Hey Everyone,
Hope you're having a great week. Here are a few things I've been reading, writing and pondering lately. Enjoy!
1. The WeWork Meltdown
I can’t get enough. This story is just so bizarre. Here are a few great reads on it:
- At What Point Does Malfeasance Become Fraud?’: NYU Biz-School Professor Scott Galloway on WeWork - “It’s hard to believe that the prom queen is addicted to diet pills and a heroin addict. The fall from grace here has been so dramatic and yet so f*cking obvious.”
- How Adam Neumann’s Over-the-Top Style Built WeWork. ‘This Is Not the Way Everybody Behaves.’ - “Mr. Neumann muses about the implausible: becoming leader of the world, living forever, amassing more than $1 trillion in wealth. Partying has long been a feature of his work life, heavy on the tequila.”
- The Sun Sets on We - “The S-1 detailed the extent to which Neumann controlled his company, and had benefited personally from his position: he had bought buildings in which WeWork then took out leases, and received $5.9 million in exchange for selling a set of We-related trademarks to his own company.”
2. What Do Executives Do, Anyway?
S/o to my coworker Haley Bryant for sharing this.
...The job of an executive is: to define and enforce culture and values for their whole organization, and to ratify good decisions.
That's all.
Not to decide. Not to break ties. Not to set strategy. Not to be the expert on every, or any topic. Just to sit in the room while the right people make good decisions in alignment with their values. And if they do, to endorse it. And if they don't, to send them back to try again.
3. The Wisdom of Peter Drucker from A to Z
There’s a bunch of good stuff in here. I’m reading my first Drucker book now (The Effective Executive) and will report back when I’m finished.
Encountering Drucker for the first time, readers may dismiss as obvious his observations on subjects like motivating workers and encouraging innovation. But such observations were far from obvious when Drucker first made them; and if they seem so now it is because his wisdom and clarity compelled so many companies to act as he advised.
4. Tweet of the Week
5. Random Links
- This is apparently a real problem: “The number of restaurants is growing at about twice the rate of the population.”
- Farhad Manjoo is a great writer: Open Offices Are a Capitalist Dead End
- Song of the week: Greenhouse by The Bros. Landreth
- This is crazy: 3D printers are now being used to solve crimes
Have a great weekend!
Jimmy
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