Ah, skunkworks. Those small, agile units beloved of large organizations looking for the Next New Idea. I've written about them in the past – and outlined some of the pitfalls of setting them up and… Read more »
Business Start Ups / Entrepreneurship
Top Ten Reasons Not to go Public
A reporter recently asked me about the downsides of a firm going public – why might it not be the best course of action for them? Here are my "top ten": It is a… Read more »
Pricing advice for new entrepreneurs
Make sure you’re getting enough margin to account for your time – Advice I suggested on this blog aimed at helping people earn a little more pocket change by starting their own business.
How decisions made under uncertainty can cast a long shadow – Internet Pricing
The reality of having to make decisions under uncertainty is that quite often, you'll get things wrong. Unfortunately, sometimes those wrong things have very long and path-dependent consequences. I'm thinking in particular of two decisions… Read more »
How decisions made under uncertainty can cast a long shadow - Internet Pricing
The reality of having to make decisions under uncertainty is that quite often, you'll get things wrong. Unfortunately, sometimes those wrong things have very long and path-dependent consequences. I'm thinking in particular of two decisions… Read more »
Taxes, the structure of incentives, and why I’m worried about the plan for health reform funding
When I was a Ph.D. student studying entrepreneurship, one of the most influential articles I read was by economist William J. Baumol. Entitled “Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive and Destructive”, it basically suggested that a nation gets… Read more »
Guerrilla strategies - 2009 version
Many fans of our work together have heard my colleague Ian MacMillan talk about an entrepreneurial business he was involved with in his younger years as a perfect example of a ‘guerrilla’ strategy. Guerrilla strategies… Read more »
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,… Read more »
Discovery Driven Planning makes the intuitions of entrepreneurs explicit
Browsing through this month’s edition of Inc. magazine, I came across a column by Norm Brodsky on the advice he gave to a young entrepreneur. The guy’s business concept was interesting. He imports dirt from… Read more »
The Despair of Entrepreneurship Professors are perennially popular but doomed business ideas
One of the most dreaded aspects of being an entrepreneurship professor are the hundreds of times that students will come up with the same – bad – business concept when tasked with building businesses of… Read more »
Business Development Resources for New Entrepreneurs
As a sometime professor of entrepreneurship, I'm frequently approached by would-be entrepreneurs for help in fleshing out their business plans. While I enjoy doing this, it could very easily become a full-time job! I've therefore… Read more »
Columbia Faculty on “What is the Entrepreneurial Mindset”
Entrepreneurship is one of those terms that’s a bit like the old saw about art or pornography – “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it”. If you want to bring… Read more »