School has officially started! Pre-term was a nice way to ease us into things. It finished up today with our last Organizational Behavior (OB) class. As a section (60 students), we took the pieces of a painting and enlarged it, painting the parts by hand on pieces of paper 8 x 14 inches. This was an exercise similar to Cardinal Cards -- but it only had four cycles lasting a total of two hours. My biggest takeaway was that the level of collaboration in a group of Stanford GSB students is unreal. It was truly amazing to me to see this picture being drawn given the constraints that we had to follow. Our "customers" valued the painting at $1.2M -- not had for two hours of work. If only it were real money.
Another highlight of today was hearing the first speaker in the "View From The Top" series. The former CEO of Vans (the shoe company) and GSB '88 alum Gary Schoenfeld gave a great presentation. He has reason to be happy - he just sold his company to VF Corporation for $396 million.
What really resonated with me from what he said:
Recruiting and retaining people is hugely important. So true.
Focus. Set a vision. Stick to it. This is the key VC message to so many startups (or if it isn't, it should be): Focus Wins.
Trust is critical. You have to trust your team and be able to rely on them, especially in times of duress.
Take risks -- not just when things are going badly -- but even more importantly, when they're going well.
One thing Gary reminded me of was how amazing our margins are in the software industry. He said Vans had margins of something like 30%. Coming from the software industry I expect 70%, 80%, even 90% margins. His statement reminded me why I love the software industry so much -- because if you are successful you can have businesses with truly incredible margins.
With that said - pre-term is OVER. Fall quarter is here! The usual talk of parties, golf outings, trips, baseball games, and BBQ's is on-going. But if you listen carefully you hear talk of course readers, books, and assignments -- due Monday. Classes are here. Stay tuned!
Lastly, I was excited to see the writeup on Blogging in this week's issue of Time Magazine.
Another highlight of today was hearing the first speaker in the "View From The Top" series. The former CEO of Vans (the shoe company) and GSB '88 alum Gary Schoenfeld gave a great presentation. He has reason to be happy - he just sold his company to VF Corporation for $396 million.
What really resonated with me from what he said:
One thing Gary reminded me of was how amazing our margins are in the software industry. He said Vans had margins of something like 30%. Coming from the software industry I expect 70%, 80%, even 90% margins. His statement reminded me why I love the software industry so much -- because if you are successful you can have businesses with truly incredible margins.
With that said - pre-term is OVER. Fall quarter is here! The usual talk of parties, golf outings, trips, baseball games, and BBQ's is on-going. But if you listen carefully you hear talk of course readers, books, and assignments -- due Monday. Classes are here. Stay tuned!
Lastly, I was excited to see the writeup on Blogging in this week's issue of Time Magazine.
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