Module 1: Your Idea

In this post, I want to update our readers and subscribers on the current thinking about how new ventures move from an early idea to launch. I have been teaching topics associated with innovation for over 30 years, focusing on new product innovation. Over the years, my interests have evolved to include new venture creation … Continue reading New Venture Realization: Principles & Practices

Over the next couple of posts, I want to elaborate on ways to prepare for designing an effective solution for your customer. Starting with a design thinking approach, you will learn how to develop a deeper understanding of the customer's experience as they try to solve a specific problem or complete a job to be … Continue reading Design Thinking: From Empathy to Insight

See an Opportunity? Now What? You have an idea and are excited to start a new venture. Now what? As you begin to formulate the concept, you will want to conduct a preliminary assessment of the potential opportunity. There are several issues to address to determine whether a new venture idea is worth pursuing. No … Continue reading See an Opportunity? Now What?

A new MBA class started last week, and as I was going over the class overview, one of the students asked, "As a team, where do we start?" As I was giving my response, I realized that this is a question I continually obsess over: What is the best way for an entrepreneur to identify … Continue reading Fall in Love With the Problem, Not the Solution

In the last post, I discussed the role that entrepreneurial resilience can play in both a new venture's success and a founders' well-being.  Now, I want to explore with you the importance of character strength development and its application to the venture realization process. I  have worked with strength development approaches for several years, dating … Continue reading Embrace Your Superpowers!

As the term comes to a close, we have been discussing the plans that each of the founding teams has for their venture. What are your short and long-term action plans as you head towards an eventual launch? During these round-robin discussions, one of the founders expressed with both excitement and some trepidation, "what a wild, chaotic … Continue reading Resiliency: A Key to Entrepreneurial Wellbeing

When teaching entrepreneurship and associated innovation activities, I am always asked if there are any specific characteristics that successful entrepreneurs and innovators commonly manifest.  My short response is yes, there are observable behaviors that can be seen as correlated with innovation, but so much depends on such factors as an individual's cognitive style (and resulting cognitive biases), situational … Continue reading Entrepreneurship: A Balancing Act

The purpose of this new blog series is to create a publishable guidebook that can serve as a companion to Wiley's Patterns of  Entrepreneurship Management, 6th Edition (2020) as well as in support of various classes taught by the authors at Columbia University and globally by Venture for All® faculty including the new Entrepreneurial Innovation and … Continue reading New Venture Realization Roadmap™ Blog Series