Starting Something: An Entrepreneur's Tale of Control, Confrontation and Corporate Culture
Author: Wayne McVicker
A piercingly honest and highly personal story of how a software firm that accidentally became a dotcom darling and eventually a 3 billion public company, survived its struggles in the face of daunting obstacles. Delivers a wealth of insight, information, and advice for entrepreneurs. An unflinching look at both the dark and the bright sides of corporate culture.
Soundview Executive Book Summaries
An Entrepreneur's Tale of Control, Confrontation and Corporate Culture
In 1996, entrepreneurs Wayne McVicker and Jeff Kleck started a company called Neoforma to sell a software product for the health care industry. In Starting Something, McVicker describes the story behind his startup and how it eventually went public with an IPO that was the 16th most successful IPO in history. His tale takes readers through the five years in which he was involved with the company and over which the organization grew and took on a life of its own.
What makes Starting Something different from other books written about dot-bust startups, most of which exploded onto the market only to implode in the next few years, is that Neoforma is still alive and well. Although McVicker eventually stepped aside from his now independent company, he paints a detailed portrait of his personal experiences during his time with the company, depicting the raw excitement and drama that accompanied the venture.
Step by step, McVicker takes readers from his first thoughts of journeying out on his own to his eventual departure from Neoforma. Early in his career, he was an architect who worked at a large architectural firm for nearly a decade. Next, he joined a radiotherapy medical equipment company called Varian doing computer design and drafting. After nine years at Varian, McVicker jumped at the opportunity to become an entrepreneur with another colleague from Varian and create a company that quickly became a thriving success. In Starting Something, he presents tales of bosses, lawyers, venture capitalists and investors while revealing the human side of his new business.
Names and Logos
While walking readers through the process of creating an organizational identity, McVicker describes the dilemmas associated with choosing a company name and logo. After detailing how he and Kleck created the name Neoforma, a made-up name that implies the creation of a new model for doing important things, he describes how many investors tried to have an impact on the new business by applying a new name of their devising to it. McVicker explains that he did finally change the company's original maze logo to one that looks much like many other dot-com logos, but he points out that customers simply saw what the company was and associated its name with it, so the name stayed.
As Neoforma grew, many legal issues and technical difficulties had to be overcome. McVicker offers an inside look at the heavy emotions that accompanied the financial challenges of running a new company. "Because I had so much invested, financially and emotionally, into Neoforma, I was anxious that the company depended so much on me. I felt that if I dropped my guard for a moment, the increasing pressures on the company would overwhelm me," McVicker writes. With thoughtful candor, he reveals the tension that accompanied the work and how it led to a deteriorating relationship with his wife. As a remedy, he hired an executive coach who helped him work through the stress and his own depression so he could get back to work.
Other issues covered in Starting Something include finding adequate office space, battling competition, leadership crises, hiring new blood, creating a healthy company culture, going public, and the ongoing stress of personal debt.
'Things to Keep in Mind'
At the end of Starting Something, McVicker offers a dozen "Things to Keep in Mind When Starting Something." These include the following:
- Be who you are. If you aren't true to yourself, your company's culture will suffer. So will you.
- Communicate empowerment. All employees powerfully influence a company's success and direction. Let them know they are valued and their voices are heard. Do this often and in many ways. Don't waste the potential of any employee.
- Listen to all advice, but trust what you know. As you confront frequent obstacles, you might begin to question your core beliefs. Don't. Be patient. Ideas that require customers to change behavior often take 10 or more years to implement.
- Enjoy yourself. It is very easy, during the inevitable times of monetary starvation and market inertia, to lose sight of how much fun it is to create something new and useful.
Why We Like This Book
Although McVicker writes that his book is not a how-to guide for entrepreneurs, it does, in fact, offer many lessons for new business owners about what worked and did not work during the formation of one successful company. With candid observations about the company and his own personal adventure, McVicker presents a straightforward recollection of his ups and downs in the driver's seat of a new venture. Copyright © 2006 Soundview Executive Book Summaries
Book review: Angry Heart or Buff Brides
European Business
Author: Debra Johnson
European Business highlights what is unique about the European business environment. As such it focuses upon European integration, especially market integration and explores how it has affected the strategy and behavior of businesses with a European presence. It covers topics like the single European market, the single currency and related policy issues. However, it also covers issues that have hitherto not been well covered such as the European consumer, entrepreneurship and Europe's relationship with emerging economies like China. The integration theme is central because Europe, although not without significant problems, is the deepest and most advanced case of regional integration in the contemporary world and is looked to as a potential role model by regions seeking greater integration themselves. However, a proper understanding of Europe would not be complete without some consideration of how the component parts of Europe (that is, the member states) relate to and affect policy and strategy andhow Europe itself interacts with the rest of the world. These issues are dealt with both in separate chapters and recur throughout the book. The book contains numerous topical case studies that demonstrate the above themes.
