In 1999, I packed everything I owned into my car for a cross-country trip to begin my
new job as Staff Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley Computer Science
Department. It was an optimistic time in my life and the country in general. The economy
was well into the dot-com boom and still a few years...
When I started HubSpot in June 2006 with my business partner, Dharmesh Shah, our experiences with marketing agencies led us to almost entirely avoid working with them. In fact, we designed our original business model around selling our marketing software directly to end customers, and developed an internal marketing team that would not be...
Thinking is what sets human beings apart from the rest of the animal
kingdom. And thinking is what distinguishes each individual human from
all the others. We think differently, and that makes us different people,
because it also makes us do things in a host of different ways. Companies
differ too, due to the fact that they think...
The forward progress of companies has always depended heavily on the
management of projects. New plants, new products, new organizations,
new methods, new ventures – all required dedicated teams working to
strict timetables and separate budgets. But today there’s a vital difference.
The project management mode has...
As one of the five clubs that founded the United States Golf
Association and with the first and oldest clubhouse in the
United States (opened in 1892), Shinnecock Hills in
Southampton, New York, is America’s version of St. Andrews,
a links course bathed in beauty and rock-hard difficulty colored
most brilliantly by...
On his deathbed, Alex Roy's father dropped tantalizing hints about the notorious Cannonball Run of the 1970s, the utterly illegal high-speed nonstop race from New York to L.A. that was nothing at all like the one portrayed in the Burt Reynolds movie.
Inspired by his father's dying words, and against the advice of his loyal,...
Some people are simply great at their job; they always seem to say or do the right thing. They are mentioned in every conversation. Everybody likes them. They get promoted. They get pay raises. They get along with the boss. And somehow, they do all these things without being unpleasant, breaking much of a sweat or seeming...
Every business manager needs intelligence to find suppliers, mobilize capital, win customers and fend off rivals. Obtaining this is often an unplanned, instinctive process. The manager who has a conscious, systematic approach to acquiring intelligence will be better placed to recognize and seize opportunities whilst safeguarding the...
Good ideas don't sell themselves. In today's business world it's no longer just sales people who are responsible for winning business. Many people, from TV producers to landscape gardeners, consultants to builders, need to employ convincing communication skills to win clients and commissions. Even managers within a business have...
Every day, customers see the results of companies where fiefdoms have formed and silos create divisional or departmental strife: poor sales and profits, and lackluster products. It’s not hard to see that such companies are headed for an early grave.
Regardless of the manner in which company fractures...
