How Silicon Valley gets it wrong - by Guy Kawasaki

“The most important thing is that you hire people who complement you and who are better than you in certain areas.

Time and again in Silicon Valley, two engineers who are founders of the company have a very unique perspective. They believe that engineering is hard, and everything else is easy. Sales, marketing, finance, operations — all that is easy.With this perspective, they think that if they set their minds to it, they could be the best VP of any of those areas.

However, in a perfect world, someone who is a great engineer and founder would appreciate the difficulty of marketing, and hire a marketing person who is far better than he or she is. Hardly anyone has that attitude, though.”

Guy Kawasaki, founder of Alltop and managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, from the New York Times, 3/21/2010

Editor’s Note: Guy’s right.  Marketing is a discipline — especially with how the world has changed. To learn just how much it has changed, read Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer: New Paths to Purchase.

It’s best left to professionals — like Find New Customers.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New CustomersLead Generation Made Simple

He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the ebook, Prospect Driven Marketing.

Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.

2 Responses to “How Silicon Valley gets it wrong - by Guy Kawasaki”


  1. 1 Rick Roberge March 23, 2010 at 9:57 pm

    Sometimes I wonder if the world operates with a single consciousness. Yesterday, I posted about hiring a key person and specifically asked readers whether they were capable of hiring someone that’s stronger than themselves and working with them on an ongoing basis. You and Guy are right on. Except, that it’s not just engineers. I’ve met controllers that thought they could sell. Salespeople that thought they could market and marketers that thought they could sell. Hey, how many do-it-yourself websites have you seen out there?

  2. 2 jefflogden59 March 26, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    You’re absolutely right, Rick. We live in a world of specialization. Techs who think they can sell. Product developers who think they are marketers.

    One would think by now most would grasp we live in a world of specialization.

    Thanks for your comment, Rick.

    Jeff


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