In this series, I will comment on the written feedback I received after my presentation. Also, I will answer the online questions asked by students I had no time to amply reply to during said presentation
Lehren für Unternehmensführer – das Leben, das Wissen, die Informatik und die Ethik
(Lessons For Managing Directors – Life, Knowledge, Computer Science and Ethics)
„Innovative Entrepreneurs“/ Summer Semester 2010
Leadership in growth-oriented enterprises
Today: History and Change
Question:
In your opinion, what is the most significant difference between founding an enterprise thirty years ago and now? In particular, could you refer to the huge influence of the internet and the global information flow?
Answer:
There is a huge difference between the foundation of a production enterprise and a service enterprise. On many levels – like capitalization, organization, marketing, sales and growth – service enterprises have to meet challenges totally different from those of production enterprises.
Most of the successful foundations I am personally knowledgeable about are service enterprises. I also know firms where a product was developed as a consequence of a service. In these cases, the service offered was ideal for combining it with and stabilizing the product.
I know only very few young product enterprises. Most of those I know are still waiting for the “break even”. Mostly, they are sold (not so often) or liquidated (more often) without ever having been in the black.
As far as services are concerned, there hardly seems to be any change. It is all about showing a profitable turnover in a core business after the shortest possible time. As in former times, you have to reach people who are prepared to trust your service offer. And said trust must be met daily. To be sure, the internet and global information flow certainly give advantages. The more agile ones will be better able to utilize them than the more passive ones. But that has always been so.
To me, it seems to be different with product enterprises. As a general rule, a special product idea and the precise realization of such will be a necessary requirement for success (Ortlieb, Roloff, all kinds of software for special purposes, …). If this basic requirement is met, modern potential can really help when it comes to promoting the product both in the construction and marketing phases. The question is if, these days, this is not necessary, anyway. For the same reasons the time windows for success probably are closed earlier nowadays.
Which would also be something where today does not really differ very much from former times.
My next and last post will answer questions on marketing.
RMD
(Tramslated by EG)
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