Where do we draw inspiration for our ideas? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there were a quick and easy way of generating fresh entrepreneurial concepts? To me there are three systematic sources we rely on: experience, search and serendipity.
I co-direct the Entrepreneurship Summer School at London Business School and while every one of the aspiring entrepreneurs attending comes to class armed with what they perceive as a brilliant idea, in reality a staggering 70 per cent of those that go on to start a business, do so with a completely different plan.
Brian Lynas, a former senior partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, recently visited London Business School to share some of the lessons and ideas he believes students must keep in mind when they return to work. Brian made his remarks during a London Breakfast Series event, which gives students a chance to engage in an informal and private setting with members of the School's seven Regional Advisory Boards.
A reader asked ‘I have a great idea but don’t have an investor, what do I do?’ This is one of the most common questions that entrepreneurs face. More than 95 per cent of start-up ideas are funded through friends and family. Here’s why.
Whichever way you cut it, lawyers play a significant role in the life of any entrepreneur. But it is how to turn that relationship into a meaningful one that is key and thus avoid any unnecessary cash leakage from a young business.
A recent conversation over dinner triggered my interest in how entrepreneurs and investors interpret their experiences of success and failure – after all, surely we all enjoy/endure a healthy combination of the two over time!
I am a 40 per cent shareholder in a company that I have helped build up but have been ‘retired’ by the company, which now wants to buy my shares. I neither need nor want to sell. What rights do I have?
What steps can an entrepreneur take to avoid being caught up in a future recession and should recession planning be a consideration for those running their own businesses?
I’m looking at ways of improving my cash flow and cutting costs generally, without upsetting my staff or suppliers, what ideas do you have?
Gerry George, professor of entrepreneurship
Gerry George recently joined the London Business School as a professor of entrepreneurship and also serves as a faculty director for the Institute of Technology. He has founded three separate technology companies throughout his career and has helped many others to develop.
Keith Willey; London Business School
Keith Willey is executive director of the Foundation for Entrepreneurial Management at London Business School. Formerly chief executive of the Centre for Scientific Enterprise Entrepreneurship, his main areas of research include: venture capital, growth management, technology ventures and organisation development.
Sara Williams
Sara Williams is editor of Business XL and also CEO of AIM-listed Vitesse Media, the publishing company she started in 1997. A former investment analyst with Kleinwort Benson, Sara is the author of The FT Guide to Business Start-up (over one million copies of this acclaimed guide have been sold). She has written for several national newspapers and appears regularly in broadcasts on TV and radio.
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