Brainstorming Research: Who's Making Money

Is Harvard Business School giving Stanford and Wharton a run for its money? It seems that yes, the prestigious business school is finally driving its own tech-focused, start-up movement. Harvard’s existing entrepreneurship center, the HBS Rock Center will be complemented by the Harvard Innovation Lab, opening in fall 2011.

And who’s driving the movement? The students are, reports BostInnovation writer Cheryl Morris. The school recently announced its $50,000 “Minimum Viable Product Fund” (MVP Fund), which was initiated by a very dear friend of mine, Dan Rumennik, HBS ’12. The fund’s name plays on the lean startup methodology that emphasizes working on customer development in tandem with product development. As reported by Morris, the HBS Rock Center contributed the $50K and will be awarding winners. The fund aims to award ten teams with $5,000 each, but teams may request up to $10,000 in funding.

“The idea is that a small amount of dollars at such a resourceful school [as HBS] will yield huge results and hopefully encourage more students to consider entrepreneurship and starting their own business,” Rumennik added. “That is the real goal of this — to get more students who wouldn’t have otherwise considered [being entrepreneurial], to think about making a career in it.”

The deadline for Harvard students to apply for the fund is January 28th, 2010. Requirements and application information can be found here. Funded teams will be asked to check-in monthly with a mentor from the MVP program; attend a monthly gathering of MVP teams; and present lessons learned from the MVP program. The 2011 Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab include a list of investors like Jeff Bussgang and Gwill York and Eric Ries, who is the face and creator of the MVP methodology.

HBS’s Rock Center has also organized a Silicon Valley Immersion Program in January, for students interested in working at a start-up, working in venture capital, or starting their own business. HBS also offers an entrepreneurial Immersion Program to Israel as well as several others in locations ranging from New Orleans to India. For more insider information, check out the Harvard Start-Up Tribe on Twitter.

A lot of people are surprised that George W. Bush’s book “Decision Points” is selling so well.

The next question, though, is how on earth sales have been this good. Or put another way, who’s actually buying the poorly-reviewed book of a failed former president?
onservative books nearly always outsell liberal books in large part because of bulk orders. A couple of months ago, for example, Mitt Romney boosted sales of his book by requiring various schools, think tanks, and institutions to buy thousands of copies in exchange for his speeches. Various conferences and Republican outlets do this all the time.
Without access to the data, it’s impossible to say just how much of this may have inflated “Decision Points” sales, but it seems like the most credible explanation. How else could it have sold so many copies?

I have no idea if conservative bulk orders are what’s going on here; I don’t have a good handle on how the right thinks of George W. Bush right now (failed RINO or Churchillian genius). I do think the media reaction to the book was a bit strange. There was a tendency to pretend the Bush presidency took place a long time ago, or never happened at all (that’s not so surprising, I think a lot in the media would like to forget that they fluffed the guy so much from 2001 to 2006). And this long ago, far away depiction of the book made it seem like something no one would want to read.

I personally would be interested in reading the book. I’m not going to buy it, because I don’t want to give my money to that clown and because I don’t have time, but given the choice between reading W’s book and reading memoirs by Obama or Clinton or Bush I, I’d go with W’s book in a heartbeat. With most recent presidents, the thought processes and political success make sense to me. George W. Bush’s do not. His presidency is Real Murkin mystery to me. Could he really have been as detached from reflective decision-making as he seemed to be? I’m sure the book is largely inaccurate but I wonder what you can learn from those inaccuracies.

The Bush presidency was a spectacular disaster that I hope someday to understand. There must be other people who feel the same way about it.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Who's Making Money

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