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Either click here to review your order or continue to add content from another title.    What Venture Trends Can Tell You   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Meehan, William F., III; Lemmens, Ron ; Cohler, Matthew R. Publication Date: 07/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: F0307D Subjects: Investment management; Investments; Venture capital; Risk assessment; Corporate strategy Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: New research from McKinsey suggests what the inevitable shakeout in the venture capital industry heralds for the broader business community.    Emerging life sciences ventures: The quest for legitimacy   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Kuratko, Donald F.; Brown, Travis J. Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH381 Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurs; Start-ups; Investors; Stakeholders Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: As an emerging life sciences venture, gaining legitimacy (credibility) with external stakeholders (e.g., investors) is a critical challenge in today's environment. This quest for legitimacy relates to issues that focus on the individual, the environment, and the process. Integrating insights gained from interviews with three CEOs of life sciences companies along with the academic literature, we provide guidance for entrepreneurs regarding the unique challenges facing life sciences ventures. We propose that these ventures are driven by a “quest for legitimacy” and that life sciences entrepreneurs therefore must be aware of the strategic issues which impact legitimacy in the eyes of external stakeholders (e.g., investors).    How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Isenberg, Daniel J. Publication Date: 06/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1006A Subjects: Economic development; Entrepreneurship; Business & government Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Studies from around the globe consistently link entrepreneurship with rapid job creation, GDP growth, and long-term productivity increases. That's why the new holy grail for governments in both emerging and developed countries is to create an environment that nurtures and sustains entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, many governments take a misguided approach to building entrepreneurship ecosystems. They pursue some unattainable ideal and look to economies that are completely unlike theirs for best practices. However, today the most effective practices often come from remote corners of the earth, where resources-as well as legal frameworks, transparent governance, and democratic values-may be scarce. Drawing from lessons learned in such countries as Rwanda, Chile, Iceland, Israel, and Colombia, this article defines nine principles for building a successful entrepreneurship ecosystem: (1) Stop emulating Silicon Valley. (2) Shape the ecosystem around local conditions. (3) Engage the private sector early. (4) Favor the high potentials. (5) Get a big win on the board. (6) Tackle cultural change head-on. (7) Stress the roots. (8) Don't overengineer clusters; help them grow organically. (9) Reform legal, regulatory, and bureaucratic frameworks. Each of these is critical to entrepreneurship-yet insufficient to sustain it. They key is to integrate them all into one holistic system.    A New Alliance for Global Change   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Drayton, Bill; Budinich, Valeria Publication Date: 09/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1009C Subjects: Developing countries; Entrepreneurs; Social enterprise; Strategic alliances; Social responsibility Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: The citizen sector, composed of millions of groups worldwide that are attempting to address critical social needs, has long been regarded as understaffed and inefficient. But it has grown and matured over the past three decades, say the authors, both of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. Citizen sector organizations (CSOs) are attracting talented and creative leaders, and their work is changing the game in critical industries such as energy and health care. For-profit companies now have an opportunity to collaborate with CSOs to create new markets for reaching the four billion people who are not yet part of the world's formal economy. The power of such collaborations lies in the complementary strengths of the partners: Business offers scale, expertise in manufacturing and operations, and financing. Social entrepreneurs offer lower costs, strong social networks, and deep insights into potential customers and communities. The authors call this framework the hybrid value chain. In one example, Colceramica, a Colombian manufacturer of kitchen and bathroom tile, collaborated with the human-rights organization Kairos, which recruited and managed a sales force of previously unemployed women, to reach a low-income market. Within three years sales had grown to nearly $12 million; the living conditions of more than 28,000 families had been improved; and 179 saleswomen were each earning $230 a month.    Beating the Odds When You Launch a New Venture   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Gilbert, Clark G.; Eyring, Matthew J. Publication Date: 05/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1005G Subjects: Entrepreneurs; Risk assessment; Risk management Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Despite the popular image of entrepreneurs as risk-loving cowboys, the reality is that great entrepreneurs don't take risks-they manage them. The authors counsel managers to recognize that not all risks are created equal: When you're launching a new venture, first consider deal-killer risks that, if left unexamined, could kill the whole business. Next tackle the risks that could sabotage the project if it took a path you're not currently anticipating. Then focus on high-ROI risks-the questions you can answer without spending much money (but that will trip you up if left unanswered). Once you've identified the most important risks facing your new venture, manage those risks the way the best venture capitalists do: Spend a little bit of money at a time; create experiments that will test your assumptions; keep your timeline as short as you can; test only one thing at a time; and listen carefully for what an experiment's results are really telling you. Hint: You should be trying to prove that your assumptions are wrong, not simply to confirm your own biases.    Making Social Ventures Work   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Thompson, James D.; MacMillan, Ian C. Publication Date: 09/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1009D Subjects: Developing countries; Business plans; Entrepreneurship; Competitive strategy; Social enterprise Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Entrepreneurs can play a central role in finding solutions to the world's toughest social problems. The failure rate for start-ups, however, is high. And new ventures in emerging economies face such challenges as uncertain prices and costs, nonexistent or unreliable infrastructure, and unpredictable competitive responses. The authors offer guidelines for launching successful businesses in uncertain markets. One of those guidelines, discovery-driven planning (a well-known process developed by MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath), helps managers test their assumptions about preliminary business models and revise them on the basis of emerging data. The remainder were informed by the authors' efforts, with the Wharton Societal Wealth Program, to help launch socially beneficial ventures in Africa and the United States. Those guidelines include outlining the minimum number of people a venture should serve and the minimum level of profitability it should achieve; identifying important stakeholders; planning how to terminate the venture in an acceptable manner; and anticipating unintended consequences of the enterprise. The lessons aren't just for entrepreneurs. The management teams of multinationals, foundations, and NGOs can apply them to any challenging and highly uncertain business situation. In doing so, they can better control their costs, minimize the effects of surprises, and increase their impact on society.    The High-Intensity Entrepreneur   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Habiby, Anne S.; Coyle, Deirdre M., Jr. Publication Date: 09/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1009E Subjects: Global business; Economic growth; Emerging markets; Entrepreneurs Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: The popular take on entrepreneurs in the developing world is that they are few in number and run only microbusinesses. But in a two-year study of entrepreneurship in emerging markets, Habiby and Coyle, of AllWorld Network, uncovered hundreds of high-potential ventures poised for significant growth. Many were in surprising markets like South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan-economies dominated by top-down government policy, large business groups, and social elites. The ventures AllWorld encountered were far from microenterprises. They included companies like Bayt.com, the leading job search site in the Middle East, which attracts 4.5 million job seekers; and Airblue, of Pakistan, the world's first totally paperless airline. They generate large numbers of jobs, create industries, and open new markets. When it comes to educational and employment backgrounds, the entrepreneurs running these companies look just like their Western counterparts. But notable differences do exist: The company builders that AllWorld identified in emerging markets launch 25% more businesses; they have higher success rates; and the vast majority are serial entrepreneurs. These ventures represent new channels for growth for multinationals and investors. For developing nations, they could be the path to progress and prosperity. To realize their potential, however, these firms need global customers, talent, and capital, and that means getting on the global radar screen.    