Skill building should be a lifelong pursuit, as there is something revitalizing about the process of learning and striving to master an endeavor or practice. Within business organizations, professional development opportunities are clearly valued by rank-and-file employees, who often pursue skill building or training as a stepping-stone toward career advancement.

But what about the leaders of startups, mid-size companies, and enterprise organizations; what types of skills should they focus on building? For some leaders, it may mean learning new ways to understand the business, right down to the proverbial nuts and bolts of the operation. This is of particular value to those who “fancy themselves as grand strategists and visionaries.”

While leaders often act as if they have all the right answers, perhaps a more authentic approach is admitting when you could use the advice of others.Another valuable skill is the ability to communicate authentically with colleagues and employees. While leaders often act as if they have all the right answers, perhaps a more authentic approach is admitting when you could use the advice of others, and by doing so, encourage employees to openly bring their best ideas and efforts to bear on the products and culture of a business.

Here are three videos exploring ways entrepreneurially-minded leaders can cultivate these types of skills in themselves – and then reap the benefits of doing so.

See Your Business at Each Level

Entrepreneur Sukhinder Singh Cassidy argues that the judgment to know at what level to examine your business at any given moment is a vital leadership quality. Using a short anecdote from her time at Google, Singh Cassidy explains successful founders and executives must understand the tactical drivers of a business to effectively manage from the top of an organization.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMBAV1qPpWE

Listen Carefully to Tough Advice

“You must decide how you receive advice,” says Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems. Mickos believes this simple, but important, concept is critical for leaders and entrepreneurs who are bombarded by input and challenges from all sides.

Using a story from his experience at MySQL AB, Mickos illuminates the need to re-evaluate positions based on new information and adversities.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhUh6qLS3uM

The Value of Being Vulnerable

“Leaders who are vulnerable are far more trusted by their employees,” says Ori Brafman, bestselling author of Click: The Magic of Instant Connections. Brafman explains that vulnerability, while often seen as a weakness in business, is a valuable skill that can play a critical role in binding deep, immediate relationships in the workplace.

To illustrate this point, Brafman shares the unique story of a hostage negotiator’s willingness to reveal vulnerability to help form an intense, but unorthodox, business relationship.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eWc2IqXnnM

“There was no platform where students could gather teams effectively,” Singh said. “At social gatherings, people are under such social pressures to put the best foot forward, it can cause people to be misleading, sometimes even verging on lies.”

So Singh and fellow classmate Pukar Hamal began developing farmGeni.us, a platform for connecting members of the Stanford community who have specialized skills.

But after initial development, Singh didn’t know what to do with his budding venture. Enter the entrepreneurship concierge.

The concierge, a new position in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program in Huang Engineering Center, is charged with developing programs and building Silicon Valley relationships that serve Stanford’s entrepreneurship community.

The first person to hold the title is Angela Hayward, who comes to the university from Khosla Ventures.

“Entrepreneurship thrives at Stanford, but entrepreneurship means different things to different people,” says Hayward. “Each student has unique needs, experiences, and appetite for risk, therefore, there’s no such thing as a ‘standard’ entrepreneurship inquiry. Listening and staying connected to students from all over campus is key to the success of this role.”

When Singh reached out for guidance, Hayward met with him to learn about his interests and the new venture. She told Singh about all of the resources available for students on campus and she was able to make connections for Singh with external mentors.

“A large part of what I’m doing is front-line engagement with the wider Silicon Valley community because, even with the extensive resources available at Stanford, there are still times when it’s necessary for students to reach beyond the campus,” says Hayward.

The entrepreneurship concierge, perhaps a one-of-a-kind role in higher education, is supported by Citi Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Citi.

Debra Brackeen, head of incubation for Citi Ventures, works from the unit’s headquarters in downtown Palo Alto. The group will be providing industry mentors and coaches to students.

Angela Hayward

“Anything we can do to promote the entrepreneurial spirit at Stanford ultimately benefits all of us in the venture community,” says Brackeen. “Citi Ventures works with internal and external partners to develop the highest new growth opportunities that are relevant to Citi customers and businesses. Supporting the next wave of Stanford entrepreneurs through our work with the concierge and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program is a perfect fit for us.”

