Forecast: Computer grahpics;

              process and time table. Both have
been credited with important
contributions to TI.
Budgeting is a necessary part
of managing a large complex
organization. But like strategic
planning, it is a means to an end.
What is the end? Overall, in a
modern corporation, the end
result of top management's efforts
must be to cause excitement,
innovation, productivity, and risk
taking, so that purposeful work
occurs across the organization.
Leadership in these times
requires more than ministering
over current resources. Control
must be simultaneously "loose
and tight," to quote one study of
what makes successful companies
successful.
• Cultivate a customer-driven
culture.
This is easier said than done—
particularly if layers of years and
practices have obscured the fact
of who really pays the bills. Few
established companies have built
a distinctly better mousetrap that
will be purchased indefinitely by
consumers—regardless of service,
support, and continuing useful­ness.
Even the high-rise micro­computer
companies are today
scurrying to become user-friendly.
From a recent book titled Entre­preneuring
by this author, here is
the second of ten commandments
for building a growth company:
"Define the business of the
enterprise in terms of what is to
be bought, precisely by whom,
and why.
"Businesses/institutions
perform certain tasks that
provide the goods and services
the public wishes to own and
use. The nature of these tasks
usually changes over time, as
those who are served change.
The successful company
predicts and responds to its
chosen customers' needs. At all
times, some customers are
growing in their ability to buy;
others are declining. The astute
manager ascertains which is
which.
The big company corollary to
the above is that all hands have
to get, believe, keep, and live the
message that customers are in the
driver's seat. But this is not clear
from a look at the contents of a
majority of company orientation
programs. Or training programs.
Or publications. Or performance
reviews. Chances are you will
find little on the customers of
these enterprises. The winds of
entrepreneurialism have died,
deflating the corporate sails as
far as the crew is concerned.
Sailing, instead, with the
prevailing breeze is not a formula
for long-term success in a stormy
competitive world containing
both sunshine anchorages and
hidden reefs.
Conclusion
I have cited five relatively
straightforward actions that have
the potential for opening up an
established company to fresh
thinking. Such thinking is the
precursor to behaviorial change,
that is, changes in what people
do. These new actions are
required if established companies
are to join in the entrepreneuring
revival crossing the country.
In short, the management of
resource-laden enterprises is
confronted by a major opportu­nity
to move with, if not ahead of,
the times. Entrepreneuring is a
spirited way of life. The door to
the club is a wide one. More
members are needed. Former
members are particularly
welcome. C
Dr. Brandt also is senior lecturer in
management at the Graduate School
of Business, Stanford University. This
article is taken from the forthcoming
book Entrepreneuring in the Estab­lished
Company, Copyright © 1983,
by Steven C. Brandt.
t3^?/compucer Grapnics
By the end of the decade, you will just connect your personal computer to our
Cray and tune in the cable channel and become part of the movie. Instead of
buying pay-TV movies, you will pay us for interactive movies that you're part
of We present generic possibilities and you create varieties based on your
personality and abilities. You control things, create a custom movie that will
never be seen by anyone else or never do anything else. The more interactive a
system is, the more it becomes what you want to be seeing, what you want to
be doing, what you want to be exploring. You'll be saying a lot about what
you're getting through this system.
GARY DEMOS
Vice-President/Co-Founder
Digital Productions