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| A squirrel running with its loot. The animals here in Harvard University are not afraid of humans. |
Furry and Feathered Friends
Just a quick note on the animals here in Harvard University. They have become so accustomed to people that they are not afraid of even initiating human contact. The squirrel in the photo actually asked me for food and scurried to the bushes. A few days ago, I was on my to the Widener Library in Harvard Yard and the birds held their ground as I approached. In fact, it was I who had to move out just to avoid them. Strange! They too must have received top caliber education from Harvard and are aware of their rights and the law against cruelty to animals.
Lessons In Class
Entrepreneurship
- Studies show that 65% of failures are caused by people problems, only 35% are caused by product, market and management issues
- Core dilemmas
- when to found
- building the team
- new venture hiring
- beyond the team
- exit dilemmas
- Key founder's questions
- why am I doing this?
- what choices are consistent with my motivations?
- what early choices will cause problems?
- Management compensation should not be anchored on stock price movement since it creates fiduciary issues in the short-term
- But it is worth anchoring compensation on the trend-line of the stock price
- Economic value added is an optimal executive evaluation system since it measures return efficiency of capital employed against cost of capital
- Culture
- is a pattern of basic assumptions, values and artifacts
- acts as a 24-hour training program and marks the rules of the game
- Culture can be a key competitive driver in tight resource environments
- Companies that have a high culture strength achieve high returns on capital
- Culture is affected by the country's culture, industry culture and organizational culture
- Culture is both powerful and dangerous and therefore needs to be managed pro-actively
- It is important for multi-business enterprises to make sure that each part is larger than itself and all of the parts combined
- Creates and gorws value geometrically when there was none
- Always strive for strategic asymmetry
- Identify critical resources and how to build scope
