Craigslist CEO has a refreshing perspective on managment

  • Listen to what users want. Try to make the site faster and better.
  • Hire good people. "We work hard trying to get the right kind of folks." It pays off: they hardly ever leave.
  • No meetings, ever. "I find them stupefying and useless."
  • No management programmes and no MBAs. "I've always thought that sort of thing was baloney."
  • Forget the figures. "We are consistently in the black, so if we do better or worse in any given quarter it is absolutely irrelevant."
  • Occasionally, give people "a very gentle nudge". This can be done over lunch or on the instant messaging boards.
  • He doesn't reply to any of his 100 daily messages, most of which beg Craigslist to do a deal. "I'm not real chatty on e-mail."
  • Put speed over perfection: "Get something out there. Do it, even if it isn't perfect."
  • "Don't screw it up by doing things that make people feel worse about their work."


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You may have heard of Craigslist. It is basically a bunch of free classified ads which started off as a mailing list, and has turned into a huge hit. (South Africa has a "me too" – Vottle).

The article as a whole is quite interesting, specifically his refusal to talk about financial figures and his whole life philosophy (which comes out quite strongly).

What I find interesting about the list above is how it ties in with Jim Collins' "Good to Great" values.