Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 17, 2013

Donations and grants don't allow them to innovate and grow. They have virtually no access to capital markets and little flexibility to experiment at various stages of growth. Compare that to the world of venture capital. Soon venture capital became a core part of many economies and those bold moves changed everything.

Venture Capitalist 15

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Bond Finance 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 10, 2013

The opportunity may entail: 1) pioneering a truly innovative product; 2) devising a new business model; 3) creating a better or cheaper version of an existing product; or 4) targeting an existing product to new sets of customers. For example, a new venture might employ a new business model for an innovative product.

Definition 14

Definition Entrepreneur Business Model Tactics 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2012

Google has its own contender in the market, Google Voice. Due to huge capital requirements, these investments could exert considerable pressure on the working capital of the carrier company. Bharti's innovative business model converted fixed costs in capital expenditure to a variable cost based on usage of capacity.

Outsourcing 12

Outsourcing Wireless Telecommunications Core Competence 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Smartly reducing assets devoted to activities that earn less than their cost of capital requires good links with evolving market realities. ( Financing needs are in large part driven by the cash on hand and the working capital required to conduct and grow the business. But consider the basics.

Debt to Equity Ratio 14

Debt to Equity Ratio Cost of Capital Strategy Incentives 14

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 9, 2013

For-profit companies in the same situation can turn to a robust venture capital community that is focused on providing the management, financing and strategy that innovative companies need to scale up quickly. Yet those resources don't exist in the social enterprise market—even though the need is essentially the same.

Finance 11

Finance Franchising Business Model Analysis 11

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 22, 2013

Financial markets are not working for charities and social enterprises today. As a result, charities and social enterprises do not have the cushion of external financing to manage their various capital requirements. Like any small business, they need working capital to balance out the peaks and troughs of their business cycle.

Banking 10

Banking Finance Due Diligence Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 12, 2017

This income volatility is the result of broad shifts in the labor market. As employment in the service and retail sectors has grown, and dynamic staffing policies have spread, more workers depend on income from commissions, tips, and hourly work with fluctuating schedules. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Health Care 15

Health Care Insurance Video Transportation 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

Because the "unmentionable" subject of menstruation is taboo, the market failure — supplying cheaper pads — had never received the attention it deserved. As product is sold, some of the initial working capital that SHE puts up is paid back, with the entrepreneurs eventually owning their local franchises.

Franchising 17

Franchising CEO GDP Entrepreneur 17

Women on Business

AUGUST 24, 2011

Innovate –Think Outside the Box –Do not be a boring cookie cutter. For Harper, it was deciding to franchise her business as a practical way to expand, when she could not get working capital, plus be assured of an ownership base that would strictly follow her dictates. Competitors appear.

Franchising 226

Franchising Succession Core Competence Follow-up 226

Harvard Business Review

MAY 27, 2015

We see ourselves as risk-takers and innovators. Over the last six years the federal government funded more than 50 new regional innovation “clusters,” and across America new accelerators and entrepreneurship boot camps are proliferating. In fact, we know a lot about what works from observing this recent experimentation.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Policies Banking Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2017

However, higher accruals can reflect either innocuous aspects of certain business models, such as in the construction industry, where the time lag between earning income and realizing cash is long, or that growing firms retain higher working capital to meet greater current and future customer demand. Are all share repurchases myopic?

EPS 11

EPS Metrics Short-term Depreciation 11

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 28, 2018

The trick is, growth strategies have to fit the company’s current context, especially its brand promise and its target market. Even when companies do want to expand their product offerings, internal preparation and sequencing can matter more than the innovation itself. The firm’s leaders, convinced the U.S.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Decentralization Resistance 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

And providers want the flexibility to deliver outcomes in the best, most innovative, and most efficient way possible without being micromanaged by the customer. Finally, some companies have struggled to finance their activities without payment while they work on delivering the results, limiting their ability to innovate too.

Incentives 8

Incentives Health Care Education Insurance 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 24, 2011

That book is The Innovator's Dilemma by HBS Professor Clay Christensen. But what's most interesting to me isn't that The Innovator's Dilemma was on that list. Anyone familiar with Professor Christensen's work will quickly recognize the same causal mechanism at the heart of the Innovator's Dilemma: the pursuit of profit.

Innovation 16

Innovation Christensen CFO Products 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 19, 2016

Back in the 1980s, a company could set itself apart through scale, being the largest company in a category provided leverage over costs, back office processes, distribution, and marketing effectiveness. It became easier and easier for small enterprises to gain customer reach and awareness (along with working capital).

IAM 14

IAM Productivity Products Company 14

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Yet, despite the fact that all of our guests across our 18 sessions (and counting) have embraced these truths, the average result of such commitments to innovation seems to have been tenuous. But the corporate innovators we’ve talked to all know that. They’ve read Christensen’s book The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Christensen 8

Christensen Finance Innovation B2B 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 21, 2011

But whatever the investment, and whether I'm investing personally or professionally for the Disruptive Innovation Fund, my basic parameters are now clear. And because my husband and I were the providers of working capital, I had the luxury of being cavalier. Lesson 2: Establish rules of engagement. No, no, no , I cried.

Due Diligence 15

Due Diligence Magazine SWOT Christensen 15