As well as serving as the entrepreneurship concierge to all Stanford students, Hayward is charged with managing the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN), a federation of over two dozen, campus entrepreneurship programs and student groups. Hayward’s work in growing this organization is a critical component to expanding the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Stanford.

“Participating in SEN is extremely important to our group,” says Keren Ziv, co-president of the Association of Industry-Minded Stanford Professionals, an organization supporting post-doctoral scholars. “We are slowly changing the current view of postdocs as ‘scientists only.’”

The entrepreneurship network is expanding what it has to offer through a renewed customer orientation to serving students, a focus on increasing cross-disciplinary connections and a deeper engagement with student groups developing their own Silicon Valley resources.

Mary McCann, president of BASES, the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students, says she believes students would be interested in working with Hayward to “see what niches can be filled at Stanford in the entrepreneurship scene.”

“We are currently doing a field test to see what is missing as a entrepreneurship resource at Stanford, and we hope to share this information with Angela so that she and the rest of SEN can help us fill those gaps,” McCann said.

While the work to build network resources continues, student entrepreneur Adi Singh says he is already encouraging fellow students to take advantage of having access to the concierge.

“Every time we meet, Angela’s approach lets us know where we stand,” says Singh. “Just knowing all the options we have is extremely helpful.”

________________________________________________________________

This story was originally published in the Stanford Report, a publication of the Stanford News Service. Photo credit: L.A. Cicero, Stanford News

Plus, all students interested in entrepreneurship should register for the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar, a one-unit class that offers the unique opportunity to hear the first-hand insights and experiences of an incredible collection of entrepreneurial leaders. Watch and listen to previous DFJ ETL lectures on ECorner.

ENGR 140: Mayfield Fellows Program – Leadership of Technology Ventures
Instructors: Tom Byers and Tina Seelig
View the ENGR 140 course website.

Only available to students selected for the Mayfield Fellows Program, this first section of the three-part MFP course sequence focuses on understanding management and leadership within high technology startups. Students work with engineering faculty, founders, and venture capitalists, as they explore issues of organizational development, financing, recruitment and market strategy.
Learn about the 2012 Mayfield Fellows.

MS&E 178: The Spirit of Entrepreneurship
Instructor: Toby Corey
Limited enrollment.

This course teaches students to think like a successful entrepreneur by learning how to analyze key parts of various startup business models. The course uses the speakers at the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leader seminar (MS&E 472) as the source of the companies to be explored.

Students meet before and after each DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminar to prepare and debrief, respectively.

MS&E 180: Organizations: Theory and Management
Instructors: Thomas Haymore and Issac Waisberg
Limited enrollment.

This course examines classical and contemporary organization theory. Students will explore the behaviors of individuals, groups, and organizations, and come to understand why certain behaviors impact the management of organizations.
Enrollment preference is given to MS&E majors.

MS&E 271: Global Entrepreneurship Marketing
Instructors: Tom Kosnik, Donna Novitsky, and Lynda Kate Smith
Limited enrollment.

How do you market technology-based products to a global audience of customers? Learn how in this course that examines cases of startups and other technology firms that are doing this work.

Students will not only learn how to target markets and build partnerships, but will also tackle issues of sales, negotiations, outbound marketing based on real-world examples.

Prof. Tom Byers

MS&E 276: Entrepreneurial Management and Finance
Instructor: Tom Byers
Limited enrollment. Prerequisites: MS&E 140 and ENGR 60, or equivalents.

This course places an emphasis on managing high-growth ventures, especially those based on technology products and services. Students will develop a set of skills and approaches to becoming effective entrepreneurial managers. Topics covered in the course will include opportunity recognition and selection, raising capital, financial management, operations and organizational administration.

MS&E 277: Creativity and Innovation
Instructors: Tina Seelig and Leticia Britos Cavagnaro
Limited enrollment. View the MS&E 277 website.

This popular and highly experiential course explores the variables that stimulate and inhibit creativity and innovation in individuals, teams and organizations.  Through classroom activities, design challenges and interactions with visiting experts, students will learn that every problem is an opportunity for a creative solution.

MS&E 472: DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar
Instructors: Tom Byers, Tina Seelig, and Tom Kosnik
Course may be repeated for credit.
View the MS&E 472 course website.

The DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar is a weekly speaker series that presents innovators from across the business, finance, technology, and philanthropy sectors, to share their insights with aspiring entrepreneurs. Through MS&E 472, students have the opportunity to learn real world knowledge from prominent leaders and entrepreneurs.

DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar Speakers – Spring 2012

• April 11: Jeff Church – Co-Founder, NIKA Water
• April 18: Gale Anne Hurd – Television/Film Producer & Screenwriter
• April 25: Frank Quattrone – Founder & CEO, Qatalyst Partners
• May 2: Rebeca Hwang – CEO, YouNoodle & Elizabeth Samara-Rubio – Founder, StorWatts
• May 9: Brian Murray – President & CEO, HarperCollins Publishers
• May 16: Daniel Ek – Co-Founder, Spotify
• May 23: Adam Lashinsky – Author, Inside Apple
• May 30: Drew Houston – Co-Founder & CEO, Dropbox

The entrepreneurial spirit runs strong at Stanford, and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is offering a number of opportunities for students and others interested in developing their entrepreneurial mindset.

See the full Stanford E-Week 2012 event calendar.

DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminars

There are two DFJ ETL seminars taking place during E-Week. The lectures are open to the general public, and will take place on Wednesday, February 29 and March 7, respectively. DFJ ETL seminars run from 4:30 – 5:30 pm in NVIDIA Auditorium at Huang Engineering Center. This series is generously sponsored by Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Johnson

On February 29, Kristina M. Johnson, former undersecretary for Energy at the United States Department of Energy will speak at DFJ ETL. At the DOE Johnson focused on bringing greater cohesion to energy and environmental programs at the federal level. Prior to that role, she served as provost at Johns Hopkins University, and as dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. A Stanford alumna, Johnson will be sharing insights on leadership from her time in the public, higher education and private sectors.

On March 7, E-Week 2012 will wrap-up with a special DFJ ETL presentation from a mother and son tandem of entrepreneurs. Join us as Sandra and Andy Kurtzig speak to discuss their own entrepreneurial journeys as founders. Sandra Kurtzig transformed the manufacturing software industry when she founded ASK Computer Systems in 1972. Over the next two decades, she would go on to grow the company into one of the largest software companies in the world. She is now the current CEO and chairman at Kenandy.

Andy Kurtzig founded the expert answer website, JustAnswer, in 2003, and previously served as CEO and co-founder of eBenefits, which was acquired by an Inc. 500 company. As well as being a serial entrepreneur, Kurtzig is an active and successful angel investor and philanthropist.

Watch videos of previous lectures on Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner.

Coaches-on-Call Mentoring for Stanford Students

Stanford students are invited to sign-up for E-Week Coaches-on-Call mentoring sessions to be held at STVP. During these “office hours,” students can gather advice from industry professionals representing different fields and areas of expertise. Please note that availability is limited.

Here are coaches available for E-Week 2012:

• Feb. 28 – Mark Reinstra, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
• Feb. 29 – Busy Burr, Citi Ventures
• Mar. 5 – Neerja Raman, Media X
• Mar. 6 – Tom Jensen, Tesla Motors

Learn more about the Coaches-on-Call program.

Design Thinking Workshop for the Epicenter

Take part in a design thinking workshop on Friday, March 2, aimed at discovering ways to help the Epicenter achieve its mission to create a nation of entrepreneurial engineers. The Epicenter, the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation, is an exciting new initiative dedicated to infusing entrepreneurship and innovation into undergraduate engineering education across the United States. The Epicenter is based at Stanford, and is directed the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

In this hands-on, fast-paced workshop, participants will apply the design thinking process to tackle the challenge of sparking enthusiasm and engagement from engineering faculty and students to embrace and implement the Epicenter’s mission. Students and faculty of all disciplines, as well as entrepreneurs, engineers and designers are welcome, however, availability is limited for the event and registration is required.

Not able to attend? Sign-up for future email updates on the Epicenter website.

The industrial revolution transformed the business landscape, just as the managerial revolution transformed how we manage large firms. Today, a third revolution, an entrepreneurial revolution, is underway, shaking the very foundations of what we believe about entrepreneurship. What does this mean for entrepreneurs?

