“There are two reasons [ business people are not publicly anti-Donald Trump ], one is well-intentioned, which is the classic kind of American notion. We want to be inclusive, we want to have our shareholders, our employees, our customers, whether they are Democrat, Republican, Green or Libertarian, to feel comfortable with how we're doing business. And so that tends to be apolitical. People say, "No, no, I just simply shouldn't get involved in politics."” PeopleWantFeelsWellsKindTwoReasonTrumpInvolvedRepublicanComfortableGreenDemocratNotionCustomersLibertarianClassicEmployeeGet InvolvedShareholdersApolitical Author:Reid Hoffman
“The other reason why people don't take a stand, which is very true in this election, is looking at [Donald] Trump and fearing reprisal, fearing reprisal from someone who is seeking the highest, most powerful role in the land, who has had a history of doing everything from attacks, threats and lawsuits and who has a complete kind of vengeful, narcissistic behavior, which makes people legitimately worried, almost like a schoolyard bully, that if I step up, am I going to be targeted, too?” PeopleIfsKindReasonPowerfulStepsRolesLandTrumpBehaviorHighestElectionThreatSeekingWorriedReason WhyMost PowerfulBullyNarcissisticStep UpLawsuitVery TrueVengefulReprisal Author:Reid Hoffman
“My greatest influences are actually probably a set of different teachers. And these teachers, most prominently at my high school, but also a few others, helped kind of instill in me, thinking thoughts about how life is meaningful in terms of how we all kind of live in a network of people and how you interact with those people is part of what makes life essentially meaningful and then kind of concepts to think about, how do you add value to other people's lives? How do they add value to yours? And how do you kind of form a community together in the network?” PeopleThinkingKindDifferentSchoolTogetherFormLife IsValuesTermCommunityTeacherInfluenceHigh SchoolConceptsAddMeaningfulAll KindsInstill Author:Reid Hoffman
“Most of the ethical dilemmas that I have faced have all been in the category of, you know, I know something and what's my obligation to disclose it. So, for example, you see people make a mistake in the contract that you're making between the businesses and do you disclose it or do you reveal it? And generally speaking, the way that I solve these is I kind of go through a list of, you know, what's the most, what are the obligations and constituencies and in what order?” PeopleKnowsWayKindOrderMistakeExampleSolveListsObligationEthicalContractsCategoriesDilemmaEthical Dilemmas Author:Reid Hoffman
“I find that the interesting challenges, because there's obvious things where, you know, don't be unethical, don't be evil, you know, don't break the law, don't do immoral things, those are all straightforward and don't create ethical dilemmas. The thing that's interesting is when you actually have multiple interests at stake and you have to kind of navigate your way through it.” KnowsWayKindLawEvilInterestChallengesInterestingBreakObviousEthicalStakesMultipleImmoralDilemmaStraightforwardNavigateUnethicalObvious ThingsEthical Dilemmas Author:Reid Hoffman
“Probably the biggest mistake that I made personally is I knew early on that I wanted to go into start-ups and creating kind of software that could help change the lives of millions of people. And basically what I did is I kind of went, okay, well, I need a set of titles and I need a checklist of skills, and I ran through all that, and that wasn't a useless thing, but what I didn't realize, and, you know, and no one gave me the right advice for doing this, is that actually your network, in essentially, is your career.” PeopleKnowsNeedsWellsKindMadeHelpingWantedRealizingMistakeCareersMillionsAdviceSkillsCreatingOkayUselessTitlesRanSoftwareBiggest MistakeChecklistsUseless Things Author:Reid Hoffman
“The first set of questions to ask yourself when you're doing cost cutting is relatively straightforward, which is, you know, can you use the necessity of cost cutting as an opportunity to do pruning or trimming for projects that aren't being as successful? But, you know, frequently those are the easy ones. I mean, there's always some kind of social costs internal to the company, but that's the easy way of looking at the future.” KnowsWayFirstsKindMeanUseAsksOpportunitySocialEasyCompanySuccessfulCuttingCostProjectsInternalsStraightforwardEasy WayPruningTrimming Author:Reid Hoffman
