The founder's dilemma.
The founder's dilemma.
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创始人的困境。
DOI：
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发表时间：
2008
影响因子：
14.7
通讯作者：
Noam Wasserman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Noam Wasserman
人们为什么要创业？当然是为了钱和控制自己公司的机会。但哈佛商学院教授瓦瑟曼的新研究表明，这些目标在很大程度上是不相容的。作者的研究表明，放弃更多股权以吸引联合创始人、新员工和投资者的创始人，比放弃更少股权的创始人建立的公司更有价值。然而，通常情况下，这些上级回报来自于用一位更了解成长型公司需求的专业CEO取代创始人。这种根本性的紧张关系要求创始人在“富”与“王”之间做出权衡，以最大限度地增加他们的财富或控制公司。寻求保持控制权的创始人（就像家具零售商Room & Board的约翰·加伯特（John Gabbert）所做的那样）最好将自己限制在不需要大量资金的业务中，并且他们已经拥有所需的技能和联系。他们也可能想等到职业生涯的后期，在他们发展了更广泛的管理技能之后，再建立商店。专注于财富的企业家，比如奥卡姆科技公司的创始人吉姆·特里安迪弗洛，可以更快地实现飞跃，因为他们不介意从投资者那里拿钱，也不介意依靠高管来管理他们的企业。这样的创始人往往会自己带来新的CEO，更有可能与董事会合作，为自己开发新的继任后的角色。在金钱和权力之间做出选择，让企业家们能够把握成功对他们意味着什么。那些想要管理帝国的创始人，如果失去了控制权，即使他们最终变得富有，也不会相信自己是成功的。相反，那些明白自己的目标是积累财富的创始人，当他们从最高职位上卸任时，不会认为自己是失败者。
Why do people start businesses? For the money and the chance to control their own companies, certainly. But new research from Harvard Business School professor Wasserman shows that those goals are largely incompatible. The author's studies indicate that a founder who gives up more equity to attract cofounders, new hires, and investors builds a more valuable company than one who parts with less equity. More often than not, however, those superior returns come from replacing the founder with a professional CEO more experienced with the needs of a growing company. This fundamental tension requires founders to make "rich" versus "king" trade-offs to maximize either their wealth or their control over the company. Founders seeking to remain in control (as John Gabbert of the furniture retailer Room & Board has done) would do well to restrict themselves to businesses where large amounts of capital aren't required and where they already have the skills and contacts they need. They may also want to wait until late in their careers, after they have developed broader management skills, before setting up shop. Entrepreneurs who focus on wealth, such as Jim Triandiflou, who founded Ockham Technologies, can make the leap sooner because they won't mind taking money from investors or depending on executives to manage their ventures. Such founders will often bring in new CEOs themselves and be more likely to work with their boards to develop new, post-succession roles for themselves. Choosing between money and power allows entrepreneurs to come to grips with what success means to them. Founders who want to manage empires will not believe they are successes if they lose control, even if they end up rich. Conversely, founders who understand that their goal is to amass wealth will not view themselves as failures when they step down from the top job.