Just so I could relive my college days, I attended Stanford’s Conference on Entrepreneurship yesterday. The conference was just a one-day event within Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Week from February 22 – 29. (You have one more day left!)
One of the sessions I attended was Professor Jeff Pfeffer’s “Top Ten Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make”. Pfeffer is a professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Judging from the packed classroom, he’s also a popular professor. With good reason too, it seemed. His lecture was pretty funny and engaging, with stories and personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout.
Though I jotted down a ton of chicken scratch, I was able to get Pfeffer’s top ten mistakes that entrepreneurs make:
- Too much CEO ego.
- Too little regard for the self-esteem needs of others.
- Too much time, attention, & emphasis on “strategy” & analysis, and not enough time on “execution.”
- Too little emphasis on the importance of people & culture.
- Too much belief in the saving grace of “miracle” technologies & “big brains,” particularly in high-tech fields.
- Too much emphasis on budgets & financial controls; not enough attention to customer satisfaction and employee attraction & engagement
- Not enough attention to and knowledge of competition & competitors, including tracking their sales & market share
- Too much emphasis on individual performance and too little attention to context & situation within which that individual performance occurs.
- Excessive reliance on financial incentives for alignment, motivation, & communication.
- Not enough consideration of or attention to underlying assumptions & feedback effects.
This is just a quick recap; he had a ton more information. I hope he doesn’t mind my posting these notes. I would guess not, since attending his lectures is an experience mere notes could never convey.
If you attended Entrepreneurship Week too, what did you think of the other sessions?
I also attended the conference and found it overpriced for what I got out of it. Not worth the entrance fee at all.
Even though I showed up at the conference a bit late (I missed the keynote), I kind of agree. A friend of mine, who’s a GSB alum, said that last year’s Entrepreneur Conference was better.