Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
What Startups Can Learn from General McChrystal about Combining Strategy and Execution First Round Capital
General Stanley McChrystal is a decorated army veteran who was retired from the army to start his own consultancy. Most executives that hire his firm probably imagine navy seals parachuting in to get their team in shape / what they actually do? Empower people to make decisions on their own. The second key insight is combining strategy and execution.
The year of the objective function Alistair Croll, Medium
Machine learning has a goal; developers call this the objective function – what the algorithm is trying to be amazing at. Alistair discusses the primary goal of AI and how humans are adapting to an ever changing world.
How to Succeed as an eCommerce Brand in an Era of Dominant Retailers? Both Sides of the Table
How do you out Amazon Amazon? That is the question Mark Suster from Upfront Ventures tries to answer. The core tenets are Brand, Quality, Curation and Community. The guidelines in the article are very pertinent for anyone looking to build a defensible ecommerce business.
Why Financial Statements Don’t Work for Digital Companies Harvard Business Review
In this HBR article, the authors attempt to explain why traditional financial statements don’t work for companies. While I agree with most of what they argue, I would add one that this is more applicable for companies with high network effects.
Culture can make or break agility McKinsey and Company
This is a short yet poignant read about cultural agility. McKinsey argues that agile transformations within an organization can be dramatically slowed down by a culture of slow escalated decisions.