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entrepreneur
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 5)
SM: Can you walk me through the process behind the thinking? Was it the problem regarding the weight of the wire which came first, or did you have a technical solution first? PC: You have to know the market, and I knew the market. I knew that if we could make a light weight wire
Concur CEO Steve Singh (Part 9)
As a smaller company, Concur does have to compete in a very deliberate manner with industry stalwarts such as SAP and Oracle. In order to win, they must have a definite comparative advantage. Here I search to understand what Concur believes is their unique advantage. SM: When you compete with SAP, what is your competitive
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 4)
Now that we have a bit of background about Raychem’s history, we can begin the conversation with Paul on the philosophy and mechanics of building the company, and what we can learn from it. SM: To get started, I would like to ask you to share some thoughts about your philosophy, and perhaps give some
Concur CEO Steve Singh (Part 8)
SM: Most of the expense reporting is around travel. However, there are other expenses to be incurred, right? SS: That is exactly correct, there are expenses which occur outside of travel. The same solutions can be applied whether it is business travel or taking a client out for lunch. The core point is that as
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 3)
[This part of the story is written by Paul Cook] Our first crisis occurred in September when the “tube” of our GE EBG burned out. Halperin got the job of getting a new tube fast so that our manufacturing could continue. The new tube didn’t work nor the one after that nor the one after
Concur CEO Steve Singh (Part 7)
Another beneficial attribute of the company was a very specific focus and area of expertise. Maintaining that focus has allowed them to develop into pureplay domain experts, and depth of expertise is always valued. SM: OK, so the focus has been on-demand expense management solutions. That has been the case from 2001 until now, right?
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 2)
[This part of the story is written by Paul Cook himself] Late in 1956, I rented a building in Redwood City, bought some used office furniture and arranged to acquire the world’s first commercial electron beam generator from the General Electric Company. I moved in on New Year’s Day 1957. I hired a handful of
Concur CEO Steve Singh (Part 6)
Dealing with and properly addressing change is a substantial aspect of the success or failure of companies. Shifting to the on-demand model without any other examples to follow was visionary, but if implemented incorrectly could have been devastating as well. SM: How did you change the channel at this point? You shifted to an on-demand
