Gradually And Then Suddenly

In Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises you will find a dialog between two characters which goes like this:

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

The Bear is Sticky With Honey

In the last season of HBO’s hit-show “Silicon Valley” is a scene where Gavin Belson, CEO of Hooli (the Google-caricature in the series), grabs one of those bear-shaped honey bottles which are somewhat ubiquitous here in the US, pours himself some honey for his tea, puts the…

Thank God it’s Friday

One of the most impressive things Google, as a company, does internally pretty much since day one of their existence is TGIF (which stands for “Thank God it’s Friday”). TGIF is a weekly all-hands (back in the day on Fridays, today on a Thursday to accommodate Googlers in all parts of the…

There Is Always 2 Percent Truth in Everything

A while ago an executive coach and friend of mine shared some invaluable insight with me (dare I say she gave me “feedback”?). It goes like this:

(1) When someone gives you feedback — it is just someone’s opinion. It is not…

How Much Time Do You Spend in the Future?

By now we have all understood how insanely different the future (likely) will be from the present. Change is being driven at an ever increasing pace, digitally native companies becoming humongous and global only a few months after their conception, markets…

Organizations in a VUCA World

Most of today’s organizations were built after models developed decades, if not hundreds of years ago. That was all well and fine when we lived in a world which was mostly stable and somewhat slow moving. However, that is just not true anymore.

The Fallacy of Choice

Most people look at a decision with multiple options as a choice driven by the innocent two-letter word “or” — either we build product A OR product B; we pursue venture funding OR stay independent; I can have a life OR build a startup. And much has been said and written about the power of…