How to Castrate a Bull

Dave Hitz likes to solve fun problems. He didn't set out to
be a Silicon Valley icon, a business visionary, or even a
billionaire. But he became all three. It turns out that business is
a mosaic of interesting puzzles like managing risk, developing and
reversing strategies, and looking into the future by deconstructing
the past.

As a founder of NetApp, a data storage firm that began as an
idea scribbled on a placemat and now takes in $4 billion a year,
Hitz has seen his company go through every major cycle in
business--from the Jack-of-All-Trades mentality of a start-up,
through the tumultuous period of the IPO and the dot-com bust, and
finally to a mature enterprise company. NetApp is one of the
fastest-growing computer companies ever, and for six years in a row
it has been on Fortune magazine's list of Best
Companies to Work For. Not bad for a high school dropout who began
his business career selling his blood for money and typing the
names of diseases onto index cards.

With colorful examples and anecdotes, How to Castrate a
Bull is a story for everyone interested in understanding
business, the reasons why companies succeed and fail, and how
powerful lessons often come from strange and unexpected places.

Dave Hitz co-founded NetApp in 1992 with James Lau and Michael
Malcolm. He served as a programmer, marketing evangelist, technical
architect, and vice president of engineering. Presently, he is
responsible for future strategy and direction for the company.
Before his career in Silicon Valley, Dave worked as a cowboy, where
he got valuable management experience by herding, branding, and
castrating cattle.

Autorentext

THE AUTHORS Dave Hitz co-founded NetApp in 1992 with James Lau and Michael Malcolm. He served as a programmer, marketing evangelist, technical architect, and vice president of engineering. Currently, he focuses on future strategy and setting the direction for the company. Pat Walsh is the founding editor of MacAdam/Cage, a publisher of literary fiction and narrative non-fiction.

Zusammenfassung
Dave Hitz likes to solve fun problems. He didn't set out to be a Silicon Valley icon, a business visionary, or even a billionaire. But he became all three. It turns out that business is a mosaic of interesting puzzles like managing risk, developing and reversing strategies, and looking into the future by deconstructing the past. As a founder of NetApp, a data storage firm that began as an idea scribbled on a placemat and now takes in $4 billion a year, Hitz has seen his company go through every major cycle in businessfrom the Jack-of-All-Trades mentality of a start-up, through the tumultuous period of the IPO and the dot-com bust, and finally to a mature enterprise company. NetApp is one of the fastest-growing computer companies ever, and for six years in a row it has been on Fortune magazine's list of Best Companies to Work For. Not bad for a high school dropout who began his business career selling his blood for money and typing the names of diseases onto index cards.

With colorful examples and anecdotes, How to Castrate a Bull is a story for everyone interested in understanding business, the reasons why companies succeed and fail, and how powerful lessons often come from strange and unexpected places.

Dave Hitz co-founded NetApp in 1992 with James Lau and Michael Malcolm. He served as a programmer, marketing evangelist, technical architect, and vice president of engineering. Presently, he is responsible for future strategy and direction for the company. Before his career in Silicon Valley, Dave worked as a cowboy, where he got valuable management experience by herding, branding, and castrating cattle.

Inhalt

0 Chapter Zero 1

Part One Beginnings 5

1 Before NetApp: On Computers, Colleges, Castration, and Risk 7

Interlude: What NetApp Does 21

2 Starting NetApp: On Toasters, Angels, Resellers, and Ferraris 23

Interlude: Redundant Array of Pyramid Hieroglyphics (RAPH) 41

3 CEO Lessons: On Pixie Dust, Decision Making, Candor, and Going Public 43

Interlude: Tom Mendoza's Lessons on Public Speaking 57

Part Two Turbulent Adolescence 59

4 Hypergrowth: On Goals, Doubling, Ancestors, and Pain 61

Interlude: How to Fail in Executive Staff Presentations 79

5 Values and Culture: On Dilbert, Drooling, Lies, and Game Theory 81

Interlude: Lawyers Aren't EvilFairness and Morality Are Not Their Job 97

6 Managing Engineers: On Development, Consensus, Doctor Death, and Magic 101

Interlude: Scientific-Truth and Useful-Truth 117

Part Three Grown-Up Company 121

7 Customers: On Love, Enterprise, Simplicity, and Partners 127

Interlude: Shark IslandA Parable of Risk and Mass Media 145

8 Strategic Change: On Reversing Course, Chocolate, Debates, and Core Beliefs 147

Interlude: Speckled-Egg Thinking 157

9 Vision: On Whining, Eras, Future History, and the Meaning of Life 161

Appendix A: Early NetApp Business Plan 177

Appendix B: NetApp Company Values 186

Glossary 188

Bibliography 194

Acknowledgments 195

The Author 197

Index 199