Company Memos

I find internal company memos interesting in terms of their impact on the organization and learning value. Here's a compilation of a few unique internal company memos. I'm always on the lookout for new/unique memos; if you have a suggestion, feel free to send me a note.

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    • Satya Nadella's first letter as CEO to employees
      Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation. Finally, I truly believe that each of us must find meaning in our work. The best work happens when you know that it's not just work, but something that will improve other people's lives. This is the opportunity that drives each of us at this company.

    • Jeff Bezos Day One letter of 1997
      Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.
      To be sure, this kind of decline would happen in extreme slow motion. An established company might harvest Day 2 for decades, but the final result would still come.

    • Bill Gates' Internet Tidal Wave Memo
      Bill Gates' memo, "The Internet Tidal Wave," to all Microsoft executive staff, where he makes clear his intention to focus the company's efforts online with immediate effect and "assign the Internet the highest level of importance," calling it, "the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981."

    • Google's Larry Page & Sergey Brin write very founders' letter, 2004
      Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one. Throughout Google’s evolution as a privately held company, we have managed Google differently. We have also emphasized an atmosphere of creativity and challenge, which has helped us provide unbiased, accurate and free access to information for those who rely on us around the world.

    • Stephen Elop’s ‘Burning Platform’ memo to Nokia Employees, Feb 2011
      Full text of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's "Burning Platform" memo, which bemoans missed opportunities and identifies multiple strategic challenges to the mobile phone company. Of course, the course he set the company then was another burning platform in itself.

    • Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's memo to employees after its disappointing IPO