Managing the Risk / Reward Tradeoff

William A. Sahlman, Harvard Business School

William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, maintains that entrepreneurs must manage the relationship between risk and reward, illustrating his point with the example of John Osher, creator of the very successful spin toothbrush. Specifically, Sahlman argues that entrepreneurship is fundamentally about decreasing risks and increasing the chances of success?an issue that is fundamentally related to the people in the venture.