Cambridge Judge Business School Discussions on Entrepreneurship

Chandran Sankaran, Founder and CEO of Zyme Solutions, told MBA students that entrepreneurship is about creating self-sustaining businesses and entities. It's about changing the status quo. In his lecture he asked if the core skills underpinning entrepreneurship were learnable and if risk-taking is a birth gift or can it be cultivated.

Rejection has to be accepted by entrepreneurs and although it is hard to handle, keep going. That's the advice from Dr Lisa Drakeman, whose high-flying bio-tech career led to four new treatments for unmet medical needs.

Launching a new series of Cambridge Leadership Seminars, Lord Stevenson of Coddenham, CEO in Residence at Cambridge Judge Business School, said he feels there are a number of issues around entrepreneurship that are incorrectly talked and thought about.

Keep your eyes and ears open, says Dinesh Dhamija, former Chairman and CEO of Ebookers.com. Nothing is too small to look at. If you can add value to a customer you have got a business. But, he warns, don’t think of every angle in a business before you launch. Launch it so that you have the first mover advantage.

Supply-side and industrial policies being employed by government, if combined with related policies, could strengthen both clusters and the eco-system and bring advantage to the whole economic zone. Dr Pitelis points to the British government's intervention taken to support the Tech City cluster as a positive example of success.

Workforce empowerment and a global outlook, the Tata way. Paul Mills, Head of Organisation Performance, Human Resources, Jaguar Land Rover explains.

The private and public sectors do share common interests and entrepreneurs can work in both sectors.

Dr Denis Coleman, Founder of Symantec Corporation, the fourth largest software company in the world, gives us lessons from his 14 Silicon Valley start-ups.

Women have excellent skills yet their entrepreneurial success is limited, says Dr Barakat. Entrepreneurship programmes have similar impacts on the sexes but, in absolute terms, women remain disadvantaged because they start at a lower point and their confidence and ambitions to be entrepreneurial are consistently lower.

Dr Shai Vyakarnam, Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, says a new Business Mentoring Network launched by the coalition government should have been tested out first. He foresees operational difficulties ahead.

The sin of a start-up, says Peter Hiscocks, Fellow in Entrepreneurship, is to be "under-capitalised"; but, he explains, there is a real gap between seed funding and larger venture capital investment.

Following his Enterprise Tuesday seminar on 4 November 2008, Lord Karan Bilimoria talks about the implications of going global with an idea.

Dr Hauser discusses the secrets of taking an idea and turning it into an enterprise following his Enterprise Tuesday seminar on 11 November 2008.

New research shows that entrepreneurs are highly-adapted risk-takers, and that this functional impulsivity is key to their success. It can also be taught; Dr Vyakarnam explains how.

Why are the majority of entrepreneurs white males, what are the underlying mechanisms, just how important is legislation in tackling discrimination and what will be the impact of global recession on migrant women workers? Visiting Professor Edwina Pio explains.

Dr Michael Lynch explains the importance of building a team capable of delivering your vision - a top team full of the right talent will be able to convert an idea in a tough and competitive market into a real global success. However in order to build this dream team you need to be prepared to take a few risks.

Cambridge Angels Jack Lang and Dr Andy Richards, along with venture capitalist Laurence Garrett, talk about why the current economic gloom is in fact a great opportunity for start-ups, especially for those whose products will immediately satisfy customer needs as opposed to the tougher 'new product, new market' model. But, they stress the importance of targeting your investment model at the right type of investor, as well as the need for start-ups to understand what is 'fashionable' in the investor market and to be able to steer their way through these changes.

One of the authors of the recent "Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs" report by the World Economic Forum, Dr Shai Vyakarnam, explains why entrepreneurship is in fact a social movement and not purely the function of elite business schools. He argues that entrepreneurship can be taught and indeed must be taught to all. It has the ability to generate social inclusion and employment, empowering communities and stimulating economic growth during this current global crisis.

The opportunities to have multiple careers is greater now than it has ever been, and, says Margaret, it is a good thing. (Margaret Heffernan, Entrepreneur, CEO and Author)

Follow your passion in business says Vittorio Colao, Group CEO of Vodafone.

Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn says fast failure is the way to success.

Micro-lending to the poor has made Premal Shah of Kiva a global name and he's passionate about it.

The purpose of a business pitch is to get that second meeting says Allen Morgan of the Mayfield Fund.

In a global market place, networks are ever more important says Sherry Coutu co-founder of "Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge".

Living the entrepreneurial dream.

Living the entrepreneurial dream.

Follow your passion and you will achieve your goals says Spice Magic founder and CEO Pinky Lilani.

Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group, considers global liquidity levels and sees signs of renewal. He also offers lessons he's learned during his career, from why you need to "dream a big dream" to recruiting the 'agents of change', the number "10s"!