to the CEO his 10+ PR team will respond to you, maybe even with something that is signed by the CEO. But do you really think the CEO sits down to discuss shower thoughts about product ideas with you? If you think that…

I think you're wrong. Powerful people are very often influenced by chance encounters, by mere happenstance.

I've seen it a hundred times: decisions (or at least discussions) driven by accidental meetings on planes or trains. Something overheard at the pool or in a bar.

It's because these guys know at some level that they're in a closed chamber, away from the reality that underlies their corporate activity and if they think they've suddenly been given an authentic glimpse of something, unmediated by their lieutenants then they find that extremely novel and exciting.

They're just human beings. Often they're very interested in people in general.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#83

Post by Cthulhu_ »

discordance wrote: post #48
itronitron wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of when I read about Steve Jobs' having to be dressed up as a CEO for the cover of some business magazine in the '80's (Fortune, or Inc. I think). I distinctly remember as a young person seeing that magazine and thinking he's some conventional business dude. So of course I, and probably everyone else, assumed that to be at an innovative high-tech company you needed to be a conventional business dude.…

Sounds similar to the theory that to be a successful CEO you need to be an asshole

But do you need to be an asshole to become a (successful) CEO, or does the job turn you into one?

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#84

Post by Cthulhu_ »

krmmalik wrote: post #80

I didn't write a letter but I did write emails to executives at Blackberry and Nikon. I felt I had strategies that could help them. I never got a response. So I'm wondering what it is this guy is doing that is promoting a response. Maybe it is just the fact that it's a letter and not an email, or the letters are written by someone in the PR department and not the actual CEO? I would love to reach out to CEOs and have…

I think he's made sure to put all the legal safeguards in there; normally companies will throw any idea they get from people right into the trash without paying attention to it, because (and this has happened in the past) if they then run with it, the sender will sue them for stealing their idea without compensation.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#85

Post by solotronics »

wallflower wrote: post #54
ChristianBundy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn't you excuse yourself?

It was a "deer in the headlights" moment. What happened, happened and I am not proud of it. When I heard "The CEO wants a photo with you", I was completely pattern interrupted with the current thread of what I was doing talking to whoever it was (keyword: CEO and keyword: you) and just System.exit(1)'d (e.g. left with the PR person). I didn't realize that I'd not excused myself properly until after the photo op was d…

really useful advice. I usually exit with "very cool, thanks!" and just walk off if I can't get out of a conversation. Probably not the most elegant.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#86

Post by ainiriand »

erikb wrote: post #74

This looks like a lot of fantasy confidence. For instance, even if you are quite rich, it's unlikely that Colgate-Palmolive would consider you really an "investor". And of course if you write something to the CEO his 10+ PR team will respond to you, maybe even with something that is signed by the CEO. But do you really think the CEO sits down to discuss shower thoughts about product ideas with you? If you think that…

I am inclined to disagree with your vision of the CEO role but I can relate to your thoughts.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#87

Post by mynameisvlad »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #51
losteric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory is CEOs that pay attention to smaller things miss fewer opportunities, and build a culture of doing so across the company. Look up Bezos' infamous "?" emails.

"?" isn't paying attention to things; it's telling other people to pay attention to things. It's building a culture, I guess.

“?” is paying attention enough to recognize something is wrong and needs to be resolved immediately without spending the time to find the resolution yourself. To say that it’s not implies that every single email to him results in a “?” which is patently false.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#88

Post by afarrell »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #83
discordance wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds similar to the theory that to be a successful CEO you need to be an asshole

But do you need to be an asshole to become a (successful) CEO, or does the job turn you into one?

In order to meaningfully answer this question, we need a much more well-articulated definition of "asshole". People's definitions vary widely. For example, suppose you see someone broadcast online about being very distressed about a problem and your response is to point them toward resources that might be useful to solve the problem -- some set of people would consider you an asshole for that pattern of behavior. Some would consider it very helpful. Is it? Not my point. The point is that there is disagreement.

In order to become a successful CEO (or team lead or spouse...), you do need to be able to muster the emotional backbone to have tough conversations with people. One thing that can hold you back from this is the internal worry about being an asshole. Unless you are able to say to yourself, "I hear a voice on my shoulder telling me I'm a terrible person. But this topic needs to be discussed and I need to do advocacy here. This is uncomfortable and I don't like it but I'm going to do it anyway", you will under-communicate and issue won't get resolved.

However:

1) It is possible to err. That difficult conversation? Might in fact just be you being an asshole. We are not lucky enough to live in a world with a 100% surefire way to avoid this. So, good communication involves being willing to risk some probability of being an asshole.

2) People without that "maybe you're being an asshole" voice are not going to have this problem.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#89

Post by mathgenius »

scandox wrote: post #82
erikb wrote: post #74

This looks like a lot of fantasy confidence. For instance, even if you are quite rich, it's unlikely that Colgate-Palmolive would consider you really an "investor". And of course if you write something to the CEO his 10+ PR team will respond to you, maybe even with something that is signed by the CEO. But do you really think the CEO sits down to discuss shower thoughts about product ideas with you? If you think that…

I think you're wrong. Powerful people are very often influenced by chance encounters, by mere happenstance. I've seen it a hundred times: decisions (or at least discussions) driven by accidental meetings on planes or trains. Something overheard at the pool or in a bar. It's because these guys know at some level that they're in a closed chamber, away from the reality that underlies their corporate activity and if they…

> at some level that they're in a closed chamber

I actually think it's the opposite: really successful people get there because they are more vulnerable. At least in my experience, whenever I met someone like this, they always seem way more responsive and open than the usual joe.

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