Is Aaron Levie Really Thinking Outside the Box?

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box-blog427Silicon Valley CEO Aaron Levie dropped out of college ten years ago to start his company, Box. Providing cloud computing services, Levie’s company is currently worth $2.1 billion and services over 40,000 paying customers which includes about half of the Fortune 500. However, it is not meeting growth projections and is counting on creating an ecosystem just as Apple and Microsoft have with their products. Levie argues it can be the center of a new industry “by helping other companies and third-party consultants create applications that can quickly draw off Box’s cloud-based collaboration technology.”

Despite these ambitions, Box has lost $167 million on revenue of $216 million which is still an improvement from the year before. This year, revenue is expected to grow by another 30 percent, “a marked slowdown that Mr. Levie hopes the new developer strategy may also turn around.” These losses scare not only Box, but also the generations of young tech ventures that never experienced the massive downturn that took place between 2000-2001.

Seasoned investors worry that newcomers may not take the risks as seriously. Ultimately, the losses faced by Box and newer tech companies as they rapidly grow are starting to catch up with them, and may be the beginning of a new downward trend in Silicon Valley.

Read the article here on The New York Times

Aim For a Mix of “Doers, Thinkers & Feelers”

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Nancy Dubuc is the Chief Executive of A&E Networks, a global entertainment media company. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of The New York Times, Dubuc spoke about the importance of trust, the value of constructive thoughts and the idea of mixing “doers, thinkers and feelers” in the workplace. Here are some key points taken from the interview:

  • Worrying doesn’t achieve anything: “Don’t worry about it because it’s not going to turn out that way anyway… so much of what we worry about is the outcome, and outcomes rarely turn out the way you think they’re going to… it might be better.”
  • There are two types of candidates: “There are very few black-and-white truths in management or in business, but one that I have found is that people either hire people who are smarter than them or people hire people they can control.”
  • Are difficult employees often the best performers? “Another pattern I’ve seen is that managers will sometimes complain that one of their employees is difficult to manage. But those difficult people often tend to be the best performers.”
  • There’s no one way to manage: “Great managers recognize that there is no one way to manage.”
  • Trust is crucial: “I need to trust who works for me, and they need to trust me. Trust is just paramount… It really needs to be trust by action.”
  • Constructive comments are most useful: “I value people who have something constructive to say and can make things better.”
  • Hire a mix of thinkers, doers and feelers: “If you have all thinkers nothing will get done. If you have all doers that can be really chaotic because you’re not necessarily thinking about the consequences. And feelers are important because they create energy – but if you have too many of them, they will just dramatize the moment.”
  • Ultimately it’s all about balance: “When you put the different kinds of people together in the right way, that can be very powerful. You never want that out of balance.”

Click here to see the full interview in The New York Times.

Words of Wisdom from Vivek Gupta

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Vivek Gupta is the C.E.O of Zensar Technologies, a global software services company based in Pune, India. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York times, Gupta opened up about his management style, hiring techniques and the importance of a solid elevator pitch. Here are some highlights from the interview:

  • Know the difference between managing activities and managing people: “Over time I realized you don’t manage activities. You manage people, and you worry about the outcomes.”
  • Communication is key: “50% of a C.E.O.’s communication is non-verbal. Everything you do, even the way you smile in a room, really matters.”
  • Beware of hiring people just like you: “I want to hire people who are very different to me or better than me in certain areas so that one plus one equals more then two.”
  • Prioritize potential over performance: “I try to focus on a person’s potential rather than their performance. What that means by definition is that I should be encouraging people from by own company to take positions before I go and hire people from the outside.”
  • Have a solid elevator pitch: “You’ve got three minutes. What will you tell me about yourself? It’s interesting to hear the traits that people focus on.”

Click here to read the entire interview.

Wear Your Failures on Your Sleeve

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Cassandra Phillips, founder of FailCon, holds one-day conferences for technology entrepreneurs, investors, developers, and designers to study their own and others’ failures and prepare for success. Every October, 500 tech start-up websites gather with industry veterans who talk about their biggest downfalls and fails while providing constructive criticism. Failure is emerging as a badge of honor among Silicon Valley start-ups, and companies publicly dissect their own entrepreneurial failures on multiple blogs.

Of course nobody wants to fail with their business, but failing intelligently is an important skill when it comes to improving. Sometimes you have to fail first in order to succeed. In entrepreneurial circles, a start-up flop is now something to proclaim, not hide.

To read the article in it’s entirety, click here.

A Good Excuse Doesn’t Fix a Problem

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Brent Frei is the executive chairman and co-founder of Smartsheet.com, a provider of online project management. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Frei talks about early management, what to look for when hiring employees, and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Here are some points from the interview:

  • Work together as a team to become a successful leader: “There are a lot of really successful ways to be a leader, but the only way I know how to do it is to be a part of the team. You get people on board, convince them about the right thing to do, get lots of input and ultimately drive to our goal.”
  • Hiring the right way will result in leadership: “If we hire right, there’s no managing; it’s just leading. And there’s a big difference between leading and managing. Leadership is: “We’ve got  problem everybody. We are all smart people. Lets figure out how we’re going to solve it. Let’s divvy up the pieces and lets go do them “.”
  • Intelligence and a quick understanding is valued: “I look for people who are bright and have a high “get-it” factor. That means they’re quick studies, so I’m talking about something really complex, they’ll say, “Got it”.
  • Don’t do it unless you really mean it: “If you’re not willing to eat rice and beans, and to get your wife and kids to eat rice and beans, don’t bother, because somewhere along the way, it’s going to be that hard. You have to have that mentality. Otherwise, it can be really difficult.”

