RIP – Rajeev Motwani, Google founder’s professor and early investor, dies

This is worth a separate mention.  While Sergey and Larry certainly should get their due recognition for Google, the fact is, it’s often the people behind the entrepreneurs that really “make or break” the startup.  Such is the life of Silicon Valley startups – your VC is equally critical to your success – hence the need to find the very best.

With out Motwani’s influence would Google have been as successful?  I shudder to think life without Google – it’s been that powerful and transformative in our generation.

Check out Techstartups 3.0 obit.

MBA Oath & Masters of Barely Anything

I couldn’t help myself on this blog post. The article “A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality” from New York Times, May 29, just triggered a mental conniption in my head. It follows the efforts of Harvard MBA grad Max Anderson and his fellow classmates in their pledge to not advance their “own narrow ambitions” in an MBA Oath.

What a bunch of fringe lunatics really. These folks don’t have anything to show for from of their truly expensive education? That supposedly among the best and brightest feel compelled to taking an “oath” will somehow make them more ethical than before they got into the program and graduated? We got ourselves a bunch of genius’ for sure.

For the corporate hiring managers world-wide, here are the 651 losers to-date who you will definitely NOT want to hire.

I promise you, taking the oath won’t make any of the 651 more ethical than before they entered Harvard. And, that is perhaps the saddest testimony from this whole embarrassing tale. We have sown a generation of “future leaders” that out-Gecko, Gordon Gecko!

NOTE: The terminology “Masters of Barely Anything” came from a July 12, 2004 BusinessWeek article. I liked the following book reviews – by Eric Nehrlich, an unrepentant generalist, and Jim Stroup, author of Managing Leadership.