Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences Hugh Martin was quick to hire a top-notch VP of Human Resources - despite the strong objection of his board and his investors. Martin stands behind his unusual decision, and largely credits it with the company's success. PacBio's need to hire and integrate a highly-skilled workforce in a short period of time mandated the resources, says Martin, who hired over 1200 people in three years - many of whom were lured from the field's largest competitors.

If you've decided to leave a large company in pursuit of other ventures, make it a clean break, advises Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences. He cites a personal anecdote of one company who tried to reverse his decision through a laborious series of meetings with the executive team, and the disastrous results that ensued. If you plan to leave an organization, do so quickly and painlessly.

The more dominant a single brand is in the marketplace, the easier it is for an innovator to compete with them. So says Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences, who headed the start-up that once competed with dominant telecoms like Nortel, Lucent, and Alcatel. His reasoning? Monolithic entities in a sector get lazy, lose touch with their customers, and become overly confident with their price point, creating tremendous opportunities for competition. Upstart entrepreneurs should never be afraid to slay a giant.

Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences, is proud to point out that his previous enterprise, ONI Systems, was the first to be taken IPO after the dot-com crash of 2000 - and that they raised over a billion dollars in just a few short months. Maximizing the cash value of the company was a huge benefit to its longevity, says Martin, and being conservative with their holdings was an inexhaustible asset.

Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences Hugh Martin says that his employees deeply enjoy the company-wide weekly meeting where he personally addresses all employees and shares information about transparency, strategies, and other big-picture thinking. This open, frank, and consistent communication, says Martin, is essential to give employees context and to make them feel like critical stakeholders at every turn.

More important than market, technology, or timing, Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences, insists that any groundbreaking company is only as good as its team. Interview aggressively and make your staff want to stay there by offering respect, a hospitable culture, and great rewards.

To build an enterprise that can surely go the distance, Pacific Biosciences' Chairman and CEO Hugh Martin suggests a short list of strategies. Among them, the board must have confidence in a strong management team uniquely qualified to make the decision to sell. In addition, don't staff your board with young VC's, as they are self-centeredly building a reputation and seeking quick and profitable hits. Also, the enterprise should strive to take money from funds that are stable and flush, else the firm backing them will be more likely to sell. This combination, advises Martin, will make a board less likely to cave.

John Sculley, historic CEO of Apple, and Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, both demonstrate the impact that effective leadership can have on business and technology. Both of these large companies missed the ground-floor opportunities of the Internet, says Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences. But there is a lesson to be learned in how each CEO responded. Apple mostly ignored the Internet boom, says Martin, and faced years of weak financial footing as a result. But Microsoft turned the company around to establish a deeply-rooted Internet presence - particularly its web browser Internet Explorer - in just three days. Martin uses this anecdote to demonstrate how essential leadership can be in corporate success.

Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences, advises entrepreneurs to avoid a common pitfall when it comes to the entrepreneur/VC relationship: Instead of viewing your board as an obstacle to be managed, think of them as a valuable resource and catalyst for opportunity. If you pick the right venture capitalists, they can easily be the greatest asset that your growing business can have.