If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
Sir Isaac Newton
My goal here is to collect examples of amazing leadership cultures and present them. I want to dive into what makes good companies and what sort of kills them off.
Being CEO requires lots of unnatural motion. From an evolutionary standpoint, it is natural to do things that make people like you. It enhances your chances for survival. Yet to be a good CEO, in order to be liked in the long run, you must do many things that will upset people in the short run. Unnatural things. – Hard thing about hard things
The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail. He can only be helped. But he must direct himself, and he must direct himself toward performance and contribution, that is, toward effectiveness.
Most discussions of the executive’s task start with the advice to plan one’s work. This sounds eminently plausible. The only thing wrong with it is that it rarely works. The plans always remain on paper, always remain good intentions. They seldom turn into achievement. Effective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. – Effective Executive
- Create a religious experience
- Every member working effectively as a singular unit to achieve something greater than any single people can do.
- Have a method of keeping track of mistakes that were made so you can improve upon them. Punish people for not telling you about mistakes not for making them.
Bridgewater Associates
Principles by Ray Dalio
- Have a system for collecting mistakes. Review them. Punish for not filing not making the mistake
- Replacing yourself. Find someone capable and have a system for replacing them if need be.
- Have to have others do stuff that you aren’t good At to be successful.
Microsoft
“Employees. Customers. Products. Partners. Each element needs time, attention, and focus if I’m going to to create the value for which I am ultimately accountable. All four are important , and without discipline even the best managers can overlook one or more.”
While we have our circle of competency, we use the business models others have build. Some of the features that other companies have that we want to emulate:
- Economies of Scale through Distribution
- Focus on Free Cash Flow & Return on Invested Capital
- Autonomous Teams
- Capabilities Based Growth
Companies
- Ametek
- Caterpiller
- Danaher
- Dover
- Graham Holding Company
- Honeywell
- Illinois Tool Works
- Jack Henry
- Koch Industries
- Marmon Holdings
- Roper Technologies
- The Scott Fetzer Company
- Thoma Bravo
- Tiny
- Transdigm
- Tyler Technologies
- Vista Equity Partners
- ValSoft
- Bloomberg