The Hard Thing about Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz, is a wonderful and powerful management book written by someone who has experienced both the pain, suffering and struggle of a founding CEO of a growing company and the exhilaration of the big sale and cash out.
This book isn't intended to be a polished analysis of the 10 steps on how to be a great CEO, it's a gritty, rough expose' on the hard and not often talked about parts of being a CEO. Horowitz shares lessons learned on issues that any CEO will face as the company grows (and the problems grow with it).
A few take-aways that I liked:
- There is no silver bullet, only a pocket full of lead bullets. That's what you have to work with to solve big problems.
- Management debt. I know of the concept of technology debt but have never known of management debt until reading this book. The idea that management decisions made to overcome pain the short term will cost you (plus interest) in the future. So make the hard decision now.
- This isn't checkers, it's 3D chess. The multitude of variables and unknowns in an organization that you are trying to run make good decisions on requires you think multidimensionally and with intertwined assumptions about the future. It's not for the faint of heart.
- On boarding and training. Startups of enterprise software companies do a poor job of on boarding and training employees, EVS is no exception. The argument made in the book made me realize it's importance. So now, EVS is on a mission to be great at it.
- War-time vs Peace-Time CEO. I love this concept. In peace time a CEO spends time building a corporate culture, expanding the market, and works for broad-based buy-in. A War-time CEO let's the war define the culture, aims to win the market and neither indulges consensus building nor tolerates disagreements. There is a time for both as a CEO. Most management books are written from the peace-time season, but I believe most of the lives of start-up CEOs are in war-time.
I have to admit, since reading this book, I've dropped more F*bombs than I have in the past 10 years. Sometimes, in war, I find that's what it takes to make a point...and to have it properly understood.
One point that I would make to the author is about his use of pronouns and examples. Nearly all of his pronouns of theoretical CEO's and employees are feminine - which is fine. Except all of his examples of real-life CEOs and high-level employees are male. For the reason that he would use feminine pronouns is the reason that he should use real female examples. Without it, makes for a disconnected argument.
In general, this was a truly inspiring and instructional book that has already influenced the way I view and act in my role. I'll leave this review with my favorite line of the book: "What makes a good CEO? They don't quit." Bravo!