Guy up for the week
by Miki Saxon
I thought you might be up for some fun today and one of the most fun things I do is read is Guy Kawasaki. This weekend I ran into two interesting bits, an interview and a column in Always On.
The interview brought something forward that I think is very important, especially given the current economic times.
When talking about his new book, Reality Check, and who makes the best venture capitalist, Guy downgrades MBAs and those who haven’t had operating roles, saying
“Consulting, investment banking and accounting do not provide you with “on the firing line” experience. You’re always the “outside expert” who zooms in, interviews a few people, creates a PowerPoint presentation and then tells people what they should do.
Unfortunately, analysis and ideas are easy. Implementation is hard. A consultant can tell you to reduce your work force by 10 percent, but figuring out who to lay off and looking people in the eyes when you do it is much harder.”
No kidding. A lot harder.
This is important advice for regular business folks in companies of all sizes, not just entrepreneurs, to keep in mind when looking for help in solving difficult situations. In fact, pretty much everything Guy says can be applied with minimum tweaking to any size company, so read the interview and reap the value.
Guy also says that entrepreneurs, like ‘leaders’, aren’t recognizable up front and that the real proof is in the results.
Now for the fun.
Guy considers it “irrational to base one’s mood on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). After all, (a) what does that have to do with the real world? And (b) it reflects the buying (and selling) decisions of the same investment bankers who got us into this mess.”
So he created a more rational way to measure the health of the economy. Here are three of the 11 measures that make up the GIA (Guy’s Index of Absurdity).
- Venture capitalists attend board meetings via WebEx rather than Gulfstream.
- Pierre Omidyar [eBay founder] starts selling stuff on eBay.
- Men can speak at Blogher as long as they pay for the time slot.
Enjoy; reading Guy is a great way to start the week.
Your comments—priceless
October 27th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Thanks for the link to a really interesting interview – quite contrarian but utterly convincing. My favorite part were the two golden rules of pitching. These are lessons that all managers and executives should take on board.
1. Be able to explain your idea in just 30 seconds.
2. Use just 10 PowerPoint slides in 20 seconds with a font size no smaller than 30.
I’m sure we have all been to plenty of pitches where these rules have not been followed and when they aren’t, people stop listening.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Hi Simon, my pleasure. I love turning people on to Guy. It’s not that what he says is always different, but the way he says it sticks and is remembered—like the golden rules of pitching.
Guy understands better than most that laughter acts like rain on hard ground, softening it so the information has a chance to sink in and grow.
He also understands that less is more and keeps his verbiage short and sweet. Try his books, I bet you’ll like them.
And thank you for visiting and adding to the conversation.
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
[…] Guy Kawasaki talks about the difficulty of implementation and other thoughts on entrepreneurship in an article from the New York Times – read it here. (Thanks to the folks at Leadership Turn for the original post.) […]