Ventures

How To Be A Startup CEO – Bing Gordon Kleiner Perkins Video

December 11 in Business, Entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, startup, Strategy by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on How To Be A Startup CEO – Bing Gordon Kleiner Perkins Video

Excellent video I highly recommend by Bing Gordon, partner at VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (http://tinyurl.com/6vc5hy8). I also posted comments on video site and will be using some of these ideas in upcoming entrepreneurship course am teaching at GWU;

My posted comments as follows:

Excellent insightful presentation. I contribute teaching entrepreneurship in the George Washington University School of Business CFEE (“Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence”) and also serve as CEO of Sante Corp, a new venture with proprietary technology developing a new web-based personal health management system. My recently published book Worm on a Chopstick : Understanding Today’s Entrepreneurial Age: Directions, Strategies, Management Perspectives shared perspectives and tips on what entrepreneurial company managers need to know to move to beyond a start-up to create a high growth company.

Many excellent management tips and messages in Bing Gordon’s video I am sharing with both students and colleagues. There are 3 messages in particular I am emphasizing:

  • The Need to Balance Management and Entrepreneurial Responsibilities Entrepreneurship is messy and often frenetic, pursuing innovative technologies, new product launches and building an organization with minimal capital. CEO must nuture and balance entrepreneurial culture with clear focus on tightly managing results. I find many entrepreneurs lack the ‘traditional’ management skills and have a ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy- these new management skills can and must be learned. Bing Gordon’s presentation clearly reinforces this point.
  • Quantifying Objectives with Trackable Milestones Gordon describes Intel’s ‘OKR’ or ‘Objectives and Key Results’ management approach – managers set objectives and identify and track 2 to 3 results, and managers expected to achieve 70 percent of results. Very important discipline which helps companies grow and send messages to Boards and investors. I have used KPI’s (‘Key Performance Indicators’) for years in many global businesses, discussed KPIs in my recent book, and counseled many CEO’s to adopt and use these tools . Also proposed a similar approach to track large numbers of new inner-city entrepreneurial companies in a new “Entrepreneurial Empowerment Program (EEP)” I am proposing to the administration. Excellent discipline and should be more widely promoted.
  • CEO’s Need to Implement Scalable Processes CEO’s need to think and plan long term- that means understanding that scalable processes must be established early, what are the objectives of these processes, when are they needed, what cost-effective solutions can we implement now to serve as ‘building-blocks’ as business scales. This message is often missed by entrepreneurial managers struggling with day-to-day challenges with limited resources.

Thanks for sharing an excellent, insightful presentation.

Paul B. Silverman

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Entrepreneurship in the Health Care Sector and Syndicated National Radio Interview – Entrepreneurship- New Directions

December 5 in Business, Entrepreneurship, International business, startup, Strategy, Uncategorized by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Entrepreneurship in the Health Care Sector and Syndicated National Radio Interview – Entrepreneurship- New Directions

Upcoming – TV Interview :Entrepreneurship in the Health Care Sector and Syndicated National Radio Interview: Entrepreneurship- New Directions

I have agreed to do a one hour TV interview on entrepreneurship in the health care sector. The interview will be scheduled for early January and follows my recent live TV interview discussing entrepreneurship on the weekly Upside Business Show on November 21st- the program was well received – copy of broadcast now available at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18671440 (click on Nov.21st show if needed)

While we see enormous challenges in today’s health care market, positive developments are emerging. One perspective, which I shared in my recent book ( Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/84texaf), is the pharmaceutical market includes two primary sectors—therapeutics (i.e., drugs) and diagnostics. Therapeutics is the pharmaceutical firms’ traditional business, reported to be about a $400 to $450 billion market.

Compare that to the diagnostics business, which includes several hundred companies, including many early stage entrepreneurial companies. Revenue estimates vary, but total diagnostic sector revenues are estimated at less than $30 billion, or less than 10 percent of a major pharmas traditional business. But diagnostics reduces health care costs and improves patient care, and many exciting developments are emerging providing the tools needed to improve early disease detection and wellness. Most important, we see entrepreneurial firms creating real excitement here. In the upcoming interview, I will share my vision on new directions I foresee and also invite one or more industry representatives to also share their insights.

I also accepted an invitation for an interview on a nationally syndicated NYC radio show to discuss new entrepreneurship directions and policies.

Stay tuned for dates and times – schedules to be firmed up shortly.

