Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
The Twilight of Combustion Comes for Germany’s Empire of Engines Bloomberg (reading time: 12 minutes)
We are on the path to the post-combustion engine era. The birthplace of modern combustion resides within Germany and with its famous car brands. This piece in Bloomberg highlights the painful transition automakers will go through during this shift. The potential consequences on employment, manufacturing and demand are only beginning to be felt. If you aren’t satiated with this piece, here’s another great article on the Chinese automaker BYD; the largest EV manufacturer globally.
SurveyMonkey’s CEO on Creating a Culture of Curiosity Harvard Business Review (reading time: 12 minutes)
This is a story that you wouldn’t expect to read in HBR. Dave Goldberg, founded and ran SurveyMonkey but suddenly and tragically passed away at 47. His successor Zander Lurie recounts the story in open and candid fashion. It is a tale of culture, curiosity, grief and leadership. #mustread
The case for Agile Strategy PNR Insights (reading time: 5 minutes)
I wrote a post sharing our philosophy around agile strategy. Strategy exercises can be ethereal. We believe by linking design and execution, strategy can be much more effective. The benefits being increased transparency, velocity and alignment.
Making Uncommon Knowledge Common Kevin Kwok, Greylock Partners (reading time: 14 minutes)
Richard Barton is not a household name. Yet, he founded some of the most iconic internet brands: Zillow, Glassdoor, and Expedia. This excellent piece outlines the playbook and strategy employed. Data Content Loops are used to disintermediate incumbents and dominate search. Using this traction, he subsequently owned demand in these industries.
The Exclusive Inside Story Of The New Billionaire Behind Tech’s Hottest IPO Forbes (reading time: 17 minutes)
From the recent crop of tech IPOs, Zoom stands out as the one with some amazing financials. With annual revenue of $331 million, up 118%, Zoom was the ultra-rare tech unicorn to make its IPO debut with a profit, boasting 50,000 corporate customers, including Samsung, Uber, Walmart and Capital One This bio of Zoom’s founder and CEO Eric Yuan is immensely fascinating. Eric grew up in China and moved to the US during the dotcom boom. After working for Cisco and leading the Webex team, he left on an entrepreneurial journey to launch Zoom. How does he compete in a massively intense field? He simply built a better product.
