Curt Doolittle

Source: Facebook

  • OVER-INVESTING IN FUTURE EXECUTIVES WHILE CONSTRAINING CURRENT MANAGEMENT COSTS.

    OVER-INVESTING IN FUTURE EXECUTIVES WHILE CONSTRAINING CURRENT MANAGEMENT COSTS.

    I have usually over invested in management talent and it shows in the profits on one hand and in growth rates on the other. I only build growth companies.

    It takes a few years to train someone well enough to operate successfully. And if you want growth you need talent.

    This is why my criticisms of middle management don’t seem right.

    But I don’t hire middle managers. I hire future executives in training and I rotate them all over the company.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-12 14:41:00 UTC

  • EMPIRICAL CEO ADVICE 3: People’s stress is not a reason to make a decision. Much

    EMPIRICAL CEO ADVICE 3:

    People’s stress is not a reason to make a decision. Much to the distress of my management teams I am perfectly happy postponing tactical decisions until the information is in, and sometimes until it cannot be delayed.

    This might sound counter to conventional wisdom but my particular skill is the long horizon I have no problem making strategic decisions – early. Because that is where I spend nearly all of my efforts.

    But I have good reasons for delaying a lot of other decisions.

    Why? People use early decisions as cheap means of experimentation that exchanges lower effort for offloading risk onto the business. I force them to collect information through research and to continue producing until change in production is necessary. Most middle management bloat and job justification is the result of playing at experimentation rather than self education by research. People are lazy in all walks of life. Progressives spend resources others earned send so does middle management. It’s the c level and the labor that pinches pennies.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-12 13:55:00 UTC

  • EMPIRICAL CEO ADVICE 2: Never regret doing your best if you exhausted all possib

    EMPIRICAL CEO ADVICE 2:

    Never regret doing your best if you exhausted all possible sources of information. Most of the time, the worst that happens is you learn something. But if you do not exhaust all sources of information, and you ask people to trust your judgement then the worst does happen: people lose trust in you. The best way to preserve your trust is to involve others in the decision process and to exhaust all possible sources of information. If you fail, the group will preserve their trust in you – if only because they shared in trying to solve the problem. Most of the time if you try to take a discount on risk and effort it is by not exhausting all sources of information. There are no discounts on diligence.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-12 13:41:00 UTC

  • EMPIRICAL CEO ADVICE 1: Don’t do anything yourself that provides a learning oppo

    EMPIRICAL CEO ADVICE 1:

    Don’t do anything yourself that provides a learning opportunity for the people who work for you unless it presents intolerable or unsurvivable risk. It is a wasted opportunity cost for you and deprives them and the business of the the increase in knowledge capital. If it does present intolerable and unsurvivable risk, then you failed already and you must take the responsibility for either the success or the fall. )

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-12 11:26:00 UTC

  • (Oversing update. Looks like thanks to Kirill I will finish the skills system to

    (Oversing update. Looks like thanks to Kirill I will finish the skills system tonight with the soft skills, tech, creative, marketing skills. I may “fiddle” with the questions a bit. But it’s there.)

    (Every new industry we add requires we add the relevant skills.

    Unfortunately the published lists reinforce the industrial postwar bureaucratic nonsense. So we can’t use them. )

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-12 11:09:00 UTC

  • First Snow in Ukraine. Makes me want to hibernate like a bear and sleep all day

    First Snow in Ukraine. Makes me want to hibernate like a bear and sleep all day.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-12 02:09:00 UTC

  • Now what? Sigh

    Now what? Sigh.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-11 22:38:00 UTC

  • Always greet children with a smile of approval. Always make time for joys, serio

    Always greet children with a smile of approval. Always make time for joys, serious questions and consolation. I cannot entertain children. But protection, consolation, counsel and applause are sufficient provision for men.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-11 12:58:00 UTC

  • Not all bubbles burst – some merely deflate over years, decades or centuries

    Not all bubbles burst – some merely deflate over years, decades or centuries.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-11 11:31:00 UTC

  • Curt Doolittle shared a post

    Curt Doolittle shared a post.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-11 10:24:00 UTC