Steve Blank, who teaches at Stanford, Berkeley and Columbia, writes about why some startups win - clearly defined missions. He writes about his experience creating a departmental mission statement to guide his team so they knew, “why they came to work, what they needed to do while they were at work, and how they would know they had succeeded.” | learn more
Imagine if you and your brother worked together. Then imagine if you worked together in the government. Keep going - one of you is Secretary of State and the other is Director of the CIA. That’s the Dulles brothers. Together, they overthrew governments, ran secret paramilitary campaigns, and influenced the lives of millions of people around the world - not always for the better. (View on Amazon)
“Some of history’s most famous people from Charles Darwin and Bill Gates to Winston Churchill, took rest very seriously. Rather than prevent them from accomplishing things this was the very thing that enabled them.” | learn more
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner writes about his practice of scheduling 90 minutes to 2 hours of empty space in his calendar daily. “Use that buffer time to think big, catch up on the latest industry news, get out from under that pile of unread emails, or just take a walk.” | learn more
Many of us struggle to balance a significant number of priorities. President Eisenhower used this approach to figure out what to work on first. | lean more
What do brands like Adidas, Uniqlo, and Ministry of Supply see in their crystal balls? While 3D printing is still stuck making products that feel like plastic, 3D knitting can create custom textiles on-demand. Uniqlo has a line of 3D knitted clothing already available. Ministry of Supply has a machine in their Boston flagship store that creates a custom jacket in 90 minutes. | learn more
Consider the legacy model of apparel: Months-long design followed by manufacturing to build up inventory, topped off with a markdown cadence at at the end of the cycle. Repeat seasonally. Much about retail apparel has started to change… consider Zara and H&M’s fast fashion success, Rent the Runway pushing clothing ownership toward obsolescence, and Bonobos redefining the retail experience. What’s an apparel executive to do? |learn more
It’s fairly obvious by now that the food industry is undergoing a radical shift from decades past. Before too long, we’ll see the grocery and restaurant businesses upended. This profile of the leading meal kit company highlights their spectacular growth and the serious operational challenges they’ve faced along the way. From its founding in late 2012, they now have a round-the-clock operation with over 4,500 employees. | lean more
Daniel Patterson, a famed San Francisco chef restaurateur with 2 Michelin stars, partnered with Roy Choi, the LA “King of Food Trucks”, to try and bring a fast food brand to the under-served neighborhoods of big cities. They started in Watts, a place where the only two sit-down restaurants are Subway and Popeyes. The story of their setbacks and perseverance building Locol is really interesting. | learn more
“The only Finnish word to make it into everyday English is sauna. But what it is, and how much it means to Finns, is often misunderstood - and it’s definitely not about flirtation or sex.” | learn more