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Entrepreneurial Vision,
Mission, and Strategy

Session 7A
© The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, 2015-2016. All rights reserved.
Reasons Not to Be an Entrepreneur
Reflection
What is your personal goal in this course?
What is Entrepreneurship?
“The pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled.”
Howard Stevenson, Harvard Business School
“The identification and exploitation of previously

unexploited opportunities by enterprising individuals.”
Byers, Thomas, Richard Dorf, and Andrew Nelson. Technology
Venture: From Idea to Enterprise. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005.
“The nexus of enterprising individual and promising

opportunities”
Shane, Scott, and Venkataraman S. "The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field
of Research." The Academy of Management Review 25.1 (2000): 217-26. Web.
Discussion
Is entrepreneurship …
An art?
Or a science?
Choose a number. You cannot choose 3.
1 2 4 5
Art Science
Art vs. Science
CUSTOMERS
SOLUTIONS
Source: Simon Snek
What is a Strategy?
“A plan or road map of the actions that a firm or organization
will take to achieve its mission or goals.”
Values
Vision Mission
/Goals
Byers, Thomas, Richard Dorf, and Andrew Nelson. Technology Venture: From Idea to Enterprise. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005.
Discussion
What is a Vision?
“An informed and forward-looking statement of purpose that
defines the long-term destiny of a company.”
Fundamental Questions: Vision
• What do the founders wish to achieve with their business?
• What is our shared purpose, goals, and core values?
• What business are we in?
EXAMPLE: What businesses are they really in?
Google Search?
Facebook Friends?
Amazon Books?
9
A Compelling Vision
Elements of a Vision
Clarity Easily understood and focused
Consistency Holds constant over a period of time, but is
adjustable as conditions warrant
Uniqueness Special to enterprise
Purposeful Provides reason for being and others to
care
What is a Mission?
“A vision is an imaginative picture of the future, while a
mission is a description of the course of action to implement
the vision. The mission of an organization is lofty and
audacious. It provides for a theory of change.”
A Compelling Mission
Establishing Mission
Concise Fewer than 100 words
Clear Explanation of Purpose
Authentic Values that stem from the founders’ personal values
Purposeful Provides reason for being and others to care
Product Clear explanation of the product
Customers, Align all stakeholders

Stakeholders,
etc.
Adapted from: Byers, Thomas, Richard Dorf, and Andrew Nelson. Technology Venture: From Idea to Enterprise. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005.
Examples
The Golden Circle
What How
Every organization on the Some organizations know
planet knows what they do. how they do what they do.
These are the products they These are the things that
sell or the services they make them special or set
offer. them apart from their
competition.
Why
Very few organizations
know why they do what they
External: Identify what
do. Why is not about making
opportunities exist
money. That’s a result. It’s a
purpose, cause, or belief. It’s Internal: Why & how to address
the very reason your opportunities
organization exists. Source: Simon Snek
Visionary Vision & The
Strategy:
Entrepreneurship: MissionPower of “Why?”
as Currency
Start with what’s in you: The most successful brands start with a purpose driven
vision (why) and match the strategies (how) and the execution (what) to the vision.
Exercise
Within your group:
1. Identify an organization.
2. Summarize the purpose of that organization in no more than two
sentences.
3. Summarize the mission of that organization in no more than two
sentences.
4. Identify two or three:
 Internal strengths
 Internal weaknesses
 External opportunities
 Threats to the organization
Be prepared to share your results.
*This course includes materials licensed by Stanford Center for Professional Development on behalf of Stanford University.
The materials provided herein do not confer any academic credit, benefits, or rights from Stanford University or otherwise
confer a relationship between the user and Stanford University.
Company Mission Statement - Guy Kawasaki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JBYC6WpIaY
How an Entrepreneur Identifies Ideas
and Opportunities
Session 7B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3amLWNjaXQo
Creating Opportunities - Kathleen Eisenhardt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSTZFb5IRWw
Aaron Levie: Changes Present Opportunities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvJcxzlP1RE
Opportunity Beyond Geography - Amit Chatterjee (Hara)
How do you know if an idea is good?
First, consider perspective …
Product Capital
People Resources
Risk
Entrepreneur Bureaucrat
Two Perspectives
Entrepreneurs Product
or Market
start here service
Opportunity recognition
Pursuit of opportunity
People Resources Bureaucrats

