Paul Adams - Summary of Measure What Matters

Summary

of

Measure What Matters

John Doerr

Conversation Starters

By Paul Adams

BookHabits

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Copyright 2018 by BookHabits. All Rights Reserved. First Published in the United States of America 2018

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T ips for Using Conversation Starters:

EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER THAN the surface of its pages. Questions herein are designed to bring us beneath the surface of the page and invite us into the world that lives on. These questions can be used to:

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• Explore unseen realms of the book as never seen before

Introducing Measure What Matters

J

ohn Doerr is an American business investor and venture capitalist. He writes an instant New York Times bestselling book Measure What Matters . Doerr is a legend in the business world. Since joining Kleiner Perkins Caufield &Byers in 1980, he has backed business startups through more than three decades. Doerr now serves on the boards of Google, Zynga and Amyris.

To date, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has invested in 850 business ventures and counting. Some of the notable ones are America Online, Amazon, Compaq, Electronic Arts, JD.com, Square, Nest, Snap, Genentech, Google, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, AppDynamics and Twitter. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is one of the "largest and most established" venture capital firms according to The Wall Street Journal . Doerr himself is a Silicon Valley legend as he helped establish these large enterprises to who they are today. He himself led KPCBs investment on Twitter. In Measure What Matters , John Doerr explains the importance of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and how can this goal-setting system help any organization achieve explosive growth.

John Doerr writes about one of the most momentous time in his career, the fall of 1999. This was the time John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up company that he invested in. This was the biggest investment of his career. He has given $12.5 million to these founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Page and Brin had lofty ambitions and amazing technology to make those ambitions reality. They had the energy that drives the best entrepreneurs but their business plan was almost non-existent. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had a vision for Google to change the world. But before it even takes off, they needed to learn how to align their priorities, make tough decisions and keep their core team on track. They needed to make a plan to make their vision of Google a reality and to keep it standing in the tough world of technology. Doerr taught these budding entrepreneurs when to let go of losing propositions, how to fail fast and how to keep their team afloat through all these transitions. Along with these challenges, Larry Page and Sergey Brin also need to document their progress and keep relevant data to measure what mattered.

In the 1970s, Doerr worked as an engineer at Intel. He worked under the supervision of the legendary Andy Grove. According to Doerr, Andy Grove is hands-down the greatest manager of any era. Doerr praised him for driving the best-run company Intel. During his time in this company, Doerr first utilized a proven approach to organizational excellence: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). This approach is Andy Groves brainchild and Doerr has taught and adapted it for more than fifty companies. Doerr attests that wherever this process was practiced, it has produced great results. OKRs is a goal-setting system. In this system, the objectives need to be defined and the key results need to be specific. The goals need to be arranged based on the level of its importance to the organization. A time frame needs to be set and actions need to be specific and measurable. Everyone in the company needs to be in the same frame of mind - same goals, same time frame and same priorities. From entry level employees to the CEO, everyone needs to be transparent to the organization. OKRs yield amazing benefits. OKRs surface the most important work of an organization. Efforts needs to be focused. Coordination needs to be fostered. All the employees need to be on track. Objectives need to unify and strengthen the entire organization. OKRs enhance satisfaction in the workplace and boost employee retention.

Doerr writes from decades of experience and in Measure What Matters, he shares first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies that range from the great names in Silicon Valley to Hollywood. His narrators include Bono and Bill Gates. Their stories show how OKRs spurred many great organizations to focus their objectives, foster their coordination, and initiate explosive growth.

Facebook COO and founder of LeanIn.org and OptionB.org Sheryl Sandberg praises Doerrs book. She says that John Doerr has taught the new generation of leaders that execution is everything. Good to Great author Jim Collins says that Measure What Matters is needed by every person responsible for performance, in any walk of life. Cisco executive chairman calls Measure What Matters a gift to leaders who want to start big, bold bets that can transform an organization. Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci, calls Measure What Matters an indispensable book.