Cross-posted from my I400 class

Kim Lee presented last week about her experiences with start-ups even though she has never started a business. For the most part, her employee perspective was refreshing especially since we’ve talked so much about finding talented employees and keeping them happy. Her history exposed some flaws and strengths of pasts companies that are applicable to all new businesses. I was a little worried when she requested our name, email, and cell phone number without giving us any explanation about how it was going to be used. I noticed a lot more of my classmates put down “N/A” for their cell phone number than was believable, but I don’t blame them for not trusting her.

I’m personally not sold on Vontoo, but then again this weekend my little sister immediately gained interest in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when she learned that Justin Timberlake was a participant. Maybe more people are sold on hearing a celebrity’s voice recording than I care to admit.

On to the questions that Mark specifically formed based on the post-break attendance.

1. Explain the profit chain.

The profit chain consists of three links- employees, customers, and investors. If you have happy employees, they are more likely to produce a better product and serve customers better. Serving customers better makes them happy, and investors like happy customers. Investors like happy customers so much that it makes them happy. If the investors aren’t happy, it’s probably because they’re hearing from the customers. When the customers seek out the investors, it usually means they are unhappy because of an inferior product or poor service. The inferior product or poor service comes from the employees who don’t care because they hate their job. Keeping one end (un)happy usually results in a chain reaction for the other links.

2. What would an entrepreneur like me think is the most important part of communication?

Communication is an exchange of information. Someone is giving, another is receiving. It’s how the world works. Mark is a man of action, though, so if he’s going to get his message across he’s not going to waste his time with words. Actions speak louder than words. Instead of telling someone how to do their job, show them. Instead of vaguely describing how you want something done, show them. It’s a much more effective way of communicating.

When someone asks me how to do something on their computer, it’s easier for me to show them the actions they need to take by either sharing their screen or making a screencast than it would be to write out explicit instructions in a blog post for them to follow. When you’re learning to flip a burger, they could waste your time with an instructional video or take 5 minutes to hold your hand as your grill up your first patty.

If this isn’t what Mark wanted for his most important part of communication, I’m going to go with listening as my second answer. When you listen, you’re taking in information that you can later act upon whether it be user feedback, investor instructions, or general market trends.

3. Compare and contrast the difference between “good is good enough” and “good is the enemy of great.”

When I hear “good is good enough”, I think of high school. Nothing really matters in high school besides getting a diploma and meeting the state university’s minimum SAT score. Some people relish in the fact they had straight A’s all through high school, but the kid who passed with C-’s is still going to sit next them in finite class freshman year at StateU. There are developers that won’t let their code graduate unless it’s absolutely perfect, but often times it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect or not. As long as it’s good enough to pass, it’s probably ok to let go so they can move on to another task. Spending too much time on one task and forgetting about others is when you need to remember that “good is good enough”.

Going back to the high school example, the student that is hellbent on getting all A’s may end up with their mediocre peer in freshman finite, but could at the same time be in a greater position to succeed at the same time. Those A’s probably landed the student a few grants and scholarships, and their hard work probably prepared them better to excel in college. This is where “good is the enemy of great” comes into play. The average student didn’t need to be “great” to get to the same place “good” would have gotten them. Their ambitious peer, however, isn’t ready to settle for good so they are continuing to improve. When a developer or company admits that things are as good as they can be, they won’t get better.

There are times when “good is good enough” probably more on a day-to-day basis, but in the long run for a company to be innovative and deliver the best product “good is the enemy of great”.