and and
org. capital start here
Source: Mark P. Rice
Discussion
Peter Thiel’s Contrarian Challenge
What important truth do very few people

agree with you on?
What makes a product compelling?
Is the market large Do you have experts

and growing? in the technology
Market Team and business?
Product
Is your product 10 times better

than the competitor?
Adapted from: Randy Komisar and Marc Andreessen
The Big 3 Questions in Your Personal Life
What You
Love Doing
Hobbies Delusions
Sweet
Spot What You
What
Can Make
You Are Not Happy
but Money
Good At
Successful Doing
Adapted from: Randy Komisar and Marc Andreessen
How do you know if an idea is good?
Third, consider the risk …
Team risk
Capital risk
“The most
important risk
right now”
Technological
risk
Market risk
Business Plans
People
Team, capabilities,
attitude, reputation
Deal Resources
Rewards and risks, Business Financial, physical,
incentives, ownership plan intellectual
Opportunity
Customers, strategy,
business model
Source: William A. Sahlman
Business Model Canvas
Great Business Plan
William Sahlman suggests that a great business plan is one that focuses
on a series of questions. These questions relate to the four factors critical
to the success of every new venture: the people, the opportunity, the
context, and the possibilities for both risk and reward. The questions
about people revolve around three issues: What do they know? Whom do
they know? and How well are they known?
As for opportunity, the plan should focus on two questions: Is the market
for the venture’s product or service large or rapidly growing (or preferably
both)? and Is the industry structurally attractive?
Then, in addition to demonstrating an understanding of the context in
which their venture will operate, entrepreneurs should make clear how
they will respond when that context inevitably changes.
Source: “How to Write a Great Business Plan”
Great Business Plan
Finally, the plan should look unflinchingly at the risks the new venture
faces, giving would-be backers a realistic idea of what magnitude of
reward they can expect and when they can expect it.
A great business plan is not easy to compose, Sahlman acknowledges,
largely because most entrepreneurs are wild-eyed optimists. But one that
asks the right questions is a powerful tool. A better deal, not to mention a
better shot at success, awaits entrepreneurs who use it.
Exercise
Case Study: Yahoo

• Drawing on the readings by Andreesen, Salhman, and Technology
Ventures, what made Yahoo such an attractive opportunity (and not
just a good idea) in 1995?
• Identify the major risks in each of these categories at the time of the
case:
• Technology
• Market
• Team
• Financial
• What is the most critical category for the founders to address in the
short run? Why?
*This course includes materials licensed by Stanford Center for Professional Development on behalf of Stanford University.
The materials provided herein do not confer any academic credit, benefits, or rights from Stanford University or otherwise
confer a relationship between the user and Stanford University.

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Entrepreneurial Vision,

Mission, and Strategy

What is your personal goal in this course?

“The identification and exploitation of previously

“The nexus of enterprising individual and promising

Source: Simon Snek

EXAMPLE: What businesses are they really in?

Purposeful Provides reason for being and others to care

Product Clear explanation of the product

Customers, Align all stakeholders

Be prepared to share your results.

Creating Opportunities - Kathleen Eisenhardt

First, consider perspective …

People Resources Bureaucrats

Source: Mark P. Rice

Peter Thiel’s Contrarian Challenge

What important truth do very few people

Is the market large Do you have experts

Is your product 10 times better

Adapted from: Randy Komisar and Marc Andreessen

Source: William A. Sahlman

Source: “How to Write a Great Business Plan”

Case Study: Yahoo

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