Program Content:
This BetterManagement author interview is based on the book by the same title. Dave Hitz has written a provocative insider’s look at what it takes to succeed in today’s volatile marketplace. The author shares not only the lessons learned during a remarkable career, but more important how he learned them.
The book’s title is a metaphor for risk. An engineer at heart, Hitz looks at risk as something that can be managed. The feeling can be uncomfortable. But, pushing beyond the familiar and safe is where the really significant turning points in life occur.
Dave Hitz is a co-founder and executive vice president at NetApp. This Silicon Valley technology icon was started with little more than big dreams and plans sketched on a napkin. Through a cycle of boom, bust, and recovery, Hitz has seen it all. The book provides a compelling tale of NetApp’s creation, search for funding, struggle for survival, and ultimate success.
Who Should Attend:
- Entrepreneurs seeking to learn lessons from someone who has been there, done that
- Those who are responsible for managing today’s complex organizations at a time of great change and uncertainty
- Business leaders in charge of creating an empowered and resilient workplace culture.
Take Away Messages:
- Change creates opportunity
- How to manage and evaluate risk
- How to trust people to do the right things
- Why investing in a down economy makes sense
About Dave Hitz, Co-founder and Executive Vice President, NetApp
Dave Hitz is co-founder and executive vice president of NetApp where he focuses on strategy and future direction of the company. NetApp is a member of the S&P 500 and the Fortune 1000.
Hitz co-founded NetApp with James Lau and Michael Malcolm and has served as a programmer, marketing evangelist, technical architect, and vice president of engineering.
Prior to NetApp, Hitz worked as a software engineer at Auspex and MIPS. Before his career in the computer industry, Hitz worked as a cowboy, where he got valuable management experience by herding, branding, and castrating cattle. Hitz holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University.
