Real leadership is about real stories. This isn’t a study of real “world leaders” but instead a story about some “real world” leaders.
This is a great article including a couple personal stories about leadership philosophies. We all need to have our philosophical approach to leadership. What are your stories?
If you’re lucky enough to get approached by a big company that wants to buy yours, remember it is usually not choosing between buying you or buying your competitor.
It’s often choosing between buying you or setting up shop to compete with you. As soon as buying you becomes more expensive than competing with you, it’ll compete.
Very important advice. Don't forget that folks that want into your business have three choices… Buy you. Partner with you. Compete with you.
If you an acquisition is too expensive, you might just find that you have a new competitor. As the author suggests… Don't overplay your hand.
Two years ago hackers stole $5.2 million from the online account of Experi-Metal, a 135-employee metal products manufacturer in Sterling Heights, Mich. The bank, Comerica (CMA), got nearly 90 percent of the money back, but said the unrecoverable $561,000 was Experi-Metal’s problem because the company had allowed a computer to be infected. “The fraud department at Comerica said, ‘What’s wrong with you? How could you let this happen?’ ” says Valiena A. Allison, Experi-Metal’s chief executive officer. The company sued to recover the money, and in June a U.S. District Court judge in Detroit found that Comerica’s response didn’t meet standards of good faith and fair dealing. Comerica agreed to pay almost the entire amount. (The bank declined to comment, beyond saying that the matter was resolved.)
Cybercrooks are stealing as much as $1 billion a year from the accounts of small and midsize companies in the U.S. and Europe, according to estimates from Dell SecureWorks (DELL), a security arm of the PC maker. Overseas gangs target small commercial accounts protected by rudimentary security measures at community or regional banks. The accounts typically aren’t covered by fraud insurance, as individual accounts are, and businesses often find themselves on the hook for losses.
This is scary. Please be careful out there. Wow!
More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they're fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.
But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they're fully engaged at work.
It's a disconnect that serves no one well. So what's the solution? Where is the win-win for employers and employees?
The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their four core needs — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual — so they're freed, fueled and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.
via blogs.hbr.org
Certainly, these are terrific attributes worthy of aspiration. I am not sure how practical all of these things are for many companies, but clearly, employees would value these things.
Interesting article.
Does college get entrepreneurs ready for success? Or, is starting a business straight away a viable alternative for those who don't want to slog through four years of higher education?
This question came to mind after recently perusing a small-business-focused infographic from the credit-card comparison site CreditDonkey. Among the fun facts about entrepreneurship in the graphic: Just over half of business owners have a college degree, according to recently released survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
This stat is particularly interesting because it would seem that entrepreneurs, on a whole, tend to have more education than the general public. Of the American labor force, fewer than half of workers don't have a degree — 25 percent have only a high school diploma while another 19 percent attended but didn't graduate from college, according to the Census Bureau.
It may be a chicken-and-egg question, but I'm betting that somewhere along the way the egg cracked and yoke got all over the place.
The correlation between entrepreneurial success and education has always interested me. As a young man, many folks told me that I was crazy to go get a MBA at Wharton if I was simply going to be an entrepreneur after graduation.
Going to Wharton was an amazing experience, for me, and I credit Wharton for much of what I have accomplished as an entrepreneur. I would not change my decisions here.
Having said that, many folks have benefited from just jumping in. I personally believe that having an education is an awesome safety net that allows you take entrepreneurial risks with the peace of mind that you won't be homeless if things don't work out as planned. That is important obviously.
What do you think?
Ever since the U.S. got a credit downgrade in August, the stock markets have been bouncing up and down like a pinball. At this point, the volatility has persisted long enough to raise concerns that this year's healthy crop of planned initial public offerings could go into a holding pattern or even fade away.
This would be bad news for companies seeking venture capital, too. No IPO paydays means less cash in venture capitalists's pockets to reinvest in your business.
