Red Queen Podcast

Today we are going deep on Trader Joe's and I'll kick things off with a quote from their employee handbook. 

"Why do customers shop at Trader Joe's? Our people are warm and friendly. It's fun and an adventure. They find unexpected products. They'll experience cheap thrills. Our people are helpful and knowledgeable.They know that we have tested each product to ensure quality and satisfaction. They trust us. You're going to have to be a special person to make sure that when every customer leaves the store, they think to themselves, that was fun. And I got a good deal. When that happens. No one can touch us."

Perhaps not the description you would expect about a gross free train. That is exactly the magic of Trader Joe's. It's just...different.

The three of us love Trader Joe's product, but we love founder Joe Coulombe even more. He's a true polymath, always finding inspiration and insight from unlikely sources. And Wrote one of our very favorite corporate histories, becoming Trader Joe's.  

We are back for part two of the GE story. In the first episode, we covered GE as a company that effectively embraced research and invention within a broader organization. 

In this episode, we're going to talk about everyone's favorite or least favorite topic: Capital M Management. 

How did GE develop a practice of management that was copied by every CEO at the time? Why did companies like Honeywell, Boeing, 3M, ABB, Medtronic, Home Depot, Twilio, and almost Uber, come to GE for their CEOs? And what was GE doing to provide endless fodder for 30 Rock jokes? 

How did Jack Welch grow GE into a ~$450B company? And how–and why–did GE become one of the worst-performing stocks on the Dow Jones under Jeff Immelt?

Have we already witnessed the beginning of the end for GE? Or are we about to witness a corporate phoenix rise again?

We’ll take you through 50 years of modern GE history and share our takeaways from studying GE’s most iconic leaders and their biggest strategic bets. 

(2:18) Jack Welch: The Management Era

(33:19) GE Capital

(43:35) Jeff Immelt: Bad or Unlucky?

(1:06:45) Larry Culp: GE’s first outsider CEO

(1:12:46) Operator Playbook: what tactics will we borrow from GE?

(1:17:21) The Future of GE?

It’s easy to think about GE as a company in decline–after all, it’s about to be broken up officially into tiny pieces. But there are two big themes that make the story of GE relevant for today’s companies–and what got us excited to dig in.

First, GE is a company founded on invention. GE is a research lab plus company that managed to commercialize its research. We have so many AI research lab style companies today, but it’s worth remembering that GE was the most successful in this model. It was Apple, Google, MSFT, and Lockheed rolled into one. In its heyday, it helped win WW2, it owned everything from NBC to being America’s 4th largest lender, and of course, electrified America. Your electricity, Neil Armstrong’s boots, home appliances, your TV shows, the planes in the sky above you—all GE.

Second, GE believes in people and process, not just invention. They think that management is a practice that can be taught, that is distinct from the domain of the business. They prioritized generalists, and pioneered most management practices. We were blown away by how many management practices we still use today were started at GE. Does this philosophy work? 

In this first of two episodes, we’ll cover GE’s founding era as a successful research lab (and lessons learned about running one), the conditions that set the stage for GE’s focus on management practices, and an intro to one of the the most iconic CEOs of all time–Jack Welch. 

(1:00) A quick note from your hosts (thanks for your feedback!)

(3:90) The Myth of Thomas Edison and Managers vs Inventors

(12:30) Research and Invention

(26:43) Corporation as Civilization’s Infrastructure 

(33:24) GE Management as a Practice

(1:01:24) Meet Jack Welch

(1:14:24) Operator Playbook: what tactics will we borrow from GE?

Marriott has hotels in 139 places including the Faroe Islands, Rwanda, Greenland, and Kathmandu. They employ over 148 thousand people. That’s more than twice as many people as Facebook! And they have a $73B market cap.

But what got us curious about Marriott is not the fancy hotels, although we love those too, it’s that Marriott didn’t fundamentally invent any new technologies or new products. How did it become so big and ubiquitous? As ladies who built out careers in Silicon Valley, where tech and product is king, we were curious–what does the hospitality industry have to teach us? 

Listen to hear the story of the small root beer stand that transformed into the world’s biggest hotel company.

(1:30) Marriott today

(4:09) Try every business until one sticks–from rootbeer to hotels

(14:24) Building hotel foundations

(28:44) The spirit to serve–Marriott culture at work

(45:42) (Asset) Light is right!

(1:00:30) Acquisitions & Rewards

(1:25:00) Operator Playbook: what tactics will we borrow from Marriott?

(1:26:07) The future of Marriott?

How the Red Queen Podcast got its name.

We're not just glamorous ladies into chess. Our inspiration comes from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Specifically, the moment where Alice meets the Red Queen...

Space is so back. And it’s not just because everyone’s favorite billionaires are getting in the ring. There are real scientific, technological, and military implications of our presence in space and it got us wondering–what is the history of the organization that first got us there–NASA? And what do we have to learn from an institution that undertook one of the most ambitious scientific and technological feats of all time…and then bogged itself down in so much bureaucracy that it promptly lost not only its budget from Congress, but also its luster as a symbol of progress and pride in our government? 

It’s time for a trio of space n00bs to go beyond “Houston, we have a problem” and get deep on the story of NASA. And space nerds, please go easy on us. We are very new to this.

(1:52) NASA Today

(4:38) Manifest Destiny & Exploration (1910 - 1958)

(10:15) Space Race, Competition, and the Founding of NASA (1958- 1980s)

(15:25) Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. Getting a man on the friggin moon (1960-2000)

(38:39) NASA’s Identity Crisis (early 2000s)

(48:36) The Money Sucking Black Hole (2000s-2010s)

(1:04:37) Commercialization of Space (today)

(1:12:03) Operator Playbook: what tactics will we borrow from NASA?

(1:16:28) The future of NASA?

Everyone has a LEGO story, but not that many people know the story of LEGO. So while we’ve always loved the toy, it wasn’t until we started researching for this episode that we became obsessed with the (still entirely family owned!) company. Yes, LEGO is the biggest and most profitable toy company in the world–nearly twice the size of Mattel. But what makes LEGO so lovable is how from day zero they have taken kids seriously and believed in learning through play. This vision is as real now as it was 91 years ago when LEGO was founded as a small woodshop in Billund, Denmark.

If you, too, would like to look at a brightly-colored 8x10mm plastic cuboid and see a spectacular tale of craft, vision, and creative constraints, then stick around for the story of LEGO.

(2:31) LEGO Today

(4:23) Bet the Shop. And a preponderance of fires (1916-1950)

(31:47) “System of Play” (1950 - 1990) 

(46:04) The Destructive Era (1990s - early 2000s)

(53:40) Back to the Brick & Last Honest People (2000s - 2010s)

(1:19:04) “Spaceship!!!!” LEGO in The Digital Age

(1:24:59) The future of LEGO?

(1:31:56) Operator Playbook: what tactics will we borrow from LEGO?