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I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

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Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#361

Post by eries »

CPLX wrote: post #272
Boxxed wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And from an investor perspective, as a group they have underperformed the S&P 500. This should be kind of obvious -- if they are avoiding doing awful things in the name of money, then they are leaving something on the table. You can't have your cake and eat it too. This is why the real solution is some kind of governance/regulation, because otherwise the market incentivizes being awful.

> if they are avoiding doing awful things in the name of money, then they are leaving something on the table That doesn't stand as a reason at all. I think the big contrast isn't as you described. It's more about short-term versus long-term or conflict of interest between principals and shareholders. But to be specific, Wells Fargo was mentioned, and their downfall was very much driven by doing awful things in the na…

There is a whole table of examples like the one you mentioned in the book. This has been going on a long time: companies being destroyed, all in the name of profit.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#362

Post by eries »

wilkommen wrote: post #345

Good companies go bad because the American financial system and thus the companies that live within that system are geared for "shareholder returns" as the primary objective of existence for the corporation. If the objective of the corporation was simply to protect its continued existence, more akin to a nation-state or a club, then it would be possible to have a wider variety of corporations which each behave differ…

What's interesting is that this is not a long-standing pillar of the American financial system but a relatively recent addition that was done without any democratic legitimacy whatsoever. I think it's pretty clear that if we go a different direction, we can have a different outcome.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#363

Post by eries »

zaphar wrote: post #268
eries wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the sad truths that the book tries to confront about the world we live in today: that most companies simply fail the test of succession. This does not have to be the reality that we live in. It is absolutely 100% possible to build organizations to resist gravity and even to transform organizations that have fallen into its clutches. The fact that this is rare tells you something about the incentive design and…

Like a lot of things, bad actors only have to get you to fail the test of succession once while the company has to succeed at it every time. Time is not on any companies side here and the longer it goes the more failing that test of succession starts to look like a law of nature.

That's true, and yet the evidence shows that some companies have been able to do it. I think there's something to be learned by studying those companies as a data set.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#364

Post by eries »

minkzilla wrote: post #308
eries wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't understand your comment, so let me try and recapitulate what I think you're saying and what I think I was saying, and then you can tell me where I missed the mark. What I hear you saying is that the original comment simply said that leadership by itself is enough to preserve the Costco ethos. It didn't say anything about size or Wall Street or anything else. Is that right? The reason I responded the…

Thanks for responding, I do think you interpreted my comment correctly. I see size as negatively correlated (maybe as a semi-direct cause) with preserving company mission. Hence why I was confused by you addressing it. It would never cross my mind to argue that size has protected Costco. I haven’t read your book, just skimmed the post so I don’t know if it’s convincing. But I’d like to argue that those companies fail…

I'd be very curious to hear what you think if you have a chance to read the book.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#365

Post by mustaphah »

eries wrote: post #327
eries wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about it over the years, but never pulled the trigger. This used to drive me crazy when I was younger. When an author who became "older and wiser" decided to make a new edition of the book in which they hedged all their bold claims with all the caveats that they had gained through experience. I always thought such old people were cowards. Of course, now I understand why they do it.

If I was going to do a new edition, what would you want to see in it?

[flagged]

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#366

Post by eries »

smithkl42 wrote: post #284
raincole wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are losing our rear ends.’ And he said, ‘If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you." It sounds like a really toxic working environment. I sincerely hope they made up this story as an ad about how cheap their hot dog is.

I'd be more likely to assume that it's a really great one, where folks like and trust each other enough that they can give each other crap like this and everyone understands and appreciates it, like good friends trash-talking each other on the basketball court. I've thought for years that the way you can tell acquaintances have become friends is if they start insulting each other. Or, as you say, it could be a really…

Considering how many people love telling this story, both within and outside of Costco, I think it's more the former than the latter. One way you can tell is that the COO, who was cursed at in this story, later succeeded Sinegal as the CEO and, in fact, has gone on record defending that hot dog price many times.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#367

Post by brianwawok »

chrisgd wrote: post #356
lebovic wrote: post #168

I worked at Anthropic, and I wouldn't attribute much to the structure itself – so I'm wary of using it as a positive example here. I do attribute a lot to specific people. Concretely, to much of the intitial team, who they recruited on the research/infra side, and some very close personal relationships within research/infra. That dynamic, paired with their unwillingness to accede to something against their values, is…

What does ICs stand for?

Individual contributor? A nice way to say people who aren’t managers

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#368

Post by eries »

ngriffiths wrote: post #211
eries wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have the link in front of me, but someone who used to work at Spotify wrote a really nice reflection about this change through the lens of incorruptible over on LinkedIn. If someone can find it and post it here, that'd be great. If not, I'll try to remember to come back and post it later. I think these changes very rarely have to do with what customers want shifting, but when people say "the market," they are…

I'm not just talking about where the initial pressure comes from, but the effects of the changes. I guess the question becomes about how easily these layers get disentangled. E.g. things investors like that then result in lower sales? Things that result in greater sales but that the customers don't actually like? Naively of course it seems like investors don't like it when sales go down, so there'd be an extremely ti…

Just look at the evidence. Investor holding periods are going down, and there's less and less correlation between value creation and stock price movements.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#369

Post by lebovic »

chrisgd wrote: post #356
lebovic wrote: post #168

I worked at Anthropic, and I wouldn't attribute much to the structure itself – so I'm wary of using it as a positive example here. I do attribute a lot to specific people. Concretely, to much of the intitial team, who they recruited on the research/infra side, and some very close personal relationships within research/infra. That dynamic, paired with their unwillingness to accede to something against their values, is…

What does ICs stand for?

Individual contributor; i.e. not a manager.

(This isn't a dig on managers; I've been one. But if a situation doesn't naturally escalate, that usually means a manager in the chain chose not to escalate it, and their reports have to go around them.)

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#370

Post by 2001zhaozhao »

chrisgd wrote: post #356
lebovic wrote: post #168

I worked at Anthropic, and I wouldn't attribute much to the structure itself – so I'm wary of using it as a positive example here. I do attribute a lot to specific people. Concretely, to much of the intitial team, who they recruited on the research/infra side, and some very close personal relationships within research/infra. That dynamic, paired with their unwillingness to accede to something against their values, is…

What does ICs stand for?

individual contributor
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