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Bottom to top vs Top to bottom

There are two distinct styles of management. One I call bottom to top and the other is top to bottom. Recently I’ve been exposed to both styles exemplified in two companies I’m involved in. Bottom to top. It’s more process driven situation. You take some employees and you focus on their growth. You take some […]

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Use of frameworks in web projects

Developers of right skills want to hand craft every piece of it. This is non-productive. Craftsmanship at the code level shouldn’t be mistaken with efforts you should be putting into product, and code is not product. It might be if you’re developer but in great sense of any business it usually isn’t. That’s why with […]

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Pitfalls of vicious loop of testing

Another common reason for startups to fail is the lack of persistant approach, otherwise known as the vicious loop of testing. Many startups do tend to try different things, measure how they work and abandon ideas in light of lack of response. It sometimes looks like going to a bar and then chatting up one […]

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Never be the easiest or the cheapest

Here’s a thought: people give up not because it’s so hard (sometimes it is) but because the reward is not so great (and needs to be better) Never make it easier to just enter or to stay. Instead up the rewards to make it more desireable. You wont get the best employees for too long […]

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Why do startups fail

Start-ups fail for a number of reasons. Many of them boil down to a distinct lack of (any form of) planning. Obviously if you’re into start-ups you probably understand how hard it is in fact to make any longer term plans. At the same time seeing just three steps ahead means trouble every four steps […]

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Time is ticking away

There’s so much to be done and so little time left. That’s how I spend holiday these days, at least that’s how it’s been planned this year. Learning from my parents’ home seems to be working for me by far better than sitting in London, at home. There are just too many distractions and I […]

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Importance of competition

Typically if you look at any of my past businesses, you’d quickly notice how much the project they run rely on innovation. Whether technical or market innovation, we’ve been first on the market. Firstly with Finance Manager (pl: Menedżer Finansów), launched in 1999, well ahead of avalanche of other desktop personal finance management applications. Secondly […]

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Benefits of small teams

It’s amazing how complex things can get once you’re trying to figure out a working pattern that would satisfy a team of several developers and keep your boat afloat at the same time. It’s a wrong jungle type of problem, where management are trying to keep everything under tight control, living in illusionary world in […]

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Rock stars of software business

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. – Antoine de Saint Exupéry Another way to improve software management process is simply to create great teams. As previously mentioned, great teams […]

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How to Run a One-Person Business

As a one-person show, that might prove to be especially difficult. More than one-third of sole proprietors said that their biggest challenge is finding the time and resources to generate new business, according to a recent survey conducted by Visa USA and SCORE, a nonprofit group that counsels entrepreneurs. Wish I had inc.com on my […]

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