By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Start Your Business Magazine
  • Topics

    Grow, expand and leverage your business..

    Grow your start up business with our experts and industry insiders…

    Get Started

    Quick Links

    • Finance
    • Marketing
    • Technology
    • Business Books
    • Wellness
    • Interviews
    • Franchise

    Our Newsletters

    Our website stores cookies on your computer. They allow us to remember you and help personalise your experience with our site..

    Read our privacy policy for more information.
  • Trending
    TrendingShow More
    Communicate Better
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    Majority of UK Employees Looking for a New Job
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
  • How To
    How ToShow More
    How To Start A Maintenance Business In 8 Easy Steps
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    Tips for Running a Restaurant in the Most Efficient Way Possible
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    Becoming self employed…
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    Vet Start up
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    Builder’s Growth
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
  • Agenda
    AgendaShow More
    4 Vital Safety Precautions to Take During Office Renovations
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    Essentials You Will Need For Your Business
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    Boost Employee Morale with these Appealing Ideas
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    How To Save Your Business Money In Building Operations
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
    The Best Ways To Handle Customer Complaint
    Start Your Business Start Your Business
Reading: Be Successful
Connect
Start Your Business MagazineStart Your Business Magazine
Aa
  • Contact
  • Blog
Search
  • Agenda
  • Blog
  • Finance
  • Growing
  • Marketing
  • Opportunity
  • Starting Up
  • Technology
  • Wellbeing
  • Contact
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • RSS
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Licensing
Copyright © 2014-2023 Ruby Theme Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Be Successful

Start Your Business
experts
Share
7 Min Read

Discovering the secrets of enterprise success  

Throughout my career, I’ve struggled to make sense of the successes and failures I witnessed or participated in. I often felt I was at the cutting, bleeding edge of innovation, at Bell-Northern Research (BNR), Nortel Networks, and Oracle, as an adviser to various clients, and as a serial entrepreneur. In spite of all the learning experiences – with the scars to prove it – I could see myself and others repeating similar mistakes. We’d go down familiar blind alleys, rocked by similar bumps along the road, and slam into brick walls that all started to look and feel the same after a while. 

In parallel with these experiences, I’ve been privileged to attend seminars, courses, and talks by some of the greatest thinkers, strategists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders of our times. Their words and writings further shaped my thoughts on what enables effective, successful leaders, strategies, and business models. 

My early professional focus was on understanding the concept of value. Working in high technology, I could see that the prevalent approach to innovation was what I termed “technology push.” Clever “solutions” seeking problems and customers. Through the 1980s, my research on the value of “datacom” applications, based on benefits such as improved productivity, time savings, and effectiveness, reflected a new approach to innovation, complementing and balancing technology push. I authored Nortel’s first user-driven design specification for a small digital phone system called Norstar, which became one of the most profitable and globally successful telecom product lines in history. The core values that emerged from our research, for the integration of applications and convergence of delivery mechanisms, became the central message in Nortel’s vision for an open world, driving the proliferation of the global multimedia network we now know as the Internet (see Tyson, 2014). 

In the early 1990s, as Nortel’s bosses drove cultural change, embracing the key themes of entrepreneurship, excellence, globalization, and leadership, I was identified as a “high potential key resource” – someone with potential to serve at the top of Nortel’s leadership structure. I was selected as one of Nortel’s intrapreneurs, appointed business line manager (BLM) for Global Public Networks Data. In theory, I had global P&L responsibility and authority to run the business as my own, but in practice, Nortel had many layers of bosses, with many tricks for disempowerment. Being incentivized as a global GM and BLM for Data sounded grand, but as a business it was a massive money loser. We lost about $100 every time we shipped a data line card, my R&D budget exceeded global sales, and my business strategy for accelerating data  investment was adopted but not officially approved. 

For a time, I received monthly admonishments from the executive office, the very office in which my strategic business plan awaited approval, threatening me with punitive action if I continued “noncompliant” R&D and operational expenditures. 

With my very capable team, I transformed the Data business into a highly profitable and strategically essential line of business, before going on to various roles involving breaking into various key markets and customers, delivering many billions of dollars in profits and shareholder value. But we also had some spectacular failures along the way, such as alliances, joint ventures and acquisitions that failed to deliver, and battleground markets such as China where we, and competitors, lost a lot of blood and IP. Following Nortel, I enjoyed and learned from a couple of my own startup ventures I fondly refer to as “dot.bomb” learning experiences, before joining Oracle to champion its ThinkQuest acquisition, which, for a time, was the flagship social enterprise offering of the Oracle Education Foundation. 

The psychological determinants of success and failure include the “human factors” you may expect – creativity, leadership, intelligence, communications, motivations, attitudes, and expertise. However, you may be surprised, as I have been, to come to understand how these and other factors interact.  

The underlying model or framework was something I had a general notion of from the beginning, but my understanding of it kept evolving. It was a bit like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube, which in my view is a nasty invention. No sooner would I get one part of the model in order, when I’d have to revise another part. The “problem” is that the psychological determinants interact in complex ways within the model and in reality, which the model is an effort to describe. 

All the foregoing sources, experiences, ideas, and inspirations have combined in the form of a new model for entrepreneurial innovation, which is all about bridging between “soft stuff” such as psychology and culture and “hard stuff” such as strategy, performance, and bottom line results.  

I urge you to engage in the process of learning about these intricate relationships or bridges, and in doing so derive specific insights that you can apply to benefit yourself, those you work with, organizations you engage with, and the world. 

About the Author 

Dr Dave Richards, is an author, speaker, psychologist, strategist, global thought leader on innovation and entrepreneurship, and owner of Dr Dave Innovation Ltd. He cofounded and codirected the MIT Innovation Lab, and remains at the forefront of game changing innovation – guiding clients’ journeys of cultural transformation, value creation, and winning. He is the author of The Seven Sins of Innovation: A Strategic Model for Entrepreneurship. https://www.drdaveinnovation.com/ 

 

TAGGED: header

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Start Your Business January 20, 2020
Share this Article
Twitter LinkedIn Reddit Email Copy Link
  • RSS
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Licensing

Get the latest from us delivered straight to your inbox

Start Your Business Magazine: The Ultimate Business Start Up Guide provides information advice and guidance for entrepreneurs and new business start ups. Get the latest from us delivered directly to your inbox.

Our website stores cookies on your computer. They allow us to remember you and help personalize your experience with our site..

Read our privacy policy for more information.

Copyright 2023 Gambit Interactive Media Limited – All Rights Reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show personalized ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Join Us!

Sign up to our free newsletter and never miss a hot topic!

Zero spam, Unsubscribe at any time.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?