Craigslist CEO, Jim Buckmaster, has an interesting management philosophy. Besides being the CEO who puts profits second, he has some refreshing views on how things should work on the inside.
- Listen to what users want. Try to make the site faster and better.
- Hire good people. “We work hard trying to get the right kind of folks.” It pays off: they hardly ever leave.
- No meetings, ever. “I find them stupefying and useless.”
- No management programmes and no MBAs. “I’ve always thought that sort of thing was baloney.”
- Forget the figures. “We are consistently in the black, so if we do better or worse in any given quarter it is absolutely irrelevant.”
- Occasionally, give people “a very gentle nudge”. This can be done over lunch or on the instant messaging boards.
- He doesn’t reply to any of his 100 daily messages, most of which beg Craigslist to do a deal. “I’m not real chatty on e-mail.”
- Put speed over perfection: “Get something out there. Do it, even if it isn’t perfect.”
- “Don’t screw it up by doing things that make people feel worse about their work.”
From CEO who puts profits second by Lucy Kellaway in the Financial Times (16 Sept 2007), but provided in full at the Craigslist press website (above)
[via Signal vs Noise]