How to survive and thrive in a BigCo (Ignite Talk)

This talk will go over what I’ve learned working in large companies from my strange adventure working with a bunch of MBAs in corporate strategy at Dell, to working with large companies as an industry analyst, to working with marketing and product people at large companies.

If you work at a small, cool company, you can skip this talk. The rest of us in large, slow moving companies that rely on meetings, email, and inbox 2,000 to get the daily work done need some therapy and advice for thriving in big, “dumb” companies. I’ve worked in such companies and figured out how to thrive in the “back to back meetings” world we’re taught to avoid. They’re big, slow moving, and seem to use Microsoft Office as their core innovation engine. I’ll tell you my tactics.

If people at your work always talk about “aircraft carriers” this is the talk for you.

For whatever reasons you’re there, why not make the best of it and learn how to get along and even thrive instead of letting your head explode in rage? This talk will go over what I’ve learned working in large companies from my strange adventure working with a bunch of MBAs in corporate strategy at Dell, to working with large companies as an industry analyst, to working with marketing and product people at large companies.

Here’s the 45 minute version, from Devoxx Poland 2016. Here’s a recording of the five minute, Ignite version of this talk.

Slides: short version and the long version.

I usually give this talk if I’m already speaking at a conference.

Also, I’m happy to give the 30 minute version of this talk too.