“Now, in economic crises times, the kind of things you're looking at is it's generally harder to get capital, revenue growth may be more, revenue lines may be unstable or growth may be less easy to predict that you're going to get to. And so what you do is you take a certain conservative approach of when, as all entrepreneurs should do, you plan for both good luck and bad luck, you put extra time on, "Okay, if I have bad luck, what do I do about that?"” IfsShouldKindMayCertainEasyGrowthLinesPlansEconomicApproachOkayHarderCrisisLuckEntrepreneurConservativeExtrasRevenueGood LuckUnstableBad LuckEconomic CrisisExtra Time Author:Reid Hoffman
“Well, well-run companies always have a focus on growth and the two lines, which includes profit. The key thing during, I think, tough times, is to make sure that you've covered the basis for when something, you know, essentially things taking longer, bad luck, adversity, other kinds of circumstances may occur. Make sure that you can monitor to win, it's potentially, you know, something is going to go wrong, monitor early enough, and then take appropriate action to essentially counteract that or shift your strategy or plan, even if in fact something is not working out as well as it is.” IfsThinkingKnowsWellsKindMayTwoEnoughFactsRunningActionWinningGrowthLinesCompanyFocusPlansKeysCircumstancesToughBasesAdversityLuckStrategyProfitWork OutAppropriateCoveredTough TimesBad LuckKey Things Author:Reid Hoffman
“One of the really key things to look at in terms of crafting strategy when you're in an economic crises is how do you maximize essentially your liquidity position? Your ability to both take kind of profits and revenues and business and then convert that into a stronger lead. And so those companies that can do that can actually, you know, get a march on their competitors.” KnowsLooksKindTermCan DoAbilityCompanyEconomicPositionKeysStrongerCrisisStrategyProfitMarchCompetitorsRevenueEconomic CrisisKey ThingsLiquidity Author:Reid Hoffman
“The key thing for all businesses, and especially of course technology businesses or businesses that employ technology as a key kind of strategic advantage, is you always have to be investing in the future.” KindCoursesTechnologyKeysAdvantageInvestingStrategicKey ThingsInvesting In The Future Author:Reid Hoffman
“The key thing in any kind of guiding of the business is how do you create a strong organization that is kind of accelerating into the future. And when you're in trouble, the question is, what are the techniques that you can, you know, trim, refinance, sell, et cetera, in order to get this business back to that characteristic.” KnowsKindOrderStrongTroubleKeysOrganizationSellsTechniqueCharacteristicsKey ThingsRefinance Author:Reid Hoffman
“The CEO's job is always about leadership. It's about leadership in a vision, in terms of where you're going, it's about making sure that you have the right organization and staff, and that you have kind of clearly communicated what some of the plays are and what some of the goals are in terms of the business and how do you organize together in order to make that happen.” KindPlayHappensTogetherJobsOrderGoalTermVisionOrganizationStaffOrganizeCeo Author:Reid Hoffman
“If you have to conduct layoffs, which is always a regrettable thing, there's kind of three things that are very important. One is to communicate well with your employees in order to help them understand why it is you're doing, and how. Second is to make sure that the employees who are part of the go forward, understand kind of what happened and are not like the ground doesn't keep moving. It's like, okay, we did that, we're moving forward, here we go. And then for the employees that you unfortunately have to let go, try to provide as much support for them as possible.” IfsTryingWellsKindImportantHelpingMovingOrderThreeSupportHappenedLetting GoOkayCommunicateMoving ForwardEmployeeThree ThingsKeep MovingLayoff Author:Reid Hoffman
“Because in our boom times, everything is growing, usually, you know, the kind of things that come to mind are Wild, Wild, West, or land grabs, you know, these sorts of things, in order to make something, you know, kind of to grow into the future and to get all the growth that you need to have. So you tend to hire a lot because you're running fast to the future.” KnowsNeedsMindKindRunningOrderGrowsGrowthGrowingLandWestWild WestRunning FastWild Wild West Author:Reid Hoffman