As Greg continued, he came to believe that mapping the locations of crimes would align and empower the efforts of citizens and police to reduce overall crime in each neighborhood. So then he did everything right according to standard entrepreneurial wisdom: he had a big vision, built a product, landed a customer, raised venture financing and hired a team.

But despite his best efforts, doing everything right was leading nowhere quickly. In fact, after several years, Greg had still landed only one customer. But once Greg changed his process, in the next three years he landed over 2,000 paying customers. So what was the difference?

Several years ago, my co-author Paul Ahlstrom, a serial entrepreneur and experienced venture capitalist, set out to write a book, Nail It Then Scale It. Based on my research and his experience, we worked to describe a new entrepreneurial process. The process we articulated involved nailing your business and, for Greg and all entrepreneurs, the journey should begin by nailing a pain.

…we argued to Greg that he needed to stop building, get into the field and uncover the Monetizable Market Pain—a pain so significant that customers will return your cold calls.Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs begin with their idea and build a product. Instead we argued to Greg that he needed to stop building, get into the field and uncover the Monetizable Market Pain—a pain so significant that customers will return your cold calls. If you don’t uncover a Monetizable Pain (and we measure that by 50% of your potential customers being willing to return your call), then you probably don’t have a sustainable business worth your blood, sweat and tears.

So how did Greg do this?

He stopped building and started talking to everyday people and police departments. He quickly discovered that everyday consumers wouldn’t pay for his service and that police departments hated his advertising-based business model. At this point, Greg and his fellow founders began to despair, but as they continued to listen (rather than sell), they discovered some crucial pieces of information.

For one, police officers were fascinated by the data possibilities of the website and were excited about leveraging the Internet to increase the quality of their communication with citizens. Police chiefs and officers could now use a data “dashboard” to track trends and daily activity.

As the enthusiasm built in each conversation, the CrimeReports founders learned that police would actually pay them to post their data ­– advertising wasn’t necessary. As they continued to learn and refine their prototype, the feedback from customers was astonishing. Their customers said things like:

“This blows other choices out of the water.”

“We’ve been trying to do this for years.”

“It used to take us six months to get this kind of data. Now we can get it the next day.”

The number of police departments purchasing the product went from one customer to over 2,000 paying customers in three years. And not only did customers clamor to sign up, but the CrimeReports website jumped in popularity with everyday citizens. Applying the process was nothing short of transformational.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Nathan Furr

Nathan Furr is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at BYU’s Marriott School. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Department of Management Science & Engineering, as part of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Furr’s research and writing is devoted to the management science of entrepreneurship and translating it into practical insights. He is also co-author of Nail It Then Scale It.

Libin

During his fall quarter ETL lecture, Libin joked, “I was so nerdy the high school chess team wouldn’t hang out with me!” While this may be a joke, you can see he really means it. Along with his enjoyment in entertaining an audience, two other things immediately standout when meeting Phil Libin.

Passionate Geekdom

First, Libin excludes an interminable passion about everything he does. You can see his eyes light up when he talks about his early obsession with “transcending the end of the world,” as a youth growing up in Soviet Russia. And a smile always creeps across his face when he mentions an interesting technology he played a part in building.

To Libin, Evernote is a company for the long term, with no exit strategy.Most of all, Libin is unabashedly in love with his own product, Evernote, an idea and inspiration capturing application. He began his talk by taking a picture of the audience and uploading it to his Evernote account. To Libin, Evernote is a company for the long term, with no exit strategy. Libin is one to choose his passions and go all in. The feeling is infectious.

Advancing Goodness

Second, as George Tang told me a year ago, Libin is a really good guy. He is driven by goals of having a positive impact that are larger than him. His childhood desire of helping humanity preclude the end of the word is just one example.

When merging his startup with another to form Evernote, Libin talked of focusing on the best interests of all the individuals involved. He also applies this principle when Evernote acquires other startups. He stresses working with the cofounders of companies that Evernote acquires to take their product further than they could without it.

This focus on a better product exemplifies Libin’s vision of Evernote as an extension of humanity’s collective mind being used to combat what he sees as a plague of commonplace “stupidity” that threatens apocalypse. He is always thinking about creating products that support the goodness of the world.

Libin’s intense geek-passion for his product and his genuine mindfulness for the common good are qualities that I feel are sometimes overlooked in Silicon Valley. At Stanford, it often feels like startups are popping up everywhere. It is easy to believe that they also happened over night. Listening to the story of an entrepreneur like Libin puts things back in perspective.

