Shane Mastro

Professor Godby

3/25/21

Internship

A More Beautiful Question

The first question that was interesting to me was “Why do smart business people screw

up”. Clayton Christensen who was a Harvard professor saw that a number of successful, market-

leading companies in the tech sector and other industries were getting blindsided by newcomers

offering products or services that may not have been as good, but were simpler, more convenient,

and more affordable. This is important because even though the companies were doing the right

thing:  serving their customers better, improving their products, increasing their profit margins.

“They were doing exactly what they were taught in business school,”. Today business is rapidly

changing so we need to adapt our education to keep up with business. This will affect me

because working for a company that is doing everything right and has a CEO that knows how to

answer the questions is the type of company I want to work for when I get into the work field.

The next question that was important to me is “Why are we in business (And by the way

—what business are we really in?)”. Most good companies are born trying to answer a question

and solve a problem, which provides an early sense of purpose. This is shown in the example of

a furniture retailer and how they might choose to think its purpose is to sell people furniture. But

the furniture retailer could also approach the business in a different way. Its higher purpose

might be that the company brings a sense of style into the lives of those on a budget; or that it
enables people to express their creativity through home furnishings. This is important because if

the company doesn’t have a purpose then the employees will not know what they are striving to

do. This affects me because having when I’m working, I try to do everything with a purpose

because if there is a purpose, we tend to do the job better.

The third question that was important was “What if our company didn’t exist”. One of the

cofounders of Intel Andrew Grove to his partner: If we were kicked out of the company, what do

you think the new CEO would do? This is important because this question gives you a clean-

slate approach and allows you to think about your company as if there were no history and that

lets leaders to stop focusing on preexisting beliefs and structures and consider new possibilities.

This affects my actions because I want to work for a leader who can adapt and make changes

because it is needed to have a long business life.

“Will anyone follow a leader who embraces uncertainty?” was the next important thing I

read. This question was important because business leaders today need to be the “chief question-

asker” for their company. Most of the executives today were able to get to where they are today

because they could answer the questions. They usually don’t have a lot of experience with

formulating questions and only know how to ask how much or how the numbers are. This

affected me because everyone in the world can give an answer to a question but the ability to ask

the important questions is a skill, I will practice this to help me go far in the business world.

The fifth thing that was important to me was learning to fail. This is important because

you can learn from what you failed at. Also, what you do after you fail is super important

because it can make up for your past failures. This affects me all the time in sports such as

football when you make a mistake during a drive you go to the sideline and learn from what you

did wrong and correct it. In the work world it makes you want to strive to do your best every
time because I may do something wrong, but I will learn and adapt to make sure I put myself in a

better position to succeed.

The story of the tower with a marshmallow on top I thought was really interesting. So,

there was two groups one of kindergarteners and a group of Harvard MBA students and they

were given the challenge to use uncooked spaghetti sticks, string, tape, and a marshmallow to

assemble the tallest structure they could within the timeframe given. This was important because

the kindergarteners got right to work, and they would try to build it one way and if it didn’t

work, they would adapt and try another way. While, the Harvard students tried to assign jobs to

each other and didn’t have as much time to try different designs. This affected my actions

because sometimes you have to dive into things and not overthink things.

The seventh thing that was important was “What if you sleep with a question?”. This is

important because when you are stressed your brain tends to be less creative and imaginative

causing you not to be as efficient. While when you are relaxed your brain is able to be creative

and your more efficiency. So, when you are working on a hard project you should set aside time

before bed to think about your issues that you are faces that day and this will help you to relax

and it allows you to sleep and recover. This affects me because during football and track season

sometimes I really put a lot of pressure on myself and that causes me to make errors which

makes me even more annoyed. But now I will start to think of these problems before I go to

sleep so that I will become more relaxed and better in my sports.

The last important thing I found was giving form to a question. The question of how

usually is a slow and difficult march is, that is marked by failures that are likely to be beneficial

in the long run. The important of asking how makes you commit to something and makes you

look for feedback to help go down the right path. This affected my actions because before I
didn’t think of how as a commitment but, now I see the commitment of asking how and will start

to embrace this.