Eucalyptus Systems CEO Mårten Mickos is a devotee of management guru Peter Drucker. In this insightful video presentation from Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship corner, Mickos elaborates on Drucker's position that "company culture eats strategy for breakfast," by offering amusing examples of culture building from his time at MySQL AB.
As CEO of MySQL AB for seven years, Mickos grew that company from a garage start-up to the second largest open source company in the world. After the acquisition by Sun Microsystems of MySQL AB for $1bn, he served as Senior Vice President of Sun's Database Group.
Previously, Mickos held multi-national CEO and senior executive positions in his native Finland. He is a member of the board of Electrosonic. Mickos holds a M.Sc. in technical physics from Helsinki University of Technology. In 2006 he received the Audemars Piguet "Changing Times Award: European Entrepreneur of the Year 2006" and the Nokia Foundation Award.
Having worked in businesses at both ends of the spectrum I have to agree with him on this - good culture trumps all strategy and planning. One company was started by a very smart guy who was very good at strategizing but terrible at instilling a positive, collaborative culture... that business failed.
Posted by: Frontline Management | January 24, 2012 at 07:40 PM