Juniper: Selecting the Right Market and Attracting Talented People

Course Description

Lectures

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   Lecture 1 - Opportunity Recognition

   Scott Kriens describes how Juniper was able to take advantage of the rapidly growing internet router space. He states that Juniper's focus on solving unique problems helped them compete against other established players.

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   Lecture 2 - Capitalizing on Market Power

   Scott stresses the role of the market and the benefits of leveraging its power to grow rapidly. He describes how Juniper grew to be a $1 Billion company within 3 years.

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   Lecture 3 - Attracting Talented People

   Scott describes how the interview process at Juniper was designed to attract the best people. He encourages students to be excited about companies with really smart people instead of being intimidated by them.

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   Lecture 4 - Challenges of a Global Company

   One of Juniper's biggest challenges is efficiently operating a global company. He challenges the audience to obtain the skill set necessary to work in a global team environment. He explains that the cost advantage of Asia will diminish over time, however, leveraging the talent pool globally will still remain attractive to all companies.

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   Lecture 5 - Market Selection

   Scott describes his experience at Stratacom where for the first 5 years the company lost a lot of money and had modest revenue growth, and then after some refocusing of resources, the company did really well and was eventually bought out for 5 billion dollars. He explains that what changed was their target market, and not the people in the company. He states that identifying markets with high growth and attaching oneself to such markets is very valuable.

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   Lecture 6 - The Ups and Downs of Being a CEO

   A Silicon Valley veteran shares his wisdom and describes the ups and downs of his career. He stresses the importance of not getting caught up in the media, and instead staying focused on the task at hand.

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   Lecture 7 - Importance of Common Sense

   Scott explains that it is important to "do the thing that makes the most sense". He uses JFK's lesson from the Bay of Pigs to illustrate this point.

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   Lecture 8 - Employee Growth

   Scott shares his philosophy on giving people an opportunity to grow within the company. At Juniper, he chooses the most energetic and enthusiastic person instead of the most experienced one for a given project.  

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   Lecture 9 - Value of Innovation

   Scott suggests that  basic questions such as why and for which market are asked before significant engineering resources can be allocated to any project. While Juniper's culture promotes innovation, it doesn't appreciate an innovation that is never used.

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    Lecture 10 - Net Neutrality

    Scott shares his views on net neutrality, a topic of hot debate in the Internet space. He defines net neutrality and explains its impact.