Marissa Mayer

Le type de CEO qui entre dans le détail.

One Yahoo executive told me that before Mayer arrived, “what was missing was leadership from the very top, which was able to cut to the chase and get some tough decisions made, get focused in the right places, get the sense of urgency, and also somebody who could really be the chief quality control leader of the company.”

La réalité dépasse la fiction

Putin dans les pages éditoriales du NY Times.
On se croirait dans un épisode de The West Wing ou The Newsroom.

Écrire et lire des phrases et des paragraphes

La puissance de l'écriture structurée et de la lecture attentive.

Jeff Bezos likes to read. That's a dog-bites-man revelation if ever there was one, considering that Bezos is the cerebral founder and chief executive of a $100 billion empire built on books. More revealing is that the Amazon CEO's fondness for the written word drives one of his primary, and peculiar, tools for managing his company: Meetings of his "S-team" of senior executives begin with participants quietly absorbing the written word. Specifically, before any discussion begins, members of the team -- including Bezos -- consume six-page printed memos in total silence for as long as 30 minutes. (Yes, the e-ink purveyor prefers paper. Ironic, no?) They scribble notes in the margins while the authors of the memos wait for Bezos and his minions to finish reading.
Amazon executives call these documents "narratives," and even Bezos realizes that for the uninitiated -- and fans of the PowerPoint presentation -- the process is a bit odd. "For new employees, it's a strange initial experience," he tells Fortune. "They're just not accustomed to sitting silently in a room and doing study hall with a bunch of executives." Bezos says the act of communal reading guarantees the group's undivided attention. Writing a memo is an even more important skill to master. "Full sentences are harder to write," he says. "They have verbs. The paragraphs have topic sentences. There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking."

(via Fortune)

À quand un centre de données à la Baie James ?

http://allthingsd.com/20110912/for-data-center-google-goes-for-the-cold/

L'innovation par Clayton Christensen

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1112/137.html

Le patron parfait selon Google

But Mr. Bock’s group found that technical expertise — the ability, say, to write computer code in your sleep — ranked dead last among Google’s big eight. What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers. (via NYTimes)

Connecting the dots

Lean and Six Sigma do not always have to be 'in the box', and simply about cost savings and operational excellence. Really thinking through what adds customer value is the key to innovation (via Frank Buytendijk)

Simplicity beats complexity

Sitting across the table from Steve was Lee Clow, past and current leader of Apple’s agency. Lee crumpled up 4-5 pieces of paper and tossed one to Steve. “This is a good ad,” said Lee, as Steve easily caught it.
Then, all at once, Lee tossed the remaining pile of crumpled balls of paper to Steve and he caught none of them. “That’s a bad ad,” said Lee. (via The Observatory)

L'intangible

Comparaison entre le studio imaginé par Jimi Hendrix et l'utilisation d'un mac.

Gérer la complexité

Previously, CEOs have consistently identified change as their most pressing challenge. Today, CEOs are telling us that the complexity of operating in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world is their primary challenge. And, a surprising number of them told us that they feel ill-equipped to succeed in this drastically different world. (via IBM Global CEO Study)