Comments on: The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/ Entrepreneurship and Conservation Tue, 29 May 2012 21:23:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Tech. Entrepreneurs – Recommended Reading « Communications Strategy http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-25779 Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:57:17 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-25779 [...] Blank on how the transition to professional management can have unintended consequences as a startup matures; more from Steve on the same theme [...]

]]> By: John hewitt http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-19397 Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:47:26 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-19397 The worst thing is the group of new managers and financial execs who propose eliminating this free stuff gets a hefty raise and the engineers working their pants off are notices less when the companies grow.

]]> By: Nick http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-7184 Mon, 20 Dec 2010 14:34:39 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-7184 You didn’t read until the end? “As startups scale…” describes what needs to happen.

]]> By: The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free « Buenos Aires Garage http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-7165 Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:49:46 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-7165 [...] muy bueno que encontre hoy de steve blank: http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%E2%80%93-soda%E2%80%99s-are-no-longer… [...]

]]> By: Christian Hudon http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-4061 Wed, 19 May 2010 23:11:23 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-4061 How about an alternate universe where the CFO at the board meeting says: “This is the amount of money we waste every year by running ineffective meetings. Let’s cut that by at least 50% by the end of this fiscal year by teaching all our managers, etc. to run effective meetings and making an effort to eliminate meetings where a less costly form of communication would do just as well.”

One can dream… :-)

]]> By: hardlyb http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-3188 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:29:51 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-3188 I’ve been through this transition at startups, but I also went through it at Oracle, where I worked for several years. The company was very large when I started (at least 15,000), but it was much bigger when I left, and it had become even more “professionally managed”. These changes weren’t all bad – the company was more profitable, which I appreciated as a stockholder – but there was less “love for the engineers”, which made it much easier to leave. I had been very surprised at how good a place to work it was for engineers even though it was so huge, but eventually it was just a job.

]]> By: steveblank http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2481 Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:41:59 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2481 Kassy,
That’s why you have the best public affairs agency I know.

steve

]]> By: Kassy Perry http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2478 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:18:56 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2478 Steve, I still offer free soft drinks and snack and my company just turned 14……keeping people happy is the name of the game. Great post.

]]> By: Yuri Ammosov http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2295 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:24:02 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2295 Also. I am not sure if you read the seminal Tversky-Kanheman study in behavioral economics on loss aversion (that earned Kanheman a Novel’06) but the soda case fits this study like a hand fits a glove. Principally, Tversky and Kanheman found out that people feel much worse when they lose something rather when they do not gain this something.

http://www.mudancasclimaticas.andi.org.br/download.php?path=1heobe896kls8t7vab26.pdf

In other words, the CFO did not do her MBA homework, else she would knew that engineers must be given something nice and less costly in exchange for taking away soda – and they would still think they are in engineering heaven.

]]> By: Yuri Ammosov http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2284 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:17:10 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2284 But does a startup need engineers at all anymore? All tech jobs can be outsourced to low-paid Indian code-crunchers. All the company ever needs now is C-level employees and salespeople.

]]> By: Lifeguard1999 http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2258 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:26:01 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2258 I work in such an environment. However, I have found a way around it. I manage a small team. We went out and bought our own refrigerator, and stock it with our own Cokes. At the end of the week, we have our own Pizza Friday. I have made sure that we have room in our budget for training and travel. While other areas of the company have lost people, we have grown over the last seven years and we have won awards for our work.

I can not change the Corporation. I can change what I have control over. Also, it is not the free cokes, pizza, &c. It is the environment and the camaraderie. While I am the manager of the group, it is a group effort that we all work at maintaining.

]]> By: DaveinSV http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2257 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:20:19 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2257 Hmmm……does a company want an engineer who can’t do simple math. 50 cents for a soda and a IPO payday worth millions of $$ in the near future or free soda and another four years to a potential IPO payday at another firm. The CFO made the right call, prune the stupid.

]]> By: Guy http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2246 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:10:35 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2246 It typically ends with the business experiencing “tough economic conditions”. Unhappy customers. Less sales. Less revenue and profit. Death spiral. CxO’s are very good at making excuses as to why that happened while still extracting a huge salary.

]]> By: dw http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2244 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:57:57 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2244 or workers in low cost countries maybe?

]]> By: For Want Of A Free Coke, The Company Was Lost « The Modern Strategist http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2243 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:36:46 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2243 [...] edit: I found the original blog post to be even better and funnier, titled “The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free.”) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Bored? Want some free stuff to [...]

]]> By: jon livesey http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2242 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:49:29 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2242 I think the real error here was that the engineers found out about the policy change via a notice on the soda machine. That’s insulting.

At the last start-up I was at, the CEO gave the floor to the CFO at an all-hands, and the CFO then explained to us how much we were spending on sodas and snacks, and invited comments. the consensus was that we were willing to pay ‘something”.

That something turned out to be a quarter, and three months later the CFO was able to announce that consumption had fallen to a quarter of what it had been.

Incidentally, that start-up eventually failed, but I doubt this had anything to do with it.

]]> By: Been there many times http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2232 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:35:39 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2232 Phase four in corporate growth is when only the once newly hired CFO and the upper echelons of management remain ‘onshore’ due to cost concerns…

]]> By: Daily Digest for December 24th | Reading Muzaki http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2228 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:35:56 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2228 [...] The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free [...]

]]> By: Not An Engineer http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2219 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:40:02 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2219 You typically find that senior management continues to fly private jets and stay at the Ritz while the workers lose free sodas. Great morale message.

]]> By: Steve Weiss http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%e2%80%93-soda%e2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/#comment-2217 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:53:11 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4461#comment-2217 Why is it that free sodas is often considered a luxury, while free coffee is considered a necessity? If you get rid of sodas, get rid of free coffee and tea.

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