Strategy & Entrepreneurship Initiative

The Strategy & Entrepreneurship Initiativeof the Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation is focused on understanding the intersection of field of strategy and area of entrepreneurship.   This initiative is spearheaded by Dr. Mark L. Frigo, Director, along with Clinical faculty Russell Gottesman and James Hurley in their collaborative work and applications of the Return Driven Strategy framework to startup companies and entrepreneurial enterprises.
The very nature of the Return Driven Strategy framework is very entrepreneurial.  Tenet One "Ethically Maximize Value" focuses on the need for a "driven" entrepreneur to make the most of his/her abilities, resources and ideas.....to create the maximum value from them and to do so ethically.  Driven entrepreneurs are focused on creating value for customer, which in turn provides the ability to ethically create wealth for the entrepreneur, investors, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders.
 
The word "Entrepreneur" is derived from the work of the French economist Jean Baptiste Say (1767-1832) and others to denote someone who creates higher value with resources.  Entrepreneurs do this by targeting and fulfilling unmet customer needs with their offerings; continually innovating their offerings to fulfill changing customer unmet needs; being the best at delivering those offerings; being known for their offerings (branding); and having unque resources and capabilities (which we call "Genuine Assets") that provide competitive advantage.  All of which is described in the logic and language of Return Driven Strategy.
 
The following is a recent video interview with Dr. Mark L. Frigo and Russell Gottesman describes the intersection of Entrepreneurship and Return Driven Strategy.
 
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/RussellGottesman/RussellGottesman.html

The early development of the Return Driven Strategy framework started in the late 1990s during the dot.com era, where we worked in startup incubators as we refined criteria for the business plans that actually could create sustainable businesses.  We later expanded our research to study high performance companies globally, focused on companies that demonstrate the ability to achieve superior and sustainable return on investment (ROI), grow the business while maintaining superior ROI and achieve superior relative total shareholder returns, while operating within the ethical parameters of its communities and constituents.

The Strategy & Entrepreneurship Initiative will be launching a blog and a series of articles for the entrepreneurship community.  Our objective is to develop a blueprint and criteria for a successful business plan and successful business.

We will also be presenting our work at conferences and summits beginning in 2012.

For more information, contact Dr. Mark L. Frigo at mfrigo@depaul.edu or visit www.markfrigo.com