January 19: “Non-negotiables,” letters from Theranos
A glimpse into Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes “non-negotiable" business practices written by her COO.
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Source: U.S. vs Elizabeth Holmes
Published: December 2021
“Non-negotiables,” letters from Theranos
Elizabeth Holmes is the founder of defunct health technology company Theranos. Theranos soared in valuation after claiming to have revolutionized blood testing, yet defrauded investors.
Business practices written for Holmes by her COO (and boyfriend) Sunny Balwani are now public due to their submission as evidence during a trial. The following letter is an eye-opening glimpse into one person’s “non-negotiables.”
“Every morning I will force myself out of bed and spend 30 minutes (never a minute less) to write about what I want from my day. I will only spend time (80%+) on things that are most important to cash flow and will spend <20% on urgent and unimportant stuff.
I will never meet with anyone (direct reports especially) for more than 5 minutes unless I have written down why I am meeting with them; I will look at their file, their goals, their action items, and set and control the agenda of that 5+ minute meeting. My focus is on how they will serve the company more.”
This honestly made me cringe the first time I read it and just did again. To me it sounds like the COO subscribed to a garbled cocktail of business- and self-improvement tidbits. Ultimately, the results speak for themselves. The <20% of urgent and non-important stuff probably contained the important insights and talking to people for more than 5 minutes (letting them set an agenda) would have helped her to recognize the trouble brewing.
It also made me cringe... based on this alone, would not invest in any company Ms Holmes was running. Horrible employee experience.