Assessing the Franchise Option   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Tikoo, Surinder By 2005, franchise systems will account for an estimated one-half of U.S. retail sales. But prospective franchisors need to consider carefully whether to expand a business by franchising or by opening company-owned outlets. The advanta HBS Number: BH009 Type: Business Horizons Article Publication Date: 5/15/1996 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Entrepreneurship; Expansion; Franchising; Growth strategy; Marketing strategy; Retailing Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University    Bootstrap Finance: The Art of Start-Ups   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Bhide, Amar V. Entrepreneurship is more popular than ever: courses are full, policymakers emphasize new ventures, managers yearn to go off on their own. Would-be founders often misplace their energies, however. Believing in a "big money" model of entrepreneurship, they spend a lot of time trying to attract investors instead of using wits and hustle to get their ideas off the ground. A study of 100 of the 1989 Inc. "500" list of fastest growing U.S. start-ups attests to the value of bootstrapping. In fact, what it takes to start a business often conflicts with what venture capitalists require. Seven principles are basic for successful start-ups: get operational fast; look for quick break-even, cash-generating projects; offer high-value products or services that can sustain direct personal selling; don't try to hire the crack team; keep growth in check; focus on cash; and cultivate banks early. HBS Number: 92601 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1992 Subjects: Development stage enterprises; Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurship; Small business; Venture capital    Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Akula, Vikram Publication Date: 06/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0806B Subjects: Customer retention; Loans; Microfinance; Poverty Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: A decade after founding SKS Microfinance, CEO Akula explains how to make money at the bottom tier of the economic pyramid while raising the living standards of the people who occupy it. His company, which provides many small-business loans and other financial services to poor women in India, has a customer base that has been nearly tripling each year and now numbers more than 2 million. Akula attributes his firm's success in part to heeding three principles: Adopt a profit-oriented approach in order to access commercial capital; boost capacity by standardizing products, training, and other processes; and use the latest technology to reduce costs and limit errors. Collectively, these for-profit maxims reflect a rethinking of the conventional microfinance model, which simply aims to break even. Instead, SKS scales up to achieve growth; the margins are razor thin, but the volume is staggering — 160,000 new customers every month. Numbers like that give the company great leverage with partners — insurers, telecom providers, consumer goods manufacturers, and so on — whose products SKS's clients need. Customers are indeed central to Akula's enterprise. Every SKS loan officer is required to do what's best for the client, even if it undermines the firm's short-term interests. That means everything from traveling far and wide to meet with prospective borrowers on their schedules to scratching out repayment plans in the dirt with them. Such commitment scales up customer loyalty, which ultimately improves the fortunes of not only the clients themselves but also the company and its investors.    Can Microcredit Work in the United States?   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Bhatt, Nitin; Painter, Gary; Tang, Shui-Yan Lending small amounts of cash to fledgling entrepreneurs has been successful in developing countries but hasn't worked as well in America. The authors suggest reforms for U.S. microcredit programs. HBS Number: F99604 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1999 Subjects: Credit; Entrepreneurial finance; Loan evaluation; Loans    Can Small Business Help Countries Compete?   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Howard, Robert The latest research on the role of small business in the economy identifies three intriguingly counterintuitive claims. First, small business is most important where it is least predominant -- manufacturing. Second, the real issue isn't size, it's industrial organization -- the quality of relationships tying small companies to big companies and to each other. Third, a country's capacity to build strong protection networks of this kind constitutes a new form of competitive advantage -- one in which the United States is relatively weak. HBS Number: 90604 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1990 Subjects: Competition; International trade; Manufacturing; Small business    Case of the Endangered Entrepreneurs   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Karr, Mary First Line was about to launch a business software product. Its distributor, Microchannels, who was recently acquired by a large outfit with deep pockets, was in a tailspin. It had made a poor acquisition of its own and had exceeded First Line's credit limits. Still, the distributor wanted 100% credit on its new order of video games, as well as deep discounts and a liberal returns policy. Four small business experts - Leland B. Goldberg, partner at Coopers & Lybrand; Bert I. Helfinstein, chairman, president, and CEO of Entre Computer Centers, Inc.; Karen N. Horn, chairman and CEO of Bank One of Cleveland; and Harvey C. Krentzman, president of Advanced Management Associates - discuss this case and the questions that First Line faces: How can it generate cash? Should it talk to its distributor's new owner? Should it switch distributors? HBS Number: 88604 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1988 Subjects: Distribution planning; Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurship; Financial management; HBR Case Discussions; Small business    Citizen Sector: Becoming as Entrepreneurial and Competitive as Business   Add   View  14 pp.  Article Author(s): Drayton, William Publication Date: 04/01/2002 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: William Drayton founded Ashoka in 1980 to use a venture capital model to support social entrepreneurs, namely, practical visionaries who are committed to social change. The primary objective of Ashoka is to identify social entrepreneurs around the globe, who then receive Ashoka Fellowships that provide both financial and professional support. To be chosen, each prospective fellow goes through a rigorous search and selection process. Fellows receive a living stipend (typically for 3 years) and they join the Global Fellowship--a worldwide network of social entrepreneurs. Since 1982, over 1,100 Ashoka Fellows have been selected in 41 countries. Ashoka Fellows work in 6 areas: learning/education, environment, health, human rights, civic participation, and economic development. HBS Number: CMR231 Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit organizations; Social change; Social issues Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Creating the Most Frightening Company on Earth: An Interview with Andy Law of St   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Law, Andy; Coutu, Diane L. Though only five years old, employee-owned St. Luke's Communications has become one of the most talked about advertising agencies in the United Kingdom, increasing its profits eightfold. Chairman and cofounder Andy Law attributes the f HBS Number: R00504 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/2000 Subjects: Advertising; Advertising management; Advertising media; Advertising strategy; Creativity; Employee empowerment; Interviews; Organizational change    Discard Many Old Rules About Getting Venture Capital/Quasi Boards   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Timmons, Jeffry A.; Gumpert, David E.; Fox, Harold W. This "Growing Concerns" column contains two brief articles on small business management. The first dispels several popular myths about venture capital, and describes rules that still hold. The second article describes quasi-boards (small business advisory councils). Quasi-boards perform many of the functions of conventional boards but without the same legal power and accountability. HBS Number: 82112 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1982 Subjects: Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurship; Small business; Venture capital    Does the Market Know Your Company’s Real Worth?   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Stancill, James McNeill Small developing companies can influence their analyst-assigned valuations by considering that not all financial criteria are objective. Industry classification, earnings patterns, per share earnings and stock price, listed versus OTC stock, the state of the stock market, and dividend prices all help determine a company's P/E multiple. HBS Number: 82509 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1982 Subjects: Financial management; Small business; Stock offerings; Valuation    Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Moon, Youngme Publication Date: 03/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Sony's first household robot, AIBO, couldn't do much of anything useful. By reframing AIBO as a pet, the company found a way to capitalize on the product's imperfections and attract an unusually diverse group of new customers. HBS Number: F0403A Subjects: Consumer goods; Innovation; Product development; Product positioning; Robots; Technology Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Dream Deferred: The Story of a High-Tech Entrepreneur in a Low-Tech World   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Maddy, Monique Adesemi, an American start-up in Africa, had been trying for six years to blanket the developing world with desperately needed wireless communications services. It had raised more than $15 million in venture capital and launched the wo HBS Number: R00307 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/2000 Subjects: Africa; Developing countries; Emerging markets; Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Telecommunications; Venture capital    Enterprising Nonprofits   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Dees, J. Gregory Because they face rising costs, more competition for fewer donations and grants, and increased rivalry from for-profit companies entering the social sector, many nonprofit organizations are looking for commercial ways to raise more funds. For example, San Francisco's Delaney Street program for addicts has opened a restaurant staffed by clients, which helps pay the bills while providing on-the-job training. There are many such opportunities but also many pitfalls in this approach. Professor J. Gregory Dees of the Harvard Business School offers a framework to help nonprofit leaders figure out when commercial activities will or will not work. HBS Number: 98105 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1998 Subjects: Nonprofit organizations; Social enterprise    Entrepreneurs: Invent a Brand Name or Revive an Old One?   