Harvard Business School's most popular professor: Why should entrepreneurs be bright?

01

Commercial history does not explain the future,

But hiding the answer

We are in an era of change. Business history cannot be used to explain the future, but learning history can let us see how the past changes happened. For example, reviewing the influence of the 19th -century telegram and steam ships, we can see how these technologies promote historical progress. In the book "The Business Seven Giants that affects American history", I also wrote the revolution in the marketing brought by TV at the time.

Through historical stories, understand how the change happens, and then think about what is the same situation in the current situation. Will the same thing happen again? Or is the essence of things different? Only after understanding the way when you come, you know where you will go.

Mature companies will have many path dependencies. Which of them really need it? Which is just because of habits? History does not help us lose the unnecessary habit of success without success, nor can we help us predict the future, but learning history can help us remove many obstacles to success.

At the Harvard School of Business, the reason why business history courses are so popular is because history has allowed us to verify some theories. History let us see how the past changes happened. It is very difficult to make changes. Organizations such as large enterprises are very resistant to changes. How can we promote change in such circumstances? We can read how the business giants that used to do, but not to say that they wanted to imitate them, but to get some inspiration from them and find a way that suits them.

Taking Steve Jobs as an example, he is very familiar with Silicon Valley's history. He learned about Bill Hugatt's story -Jobs's first job was in Hewlett -Packard. He is familiar with the situation of David Pacard. He is also very aware of the story of Robert Wource (inventor of integrated circuits). Because of the history of Jobs in Silicon Valley, he has the possibility of success, which is very important to him.

As long as the technology and funds are combined and the person who finds the right person to form a team, everything may happen. We can find many examples from history to prove this. Students of Harvard Business School are interested in business history courses because of this. Professor historical courses are the best choices in my life. This is a wonderful experience.

I think the factors that affect business success are borders. In other words, no matter which country is, as long as you have the following things, you can succeed in business: maintaining the courage of faith, understanding the importance of the product, understanding how changes occur, understanding that changes are becoming faster and faster and faster With the open minds of welcome changes, understanding which ideas are unrealistic.

Kodak's founder George Eastman, although Kodak has been declining now, during the 100 -year historical period, Kodak is a very important company in the United States.

Along with one of the greatest slogans in the world: "You just need to press the shutter and give it to us." Kodak made the photo of the photo entering millions of households. Eastman has created a new Volkswagen photography market in one hand. Prior to this, taking pictures was only a few professionals and chemists. This change may happen in any industry, no matter how impossible you thought.

Retail is an ancient industry, and Jeff Bezos has changed the essence of the industry in ten years. Everyone I know, including myself, is enjoying Amazon Platinum membership services. Any thing you can buy in the store, on Amazon, will appear in your house the next day. In the past, this was unimaginable, and today, this is a real fact.

Therefore, I think today's entrepreneurs can learn from history. How did the past entrepreneurs put their imagination into practice and combined them with technology, funds and teams to promote changes. We are witnessing history and experienced a series of changes. The gains of reading history have very realistic value in the United States and China.

02

Changing times,

Unchanged experience in business

1. Promote innovation and change

Today and those successful entrepreneurs and business giants in the past, they have some common experience and essential qualities. Even if the times change, some things are constant.

Looking back at the history of business development in the past 100 years, a constant keyword is an open attitude towards change and willingness to promote change. Robert Noyce is one of Intel's founders. In fact, he is the No. 1 employee of Intel, and he is also the co -inventor of the integrated circuit. He once said, don't be bound by the past, go out and do some wonderful things.

Thinking about how to cope with changes, how to meet the new era, and how to innovate is the unchanged principle of a century -old business history. Successful business leaders have great dreams, and their actions are bold. If any businessman wants to be a great entrepreneur, he must use an open attitude to re -create an innovative innovation. This is a basic rule of the business world, without national borders.

2. Happy to bear risk

In the future, it is those companies who failed tolerance and are willing to bear risks. Even if they have limited resources, they strive to seek opportunities. Maybe the funds are not enough, but as long as they see the opportunity, they will bravely try, and they believe that they can be melted to money.

