Asana’s Co-Founder – Advice For Product Managers

Dropbox is worth a couple of billion dollars today.

So how would you feel if the product you were managing could have become Dropbox, but didn’t, because the President of your company shot down the idea after you presented it to him?

Without rancor, and with grace, Justin Rosenstein talks about his experience with Google Drive and Larry Page – and concludes with this advice for Product Managers:

1. If you’re managing a project inside of a company, living and breathing it, the onus is on you, not upper management, to understand and articulate the marketing positioning and strategy that’s unique to your project. If management still disagrees with you, I wouldn’t fight them, but have enough confidence to make your case with conviction.

2. Now that I’m in a leadership role as the co-founder of Asana, I think twice before disagreeing with one of my reports when they look like they’ve really thought something through in their area of expertise and are passionate about their conclusion. I still disagree a lot — ultimately it’s my responsibility to ensure Asana maintains a consistent vision — but once I’ve made up my mind, it can still be changed.

I thought the article was a class act. You can read it  here.

Reed Hastings – On The Future of Video

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote a 11 page essay on the future of video (what’s with consumer/tech CEOs writing letters and essays these days?).

Peter Kafka, at AllThingsD, has helpfully summarized it for readers.

And out of the 7 bullet points from the article, I excerpted the three that I thought were most interesting. [Note: This excerpt includes Peter's insightful commentary.]

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Bill Marriott – On Not Choosing His Son As CEO

A fascinating, long read from Bill Marriott on not choosing his son to succeed him as CEO, comes to us from HBR.

An excerpt:

…my son John, who is 52. Like all family members who have joined the company (including me), John started at the bottom, as a cook in the kitchen. He went on to work in nearly every part of the business over the next 30 years. He spent most of his adult life preparing to succeed me as CEO. He devoted his heart and soul to learning the business. If I’d followed my own heart, I probably would have chosen John as my successor.

But as time went on, I realized that it wasn’t the right fit—not for John, and not for Marriott. As personally disappointing as that was to both of us, I had to make the right decision for the company.

Read the full piece here. 

It is as much a chronicle of Mr Marriott’s thinking, as it is an account of how Arne Sorenson became CEO.

Giving – The Secret To Success?

True leaders give without expecting anything in return, say the gurus. Forget leaders though. What about regular professionals that may (or may not) want to become a leader – but still want to get ahead in their careers. Is “giving” a way for them to get ahead too?

Likely, argues a long essay (highly recommend reading it…probably takes 10 minutes or less. Admit it…you’ve spent more time looking at cute cat videos on YouTube!) by Susan Dominus on the NYT, last month.

In it, she writes about Adam Grant, Wharton’s youngest tenured Professor (he’s 31). Consider this excerpt:

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Tim Cook – A Values-Based Leader

Apple and Tim Cook have been in the news of late.

In response to an unusual state-orchestrated campaign against Apple, CEO Tim Cook offered Chinese consumers an unusual apology. 

Naturally, some are surprised that Mr Cook did what he did and think that, in the good old days of Steve Jobs, this kind of “weak” behavior would never have been on display. 

But Professor Harry Kraemer, a professor of Strategy and Management at the Kellogg School of Management (and the former Chairman and CEO of Baxter International and a current executive partner at private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners), who probably knows a thing or two about running companies thinks that Mr Cook is on to something here:

A value-based leader is self-reflective, someone who looks at a situation from all perspectives; who seeks to understand before being understood; who is willing to admit when he is wrong or when he doesn’t know; who has genuine humility and a belief that he can always get better.

Look at Tim Cook’s actions and you’ll see he was doing all these things in addressing Apple’s customer service issues in China; that is, he’s not being nice, he’s being savvy.

As to the question of whether companies can afford to operate with a value-based leader—they can’t afford not to. Customers want to buy from companies that stand behind their products and deliver them through ethical means. Employees at all levels want to be valued as contributing partners. Companies that understand these concepts will do well and generate shareholder value.

And that’s something Tim Cook certainly understands.

Conscious Capitalism – What Does It Mean?

Whole Foods’ CEO, John Mackey’s book, “Conscious Capitalism”, written with Rajendra Sisodia, uses two words in the title that are seemingly odd, juxtaposed thus. 

Written by anyone else, I, for one, might have dismissed it for another fancy sounding book with little real-world relevance. But Mr Mackey’s credibility and Whole Foods’ ethos (which includes treating its’ employees well) attest to the fact that this is different. 

An interesting post by The Energy Project’s CEO, Tony Schwartz, on HBR, based on a retreat that included Mr Mackey, Mr Sisodia and other CEOs, includes a summary of what this phrase means in real-life:

It’s not necessary to choose up sides between consciousness and capitalism, self-interest and the broader interest, or personal development and service to others. Rather, they’re each inextricably connected, and they all serve one another.

Another excerpt from the same post, by Dr Shubro Sen of Tata, also captures the value and virtue of business succinctly:

(Dr) Shubhro Sen, who leads people development for Tata, the huge, privately-owned Indian conglomerate, described the founding tenet of the company that endures to this day: “We earn our profits from society and they should go back into society.” Most of the company today is owned by philanthropic trusts.