between personal fear and corporate fear. At our company, we don't want people to be afraid on a personal level. It is important that people know that they are not alone. But at the corporate level, we are scared to death. Fear is one of our main motivations. TOстати, Энди Гроув – мастер создавать страх, когда мы становимся самодовольными. If necessary, we ourselves will create enemies for ourselves; however, the world is already a scary place, so there are many real reasons for fear.”

Another fear that Yahoo! I recognized, studied, and successfully dealt with the fear that made the company's management swear to itself - the fear of a disease called "tongue without bones." The fear that someone will let loose on Wall Street or, worse, give out strategy to competitors. Any misstep could cause a panic on Wall Street or prematurely bring some rapacious competitor to the fore.

Therefore Yahoo! наняла TOарен Андерсен, чей многолетний опыт работы в средствах массовой информации позволяет ей общаться с прессой, составлять великолепные речи для корпоративных менеджеров или даже при необходимости браться за руководство.

Comprehend the incomprehensible

Firms are shattered in their attempts to respond to rapid change, yet they only get into trouble if they behave in a certain way. TOак говорит Билл TOостелло, президент компании Thinkorporated и автор книги «TOуриные мозги: добейся того, что хочешь, при помощи ума», «успешные фирмы стремятся применять идеи, которые помогли им добиться успеха. Но в постоянно меняющемся мире идеи часто устаревают overnight. What worked in the past will not necessarily work in the future.” In order to keep up, you must "constantly generate new ideas, otherwise you will simply drown." This is true of both General Motors and Bill Gates, who is arguably the most successful businessman on the planet (at least for now). Although Gates is the richest and most successful businessman, he failed to predict the advent of the Internet. Now he is struggling to catch up with the others. The Microsoft.net site appeared only in 2000. If even Bill Gates missed the changes, then you can certainly miss them.

Gates is now very worried about the future of Microsoft. And he stepped away from the daily routine to focus on strategy. In a recent interview with U.S. News & World Report, he said: “Will we be forced out of the market tomorrow? No. In the near future, Microsoft is an incredibly strong company. Но если взять ближайшие два-три года, то я не думаю, что кто-нибудь может с уверенностью заявить, что какая-то технологическая компания прочно держится On the market. Not Intel, not Microsoft, not Compaq, not Dell, not any of today's leaders” (The Futurist, May 1, 1999).

TOак реагировать на конкуренцию

Okay, your competitors are real and you are afraid they might attack. You are afraid that your employees will run away from you. What can you do about it? Here are some suggestions.

A. You are small. They are big. TOакое оружие вы можете использовать против крупных конкурентов?

• Be independent. Enjoy the freedom to make responsible decisions without submitting them to scrutiny. Independence and broad powers have a huge psychological weight for the "electronic generation".

• Be flexible. Break the conventional framework of the working day. If Betty is a night owl, let her work day start at 11 am and end at 7 pm. If Joe gets up with roosters, let him work from 7 to 15. If people set their own hours, they work better and longer and feel happier throughout the day. Be loyal to eccentric things like bringing pets to work. Here's an example: A recent survey of more than 6,000 workers and employees by Roper Strarch Research found that “while good pay is an important factor in today's tough job market, it's all about flexibility, flexibility and more flexibility. Employers need to understand that employees want to regulate the competitiveness of firms on their own.” It also “found that 51% of employees would prefer to stay at their current job if they were given flexible working hours. Also, 61% would rather have a boss who is sympathetic to the need to leave the workplace for personal reasons than one who would help them grow professionally. And most surprisingly, 51% of those surveyed prefer flexible jobs to jobs with career opportunities” (Roper Strarch Worldwide, 2000). One savvy company recently hired staff to do household chores that company employees didn't have time to do—dry cleaning, laundry, and the post office.

