2018 Scale Up Summit New Orleans Debrief
We ate jambalaya, we ventured onto Bourbon Street and Frenchman Street. Oh yeah, and we learned a whole ton too!
I was fortunate to be a speaker at the 2018 Scale Up Summit in New Orleans this week. The summit was hosted by Verne Harnish and Gazelles, in collaboration with Bloomberg Live. It drew 900 leaders from the fastest growing mid-market firms ($5 million to $500 million).
Read the full article on the Stride Consulting Blog
Experts Say Having Core Values Boosts Success. Here's How to Craft Ones That Stick
Company core values. On paper, they are a set of words or phrases that embody who you are as a team. They have been hailed as a "company's DNA", "the culture of the organization," and the "best kept secret of true high performance." By definition, core values are the fundamental beliefs of a company? Is it all true? Are core values really the heart and soul of an organization. Or are they hype?
Read the full article on Inc
Dear Uber: Zero-Tolerance Harassment Policies Aren’t Rocket Science
I am a huge fan of the New York Times, but today’s article, “Uber Case Could Be A Watershed for Women in Tech,” really pissed me off. Yes, it is absolutely true that many forms of harassment against women in the workplace have been going on forever, and yes it is true that sometimes, the individuals responsible for said harassment go unpunished.
Your Agile Project Needs a Budget, Not an Estimate
Nearly every software development project starts with one question: How much is this going to cost? Perhaps it’s a stakeholder who asks the question: a CEO, Board member, VC, or boss. Maybe it’s been asked another way — How long will this take? How many stories can we get into this next sprint? How many people do we need to hire to get this done? How much money do I we need to raise?
Read the full article on Harvard Business Review
Debbie Madden on Fox Business's Varney&Co
Debbie debates a recent study showing men raised by a single parent have lower earnings capacity.
Debbie Madden on Fox Business's Varney&Co - Gender Bias in the Workplace
Opposing Views on Working from Home | Debbie Madden on Fox News Varney&Co
Get in the office, or get out! Debbie Madden joins Stewart Varney to discuss Yahoo! CEO Marrisa Mayer's work-from-home ban for employees.
Are Women Penalized for Success? | Debbie Madden on Fox News Varney&Co
NASDAQ Bell Ringing
Having won a slot on the Inc. 5000 Fast GrowingCompanies list 5 years in a row, Debbie had thedistinct privilege of standing alongside othersuccessful business owners and the Inc.Business Owner’s Council to be a part of theNASDAQ bell ringing ceremony.
Intrapreneur Playbook: 3 Stages to Achieving True Buy-In
One big difference between intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs is that intrapreneurs must care about the infrastructure they are disturbing.
For an intrapreneur, achieving buy-in for an idea is key. In Debbie's experience, true buy-in is best achieved through 3 stages: form a team, find a champion, and achieving true buy-in from a decision maker.
Read the full article on Huffington Post
Tips for speaking like a strategist
Debbie Madden chats with ComputerWorld about educating technical teams about how to speak like business strategists. Having worked with hundreds of clients, Madden says she has learned to ask tough questions, and lots of them, at the outset of a project.
Read the full article on Computer World
Debbie's Lean In Story
Debbie's personal story of how she Leaned In. It was April 2012. After being in business for nine years, Debbie's consulting company was at a crossroads. The firm had been very fortunate and had nine very successful years. Now, for the first time, it faced an uncertain future.
"We promised to take care of our employees and we meant it. Now was the time to act, the time for talking was past."
Read the full article on LeanIn.org
Hire Slowly and Hire Well
Real-time data-sharing tools (think Twitter, Quora and LinkedIn) allow job hunters to tell all of their professional contacts that they're looking for work with a single status update. How do these new technologies affect the people responsible for hiring? In the age of rapid-fire information exchange, does the old adage "hire slowly, fire quickly" still ring true?
As someone responsible for hiring tech talent, Debbie's answer is yes. Here are some strategies to ensure that you "hire slowly" and wisely but don't miss out on good candidates:
1. Know what you want upfront. The more you can focus in on what you want in an employee in a specific role, the easier it will be to spot a match.Start by listing the skills and qualities you need, and then create a one-to-one map to ensure your hiring process includes a step to test for each.
Read the full article on Computer World
Why I Agree With Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer's decision to abolish Yahoo's work-at-home policy has grabbed a lot of headlines since its publication. The decision, clearly a newsmaker because of the scale and clout of Yahoo's operations, has also roused a debate on the importance of workplace collaboration versus worker productivity. Hear Debbie's take on working from home.
Read the full article on Huffington Post
Women in IT
Madden worries that women might be taking themselves out of the mix early on in the game over work-life concerns. "One big problem is retention," she says. "Many women that I know, even when they're in their 20s, choose careers that are going to allow them to have children."
Read the full article on ComputerWorld.com
What Every Entrepreneur Must Ask
“Recently there’s been a wave of entrepreneurial spirit,” says Debbie Madden. “From people who’ve worked in their industry for a decade so they think they can start their own business to people who have great ideas and figure it can’t be so hard to run a startup, it seems the perception is that the barrier to entry to getting an app or a website off the ground is at an all time low.”The trouble is, she says, ideas are a dime a dozen. In her 20 years of experience working with fledgling startups, it’s become clear to Madden that the real measure of a successful business is a great team. And for young tech companies, that element is unmistakable: what you need is a technical cofounder.
Read the full article on Forbes.com