My dot com experiences - lessons learned

I joined dot com companies betw 1997 - 2002.. abt 5 yrs in all & 2 firms.. So, had really want to jot down wat i've learned in those years.. from mgmt or managing an org perspective..

Key pts or observations (extracted from an article i wrote back in 2002..):

1. Weak business model - sales target pluck from the sky
2. Overly sales focused - short-termist
3. Inexperience mgmt - different managing 20 to 200! as the firm grew expontentially. A different mgmt method must be adopted/adapted
4. Poor execution - badly coordinated or no coordination at all!
5. Teamwork issues - founders/pioneers vs corporate managers. Becomes political & different mindset and working style
6. Zero process/system in place - work is based on personality & relationships
7. Lack of strong leadership - keep changing course till everyone is lost exactly where the ship is heading

However, i must qualify those were trying times.. really tough in such a fast pace environment to roll out products and services at lightning speed.. i must give dot com folks the credit for daring to take part in it! 3 cheers! ;-)

Fortunately, like many others, we lived to tell the tales! some were nice while most will probably never want to mention them ever again! ;-)

And as for me.. there were angry times when i wondered why certain things were not done which might have saved the many difficult situations.. Nonetheless, i've learned a lot abt running a fast-paced firm growing from 20 staff to over 180.. though many were the negative examples.. Like Thomas Edison who after 999 tries he succeeded in inventing a light bulb, i too, learned as many ways how not to run a firm.. ;-)