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How Google Has Changed Management, 10 Years After its IPO

Harvard Business Review

If you only read one piece, make it this one by David Garvin in 2013 , on how Google sold its engineers on management. To do so, it had to come up with a brand of management all its own, centered around “people analytics,” a quantitative approach to hiring and operations. How Google manages. Business in the age of Google.

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Why Unicorns Are Struggling

Harvard Business Review

When financial services company Square priced its IPO at $9 a share last November, well under the $15+ price that private investors paid the year before, it was a cold shower of reality for the 6-year-old company. Until the IPO, Square had been one of more than 130 unicorns: privately owned tech companies valued at $1 billion or more.

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Alibaba Looks More Like GE than Google

Harvard Business Review

Alibaba, the Chinese internet titan that filed for an IPO in the U.S. last week, could be the largest tech IPO in history. Instead, it operates more like GE. Like conglomerates, Alibaba’s businesses have separate boards, and even separate technology teams and platforms. The article, by J. “Ma

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Why Financial Statements Don’t Work for Digital Companies

Harvard Business Review

On February 13, 2018, the New York Times reported that Uber is planning an IPO. Twitter reported a loss of $79 million before its IPO, yet it commanded a valuation of $24 billion on its IPO date in 2013. Its value growth is powered by the network in place, not by increments of operating costs.

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What Spinning Off a GE Business Taught Me About Managing Ultra-Fast Change

Harvard Business Review

Major organizational changes, covering everything from recruiting and branding to regulatory approvals and marketing, happened in rapid succession, with a hard deadline of 12 months to get it all done for the IPO — and 18 months from the IPO until our full separation from GE.

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Don’t Settle for Being an “-er Brand”

Harvard Business Review

As a member of a start-up advisory program, I regularly hear pitches from aspiring technology entrepreneurs. billion IPO valuation in 2013) can be attributed to its continued focus on that target. My job is to sort out the companies with potential from those that need to go back to the drawing board. Hyundai is an -er brand.

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A Simple Way to Test Your Company’s Strategic Alignment

Harvard Business Review

For example, as it grew, Facebook found that its early “move fast and break things” culture had to be funneled into focused technical teams and product groups to make its product development process faster and less erratic, and for it to have a chance of meeting the demands of its new public shareholders following its IPO.

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