The Distinction Between Entrepreneur And Executive

There is an unwritten rule in enterprise that when an organization goes public, the original founders have to be ousted. The myth: entrepreneurs are great for getting a company started, however not so great when Wall Street is trying over their shoulder. Part of this thinking is that founders of firms are mavericks, passionate doers with a vision, nontraditional in their approach to management and outspoken - the form of rabble rousing that makes buyers uneasy. (What is rabble rousing anyway?)

Passionate of their approach, some are seen as little more than televangelists who work their corporate gospel for all it is value, but when confronted with real management challenges, their methodologies are revealed to be a house of cards.

To put it mildly, this is a gross generalization and highly inaccurate.

Case in point, Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur with a vision - created the greatest consumer-pleasant pc on this planet and took a byte (pun supposed) out of IBM's market dominance. Passionate and visionary, Jobs had in his nook Steve Wozniak to handle the construction of Apple. Before these guys, working on a pc required extensive information of code just to do a easy task. Many a computer science main regarded down at those that could not understand the basics of a computer. Then Apple came alongside and adjusted all that posturing by inventing a consumer-friendly pc that required no code, no programming knowledge, just plug and play. With their visually intuitive interface, Apple redefined what working on a pc meant. They changed the computer business forever by creating computer systems for the remainder of us.

So, it wasn't a thriller why Mac became the pc of alternative for graphic designers - with it is concentrate on the graphical user interface and out of the box ease of operation, an Apple could possibly be used by anyone. Before the Macintosh, all typesetting at ad agencies and design firms had to be despatched out to a type house to be set into those neat rows you see in magazines and newspapers. You by no means knew what the type would appear like until it came back. One mistaken calculation could wreck a piece. Calculating typefaces was a science only doled out to designers with a propensity for math. With applications like Pagemaker and WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interfacing, Apple ruined impartial typesetting corporations overnight. Now all typesetting might be accomplished in house from your desktop and changes might be made instantaneously. Apple was the David that slew Goliath and Apple patrons started to take on a cult-like obsession.

But all was not well at Apple. Jobs' direction for the company appeared at odds with CEO John Sculley. An influence wrestle ensued and the board of directors sided with Sculley - Jobs was compelled out, and the press had a area day. To an outsider it made no sense. To a seasoned businessperson, it wasn't soon enough. The founder whose ideology was what brought the company to its present stage of profitability and notoriety was seen as a hindrance to the following part of success. The parable of the entrepreneur, unable to take the corporate forward, prevailed.

At first, the executive crew took Apple down a road where it had by no means been before, and profits have been the proof that every one was working. Time would tell, however, that a new CEO, a number of years of lack luster sales, and a low stock value are sufficient to make even probably the most seasoned board of directors realize they might have made a mistake. The Macintosh began to appear to be an IBM clone. Just one other computer.

For apparent reasons, Jobs was requested back in 97 and the Apple brand started to make a comeback. The entrepreneurial spirit returned and Apple stopped making products that seemed like grey boxes and started putting the ergonomic designs back into their industrial design. Lessons learned from Jobs' NEXT laptop system were integrated into the new PowerMac lines, and the iMac introduced the Apple model back to profitability. This was an entrepreneur with executive and strategic execution.

Jobs introduced the passion back to Apple. The myth of the entrepreneur had been broken. And let's not overlook Jobs' investment in Pixar before it was acquired by Disney. A lot for the parable of the entrepreneur not understanding real business.

Conversely, executives who arose via the ranks of Wharton, Yale or Harvard learned the ropes of hard work and numbers crunching, eventually landing a key leadership position after quite a little bit of seasoning, are just as valid. Many a enterprise wants this model of management to operate and with over 50 million companies within the United States, I'd say nearly all of them operate under this administration structure.

Just have a look at the number of law, accounting and engineering companies that should have severe systems in place to operate. This isn't just a contented accident, it's tried and true enterprise 101. Many times executives are brought in to clean up the large mess created by a founder who didn't know any better.

Certainly one of my favourite case research of exemplary reorganizing is Harley Davidson. AMF drove the Harley name into the ground back in the 70s by firing staff and streamlining production to such a degree that Harley Davidson grew to become the laughing stock of the motorcycle industry. In an effort to push for better and larger profits, AMF forgot to make a superior product. It didn't take long for Sonia Randhawa Japanese imports of better high quality to flood the American market.