 

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A Creative Visualization Tool Application: How 5 companies started small and grew big

November 26 in Business, Entrepreneurship by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on A Creative Visualization Tool Application: How 5 companies started small and grew big

Interesting high level review of 5 very successful companies- check out http://holykaw.alltop.com/how-5-companies-started-small-and-grew-big-in

Note the use of a visualization tools and ‘infographics’ here to tightly convey information and tell a story. I am looking at using similar visualization techniques to present business plans for new ventures – you have not yet seen much related to new venture infographics but this is coming

Visualization tools help us move away from traditional powerpoint show to more creative ways to quickly and tightly describe a new venture- my experience to date suggests this forces tighter, more focused thinking–I see lots of opportunity here.

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New GWU Course Focuses on Helping Entrepreneurial Companies Grow

November 23 in Business, Entrepreneurship, startup, Strategy by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on New GWU Course Focuses on Helping Entrepreneurial Companies Grow

We know the skills required to launch a business, what I call SYOB skills (‘start your own business’),  are very different from skills needed to grow and create a scalable, sustainable business.

I am pleased to advise George Washington University Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence (“CFEE”) in the School of Business will now offer a new 1 1/2 credit seven week undergraduate course, Entrepreneurial Management I, MGT 4900,  starting January 7th and meeting Thursday 3:30 to 6:00 PM.I serve as an Adjunct Professor in the GWU School of Business and will be teaching the new course.

I developed the new undergraduate course to address the skills I believe are  needed to help  early stage companies grow- I find these are not well understood by entrepreneurial management teams I work with and are  missed in most traditional entrepreneurship programs.

The new course will use textbook and HBS cases – this will be a highly interactive, fast paced course. I am expecting  strong response to this new course and if you want to attend, early registration is recommended. For more information, check the GWU registrar website or contact me.

Here is an excerpt from the course syllabus- as you can see this is not a traditional “SYOB” course, and I believe will be well received by students based on my experience both teaching and working with many early stage ventures:

Course Description

Structured as a fast paced, dynamic, “learn by doing” integrated program, Entrepreneurial Management 1 (“EM 1”) introduces students to the skills needed to address critical entrepreneurial company issues and opportunities, develop winning strategies, understand how to address today’s entrepreneurial age challenges, and grow entrepreneurial ventures.

Entrepreneurial Management takes an integrative, multi-functional approach to the entrepreneurial business management issues facing managers of both emerging entrepreneurial firms, as well as traditional major firms seeking to address today’s entrepreurial age challenges and opportunities impacting their business.

Today’s traditional companies must “think entrepreneurially” to survive and grow, addressing today’s market challenges and opportunities. But to survive and grow, entrepreneurial companies must also adapt; moving from start-up to a sustainable business demands moving beyond “start your own business” skills and learning to think like “traditional” management. EM 1 addresses the core issues faced by all firms seeking to both understand today’s entrepreneurial age challenges, and develop new strategies, skills and perspectives to create defensible and sustainable businesses.

Within the EM1 course, we will examine critical strategic entrepreneurial management issues focusing on six core study areas:

  1. Innovation Management: New Directions in Developing, Leveraging and Managing Innovation
  2. New Technology: Driving Creative Business Models
  3. New Product Development: Creating Sustainable, Defensible Businesses
  4. Transitioning Challenges: Moving from Emerging Entrepreneurial to Professionally Managed Firm
  5. Globalization: Reshaping Markets, Products, Processes, Strategies
  6. Strategy Management: Challenges, Best Practices and Strategies

Through lectures, case studies, assigned readings, class assignments, and students’ active classroom participation, Entrepeneurial Management 1 provides students with a strong foundation of key entrepreneurial management a dynamic, challenging, fast-paced, learning environment.

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TV Interview -Entrepreneurship Strategies and Economic Growth

November 23 in Business, Entrepreneurship, startup, Strategy by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on TV Interview -Entrepreneurship Strategies and Economic Growth

Interviewed on weekly Upside Business Show November 21st- local channel 10 on cable also on Verizon FIOS  and live web streaming- check out copy of broadcast now available at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18671440

One hour program  reviewed entrepreneurial strategies, perspectives for entrepreneurs,  and new entrepreneurial programs I have proposed to support job creation and economic growth- discussion expanded on information in my recently published book Worm on a Chopstick : Understanding Today’s Entrepreneurial Age: Directions, Strategies, Management Perspectives ( Amazon at  http://tinyurl.com/797naog Good discussion with strong feedback.

