

Characteristics of Great Companies - dmytton
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/09/ten-characteristics-of-great-companies.html

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nico
_It is the ten traits that came to me on a 15 minute subway ride_

Are you serious? Sounds like that post is a lot of BS to get attention. Better
go read a good book based on actual _research_ like "Good to Great" or "Built
to Last", both by Jim Collins.

~~~
mildweed
[http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/from-
good-t...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/from-good-to-
great-to-below-average/)

Good to great isn't that great.

~~~
davidw
Here's another one taking it apart:

[http://www.businesspundit.com/why-good-to-great-isnt-very-
go...](http://www.businesspundit.com/why-good-to-great-isnt-very-good/)

> ... For instance, Collins says good-to-great companies practice "First Who,
> Then What," which basically means "hire good people." I'm willing to bet no
> one read the book and said "Eureka! I've been hiring slimy weasels when I
> should have been hiring top performers. That is why we aren't a great
> company." ...

It's really one of the business books I liked least when I did a bunch of
summaries for Squeezed Books. The "research" is a very small sample that, as
the other posts point out, is not a very good sample at that. The only
quantitative research seems to be picking the companies. The rest of the
"research" is interviews and subjective stuff like that.

~~~
mseebach
> I'm willing to bet no one read the book and said "Eureka! I've been hiring
> slimy weasels when I should have been hiring top performers. That is why we
> aren't a great company." ...

Not like that. But I once talked to a guy who's the CEO of a 2-100 employees
in 8 years firm, and he would privately admit to being bothered by hiring sub-
par people to keep up with the growth.

------
akkartik
_"Great companies make lots of money but leave even more money on the table
for their users and partners."_

Alternative phrasing: Great companies ride waves so great they can generate
unprecedented revenues without being too much of an asshole. At least at the
start. (I'm thinking of Adsense.)

------
tptacek
_6) Great companies are led by entrepreneurs who own a meaningful piece of the
business. As such, they make decisions based on long term business needs and
objectives not short term goals._

The second sentence in this argument does not follow from the first. Founders
often have the exact opposite incentive.

