創投教父 Jerry Sanders

在美國Silicon Valley 提到Jerry Sanders， 就像是西西里島上的教父Don Vito Corleone 備受尊崇，有種酷酷的江湖味，腦筋清楚，男人味十足，聰明冷靜，人脈廣闊，Jerry Sanders 現在是San Francisco Science Corp，主要是協助醫療用品科技產業發展，聽起來籠統，但是扮演from Nothing to something 的觸媒要角。這公司找尋創意，科技商機，協助短期間內以幾乎零成本的本事，將科技商機化，成功的設立公司，最後獲利出場，憑著Jerry Sanders 這位以色列美國移民，多年律師工作經驗，跟政商關係良好的人脈，成功的將許多構想具體實現出來。
這位Jerry Sanders 成功的案例跟成功的哲學更是被HBS 收錄在個案研究裡面。我們也很幸運的在九月初邀請到Jerry 到Oxford 做了三天的演講。在Jerry 眼裡，Oxford 這個以學術起家，人脈資源充沛的環境，能夠結合商學院的創業精神，絕對是可以把Nothing 變成 More than Something…..這三天的精采課程，堪稱是這一年來我覺得最值得聽的一門課。我簡單摘路上課重點如下:

Something from Nothing: Part 1:

An idea is the thought that someone failed to act on….
This is the philosophy of Gerald Sanders(Jerry), the entrepreneurial guru of the silicon valley.
The fantastic three-day course is designed for the formation of entrepreneurial mindset. Though being the entrepreneur is not my career goal, the entrepreneurial mindset is quite crucial to expand my mindset. Three-day lecture offers both soft(networking) and hard skills(building the value chain of the business) of how to be the entrepreneur, and how to turn zero to something….
You can learn more about Jerry from this website: http://www.sfsmed.com/GeraldSanders2.shtml
Basic thought to build the feasible business idea…..
1. Ideas comes from :
Trade shows, newspapers, magazines, university….
Cock-tail test: We must like this idea first, enjoying repetitively sharing this idea/ business concept with people during any social occasions.
2. Time to market:
It impacts the risk/ reward profile.
3. Who is the users?
4. Competition?
5. Enemy? (stakeholders who can be against the idea. ex: labor unions, insurance companies, people who don’t like to change their habits. )
6. Allies? You need to hook with strong allies.(ex: Green Organization)
7. Intellectual property: How to patent the copyright and to build the monopoly power.
Provisional patents/ utility patent/ method patent
Filing the patent: interplay among parties in terms of patents.(inventors’ agreement to expand the patent application area.)
8. prototype: learn the cost structure and gaining the learning curve/
9. Add value during manufacturing process: by creative negotiation, incentive to motive manufacturers.
10. Get the wisemen for advisory board: good for marketing, networking, money.
11. Fund Raising: persuade investors with hard numbers…./ How to evaluate the value of this company.
12. Exit methods: trade sale/ IPO/ LBO, MBO/ sell the patent/ sell to institutional investors.
13. Some suggested milestone to sell/ increase the value: burnout rate/ empirical test and the publication/ secure certain amount of the orders/ customers.

Let's Mini

牛津著名的景點除了夢幻尖塔，學院式生活，Punting，牛津南方還是全世界唯一的Mini 車製造工廠，每天以600輛的產能出貨，每年18 萬輛的Mini 在牛津這裡瓜瓜落地，配送到全球74個國家。英國的精品，除了Burberry 外，Mini 也是另ㄧ個彰顯身分跟品味的符號。

早就耳聞MiniCooper 盛名，兩年前電影The Italian Job 裡面，就見識到Mini Cooper 復古精巧的造型、上學期Marketing Case study 討論Mini Cooper 的行銷策略，亞洲女藝人也流行購買Mini Cooper 車款，班上ㄧ位英國上流家庭的男同學的母親，據說瘋狂收藏Mini 車，還有在倫敦牛津偶會見到，帥氣的男士或時髦的歐洲女郎，駕著Mini Convertible 穿梭在街上，但是所表達出來的性感，絕對是更勝過袒胸露臂美女一籌，所謂佛要金裝，人要是能Mini車裝，真是有一種知性跟感性的吸引力。


最早的第一輛Mini，是由英國汽車公司British Motor Corp總裁Lenoard 在1959年全球能源危機的環境下，所產生的新車型構想: 帶領潮流走向體積空間嬌小(Smaller outside, bigger inside.)，用油量省的概念; 再加上當時倫敦因應民眾自有車輛增加的趨勢，開始在馬路上畫出雙黃線提供停車的服務，這種小型車款剛好就符合雙黃線的停車空間，在天時地利人和之下，Mini 就開始進入量產階段。當時倫敦民眾琅琅上口的順口溜就是: Mini is to Parking what British Sandwich is to hunger.

隨著時空背景的轉移，Mini雖然已經是賣給BMW 德國汽車商了，但是還是保有大不列顛王國尊貴的習氣，堅持只在英國牛津生產，強調Build to Order 零存貨概念，堅持手工，永遠追求著時尚跟品質的精神，MINI最膾炙人口的就是英國國旗塗裝的車頂或是車身配件。

Mini 的設計師元老Alex 有著這句名言: “People actually don’t know what they want, so it is my job to tell them.” 大家常常並不知道自己真的要什麼，因此設計師的工作就是要告傳達明確的概念。這個行銷手法相當的成功，Mini Cooper 幫中上流階層的人設計出質感，簡單，輕便的駕車樂趣，但是同質中還是強調個人異質化元素在內，Mini Cooper 強調 Style of its own, Versatile Mini, Spirits of enthusiasm, Limited editions, Designer’s favorite，這種時尚的意趣特別反應在Mini 獨到的Made to measure服務，由外型車身到內部車內配件，都可因應消費者的個別需求而設計改良。根據Mini 統計，約20000輛Mini 車中，只有2輛相同的，少了這些上流新貴”撞車”的尷尬。Mini 網路上(www.mini.co.uk)提供Make to measure 的服務，從車身顏色，輪胎，內部裝潢，都是客製化風格。

MiniCooper的外形非常時尚，它不適合家庭。它傳達出的感覺是喜歡自由，把生活品質放在首位，可以達到適度釋放虛榮心的目的，可惜我在Oxford MBA 花費幾乎是家徒四壁了，短期來講，Mini Cooper 可能只是我電腦桌面上的圖檔，稍稍讓我望梅止渴…..