How To Build “Winning” Systems

I recently had the opportunity to give an interview on BFM.TV about technology trends and what I have been calling “the startup advantage” (BFM is the equivalent of Bloomberg in France). While the video is in French, I hope that YouTube’s subtitle feature will help you follow my argument. If not, keep on reading!

Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to be part of teams that launched companies from scratch, grew and went IPO as well as joined large outfits where we set our eyes on a new space and built out our businesses into $1B+ ventures.

Most of what I talked about on BFM, I learned either by experiencing it first-hand, learning from direct mentors or indirect mentors whose work I studied and applied. You’ll find many books on the topic of “scaling a business” but, in my opinion, if there were only 3 books you should read, they are the below! (and if I missed some of your favorites, don’t hesitate to throw the title in comments).

“One of mankind’s greatest tragedies is when we poorly value the wrong opinion”

Principles — Ray Dalio: If you don’t know Ray, you’ve been missing out! A famous hedge fund managed, Ray founded Bridgewater Associates out of his apartment and had to work through a lot of ups and downs before he became a massive success. His latest book, Principles: Life and Work, will have a profound effect on how you and your team makes decisions and value ideas. Check out two of my favorites “Ray Quotes”

• Embrace Reality: “There is nothing more important than understanding how reality works and how to deal with it. The state of mind you bring to this process makes all the difference”
• Not All Opinions Are Born Equal: “One of mankind’s greatest tragedies is when we poorly value the wrong opinion. Collective decision making is better than individual decisions, when done right. In the end though, idea meritocracy is what should lead”

His work is a must-read in my opinion. If you don’t have time to read the book now, take 15 mins now and watch his TED talk — embedded below.

Culture at Netflix — Patty McCord and Reed Hastings: The first time I read about Netflix’s approach to culture about 10 years ago, one key sentence caught my attention:

“Culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage”

Despite the products, services and processes your company optimizes for, there is one thing that you, as a leader control and must drive: culture. Because your culture defines who you are, how you operate, what you believe in, who and how to hire… Flip through the below slideshare below and if you want to know how Netflix did it, read about it from the Netflix leader who helped architect it: Patty McCord. Her book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility is a fantastic read.

How To Disagree — Dan Shapiro. One of the most important skills of a high-performance team is its ability to effectively disagree.

High-performance teams know how to effectively disagree.

Dan Shapiro is one of the best authors I know in this field. If you want to read more on the “science of arguments”, my favorite blog is Paul Graham’s blog “How To Disagree”. It’s been read by over 34M people I believe and it does a good calling out the worst and best ways to disagree. To know more about this topic, watch Dan’s quick intro below and get a copy of his book: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts

Oh…and one last thing. Whatever you do…Over-deliver! See what Jack Welch has to say about that here (and below!)