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/ Business Strategy
Book marked as finished reading
What You Do Is Who You Are
2019, 304 pages
Ben Horowitz, a leading venture capitalist, modern management expert, and New York Times bestselling author, combines lessons both from history and modern organisational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help executives build cultures that can weather both good and bad times. Ben Horowitz has long been fascinated by history, and particularly by how people behave differently than you'd expect. The time and circumstances in which they were raised often shapes them - yet a few leaders have managed to shape their times. In What You Do Is Who You Are, he turns his attention to a question crucial to every organisation: how do you create and sustain the culture you want?What You Do Is Who You Are explains how to make your culture purposeful by spotlighting four models of leadership and culture-building - the leader of the only successful slave revolt, Haiti's Toussaint Louverture; the Samurai, who ruled Japan for seven hundred years and shaped modern Japanese culture; Genghis Khan, who built the world's largest empire; and Shaka Senghor, an American ex-con who created the most formidable prison gang in the yard and ultimately transformed prison culture. Horowitz connects these leadership examples to modern case-studies, including how Louverture's cultural techniques were applied (or should have been) by Reed Hastings at Netflix, Travis Kalanick at Uber, and Hillary Clinton, and how Genghis Khan's vision of cultural inclusiveness has parallels in the work of Don Thompson, the first African-American CEO of McDonalds, and of Maggie Wilderotter, the CEO who led Frontier Communications. Horowitz then offers guidance to help any company understand its own strategy and build a successful culture.What You Do Is Who You Are is a journey through culture, from ancient to modern. Along the way, it answers a question fundamental to any organisation: who are we?
My Notes
Overview
Ben Horowitz, a leading venture capitalist, modern management expert, and New York Times bestselling author, combines lessons both from history and from modern organizational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help executives build cultures that can weather both good and bad times.
Key Takeaways
I'm not a historian so I can't say for sure that the parallels that Ben Horowitz draws between historical figures and his overarching viewpoints on culture are 100% accurate. Understanding that it doesn't really matter as some examples may be "dramatized for effect." I loved the enthusiasm and engaging stories that in effect counter many of today's stale business books that fade from memory due to stale overused ideas.
Relevance
One point that really rang true on a personal note in chapter nine is how to deal with "Profits of Rage." Someone in your organization is 100% committed to success and is a true profit for the orgs mission. If anyone internally gets in their way, they can "rage." The second point he drives home over and over is no minor assault against culture. Small offenses snowball into more significant issues, and often harsh examples need to be made to create folklore inside your org that will cement your values/culture through the org.
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