The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.
When you do everything to make the very best product, it also means you're very focused on just a few products.
I am always looking for ways to move technology away from being over-featured. Moving to Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s meant I grew up as a designer in an environment where technology is a tool and not a means to an end. I believe that design should be driven by ideas, not style.
What you want to do is innovate on your product and your business model, management structure is not where I would try and innovate.
I said from the very beginning, 'Yahoo should position itself as a technology innovation company, not as a media company.'
People don't want gadgets, they want services.
Sustainable solutions based on innovation can create a more resilient world only if that innovation is focused on the health and well-being of its inhabitants. And it is at that point - where technology and human needs intersect - that we will find meaningful innovation.
If you're too focused on your current business, it's hard to change and concentrate on innovating.
For most western executives, innovation is about breakthrough technology or innovation. If it's not breakthrough, it's not interesting, and it's all about technology and products.
That's what we do when we work in Silicon Valley tech startups: We think about who's going to benefit from this. That's almost the only thing we think about.