Table of Contents:
List of illustrations xi
Preface xvii
Abbreviations xxi
europe - The National, Regional and Global Dimensions 1
A Portrait of Europe: Challenge and Change 3
Portrait of Europe 4
European social models 11
Europe's competitiveness problem 14
Internal change and the Lisbon Strategy 18
The Integration Imperative: Theory and Practice 24
What is economic integration? 25
Emergence of the EEC 30
The Treaty of Rome to the first enlargement 33
Political stagnation and economic sclerosis 34
Renewed vitality: from the Single European Act to the Treaty on European Union 34
The Maastricht backlash to Amsterdam 38
Institutions of the European Union 45
The business environment and European integration 54
European Business in a Global Context 58
The form and nature of globalisation 58
Economic integration and the international business environment 61
The European economy: comparative performance 63
The global presence and role of European business 69
Corporate-driven change inEuropean business 73
European business and the threat of economic nationalism 76
Conclusions 78
Market Integration 81
The Single European Market: The Bedrock of European Integration 83
European business and the single market 84
The initial SEM programme: intentions and objectives 85
The commercial effects of the initial SEM programme 87
The opinion of business 91
The effect on consumers 91
Developing the SEM: towards a new strategy 92
Progress towards the completion of the SEM 94
The external dimension of the SEM 98
Conclusion 101
European Competition Policy: The Guardian of Integrated Markets 103
The basis and form of competition policy 104
The core features of EU competition policy 105
Reform of competition policy 107
New themes in competition policy 109
The international dimension of EU competition policy 113
Conclusion 121
European Industrial Policy: Meeting the Challenges of International Competitiveness 124
The changing nature of European industry 124
The nature of industrial policy and international competitiveness 127
The evolving supranational policy: themes and issues 131
Towards an integrated approach to industrial policy 134
Sectoral issues in international competitiveness 138
Conclusion 142
Developing Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship Within Europe 145
The role of SMEs in the modern economy 146
Creating a more entrepreneurial culture within Europe 149
The emerging challenges for Europe's SMEs: the internationalisation of markets 151
The evolution of Europe's enterprise policy 155
Conclusions 160
Economic and Monetary Union: An Unfinished Project 162
What is EMU? 163
The road to EMU 165
Benefits and risks of EMU 169
The early years of EMU and looming challenges 172
Outlook 184
Trans-European Networks: Building an Infrastructure for Europe 188
The commercial importance of network infrastructure 189
The emergence of Tens 192
The network sectors: generic themes and policies 194
The financing of Tens 197
The role of the EU 198
Further issues in the development of Tens 202
The expanding dimensions of Tens 203
Progress towards Tens 205
Conclusion 206
Inputs and Factors of Production 209
Transport Policy: Towards Efficient and Effective Mobility 211
The importance of transport to European business 212
Long-term European transport trends 213
Evolution of the Common Transport Policy 215
Developing the CTP: the case of road haulage 219
Developing the CTP: the case of airlines 221
Developing the CTP: the case of rail 230
Conclusion: the future of the CTP 231
Energy Policy: Developing Competitive, Clean and Secure Energy Supplies 234
Background to EU energy policy 235
Continuity of EU energy policy 236
The competition pillar 239
The environmental pillar 249
The security of supply pillar (the international dimension) 250
Corporate responses to EU energy policy 254
Meeting the Challenges of the European Information Economy 262
The information revolution and international competitiveness 263
Progress towards the information society 266
The European information society: generic themes and strategy 273
Challenges to the creation of the European information society 277
Conclusion 281
European Labour Markets: The Search for Flexibility 284
Trends in EU labour markets 285
Labour market flexibility 290
Evolution of EU labour market policy 293
Amsterdam and beyond 302
Labour mobility 306
Conclusion 308
Environment Policy: Green Light for Competitiveness 311
European business and the environment 312
The rise of ecological modernisation 316
Evolution of EU environment policy 321
The expanding range of European environmental policy 324
The international dimension of environmental policy 334
Europe and the Consumer: Taking the European Consumer into Account 338
The importance of consumers 339
The emergence of EU consumer policy 341
The strategy for consumers 343
Consumers and the euro 345
The European Food Safety Agency 346
EU consumer protection legislation 351
The Internet and consumer protection 352
Financial services 354
Conclusion 355
Europe and the Rest of the World 357
Central and Eastern Europe: Response to a New Business Environment 359
The legacy of the past 360
Rapprochement between East and West Europe 361
What does an enlarged Europe mean? 366
The future 386
European Business in a Global Context: The Developed World 390
Europe and the triad 390
The EU, the WTO and the Common Commercial Policy 392
The challenge of intra-industry trade 393
The EU and trade with the triad 395
Conclusion 406
Europe and Emerging Economies: Opportunity or Threat? 408
China 409
Russia 421
India 427
Index 434
