Interlude - Index of

Hypergrowth | 71
Now we have three hundred. Besides, I wrote that procedure
myself.”
When new people were fixing the problems of the past, I
cautioned them not to complain too loudly about the “moron
who designed this system.” I said, “You’ll design a replacement
system, and after two more years of growth, the moron will
turn out to be you.” Respect your ancestors, and perhaps your
descendants will respect you.
With so many new employees coming in, we invested
heavily in training. Once a month we invited all new employees
to spend a day with the executive staff. Most of the executives
described the goals for their particular part of the company,
but I wanted to give people a sense of how hypergrowth
feels. I tried to inoculate them against the pain by warning
them about it. Growth is exciting, and it creates opportunity—
not only for the company but also for people’s careers. They
can withstand the pain more easily if they see it as a natural
side effect of something healthy.
One thing I fought during those talks was simple disbelief.
When NetApp was 250 people, I put up a spreadsheet showing
that in three years we would have 2,000 people. It was natural
for people to doubt, but if they don’t believe, they won’t even
try, so I told stories about other companies that had done it, like
Oracle, Cisco, and Sun. Many ingredients are required to sustain
such fast growth—good products, good sales, a large enough
market opportunity—but one critical factor is deciding to grow.
••
Given the pain of doubling, many wondered why NetApp
should grow so fast. Couldn’t we serve our customers better if