REID HOFFMAN AND JOI ITO ON MOVING FAST BUT NOT BREAKING THINGS
IT’S NO LONGER enough to build lean companies quickly. The companies of the near future will need to be both fast and massive. And if it takes years to grow from a small startup to a major player in Silicon Valley, well. That’s just too slow. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman says Silicon Valley now demands that companies double their size after three months, then six months, then a year. He calls it “blitzscaling,” and today at the four-day WIRED25 festival in San Francisco, he explained the basic concepts to his good friend and intellectual sounding board Joi Ito, the iconoclastic director of MIT’s Media Lab.
“Blitzscaling is prioritizing speed over efficiency in the environment of uncertainty,” explained Hoffman. In his new book of the same name, Hoffman and coauthor Chris Yeh say that they are not merely offering advice for how startups can grow quickly, but describing a trend that is already happening—at internet companies, yes, but also at hardware manufacturers, and even in the fashion industry.
For those familiar with the backlash to Facebook’s former credo “Move fast and break things,” the idea of prioritizing speed when you build a new company may raise alarm bells. But Hoffman explains that the philosophy is meant as an antidote to some traditional business advice that no longer necessarily applies. Furthermore, it does not, actually, preclude the important work of thinking through good values before you start to grow or build your company.
Another rule: “Tolerate bad Management.” Another: “Ignore Your Customers.”
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/wired25-reid-hoffman-joi-ito/