I agree completely with the point on "customer obsession". The last company I worked for didn't have much of a customer focus while my current company is truly obsessed with the value we deliver to the end customer.
Needless to say the earlier company has gone under while the current company has been going from strength to strength.
I'm not to clear on the point of "frugality" though. My current company does spend a lot on what could be considered trivial stuff to make us comfortable and it makes for a rewarding working environment. Does anyone have an opinion on "frugality"?
Frugality is probably relative to the industry you're in. Amazon is a retail company, where margins are low, and the overall health of the company can hinge a lot on managing all the seemingly small expenses that crop up in running a business.
If you're in a higher-margin business like software, maybe the Frugality trade-offs look different. Would Fog Creek be doing substantially better if it spent substantially less per developer? They might be doing a little better, but I doubt it would be enough to materially impact the business. And it may require that they put more of the company's resources into recruiting and hiring, to handle increased turnover.
I suspect that the author is heading to a startup as his next step, which may be why Frugality is standing out to him. If you're not cash-flow-positive yet in a business, then keeping your spend rate down by any means necessary can make the difference between success and failure.
Needless to say the earlier company has gone under while the current company has been going from strength to strength.
I'm not to clear on the point of "frugality" though. My current company does spend a lot on what could be considered trivial stuff to make us comfortable and it makes for a rewarding working environment. Does anyone have an opinion on "frugality"?