My Research in Evolutionary Entrepreneurship

For the past 10 years, together with Prof. Charles Fine we have been developing a new framework to understand the complex journey that successful companies went on from a start-up to scale-up to a sail-up with a focus on understanding specifically the nature of scaling and the role that entrepreneurial operations play in this stage. Our research is based on hundreds of interviews, site visits, seminars, workshops, executive education programs, and conference discussions with entrepreneurs from U.S., China, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Romania, Peru, Israel, Germany, and Singapore, as well as with participants attending MBA and executive courses at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Northeastern University DMSB in USA, International Institute for Management Development (IMD, Switzerland), the Asia School of Business (ASB, Malaysia), and the Indian School of Business (ISB, India).

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Upcoming book 2025: THE INNOVATOR’S ODYSSEY - NAIL IT, SCALE IT, SAIL IT.

We depict the journey of an organization and leadership team through successive entrepreneurial and business landscapes — from the often chaotic, intimidating, and highly unpredictable “jungle” environment for nailing a viable value proposition and product-market fit, to the challenging ascent of the “mountain” for scaling the business, and then on to sailing the vast, ever-changing “ocean” — to maintain and grow a mature business. But our parable is not a full-blown “how to” guide -- many others have already written such tomes. Rather it provides a vivid set of metaphors to capture the heart of the innovator’s odyssey. Although we do offer advice and tools for the entrepreneurial venture and its team, this book is as much about the experience of being an entrepreneur and organization leader -- and to prepare our readers psychologically and emotionally for the challenges and pitfalls, for the highs and the lows -- as it is to explain how to do it.

As to the format, a comic book: We wanted to build on our academic paper (Fine, et al, Production and Operations Management, 2022), but create a book as unique as our metaphors. We are not artists or professional design experts, but Gen AI tools gave us a path forward. Telling an AI tool what you want is easy; getting it right is hard. After countless hours tweaking images, we accepted that perfection was out of reach. The images are not perfect, but we think they fit the bill to share the story we want to tell.

The metaphor "Jungle, Mountain, Ocean" stands for the evolution of entrepreneurship as an overall journey, where the entrepreneurs and corporate innovators face different obstacles, depending of where this journey takes them. 

Nail it - "Carry as little as possible, but choose that little with care!" E.Shaffer

The earliest stage is all about figuring out and successfully prototyping a value proposition that works simultaneously for all the members in your "value chain" (customers, employees, suppliers, distributors, investors, etc.). At this stage, early entrepreneurial intentions, initial resource endowments, fast iterations and experimentations, and marketing efforts play especially important roles. The right mix of people that can work for and with you, along with the perfect array of distributors, suppliers, and investors, all contributing to a viable value chain.

Metaphorically, nailing stands for hacking through a very dense jungle with next to nothing but a machete, a very approximate map designating a very fuzzy destination, but no trail, and a small, determined team of like-minded adventurers, rule breakers and mission-driven problem solvers adventurous with entrepreneurial mindsets led by a mission driven, flexible, empowering and passionate leader… 

scale it - "It's time to climb that goddamn mountain!” Jack Kerouac

The “scaling”stage comes once a company has proven some key aspects (e.g., technology, customers, pricing) of its value proposition and now must grow in parallel to its market alongside its production and delivery capabilities. In colloquial term, if Nailing was the ‘What’ then Scaling is the ‘How’. This is the heart of our hoped-for contribution, fleshing out seven attributes in the context of an entrepreneurial firm that has already “nailed it,” and now needs/wants to scale up.

Compared to trekking the jungle, scaling feels like hikingup a long, steep mountain with a rapidly growing team of people. Scaling is a journey of endurance, discipline and resilience. Unlike the jungle, here, the path becomes clearer, the horizon more visible, and the peak more tangible. The mountain is a territory riddled with paths that will give you a better sense of direction and more certainty. The tools that one can take on this trek are slightly more sophisticated and allow for a longer subsistence, but keeping lean is still critical,so you must optimize your resources and be smart with the tools you choose to carry.  

sail it - "Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm." Syrus Publilius

The third stage, “sailing”typically comes much later, after a company has realized a significant fraction of the growth opportunity of its value proposition. Although the firm may still be required to navigate the stormy seas of competitive, technological, and environmental challenges, the average growth rate is much slower and the firm and its processes have reached a certain stage of maturity.  At this point, the focus may be more on sustainability of the business and continuous improvement to navigate the market and avoiding organizational rigidities that make a firm susceptible to disruptive threats. 

We think of sailing as the ability to continuously improve and innovate in product offering, production capabilities and market growth, and maintain your competitive advantage. Big companies have huge advantages in procurement, distribution, and manufacturing, as well as sales and marketing advantages. But they have a challenge of reacting fast to large threats in the market. Large companies are similar to tanker ships that are able to hold their course even in heavy weather if they are properly equipped and manned up.