I don't know how many of you on WSO are young, free-wheelin' entrepreneurs/managers trying to change the world with the next big idea -- or whether you're all just lame CFA candidates waiting for those Level III rejections, but for those with even a slight interest in the life and culture of the former, I just read an interview with Aaron Levie, 25-year-old co-founder and CEO of Box.net -- a Silicon Valley darling and Cloud Computing company that has raised about 15 million in VC funding ...
It's really refreshing to hear what a young guy who's running a successful business that he started in college with his friend (a la Facebook, but without the snotty autism of Zuckerberg) has to say about what he holds to be most important when running a small business and what kind of culture he thinks is necessary to create in order to be successful.
Take this quote, for example. When asked what kind of culture he's trying to create at his company, he said, "[At my company, employees] are able to question each other about strategies, whether they’re in marketing, engineering or product.
We try to keep it fairly low on hierarchy. Everyone is encouraged to be entrepreneurial and people tend to be extremely passionate, but it’s not about taking credit or being arrogant about what we’re doing ...
We’ve been able to do away with just a lot of the corporate kind of things that I think slow down organizations and don’t result in productive behavior, and instead we’ve been able to get a lot of people focused on really having a good time, which helps us stay fast and innovative. And I think that ultimately is the only reason that people even want to go to work or want to stay in business — to have a good time while collaborating to accomplish a big vision."
To me, it seems that this last part -- the primacy of collaboration and prioritizing the creation of an enjoyable workspace ... all in the name of nurturing a BIG vision -- is getting lost in today's corporate world. Precisely at an economic time when it seems most important.
When asked what he's learned about leadership from being a CEO, Levie said, "As much as I would love to be involved in every single decision that gets made in the organization, not only is that not scalable, it’s also not leveraging or capitalizing on the amazing experience of the people that we have on the team. It’s really hard to let the details go. Every sort of decision is really interesting. So you come up with a big goal, and hopefully everyone comes together to figure out how to accomplish it ...
I’ve made some mistakes in terms of getting involved at the wrong level of the problem or the wrong time. I’ll think I’m speeding things up by saying, 'Oh, let’s just solve it that way,' but then it turns out I’m slowing things down because I’m breaking a healthy system that’s emerging."
What do you guys think? Do you like the cut of this guy's jib ... Do you think he's on the right track when talking about what does it take to be successful as a young entrepreneur?
Eh. Entrepreneuring.
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With his comments regarding culture, I think it makes sense for an innovative IT environment, but not for somebody working in a mature industry such as insurance or something. I think a company can only maintain a utopia culture while things going very well.... Once a company's growth normalizes, then owners will start thinking about ways to squeeze out more profit - and I doubt there will be less emphasis on employees "having a good time" by then.
i dunno, hasnt google's growth normalized yet? look at their environment.
I tend to agree with you, blong. I think that -- if anything -- it's these goddamn stodgy, petrified industries LIKE insurance that could benefit HUGELY from taking a page out of Levie's book. Sure, his approach -- if ported directly and without any creativity -- probably won't work at huge, mature shops, but I think there are elements of his approach that can be used anywhere. But, then again, maybe this kind of psychology is only workable for the under 30 working at companies employing under 100 ppl...
Very interesting article, I like Aaron's perspective and he seems very mature for a 25 yr old.
thats awesome. kind of wish i didn't hate computers, i could be wearing flip flops to work.
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