Many of the greatest and longest lasting companies were decades in the making. Libin’s experience reminds me of something that a venture capitalist once told me – the best founders are those whose motivations for their company lie in their childhoods. The 100-year companies come from the ideas that inspire founders from their earliest ages. It is a matter of finding what those noble passions are and latching onto them with geek-like intensity.

__________________________________________________________________________

Enjoy Evernote CEO Phil Libin’s DFJ ETL seminar.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVH0SmUXpAc

__________________________________________________________________________

John Yang-Sammataro is an entrepreneur and a double major at Stanford University in management science & engineering and computer science.

He is also the director of the SVI Hackspace, and serves as an officer in BASES, the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students.

The 2011 DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leader seminar offered a dynamic group of leaders with different views on the meaning and value of entrepreneurship. However, the impact entrepreneurship plays in changing lives was a similar thread for many of speakers. Here are a few of the most inspirational videos clips from 2011 to help you start the new year off right. And don’t forget to check out the Winter 2012 DFJ ETL line-up.

Entrepreneurship is a Belief System

In this video, Mickos explains why the foundation of an entrepreneurial mindset is a belief system that not only requires a belief in big ideas, but includes believing in oneself and working with others that believe in you.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qFOA8eGuqo

Libin

The Best Time to Start is Right Now

Serial entrepreneur Phil Libin believes now is ‘the best time in the history of the universe” to start a new company. The CEO of Evernote, Inc. magazine’s 2011 Company of the Year, argues that today we live in a geek meritocracy where great products are king.

He encourages entrepreneurs to take advantage of modern distribution tools such as app stores, social conversations, free-mium economics, and smart phone technology.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ggMKkZqho

Why are You Doing This?

“The essence of what you’re trying to do… is to create amazing things that impact all of us.”Investor Brad Feld challenges entrepreneurs to question why they are pursuing this path. According to Feld, “The essence of what you’re trying to do… is to create amazing things that impact all of us.”

The tactics around entrepreneurial success probably don’t matter very much, says Feld, if you are not working on something you are passionate about.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cIe2dCe6Cs

Visit Stanford ECorner for additional entrepreneurship insights and inspiration.

The winter 2012 edition of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar (DFJ ETL) kicks off Wednesday, January 18. Join us at DFJ ETL on Wednesdays from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, at NVIDIA Auditorium in the Huang Engineering Center at Stanford, to enjoy this quarter’s engaging mix of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Stanford students can sign-up for MS&E 472 to earn one unit of credit for the course.  Members of the public interested in earning credit for this quarter’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar should contact the Stanford Center for Professional Development. Visit their online catalog.

We invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to hear first hand from entrepreneurial leaders and pioneering trailblazers from different industries. And for those of you not able to attend in person, you can still enjoy the lecture podcasts and videos available for free on the Entrepreneurship Corner (ECorner) website. You can also enjoy ECorner on-the-go with our free iPhone app.

JANUARY 18
Deborah Hopkins - Chief Innovation Office, Citi

Hopkins

Twice named by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in American business, Deborah Hopkins visits ETL to discuss Citi’s approach to delivering client-focused innovations and building partnerships with venture capitalists, startups and universities to support emerging technologies and disruptive business models. Hopkins will also share insights gained from holding previous senior positions at The Boeing Company, Lucent Technologies and General Motors Europe.

JANUARY 25
Alexander Osterwalder  - Entrepreneur & Author

Osterwalder

Alexander Osterwalder is an entrepreneur, business model innovator, and the co-author of the global bestselling book, Business Model Generation. Join us as Osterwalder discusses his dynamic tools for visualizing, challenging and re-inventing business models. Osterwalder is also the founder of The Business Model Foundry, which offers strategic tools for entrepreneurs and innovators, and he has served as a guest lecturer at Stanford, UC Berkeley and IESE in Madrid.

