From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
At the time of the last great recession, something changed. It was a significant failure of the markets, and really did cause people to question market economics. It was the beginning of a time when everybody felt the need to put a modifier in front of the word 'capitalism,' it was clear the incumbent version wasn't working as well as it could.
I scaled the business from just me, to 10,000 people some 20 years later. Scaling and keeping control of that business was practically impossible- I failed many times, but managed to succeed overall through sheer determination, hard-work and having very, very good people.
Today away from monetary policy, global factors drive inflation, and for tangible goods emerging market drivers are key. We note commodity consumption per unit of GDP explodes as per capita income rises from $3000/yr into the $5000 to $15000 bracket.
The area under the curve over time is greater if you keep your prices low than if you jack them up to maximise revenue. I'd get kicked out of a business school for saying something like that, but it's true.
I start by asking: How will our customers benefit from this acquisition? I tend to shy away from companies that don't share a similar cultural ethos. Even if an acquisition seems financially sound, if there's a stark cultural mismatch, I'd usually reconsider.
The real important fact is that consumers would rather choose a sustainable product or service from a transformed business over others. The young people are going to have to live in that future, and they are not part of the solution because they are not at the decision table and hence are increasingly voting with their money.
Early customers are animated by belief, not utility. They buy for aesthetic reasons, not practical ones. There's an aesthetically superior future they co-create with the founders. You only want to talk to people who are primed to move to that different future with you.
When you love what you do, when you're excited about your field, when you've chosen a path that connects with you personally- you will learn fast, you will accomplish in 5 years what it would take others 15 years to do.
Innovative companies are not afraid of failure – they're willing to take risks, fail forward, learn from missteps, pivot, and keep going.
If you go into a business and see an organisational handbook... you're in trouble. When people spend too much time drawing up organisational rules and charts, they're spending less time with customers. Hierarchical structures are the death of flexibility, they are the death of agility and remove the distributed leadership needed to make business work.
You know what else is immoral? 700 million people who have no electricity. We need to have actual conversations about how to solve problems – and hold the uneasy tension of who pays for it, and how.
'Brand,' is what journalists and industry-people say… we say culture movement. As artists we say culture! Movement! And analysts say brand. I don't know what a brand is, but I know what a freakin' movement is….