Top articles of the week | April 17

April 18, 2021

Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!

CEO Interview: CDPQ invests in climate action McKinsey (reading time: 9 minutes)

This is a great interview of CPDQ CEO, Charles Émond. He explains CDPQ’s vision on ESG investing and in particular climate change. He also gives some great advice to CEOs. The train is only accelerating. He didn’t say get on or get out, but I think he could have!

World Building Alex Danco (reading time: 9 minutes)

In his latest and fascinating article, Alex Danco brings forth the concept of world building. Working at a company isn’t only about selling your peers, it’s also about building a coherent world. That means including a clear purpose, currency and trade among other items. It’s a revealing read about how we perceive each other within an organization and the steps a leader can take to build a better world for their team.

The Crypto Social Network is Here. Meet BitClout. Jake Udell (reading time: 7 minutes)

There is so much interesting innovation occurring in the crypto space and I’m not talking about Dogecoin. For instance, the company behind NBA Top Shot and the recent NFT craze just got valued at $7.5 billion dollars. A new trend I’ve been following is the emergence of crypto social. A company leaping into this space is called Bitclout. Think of it as investing into creators on social media. It’s still super early obviously in this space but so fascinating to think about the possibilities.

It’s Time to Toss SWOT Analysis into the Ashbin of Strategy History Roger Martin (reading time: 8 minutes)

Our team often pokes fun at the good old SWOT analysis. I believe that it has lost its relevance in today’s corporate world and Roger Martin agrees. He points out the flaws in conducting a SWOT as a standalone exercise. He provides alternatives on how to become a strategy practitioner.

Playing Different Games The Valley of Dunning-Kruger (reading time: 26 minutes)

We are seeing the emergence of a new velocity-focused strategy in the venture/growth asset class that will fundamentally change the way that venture capital is raised. By breaking many long-held but outdated rules & norms of venture/growth investing,

My guess is that every VC read this article in the past week. It has made the rounds on twitter. It’s a great read on how Tiger Global is simply playing by different rules than venture capitalists. It’s based on two important factors, velocity and low touch involvement.

Bonus:

2020 Amazon Letter to Shareholders Jeff Bezos (reading time: 15 minutes)

This is the last letter to shareholders from outgoing CEO Jeff Bezos who is moving to Chairman. It’s well written and hits many key points. The point that I found the most interesting is the notion of value capture. As a business, you need to generate more value than you create. He does a great job of explaining the concept and proving that value that Amazon is providing to its stakeholders.