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An Entrepreneur's View £. Primer for Hiqn Teen by STANLEY RJ$CH/Executive Vice-President and Technical Director, Advanced Energy Dynamics, Natick, Mass. nndrew Mellon once said: "I'd rather have a market than a mill." A budding entrepreneur should stamp that on the first page of every business plan. For whether his new firm lives or fails is going to depend on identifying the customers' needs, not on that revolutionary product sequestered in his laboratory. Now that's the keystone, but there is more, of course, to starting a successful business. More than 60 entrepreneurs have appeared before the MIT Enterprise Forum, where experienced businessmen offer advice in a public forum to firms with problems or to new businessmen just starting out. One common denominator that describes these new entrepreneurs is a lack of focus. Some don't know what product areas they are in, or whether they're selling a product or a service. Others don't know where they're going, whether they're going to sell out down the road or try to become a Fortune 500 company. What makes the right management team confuses some. Still others are bewildered by the world of finance. The Rules of the Game The Management Team. One of the keys to good management is not to run a one-man band. I remember the questions to one entrepreneur: Who's the CEO? "I am." Who's the chief engineer? "I am." Who's the sales manager? "I am." And so on. And why are you here? "Well, things aren't so good." This CEO complained that his product showed a good user benefit, but he was grossing only $50,000 a year—a disaster. Who's the sales manager? "I am." How much of your time do you spend on sales? "Ten percent." It figured. The entrepreneur can't be all things to all people. To those who think they cannot afford a sales manager, the fact is that they cannot afford not to have one. Some entrepreneurs "will hire a sales person who will put money into the company. The money -will pay for the person, and he'll watch how it's spent. Or the entrepreneur will offer stock options as incentives and pay a smaller amount. The point is that venture capitalists do not often invest in a one-man show. They look for a first-rate management team, and they're further pleased when the company has an active board of directors. These are concepts the streetwise businessman practices automatically, but they are just now being reflected in the business plans we see at the Enterprise Forum. Business Planning. The entrepreneur has to figure out what he wants to be -when his firm grows up. Will the company be a personal cash cow? Will he sell
Object Description
Title |
Management primer for high tech: An entrepreneur's view |
Author |
Rich, Stanley R. |
Subject |
High technology industries -- Management |
Citation |
Tempo, Vol. 28, no. 2 (1983), p. 55-57 |
Date-Issued | 1983 |
Source | Originally published by: Touche Ross, & Co. |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | Tempo_1983_Spring-p55-57 |