Entrepreneurial wanna-be’s: More resources
I wrote not too long ago about the resources available to aspiring entrepreneurs, including SCORE, the SBDC’s of most major universities and other entities dedicated to helping people start and grow successful businesses. Kelly Spors, the “Small Talk” editor of the Wall Street Journal has listed a few more ideas and web sites. Among them are ClubEnetwork.com, Vator.tv, Entrepreneur.Meetup.com and PartnerJUp.com.
I would also suggest the Kauffman Foundation has a wealth of great resources for those who would like to be entrepreneurial.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on June 17, 2008
Should Ann Livermore Move beyond HP?
Rita McGrath has posted Should Ann Livermore Move beyond HP? at the Harvard Business Publishing site. To read the text, click here.
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- Posted Admin on June 08, 2008
Insightful note on the complexity of rules by Norman Bartczak
I’m attending Jeff Sonnenfeld’s Yale CEO Summit this week, and this morning listened in on a fascinating presentation by my colleague, Norman Bartczak, who manages to make accounting interesting! Among the many things that caught my eye in his presentation was the following quote from James Madison:
“It will be of little avail to the people that laws are made by men of thier choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
Wow. What if we applied the two tests of simplicity and coherence to the kinds of rules and agreements that have led people into so much trouble - think credit card agreements, mortgage agreements, car leasing provisions and others? It would be a world that is far easier to understand.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on June 05, 2008
Discovery Driven Planning: Learning from failures and disappointments at Lululemon
I was browsing through this week’s edition of Business Week when I ran across a great story as part of their 50 fast-growth companies series. The story is about Lululemon, a retailer that has grown in the high double (and even triple) digits, and had an initial public offering last year that raised $344 milion. It focuses with incredible emphasis on the right products for doing yoga, and has built a great business model including converting yoga instructors in local communities before setting up shop there.
What caught my eye in reading the article was a note about how their new CEO plans to keep herself informed and aware of what’s going on. One practice is that all employees (right up to the CEO) are required to spend at least eight hours a month working in their stores—my readers will know that I’ve blogged before about how companies unintentially isolate their CEO’s from information that could be vital to making decisions. So the incoming CEO of this outfit literally gets on her hands and knees and hems yoga pants!
The other practice that I thought was really insightful was to regularly have breakfast with regular employees and ask them the question “What’s the most idiotic thing we did in the last 60 days?” Imagine if you had all that self-correcting, in-the-moment insight going right to the top in your companies—it sure might stop a lot of mistakes while they are still little.
Such practices are completely in the spirit of discovery driven planning - recognize the reality versus your assumptions about it, fess up and make changes while there is still time.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on June 02, 2008
Missing Women, Empty Talent Pipelines, and CEO Compensation
Rita McGrath is a regular contributor at the Harvard Business Publishing blog. Read her article on Missing Women, Empty Talent Pipelines, and CEO Compensation by clicking on the title.
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- Posted Admin on May 22, 2008
