Entity Dossier

entity

Tony

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Signature MoveThirty Percent Turnover as Pruning Not Failure

Signature MoveFormer Bosses Report to Former Subordinates, Same Pay

Capital StrategyConservative Treasury, Radical Operations

Identity & CultureImmigrant Hunger as Hiring Filter

Signature MoveMemos Replaced by Oral OK and a Sharp Pencil

Competitive AdvantagePay What You're Worth, No Salary Schedule

Cornerstone MoveProduct-Owner as Mini-CEO Guillotine

Risk DoctrineDay-One Honesty in Every Acquisition

Decision FrameworkStars to Priorities, Privates to Sergeant

Signature MoveUnmanaged Pigs as Growth Path for Non-Managers

Signature MoveRank Everyone Against Everyone, No Threes Allowed

Cornerstone MoveUndevelop the Product Until Someone Can Afford It

Strategic PatternAcquire the Product, Architect the Bridge

Cornerstone MoveAcquire Products Not Talent, Then Gut the Org Chart

Cornerstone MoveZero-Based Thinking: Restart the Company Every Year

Signature MoveThirteen-Hour Meeting as Onboarding Ritual

Relationship LeverageFoxconn's Loss-Leader-to-Lock-In Playbook

Risk DoctrineTacit Knowledge as Accidental Export

Competitive AdvantageApple Squeeze: Invaluable Experience Over Margin

Identity & CultureVerbal Jujitsu Procurement Culture

Signature MoveDesign the Impossible Then Manufacture the Impossible

Signature MoveFifty Business Class Seats Daily to Shenzhen

Operating PrincipleZero Inventory as Theological Doctrine

Strategic PatternUnconstrained Design Not Cost Arbitrage

Cornerstone MoveSecret $275 Billion Kowtow to Keep the Machine Running

Signature MoveSilk Tie Competitions to Train Negotiators

Cornerstone MoveScrew It, iTunes for Windows

Cornerstone MoveBuy the Machines, Own the Factory Floor Without Owning a Factory

Signature MoveDrive Off the Cliff to Prove the Brakes Don't Work

Cornerstone MoveTrain Everyone Then Pit Them Against Each Other

Risk DoctrineRule By Law as Corporate Leash

Decision FrameworkBig Potato Small Potato: Positional Power Over Fairness

Operating PrincipleDenial as Quality Control

Identity & CulturePrincipal or Employee, No Middle Ground

Signature MoveInstinct Over Data as Decision Doctrine

Cornerstone MoveOne Dumb Step Then Course-Correct at Speed

Operating PrincipleCreative Conflict as Decision Engine

Decision FrameworkSerendipity as Career Navigation System

Cornerstone MoveControl Hardwired or Walk Away

Signature MoveHire Sparky Blank Slates Over Credentialed Veterans

Competitive AdvantageContrarian Counterprogramming as Market Entry

Strategic PatternScreens as Interactive Commerce Surfaces

Cornerstone MoveSeize Mismanaged Clay and Sculpt It

Capital StrategyCash the Lucky Check Immediately

Signature MoveMaterial First, Never the Package

Identity & CultureFearlessness Borrowed from Greater Terror

Operating PrincipleDrill to Molecular Understanding Before Acting

Signature MoveSpin Out What You Build, Never Hoard Scale

Signature MoveTorture the Process Until Truth Rings

Primary Evidence

"CA’s approach is not quick and dirty, however. It is more like quick and briefly noted. Just as Tony insists the company bal- ance its radical operational side with the kind of highly conserva- tive financial structure that in 1991 held $250 million in cash, Charles knows CA’s very informality demands an accurate and completely up-to-the-minute record of what is going on."

Source:Twenty-First-Century Management _ the Revolutionary Strategies That Have Made Computer Associates a Multibillion-Dollar Software Giant

"The principle of ‘“‘succeed or ’bye” is so enshrined at CA that Tony’s monthly Best Idea public notice always ends the same way, as does every internally communicated announcement of earnings, acquisitions, or personnel changes. “Remember,” one assistant vice president told me, laughing in bemused embar- rassment as he quoted the company’s ubiquitous cheer-cum- admonishment, “that this is the most important day of the most important week of the most important month of the most impor- tant quarter in the history of CA.” The AVP: “This is a classic"

Source:Twenty-First-Century Management _ the Revolutionary Strategies That Have Made Computer Associates a Multibillion-Dollar Software Giant

"But Blevins wasn’t just frugal; he was competitive about it. Getting the best deal was imprinted on his psyche, and he’d turned it into a game. His father had a side hustle running a used car lot, where Tony and his brother worked as teenagers. Each month they’d hold a competition: “Whoever could sell the shittiest car for the most profit would win,” is how one colleague remembers him describing it."

Source:Apple in China

"As we walked, we made little asides to each other, and then, like the gym scene from *West Side Story* when everyone else fades away and Tony and Maria are left alone, Diane and I found our way to a sofa, far away from the rest, and we stayed there for a long time. There was a glow around us that was setting off sparks, accurately described best by the French as a *coup de foudre*. Flushed and completely discombobulated, I said, “I’ve got to go,” and she walked me to the door. I was functioning without a brain, not a thought in my head, being willed on by pure primitive urges. We stood at the door, and I said, “I want to call you,” and she said, “I want you to.” As I walked to the elevator, I knew something heretofore unimaginable was about to happen. All my life I’d been mostly un-seducible—by a man or woman—held back by shyness and, to a degree, fear, yet here I was with no restraint at all, knowing I was going to see her again and that nothing was gonna stop that."

Source:Who Knew

Appears In Volumes

Twenty-First-Century Management _ the Revolutionary Strategies That Have Made Computer Associates a Multibillion-Dollar Software Giant Apple in China Who Knew