Billion or Bust!

Growing a Tech Company in Texas – Lanham Napier

Lanham Napier is an entrepreneur, innovator, and investor. He and his team at BuildGroup believe in providing smart capital to passionate entrepreneurs who want to build companies for the long haul. Lanham developed his ideas about risk capital through his work as CEO of Rackspace, a formerly public cloud company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up a proud Texan, enamored with the state climate, history, diversity, friendliness, and traditions. In his adolescence, Lanham developed a driving desire to improve the world through creating jobs for people (especially Texans). On a date with the woman he would soon marry, he said about himself, “I want to create jobs.”

Lanham went to Rice University and then Harvard Business School, and he became knowledgeable about high finance through jobs at Merrill Lynch and a private equity fund. When the internet boom hit in the 1990s, Rackspace.com, a managed hosting company founded by several San Antonio innovators, came knocking at Lanham’s door. He joined as CFO, with the main responsibility for taking the company public. He considered this the ideal opportunity to create jobs. Before the company could go public, however, the economic bubble burst. Instead of raising new capital to hire people, Lanham oversaw large-scale layoffs–not at all what he had envisioned.

Lanham became president of Rackspace and helped Rackers focus on generating profits and making the company as financially self-sustaining as possible. Under his leadership, and with a dedicated and motivated team, the company gained dominance in its industry-leading Fanatical SupportTM offering—a differentiated service that gained Rackspace thousands of small and large-business customers. After Lanham was promoted to CEO, the once-tiny cloud company grew so quickly, it converted a defunct mall into phenomenal new headquarters and underwent an IPO. By the time Lanham left in 2014, Rackspace served over 300,000 customers and had over a billion in revenues and $5 billion in market value. It also employed over 5,000 people, largely in the San Antonio area.

Lanham details the replacement of one set of ‘managed hosting’ competitors (telecom companies) by a new set of cloud competitors—Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Their aggressive entry into the cloud space beginning around 2006 forced Rackspace to continuously differentiate its high-quality offerings, doubling down on Fanatical Support and developing new products and services. The stresses of this tsunami of competition that collectively held cash stores unrivaled in business history caused a formerly strong partnership among Rackspace executives to pull at the seams. The deterioration of the partnership had repercussions at the board and investor levels, as well. Without leadership consensus, the pressing decisions Lanham needed to make as CEO (and board member) took longer and became harder. Lanham’s ability to operate with urgency and clear direction became a daily battle, and he left the company.

Using Comic Books in the Classroom

When using a comic book, business educators have the opportunity to develop these business competencies in students. Such competencies are in high demand in the business workplace.

Ask students to:

  • SUMMARIZE and SYNTHESIZE the actions, images, people, and topics.
  • DEVELOP ARGUMENTS about and CRITICALLY APPRAISE key actions and decisions made by executives.
  • OFFER SUPPORT for their arguments using text and facts.
  • REFLECT ON how the comic book characters’ views and actions compare and contrast to their own.
  • SHOW CURIOSITY about business leaders through asking questions of the main subject/CEO, if the LIVE VIDEO VISIT option is chosen by educators.

Using CEO Memoirs & Biographies in the Classroom

Memoirs and biographies combine the case method with more immersive and experiential learning because readers are immersed in the story and narrative. Narratives are arguably the most effective way to teach and learn in general. Studies have shown that students consistently recall information tied to storytelling better than material presented without storytelling. Organizational psychologists have found that learning from a well-told story is remembered “far longer” than learning derived from facts and figures and that facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if they’re part of a story.

Braun Collection books and comic books enable business educators to use narrative to enhance the learning experience of their students. Further, it seems that people who read narratives that “oscillate” (i.e., the narratives do not offer a story of clear ascent or descent but rather a story of oscillating successes and failures) have better resilience later in their own lives and careers when making their own decisions. This is because they have reference points (the prior narratives) that consist of patterns of oscillation as opposed to clear-cut ascent or descent2. As we know in real life, decisions rarely involve clear-cut ascent or descent situations. Braun Collection materials do  show neither deeply flawed heroes nor perfect decision makers, rather people who deal with the ups and downs of the issues and
opportunities in their lives and careers.

When using a True Business Adventure Tale (CEO memoir or biography), business educators have the opportunity to develop these business competencies in students. Such competencies are in high demand in the business workplace.

Ask students to:

  • SUMMARIZE the actions, people, and topics and SYNTHESIZE all the information into the theme of the book. Synthesizing key topics and themes is important in business.
  • DEVELOP ARGUMENTS about and CRITICALLY APPRAISE key actions and decisions made by executives. Being able to develop and appraise various actions is important in business.
  • OFFER SUPPORT for their arguments using text and facts as opposed to pure opinion and conjecture. Knowing how to offer factual, even if not scientific, evidence is important in business.
  • REFLECT ON how the subjects and authors views and actions compare and contrast to their own. A level of appropriate reflection is shown to build a level of warmth and relationships that matter for business.
  • SHOW CURIOSITY about business leaders through asking questions of the authors, if the LIVE VIDEO VISIT option is chosen by educators. Asking good questions is a vital business skill.