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Bellman, Lawrence M. Publication Date: 05/15/2005 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Discusses launching an entrepreneurial venture by acquiring a once popular brand name and reviving it. Ten executives were interviewed who acquired dormant brands and successfully relaunched them into the market. Their comments suggest that, with proper planning, an entrepreneur may be able to increase chances of success substantially by reviving brands, rather than spending the enormous amount of capital required to build a new brand image. Conclusions suggest that nostalgia targeting is not enough; the revived brand must be repositioned to satisfy today's customer values. Evidence also suggests that licensing a revived brand name to unrelated industries may prove very profitable for the entrepreneur. HBS Number: BH121 Subjects: Brands; Entrepreneurship; Interviews; Licensing Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Entrepreneurship Reconsidered: The Team as Hero   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Reich, Robert B. Two stories illustrate the American way of thinking about entrepreneurship. The first is the story of the entrepreneurial hero--found in every story by Horatio Alger--who uses energy, effort, daring, and good luck to rise in the world. But the story has an unhappy ending. The second story holds more promise, focusing not on the individual but on the team, as in Tracy Kidder's description of how a group of engineers pooled their talents to design a new computer. The differences between these two versions are profound. The first celebrates the individual and the second celebrates the group--even the organization. HBS Number: 87309 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1987 Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Small business; Teams    Everything You (Don’t) Want to Know About Raising Capital   Added   View  6 pp.  Article Sander, Dale A.; Timmons, Jeffry A. Many built-in problems and risks await the entrepreneur who is searching for capital. Being aware of the realities can help - realities like that raising money costs a lot. The process also drains managers' time and energy, which can make the business suffer. Delegating the capital search by hiring advisers to do the negotiating can also backfire if you don't choose the right adviser - one that will tailor the search to your needs. HBS Number: 89613 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1989 Subjects: Capital markets; Entrepreneurship; Small business; Venture capital    Finding Your Innovation Sweet Spot   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Goldenberg, Jacob; Horowitz, Roni; Levav, Publication Date: 03/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0303J Subjects: Innovation; Product design; Product development Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Most new product ideas are either uninspired or impractical. So how can developers hit the innovation sweet spot — far enough from existing products to attract real interest but close enough that they are feasible to make and market? They can apply five innovation patterns that manipulate existing components of a product and its immediate environment to come up with something both ingenious and viable, say the authors. The subtraction pattern works by removing product components, particularly those that seem desirable or indispensable. Think of the legless high chair that attaches to the kitchen table. The multiplication pattern makes one or more copies of an existing component, then alters those copies in some important way. For example, the Gillette double-bladed razor features a second blade that cuts whiskers at a slightly different angle. By dividing an existing product into its component parts — the division pattern — you can see something that was an integrated whole in an entirely different light. Think of the modern home stereo — it has modular speakers, tuners, and CD and tape players, which allow users to customize their sound systems. The task unification pattern involves assigning a new task to an existing product element or environmental attribute, thereby unifying two tasks in a single component. An example is the defrosting filament in an automobile windshield that also serves as a radio antenna. Finally, the attribute dependency pattern alters or creates the dependent relationships between a product and its environment. For example, by creating a dependent relationship between lens color and external li    Five Stages of Small Business Growth   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Churchill, Neil C.; Lewis, Virginia L. A five-stage framework will help owners to determine their company's stage of development and how to ensure a profitable future. It is also useful to consultants and accountants in diagnosing problems and matching solutions to smaller organizations. The five stages are existence, survival, success (with the substages of disengagement and growth), take-off, and resource maturity. Each stage has an index of size, diversity, and complexity. HBS Number: 83301 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1983 Subjects: Entrepreneurial management; Small business    Getting the Most from Your Banking Relationship/A Business Plan Is More Than a F   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Stancill, James McNeill; Timmons, Jeffry A. This "Growing Concerns" column contains two brief articles on entrepreneurial finance. The first gives systematic and detailed guidelines for choosing the right bank. The second uses various cases to illustrate misconceptions about business plans and how business plans may be effective. HBS Number: 80212 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1980 Subjects: Business plans; Capital investments; Entrepreneurial finance; Financial management; Small business; Venture capital    Ghost in the Family Business   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Miller, Warren D. Mac Monroe had grand plans for Georgia Building Supplies, the company he had started with a friend almost 50 years ago, selling construction materials wholesale to contractors. In the mid-1980s, Mac bought out his disgruntled partner's HBS Number: R00308 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/2000 Subjects: Distribution planning; Families & family life; Family owned businesses; HBR Case Discussions; Interpersonal relations; Small business    Go Global — or No?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Kuemmerle, Walter Publication Date: 06/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Only a few weeks ago, Greg McNally, the CEO of software start-up DataClear, had called an off-site in Montana to celebrate his company's success in racking up $5 million in sales from its first product, ClearCloud--a powerful data analysis package. But that was before his talented and successful head of sales, Susan Moskowski, gave him the news about VisiDat, a British start-up that was testing a data analysis package of its own that was only weeks away from launch. "We need to agree on a strategy for dealing with this kind of competition," Susan had told Greg. "If they start out as a global player, and we stay hunkered down in the U.S., they'll kill us." Because of that news, Greg had changed the agenda of the off-site, instead having Susan present the options for taking DataClear global. The meeting had taken place two weeks ago, at which point the consensus had been to establish a European presence and probably one in Japan. The only question seemed to be whether to do it from scratch or to form partnerships with local players. Did DataClear really need to go global? Should it instead expand into different domestic markets? Should it do both at once? Could the company afford to? Four commentators offer their advice in this fictional case study. HBS Number: R0106A Subjects: Expansion; Globalization; HBR Case Discussions; International business; International operations; Software Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Goodbye B-School   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Seelig, Jonathan; Lissy, Dana After his first year at MIT's Sloan School, Jonathan Seelig left to cofound Akamai Technologies. He reflects on his transition from the university to the Internet economy. HBS Number: F00201 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/2000 Subjects: Business education; Business schools; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Internet; Interviews    Gurus in the Garage   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Leonard, Dorothy; Swap, Walter Publication Date: 11/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Before the days of the Internet, it was primarily venture capitalists who coached young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Today, because of the phenomenal number of new companies, venture capitalists are just too busy. To fill the void, a new breed of adviser has stepped in to coach entrepreneurs. Called mentor capitalists, they help