What Every CEO Should Know About Creating New Businesses

The challenges of top-line growth are vast, and it is difficult to know how, or even whether, to move forward. Most CEOs would benefit from having a few rules of the road. There are 10 things every corporate venturer should know, including: 1. Ultimately, growth means starting new businesses. 2. Most new businesses fail. 3. Corporate culture is the biggest deterrent to business creation. 4. Separate organizations don't work - or at least not for long. New ventures can go wrong in so many ways. It follows that perfectionist cultures are in for a rude awakening, since it is seldom possible to figure out product designs or business models fully in advance. In most cases, the 3 stages of business creation take years to unfold. The biggest hurdle for new businesses is mental - the way senior managers think about products, services, technologies, customers and competitors.