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How Do I Start Your Own Business?

Strategy Driven

Usually, adding a little detail to an existing product (such as changing the colour of something) is not enough to start a business, so try more than you think you need. Determine the Cost of the Operation. Are they willing to pay to buy your product or use your service? Part 2 Create a Business Plan. Identify Obstacles.

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What BMW’s Corporate VC Offers That Regular Investors Can’t

Harvard Business Review

Third, corporate VCs and accelerators are costly and complex to operate, turning them into a slow and expensive innovation tool. Obviously, such “venture client” collaboration was possible at BMW before the launch of that unit, but it was lengthy and cumbersome due to complex administrative barriers.

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When You Can't Innovate, Copy

Harvard Business Review

To mitigate the investing risks associated with eroding market opportunities due to copycats, investors always look for companies with strong competitive resilience or those that are operating in markets with a high barrier to entry. A venture capitalist there was essentially running an imitation fund.

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Ten Ways to Diversify an Inbred Network

Harvard Business Review

It also tends to be internal, operational (not strategic), and historical, an artifact of the executive's past work history and not his or her future possibilities. How do you stay current with what is happening in the great wide world if your network is mostly internal and operational? Get in touch with a venture capitalist.

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How Software Is Helping Big Companies Dominate

Harvard Business Review

They’re more productive , more profitable , more innovative , and they pay better. In 2011, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen declared that “software is eating the world.” Greater productivity meant lower prices and faster growth, leading to increased industry dominance. Andrew Brookes/Getty Images.

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‘My Years with General Motors’, Fifty Years On

Harvard Business Review

Worse still, not one of the company’s assorted products could begin to compete with Ford’s Model T on price or quality. Yet in little more than a decade, each GM product line was turning a profit, and the corporation as a whole had established itself as the world’s premier automaker and the nation’s largest single employer.

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How to Revive a Tired Network

Harvard Business Review

Jones, and Brian Uzzi, “The Increasing Dominance of Teams in Production of Knowledge,” Science 316, no. Burt asked the managers to write down their best ideas about how to improve business operations, and then he asked two ex­ecutives at the company to rate the quality of these ideas. Stefan Wuchty, Benjamin F.

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