strategic thinking
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Find something in the world you're capable of fixing, and use all the skills at your disposal to make it work. Acting for the common good should be as commonplace and as devotional as going into business, says Google.org Executive Director Larry Brilliant. Making the world a better place should take the same focus as devising the next great widget.
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It's difficult to do and it's difficult to change, but a focus on putting customers first is the most powerful thing an enterprise can do, says Sue Decker, President of Yahoo!. Decker admits that some of the company's strategic hurdles have come from thinking of their products and their technology as the forefront of the business, rather than a total consideration of the end-user experience.
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Before exploring the three Enlightenment traditions in particular, Professor Shapiro examines the Enlightenment holistically, using John Locke as the foundation for the discussion. The first tenet of the Enlightenment is a commitment to science as a way of ordering politics, and Professor Shapiro introduces the Cartesian philosophy of science and segues into an elucidation of the workmanship ideal, a central feature of Enlightenment thinki...more
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Frame believes it is very rarely that startups build a vision. He insists that the vision is a combination of shared inputs among the leadership team. Frame describes how the company can achieve their vision by breaking it into strategic imperatives and objectives. A vision statement is essential to keep the goals of the company aligned as it scales up.
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Smith believes that since their monetary values are not large in comparison to the size of the education industry, investments must be leveraged to get maximum effect. New School's helps to leverage their investments by bringing together a partner group that includes venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and educators, who each bring different strengths and views to the venture.
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Mandelbaum sold her first major company, Skyline Toys, when the company was at a critical juncture: they either need to find a strategic partner or raise a lot of money. A perfect partner was found in IDEO, and she sold the company. Mandelbaum decided to take her career in a new direction because she was intrigued by the opportunities of the internet and was interested in joining a venture firm.
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John Roos, chief executive officer of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, recommends having a simple mission statement when thinking about a business. You have to know what you are good at, where your core strengths lie, have a game plan and then stick with it, he says.
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The Global Fund for Women believes there is room for a different kind of philanthropy to exist in other parts of the world. In most parts, there is a huge division between those who have and those who do not have. Those with wealth do not tend to see investment in development as part of their responsibility. Ramdas notes that this is thinking that must change.
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Smith explains that fundraising is very hard in the non-profit sector. New Ventures typically co-invests in A rounds with other venture capital firms, typically newer groups that have an openness to thinking about new solutions and understand the power of entrepreneurs. Generally, deals are in multi-millions with clearly defined milestones over several years.
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When starting a business one tends not to focus on employee issues. Hawkins stesses the importance of laying a strong foundation of human resources from the very beginning. He shares ideas that he feels make sound human resource policies. When you are thinking of compensation between people, he says, you should always imagine that everyone knows everything.
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Khosla talks about how Juniper Systems started, and the role of customer feedback in the product development. There was not one vendor thinking of building an OC48 router for the internet. Juniper perservered and took a risk in the technology, despite the majority of customer feedback.
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People can't be forced to be friends, notes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but innovative entrepreneurs can facilitate a friendly work environment. He attributes part of his enterprise's success to casual, unstructured communication woven into the work day. His hope? To create the space for co-workers to freely associate ideas and stretch their imagination.