entrepreneurs with everything from recruiting top talent to attracting their first million in seed money. The mentor capitalists in Silicon Valley are cashed-out, highly successful business architects who no longer want to start businesses but who love the thrill of the entrepreneurial game. They spend hours and hours with first-time entrepreneurs, guiding them as they create and refine a business model, test their ideas in the marketplace, build business processes, raise money, and find talent. Mentor capitalists seed Silicon Valley with expertise and knowledge, augmenting or even substituting for classes in entrepreneurship at local universities. But, as the authors note, the role of the mentor capitalist is essential to any start-up, anywhere. HBS Number: R00609 Subjects: Coaching; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Mentors; Networking; New economy; Silicon Valley Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Gurus in the Garage (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Leonard, Dorothy; Swap, Walter Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Before the days of the Internet, it was primarily venture capitalists who coached young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Today, because of the phenomenal number of new companies, venture capitalists are just too busy. To fill the void, a new breed of adviser has stepped in to coach entrepreneurs. Called mentor capitalists, they help entrepreneurs with everything from recruiting top talent to attracting their first million in seed money. The mentor capitalists in Silicon Valley are cashed-out, highly successful business architects who no longer want to start businesses but who love the thrill of the entrepreneurial game. They spend hours and hours with first-time entrepreneurs, guiding them as they create and refine a business model, test their ideas in the marketplace, build business processes, raise money, and find talent. Mentor capitalists seed Silicon Valley with expertise and knowledge, augmenting or even substituting for classes in entrepreneurship at local universities. But, as the authors note, the role of the mentor capitalist is essential to any start-up, anywhere. HBS Number: 6455 Subjects: Coaching; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Mentors; Networking; New economy; Silicon Valley Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Hang On to Those Founders   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Martens, Martin L. Publication Date: 10/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Companies that retain their CEO founders when preparing for IPOs often come out ahead in the long run, says Martin L. Martens at Concordia University. HBS Number: F0510E Geographic Setting: North America Industry Setting: High technology Subjects: CEO; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; IPO Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Heart of Entrepreneurship   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Stevenson, Howard H.; Gumpert, David E. Publication Date: 03/01/1985 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Entrepreneurship is a trait that is confined neither to certain types of individuals nor to organizations. A society can do much to stimulate or inhibit the development of entrepreneurship. Government policy decisions in recent years to lower the capital gains tax and deregulate certain industries have been instrumental in encouraging establishing new businesses. College and university business programs are also instrumental in stimulation. But it’s up to individual organizations to foster conditions that allow entrepreneurship to flourish. HBS Number: 85216 Subjects: Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Government policy Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    How Can Big Companies Keep the Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Browne, John; Prokesch, Steven E. Wherever you look in business, there's a new level of interest in entrepreneurship. As attention at corporations swings away from retrenchment and toward growth, more and more people are wondering why some companies are able to stimulate creativity and initiative among their employees more effectively than others. What do those organizations do to convert intriguing ideas into commercial ventures? HBS Number: 95609 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1995 Subjects: Corporate culture; Employee compensation; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Organizational change    How Entrepreneurs Craft Strategies That Work   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Bhide, Amar V. However popular comprehensive research and planning may be in some business arenas, they don't suit the fast-moving environment of start-ups. Entrepreneurs must move quickly or opportunity may no longer exist. Theirs is a world of inge HBS Number: 94202 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1994 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Development stage enterprises; Entrepreneurship; Market research    How Long Should You Borrow Short Term?   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Viscione, Jerry A. The matching principle says, "Don't finance long-term needs with short-term capital." Small businesses, however, rarely use strict matching. By not adhering to the matching principle, small businesses incur three risks. First, when loan-renewal time comes, interest rates can be higher. Second, a lender may decide to terminate the agreement. Last, a lender might begin to make operating "suggestions" that limit the company's autonomy if payments are not met in time. To deal with these risks, small businesses that use some amount of short-term capital to finance long-term requirements need to be flexible enough to eliminate the debt in a reasonable period of time without disturbing operations. HBS Number: 86213 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1986 Subjects: Debt management; Entrepreneurial finance; Growth strategy; Short term financing; Small business    How to Write a Great Business Plan   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Sahlman, William A. Every seasoned investor knows that detailed financial projections for a new company are an act of imagination. Nevertheless, most business plans pour far too much ink on the numbers--and far too little on the information that really matters. Why? William Sahlman suggests that a great business plan is one that focuses on a series of questions. These questions relate to the four factors critical to the success of every new venture: the people, the opportunity, the context, and the possibilities for both risk and reward. A great business plan is not easy to compose, Sahlman acknowledges, largely because most entrepreneurs are wild-eyed optimists. But one that asks the right questions is a powerful tool. A better deal, not to mention a better shot at success, awaits entrepreneurs who use it. HBS Number: 97409 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1997 Subjects: Business plans; Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Planning; Venture capital    How We Built a Strong Company in a Weak Industry   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Brown, Robert Publication Date: 02/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: When Roger Brown and Linda Mason decided to start a child care and early-education company 15 years ago, they knew about the challenges inherent in the industry: no barriers to entry, low margins, few economies of scale, heavy regulatory oversight--to name just a few. But that didn't stop them. They eventually built Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a company that now has more than 340 high-quality child care centers, serving 40,000 children and employing 12,000 people. How did they do it? Sheer determination helped. But even more important, they developed a business model that took advantage of industry weaknesses. When the couple sat down to hash out a plan for the company, they realized that the key to achieving profitability and creating barriers to entry was to partner with companies. They could achieve higher returns by having those companies build and outfit the centers and, at the same time, boost customer loyalty. Brown's first-person account describes the difficulties the couple and their company faced along the way, including the struggle for funding and a board that questioned Bright Horizons' business model and basic philosophy of good child care. But, Brown says, the commitment to a singular business model and the determination to make strengths out of weaknesses made the impossible possible. HBS Number: R0102B Subjects: Business plans; Child care; Children & youth; Competitive advantage; Entrepreneurship; Strategic planning Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Japanese-Style Entrepreneurship: An Interview with SOFTBANK’s CEO, Masayoshi Son   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Son, Masayoshi; Webber, Alan M. Masayoshi Son, the founder, president, and CEO of SOFTBANK is a good example of a new Japanese-style entrepreneurship that is emerging. Originally a software distribution business, today SOFTBANK has six divisions in different businesses, all related to the personal computer. SOFTBANK also has five wholly owned subsidiaries and participates in five joint ventures. HBS Number: 92109 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1992 Subjects: Communications equipment; Entrepreneurship; Interviews; Japan; Leadership; Software    LBOs for Smaller Companies   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Stancill, James McNeill Leveraged buyouts are not just for the big guys. Money is available for buyers of smaller companies who know how to structure a deal. Borrowing against assets like equipment, inventory, and accounts receivable gives the entrepreneur the most freedom and thus remains the most popular LBO technique. If a deal is to succeed, the owner must have a compelling reason to sell. HBS Number: 88113 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1988 Subjects: Acquisitions; Entrepreneurial finance; Financial management; Leveraged buyouts; Small business    