Large companies like Rippling and TripActions maintain innovation velocity by creating "carved out" teams for new, "zero to one" initiatives. This organizational strategy provides singular focus, empowering a small group to execute with the intensity and speed of an early-stage startup without corporate distractions.

BrewDog operated on "dog years," a philosophy of extreme speed. The goal was to accomplish tasks in a fraction of the time a normal company would take (e.g., one day instead of one week). This urgency, combined with adaptability, was fundamental to their rapid growth and nimbleness.

Large corporations can avoid stagnation by intentionally preserving the "scrappy" entrepreneurial spirit of their early days. This means empowering local teams and market leaders to operate with an owner's mindset, which fosters accountability and keeps the entire organization agile and innovative.

CEO declarations of "war mode" are often ineffective rhetoric. True urgency is felt in "hyperaggressive mode," a rare and unnatural state where the entire management team exhibits palpable tension and increased velocity. It's not about talk; it's a smellable, tangible increase in execution speed across all functions.

As companies grow from 30 to 200 people, they naturally become slower. A CEO's critical role is to rebuild the company's operating model, deliberately balancing bottom-up culture with top-down strategic planning to regain speed and ensure everyone is aligned.

To instill extreme speed, Sequoia's Doug Leone challenges founders by asking why their growth plan isn't 3x more ambitious. This forces an honest discussion about the true bottlenecks—the "rocks in the river" like funding or hiring. The board's job then becomes helping the CEO remove those specific obstacles.

A core 3G management principle is for leadership to define the strategic goals (the "what"). However, teams are given complete autonomy to determine the execution methods (the "how"). This pushes decision-making closer to the problems and attracts top talent who thrive on freedom and problem-solving.

To create a high-velocity culture, managers must actively pull deadlines forward. Don't just accept a proposed timeline. Ask what's blocking it, question the actual work hours required, and repeatedly challenge why it can't be done sooner.

The company culture is driven by a weekly mantra: "What is the one thing that you will put unreasonable effort to this week to contribute towards our most important goal?" This framing forces extreme focus and intensity, elevating execution beyond simply working hard on high-priority objectives.