Ms. Judy Chan
* Wall Street Journal * TECHNOLOGY February 1, 2012, 9:46 p.m. ET
Memo Offers Clues to Zuckerberg Management Style
By WSJ STAFF
What's Mark Zuckerberg like as a CEO?
Facebook's IPO filing thrusts the management style of Mr. Zuckerberg center stage. The 27-year-old, who built Facebook out of his Harvard dorm room in 2004, has been described by employees as a demanding boss -- one who loves to engage in debate but isn't big on lavishing individual praise.
Employees — and now potential investors — can find some clues to his management style in a 2010 internal memo called "Working with Zuck" written by a Facebook engineer named Andrew Bosworth.
Here's the text of that memo:
Working with Zuck by Andrew Bosworth on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 11:51am.
I get asked often what it is like to work with Zuck ("Zuck" is our nickname for Mark Zuckerberg) because they want to know how to do it themselves. I don't claim to be an expert at it myself, but I've at least been around long enough to make a few useful observations, so I figured I'd share them at greater length.
1. Zuck expects debate.
I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when first working with Zuck is feeling that they can't push back. As long as I have been at Facebook, I have been impressed with how much he prefers to be part of an ongoing discussion about the product as opposed to being its dictator. There are a number of exceptions to this, of course, but that comes with the territory. In those instances where he is quite sure what he wants, I find he is quite good at making his decisions clear and curtailing unneeded debate.
Barring that, you should feel comfortable noting potential problems with a proposal of his or, even better, suggesting alternative solutions. You shouldn't necessarily expect to change his mind on the spot, but I find it is common for discussions to affect his thinking over a longer time period. Don't necessarily expect acknowledgment for your role in moving the
Memo Offers Clues to Zuckerberg Management Style
By WSJ STAFF
What's Mark Zuckerberg like as a CEO?
Facebook's IPO filing thrusts the management style of Mr. Zuckerberg center stage. The 27-year-old, who built Facebook out of his Harvard dorm room in 2004, has been described by employees as a demanding boss -- one who loves to engage in debate but isn't big on lavishing individual praise.
Employees — and now potential investors — can find some clues to his management style in a 2010 internal memo called "Working with Zuck" written by a Facebook engineer named Andrew Bosworth.
Here's the text of that memo:
Working with Zuck by Andrew Bosworth on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 11:51am.
I get asked often what it is like to work with Zuck ("Zuck" is our nickname for Mark Zuckerberg) because they want to know how to do it themselves. I don't claim to be an expert at it myself, but I've at least been around long enough to make a few useful observations, so I figured I'd share them at greater length.
1. Zuck expects debate.
I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when first working with Zuck is feeling that they can't push back. As long as I have been at Facebook, I have been impressed with how much he prefers to be part of an ongoing discussion about the product as opposed to being its dictator. There are a number of exceptions to this, of course, but that comes with the territory. In those instances where he is quite sure what he wants, I find he is quite good at making his decisions clear and curtailing unneeded debate.
Barring that, you should feel comfortable noting potential problems with a proposal of his or, even better, suggesting alternative solutions. You shouldn't necessarily expect to change his mind on the spot, but I find it is common for discussions to affect his thinking over a longer time period. Don't necessarily expect acknowledgment for your role in moving the