Let’s Put Consumers in Charge of Health Care   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Herzlinger, Regina E. Publication Date: 07/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0207B Industry Setting: Health care industry; Health insurance Subjects: Consumerism; Consumers; Employee benefits; Employee morale; Health care; Health care policy; Health insurance; Innovation Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Businesses spend billions on health insurance. And what do they get for their money? A lot of unhappy employees. Workers fret about the quality of the care they receive, the burden of their out-of-pocket expenses, and the gaps in their coverage. For businesses, health care has become a lose-lose proposition: They pay way too much, and they get way too little. The problem is that the health care industry has been shielded from consumer pressure — by employers, insurers, and the government. As a result, costs have exploded even as choices have narrowed. But if companies embrace a new model of health coverage — one that places control over both costs and care directly into the hands of employees — the competitive forces that spur productivity and innovation in consumer markets can be loosed upon the inefficient, tradition-bound health care system. Moving to consumer-driven health care requires that companies revamp their health benefits in six ways: Give employees incentives to shop intelligently; offer a real choice of insurance plans; charge employees prices that accurately reflect the company's costs; let providers set their own prices; adjust payments for each enrollee based on need; and provide relevant information. May be used with: (9-302-006) Consumer-Driven Health Care: Medtronic's Health Insurance Options.    Let’s Put Consumers in Charge of Health Care (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Herzlinger, Regina E. Publication Date: 07/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0207B, originally published in July 2002. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. Businesses spend billions on health insurance. And what do they get for their money? A lot of unhappy employees. Workers fret about the quality of the care they receive, the burden of their out-of-pocket expenses, and the gaps in their coverage. For businesses, health care has become a lose-lose proposition: They pay way too much, and they get way too little. The problem is that the health care industry has been shielded from consumer pressure -- by employers, insurers, and the government. As a result, costs have exploded even as choices have narrowed. But if companies embrace a new model of health coverage -- one that places control over both costs and care directly into the hands of employees -- the competitive forces that spur productivity and innovation in consumer markets can be loosed upon the inefficient, tradition-bound health care system. Moving to consumer-driven health care requires that companies revamp their health benefits in six ways: Give employees incentives to shop intelligently; offer a real choice of insurance plans; charge employees prices that accurately reflect the company's costs; let providers set their own prices; adjust payments for each enrollee based on need; and provide relevant information. HBS Number: 1415 Subjects: Consumerism; Consumers; Employee benefits; Employee morale; Health care; Health care policy; Health insurance; Innovation Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Letting Go   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Firnstahl, Timothy W. Innumerable business experts urge executives of growing companies to help themselves and their organizations by delegating responsibility. However well meaning, the dispensers of such advice usually underestimate the difficulty entrepreneurs have in giving up their cherished roles. Entrepreneurs pride themselves on their skills and talents and thrive on being in all places at once. But as their organizations expand, they can better spend their time coaching and planning rather than doing. Otherwise, their staffs can never mature, and they themselves won't have time to chart the company's future. HBS Number: 86506 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1986 Subjects: Delegation of authority; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Management styles; Participatory management; Personnel selection    Management Strategies for Small Companies   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Woodward, Herbert N. Reliance on growth of sales to solve financial dilemmas indicates weakness. Standard accounting techniques such as marginal income and break-even accounting encourage growth, but do not consider how fixed and variable overhead expenses affect profits. Cost analysis is an inadequate system; simplifying and shrinking production is the best way to ensure return on investment. Simple actions like improving the efficiency of accounts receivable procedures and reducing useless inventory frees cash quickly. Liquidating fixed assets for capital also serves to shrink overhead and improve efficiency. HBS Number: 76111 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1976 Subjects: Cost accounting; Entrepreneurial finance; Financial management; Return on investment; Small business    Milestones for Successful Venture Planning   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Block, Zenas; MacMillan, Ian C. Entrepreneurs draw up business plans for new ventures to make marketing, pricing, financial, and other projections. More often than not, though, their estimates bear little relationship to reality. Planning for new enterprises differs fundamentally from planning for existing companies, given the inherent instability of start-ups. Entrepreneurs should summarize milestone events in a project's plan in order to learn about the enterprise's viability and make adjustments in strategy and goals as necessary. Examples of ten milestones a new product or service might experience are included. HBS Number: 85503 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1985 Subjects: Development stage enterprises; Entrepreneurship; Small business    Natural-Born Entrepreneur   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Bricklin, Dan Publication Date: 09/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0108B Subjects: Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Every aspiring entrepreneur can recite the truisms of the business: Feel comfortable with risk, hire the best people, do what you love, and don't do it for the money alone. Nevertheless, the road to success can be a scramble from one slippery rock to another. And no one knows that better than Dan Bricklin, creator of VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet. In this first-person account, Bricklin, now on his fourth start-up, describes his life as an entrepreneur and professional tinkerer. In addition to the usual suspects for creating a business — solid training, talent, and good timing — he suggests that entrepreneurs need a few more tricks in their bags to thrive during the inevitable ups and downs. First, entrepreneurs need to understand what value they bring to their endeavors. They have to know their limits, both in terms of evaluating their penchant for risk and personal sacrifice and recognizing when their ambitions exceed their skills. They may, for instance, need others to step in when their own talents don't match their businesses' current needs. Second, entrepreneurs shouldn't wait to get started. Or, if they do wait, they should understand that as time goes by, they may become less willing to sacrifice their standard of living for their businesses. Third, entrepreneurs need to recognize that they are not their businesses. They must remember that their companies' failures don't make them awful people. Likewise, their companies' successes don't make them geniuses or superhumans. Indeed, training, talent, and good timing are essential, but entrepreneurs must also have a true passion for what they're doing, and they must possess the humility to know when they    Network of Invention   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Fleming, Lee; Juda, Adam Publication Date: 04/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Social and professional networks are crucial to innovation. New research reveals that it takes just a few key players to catalyze the agglomeration of many small networks into larger ones and boost innovation across a whole region. HBS Number: F0404C Subjects: Innovation; Interpersonal relations; Inventions; Networks; Patents Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Networked Incubators: Hothouses of the New Economy   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Hansen, Morten T.; Chesbrough, Henry W.; Nohria, Nitin; Sull, Donald Business incubators such as Hotbank, CMGI, and Idealab! are a booming industry. Offering office space, funding, and basic services to start-ups, these organizations have become the hottest way to nurture and grow fledgling businesses. HBS Number: R00507 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/2000 Subjects: Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Incubators; Internet; New economy; Organizational design; Organizational management; Organizational structure    Open-Market Innovation   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Rigby, Darrell K.; Zook, Chris Publication Date: 10/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0210F Subjects: Alliances; Competitive advantage; Innovation; Joint ventures; Licensing; R&D Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Companies in many industries are feeling immense pressure to improve their ability to innovate. But executives know that the best ideas aren't always coming out of their own R&D labs. That's why a growing number of companies are exploring the idea of open-market innovation — an approach that uses tools such as licensing, joint ventures, and strategic alliances to bring the benefits of free trade to the flow of new ideas. For instance, when faced with the unanticipated anthrax scare last fall, Pitney Bowes had nothing in its R&D pipeline to help its customers combat the deadly spores. So it sought help from outside innovators to come up with scanning and imaging technologies that could alert its customers to tainted letters and packages. In this article, Bain consultants Darrell Rigby and Chris Zook describe the advantages and disadvantages of open-market innovation and the ways some companies are using it to gain competitive advantage. Creative types within a company will stick around longer if they know their ideas will eventually find a home — as internal R&D projects or as concepts licensed to outside buyers. However, the authors warn against entering into open-market innovation without properly structuring deals: Xerox and TRW virtually gave away their innovations and had to stand by while other companies capitalized on them. The company with the most powerful assets will have the greatest growth potential.    