Harvard Business Review

MAY 15, 2012

I have used the social network for eight years and continue to be impressed with Mark Zuckerberg's focus on product and his vision for the internet. But equity investing and product use are very different things. And despite all of Facebook's user support, investors should be skeptical of the company's pricey IPO.

IPO 13

IPO Advertising IRR Venture Funding 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 15, 2018

While most of the private equity companies are private, a few like Blackstone Group, KKR, Carlyle Group, and Apollo Global Management are traded on stock exchanges. Gone is the heyday of the 1990s when firms with simply an idea and little or no revenues could do an IPO.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist IPO Company Kleiner 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2017

For decades, we have heard that emerging markets are poised for huge growth that will yield even greater prosperity. Much like their famed Silicon Valley counterparts, emerging market accelerators aim to boost startups’ potential for raising growth capital.

Marketing 8

Marketing Venture Funding Entrepreneur IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Venture capitalists are increasingly interested in emerging markets, and in working with local funds based in those markets (despite the fact that reverse innovation in venture capital seems counterintuitive). In contrast, emerging-market VCs such as Nadathur Holdings (established in 2000 by N.S.

Marketing 15

Marketing Venture Capitalist Biotechnology IPO 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

billion market valuation. As a price strategy consultant, it's common for managers and sales people to enthusiastically pitch me on a strategy of "let's get them in the door with a big discount, they'll love our product or service, and then return to pay full price." Consumers, of course, love big discounts.

IPO 10

IPO Discount Price Business Model 10

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

Your company has just developed an amazing new product. Having observed management teams for decades as a mutual fund and portfolio manager, I have watched numerous companies vanish after a disastrous launch of a product or service. Baldino moved aggressively to bring Provigil to market. What do you do next?

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Biotechnology IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 24, 2017

Change management can be a test for any organization. Several studies by Towers Watson show that just 25% of change management initiatives are successful over the long term. Change management certainly tested us. During our feedback discussions, for example, many associates brought up their desire for more flexibility.

Management 11

Management IPO Diversity Long-term 11

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 21, 2016

When financial services company Square priced its IPO at $9 a share last November, well under the $15+ price that private investors paid the year before, it was a cold shower of reality for the 6-year-old company. Until the IPO, Square had been one of more than 130 unicorns: privately owned tech companies valued at $1 billion or more.

IPO 8

IPO Innovation Price Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 23, 2013

The most motivated and productive people I’ve seen recently work in an older company on the American East Coast deploying innovative technology products to transform a traditional industry. Their products are early stage, which means daily frustrations as they run through successive iterations.

Motivation 11

Motivation IPO Norton Open-book 11

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

On February 13, 2018, the New York Times reported that Uber is planning an IPO. Twitter reported a loss of $79 million before its IPO, yet it commanded a valuation of $24 billion on its IPO date in 2013. Many digital companies have no physical products and have no inventory to report.

Company 8

Company Intangible Assets Depreciation IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 6, 2018

Financial value is the stuff of business school and stock markets. It’s about multiples of revenue or earnings, sales growth, profit margins, and management theory. In Silicon Valley there are basically two ways of creating shareholder value: financial and strategic. In other words, Microsoft is not paying $7.5

Price 12

Price IPO Wilde Examples 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 30, 2016

We were reminded of this a few years ago, when we studied a major European conglomerate with more than 50 distinct businesses spread across dozens of markets. “Talent management is easily over a third of all executive time when you count it all,” one long-standing company employee told us about how the company is run.

Supply Chain 14

Supply Chain Company IPO Talent Management 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 12, 2012

A few weeks ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about people who had opened up their very first investment accounts just to get in on the Facebook IPO. It also seems likely that he's kicking himself today, as the value of the stock has dropped almost 25% since its May 17 IPO. MORE ON MANAGING RISKY BEHAVIORS.

IPO 10

IPO Bond Long-term Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 30, 2014

The M&A markets are frothy, corporations are investing in Silicon Valley labs, and even PhDs looking for jobs in business schools are finding it tough to find homes without “innovation” somewhere in their background. But it’s an idea that demands attention, investment, and a long view of the market.

Long-term 11

Long-term Innovation Company IPO 11

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 16, 2011

The best way to manage a fledgling business is for managers to be impatient for profit but patient for growth. First, when a business is impatient for profit, managers are forced to validate their assumptions and demonstrate that customers are fundamentally willing to pay an acceptable price for the company's offering.

Christensen 19

Christensen Fixed Costs Metrics Venture Funding 19

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2014

That could mean illustrating the effects of a proposed customer management system with testimonials from actual customers, or describing how the data-sharing project you want to expand helped keep employees connected during a major outage. Is there a market opportunity the company is overlooking? ” says Sheen. The price tag?

IPO 9

IPO Audience Chief Information Officer Case Study 9

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 2, 2016

True platform innovators aren’t just market matchmakers using data-driven algorithms to drive better buyer-seller matches; they invest in new value creation. In platform markets, cultivating user capability becomes as strategically important as reducing transaction costs. Successful platforms empower their users.

IPO 8

IPO Human Capital Insurance Business Model 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 7, 2013

"Free" product competition strikes again and the latest casualty is Weight Watchers, whose CEO recently left the company in the midst of the onslaught of free weight loss and fitness applications. At the very least, it can buy time while management sorts out the right comprehensive response. Think about a classic case.

