Running companies – DOs and DON’Ts

Running a company is one of those things you cannot perfect – you can only do it the best you can, and try to improve on what’s not working.

I have a few mantras;

• Separate R&D from operations – If R&D and Operations guys are the same, no R&D will ever take place as there is always some operational issue that will need attention. I have seen this proven again and again.
• Physical proximity is key to collaboration – anyone further away than the distance to the coffe machine of the toilet could just as well be in another country. The distance is too big for that super close collaboration.
• Lean processes – without processes, a company will inevitably drop tasks. It’s the wild west with lots of collateral damage. With too much process, all will get slow and inflexible. Process fascists will guard their territory, not caring about the business purpose and why the company exists, but at meeting KPIs and stopping anything that runs outside the pipe. Pipes also, over time, tend to grow to so that the minimum effort you need to invest to get even a small matter through is unproportionally big.