
Eleven unquestioned assumptions of business – and why they’re wrong - wpietri
https://greatnotbig.com/2020/03/unquestioned-business-assumptions/
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sokoloff
> People are just “resources.”

This one drives me crazy. If you are talking _specifically_ about people, I'm
going to stop you and ask you to use people words.

If you are asking generically, "Do we have enough resources to accomplish
this?" and you mean financial and people, that language is OK, IMO, but if you
say "We have 3 _resources_ assigned to this project", I'm going to correct you
100% of the time.

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waldohatesyou
I think this is a lovely article and it puts into words a lot of feelings that
I've had about corporate North America.

That being said, I don't understand point #7, exiting such that you get a
significant payday always seems to involve either an IPO or an acquisition so
what does it mean when he says "Maybe the new peak accomplishment for a
founder should be successfully exiting their company in a way that sets it up
for long-term success." when neither of those exit strategies do that?

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wpietri
The author started Atomic Object, a consulting company that happens to be in
my hometown, so I've kept track of it over the years. It has been going since
2001, and last year he stepped back from CEO and is now just chairman, with
other employees now taking the lead. Their managing partner, Brittany Hunter,
recently told me, "Atomic Object is 100% employee owned and will stay that way
forever...our vision is to be a 100 year old company!"

Another good example here is Bob's Red Mill. It was started in 1978 by, well,
Bob. He recently sold the company to an employee ownership program, so it will
eventually be all theirs:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%27s_Red_Mill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%27s_Red_Mill)

This is definitely not the quick cash of a Google acquisition. But given how
many things Google has destroyed by acquiring them, I think prioritizing quick
cash is part of the problem.

