Co-authors David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried (inset image) recently took the wraps off their latest business intelligence book called “Rework,” a collection of ideas that revolve around the notion of rethinking how we optimize our strategic approach to business. Hansson is the creator of the widely used Ruby on Rails web development framework and Fried is the co-founder of 37signals (www.37signals.com), a U.S.-based web application firm. Here Hansson offers a few thoughts based on his years of executing successful digital initiatives.
Q&A
01 | JOURNAL: How visible/transparent are you to your professional peers?
Hansson: We try to share as much as we can, as often as we can. Think of it like great chefs. They’re all famous because they shared their recipes on TV and cook books. They don’t worry about someone stealing their ideas and opening up a restaurant right next to them and putting them out of business. It just doesn’t work like that. Neither does it in business, most of the time.
02 | JOURNAL: What was your most recent, big mistake?
Co-author Jason Fried
Illustration by Adam Fitzcharles
Hansson: We largely avoid big mistakes by avoiding big decisions. We instead try to make lots of small decisions that we can easily change. That way you rarely even run into things you’d even call outright mistakes. Instead you just correct the course slightly and adapt. The big trouble comes when you spend weeks fretting over bet-the-company stuff. So we don’t.
03 | JOURNAL: What percentage of decisions do you base more on logic than emotion?
Hansson: It has to be a mix of both. There are plenty of “logical” things we could probably do to increase our revenues. We could go with big, nasty banner ads. Or try to trick people into upsells. But ultimately, we’re in business, in large part, to feel good about being in business. To be reasonable and fair.
04 | JOURNAL: When you are away from your office, do you ever worry what is happening in your absence?
Hansson: I don’t know if there’s any one thing, or if non-U.S. really is that different from U.S. I think people are more alike than they’re different across the world when it comes to the fundamentals of productivity that our products address. We all have projects, we all have deadlines, we’re all running somewhat late.
05 | JOURNAL: What are your top three strengths?
Hansson: 1)Our discipline of saying no. 2) Our openness to challenging and questioning everything from company policies to product foundations. 3) Our focus on the long-term over tomorrow’s deadline.
06 | JOURNAL: Do you take personal responsibility for anything and everything that happens to you?
Hansson: What matters when things go wrong is more about how we can prevent it in the future than about assigning blame. We all know when we screw up, but harping endlessly about it rarely serves any grand purpose. People just get defensive.
07 | JOURNAL: If you were stripped of your job title and traits of office, would you still be able to get the best from your people?
Hansson: Absolutely. But it’s certainly easier to turn your ideas into action when you get to call the shots.