Open-Market Innovation (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Rigby, Darrell K.; Zook, Chris Publication Date: 10/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0210F, originally published in October 2002. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. Companies in many industries are feeling immense pressure to improve their ability to innovate. But executives know that the best ideas aren't always coming out of their own R&D labs. That's why a growing number of companies are exploring the idea of open-market innovation — an approach that uses tools such as licensing, joint ventures, and strategic alliances to bring the benefits of free trade to the flow of new ideas. For instance, when faced with the unanticipated anthrax scare last fall, Pitney Bowes had nothing in its R&D pipeline to help its customers combat the deadly spores. So it sought help from outside innovators to come up with scanning and imaging technologies that could alert its customers to tainted letters and packages. In this article, Bain consultants Darrell Rigby and Chris Zook describe the advantages and disadvantages of open-market innovation and the ways some companies are using it to gain competitive advantage. Creative types within a company will stick around longer if they know their ideas will eventually find a home — as internal R&D projects or as concepts licensed to outside buyers. However, the authors warn against entering into open-market innovation without properly structuring deals: Xerox and TRW virtually gave away their innovations and had to stand by while other companies capitalized on them. The company with the most powerful assets will have the greatest growth potential. HBS Number: 2039 Subjects: Alliances; Competitive advantage; Innovation; Joint ventures; Licensing; R&D Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Our Entrepreneurial Economy   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Drucker, Peter F. Small new businesses have in recent years increasingly provided the bulk of new jobs, a trend that has accelerated during the recession. In fact, these businesses have replaced older established companies as the primary driving force behind the growth of the U.S. economy. Technological advances, capital availability, and demographic shifts have encouraged these new entrepreneurs to challenge conventional wisdom and to experiment with new approaches to the market. The author explains why the entrepreneurial economy is a cultural and psychological event as well as an economic and a technological one. HBS Number: 84105 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1984 Subjects: Economic development; Entrepreneurship; Small business    Out of the Blue and into the Black   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Author(s): Batten, Frank Publication Date: 04/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0204J Subjects: Broadcasting industry; Communications industry; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; High technology Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: On July 30, 1981, Frank Batten, the chairman of Landmark Communications, proclaimed that in less than a year, his company would launch a new concept in cable television: the nation's first all-weather programming, the Weather Channel. He didn't anticipate the sneers and derision that would greet his announcement. Fast forward 20 years. Today, the Weather Channel ranks as one of the most powerful and trusted media brands in the world. Millions of people tune in daily for local and national weather information, and its web site logs more than 3 billion page views per year. The Weather Channel proved its skeptics wrong by challenging some popular misconceptions about corporate entrepreneurship. One such misconception is that great entrepreneurship always springs from a great idea. Yes, ideas are crucial, but so are pools of managerial and technical expertise, patient capital, and a reputation for honesty and straight shooting. Another misconception is that two guys in a garage will always beat out a corporate behemoth. Not so. In fact, the right kinds of corporate support can be a great idea's best friend. Batten faced many setbacks in the course of turning the Weather Channel into a reality. Technological and financial issues threatened to sink the channel before it transmitted its first forecast. But inspired engineering and a last-minute rescue from cable operators gave the enterprise a chance to build a following. Corporate support can't smooth out the inevitable rough spots of entrepreneurship, as the author points out. But a parent company with the right attitude and the right resources — capita    Outstanding Outsider and the Fumbling Family   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Teal, Thomas A.; Willigan, Geraldine E. Paul Ballisarian, owner of Ballisarian Beef, hired Mike Post in the 1960s when his children were too young to enter the business. Mike is an innovator whose contributions have resulted in more than half the business's profits. Now Mike wants half ownership of his part of the business. Paul's son, Gregory, would rather see Mike leave than give him part of the business, while Paul's daughter, Katherine, believes Mike should be made CEO. Five family business experts - John A. Welsh, formerly of Southern Methodist University's Caruth Institute of Owner-Managed Business and founder of Flow Laboratories; Joseph A. Baute, Markem Corp.; Charles E. "Gus" Whalen, Jr., Warren Featherbone Co.; Wendy C. Handler, Babson College; and Harry Levinson, The Levinson Institute - discuss the issues presented. HBS Number: 89511 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1989 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Family owned businesses; Food; HBR Case Discussions; Small business; Succession planning    Planning a Start-Up? Seize the Day...Then Expect to Work All Night   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Wasserman, Noam ; Wellman, David Publication Date: 01/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0901H Subjects: Entrepreneurial management; Start-ups Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: If you dream of starting your own business, it's better to leave the corporate nest sooner than later, before you get too comfortable with the big-company amenities every start-up lacks. Get going before you're 40 — or even earlier, if you want to make entrepreneurship your career.    Playing Games with Customers   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Ferrazzi, Keith; Chen, Jane; Li, Zhan Publication Date: 04/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Computer games aren't just for kids anymore, as Chrysler, Coca-Cola, and the U.S. Army are finding out. Whether selling cars or recruiting soldiers, games are attracting a new kind of player. HBS Number: F0304B Subjects: Innovation; Market positioning; Product design Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Pushing Scientists into the Marketplace: Promoting Science Entrepreneurship   Add   View  23 pp.  Article Author(s): Lehrer, Mark; Asakawa, Kazuhiro Publication Date: 05/01/2004 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: The need to play catch-up in biotechnology has led Germany and Japan to adopt novel technology policies. Whereas policies to assist domestic industries have traditionally been geared toward incumbent firms, current trends revolve around ``science entrepreneurship'' -- reforms in the national R&D system and targeted incentives for biotechnology scientists to file patents and start up their own firms. Japan, in particular, has recognized that catching up with the United States in basic science and in the commercialization of scientific research represents a kind of final frontier. HBS Number: CMR284 Subjects: Biotechnology; Entrepreneurship; Germany; Government policy; Japan; Research & development; Technology Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Bhide, Amar V. Publication Date: 11/01/1996 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: 96603 Subjects: Decision making; Development stage enterprises; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Goal setting; Small business; Strategy formulation Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Diversify your product line. Stick to your knitting. Hire a professional manager. Watch fixed costs. Those are some of the suggestions that entrepreneurs sort through as they try to get their ventures off the ground. Why all the conflicting advice? Because in a young company, all decisions are up for grabs. Based on his observations of several hundred start-up ventures over eight years, Amar Bhide has developed a three-step sequence of questions that all entrepreneurs must ask themselves in order to establish priorities among the vast array of opportunities and problems they face: What are my goals? Do I have the right strategy? Can I execute the strategy?    