I just listened to a great interview on Venturevoice.com Technorati’s CEO David Sifry. His views on corporate culture and teamwork mirror my own and remind me of BlackRock’s culture. I would love to join for a start up with a culture and leader such as this and would like to interview David myself as there is some things he said that are really worth exploring more deeply. Here is a summary of some of his quotes and philosophies, I really enjoyed listening to him as it reminded me there are organizations out there with truly outstanding cultures:
Be of service (to others)
You have to make profit, but we need to be here on this planet for more than that.
Profit is an effect, not a cause.
The blogosphere is always smarter than me and my team!
I’m going to try to fail as quickly as possible so that we can learn from our mistakes and never make the same mistakes twice. (He also talks about a few of those mistakes)
One of the most important things I do is chose what not to do.
If we don’t execute, it doesn’t matter.
Back when I was a CTO(previous companies before he was CEO), I used to actually think that building a technology company was all about the technology. I mean I know, funny huh? I used to actually think it was about the technology being in the technology business. What I’ve learned as CEO is in fact totally secondary! In fact, it’s a far second. Far more important than the technology is the team that you build!
Five Corporate Values above the “mantra of service”
Honesty
Integrity
Transparency
Openness
Frugality
Understanding David Sifry’s views makes you clearly see the reasons for Technorati’s success. There are great lessons here for anyone starting a business. I’m really glad I got to know him better and hope to learn more from him soon, his views on both teams and corporate culture are so much like my own.
As I’ve studied search engine companies like Yahoo!, Google and MSN as well as top agencies, I’ve become fascinated with the role culture plays in these high growth organizations. What other CEO’s, venture capital and other leaders do you admire and who should I be talking to and learning about? Please drop me a note and let me know.
Why thank you, that’s very kind of you to say. In the end though, we haven’t begun to prove ourselves against the other companies that you list above – those are some truly remarkable comapnies with excellent successful track records, and I don’t think we belong in that list just yet…
Dave
David,
The reason you are successful is because of your team focus and the humble nature you have just displayed.
Talk to you soon.