Commonwealth Club with Scott Cook: Why Good Companies Go Bad

“Yesterday at the Commonwealth Club World Affairs in SF Eric Ries was interviewed by Scott Cook in the release of his new book: Incorruptible. Amazing display of clarity of thinking describing how successful organizations experience forces that slowly pull it away from what made it successful in the first place. Here are the insights I captured from the event that I see most relevant for CEOs and boards: 1. Success does not protect a mission, it often threatens it. 2. Trust may be the most undervalued asset in business. 3. Small violations of trust are often highly profitable. 4. The easiest decision is often the wrong decision. 5. Great leadership creates an invisible leader. The strongest organizations are not led by a charismatic individual. They are led by a shared purpose that everyone understands. 6. Leadership quality is insufficient without governance. Intentions eventually lose to incentives. 7. Investors often unintentionally attack the DNA that created success. 8. Founder succession is one of the greatest tests of a company.”

“sat in on a Fireside Chat today with Eric Ries (author of The Lean Startup), interviewed by Scott Cook (cofounder @ Intuit), discussing his new book: Incorruptible! here are some things I typed on my notes app during the chat: (word for word. sorry not sorry.) - the costco hotdog. their $1.50 hot dog has been the same price since 1985. (how??) - "if you raise the price of this f*cking hotdog, i will kill you." (find this shirt) - cheap is a promise and they protect it like one (costco) - harder is easier. the more concrete your values and commitments, the easier every decision becomes after. - Eric talks about "the culture bank". trustworthiness works like a bank account. most companies don't know their balance. (do we know ours?) - OKRs eventually break down. metric starts to replace the mission. - temporary owners running temporary companies holding temporary money. this is what optimizing for exits ACTUALLY costs us.”

“What a great book event last night at the Commonwealth Club World Affairs in San Francisco! It was more like an in-depth 60-Minutes interview with pro-moderator Scott Cook (co-founder Intuit). My Big Takeaways from the discussion: — Leadership matters — Mission matters — Culture matters — Ethos matters * But nothing matters without Vigilance & Protection * Incorruptible is sounding the alarm to the overwhelming, institutional pull of "financial gravity" ... the never-ending, progressive allure of short-term profits & ROIs that often drive perverse incentives. This isn't an overall knock on capitalism, but it is the ever-present reality of market failures. And without the right structure & protections in place ... even the best intentions, culture, leadership, and values are in danger, not only toward mission drift ... but sudden & complete mission failure. But there's HOPE! Eric's done the research & written the protective blueprint. And when established, business & human flourishing can coexist in the most sustainable & uncompromising way. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”

“Wall Street is rewarding AI-driven layoffs. Last night I went to hear Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, interview Eric Ries about his new book Incorruptible. The conversation was about how good companies go bad. The pressure from Wall Street, the pressure of quarterly earnings, and the peer pressure that builds when your competitors run a playbook that works. The example Eric used was the AI layoff cycle. A CEO announces job cuts and cites AI as the reason. The stock pops. The CEO gets a bonus tied to that pop. Other CEOs watch this happen and run the same play. The incentives are completely misaligned with what actually builds enduring companies. Then Eric pointed to the companies that broke the pattern, like Novo Nordisk and Costco. Companies that held their values, refused to fleece their employees or customers, and still outperformed the market over decades. You don't have to fire your employees or your customers to build a great business. Some of the greatest companies in the world are proof. They just don't get rewarded on a 90-day earnings cycle.”