Learning to make mistakes
Learn to make mistakes from the powers that be.
Says Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay, candidate for governor of California
When I came to Ebay in January 1998, the company grew insanely fast, revenues grew by 70% every month. We continue to update the site, but time was sorely lacking. If you think that your traffic will grow by 150% next year, you need to prepare the infrastructure for a 250% growth.
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At five o'clock in the evening on the 10th of June 1998, the Ebay site went down. The database on which the auctions worked was completely out of order. I called my assistant and said: “We will probably have to stay here for a while. We need folding beds, sleeping bags, toiletries, towels. ”We organized sleeping corners in conference rooms.
I spent most of the summer there. By the end of the summer, we realized that we needed a new CTO. Recruiter recommended Maynard Webb from Gateway. I called his boss and said, “We need Maynard Webb, right now.” He was so surprised that he could only say "ok".
It took us almost six months to completely redo the site. As a result, we made a system that has an uptime of 99.999%. You learn a lot in such situations. You should always plan on many steps forward, especially when you are just starting.
Jason Kilar, CEO, Hulu
I once led the DVD sales department at Amazon. In the fall of 2000, we wanted to find out if we could lower the price and still remain at a profit. We decided to arrange a test: half of the buyers will see the normal price, the other half will see a lower, test price. Some buyers noticed this and screamed. All of this spilled over to the Internet and attracted the attention of the press and television.
I wrote to Jeff Bezos as soon as I found out about it. He called me to a meeting where I went with a heavy heart. However, I did not hear a word of reproach. Jeff just wanted to know exactly what happened and how to fix it. The next morning, Jeff spoke at CBS “Early Show”, telling what exactly happened.
This was a revelation for me. I realized that the most important thing is not to hide anything and tell your clients how it is.
Says Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay, candidate for governor of California
When I came to Ebay in January 1998, the company grew insanely fast, revenues grew by 70% every month. We continue to update the site, but time was sorely lacking. If you think that your traffic will grow by 150% next year, you need to prepare the infrastructure for a 250% growth.
')
At five o'clock in the evening on the 10th of June 1998, the Ebay site went down. The database on which the auctions worked was completely out of order. I called my assistant and said: “We will probably have to stay here for a while. We need folding beds, sleeping bags, toiletries, towels. ”We organized sleeping corners in conference rooms.
I spent most of the summer there. By the end of the summer, we realized that we needed a new CTO. Recruiter recommended Maynard Webb from Gateway. I called his boss and said, “We need Maynard Webb, right now.” He was so surprised that he could only say "ok".
It took us almost six months to completely redo the site. As a result, we made a system that has an uptime of 99.999%. You learn a lot in such situations. You should always plan on many steps forward, especially when you are just starting.
Jason Kilar, CEO, Hulu
I once led the DVD sales department at Amazon. In the fall of 2000, we wanted to find out if we could lower the price and still remain at a profit. We decided to arrange a test: half of the buyers will see the normal price, the other half will see a lower, test price. Some buyers noticed this and screamed. All of this spilled over to the Internet and attracted the attention of the press and television.
I wrote to Jeff Bezos as soon as I found out about it. He called me to a meeting where I went with a heavy heart. However, I did not hear a word of reproach. Jeff just wanted to know exactly what happened and how to fix it. The next morning, Jeff spoke at CBS “Early Show”, telling what exactly happened.
This was a revelation for me. I realized that the most important thing is not to hide anything and tell your clients how it is.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/79666/
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