Two decades after Jim Collins’ business bestseller was published, what lessons does it really hold? — “I’m a Level 5 leader.” It’s a phrase I hear frequently from CEOs and senior executives, each assuming familiarity with Jim Collins’ Good to Great. It’s a safe bet; with sales of over four million copies, Collins’ 2001 work is one of the most widely read business books of the…

In a dark moment, some predict a new economic and cultural boom. Here’s the reality — In recent years, leading economists, investors, and journalists have painted a decidedly grim vision of our near future: The U.S. economic system and society itself are coming apart, these dystopian voices have said, beset by one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history, including a pandemic, a jobs apocalypse…

We’re entering the desert. Which would you rather be? — Even before the coronavirus shocked markets, the sheen was starting to fade from Silicon Valley’s obsession with finding, funding, and building the next unicorn — the valley’s nickname for startups valued at over a billion dollars. The collapse of companies with runaway valuations like WeWork and Brandless exposed flaws with…

Like most first-movers, it’s now facing rising competition for a flat market — Shareholders expected Netflix to hit subscriber growth of 2.7 million in Q1 of 2022. So, when the company announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers — the first decline in paid users since late 2011 — and warned of further problems ahead, the feeling in the room must have been…

Why the Stripe-backed checkout startup failed, and what we can learn from it — Failure is a great teacher. Fast, a high profile one-click checkout startup backed by Stripe, went belly up on April 5th. The company’s failure offers lessons for investors and operators. Fast 101: Passwords Don’t Scale Stripped to the chassis, business is basic arithmetic: cash in versus cash out. At some point, the former needs to…

Catching a falling knife can hurt like hell — Elon Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter will likely fail. He doesn’t have the money lined up. The company’s board is wary of selling. Its stock hasn’t budged despite his premium offer. And he’s already discussing Plan B. Anything can happen with Musk involved, but a failed deal’s aftermath could be…