Realistic Criteria for Judging New Ventures   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Stancill, James McNeill Factors that potential owners should evaluate prior to starting a new venture include: type of business, yearly income, and balance sheet net worth; potential market size; the advantages of multiple-product businesses over one-product businesses; the superiority of repeat sale products to single-sale products; the avoidance of elementary and unfashionable products; the intensity of initial capital outlay; pricing in relation to gross profits; the existing market's profit structure; division of stock ownership; and future prospects of the venture's price earnings relationship. HBS Number: 81613 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1981 Subjects: Development stage enterprises; Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurship; Small business    Reluctant Entrepreneur   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Veit, Ken After 30 years on the corporate fast track, Ken Veit lost his high-powered job at one of the world's largest insurance companies and was forced to take an entrepreneurial leap of faith. In 1989, Veit signed a franchise agreement to own and operate a Cartoon Corner store in a new mall in Scottsdale, Arizona. But despite Veit's careful forecasting, he suffered a series of unexpected catastrophes. The mall failed to keep its promises. The franchiser lost its venture capital. The Gulf War dried up retail traffic. When the mall and his store finally opened in May 1991, they did so in the midst of a recession. Although the media is full of the inspirational stories of other former executives, Veit has learned that the life of an entrepreneur is not all it's cracked up to be. HBS Number: 92609 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1992 Subjects: Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Retailing    Rise and Fall of the J. Peterman Co.   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Peterman, John In 1987, John Peterman started the J. Peterman Co. with a $500 investment and a $20,000 unsecured loan. What began with an ad in the New Yorker and a single product prospered for years. But in 1998, the company slid harrowingly into ba HBS Number: 99507 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1999 Subjects: Business models; Corporate culture; Corporate strategy; Entrepreneurship; Growth management; Growth strategy; Leadership; Retailing    Should Smaller Companies Make Formal Plans?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Thurston, Philip H. Under some circumstances, the informal, unwritten plans of an owner-CEO are appropriate for a business. Under others, the formal, written plans of a CEO and board are what a company needs to operate well. But sometimes neither the minimal nor the full-blown approach to planning works. They may even be harmful. A company can decide whether one of these approaches is appropriate for itself by looking at nine variables: the administrative style and ability of its CEO, the ability of its officers, the complexity of the business, the strength of its competition, the gain that its managers expect planning to bring, the leadership of its CEO, the degree of uncertainty the company faces, how well its managers understand formal planning, and how well it is currently planning its actions. HBS Number: 83516 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1983 Subjects: Planning; Small business    Small Business Is Not a Little Big Business   Added   View  12 pp.  Article Welsh, John A.; White, Jeffrey F. Resource poverty distinguishes the management of small businesses from that of big businesses. An examination of fundamental financial concepts, such as cash flow, break-even analysis, return on investment, and debt-equity ratio demonstrates how small businesses adapt these financial management tools to their particular situation. An emphasis on liquidity, rather than profit, helps small businesses overcome the problems of strained financial resources, lack of trained personnel, and short-range management perspective imposed by a volatile competitive environment. HBS Number: 81411 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1981 Subjects: Cash flow; Entrepreneurial finance; Financial management; Financial ratios; Return on investment; Small business    Small Ponds Aren’t for Everyone   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Schroder, Sigrid Caroline Publication Date: 04/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Corporate refugees dream of running small firms. The realities of the job, though, can be humbling. HBS Number: F0604H Company Size: small Subjects: Career changes; Entrepreneurs; Executives; Resilience; Satisfaction; Self evaluation; Small business Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Starting a Business?: Where to Go for Information   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Rottenberg, Stephanie Publication Date: 08/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Entrepreneurship is hot these days. Chances are, you or someone you know is hard at work on a business plan. This article offers many resources for the would-be entrepreneur, including an extensive listing of Web sites, interactive CD-ROMS, software, books, and videos. HBS Number: U9908D Subjects: Business plans; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Starting New Businesses: Inside the Organization   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Publication Date: 12/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Intrapreneurship isn't exactly new--the concept of creating new businesses within large companies was briefly popular in the 1980s, but most companies soon became too concerned with reengineering and downsizing to look for new business opportunities. These days, however, intrapreneurship is back. Companies are leaner and are looking for ways to grow and to survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Intrapraneurship goes beyond the production of ideas to actually foster new ventures--and requires training and coaching, incentives, and buy-in from senior levels to ensure that new businesses can really emerge. HBS Number: U9912A Subjects: Creativity; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Starting Up in High Gear: An Interview with Venture Capitalist Vinod Khosla   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Khosla, Vinod; Champion, David; Carr, Nicholas G. The current high level of venture capital investment is driving enormous innovation in business. About 40% of the growth in the U.S. GDP is coming out of the tech sector, and most of that can be traced to the vibrancy of entrepreneuria HBS Number: R00403 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/2000 Subjects: Business plans; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Internet; Interviews; Sourcing; Strategy formulation; Strategy implementation; Technological change    Stealthier Way to Raise Money   Add   View  1 pp.  Article Champion, David Entrepreneurs risk having strategically sensitive information leaked to competitors when their VCs discuss new ventures with outside partners. To avoid that problem, many are turning to other sources of financing. HBS Number: F00501 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/2000 Subjects: Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurship; New economy; Venture capital    Strategic Power of Saying No   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Bishop, Susan Susan Bishop started Bishop Partners with the aim of making it the best boutique executive-search firm in the business. Specializing in television, radio, and publishing industries, her plan was to beat out her larger, established comp HBS Number: 99603 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1999 Subjects: Business services; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Small business    Strategy vs. Tactics from a Venture Capitalist   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Rock, Arthur A leading venture capitalist--who looks at people, particularly financial people, rather than at the financial projections in business plans--sets forth his beliefs as to how entrepreneurs can create successful, thriving enterprises. They must be brutally honest with themselves, accepting bad news and staying on top of disappointing developments. At the same time, they must believe in their ideas; understand how vital good management is to their company; if they can't provide it themselves, bring the right person in; be skilled managers who can be tough-minded with themselves and their team, can say "no," and ideally, are well versed in the technology on which the company is based. HBS Number: 87612 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1987 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship    Test for the Fainthearted   Added   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Kuemmerle, Walter Publication Date: 05/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0205J Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Strategic planning; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: Just a few years ago, becoming an entrepreneur was pretty simple. All you needed was some idea — any idea — a little experience, and venture capital funds to get you going. Many young people started to believe that entrepreneurship was a viable, even safe, career choice. Older folks, too, underestimated the risks of financing start-ups, and, as a result, they ended up throwing millions of dollars into doomed ventures. The economic downturn has laid waste to those illusions. So now is a good time to ask potential entrepreneurs and their financial backers the hard questions unheeded in the days of the Internet boom: What makes an entrepreneur? What characteristics set successful entrepreneurs apart, enabling them to keep their companies alive even when the going gets tough? This article addresses those questions, reminding us that becoming a successful entrepreneur is decidedly not a squeaky-clean affair; you may end up making powerful enemies, risking your own financial security, or even, in extreme cases, looking at jail time. Specifically, the article explores the key qualities that make someone a successful entrepreneur. Walter Kuemmerle has distilled these characteristics into a kind of litmus test of the following five straight-forward, albeit disquieting, questions you should ask yourself if you are considering starting your own venture: Are you comfortable stretching the rules? Are you prepared to make powerful enemies? Do you