1/ "When Motorola visited us, prepared to make a presentation with an elaborate slide show, Craig McCAw said, “Put away the slides and just discuss your proposal,” completely unsettling them and, not incidentally, seizing the upper hand."
2/ "After a meeting at AT&T’s Bell Labs in New Jersey, Craig McCaw led us on an unplanned tour around the building, barging into laboratories and asking scientists to explain the projects they were working on. AT&T executives trailed behind, not knowing what to do."
Classic!
3/ "Craig had an irreverent management style. At banquets, he was prone to lobbing dinner rolls. In the office, he might suddenly launch a squirt-gun attack. Many of us kept our own, loaded and ready behind our desks to fight back."
True! Also: Nerf gun attacks/counterattacks.
4/ One reason I'm tweeting about Tom Alberg's new book is that I suspect he won't, His effectiveness as a business leader is in no small part because he isn't a self- promoter. Books have their own need for a flywheel tho and so I'm giving the book a push. books.google.com/books/about/Fl…
5/ You want a free preview of this new book? You want proof? If you insist, read this which is just a teaser: books.google.com/books/about/Fl…
Did you know that in 1999 Amazon had a "get-the-crap-out" strategy?
Tom tells stories about Amazon and McCaw never told in this detail before.
6/ Tom writes: "I moved out of my office and in with Bill Gates’s investment group, BGI. The office was close to Craig’s [and Tren's] in the same Carillon Point development in Kirkland. " They will fix this [ ] in the next printing probably! 😉
Tom made the seed decision there.
7/ John Stanton: "The book describes two flywheels: a business growth flywheel that has worked miracles; and a second system that Tom describes as a livability flywheel."
Both flywheels are examples of feedback, which can be positive or negative. You can impact the outcome.
8/ That a flywheel approach to community development can be similar in nature to flywheels people use to build a business isn't obvious to everyone.
The core principle is a version of the Matthew Effect. Success leads to more success and failure to more failure. Tom's view:
9/ Robert K. Merton first used the term Matthew Effect in 1968 in reference to a biblical verse.
The publisher of Lynne Truss’s surprise best seller, “Eats, Shoots & Leaves,” who, when asked to explain its success, replied that “it sold well because lots of people bought it.”
10/ Did I mention that you can read a story about the earliest days of Amazon for free? Oh, I guess I did.
Well then, to sell a book about the importance of Flywheels in business and community development you need to start a flywheel. That's a freemium bootstrap in this case.
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1/ Would chips have been in short supply right now even without pandemic?
Software is eating the chips!
"In the second quarter of 2021, the latest for which data are available, the semiconductor industry sold more chips than at any point in history." wsj.com/articles/manuf…
2/ Chip manufacturing capacity must catch up with demand that is accelerating in order for the supply shortage to be reduced.
Part of the solution will inevitably be product redesign that relies less on cheap older chips (eg, 28 nanometer level) and better software solutions.
3/ I think I've been in the top one percent of understanding the power of software, and all my life I've underestimated it. Never a year passes that I don't get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther.
1/ The birth of a commercial Internet in 1993,coincided with the start of what I call my "miracle year." In his new book Tom Alberg tells the story of Jeff Bezos convincing him to invest in the Amazon seed round. It's a great story. I was in the building. amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B095DX…
2/ When Bezos first met with Alberg McCaw Cellular's sale to AT&T was in process. Tom's office was upstairs and I was on the first floor. Tom was on the board of our startup at the time. When Jeff and Tom met them second time we were both in a new building where Craig had moved.
3/ Tom Alberg tells the story of Jeff Bezos working hard to raise Amazon's $1M seed round at a level of detail I've never seen or heard before. Tom describes Jeff's projections and his rationale for investing. I love great stories, but this one is special.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-on-…
The global chip supply set of issues is multiple complex adaptive systems interacting (AKA a lollapalooza). Solutions for some firms include product redesign.
"As of October, times for chip deliveries have ballooned to 22 weeks. It is longer for the scarcest parts: 25 weeks for power-management components and 38 weeks for the microcontrollers the auto industry needs."
Both uncertainty and unknown unknowns are present. Complexity.
"Some buyers trying to place new orders are getting delivery dates in 2024... The smartphone industry will grow by just 6% year-over-year, or half the initial forecast from earlier this year, because of chip woes, according to Counterpoint Research."
1/ "In the second quarter, McDonald's said its prices were up by 6% compared to 2020. In the latest earnings call, executives confirmed they anticipate the increase to stay at that level for the rest of the year." eatthis.com/news-mcdonalds…
2/"Employee wages at McDonald's have been steadily increasing this year, with a total increase of about 10% so far in 2021. At company-owned stores, wages are up a 15%."
3/ "Costco has raised its minimum U.S. wage to $17 an hour, and Starbucks will raise its starting pay to $15 an hour. As of August, retailers had 1.2 million unfilled jobs, while restaurants and hotels had 1.5 million." npr.org/2021/10/28/104…