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Chapter
Summary
After recognizing an opportunity and deciding it is attractive, usually one or two leaders assemble a new venture team to build a plan and an organization to execute it. These leaders are able to inspire and motivate others to join the new venture and work on tasks of the venture. They build a team that is collaborative and possesses diverse competencies. As an organization grows, managers will be needed to carry out the tasks that keep the organization running well. Leaders and teams strive to build social relationships and networks to foster collaboration. One of the methods of creating an ownership culture is to facilitate ownership for all people in the firm through stock options or restricted stock. A new firm also builds a set of advisors and a board of directors to help it move forward.
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Momenta Corp. (A)
Momenta is a one-month-old high-tech company founded by Kamran Elahian who has already helped found two other successful firms. Having faced problems of teamwork and communication before, Kamran is determined to establish the right corporate culture early on. Teaching Objective: To discuss when and how corporate cultures might be established in a rapidly growing industry. May be used with Momenta Corp. (B).
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Giro Sport Design (B)
Discusses Jim, Giro, and its management, facing the new challenge of growth, competition, and product line expansion. Brings Giro up to 1990, a time when the company faced increasing competition from both "knock-off" manufacturers and major players in the cycling industry. At this time, Jim and Giro's new president and CEO, Bill Hannemann, had to evaluate the marketplace, the company's internal strengths and resources, and Giro's overall vision to develop a plan for choosing new products and markets. The decisions Giro faced included not only selecting the specific products and markets but also the bigger challenges of defining Giro's identity and creating processes to make important decisions.
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Randy Komisar: Virtual CEO
Describes the activities of Randy Komisar, who serves as "virtual CEO" to numerous hi-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. Explores Randy's role, his perspective on general management, and a choice between two opportunities in which he is considering investing his time. Teaching Purpose: Explores the nature of the CEO role, especially in the start-up setting. |
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Mitali Dutta: Career Crossroads
Describes Mitali Dutta's career from 1996-1998. Mitali has completed a bachelors degree in computer science and a masters of science in industrial engineering/engineering management at Stanford School of Engineering. As she graduates, Mitali must choose between two very attractive career options: a product management/business development position with a venture-backed startup company, Internet, Inc. vs. an entry level position with a prestigious management consulting firm, Strategists LLC. |
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RADCO Electronics
This case is centered around the 'growing pains' that a rapidly growing company
faces. RADCO Electronics grew out of the successful commercialization of a
simple method for probing agricultural fields with inexpensive chemical sensors.
Expanding to different industries, the rapidly expanding company is challenged
with organizational, political and strategical issues. The company is outgrowing
its centralized management and organizational hierarchy and is considering the
restructuring of its upper management and budgeting procedures. Questions arise
in how customers are billed and which departments are actually bringing in
revenue. |
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Carol Bartz: Promoting Quality Leaders from Within
How do you seek out and promote quality leaders from within a company? What are the qualities that are demonstrated in those leaders? Leaders are often self-selected from peers. On way to identify them is to set up a management meeting and tap into the different groups across the company and note who gets picked to represent the individual groups. Usually, these are your leaders. Because they are easy to work with, are creative, they are sought out as leaders at whatever level they are in. Leaders are often self-selected from peers. No one wants to work with an asshole, however qualified they may be. |
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Lynn Reedy: Auction for America: Teamwork at its Best
Lynn talks about how the eBay team came to the rescue in September 2001. The team was given only three days to launch The Auction for America which required 20 hours for only coding and more time for testing etc. 100 people worked on this over the weekend and they had the product one hour before the deadline. No one said "We can't do this". The teams had to collaborate and work to get this done. |
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Vinod Khosla: Great CEOs Build Great Teams
Great CEOs are people who put great teams together. Scott Kriens at Juniper is one of the best CEOs I've ever worked with, Bill Campbell is another. There isn't always one definition of a CEO--each situation requires a different kind of leader, and each stage of a company has different needs in that leader. |
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Jim Collins: The Secret Life of the CEO (Fast Company Magazine)
A candid look at the the ethical issues involving CEO's of the dotcom boom. Collins perspective is that at the core of the problem is the dotcom 'built to flip' mentality. Rather than seeking to create great organizations, people reacted to events instead. |
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