Entrepreneurship panel at Cornell University
Three of us head to Cornell University today (Alma Mater for Dori and me) to be on a panel at the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration 2007, “Investing in the future”. Should be quite fun to take our youngest daughter back to our school. She’s humoring us with the idea that show might even apply to Cornell, although probably not the College of Engineering.
Our panel on “Advancing Innovation as an Entrepreneur: Transforming the Sustainable Industries”, is right on target for what we need to do. For too long the “Sustainable Industries” have not been run as solid businesses in the capitalist model. Not that I’m any Adam Smith, but we can either try to make a great business within the model everyone else works in, or we can try to change the entire construct of business in the US. Personally, I’m a little daunted by the second challenge, so instead I’m simply trying to create a solar company that can beat global warming while being capitalistic. Much easier than trying to change capitalism, and I think considerably more productive.
I come at business from an incredibly pragmatic, logic driven viewpoint. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all pluses and minuses, and I spend far more time now working on marketing ideas and strategy than on engineering. But my business philosophies and practices are much more motivated by what I see work and by trying things to see if they work, than by text book solutions. (A sticker in my office says “Always make new mistakes”.) Text books are great for replicating a business model, but when you’re in an emerging, fragmented, infantile industry, there are no “real” cases to study. With any luck, people will write the case studies about us in the future. So it’s with at least a little amusement that I am appearing on this panel.
I’ve never taken a business course; I’ve never read a marketing book. (Well, I read half of Blue Ocean Strategy, great concept, no time to finish the book.) I have, however, developed a fine appreciation for those who acquire great business process skills, and I am not knocking those who have the Business degree. It’s also an honor to be with my fellow panelists. And I am very heartened that my Alma Mater’s B-School is holding a symposium with this theme. I’ll let you know how it goes.