Stories From a Lifetime in Business: Douglas Shinsato

Lockdown With Kumar

Douglas Shinsato is the managing director of Anthill Ventures and a member of the advisory board of Via Equity, one of Northern Europe's most successful investment firms.

Currently based out of Hawaii, Doug has been a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii and has served in senior leadership roles at many leading technology companies including IBM, Xerox, as well as on the board of Mphasis and Deloitte Japan.

I love seeking Doug's mentorship around leadership and venture building, and he has been kind enough to advise me on my journey towards tech and entrepreneurship.

Here are some key themes we talked about on this episode:

Background:

• 2:07 Growing up, Education
• 4:22 Why did Doug study law at Stanford?
• 30:32 Doug's current work adventures

Anecdotes:

• 5:42 Doug's role in deregulation of airlines and working for the US Assistant Attorney General
• 8:29 Anti-trust in the 70s and 80s compared with anti-trust now (big tech)
• 9:26 Working in Japan and learning about working in a new culture
• 12:40 Role of luck in career success -- joining MPhasis' board when they had 60 employees
• 55:27 Doug's Xerox story. Have fun along the way :)

Advice on venture building:

• 10:45 What new leaders should be really focusing on when they go about expanding their ventures?
• 34:31 Thoughts on starting up and building an early-stage team
• 37:45 On leaders
• 39:59 Amazon vs American Airlines culture
• 40:56 How is a good board helpful at a company?
• 54:21 Single most valuable trait you look for when you go about building a team or partnering with someone

Tech Trends:

• 17:22 Excitement about telemedicine and edtech
• 19:57 Why is there an opportunity to reinvent the university business model with COVID-19 as a driver of change?
• 22:37 Bigger universities vs Smaller universities

Advice to students and professionals:

• 25:36 What would you study if you were a student entering college in 2020?
• 28:54 Reinventing yourself to scale the career ladder

On Innovation and change management:

• 43:06 Kodak, Digital Equipment started off as innovators
• 48:15 Future of air travel
• 51:35 Change management is about changing management, not management processes

Productivity and Rituals:

• 15:49 Doug's routine in quarantine
• 44:39 On networking and building relationships. Role of a personal CRM 30 years ago and now
• 58:03 How greeting his wife every morning has been the game-changing ritual all these years for Doug