A good brand can increase the value of a product. Aswath Damosaran I recall used the example of Coca Cola’s margins being significantly higher  than that of a Canadian soft drinks producer as being driven by the power of the brand. Companies invest significant time and money in their brand, even well outside of FMCG, because of the sustainable, defensible advantage that comes with a strong brand. 

Interesting discussion today on autonomy within teams - there is a strong propensity to grant subteams autonomy, as long as they do exactly what the team leadership want. 

I was thinking through waste in a simple production-consumption model, and got a little stuck when considering an aspect of waste on the consumption side.  

A lot of waste and unhappiness in people’s work comes when they are let down by others, or they let other people down. 

Approaching a problem from a systems perspective means considering the structure, process and norms/incentives that support that problem, and not just focusing on the problem itself. 

In The Lessons of History, the Durants offer various takeaways from their extensive history of civilization. One comment that I found particularly interesting was on the importance of trade, and of the wealth and change in locations where trade is most effective. 

I’ve been making my way though the Marine’s Warfighting paper, after finishing Coram’s excellent biography of John Boyd. One of the topics is addressed is the advantage of speed, with this note:

Radical Markets (well worth a read if you haven’t had a chance) offers some unusual ways market dynamics can be introduced to some traditionally very un-marketlike domains. One example is taxes and work: self assessed rates of the value of one’s labor, taxation against that assessment, balanced with a requirement to perform the work for the stated price. There are many practical concerns with this, but it poses an interesting thought experiment!

One of the big questions when building a developer product is what type or size of company to go after, with a particular question mark around large companies. Is targeting enterprise inevitable? A lot of products start for individual developers, small teams, and the long tail.

Last week I had an excellent conversation in Brooklyn around the effects of automation on jobs. One idea I found useful to share was the distinction of High Road and Low Road employers used by Thomas Kochan at MIT Sloan. The two roads are between employers who provide a supportive environment for employees, and ones who treat employees as a cost to minimise. The examples used are often Wal-Mart (on the low side), and Costco or Market Basket (on the high).