How to castrate a bull (not what you think)

It's not in my nature to spend a lot of time reading management books. I do, however, have a real interest in books that deal with the decision making (or frequently decision avoidance) process in organizations. Issues in decision making are at the confluence of many disciplines, which fascinates me. Furthermore, my professional career has been devoted to software tools supporting decision management, an incredibly valuable domain that is still in its infancy.

In one of my recent Amazon shopping sprees, I ended up putting in my basket "How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business", a great book written by Dave Hitz, who is one of the Silicon Valley's recent legends, one of the co-founders of NetApp.

If you are an entrepreneur, creating a venture or scaling up a company, you will find this book inspiring, and you will draw many lessons from Dave Hitz's experiences.
A few that resonated very strongly with me:
- the value of dissent in a growing organization, how it needs to be cultivated and not managed-out
- multiple takes on what how to make effective decisions in a perpetual risk-all start-up, how managing the consequences of hard and early choices is as important as making the choices
- what makes the culture of a company, the pressures that make it evolve, and how to manage its transitions without losing identity and the momentum it creates

And it is a fun read. Which for me has been a break after a few weeks reading Spartan technical books.

Recommended.