Silicon Valley has such an active entrepreneurial atmosphere, one reason is the convenience of financing, and the other is tolerance for failure. Failure does not mean out. The great business giants in history are like this, as is Silicon Valley today.

Those who provide funds for entrepreneurial projects can usually distinguish "lofty failures" and stupid mistakes. "Hob -lofty failure" means that the idea is good, but it failed to succeed for the time being.

In other words, some people just do things that may never have a chance to do it if they do not try it. The ability of investors to distinguish between lofty failures and stupid errors gives some people to have the opportunity to try the second attempt after the first failure.

3. The relationship between enterprises and the government

The relationship between enterprises and the government is a very complicated issue. One of the important reasons for Tesla's success is that it has received many government help, including the federal government and the state government. The American government system is very complicated, and Musk knows how to deal with the relationship with the government.

Instead, the Governor of Florida Ron De Santis has been very unhappy with the Disneyland recently. In every place, the relationship between enterprises and the government is different, because the definition of good companies in different places is also different. The local government in the United States is strong, and the Governor of Florida has great control over Disney.

In general, entrepreneurs must know how to deal with the government. Both government and enterprises also need to cooperate closely. If the cooperation is unpleasant, a "seesaw" effect will be produced, which will disappear.

Therefore, enterprises need to find a way to achieve a win -win situation. It is now advocating the ESG indicators that enterprises should take into account the environment, society, and corporate governance. This is also a way to allow enterprises to establish friendly relations with governments under its jurisdiction.

03

Charming leader

Make the future a reality

Personality charm is an important factor in the success of leaders. The attractive corporate leaders stand at the forefront of history and make the future a reality. Such leaders can deal with changes because they take the initiative to seek change. They know that changes are normal, and they can always make changes in advance, just like Apple's slogan "extraordinary thinking". They break the paradigm, think about business issues, and continue to exert their creativity, such as Elon Musk -now the famous American corporate leaders may also be the most famous corporate leader in the world.

Think about Musk's achievements in the automotive industry. I just returned from Europe and Europe was everywhere. Musk can do this, just by breaking the routine, not using the internal combustion engine engine, using the battery to redefine the automotive industry.

He first opened the high -end market with expensive models, and then sank to a wider mass market. In addition, Musk also overturned the car sales method since Ford's launch of Ford's launch of the T -type car in 1908: car dealers, he rethinks the car sales method and has received many help.

Europe does not seem to have such attractive business leaders, and they do not have such a distinctive willingness to make themselves different. But in China, the situation is quite similar to the United States. Because we can easily say the name of the entrepreneur.

Let's review history again and take this as an example. One is the charm of hope, one is the charm of fear, and the charm of hope is concentrated in Franklin Roosevelt. He served as President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. In his first inauguration, he said a famous saying that the only thing we had to fear was the fear itself.

Aduh Hitler became the German Prime Minister. I think on August 2, 1934, almost the same time as Roosevelt as the US president. He is a charming person, but it is a charm of fear.

Charm is dangerous because it changes the nature of your relationship between you and followers. In an ordinary non -charming company, such as bureaucratic enterprises, the two are an economic relationship. You work, I pay you. In a charming situation, it is not only there, and charm can encourage people's hearts. You work for me, you will make the best delivery in your life, and you will make the world better. This is a completely different reason for work. It's not that you don't want money, but money is not the real reason for you to work in the morning. In the United States, few people have this charm, and few people have it in the world. Not only the business community, it is also important in politics.

As I said, it may be dangerous because I think there is indeed the charm and charm of hope. Of course, what you want is the charm of hope and the charm of faith, that is, through our efforts, companies can become a tool that makes the world better. This requires the efforts of all of us, because we have a lot of problems to face them together.

Climate change is a good example. We need companies to pay attention to this and take action for this. Because if we don't do this, we will be drowned in the ocean of plastic, the water level will rise, and the next generation will live very difficult.

Richard Tedro, a professor at Harvard Business School, and a well -known American business history expert, authored the monographs such as "Andy Geusov" and "Seven Big Commercial Affecting the History of the United States".

(Source: Leading Workshop)

- END -