After 10 years, I’ve learned building a business that endures means creating an organization that can adapt when reality inevitably changes.

It’s a strange moment to write about what makes companies last, with global uncertainty at historically high levels and leaders being asked to make huge bets on AI, talent and where the world is going. At the same time, employees are nine times more likely to be engaged when they believe their company has a secure future. 

Consider those two findings for a second: The defining tension of building a company today is that the ground is shakier than ever, and the people you lead need more steadiness than ever. That tension is exactly what the last decade of building Ninety has been about. 

I spent years as an investor and board member watching capable teams struggle with the same problems: lack of shared vision, cultures without purpose, priorities that didn’t translate into coordinated work and leaders who didn’t have a connected view of how their company was running. I founded Ninety to build the business operating system I kept wishing those companies had. In doing so, I started living these problems from the inside. 

On our 10th anniversary, here are 10 lessons I learned the hard way.

That’s what attracts and retains great people . I keep coming back to the old Drucker line that culture eats strategy for breakfast. For me, that is how enduring organizations work. Ninety was never trying to be the cheapest tool or the one with the most features.

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