Better Living Through Thinking

How to Run a Company

Mon, 24 May 2004

1. decide what kind of company you want to be. a) a company that does what all the other companies do and competes by finding efficient processes to do things everyone else can do already, or b) a company that innovates and finds solutions to problems that no one else has done before.
2. if you chose a), move ahead 3 spaces. You will be able to enter any market with a low barrier-to-entry by hiring cheap labor and buying off-the-shelf products to assemble for consumers. Recognize that your market will likely be taken over in a few years by off-shore companies who can find even cheaper labor than you have.

3. if you chose b), hire brilliant people and treat them well. If you do not treat them well, they'll leave you in a lurch having done all kinds of cool things that customers love but who no one else can figure out how they did it. It was not for lack of documentation but lack of talent and skill that makes it impossible for you to pick up the pieces.

   If you treat them well, you'll get loyalty from them which will make them not even consider other job options. They will continue to innovate and produce things that customers love. Don't bog down your brightest people with processes or management details; just let them do what they do best.