Informal corporate venturing
was developed by intrepreneurs, who were frustrated
by the company bureaucracy. Two cases will be
discussed in detail: 1) The Merlin-Gerin Foundry
business, supported by the President, that failed
after 20 years, and 2) The Toshiba laptop and
notebook computers, an "underground"
project vetoed twice by headquarters, that developed
into a multi-billion dollar business.
Formal corporate venturing approaches by 3M
(success) and Kodak (failure) are compared.
A review of the rise and fall of Internal Venture
Divisions and Corporate Venture Capital shows
the fragility of these approaches. In conclusion,
critical success factors, derived from the lessons
learned, are presented.
This lecture is based on research and consulting
by Prof. Abetti in France, Japan and the United
States.
About the Speaker
Prior to Joining RPI in
1982, Dr Abetti had a distinguished 32-year
career with General Electric Company, as advanced
development engineer; manager of major innovative
projects in extra-high-voltage transmission,
data communication computers, and telephone
switching systems; and manager of the Electrical
and Information Advance Technology Laboratories.
From 1973 to 1980, he was manager of General
Electric's Europe Strategic Planning Operation.
During that period, GE's sales in Europe,
primarily of high-technology products, increased
from $700 million to almost $3 billion.
In 1982, Dr Abetti became Professor of
Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship
in the School of Management of Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY. From
1989 to 1992, he was Director of Rensselaer's
Center for Entrepreneurship and New Technological
Ventures.
Dr. Abetti has written two books and 150
technical and management papers in five
languages. He is listed in American Men
of Science, Who's Who in America, Who's
Who in the East and in Who's Who in Technology
Today.
We are pleased
to invite you and your colleagues to attend
the talk. As there are limited number
of seats available, please register for
the talk via e-mail to Jolia
Tan (nectal@nus.edu.sg) with the
following information, by 10 February
2003. Please forward this invitation to
your friends and colleagues who may be
interested.
Thank You!
Admission is FREE & we look forward
to seeing you at the seminar.
Kindly provide us with the
following information:
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