“The key thing that I find that when you're kind of in boom times and you're hiring bunches, if you can hire, you know, always maintain very high standards and even if you, you know, can't find enough of, you know, what is typically called A players, then don't hire the people. All right? So, you know, use that as a way of standards.” PeopleIfsKnowsWayKindEnoughUsePlayerKeysStandardsBunchHiringHigh StandardsKey Things Author:Reid Hoffman
“Make sure a certain percentage of the people that you're hiring are generalists so that you can be, kind of reconfigured in the workforce pretty easily.” PeopleKindCertainBe KindPercentagesHiringWorkforceGeneralists Author:Reid Hoffman
“Boom and bust cycles are very difficult for businesses because you're hiring a bunch because you're planning for the future. And if the future is going to be very big, you need to hire people, or suddenly you go to boom to bust, then all of a sudden, you're kind of battening down the hatches and trying to sail, you know, through the storm, it's a different thing. So part of it is making good decisions about, well, how long is a boom cycle going to be, you know, don't plan on it going forever.” PeopleIfsKnowsNeedsTryingWellsKindLongDifferentBigsDifficultDecisionForeverPlansStormPlanningBunchDifferent ThingsCyclesBe YouSailHiringFuture PlansGood DecisionThrough The Storm Author:Reid Hoffman
“When thinking about how to deploy kind of professional and social networking into your business, it's really not a question of if, it's a question of when. And the reason is, just think about the fact that those businesses that adopt new technologies to operate efficiently and use them to get a competitive edge are the businesses that in fact, you know, it becomes one more competitive advantage. Whether it's a fax machine or a mobile phone or a new way of doing financing or any of these things, you know, these are key things to do.” IfsThinkingKnowsWayKindReasonFactsUseSocialTechnologyKeysAdvantageMachinesPhonesEdgesThings To DoNew WaysMobileNetworkingSocial NetworkingNew TechnologySocial NetworkFinancingCompetitive AdvantageMobile PhonesKey ThingsFaxFax Machines Author:Reid Hoffman
“People generally worry about social networking more than they need to. In kind of consumer internet investing and on social and professional networks, I kind of look at time spending and time efficiency. You know, time saving sites. So on time spending sites, things where you play lots of games or that sort of thing, you might worry about a productivity loss if people are spending a lot of time doing that. So if there's a lot of kind of addictive gaming going on during work hours, that won't be as helpful to you.” PeopleIfsKnowsNeedsLooksKindPlayMightGamesSocialHoursLossWorryInternetInvestingSpendingProductivitySavingConsumersHelpfulEfficiencySiteNetworkingSocial NetworkingSocial NetworkGaming Author:Reid Hoffman
“We've been working for years on how we can use technology to help people make their own jobs, become entrepreneurs, create their own small businesses. Those are the kinds of things that I and a bunch of other people at LinkedIn actually work on.” PeopleYearsKindHelpingUseJobsTechnologyEntrepreneurBunchSmall BusinessLinkedin Author:Reid Hoffman
“I think I knew how frightened people were [when Donald Trump was elected], and I think I knew that people were worried about their future. I don't think I realized that they would be willing to risk kind of a 1920s Germany in order to blow it all up, not realizing that we've accomplished a lot as Americans, and we want to keep the good things and revolutionize the new things.” PeopleThinkingWantKindWould BeOrderRealizingRiskWillingTrumpGood ThingsBlowI RealizedWorriedGermanyAccomplishedFrightenedNew Things Author:Reid Hoffman
“I wish to be focused on kind of the business stuff I'm doing, how do I contribute to our economic progress, how do I help create a future for American industry, American middle class, these kind of things. Those things actually really matter to me.” KindHelpingWishProgressEconomicFocusedMiddle Class Author:Reid Hoffman
“We have made a huge amount of progress over the last 50 years by enabling trade, by enabling kind of collaboration and learning. And actually, in fact, when you look at your average 30-year-old today, they're much better off than a 30-year-old 20 years ago, 30 years ago, because of progress in technology and health care and all the rest of this.” KindCareTodayTechnologyProgressTradeHealth CareCollaboration Author:Reid Hoffman