Click here to view the full article from the New York Times.

Culture Always Comes First

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Robert Reid  is the chief executive of Intacct, a cloud-based provider of financial management and accounting software. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Reid discussed how his leadership style has evolved, his work culture, and how inspiration is key. Here are some interesting points from the interview:

  • Don’t just focus on strategy, focus on culture: “I found that execution was virtually equal to and maybe even more important than strategy. So I started reading a lot about execution, and I started working more closely with people on the front lines. And then I discovered that was a wrong approach, and what really mattered was culture.”
  • Create a workplace that inspires: “If you create an environment that inspires people in the good times and bad, good people will figure out the right strategy and will do the right things from an execution prospective”
  • Listen to your employees and help guide them: “If someone is not doing something the way you expect or you have a different viewpoint, you need to seek to understand what’s going on and help them.”

Click here to view the full article from the New York Times.

 

2014 UPS Connect State of Small Business Report

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UPS Connect conducted a 2014 report for the state of small businesses interviewing more than 300 founders, partners, presidents, and CEOs. With this report, they delivered a list of questions and answers. When asked what are the biggest challenges business owners are currently facing, companies replied with:

1) “Reducing cost of financing.”

2) “Government compliance and interference.”

3) “Funding and/or credit lines allowing my business to grow.”

4)  “The cost of customer acquisition…declining volume per current customer.”

Although owners maintain an optimistic approach in the short term, they are still faced with obstacles from general concerns, costumer acquisition, financial problems, and increased competition.

 

When business owners were asked about their biggest pain points:

49% of respondents said they “aim for a healthy balance between [their] professional and personal life””; 31% said they prioritize professional over personal.

49% admit they “don’t have the time or expertise to figure everything out.”

37% feel as if they “manage [their] time efficiently”; 23% said they have difficulty managing all the moving parts of their business.

 

This is some fascinating data to consider within the context of your own small business.

Respect the Opportunities You Are Given

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19-CORNER-master495Michelle Munson is the C.E.O of Aspera, a unit of IBM that provides software for high-speed file transfer. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Munson opened up about her leadership style, what it’s like to work for her, and advice on how to achieve success:

  • Forgiveness is the sincerest form of progression: “I’ve made my share of mistakes. But the most important lesson I learned is that there is a degree of forgiveness from people you work with if your intentions are right and you follow through. Because I’ve been sincere, the team has forgiven my mistakes along the way. That’s given me peace of mind and confidence to keep evolving.
  • People WILL have different values: “Not everyone values the same things I do. Some things are universal, like the gratification of achievement, but other things are not, like work styles. I have backed off and allowed people to work the way they do best.
  • Respect what you have: “My biggest pet peeve is people who don’t respect the opportunity they have. To me, respecting an opportunity means embracing it and dedicating yourself to making the most of it.”
  • Go beyond being a critic; learn to solve the issue: “You can’t create unless you have some ability to discern what is lacking or needed or doesn’t exist, and that goes beyond being a critic. It’s very easy to criticize. The real challenge is, how are you going to solve it? How are you going to make it better, with whatever resources you have?”
  • Be a critical thinker: “When talking about career advice “The second thing is critical thinking, which leads to independent thinking, and that comes from a diverse education and stretching yourself with independent-study internships and outside projects and activities. It can come in many forms, but it is paramount to have that in combination with skill and competence in your field, because that’s what allows you to create.”

Click here to view the full article from the New York Times.

Could Parenting Skills Be Transferrable To A CEO?

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Penny Herscher

Penny Herscher is the Chief Executive of FirstRain, a business analytics firm based out of San Mateo, California. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Herscher drew some interesting parallels between her approach to managing children as a parent and managing a company as a chief executive. Here are some of the key points from the interview:

  • Don’t hog the spotlight: “You need to let other people blossom and thrive” otherwise you’ll find yourself with employees that don’t want to work for you.
  • Having kids can change the way you manage: “The things you learn raising a child are great skills for nurturing a team and bringing a project to life. You take obstacles out of the way, encourage them and set goals that are tough but can be achieved.”
  • You need somebody who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth: “Many leaders with strong personalities never hear the truth because their people are afraid to tell them. The people who will tell you the truth are the most valuable people in your life.”
  • As a CEO you can’t blame anyone else: You can look to a board of executives or shareholders for advice, but not permission. As a CEO “You are it! You have to make the decisions. You can collect advice, but nobody is going to make a decision for you, so just get on with it and make the decisions. If they’re right you’ll be fine, and if they’re wrong you’ll be fired.”
  • When hiring, look for “I.Q, integrity and energy, because you can’t teach those.”
  • Ask questions in interviews that tell you MORE about the candidate: “What makes you really special,” “how do you grow your employees” and “what’s your natural strength” are great examples.

Click here to view the full article from the New York Times.