I do see real opportunity to develop creative entrepreneurial-driven, business expansion programs and  shared some of the directions I am pursuing. Like to hear from  others on ideas – given today’s economic situation, we need to do more here.  

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Can Mission Statements Help Me Grow My Entrepreneurial Business and Create Value? Absolutely!

October 13 in Business, Entrepreneurship, Product Development, startup, Strategy by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Can Mission Statements Help Me Grow My Entrepreneurial Business and Create Value? Absolutely!

You ask your entrepreneurial management team to join you in the conference room to develop the company’s mission statement. Reaction from your entrepreneurial team may be “ho-hum” , “do we really need to waste time- we know what business we are in,” or maybe ” let’s spend our time designing, developing, selling- doing ‘real business’ ”.  Understandable response in today’s fast moving, entrepreneurial companies.

But mission statements drive companies, especially startups seeking to secure a sustainable business creating high value. Mission statements provide many benefits- here are three examples:

1. Ensures all staff is in sync, understands where the company is heading, how it will get there

Emphasize that the company will be the lowest cost provider sends one message; emphasize providing the highest quality, differentiated products sends another. Remember these not-too-subtle differences drive corporate strategy, operational plans, and often define an organization’s future success.

2. Communicates what the company thinks is most important, what are its core values

Emphasize customers, products, technologies, staff development or ethics sends different messages to the company’s ‘community of interest’ (i.e., staff, customers, investors, suppliers, etc.). You need to ensure these messages are clear and focused.

3. Defines the “reach” of the company’s business- what are the real business targets going beyond today’s technologies, markets and products.

Defining how your company will evolve, to what extent you will protect a current business or create new ones, and similar issues, define your company’s ‘reach’ and strategy roadmap. For dealing with investors, this is particularly important.

My counseling with many entrepreneurial firms shows that spending time to define mission statements and particularly “reach” provides high value.

As an example, in my recent book, Worm on a Chopstick: Understanding Today’s Entrepreneurial Age: Directions, Strategies, Management Perspectives , I compared Google and GM’s mission statements. First, here is GM’s:

“G.M. is a multinational corporation engaged in socially responsible operations, worldwide. It is dedicated to provide products and services of such quality that our customers will receive superior value while our employees and business partners will share in our success and our stock-holders will receive a sustained superior return on their investment.”

Now here is Google’s mission statement:

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and  useful.”

It sure looks like Google is reaching for the stars here.

And the results? Google, founded in 1998 by two Stanford University students, started as a basic search engine, ramped up sales to about $17 billion in 2007, and achieved a market cap of about $220 billion. Compare that to General Motors, started in 1908, led sales for seventy-seven consecutive years from 1931 to 2007, and valued at less than $20 billion in late 2007, less than 10  percent of Google. Even after a $50 billion government bailout in 2009, today, GM’s market cap is only about $51 billion, less than one third of  Google’s $173 billion.

You can argue I selected a dramatic example here. You may also argue that Google “was in the right place at the right time,” at the cusp of the Internet revolution, while GM is stuck in a tough, mature business, automobile manufacturing, with nowhere to go but fight for global market.

I consider this traditional thinking that really doesn’t work well with markets and technologies morphing, emerging global players, and intense competition from non-traditional players. Looking deeper, like many major traditional companies, we learn GM had opportunities to improve competitive positioning but did not pursue them for various reasons.

To succeed today, what’s needed is ‘entrepreneurial thinking’ driving mission statements and all facets of a company’s business, whether you manage a startup entrepreneurial company or a large traditional company like GM.

When you and your team leave the conference room after creating your company’s new mission statement, you may be excited that you are now on track to create the next “Google”. Maybe, but I expect it is more likely you now have a strategic roadmap that will drive your company’s operations at all levels, send a coherent message to all, and help you grow the company and create value.

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If you want to learn more about the the author’s perspectives on new developments, trends, insights, management tools and tips that can help you grow your business, sign up now for a FREE Subscription to the Global Entrepreneurship Forum Newsletter.

Paul B. Silverman is the author of a new entrepreneurial management strategy book Worm on a Chopstick: Understanding today’s Entrepreneurial Age: Directions, Strategies, Management Perspectives; serves as CEO of Sante Corporation creating a new vision for personal health care management; and is an Adjunct Professor in the Center For Entrepreneurial Excellence in the School of Business at George Washington University.

