The future of information. Shopping in 2030. Need a Lyft?
Adolescence is hard
Hi there,
In 2014, CB Insights was around 30 people. We are now at ~250.
Not a lot is written about the challenges of scaling a company in its “teenage years,” so a couple weeks ago I asked our very smart newsletter readers for some recommendations.
And as always, readers were generous with their ideas. Many recommended books, which I haven’t had the opportunity to read yet — but one article recommended was pretty solid.
I’ll get to that below. But first, some data.
Reading tea leaves
At last week’s Future of Fintech, we discussed the future of information.
We also dug into 9 data-driven predictions for financial services, including:
The future of retail will likely build on today’s nascent technology. Imagine, for example, using an augmented reality mirror in a store dressing room. Maybe an in-store drone flies around retrieving items.
From shopper emotion detection to in-store robotic warehouses, we highlight the technologies and trends that will impact store innovation in the next 10+ years. Clients can download the complete report here.
Evolution & revolution
One article recommended by a newsletter reader (thanks, Paul Martin) was “Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow,” by Larry E. Greiner. (Check it out in today’s Blurb.)
It’s from 1972, but still highly relevant. Lots of good ideas in it.
The premise is that “management problems and principles are rooted in time,” and as a result, “the critical task for management in each revolutionary period is to find a new set of organizational practices that will become the basis for managing the next period of evolutionary growth.”
It also highlights a challenge, which we’ve observed, where we “experience the irony of seeing a major solution in one period become a major problem in a later period.”
So this requires recognizing the limited range of solutions — i.e., nothing works forever.
These revolutions can be jarring. We’ve felt them at CB Insights, and we’re probably always on the verge of feeling them as we grow.
Lyft-off
Ride-hailing unicorn Lyft went public on March 29 at a price of $72/share and a $24.3B valuation. Since then, the value of some of its top investors’ stakes has fluctuated by as much as $1B.
We take a look at Lyft’s top stakeholders at the time of its IPO and how they’re doing now. Check them out here.
Growing and changing
Greiner’s article also talks about implications for managers. This table summarizes the management practices that characterize each growth phase:
While terminology has likely changed since the article was published in 1972, the principles remain quite solid (with tweaks, of course).
BTW, if you’re someone who would love the challenge of optimizing the evolutionary phases and navigating through the revolutionary phases, we’re hiring an SVP of People Strategy.
Billion-dollar idea
Juicero should have pivoted to this. Gargantuan opportunity.
Call security
To keep up with growing cybersecurity threats, many organizations dealing with sensitive data streams are turning to a “DevSecOps” approach to IT and software development.
The year is 2030…
Call security
