Introduction
Welcome
Preface of Textbook
About the Textbook
About the Authors
Book Website at McGraw-Hill
DVD Contents
 
Stanford 1e Book Website
McGraw-Hill 1e Book Website
 
Book Contents
Table of Contents
I
Venture Opportunity, Concept and Strategy
II
Venture Formation and Planning
III
Functional Planning of the Venture
IV
Financing and Building the Venture
  Business Plans (App. A)
  Case Studies (App. B)
Online Sources (App. C)
 
Sample Syllabus
Course Overview
Calendar of Sessions
I
Entrepreneurial Perspective
II
Idea or Opportunity
III
Gathering Resources
IV
Managing Ventures
V
Entrepreneurship and You
 
Additional Resources
Schools Using This Textbook
Authors Blog
 

Creating a business plan for a new enterprise is important, but implementing the plan successfully is essential. Execution of a plan is a discipline for connecting strategy with reality by aligning goals and the firm’s people to achieve the desired results. Execution is about turning a concept into a great business. New businesses move from start-up to growth to maturity in stages. Managing a new business through these stages requires different skills and organizational arrangements. Start-ups need to plan for having the right people in the right positions as they grow. Organizations, like people, need to learn and adapt to change. Organizing for recognizing and responding to challenges can build resilience in a start-up firm. The ability to adapt to change may be a firm’s only truly sustainable advantage. Furthermore, to achieve long-term success, a firm needs an ethical base for action.

 

 
Tellme Networks, Inc.
Tellme, an early-stage, venture-backed company based in Silicon Valley, leverages speech recognition technologies to provide: 1) a "voice portal" with news and other information accessible through any telephone, and 2) turnkey application development and hosting services for other companies that wish to voice-enable customer service and marketing applications. In the fall of 2000, Tellme management is debating a number of strategic issues, most importantly: 1) should they agree to voice-enable services for mass market Internet portals like Yahoo!, which would provide significant application development/hosting revenue but accelerate competition to Tellme's own voice portal?; and 2) should they pursue a "Get Big Fast" strategy, investing aggressively in customer acquisition and brand building?
 
Intel Corp.--1968-97
Traces Intel's history and strategy from 1968 to 1997. Examines the company's decision to exit DRAMS and its entry into microprocessors. Focuses on how the company managed to achieve and sustain its competitive advantage in microprocessors, and the threats it faces in the future. Teaching Purpose: Introduction to competitive strategy, industry analysis, and competitive dynamics
 
 
(DVD Section 20.4) Frank Levinson: Why ethics are important?
It's often more difficult than it sounds, but it's important to be "fanatically ethical" when building a company. Frank Levinson says, "... people understand if it's an ethical environment right away... it's something that people... gravitate to, so you just have to build it early and never step off of it."
 

Carol Bartz: Trust and Honesty At the Work Place
The importance of honesty and trust in the workplace.

Vinod Khosla: Build a Company to Change the World
Khosla never intended to be a VC and still doesn't consider himself to be a venture capitalists. He considers himself a venture assistant. Has little interest in business, other than its necessity for economics and its power to change the world. Khosla loves technology and believes that it drives most of the change that happens in the world.
John Hennessy: The Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It
Hennessy predicts that the internet revolution is only half over. The remaining opportunities will be harder to find, but there is still a big impact to be made. Computers are still way too complicated and could be doing a lot more for the user. Wireless technology will increase mobility. In order to allow the continuation of increased performance in computing, there will have to be some major changes in technology.
Frank Levinson: Why ethics are important?
It's often more difficult than it sounds, but it's important to be "fanatically ethical" when building a company. Frank Levinson says, "... people understand if it's an ethical environment right away... it's something that people... gravitate to, so you just have to build it early and never step off of it."
   
 
New Ethics or No Ethics
Requires Fortune Magazine login for full article. Examines ethical issues facing dotcom era internet companies, from questionable accounting practices to inflate revenues to insider trading and stock flipping CEOs.
 

 

Copyright 2004-2007 Stanford University. All Rights Reserved.