Top articles of the week | August 3

August 3, 2019

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

How to be Strategic Julie Zhuo (reading time: 7 minutes)

I loved this article! It’s a simple and eloquent explanation of what exactly it means to be strategic. The author Julie Zhuo provides concrete guidelines on how managers can actually implement strategic practice in their organizations.

China’s herd of unicorns Strategy+Business (reading time: 16 minutes)

The growth of China’s tech ecosystem is undeniable. Beyond the well-known giants, there are a myriad of smaller “unicorns” that are growing quickly and planning to expand internationally. It is not purely technology startups but also automotive companies. Competition for talent and capital is fierce.

How Etsy Crafted an E-Commerce Comeback Fortune (reading time: 7 minutes)

How do you make an online marketplace get back to growth? A turnaround is a huge challenge especially in ecommerce. This article in Fortune describes how Etsy’s new leader John Silverman orchestrated a turnaround at the company. Getting a larger take rate, using technology to improve search results while nurturing the young & idealistic culture are impressive achievements.

The Fine Line Between Fear and Courage Ben Horowitz (reading time: 6 minutes)

This wonderful blog post by Ben Horowitz explains the nature of decision making for CEOs. There is a fine line between fear and courage and Ben masterfully explains how a CEO should look at difficult decisions. This is an oldie but a goodie.

Disfluency and the Methods of Strategy Tasshin (reading time: 6 minutes)

This article conveys something I’ve been thinking about for a while; there are no correct tools when it comes to deciding on strategy. The author discussed in particular the use of Wardley Maps to prove the point. Wardley Maps is a great tool that permits topographical intelligence to emerge from strategy but it’s just that, a tool.

Correct decisions are a mirage – there are no correct decisions, only choices that make good consequences more or less likely