must-reads – Dejan Murko

Book: The Manager’s Path, Camille Fournier

Review

Without a doubt one of the best books on management. A must-read if you’re in technology, even if you don’t come from a technical background (like I don’t). The tl;dr doesn’t do it justice, it’s a guidebook that should be regularly revisited. Highly recommended.

tl;dr

Have 1-on-1 meetings. Trust your team. Mentor new hires. Create a safe environment for disagreement. Managers need to make your life easier. Don’t compromise on culture fit, especially with managers. Senior leaders are dedicated first and foremost to the business and its success, and secondly to the success of their departments as a whole. Disagreements that happen in the context of the leadership team don’t exist to the wider team.

Book: The Lean Startup, Eric Ries

Review

This is a legendary startup book that somehow evaded me for a long time. I was still aware of the general ideas, however, reading it sooner would probably help me avoid a basic mistake we made in one of our latests projects. I love the concept of Validated Learning and are already working on implementing it into our processes.

Highly recommended.

tl;dr

Run experiments to learn if something is working. Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop. Build the MVP (either a product or a single feature), Measure the effect on customers, Learn if it’s value-creating or wasteful. Use cohort analysis for measurements. Always work in small batches.

Book: The Permanent Portfolio, Craig Rowland

Review

This is a modern interpretation of the book Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne. It’s the same concept but with modern examples. This is a fantastic book and an investment strategy I use myself. Highly recommended.

tl;dr

25 percent each: stocks, bonds, gold, cash (short-term bonds)
The Permanent Portfolio

The Permanent Portfolio is a strategy to embrace uncertainty in the markets. The main goal is to prevent major losses. Surprisingly, backtests also show that over the long-term PP also beats highly volatile stock-only portfolios. Rebalance once a year or when an asset reaches 15% or 35%. Keep some assets outside the country in which you live.

Book: Maverick!, Ricardo Semler

Review

If you’re not an entrepreneur for the ego-trip of being “the boss”, then this is one of the best books you can read. It emphasizes empowering your team, giving them more information, responsibility, power to make decisions, profit sharing, … In Semco’s case, the results speak for themselves. The Brazilian conglomerate has been one of the best to work for in the country for decades and it has survived through turbulent times in 90’s Brazil. The author credits a lot of the success to the methods described in the book.

At our company, we already had a lot of these elements, however the book gives a good guide on how to go even further.

Absolute must-read.

tl;dr

Workers are responsible adults outside the job, regard them as such on the job. Empower workers, give them autonomy to do the job. Open books, full information – everyone should know where the company stands. Flexible work hours. Minimize documents. Managers vote on each others proposals. Manager evaluations by subordinates.

A company should trust its destiny to its employees.

Book: Positioning, Al Ries and Jack Trout

Review

The first edition of this book was published in 1987, but the lessons are as important today as they were 30 years ago. If you can get through the outdated examples, this book gives fantastic advice on how to position a product in an overcrowded market. Highly recommended.

tl;dr

Positioning the product in the mind of the prospect. Not creating something new and different but manipulating what is already there to retie connections that already exist. Do not try to change the mind of the prospect. Oversimplify your message. Select a position that no one else has a firm grip on. Consistency – keep at it year after year. Name should begin the positioning process by telling the prospect what the product’s major benefit is. Avoid initials. Do not use an existing name for really new products. Keep in mind the line-extension trap.

The first rule of positioning is: To win the battle for the mind, you can’t compete head-on against a company that has a strong, established position. You can go around, under or over, but never head to head.