This is a tweetstorm about what I’m learning about company organizational structure, alignment, and how to innovate rapidly while scaling. Disclaimers: 1. Learning from other companies often means de facto survivorship bias 2. I’m not an expert, just learning as fast as I can
-
Show this thread
-
1. Successful companies seem to derive the structure of the organization backward from goals (OKRs). Amazon calls it “service-driven architecture,” Google apparently calls them “functional units,” many CEOs refer to it as something about decentralized teams
1 reply 2 retweets 32 likesShow this thread -
But what this really means is an organization defines its objectives (Bezos recommends selecting objectives that will be the same 10 yrs from now) and starting with small teams dedicated to that thing. E.g. a “lower prices team” and a “better selection” team at early Amazon
1 reply 4 retweets 29 likesShow this thread -
Those teams tend to be very autonomous and are designed to not require central sign-off. One owner is responsible for each OKR set and get help from centralized units (finance, for example) as needed. Duplicate work isn’t frowned upon as coordination to avoid that is so difficult
1 reply 2 retweets 22 likesShow this thread -
Management relies heavily on those units to understand about what’s happening, and tries to have frequent reporting as a means of understanding as much as accountability. Andy Grove famously turned Intel around on a dime based on a single memo from a field salesperson.
2 replies 1 retweet 21 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @AustenAllred
Which Intel memo? I have list of important memos (Last Days of Autodesk; RFC 1; Yegge/Amazon), wd love to read this one
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @cshirky
Start at “in late November in pic 1.” Set off something Intel called “Operation Crush” (this from Measure What Matters by Doerr)pic.twitter.com/T7DukHOCsL
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
I haven't been able to find the memo itself, but Davidow has talked about it in his book (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D1YCU4 ) and here http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/09/102746836-05-01-acc.pdf …. Though that gives him ample opportunity for revisionist history.
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.