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Developing a Winning Business Plan – Improving the Odds

May 23 in Entrepreneurship by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Developing a Winning Business Plan – Improving the Odds

Creating a winning business plan demands a mixture of precise business thinking, art, timing and luck. Business planning skills such as market and competitive analysis, pricing strategy, organizational planning, financial analysis among others can and must be learned; courses and books can help you.

My experience shows that you should also pay particularly strong attention to the following 10 points to improve your odds of creating a winning and fundable new business plan:

1.Maintain a market and opportunity focus and view technology as an enabler.

Define a tight, focused opportunity with a well-defined target market. Technology may be the enabler used to create the business. Suppose you propose a new wireless data service for remote entry of patient data by health care professionals- the business addresses a real, quantifiable opportunity. Compare this to framing an opportunity for a new 802b.11 wireless data entry service. In today’s challenging market, specific opportunity-driven ventures are preferable to pure technology plays.

2.Understand the difference between feature, function and benefit

Image transmission is a function. Moving high resolution images via telephone lines is a feature. The ability to send a high resolution image in 5 seconds via a telephone line using a $99 device is a benefit. Sell benefits and make this the cornerstone of your plan.

3.The “So-What” Tool

A very important consultant tool and not used as often as it should be for new venture development. A simplified “so-what” analysis goes something like this. Our new service offers a unique encrypted data solution for e-commerce applications. So what? We can provide authentication using voice recognition. So what? Our voice authentication technology instantly identifies buyers’ interests and demographic profiles. So what? We can identify and route e-commerce customers based on voice response and past history. The results? Using the “so what” tool, we refocused our thinking to create a more unique, defensible opportunity.

4.Sensitivity Analysis

You need to ‘exercise’ your financial model, examine “what-ifs” and boundary conditions. Reduce sales and/or increase costs by 10, 20, 50, 80 percent-what happens? Delay product launch plans, reduce competitors’ costs-how do these impact IRR and total cash needs? Formal analysis tools exist to complete these analyses, but you can also do this with any financial model. Properly done, these analyses show that you understand your market, business, elasticities and sensitivities.

5.Advisory Board

Develop a “hands-on” Advisory Board. Carve out roles and responsibilities. Provide incentives, typically options, vested based on time served and milestones achieved. Powerful, well-known names and impressive marquees may look great, but you need contributors who can help you move the business forward.

6.Strategic Alliances

Same points as for Advisory Boards. Developing marketing alliances with GE, IBM and others sounds impressive, but make sure there is defensible substance here. Are there any revenue guarantees? What staff and other resources have your partners committed to the venture? Any joint promotion plans among their respective customer bases?

7.The Sanctity of the Business Plan

Another important point. The completed business plan looks impressive; GBC bound, laser-printed, color charts, and maybe 200 to 300 hours to prepare- sure looks and feels like a finished product. The reality is this document is probably out of date before the ink is dry. The plan is only the starting point, a work-in-progress, showing what your team is thinking, assumptions, strategies and projected results. These will tested, attacked, defended and changed as your business proceeds. A hard lesson sometimes for those investing more than 200 hours in developing a business plan and financial models, but that is reality. As you progress, create sales, make products, encounter competition, see new opportunities, you will refine strategies, providing the foundation for the revised plan. There is no sanctity of the Business Plan- revising adds value and is the norm.

8.Adapting to Change : Avoiding the Icarus Paradox

Strategic management courses relate the story of the fabled Icarus from Greek mythology. Icarus’ greatest asset were wings of feathers and wax that let him soar higher and higher closer to the sun. He kept going to the sun, ignored warnings about getting too close, the wax wings melted and he crashed and burned. This is often used to explain management failures such as pursuing a single-minded business strategy even in the face of disaster, and also believing that achieving great past success ensures future success. (it doesn’t). Avoiding the Icarus Paradox means that new business “trajectories” must be examined, refocused and assumptions reviewed even when performance is strong.

9.Precision

Don’t say you are addressing a large, growing market. Instead say “ … the market for ‘gizmos’ is $20 million in 2011, increasing to $65 million by 2014.” Specificity and quantitative precision shows clarity of thinking and understanding of your market and business. And also improves your ability to secure funding.

10.Frugality

Running out of cash and inability to secure new funding is most often cited as the reason new ventures fail. Studies show however, that ventures funded with minimal capital have a higher probability of success, implying that a “frugal” investment structure demands tight management and strong financial controls at the outset. The message here is to tightly define cash needs, operate parsimoniously particularly in the early months, and demonstrate that you know how to manage cash and resources to win. Achieving this objective often smooths the path to secure new funding.
There are plenty of minefields and absolutely no guarantees in the entrepreneurial world. Follow the above guidelines however and you may improve your probability of creating a successful new venture.