Market uncertainty makes companies cancel or postpone IPOs, as investors don't want to end up with poor returns. The timing of the current market craziness is crummy, as 202 companies have filed to go public so far this year and are considered "in the pipeline," IPO analyst firm Renaissance Capital reports. That's the most companies waiting in the IPO wings in a decade.
So companies have finally gotten up the gumption to try the public markets again. And now this.
Crucial stuff. We need to keep an eye on how this IPO pipeline pans out over the next 6 months.
If you’re married and thinking about going into business for yourself, the very first thing you should sell is your spouse. No, I don’t mean auctioning your beloved to the highest bidder. I mean before you put it all on the line, pitch the idea to your husband or wife.
via www.bnet.com
A great article about the most important stakeholder in your entrepreneurial venture… your spouse.
My wife has often suggested (or threatened) to write a book about what it is like to be the spouse of an entrepreneur. Why? Because it is very hard.
We entrepreneurs often get so focused on our businesses and our goals that we forget to think about how our focus and drive affects the folks around us.
As the actual entrepreneurs, we have the latest and greatest info on how things are going with the business, and as you probably already know, the entrepreneur's life is a roller coaster.
Imagine if you didn't have the latest and greatest data. You would feel helpless to control a crucial part of your family's future. The roller coaster would be magnified big time.
There is no more important stakeholder in your venture than your spouse, and you need to recognize that. In fact, if you are an investor in a startup, you need to recognize this fact too. When negotiating with an entrepreneur, you are often negotiating with someone not at the table… the entrepreneur's spouse.
Great article.
There is an old parable about the concept of commitment when it comes to breakfast. The story goes that when looking at a plate of the traditional fare of ham and eggs, it's obvious that the chicken is an interested party, but the pig is truly committed.
A thoughtful article regarding what investors like to see in their entrepreneurs. I completely agree. Well done.
At some point, every young business comes to a crossroad. Perhaps the entrepreneur lacks the funding to take their idea any further. Or, maybe the business owner is good at certain aspects of running the business—such as wooing new clients and identifying areas of potential growth—but needs some assistance with budgeting and setting priorities if they want to expand.
How does a business owner know when is it time to bring in an investor?
For Paul Mann, the founder and CEO of Fetch! Pet Care, a national dog walking and pet services franchise based in Walnut Creek, Calif., the moment was when he realized his "teenager" of a business would need help in becoming an "adult" as the number of franchised units grew from 33 from 200 from 2006 to 2008.
"The business, like many in our situation, had come to a point where it had hit a wall," he said. "We needed help in getting over the hurdle to take it to the next stage."
"It really is a smart business owner who can recognize that they need a partner to help them take advantage of a new opportunity for growth," said Harry Loyle, managing director for Cybeck Capital Partners, a Dayton, Ohio-based private equity investment
The venture capital industry’s online talent show has a new entrant, with Boulder, Colo.-based Foundry Group channeling the vocal and aggressive facial hair styling of ‘90s R&B group Color Me Badd in a music video that spoof’s Saturday Night Live’s Digital Short segment.
- The partners of Foundry Group: From left, Brad Feld, Ryan McIntyre, Seth Levine and Jason Mendelson
It almost begs for an SNL spoof of our own: REALLY!?! with Venture Capital Dispatch. But, we’ll leave the comedy to the venture capitalists.
The video was clearly meant to publicize a new book from partners Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson titled “Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.” But the spoof–which Feld jokes in a press release is “an important piece of American film making”–also takes some humorous jabs at the venture capital industry.
For example, the song rhymes “I’m a VC” with “I meet over Sushi.” There’s also talk of khakis and climbing “under the term sheets.” And then there’s the line, “’Cause I’m a VC, I’m a VC/Can’t take a leak without people who pitch me.” It’s worth noting that particular scene features a journalist pitching a venture firm to Feld as he stands at a urinal.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKArupEBE6Y]
via blogs.wsj.com
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