 "Building the right team")
Defining the values that will shape the culture of your organisation is only the first step. Living that culture every day is no less important. And to do that, you have to find the right people who embody those values and execute on them daily.
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins points out that good-to-great leaders "first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats - and then they figured out where to drive it." He writes: "The old adage 'People are your most important asset' turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are." Two people can see the same thing but interpret it differently based on their life's purpose; they can be faced with the same opportunity and either take it or leave it based on their vision and their passion.
Finding the right people is easier said than done. Finding competent people is hard, but finding the right people is much harder. As Mark Zuckerberg puts it: "People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but if they don't really believe in [your purpose], then they are not going to really work hard."
The first several years, Zappos struggled to survive; it was not cash-positive for a while. At one point, Zappos leadership decided to cut costs and lay off a small contingent of workers. Tony Hsieh remembers that those who decided to stay were true performers and true believers, and, as a result, productivity hasn't suffered at all. He recalls, "It was a big lesson in the power of instilling passion throughout the entire company and working as a unified team. Everyone was making sacrifices."
To date, Hsieh thinks bad hiring has cost Zappos more than $100 million. "This cost is a result of not only the bad hires we've made, but the decisions those people have made and how they have contributed to additional poor selections." Now Zappos has a well-crafted hiring process based on the company's values and focus. Discipline in hiring the right people is as important as company vision and strategy.
Zappos carefully builds in multiple questions and quizzes to test candidates. For example, one of the application questions asks: "How lucky do you consider yourself to be on a scale of 1 to 10?" They automatically filter out those who rate themselves below a 7, deeming them pessimists and, hence, not a good fit for the company's optimistic and upbeat culture. After all, they are out to find 'happy' employees not only to create a truly enjoyable customer experience but also to represent the values of the company to outsiders (customers, vendors, partners, etc.).
Ricky Van Veen attributes the lion's share of CollegeHumor's success to a simple hiring practice: "I always hire people that are smarter than I am. If you look around at the people in the office, they do what they do a lot better than I could. It can initially be a blow to the ego, but it pays off in the long run."
Facebooks leadership team and Mark Zuckerberg himself understand the value of hiring the right people very well. From the early days, every one at Facebook was involved in recruiting efforts. The company is on the lookout for talent every single day. Early on, the company set up a recruiting programme and deeply involved all employees. Facebook's programmers did campus visits, tech meetups, and major tech events all over the country. Some (including Facebook's leadership team) used to stand outside of Stanford looking for engineers. Employees took the side job of recruiting very seriously. They even set up a wiki to share candidate names, and their feedback about them, as well as ideas on how to woo potential hires. Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth, who taught Zuckerberg's artificial-intelligence class at Harvard and is now Facebook's director of engineering, says: "The people we hired were capable of solving the problems we knew were coming. You have to be prepared to jump in, make stuff, and grow." It is enough to watch Facebook's recruiting video to understand the passion and true innovative environment that characterizes Facebook. Sometimes, the HR department posts coding puzzles on its recruiting page with the tempting invitation: "Solve programming challenges. Get a phone interview."
The screening process at Facebook is rigorous. Joining Facebook's engineering ranks is especially tough. The applicant is first given a list of simple puzzles. If she makes the first cut, she is then given a list of more serious coding tasks. "There is no hand-waving your way through a coding interview," says engineering director Jocelyn Goldfein. "The most common reason for us to pass on a candidate is that they just are not up to the technical bar." Those who pass the second test are invited to Facebook for a series of four tightly scripted interviews: two are purely programming exercises; the other two depend on the expertise of a candidate and involve "solving hard problems" and "engaging on a technical level."
There is one way to bypass this process - to become an acquire, someone who launches a company that gets noticed by Zuck himself or his leadership team. Over the years, Facebook has acquired about 30 companies, most of them with the purpose of getting the best talent, not the product.
Reprinted by permission of McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited. Excerpted from 9781259097034: Walter: Think Like Zuck; Rs 370.00. Copyright © 2013 by Ekaterina Walter. All rights reserved.
THINK LIKE ZUCK: THE FIVE BUSINESS SECRETS OF FACEBOOK'S IMPROBABLY BRILLIANT CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG
AUTHOR: Ekaterina Walter
PUBLISHER: McGraw Hill Education
Price: Rs 370
ISBN: 9781259097034
One can't build a successful product (or business) alone; one needs a strong team of people who believe in the same vision, Ekaterina Walter tells Ankita Rai
Why do some start-ups such as Facebook succeed while many others fail? What did Zuckerberg do right that most CEOs didn't?
Zuckerberg built a solid culture that could sustain the growth of the business and supported constant innovation. Look at the company's slogans: "Done is better than perfect" and "This journey is only 1 per cent finished." This is because Facebook employees never rest on their laurels, they 'stay focused and keep shipping'. After growing into the company with over 4,000 employees, Zuckerberg was able to maintain the innovation levels of a start-up within the company.
Having the right people on board and creating an environment in which these people thrive is essential. The fact is not every company can establish a culture that supports the mission of its business in such an effective way. But it will always remain a critical ingredient of long-term success.
The book talks about five business secrets behind the success of Facebook: Passion, Purpose, People, Product and Partnerships. Which of the 5 Ps is the most important for start-ups to be successful?
Think Like Zuck is an analogy/philosophy of a leader who follows his/her passion, leads with purpose, builds great teams, and strives for continued excellence in his/her product (or services). It is a mentality that drives great leaders to building successful business and the approach they use to doing so.
The five are not separable. You see, when one is passionate about something, one wants to imagine, to create, to build. Passion fuels purpose. And it is this purpose that defines what product/service one offers. But one can't build a successful business alone, one needs a strong team of people who believe in the same vision to help execute on that purpose (and that is where strong partnerships come in as well).
