Hugh Molotsi

I just finished reading Steve Job's biography by Walter Isaacson which I highly recommend.  I like top 10 lists so I compiled the biggest lessons I took away from his impressive accomplishments: 1.      Put Design First Most companies design around engineering constraints.   At Apple, design was first, like designing the computer case first and having engineering make the components fit.   I thought of the many times I’ve heard designers get pushback on their designs because of “feasibility issues”.   If we’re going to create great products, let’s rise up to the challenge of figuring out how to implement the best designs we can think of with a can-do attitude. 2.      Put Products Before Profits Steve Jobs’ describes his passion as “to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products.   Everything else was secondary.” There are numerous examples where Apple put products befo...

I had the great pleasure of having lunch with Chuck Taubman in Mountain View today.  This was my first meeting with Chuck since he interviewed me at Santa Clara University in the spring of 1989 for an intern position at Hewlett-Packard.  I've been delinquent all these years in expressing my deepest gratitude to Chuck for being instrumental in setting me off down a very blessed path in life including a career in high tech and making the US and the Bay Area my home.  Better late than never - thank you Chuck! 

Watch how Intuit is using mobile technology to build new customer solutions.

Fresh Lifelines for Youth's Board held our final board meeting of the fiscal year at Don Giovanni's restaurant in Mountain View. We celebrated a very successful year which included our 10th year anniversary and a new record for contributions from individual donors. Pictured above is (L-R) Cheryl Young, Frank Ubhaus, Alan Austin, Nancy Wright, Bill Ihrie, me, Ethan Thorman, Cathy Sandoval, Kai Chen, Art Zaragoza, and Azar Khansari. Below are more photos from the meeting.

Tonight we celebrated Fresh Lifelines for Youth's 10th Anniversary at the Stanford Faculty Club. It was a fun-filled family reunion where we got to look back on ten years of changing the lives of at-risk youth so they can become productive members of society. The 49ers foundation was our main event sponsor and we honored Dr. John York and his family with the Judge Jones Spirit Award for their many years of support and investment in FLY. In the photos: Above left is Keena Turner with my Intuit colleague Jim Trovato and me; above right is Dr. York with my wife Michelle and me; and in the bottom is my very happy photo with Christa Gannon, FLY's amazing founder and executive director. Congratulations FLY! I look forward to our 20th celebration!

We attended the 34th Annual Awards Dinner for Science and Decision Making tonight at the San Francisco Exploratorium where Intuit's founder Scott Cook received the Director's Award. We're very proud of our founder who has been a teacher and mentor to so many of us and has instilled in us Customer Driven Innovation: find an important customer problem and solve it well. Congratulations and very well deserved!

Learn about Intuit's Rotational Development Program , a great way for recent college graduates to start their careers in one of America's most admired software companies .  Here's a short video from last year where I talk about the program.

The Fresh Lifelines for Youth board wished a very fond farewell to esteemed member Sharon Grennan who officially resigned at our February 16th 2011 board meeting. Sharon has been an amazing volunteer and dedicated supporter for FLY with her deep empathy for FLY kids and her decades of experience in the juvenile justice system. Thanks Sharon for your service and best wishes to you! Sharon with board member Bill Ihrie With Executive Director Christa Gannon