Fwiw this is exactly what I'd expect a product founder to do. If I wanted to work at a bank I'd go work at a bank. It's so easy for groups to over-cover-their-asses, go for maximum safety everywhere, design-by-committee all the things, etc. I think this is almost unavoidable in a large org. It's the task of a decent product minded founder to add some balance to this.
I've no idea whether Tobi gets it right, just.. this isn't necessarily a bad thing!
I mostly agree that the benefit of a product-focused founder & CEO is the ability to make judgement calls, even corrections, and get things moving faster
However, I think the more work you blow up when you do this, the more it’s reflective of a poor management style; even if it’s the right call under the circumstances, that call should almost certainly have been made earlier.
Of course we don’t live in a perfect world, and if something’s 75% done but really bad, you press the red button and stop it, even if people will be upset.
But if you’re consistently being described as a “tornado”, that says to me you’re not applying your founder judgement early enough in your company’s development process.
Amazon and Ebay operate more like banks. Which is how Shopify carved out their market share. This is a fairly mature market. It's just that the incumbents aren't great because of how slow-moving they are...
There are certainly slow-moving ecommerce platforms that I'm sure would be happy to take your business. Yet Shopify has the best product. Why do you think that is?
Blowing things up like that is mostly for people who want to feel important. It's a bad leadership model and fairly disrespectful to your employees IMO
I've no idea whether Tobi gets it right, just.. this isn't necessarily a bad thing!