The One-Guy Theory

BusinessWeek has an article worth reading about The One-Guy Theory. In short, the theory says that successful businesses have one person who is ultimately responsible and making the decisions. This one person is often the brains or the vision behind everything the company is doing. The article goes on to cite some good examples and there are tons more in the tech industry where I work.

Steve Jobs is probably the most obvious example. Apple doesn't do focus groups or marketing studies not only because they're highly secretive about their products but also because they have so much trust in the product vision of their leader. But putting this much trust in one person can be dangerous and Apple's had their share of fumbles in the past. Remember the Motorola/iTunes partnership phone, the Rockr? Yeah, neither do I (well barely.) What about the Apple Newton? It was an ok PDA but maybe too far ahead of it's time. Even the recent Apple TV is having trouble gaining traction.

But ultimately, one-guy setting the rules is a smart way to go because otherwise you create a bureaucratic nightmare where nobody is responsible or accountable. It's hard to set a clear direction when there are multiple committees trying to decide everything. Think about the successful companies you know. Do they have one person at the top that you can point to as an obvious leader?

This touches on the fundamental media conglomerate problem: There are too many layers. There are too many fiefdoms. There are too many...guys. Guys strolling the corridors, guys clustering around the boardroom, guys slowing things down. (The litany of executives that follows shows they're, still, almost exclusively guys.) This, in a time of great uncertainty and fast-shifting consumer appetites, when sheer speed may determine which companies successfully molt and which simply melt.

BusinessWeek.com "The One-Guy Theory"

Leading people for results

Lifehack.org posted an excellent article that anyone interested in becoming a leader should read, especially prospective MBA types. In addition to being genuine (rule #1) another bit of good advice from the article is:

Never get on the power trip. Never think that your position makes you more important. Your position and role is to serve everyone else. You provide direction and you provide assistance in getting the job done.

You can’t do your employee’s jobs for them, but as the go-to person you can make sure that the daily operations are actually contributing to big picture goals. If you’re a Pointy-Haired Boss, you’re not the go-to person. You’re kept out of the loop, employees deceive you rather than discuss with you, and a lack of company cohesion means more problems and more time involved in attaining those big picture goals.

This is contrary to what we typically think of as leadership, but it's true that the higher you get the more you serve the needs of the people working for you. They are the ones grinding through the work and it's your job to help them do that. Sometimes approaching things backwards makes the most sense.

For example, during my annual review I used to always start by listing my strengths and then brainstorming examples from the year to back them up. It made the whole process difficult and painful. Then I figured out that doing it backwards was easier. Simply make a list (or keep an ongoing one) of everything you've done during the year. Then, for each item, write down what skills that item required. Suddenly you've got a good list of your strengths and supporting examples of them.

Sometimes things feel "backwards" like the quote above about being a good leader, but approaching them in this way can be helpful.

How to lead people for results - Lifehack.org

Some general resume tips

My brother-in-law is about to graduate from UCLA and is embarking on his first serious job search so Danielle and I have been trying to give him some helpful resume advice. Personally, I love job hunting and interviewing. While I normally wouldn't consider this Poor Man's MBA type of material, I think it's a useful reminder. I'll try to bullet point these and keep them short. This is a compilation of advice from myself and others and is in no particular order. I've got other general job hunting tips so email me if you're interested but here I'll stick to the resume stuff.

Use a "Master" resume - Create one resume that has way more information that you need on it. Include all your accomplishments no matter how small. It's ok if it's longer than one-page because you're never actually going to submit it. Use this resume to pull information from when crafting custom, one-off resumes for each job you're applying for.

Cater your resume to the job - You should be using some of the same words and terminology on your resume that are listed in the job description. Sometimes this is as simple as rephrasing things you've already got. Don't assume that a recruiter will connect the dots and see that meeting your sales results led to hitting revenue targets. If the job description mentioned revenue targets, explicitly spell out how you reached yours in a previous job.

Write a good cover letter - The "Best of Craigslist" has some good advice on not screwing this part up. And remember to write a cover letter for every job.

Emphasize accomplishments, not duties - Instead of just listing what your responsibilities at previous jobs were, highlight your accomplishments in those roles. Monster.com posted a good article on Avoiding the Top 10 Resume Mistakes.

Use action verbs - It sounds pretty simple and using action phrases can be your ticket to a job interview.

Make sure it's only 1 page - Unless you are a published researcher or a member of congress, your resume should never exceed a page. Recruiters are busy people and won't read more than that. Remember, your resume is your ticket to an interview. It's like a little sales brochure about yourself. Use it to get them interested so that they follow up with you for more information.

Use numbers - Include numbers in your resume wherever possible. This gives it quantitative information and emphasizes accomplishments instead of duties. For example, saying "Improved productivity by 2 FTEs" (full time employees) is better than "Increased efficiency of my team."

I'm sure there are other tips I'm missing, but if you start with these your odds are already better than the competition. A lot of people spend a bunch of time on formating and layout but in today's database-driven world it's likely to be scanned into a text-only format anyway. So just make sure it looks ok, isn't too cluttered, and doesn't use more than two different fonts.