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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
After many years studying sales organizations and working as a consultant, this entrepreneur offers practical tips for ensuring your sales force and compensation plans are highly effective. His premise: start with a great salesperson and pay them what they are worth. Otherwise, your sales compensation plan won't be worth anything.
Netpreneurs--entrepreneurs who are building Internet-related businesses--are a breed apart, argues the writer. In building a new economy with vastly different attributes, these business owners must react quickly, adapt deftly, and zero in on specialties, or "niches," conducive to online commerce, says the author, who founded a software company in the 1970s and, more recently, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping communities take advantage of the Internet.
SpaceX is the third company founded by Mr. Musk. Prior to SpaceX, he co-founded PayPal, the world's leading electronic payment system, and served as the company's chairman and CEO. PayPal has over twenty million customers in 38 countries, processes several billion dollars per year and went public on the NASDAQ under PYPL in early 2002. Mr. Musk was the largest shareholder of PayPal until the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002. Before PayPal, Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2 Corporation in 1995, a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry, with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank and the Hearst Corporation. He served as Chairman, CEO and Chief Technology Officer and in March 1999 sold Zip2 to Compaq for $307 million in an all cash transaction. Mr. Musk's early experience extends across a spectrum of advanced technology industries, from high energy density ultra-capacitors at Pinnacle Research to software development at Rocket Science and Microsoft. He has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a business degree from Wharton and originally came out to California to pursue graduate studies in high energy density capacitor physics & materials science at Stanford.
Bringing a technology-based product to market involves assessing customers' needs and convincing them that yours is the solution, rather than trumpeting its innovative features, writes the founder of a videoconferencing company. Included are various tactics for engaging in what the author calls "relationship selling" and likens to the venerable board game of Checkers.
David Neeleman is Chairman and CEO of JetBlue Airways Corporation. JetBlue, which began operations in 2000, serves 23 U.S. cities with 57 new Airbus A320 aircraft. JetBlue is Neeleman's third successful launch in the aviation business, His goal is to bring people back to air travel by offering low fares, friendly service and a high quality product. JetBlue was rated "Best Domestic Airline" at Conde Nast Traveler's 2003 Readers' Choice Awards for the second consecutive year, and was runner-up for "Best Domestic Airline" at Travel & Leisure magazine's 2002 and 2003 World's Best Awards. Neeleman's career in the airline industry began in 1984 when he co-founded Morris Air. As president of Morris Air, he implemented the industry's first electronic ticketing system and pioneered a home reservationist system that is now the foundation of JetBlue's call center. Neeleman sold Morris Air and took the electronic ticketing to Open Skies. He sold Open Skies to Hewlett Packard in 1999. During this period, Neeleman acted as a consultant to WestJet Airlines, a successful Canadian low-fare start-up airline.
Doing business in the rough-and-tumble arena of underdeveloped countries involves adhering to global business basics, such as researching markets thoroughly, while coping with surprises, writes a veteran international entrepreneur who first took his company overseas three decades ago. In entering the "emerging markets," entrepreneurs need to keep close tabs on how (and if) they will be paid, as well as on local managers overly eager to make sales.
Going global is on the wish list of many U.S. entrepreneurs, especially given the sour American economy. But how to go about it? One leading venture capitalist offers some clues.
Small healthcare companies have a vested interest in seeing hospitals develop better supply chain programs. Now one new study gives those hospitals a blueprint for streamlining their supply chains and boosting their chances of finding room for new healthcare vendor partners in the process.
Dominic Orr was named President and CEO of Aruba Networks in April 2006. Prior to that, Mr. Orr served as the company's Chairman of the Board. Previously, Dominic Orr was the president of Nortel Networks, Intelligent Internet Web Systems. He previously served as the president and chief executive of Alteon WebSystems which was merged with Nortel Networks in Oct. 2000. Mr. Orr has more than 20 years of experience in the computer systems and communication networking industry and has held senior positions at Bay Networks, Hewlett-Packard and Hughes Aircraft. Mr. Orr. is a member of the Sciences Board of Visitors at UCLA. He holds a BS in physics from City University of New York and a MS and PhD from California Institute of Technology.
As Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Sun, Greg Papadopoulos directs the company's approximate $2B in R&D portfolio with an eye toward innovation, simplicity, and eco-responsibility. With more than 20 years experience in the technology industry, Papadopoulos is responsible for managing Sun's technology decisions and architecture. His team leads Sun Labs, the DARPA High Performance Computing Systems program, global engineering architecture, and advanced development programs. Passionate about technology and its possibilities, Papadopoulos supports open development models that stimulate communication, creativity, and innovation, which he promotes through his blog, Greg Matter, as well as numerous speaking engagements. During his tenure with Sun, Papadopoulos has held several positions, including Vice President of Technology and Advanced Development for the company's systems business, Chief Scientist for Server Systems Engineering, and Chief Scientist for Enterprise Servers and Storage. Before joining Sun in 1994, Papadopoulos was a senior architect and director of product strategy for Thinking Machines, where he led the design of the CM6 massively parallel supercomputer. Papadopoulos was an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, where he conducted research in scalable systems, multi threaded/data flow processor architecture, functional and declarative languages, and fault-tolerant computing. Papadopoulos also worked as a development engineer at Hewlett-Packard and Honeywell, where he designed flight-control systems for Boeing jetliners. He co-founded three companies: PictureTel (video conferencing), Ergo (high-end PCs) and Exa Corporation (computational fluid dynamics). Papadopoulos participates in several associations, including serving as Chairman of the Board for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intellig
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