There Is No ‘I’ in CEO
(not if you’re a good CEO)

By Guest Author Tony Scott

Last night, I went to a very interesting panel discussion of young Japanese-American CEOs here in Silicon Valley. The point that struck me the most was that all agreed that a great CEO is not an individual hero, but more like someone who builds and coaches a winning sports team.

If you look at the majority of those who tried to start a company but subsequently failed, you’ll mostly find very high achievers. The ranks of failed entrepreneurs are filled with people who scored at top of their class in school; or were brilliant in math, sciences, debate, or any number of activities that showed off their individual (and individualistic) capabilities. >>>

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 3)

SM: Are you an exchange hub matching contractors with consumers?

DK: It is not as e-marketplace as that sounds. We need to have a more concrete relationship between us and the customer, us and the contractor, and match them appropriately. >>>

Forbes Column 2009: India – Where Angels Fear To Trade

For those of you asking for synthesis on the India discussions, the first one is on Forbes today. India: Where Angels Fear to Trade discusses the seed investment problem and offers a solution, perhaps the most pragmatic solution under current circumstances.

Comments welcome. Even more welcome are responses from people who are trying this strategy.

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 2)

SM: What is the genesis of the startup?

DK: My heart’s concern is climate change and energy issues. Most of my campaign work for the past decade has been on climate concerns. I believe that in the last decade we have turned the corner from denial to awareness that it is happening. >>>

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 1)

Danny Kennedy is the co-founder and president of Sungevity. He has a diverse background as an activist, including his most recent role as the Campaigns Manager for Greenpeace Australia Pacific. In 2001 he ran Greenpeace’s California Clean Energy Campaign, which is largely responsible for the current California Solar Initiative.

SM: Tell me about where you come from? What is the history of your journey?

DK: I was born in Los Angeles to Australian parents. I had a late 20th-century global upbringing and lived in the US, Australia and England. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Plain Black

There can be little doubt that this earnings season is one of the bleakest in living memory for companies of all sizes and in all sectors. But as I have pointed out, open source continues to be a bright spot of hope. This blog has featured a diverse group of companies that all use open source to solve problems while challenging the traditional software business model. Today’s Deal Radar company, Plain Black Corporation, offers an open source content management system (CMS) that helps companies and other institutions build and manage advanced websites. The international software company develops the WebGUI system, an open source platform for managing web content. Plain Black also offers a variety of services such as hosting, training, design, custom development and support. >>>

Streamlining Healthcare: AdvancedMD CEO Eric Morgan (Part 8)

SM: Where are you now in terms of revenue, growth and profitability?

EM: For 2008 we will have in excess of $20 million. We are operationally profitable. We are self-sustaining, which means we do not expect to have additional working capital coming from investors for day-to-day operations. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Service-now.com

San Diego-based Service-now.com was founded in 2003 out of the ashes of Peregrine Systems, which was purchased by Hewlett-Packard (and is now that company’s competitor) in a fire sale. Fred Luddy, who was the CTO of Peregrine Systems, believed that legacy enterprise IT software is akin to “customer abuse” and set out to build a different kind of software company. He started Service-now.com, which is still the only enterprise IT service management solution delivered via SaaS. >>>