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins points out that good-to-great leaders "first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats - and then they figured out where to drive it." He writes: "The old adage 'People are your most important asset' turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are." Two people can see the same thing but interpret it differently based on their life's purpose; they can be faced with the same opportunity and either take it or leave it based on their vision and their passion.
Finding the right people is easier said than done. Finding competent people is hard, but finding the right people is much harder. As Mark Zuckerberg puts it: "People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but if they don't really believe in [your purpose], then they are not going to really work hard."
The first several years, Zappos struggled to survive; it was not cash-positive for a while. At one point, Zappos leadership decided to cut costs and lay off a small contingent of workers. Tony Hsieh remembers that those who decided to stay were true performers and true believers, and, as a result, productivity hasn't suffered at all. He recalls, "It was a big lesson in the power of instilling passion throughout the entire company and working as a unified team. Everyone was making sacrifices."
To date, Hsieh thinks bad hiring has cost Zappos more than $100 million. "This cost is a result of not only the bad hires we've made, but the decisions those people have made and how they have contributed to additional poor selections." Now Zappos has a well-crafted hiring process based on the company's values and focus. Discipline in hiring the right people is as important as company vision and strategy.
Zappos carefully builds in multiple questions and quizzes to test candidates. For example, one of the application questions asks: "How lucky do you consider yourself to be on a scale of 1 to 10?" They automatically filter out those who rate themselves below a 7, deeming them pessimists and, hence, not a good fit for the company's optimistic and upbeat culture. After all, they are out to find 'happy' employees not only to create a truly enjoyable customer experience but also to represent the values of the company to outsiders (customers, vendors, partners, etc.).
Ricky Van Veen attributes the lion's share of CollegeHumor's success to a simple hiring practice: "I always hire people that are smarter than I am. If you look around at the people in the office, they do what they do a lot better than I could. It can initially be a blow to the ego, but it pays off in the long run."
Facebooks leadership team and Mark Zuckerberg himself understand the value of hiring the right people very well. From the early days, every one at Facebook was involved in recruiting efforts. The company is on the lookout for talent every single day. Early on, the company set up a recruiting programme and deeply involved all employees. Facebook's programmers did campus visits, tech meetups, and major tech events all over the country. Some (including Facebook's leadership team) used to stand outside of Stanford looking for engineers. Employees took the side job of recruiting very seriously. They even set up a wiki to share candidate names, and their feedback about them, as well as ideas on how to woo potential hires. Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth, who taught Zuckerberg's artificial-intelligence class at Harvard and is now Facebook's director of engineering, says: "The people we hired were capable of solving the problems we knew were coming. You have to be prepared to jump in, make stuff, and grow." It is enough to watch Facebook's recruiting video to understand the passion and true innovative environment that characterizes Facebook. Sometimes, the HR department posts coding puzzles on its recruiting page with the tempting invitation: "Solve programming challenges. Get a phone interview."
The screening process at Facebook is rigorous. Joining Facebook's engineering ranks is especially tough. The applicant is first given a list of simple puzzles. If she makes the first cut, she is then given a list of more serious coding tasks. "There is no hand-waving your way through a coding interview," says engineering director Jocelyn Goldfein. "The most common reason for us to pass on a candidate is that they just are not up to the technical bar." Those who pass the second test are invited to Facebook for a series of four tightly scripted interviews: two are purely programming exercises; the other two depend on the expertise of a candidate and involve "solving hard problems" and "engaging on a technical level."
There is one way to bypass this process - to become an acquire, someone who launches a company that gets noticed by Zuck himself or his leadership team. Over the years, Facebook has acquired about 30 companies, most of them with the purpose of getting the best talent, not the product.
Reprinted by permission of McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited. Excerpted from 9781259097034: Walter: Think Like Zuck; Rs 370.00. Copyright © 2013 by Ekaterina Walter. All rights reserved.
THINK LIKE ZUCK: THE FIVE BUSINESS SECRETS OF FACEBOOK'S IMPROBABLY BRILLIANT CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG
AUTHOR: Ekaterina Walter
PUBLISHER: McGraw Hill Education
Price: Rs 370
ISBN: 9781259097034
| Zuckerberg is able to maintain the innovation levels of a start-up: Ekaterina Walter |
| |
Why do some start-ups such as Facebook succeed while many others fail? What did Zuckerberg do right that most CEOs didn't?
Zuckerberg built a solid culture that could sustain the growth of the business and supported constant innovation. Look at the company's slogans: "Done is better than perfect" and "This journey is only 1 per cent finished." This is because Facebook employees never rest on their laurels, they 'stay focused and keep shipping'. After growing into the company with over 4,000 employees, Zuckerberg was able to maintain the innovation levels of a start-up within the company.
Having the right people on board and creating an environment in which these people thrive is essential. The fact is not every company can establish a culture that supports the mission of its business in such an effective way. But it will always remain a critical ingredient of long-term success.
The book talks about five business secrets behind the success of Facebook: Passion, Purpose, People, Product and Partnerships. Which of the 5 Ps is the most important for start-ups to be successful?
Think Like Zuck is an analogy/philosophy of a leader who follows his/her passion, leads with purpose, builds great teams, and strives for continued excellence in his/her product (or services). It is a mentality that drives great leaders to building successful business and the approach they use to doing so.
The five are not separable. You see, when one is passionate about something, one wants to imagine, to create, to build. Passion fuels purpose. And it is this purpose that defines what product/service one offers. But one can't build a successful business alone, one needs a strong team of people who believe in the same vision to help execute on that purpose (and that is where strong partnerships come in as well).