Disruptive Innovation 8

Disruptive Innovation Advertising Discount IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 4, 2016

Even when startups have great products and customer interest, they struggle with long-term growth. To borrow an analogy from our Harvard Business School colleague Shikhar Ghosh, their firms aren’t murdered by the market; they commit suicide because the founders can’t or won’t adapt to the organizations’ changing needs.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Sample IPO Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Great universities will spur firms to design and manufacture products locally. With Facebook’s $115 billion market cap on its IPO day, Mark Zuckerberg created wealth nearly equivalent to half of Nigeria’s GDP in 2012. The value created by Facebook and a few other tech IPOs exceeds the GDP of most African regions.

Education 8

Education Technology IPO GDP 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2016

Both associations managed their brands and ran the clearing and settlement systems for banks that issued cards or helped merchants accept cards. Then the banks decided to turn the associations into for-profit companies, IPO them, and cash out. MasterCard IPO’d in 2006, and Visa followed two years later. Insight Center.

IPO 8

IPO Succession Technology Software 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 16, 2014

Icahn later reduced his buyback request to $50 billion, and in April 2014 Apple’s board approved a $30 billion program to be carried out by repurchasing its shares on the open market — either by just buying shares outright or doing it indirectly via accelerated share repurchases. Apple is a company with phenomenal products and profits.

Safe Harbor 9

Safe Harbor Hedge EPS Price 9

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2014

The company was hell-bent on entering a new market but knew it had to automate its warehouse to do so. Warehouse automation systems are big and complicated; if they don’t work, you’re worse off than before since it becomes almost impossible to ship product. BlueArc’s new product hit the market and was an instant success.

CFO 8

CFO Venture Funding IPO Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2018

After the stock market’s rocky ride in recent months, some analysts are wondering whether a new economic crisis might be around the corner. Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan, a co-founder of the India-based Infosys, saw his company’s market value on NASDAQ drop 90% from 2000 to 2001. Jonathan Knowles/Getty Images.

Crisis 9

Crisis Entrepreneur Business Model IPO 9

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 6, 2014

At the time, though, we were just in search of a new approach to building a sustainable business in that critical but often difficult market. In fact, you could say (and many did) that our previous attempts had failed, in that we hadn’t established a sustained market position. Things hadn’t gone well up until that point.

Chief Financial Officer 10

Chief Financial Officer Operations Learning-by-Doing IPO 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2016

Strategic alignment, for us, means that all elements of a business — including the market strategy and the way the company itself is organized — are arranged in such a way as to best support the fulfillment of its long-term purpose. Goodwin was notoriously combative, with a “Fred says” autocratic management style.

Banking 14

Banking Strategy Film Operations 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 23, 2013

There are three pieces of data that are particularly shocking to internet, software, and biotech entrepreneurs who are on the verge of committing their firms to starting firms in secondary startup markets (and, in particular, outside of the San Francisco Bay). It’s time spent not building product. It takes longer to raise money.

IPO 9

IPO Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Competitive Advantage 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2013

In the book, I tell the stories of scale-up entrepreneurs from around the world, and how they beat the odds to make a mark on their markets. I used to think our great technology would take us to leadership in our market — now I realize it is our team, our organization, our marketing and our ambition to sell.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur IPO Open-book Marketing 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Few things are more damaging to a brand’s reputation than a hack in the headlines, and in the event of a public security incident, it’s highly likely that the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the Chief Security Officer (CSO) will be the first people the CEO looks to and says “What do we do now?”

Planning 9

Planning Company Crisis Brand 9

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 10, 2013

After all, China produces 600,000 engineering graduates each year, and as a former Google product manager I thought knew how to attract them. They wanted to know what my plans were for IPO. I thought hiring good engineers would be easy when I launched my startup, Julu Mobile , in Shanghai in early 2011.

Engineering 9

Engineering IPO Real Estate Price 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 9, 2014

The most successful, visionary entrepreneurs dream not of millions of dollars, but of a world where their products change culture. It is incredibly hard to hold an IPO. Big acquirers cash out founders, management teams get folded into big organizations, cashflows disappoint, and visions flounder. There has to be a better way.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Venture Capitalist Mezzanine Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

The first category is exogenous factors over which the business has little control: the growth of the markets into which it sells; the competitive intensity and thus the average profitability of the industry in which it operates; or the fragmentation of its industry and thus the scope for a growth-by-acquisition approach.

Chemicals 8

Chemicals How To Kahneman Reputation 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

After five years, in 2004, Tickle was profitable with more than $20 million in revenue; it received an acquisition offer for $100 million, as well as IPO entreaties. The most important way to mitigate risk is to become excellent at either engineering, product, selling, or operations and management.

Career 8

Career Company IPO Christensen 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2012

Ever thought air mattresses in living rooms would grow into a billion dollar company that would take on the vacation rental market and the hotel industry? Billion-dollar companies do not happen if the founding team is not extremely well suited to the market (now called " founder/market fit "). No 20,000 tech jobs.

Venture Capitalist 17

Venture Capitalist Software Entrepreneur Engineering 17

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2012

Ever thought air mattresses in living rooms would grow into a billion dollar company that would take on the vacation rental market and the hotel industry? Billion-dollar companies do not happen if the founding team is not extremely well suited to the market (now called " founder/market fit "). No 20,000 tech jobs.

Venture Capitalist 17

Venture Capitalist Software Entrepreneur Engineering 17

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 13, 2015

With limited exit opportunities via initial public offers ( IPOs ) and acquisitions, smart young people understand that stock options rarely bring a big payday. He invested in training his staff, but that backfired as those individuals then became more marketable and moved on.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist IPO Entrepreneur Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 5, 2011

Since at least the 1980s (the era of deregulation, that is, over which Alfred Kahn presided) managers of big companies have been upbraided for their intolerance to risk. Perhaps not surprisingly, managers of mega corporations remain largely unsold on that notion. Certainly, that's a fair accusation. First, why is it a sector?

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Innovation Intellectual Capital Mission Statement 15