FEBRUARY 1
Ted Zoller - Senior Fellow, Kauffman Foundation

Zoller

Ted Zoller has engaged in all aspects of the entrepreneurial experience, including time as an entrepreneur, an investor and as a leading entrepreneurship educator. In his current role at the Kauffman Foundation, Zoller performs research and advises the organization’s leaders on creating impactful entrepreneurship strategies and programs. Prior to Kauffman, Zoller oversaw teaching and outreach programs as the director of the entrepreneurship center at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

FEBRUARY  8
Warren Packard – Founder & CEO, Thuuz

Packard

Warren Packard is the founder and CEO of Thuuz, a consumer platform for real-time sports discovery, tune-in and sharing. Packard is also a venture partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He currently serves on the Boards of EoPlex, Microfabrica and SeaMicro and leads DFJ’s investments in BinOptica, Hola!, Primet Precision Materials, and YeePay.

FEBRUARY 15
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy - Founder & Chairman, Joyus

Singh Cassidy

As the founder and chairman of Joyus, the web’s first premium video shopping network, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy continues to build on her dynamic career as a leading consumer Internet and media executive. Cassidy previously served as CEO of social commerce site, Polyvore, and as CEO-in-Residence with Accel Partners. Join us as Cassidy illuminates her entrepreneurial journey and shares wisdom gained from her roles with global and early-stage companies including Google, Amazon, Yodlee and News Corp.

FEBRUARY 22
Reid Hoffman - Co-Founder, LinkedIn; Partner, Greylock

Hoffman

Over the past decade, Reid Hoffman has become a leading voice in entrepreneurship, with successes in the consumer Internet and online payment spaces. Hoffman is the co-founder and executive chairman at professional networking company LinkedIn, and led the company through its first four years into profitability. Hoffman served as executive vice president at PayPal, where he was a founding board member. He is also an angel investor and a partner at Greylock Ventures.

FEBRUARY 29
Kristina Johnson - Former US Undersecretary of Energy

Johnson

Kristina Johnson was the undersecretary for Energy at the United States Department of Energy, where she successfully brought greater cohesion to energy and environmental programs. Prior to that role, she served as provost at Johns Hopkins University, and as dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. Dr. Johnson holds dozens of U.S. patents and received the prestigious John Fritz Medal, the highest award in engineering. She earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

MARCH 7
Sandra Kurtzig - Founder, ASK Group; Founder & CEO, Kenandy
AND
Andy Kurtzig - Founder, CEO & President, JustAnswer

In a special event, technology pioneer and entrepreneur Sandra Kurtzig will speak at ETL, along with her son and fellow serial entrepreneur, Andy Kurtzig.

Sandra and Andy Kurtzig

Sandra Kurtzig transformed the manufacturing software industry when she founded ASK Computer Systems in 1972. Over the next two decades, Kurtzig would go on to grow the company into one of the largest software companies in the world. As the current CEO and chairman at Kenandy, Kurtzig aims to drive innovation and collaboration for manufacturing management in the cloud. Kurtzig is also the managing partner of SLK Investment Partners, a private equity investment partnership.

Andy Kurtzig founded the expert answer website, JustAnswer, in 2003, in response to his need for accurate online medical information. Prior to his current venture, Kurtzig served as CEO and co-founder of eBenefits, which was acquired by an Inc. 500 company. As well as being a serial entrepreneur, Kurtzig is an active and successful angel investor and philanthropist.

Based on STVP’s successful Global Innovation Tournament (GIT), this fast-paced, multi-day competition offers teams a chance to solve a mystery challenge to create as much value and impact as possible.

In past years at Stanford, the tournament challenge was to create value from common, everyday objects, such as “sticky notes,” rubber bands and water bottles. The challenges can also be concept-based, such as “Make Saving Money Fun.”

What’s Involved?

As an organizer, you will select the tournament challenge, set the schedule and organize judges and prizes. You will also promote the tournament challenge online or assign the challenge to local students.

Once the challenge has begun, students will have just a few short days to create as much value as possible around the challenge and to upload a video to YouTube to show a record of their progress.

Once the challenge has begun, students will have just a few short days to create as much value as possible around the challenge and to upload a video to YouTube to show a record of their progress. At that point, judges will evaluate the video entries and winners will be selected.

See samples of Innovation Tournament videos on the Entrepreneurship Corner website.

Things to Keep in Mind

Try placing emphasis on having fun and unleashing student creativity rather than on any competitive aspects of the tournament.