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New Vision Needed: Creative Entrepreneurially Driven Technologies Can Improve Health Care

May 9 in Business, Entrepreneurship, Uncategorized by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on New Vision Needed: Creative Entrepreneurially Driven Technologies Can Improve Health Care

Clearly our health care sector has lagged behind all others in using leading edge technologies to improve operations- vested interests have really not worried too much about costs; these were just passed on to consumers, directly and indirectly. But new tools and technologies are rapidly emerging in the health care sector and these are driven by emerging entrepreneurial firms rather than the traditional major players. No surprise here- statistics show more than 95 percent of all radical technology innovation in the past 60 years has been developed by SMEs (small medium enterprises) not major corporations as you might expect. 
 
Bolder options are needed now to address today’s health care problems – the prescription: deploying new technology and capital on global best practices.

Let me share a vision on the possibilities. Suppose we create a new national eHealth program. Program objectives are to commit to use leading edge information and communications technology to improve patient safety, accessibility and quality of care; enable patient mobility nationally and internationally; meet the increasing demands from our citizens and healthcare professionals; and use eHealth as the main tool for renewal and improvement of our nation’s health care services. We will use telemedicine and other technologies to support creative, cost effective new solutions to improve our health care system. Consider some possibilities: 

Your patient records are stored as secure Electronic Health Records or ‘EHRs’. Just like your secure on-line bank account transaction records, you can access this information, identify issues, alert your practitioners, and if needed, request your EHR be sent to another physician or laboratory. No more going to a physician’s office to pick up copies of imaging data and records, paying extra costs and using ‘sneaker net’ to move this data between offices.

Patients with heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and chronic illnesses, are monitored using at home telemedicine devices including ‘smart beds’ which automatically monitor and transmit diagnostics and vital signs to remote telemedicine centers.

Patient monitoring services are enhanced with predictive analytics and decision support systems that monitor all patient diagnostics, including ECG sensors transmitting data via mobile phones. Using intelligent, real time, secure predictive analytics technology, the diagnostic system helps assess patient status, identify any deviations and alerts the appropriate medical resources, including emergency services.

Telemedicine systems will provide rural, remote regions with access to practitioners, including specialists. The same infrastructure will be used to support ‘mobile’ health care clinics to treat some of the 42 million people in the United States who have no health insurance.
Remote consultations among practitioners and patients can be easily accomplished using secure, on-demand multimedia eHealth communications channels.

You have a wide range of online eHealth physical and wellness program alternatives available offered within the national eHealth program.

The above sounds impossible or ‘decades away’ to many. Not really. The eHealth vision above is widely promoted within EU countries now making excellent progress in deploying these new capabilities throughout Europe. And the specific program objectives above were cited in a speech by the Swedish Minister of Health in December 2007, less than four years ago. One EU study reported that about 70 percent of European physicians now use the internet and 66 percent use computers for consultations. Administrative patient data are electronically stored in 80 percent of general practices which is impressive. European physicians transfer about 40 percent of their data to laboratories electronically and about 10 percent to other health centers. Electronic prescriptions (‘e-prescribing’) is widely used in only three member states: Denmark (97 percent), Sweden (81 percent and the Netherlands (71 percent). Sweden has an impressive track record in deploying new national technology solutions such as ‘Sjunet’, their secure national information and communications technology or ‘ICT’ infrastructure supporting eHealth applications in Sweden.

‘Intelligent’ remote telemedicine technology may sound far off, but these services using predictive analytics are now offered. One example is the Kiwok BodyKom Series™ technology which offers patients in Sweden capabilities going well beyond traditional patient monitoring, such as ability to detect early disease symptoms; to follow up treatment processes for patients out-of-hospital; to follow and predict care demands in pre-hospital services; to directly transfer the information to a patient’s individual Electronic Health Record; among other features.

Summarizing, all would agree our health care system is broken. We can argue about policies, but we need to fix the systemit. The prescription: establish national level priorities to develop and deploy creative new technology solutions. Recognize that entrepreneurial firms will be a key driver in our progress and we reap significant benefits by more effectively leveraging our nation’s entrepreneurial assets. And we should learn lessons looking at global best practices of others are well ahead of the United States in developing an effective health care solutions. That is the recommended prescription to fix our ailing health care system. No need to call me in the morning.

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