Career 01
Engineer
Precision. Systems. Connected Thinking.
The lesson
Precision. Systems. Connected Thinking.
My first education was engineering.
I earned degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics, and engineering taught me something that has influenced virtually everything I've done since:
Systems matter.
Electrons don't negotiate. They respond to the laws governing the system. Change one variable and the rest of the system responds.
Business works the same way.
Organizations are systems made up of people, processes, technology, incentives, capital, and culture. When one part changes, something somewhere else changes with it.
Engineering also taught me to respect the smallest components.
Precision. Systems. Connected Thinking
A computer may look like one machine, but it depends upon thousands of connections working properly. Sometimes the smallest component determines whether the entire system functions.
Companies are no different.
A CEO can have a brilliant strategy, but if the connections between sales, operations, finance, technology, and customers break down, the strategy doesn't matter.
That systems perspective became the foundation for everything that followed.