02 Conduct an Appraisal

Step Two: Conduct an Appraisal

  • Consider the construction.
  • Consider the measurements.
  • Consider the rules of the game.

Construction Tools

  1. A Business Web can help consider construction of entities (Click Here). 
  2. Roles and Responsibility Charts can help consider the construction of positions in an organization (Click Here).
  3. A Dashboard can help with to consider the measurements (Click Here).
  4. The Game Plan can help to consider the rules of the game (Click Here). 

Construction Articles

  1. A renowned physicist theorized that a specific type of shape would spin when sinking in water. It turns out that he was correct about the interaction of the shape in water but overestimated that interaction’s effect on the behavior of the shape while sinking.  
    • “Was Lord Kelvin wrong? 3D-printed shape casts doubt on his 150-year-old theory,” Ben Turner. Live Science, July 28, 2021 (Click Here).
  2. Argentina tried to create a new industry centered on the fur trade by importing Canadian beavers in the 1940’s. Almost 80 years later, the ecosystem shows how the damage of this choice. Systems are interdependent layers.
    • “Argentina brought beavers to Tierra del Fuego. It was not a good idea,” Haley Cohen Gilliland. National Geographic, July 25, 2019 (Click Here). 
  3. An organization’s system includes the behavior of its customers. A 2000 study on jams shows how customer behavior changes as a result of choice.
    • “The Jam Experiment — How Choice Overloads Makes Consumers Buy Less,” Florent. Medium, August 17, 2017 (Click Here).
    • “11 ways having too many options is screwing us up,” Rachel Gillett. Business Insider, November 30, 2016 (Click Here).

Measurement Articles

  1. Gumroad didn’t meet the expectations of its founder and venture capital investors because it didn’t show the grow expected of a “unicorn” after it was launched in 2011. The founder discovered that Gumroad was successful if he changed his “measurement” from a unicorn to a sustainable company. 
    • “He Wanted a Unicorn. He Got … a Sustainable Business,” Klint Finley. Wired, January 19, 2020 (Click Here).
  2. Elite universities typically don’t want to share their admissions data but often claim that they are focused on diverse admission classes. When Harvard was forced to share their admission data in litigation, the measurements proved otherwise.
    • “A new statistic reveals the startling privilege of white kids admitted to Harvard,” Sarah Todd. Quartz, September 24, 2019 (Click Here).
  3. A great collection of calamities showing that math–measurements–do matter. The Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse is an especially interesting tale of how changes from design to construction can really matter.
    • “6 Small Math Errors that Caused Huge Disasters,” Chris Radomile, Cracked.com. Jan. 9, 2012 (Click Here).

The Rules of the Game Articles

  1. ScaleFactor represented that their artificial intelligence could significantly reduce the cost of small business accounting, but their AI was “glitchy,” and didn’t work as promised.
    • ScaleFactor Raised $100 Million In A Year Then Blamed Covid-19 For Its Demise. Employees Say It Had Much Bigger Problems. David Jeans. Forbes, July 20, 2020 (Click Here).
  2. WeWorks’ rise and fall–from planned IPO to a drastic reduction in value in just a few short months–holds many lessons, but looking back, it seems that one of the big lessons was that it couldn’t escape being a real estate company, even though it wanted to viewed and valued as a tech company.
    • The Fall of We Works Adam Neumann, Katrina Brooker. Fast Company, September 28, 2019 (Click Here)
  3. Remember when vaping was presented as a safer alternative to smoking that could help cigarette smokers quit smoking? Well it turns out, there is no perfect way to smoke.
    • Vapers Seek Relief From Nicotine Addiction In — Wait For It — Cigarettes, Ana B. Ibarra. Kaiser Health News, September 13, 2019 (Click Here).
  4. When it was founded in 2011, MoviePass offered unlimited movie tickets each month for about $40. Five years later, the new CEO slashed the monthly fee to $10 a month. Subscriptions boomed (credit) but the trade off was that the business lost a ton of money (debit). 
    • MoviePass Has Officially Shut Down, And We Don’t Know If There Will Be A Sequel, Jenny Gathright. NPR, September 14, 2019 (Click Here).
  5. At the beginning of the 1950s with the link between smoking and cancer causing concern, the makers of Kent cigarettes decided to add an incredibly dubious safeguard: an asbestos filter. As you might guess, this credit (benefit) had a serious debit (um…more cancer).
    • Remember When Big Tobacco Sold Asbestos as the “Greatest Health Protection”? Myron Levin. Mother Jones, October 22, 2013 (Click Here).
  6. X-It’s case against Kidde Safety over infringing on the intellectual property rights surrounding the escape latter that the founders developed while at the Harvard Business School is from 2001, but it is still an excellent example of there is no perfection. Despite having a unique product and interest from the market leader for acquisition, things went south. The second link is to the ultimate settlement of the dispute
    • Climbing Back Up, Ilan Mochari. Inc., March 1, 2002 (Click Here).
    • Kidde Settles an Inventors Lawsuit, AP News, October 15, 2002 (Click Here).