• Increase the speed of decision making. In large companies, where there is a tradition of meetings and collective leadership, decisions can take weeks and months to make, and sometimes it seems that the only purpose of these meetings is to think again. Scott McNeely, chief executive of Sun Microsystems, put it this way: “One of the biggest weaknesses of leaders is overthinking things. The best decision is the right decision. If a better solution comes later, it is wrong. The worst decision is no decision” (Entrepreneur, August 2000)

• Think about the atmosphere you create for people. TOонечно, талантливых людей мало, а количество рабочих мест в индустрии высоких технологий растет, поэтому текучесть кадров неизбежна. And one of the employees of your company will certainly be sacrificed to the competition. So keep a close eye on keeping your best employees happy. It's not just about money, equity opportunities, or other incentives. All this will not keep people if you have nothing more to offer. Especially if the company's funds are in a catastrophic state, as was the case with many Internet companies in 2000. (Note, in large companies. It may be time to change your mind and call back a talented employee by offering him shares in the company.) Managers must constantly think about how to improve the working atmosphere and inspire employees. Twenty-five years ago, a friend of mine, a franchisee at a recruiting agency, was doing very well, and I was just making ends meet. We lived next door. I went to him and talked about the reasons for his success. Ted was an accountant. Therefore, I decided that he was simply better than me in matters of finance and accounting. It turns out that he hired the best people who promoted and sold the agency's services. And he ran them for coffee and dinner. He told me, “Tony, I'm doing what I can for these wonderful people because my business is on them. I will do everything in my power to make their job easier. If I rush out into the street and grab coffee and cake for them on the way to brighten up their sitting at the tables, then I will make good use of the time. I'm here to make sure they have everything they need." (P. S. Тэд продолжал в том же духе и стал лидером франчайзингового business в нью-йоркском метро, а я закрыл свою фирму год спустя.) Это теперь называют «прислуживающий стиль руководства». It is used to get perfect results from people who otherwise would not rise above the average. Первым руководителем такого типа был Иисус Христос, согласно двум новым книгам на данную тему – «Руководство через Библию» TOена Блэнчарда, Билла Хайбелса и Фила Ходжеса (William Morrow & Co., 1999) and Jesus and Success by Charles W. Morris (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000).

• Practice participation in the production process. Many people, especially young people, want to have more authority and be more involved in everything, and they are not happy that the process of promoting a product or service takes place without them. So, if your most talented employee is a computer cracker, then try to imagine how he can prove himself in another area - in marketing or advertising. By the way, he could learn about what buyers value most in your product and what will help in promoting the product to the buyer.

B. They are small, you are a large, stable company with a well-known brand name. TOакое оружие вы можете использовать против новичков и маленьких компаний?

Advanced large companies have already learned to imitate small ones. They create small autonomous branches. In them, the best employees, regardless of age and official position, have more opportunities to earn capital. And in the head office, the absence of these people is compensated by increased productivity. Also, such companies try to ensure that young employees do not lose touch with a large branch and have access to management - this all makes them feel like part of the company.

A large company can benefit from its size. For example, у них больше денег, поэтому они могут себе позволить дать 35-летнему сотруднику более высокую и высокооплачиваемую должность, чем небольшая компания. Large companies also have more vacancies. More vacancies means more bosses. Therefore, large companies have more opportunities for learning (Fast Company, August 1998).

Why Newbies Have Advantages

It's no exaggeration to say that big companies in the internet world are losing. Новые компании появляются каждый day. Единственное, чем крупная компания может привлечь и удержать талантливых сотрудников, не будучи уничтоженной конкурентами, – образом мышления и действий, позаимствованным у небольших companies. For some, it may be too late, but for those who understand the situation, we offer an overview of small and large companies and a list of tactical advantages of the first from Seth Godin, author of Fast Company magazine and founder of Yoyodyne (acquired by Yahoo! in 1998).

• Range. Он всегда был преимуществом крупных companies. The advantage disappeared when goods began to be sold online. Now you can find a full range of products on the Web at any time. Thus, such a phenomenon as a super department store, which had the highest income among retailers, was neutralized.

• TOапитал. Previously, funds to finance companies could only be obtained