Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies by Reid HoffmanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm not sure how I feel about these books that try to make a point without any sort of comprehensive study, just some personal anecdotes of the author's. Granted, the author giving the personal anecdotes is one of the biggest success stories out there.
This also seems to apply only to people trying to make their businesses go viral, so it might not be applicable to B2B companies, or local restaurants, etc. To be fair, he addresses this (around halfway through the book), but he then states that most businesses will be online businesses (or already are). While this is true, it would have been handier (and frankly, more honest), to state this at the beginning, or on the dust jacket, so people who pick this book up know who its target market is right away.
All of this isn't to say I don't believe in his message. On the contrary, for some businesses this book is probably essential reading. This may even, at some point, include mine, in which case I should probably re-read it at that point. In the meantime, these are some of the notes I took:
The only time to blitzscale is when you have determined that speed is THE critical strategy to achieve massive outcomes. (This means greater uncertainty)
8 Transitions in Management Innovation:
1. Small teams to large teams
2. Generalists to Specialists
(Marines, army and police analogy)
3. Contributors to managers to executives
4. Dialogue to Broadcasting
5. Inspiration to Data
6. Single focus to multi-threading
"Freedom just means you have nothing to lose"
7. Pirate to Navy
(If I wanted to compete with myself, what would I do?)
8. Scale yourself (Founder to leader)
Always have a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan Z
Launch a product that embarrasses you (no time for perfection)
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