If you are assigning an innovation tournament as part of a university course, the time period just after mid-term examinations seems to be optimal for performance.

Teams can be of any size, from one person to many. Also, we suggest giving students somewhere between four and seven days, including a weekend, to complete the challenge and upload their video.

Prize Suggestions

Wait to pick your award categories until the judges have seen all of the video entries. Name the awards and assign prizes to fit the submissions that warrant recognition.

Reach out to entrepreneurs and business leaders in your local community for experiential prizes. Some ideas include lunch with a startup founder or business executive, or one-on-one meetings with an angel investor or venture capitalist.

Of course, you could also seek out donations of resources to help young entrepreneurs to build the next iteration of their product.

Download STVP’s Global Innovation Tournament Organizer’s Toolkit

Thatchenkery grew up outside Washington, D.C. and holds an economics degree from Duke University. Prior to her arrival at Stanford, she worked as an analyst at Cornerstone Research. And earlier this year, she received a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Thatchenkey sat down to chat about life as a PhD student, her research interests and why competition is still ripe for exploration.

STVP: What made you choose the Stanford Technology Ventures Program?

Thatchenkery: I knew that I wanted to study strategy and management, and at first I was looking at business schools. But when I read the papers that professors were reading, I noticed Kathy Eisenhardt and Riitta Katila were being cited often, and I discovered they were professors in Stanford Engineering rather than the Graduate School of Business. It sounded like a really unique experience, so I decided to give California a try.

STVP: Did you connect with faculty to learn more about the program?

Thatchenkery: Yes. First I checked out STVP’s website, and then I had the chance to meet Riitta at the Academy of Management conference. Riitta was very helpful and generous with her time, as she even agreed to meet with me before I applied to the program.

Sruthi Thatchenkery

STVP: What makes STVP’s research program different?

Thatchenkery: One difference is the size. For example, Wharton has closer to 40 people in their department. But here, we are much more focused on technology and high-tech ventures. Because of the great topical fit between my interests and STVP, I thought the size of the program would be a real asset.

STVP: How do you decide what to explore as a PhD student?

Thatchenkery: As a first year, you may have broad interests, and we’re allowed to keep exploring. I know I’m interested in innovation, competition and rivalry, in particular. And what’s really great about the professors here is that as soon as you tell them something you might be interested in, they can really help you focus on the papers you should look at and let you know the open holes in the research that you may want to consider for a second year paper or dissertation. They really help you narrow down what you want to look at so you can eventually make a real contribution.

STVP: What do you mean by “holes” in the research?

Thatchenkery: I mean identifying gaps in the research. In the second year, you pick a topic to write a paper on, which involves a literature review and hopefully a very well defined topic, which is needed to discover a real gap to explore.

STVP: Are there challenges in choosing a topic?

Thatchenkery: Well, conceptually you can identify a real question or gap, but often a big challenge lies in accessing the data you need to truly study something empirically. I know this from my previous consulting work, as it was hard to even gain data from the clients you were working for.

STVP: So getting companies to share data impedes your work?

“… part of the reason there is such a gap is that it’s so hard to figure out what a firm’s competitive moves are and what was their intent in taking a particular action.”Thatchenkery: It can, but in the case of competition, I think part of the reason there is such a gap, is that it’s so hard to figure out what a firm’s competitive moves are, and what was their intent in taking a particular action. So you usually need to get some inside access to the company.

STVP: What drew you to study competition and collaboration?

Thatchenkery: Initially, I think I was interested in collaboration as understanding formal alliances, or joint ventures versus competition. Now, I think my interests have gone more exclusively into the competition side.

STVP: Do you see any industries especially attractive for study?

Thatchenkery: I do have a particular interest in the auto industry, especially around alternative fuel technologies. Thinking of rivalry, it might be interesting to explore what happens when new technologies enter a mature market. How do you define who your competition is? For example, if you’re Tesla, are you competing with just other electric carmakers, or are you also competing with GM, Ford, and Toyota? I think it would be interesting, as a nascent market emerges, to see if the perceptions of who your competitors are changes over time.

STVP: So do you plan to return to consulting after completing your PhD?

Thatchenkery: I’m actually hoping to go into academia. I found that I prefer the scholarly nature of an academic setting.

Learn more about all of STVP’s PhD students and their research interests.