Mission & purpose

I wanted the brand to have my face. I wanted the product to convey the culture, life, lifestyle, dignity of work. We are a listed company, and I wanted to manufacture a product with dignity. I wanted a profit with dignity. Because the press all talk about the moral ethics of profit. Why can’t we have a dignified profit then?

Would you buy something ... See more

Techno-Industrials are addressing larger markets than most software companies can.

They use whichever tools they need to provide better solutions to key bottlenecks with better unit economics than incumbents.

They are more capital efficient than most investors expect.

And they have to be more strategically sound than the average software company.

B... See more

ut the way you don't give up is completely different. Instead of merely resisting change, you're driven toward a goal by energy and resilience, through paths discovered by imagination and optimized by judgement.

Who is this for? What do they believe, what do they wish for and treasure? Ignore the others.

Clarity matters: Being specific and consistent and clear in what you do and what you stand for is challenging work, but worth it. It requires less compromise and a willingness to walk away from all the soft edges that the committee might be insisting on.

We know what the Bat Signal means. We know who’s going to show up, what he’s going to be wearin... See more

Where is the tension? What will happen if I don’t do something right now? What if I keep quiet? What is imminent, what will I miss? The default is the status quo, the standard response is, “maybe later.” If you don’t create tension, there will be no change.

Merely having energy and imagination is quite rare. But to solve hard problems you need three more qualities: resilience, good judgement, and a focus on some kind of goal.

A brand is not a logo. A brand is a promise, a story and a shorthand. A brand tells us what to expect the next time we engage with you.

Being named Fred is not a brand. Fred is your name, not your promise. If you’re an unreliable, selfish hustler, that’s your brand.

Resilience means not having one's morale destroyed by setbacks. Setbacks are inevitable once problems reach a certain size, so if you can't bounce back from them, you can only do good work on a small scale. But resilience is not the same as obstinacy. Resilience means setbacks can't change your morale, not that they can't change your mind.