have the patience to start small? Are you willing to shift strategies quickly? Are you a closer? Answering these questions honestly will help you decide whether you have what it takes to become an entrep    The Eureka Myth   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Evans, Harold Publication Date: 06/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: In business lore, the eureka moment overshadows the more important matter of how an invention reaches the marketplace, says author Sir Harold Evans. HBS Number: F0506A Subjects: Innovation; Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    The Global Entrepreneur   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Isenberg, Daniel J. Publication Date: 12/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0812J Subjects: Entrepreneurs; International business; Start-ups Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship Product Description: For over a century, start-ups began by focusing on their home markets. More and more, however, are now being born global — chasing opportunities created by distance, learning to manage faraway operations, and hunting for the planet's best manufacturing locations, brightest talent, most willing investors, and most profitable customers wherever they may be — from day one. That's not easy. In his research, Harvard professor Isenberg has found that global start-ups face three challenges. First are the logistical problems and psychic barriers created by distance and by differences in culture, language, education systems, religion, and economic development levels. Even something so basic as accommodating the world's various workweek schedules can put a strain on a small start-up's staff. Second is managing the challenges (and opportunities) of context — that is, the different nations' political, regulatory, judicial, tax, and labor environments. Third, like all new ventures, global start-ups must find a way to compete with bigger incumbents while using far fewer resources. To succeed, Isenberg has found, global entrepreneurs must cultivate four competencies: They must clearly articulate their reasons for going global, learn to build alliances with more powerful partners, excel at international supply chain management, and create a multinational culture within their organization. Entrepreneurs shouldn't fear the fact that the world isn't flat. Being global may not be a pursuit for the fainthearted, but even start-ups can thrive by using distance to gain competitive advantage.    The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Bhide, Amar Publication Date: 07/01/2006 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: Diversify your product line. Stick to your knitting. Hire a professional manager. Watch fixed costs. Those are some of the suggestions that entrepreneurs sort through as they try to get their ventures off the ground. Why all the conflicting advice? Because in a young company, all decisions are up for grabs. Based on his observations of several hundred start-up ventures over eight years, Amar Bhide has developed a three-step sequence of questions that all entrepreneurs must ask themselves in order to establish priorities among the vast array of opportunities and problems they face: What are my goals? Do I have the right strategy? Can I execute the strategy? HBS Number: 1027 Subjects: Decision making; Development stage enterprises; Entrepreneurial management; Entrepreneurship; Goal setting; Small business; Strategy formulation Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Too Soon to IPO?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Champion, David Publication Date: 02/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Four years ago, Diane Ashton and Sundeep Lal were working together at MIT on a titanium extraction project. Durable and highly heat resistant, titanium is a key constituent of many specialty alloys, but it's also very expensive to produce. So when Diane discovered a solution that isolated titanium efficiently, the partners recognized that the technology would be worth billions to large manufacturers. Sundeep and Diane secured a $20 million investment from a prominent VC and drew up a business plan. Within six months of their discovery, Titrolyte Inc. was born. But Diane and Sundeep soon discovered that what had been a fairly straightforward operation in the confines of an MIT lab was difficult to reproduce on a large scale. In just two years, they had to go back to investors for more money. Sundeep thinks that Titrolyte is ready to go public. Besides, he's concerned that if they don't IPO now, they might miss the bus. But Diane is worried that they're moving too fast. They haven't perfected the technology yet, and Titrolyte's business systems leave a great deal to be desired. Should Titrolyte risk going public now, while the market is still open? Five commentators offer advice in this fictional case study. HBS Number: R0102A Subjects: Accounting & control; Financial management; Financing; HBR Case Discussions; IPO; Product development; Time to market; Venture capital Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Kawasaki, Guy Publication Date: 01/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Ever wondered how entrepreneurs convince VCs to fund their businesses? A leading venture capitalist delivers the inside scoop on what not to say. HBS Number: F0101B Subjects: Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurs; Venture capital Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Who’s to Blame for the Bubble?   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Mills, D. Quinn Publication Date: 05/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: A Harvard professor points the finger at venture capitalists, investment banks--and the Federal Reserve. He also explains what managers of the next wave of Internet companies must do to avoid the irrational exuberance of the dot-com bubble. HBS Number: F0105A Subjects: Capital markets; Electronic commerce; Internet; Recessions; Stocks Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Scale   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Author(s): Hamm, John Publication Date: 12/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: It's well known that many executives who excel at starting businesses or projects fizzle out — in other words, they fail to “scale” — as their ventures grow. But the reasons have remained fuzzy. In this article, leadership coach John Hamm identifies four management tendencies that work for small-company or business-unit leaders but become Achilles' heels as those individuals try to run larger organizations. The first tendency is loyalty to comrades. In entrepreneurial mode, you need to lead as though you're in charge of a combat unit on the wrong side of enemy lines. But blind loyalty can become a liability in managing a complex organization. The second tendency, task orientation, is critical in driving toward a big product launch, but excessive attention to detail can cause a large organization to lose sight of its long-term goals. The third tendency, single-mindedness, is important in a visionary unleashing a revolutionary product or service on the world but can limit the company's potential as it grows. And the fourth tendency, working in isolation, is fine for the brilliant scientist focused on an ingenious idea. But it's disastrous for a leader whose expanding organization increasingly relies on many other people. Leaders who scale deal honestly with problems and quickly weed out nonperformers. They see past distractions and establish strategic priorities. They learn how to deal effectively with diverse employees, customers, and external constituencies. And, most important, they make the company's continuing health and welfare their top concern. HBS Number: R0212J Subjects: Entrepreneurs; Growth management; Human resources management; Leadership; Management styles; Managerial behavior; Managerial skills Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    World Bank’s Innovation Market   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Wood, Robert Chapman; Hamel, Gary Publication Date: 11/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Large, tradition-bound organizations can make space for radical, low-cost (and therefore low-risk) innovations. Just ask executives at the World Bank. The story of this best practice begins in 1998, when a young new-products group at the international funding agency proposed holding an Innovation Marketplace to capture novel ideas within the bank for alleviating poverty. The forum, which eventually was opened to external participants, let people informally present their antipoverty ideas to potential funding sources. Funders could move among hundreds of booths and evaluate proposals. The marketplace concept met with some skepticism at the beginning. However, the marketplace team believed an open process for allocating grants would produce more breakthrough ideas in the long run than a centralized one. In this article, the authors describe how the new-products team brainstormed to create a market for ideas, how it got senior management's support, and how it has expanded on the original concept for these innovation marketplaces. HBS Number: R0211H Subjects: Business models; Capital investments; Creativity; Globalization; Innovation; Resource allocation Academic Discipline: Entrepreneurship    You Can Negotiate with Venture Capitalists   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Hoffman, Harold M.; Blakey, James Business owners who have found venture capitalists (VCs) willing to put money into their companies may be tempted to take the money on any terms. Because they need the capital, the last thing they want to do is upset a deal. Owners don't have to agree without negotiation to each provision the VCs want. Owners do have some leverage in the negotiations, particularly if their businesses already show a profit or if they are selling a highly desirable service or product. HBS Number: 87207 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1987 Subjects: Entrepreneurial finance; Entrepreneurship; Financing; Venture capital

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