Eeke de Milliano, Head of Global Product at Stripe, outlines 'the new leader dilemma,' where incoming leaders feel pressured to overhaul existing strategy.
Insight
De Milliano: Globally plug-and-play executives do not exist without value alignment
“The other thing that came out in all of these, like, conversations with folks is, like, if your values aren't aligned, there's, like, literally no way it's going to work. I think it's just actually pretty hard for there to be, like, globally relevant execs. Li…”
Insight
De Milliano: Bad executive hires drive star employee attrition by destroying trust
“Reason number one why it's bad, but like reason number two why it's bad is because everyone looks at that bad hire or that bad fit, basically. Again, like, I don't think they're generally bad people, but like that person who isn't a good fit, and they look at …”
Disclosure
Patrick Collison designed Stripe's culture guide to repel half of candidates
“And at one point, like, Patrick Ping made me, he was like, hey, like, I really want us to write a guide to Stripe's culture, and I want us to share it with candidates when they join, when they are considering Stripe. And ideally, half of the candidates who rea…”
Assertion Supported
Stripe's internal culture doc was eviscerated on Hacker News
“There was some controversial, controversial, there was some stuff in there that was basically just like, you got to be willing to work really hard to actually, you know, be successful here long term. Oh my gosh, it was so controversial when it came out on Hack…”
Insight
Milliano: Large companies must accept some employees won't work extreme hours
“I do also think it's true that at some point, I don't know, companies get big enough that you have folks who maybe are just not, Up for that, and like, you just have to kind of be okay with that if you want to have that many employees in your company.”
Insight
De Milliano: References are useless unless aligned with the hiring company
“My main view on reference is that I actually don't think they're that useful unless you can find someone who has more incentive to tell you the truth than to, like, have the back of the person they're giving the reference on and someone who really understands …”