Showing results by publisher "Stanford Audio" in All Categories

Using her own experiences as an entrepreneur, angel investor, and venture capitalist, Yesil discusses the Entrepreneurial Process. She walks the audience through the steps necessary to identify a winning idea, recruit a coherent team, define a roadmap based on concrete deliverables, choose financial partners, establish the right business development relationships, create a larger than life shadow, and ultimately guide the company to a liquidity event.

How many Internet years ahead of the competition are you? If you're using networking for competitive advantage in the marketplace, you're on the right track, says Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers. Chambers believes networking is the most significant generation of the computer revolution, with wide-ranging implications for productivity in businesses worldwide. He provides examples of leading-edge companies, including Cisco, that are using networking effectively.

Today's market is an increasingly sophisticated one - and Dell Computer's reported revenues of $3.2 billion prove that customers are ready for new ways of doing business. In this interview, CEO Michael Dell shares his vision of the potential of online transactions, describes the success of customized Web pages, and examines the possibilities for direct and indirect sales of technology products. Dell talks about cutting costs with effective online support, building effective customer relationships, tearing down the myths of the Internet, and more.

Everywhere, in every industry, markets are merging, closing, shrinking, splitting, colliding and growing. The only constant in business is that everything is constantly changing. This talk by Kathleen Eisenhardt professor of strategy and organization at the Stanford School of Engineering focuses on how to manage these hotly competitive, high-velocity industries, how keep up with the pace of change, and how to get ahead of the game.

Globalization and the next generation of organizational challenges require new kinds of leadership. Diane Woods of Levi Strauss and Co. explains how to employ specific strategies to leverage the richness of a diverse workforce. She explores the link between global competition and diversity and explains how such diversity is vital to an organization's transformation and regeneration.

What is the most important responsibility of managers today? The answer is mobilization, says Jennifer Kenny, President of Emergent Management Consulting. Mobilizing your organization to meet a common goal requires gaining your employees' commitment to a shared future. Skills previously considered essential to success, such as problem solving, goal setting, and operations management, are by themselves no longer sufficient, says Kenny, if the organization lacks commitment, trust, and coordination.

Three things make the difference in becoming a leader and being led - product quality, customer service, and productivity. While managers have made great strides in the first two factors, improving productivity remains a major challenge for many organizations. John H. Zenger, a leading authority on organizational change and high performance systems, discusses practical methods to help an organization shed its past, raise its standard for higher performance, and give employees specific tools required to excel in the workplace.

If you assess your organization's needs and choose technology effectively, you will gain an edge over your competitors. Peter Cunningham outlines a plan for understanding and utilizing the changes in information technology. Cunningham, a specialist in analyzing and forecasting major trends in the information industry, explains the competitive power of electronic commerce. He also contends that you must consider downsizing, outsourcing, or networking in order to compete effectively in today's business world.

What will the World Wide Web mean to your business? Scott McNealy answers that the Web levels the playing field, empowering businesses, industries, and "any 12-year-old with a PC" to reach millions of potential customers, listeners, and subscribers. McNealy, the president and CEO of Sun Microsystems, offers a number of startling revelations for business leaders on how to retool their organizations so they're not left with obsolete technology and poorly-equipped employees.

How do you build a company of enduring greatness? Jerry Porras contends that a strong core ideology and the persistent drive for progress are fundamental to the process. Having studied the life history of 18 visionary companies, he offers six key mechanisms that these companies use to preserve their core and stimulate innovation and change. He debunks the myth of the charismatic leader and concludes that all firms can use his findings to improve their organizational performance.

Business sense consists of "five freedoms," says Dan Thomas, President of FOCUS. Success depends on exercising each freedom in developing strategy, systems, organization, and personnel selection. Dr. Thomas, whose company works with client management teams to help them develop and implement business and corporate strategies that make sense, has taught at both the Stanford and Harvard Business Schools. Now he lends his expertise to help you make the decisions that can mean the difference between prosperity and failure in your organization.

Changes in US trademark law, the widespread adoption of the Internet, and an intensified interest in branding have combined to make desirable company and product names seem increasingly unattainable. Few companies today have embarked on a naming effort that has not proven to be frustrating at best, and useless at worst. S.B. Master addresses key current topics in naming including naming vs. branding, determining the optimal number of names, domain name issues, linguistic missteps, and getting the most out of your trademark attorney.

As the relentless pressure of globalization continues to build, what can you do to assure that your organization remains competitive? Barry Sullivan sets the context for what "going global" means and how that differs for products and services. He contends that a shared corporate view of the future supported by keen knowledge of foreign marketplaces offers the best foundation for effective global action. The discussion includes how to create such a shared view and how EDS, his own firm, leverages its resources for global success.

John Kilcullen, Chairman and CEO of IDG Books Worldwide, and the brains behind the For Dummies series, talks about branding, entrepreneurship, startups, and dynamic growth.

Ray Lane, President and COO of Oracle Corporation, discusses the importance of balancing talent and corporate values to keep a company in growth mode. Using Oracle as a case study, he describes how opportunity, a differentiated product, smart people willing to take risks, leadership, and funding are the five criteria essential to maintain corporate growth. Too often a company will not grow because it stands in the path of progress. Lane stresses the importance of flexible leadership and sticking to key objectives that value both your product and your employees equally.

Silicon Valley's robust economy has yielded tremendous job growth - yet this prosperity has its down side as the boom has led to more traffic and fewer housing options. Joint Ventures Silicon Valley, under the leadership of former California State Senator Becky Morgan, is developing a model program applicable to all communities trying to balance business development with quality of life issues. In this speech, Morgan talks about her organization's plan, which incorporates community input and measurable goals.

It is a well-documented fact that Silicon Valley sprang from the Stanford School of Engineering. Former Dean Fred Terman's vision of local employment for his graduates led to the founding of Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems. Dean John Hennessy, co-founder of MIPS Computer Systems and Chief Architect at Silicon Graphics, describes the continued success of this academia-industry partnership.

Remote management, contingent workers, virtual offices...10 years ago we may not have recognized today's corporate environment. Drawing on a decade of field research in the high-tech sector, Dr. Homa Bahrami talks about how technology and globalization have transformed the workplace and provides effective strategies for leading knowledge-based workers. She looks at traditional vs. emerging organizational models, the impact of physical design on the work environment, and "orgitechting" for the knowledge worker.

Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park may be good science fiction, but it's lousy science-in-fiction. Professor Carl Djerassi, who collaborated in producing the first oral contraceptive, talks about the "science-in-fiction" genre and how it differs from its implausible, inaccurate counterpart. Djerassi also discusses his novel, Menachem's Seed, the third volume in his science-in-fiction tetralogy (which includes Cantor's Dilemma, 1989; The Bourbaki Gambit, 1994).

We are in a Golden Age of Technology, and to take advantage of its opportunities, we must focus on the consumer market, says Joe Costello, CEO of Cadence Design Systems. In a series of illuminating case studies, Costello explains how long-standing business models will not stand up to the new challenges involved in bringing electronic innovations to today's market. Costello draws upon years of experience in physics and theory to paint a clear picture of the partnerships, priorities, and strategies businesses will need to create to stay competitive.