Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

Levinson discusses the starting point of Finisar, and why he founded it. He also talks about the initial months of the business and trying to make a profit.

The rate at which a company grows will vary for each individual venture, says Levinson. Sustaining the growth can be a tricky thing. He explains Finisar's rapid growth and weighs the pros and cons of quick growth and sustainability.

It's often more difficult than it sounds, but it's important to be fanatically ethical when building a company, says Levinson. He believes people understand if it's an ethical environment right away. It is something that people gravitate to, he says, so you just have to build it early and never step off of it.

Frank Levinson, founder of Finisar, begins his talk with a story about a failed startup of his, Netek. Netek is an example of company that had all of the components that are commonly considered to be necessary - idea, business plan, VC investment, team and space. But even with all of that, Netek couldn't get off the ground, he says.

When starting a company, it's important to tell your family that they'll rarely see you, says Levinson, and to tell them how important they are to the whole process. The stress involved with a startup is often mind-boggling, and the support of family can be the saving grace, he adds.

As a company grows and develops, it is possible that its methods for design and production change, says Levinson. The company may also look to new avenues of possible innovations. He describes the changes Finisar has seen over the years.

How do you take a task that you already know how to do and do it a whole different way? Bartz talks about lateral moves within companies to improve innovation. She looks forward to future technology that will allow the creation of rich media content.

Over the last three years, Autodesk had to change delivery times due to customers' faster delivery demand. Autodesk was able to move forward using software as service, thinking about process, and innovating in an established company.

Bartz argues that you must understand how a company is run. Life is about horizontal and lateral moves. She also talks about the various positions she has held in the past, from analyst to VP of customer service. By the time she became CEO, she had acquired a strong background in various fields.

Bartz talks about how people who failed within Buzzsaw, were often given new projects to work on. Failure was valued, she says. Rather than criticizing projects that failed, Bartz notes how people wanted to apply the knowledge they learned from mistakes into new projects.

How do you seek out and promote quality leaders from within a company? Leaders are often self-selected from peers, Bartz says. On way to identify them is to set up a management meeting and tap into the different groups across the company and note who gets picked to represent the individual groups. Usually, these are your leaders. Because they are easy to work with and are creative, they are sought out as leaders at whatever level they are in. No one wants to work with an asshole, however qualified they may be.

Bartz discusses Buzzsaw.com, a company created to provide a hosted environment for the construction industry. Because Autodesk had no experience in the construction industry, the company spun out Buzzsaw and then bought it back after a successful fundraising round with VCs.

Bartz examines long-term balance and encourages people to catch themselves before they fall too far. Learn how to manage the various activities you are involved in, she says. Juggling is pertinent to career development.

Autodesk's vision is to keep the design data in digital format. Wireless industry is essential in this area. A small team of engineers at Autodesk banded together and built a wireless product on the fly to address an immediate need.

Kelley is pleased with the Ventures Funds he has started: "OnSet" and "IDEO Ventures". He raised these funds in reaction to his observation where designers are not valued as much as lawyers and management consultants. The fund allows IDEO to invest and/or participate in new interesting projects which operate on different business models than IDEO's.

Kelley narrates his experience prototyping the Apple and the Microsoft mice.

Kelley believes you start to think about things completely different when you think your job is to design the experience of using the device as opposed to designing the device itself. Kelley feels that to captivate an audience you need to build a context around the technology you are marketing and take into consideration how outside factors will affect how your product is perceived. He uses methods of transportation as an example

Kelley further describes his passion and what design means to him. He describes design as a process of having a combination of ideas in the head that need to be organized, while making a leap of faith about how it will be presented. It is a totally enjoyable experience, he says, there's a zen moment where time goes by and you lose track of everything. He presents a few design projects, including Personal Sky, SpyFish and weather-related inventions.

Increased design control and design documentation can be stifling to the creative process. IDEO has learnt to understand and work with the FDA.

Kelley begins by joking that in current times, an individual or business that shows up with the promise of cash is a customer of IDEO. He recounts a previous client categorization schematic IDEO employed to color-code their clients. He also emphasises the importance of taking on balanced projects which pay well, are innovative and of interest to his designers.

Follow your passion, hire great people, and focus on process, says Kelley

Kelley believes that you need a language, a process and a framework in order to design. He stresses that experience is key success factor: learn from all the projects you've worked on, distil the knowledge and apply it to your future projects. He recommends reading The Art of Innovation for IDEO's concept of a great process.

IDEO Founder David Kelley suggests avoiding conventional approaches to hiring employees and building teams. In this clip, Kelley offers a few suggestions: 1) Hire individuals or non-confomists to stimulate the organization, 2) Hire a diverse range of experts and generalists from different fields, and 3) Form "hot groups" of 8-12 people for maximum impact. Kelley also encourages building close ties to universities to source potential staff. To Kelley, an ideal hire interacts well with established staff and demonstrates an "attitude of wisdom" that strikes a balance between the ability to promote ideas and the ability to consider feedback.

David Kelley, founder and CEO of IDEO Product Development, grew up in Ohio, where he survived on a diet of Velveeta cheese and white bread, He attended Carnegie Mellon and studied electrical engineering, but spent more time working on carnival floats. After graduation, he worked for Boeing on the 747. He learned early that in a large company, he didn't get to choose the people he worked with. He came to the Graduate Product Design Program at Stanford, where he discovered his passion--design. His first company was called the Intergalactic Destruction Company. One of the things he learned in graduate school was that you can use design in any situation in life.