Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
Strategy in Postmodern Times Strategy Bridge (reading time: 10 minutes)
Strategy is the art of reaching attainable goals with limited resources.
Strategies tend to be the result of a complicated process and can also, paradoxically, be described simply
Despite the geopolitical nature of this article, it is a great distillation of strategy and its implications for managers. The conclusion is particularly useful, a great strategist has to excel in multiple disciplines.
Overcoming the Pervasive Analytical Blunder of Strategists Roger Martin (reading time: 8 minutes)
There is no data about the future. No matter how many analyses we conduct, one thing is always true – we can’t accurately predict the future. Roger Martin brilliantly argues on data and how it can impair a strategists’ world view, he also explains the benefits of prototyping.
Building Products at Stripe Ken Norton (reading time: 13 minutes)
Stripe is undoubtedly one of the hottest technology companies in the world right now. In march, it raised a fundraising round at a $95 billion valuation. This article dives into Stripe’s product philosophy. The company also has a multi-decade vision. I love this concept because it forces leaders to act and behave on achieving long-term goals. If you want to learn more, I also enjoyed this long video of Patrick Collison talking about running his company.
How the Desmarais empire mastered the delicate art of self-disruption Financial Post (reading time: 10 minutes)
If you’re going to be disrupted by a technological innovation, you might as well do it to yourself.
You can’t accuse the Desmarais family of sitting on their laurels. They are reinventing themselves by heavily investing in technology startups in the fintech sector. Diagram, a fund launched in 2017 is just one example of the successes they’ve had in recent years. This article covers the strategy the family is employing and their generational timeline view.
Efficiency is the Enemy Farnam Street (reading time: 8 minutes)
This post is a call for more inaction in our lives. In order to achieve high performance, we need to engineer slack in our lives. Most high level executives try to maximize every minute of every day. However, sometimes the answer is to do nothing.
Bonus:
Jack Dorsey Says Bitcoin Can Make the World Greener Intelligencer (reading time: 11 minutes)
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have been making headlines recently around their energy use and potential for polluting the planet. I’ve read many articles on the subject and it is hotly debated. This is a short post explaining the situation and of course what Elon Musk thinks about it.
