Entrepreneurship: “The satisfaction of building something from nothing“
(Gian Fulgoni)

 
 THE LEADERSHIP SHOW  Not all leaders are entrepreneurs. And not all entrepreneurs make good leaders. But, my oh my, when you get leaders that ARE good entrepreneurs, you can be sure that innovation and success are close behind. So sit down and prepare to be inspired by some anecdotes and wise words from three entrepreneurial leaders of our time - Chet Zalesky, Clare Bruce and Gian Fulgoni, Gian being a serial entrepreneur. Hosted by none other than Simon Chadwick, himself a former leader at Gfk NOP and now a strategic advisor. Part of our new leadership series, look out for more episodes

Listen to other podcasts featuring Clare

 STARRING 

• Chet Zalesky, founder and President, CMI Solutions
• Clare Bruce, founder and CEO, Nunwood Consulting
• Gian Fulgoni, co-founder and Chairman, comScore Networks
• Simon Chadwick, partner, Cambiar and gravitas (Host)

Timeline [21m34s]
00m00s Intro.
01m12s What makes an entrepreneur?
02m19s Starting a business through frustration.
03m11s The satisfaction of building something from nothing.
03m24s Entrepreneurial DNA.
04m35s Are entrepreneurs driven by passion?
06m37s Self belief and battling naysayers.
07m51s “What on earth am I doing!”.
09m10s How the founder’s role changes (”[over time] the justification for me becomes less obvious”).
10m43s The initial vision.
11m46s Change as a friend of the entrepreneur.
12m22s Becoming personally involved in hiring.
13m00s Giving staff a stake in the business.
13m58s Leaving the business and passing the torch.
14m44s Retaining creativity by investing in startups.
16m39s Inspirational hereos and role models.
19m58s Is MR naturally entrepreneurial?

Notable Mentions
ACNielsen.
Atari.
Commodore.
Donald Trump.
Dotcom boom and bust.
Dr. Alfred A. Kuehn (founder, Management Science Associates).
Entreprenurism.
IRI.
John Malec (founder, IRI).
Keller Fay.
Management Science Associates.
Margaret Thatcher.
Venture capitalism.
Winston Churchill.
Yesmail.

Quotes
On what makes an entrepreneur: “Someone who can’t work in a larger organisation!” (Gian).

“My family came from a farming background.” (Gian).

“We’ve even moved on from insight to adding emotion to everthing we do. Adding pixie dust is how we describe it, adding something that will touch their hearts and reach them as a person.” (Clare).

“[A receptionist asked me how I did it]…it wasn’t that I did it, I loved what I did…You really need to follow your passion and the rest should take care of itself.” (Chet).

“I would say though that the passion is necessary if one’s an entrepreneur because you’re always coming up against people who will tell you something can’t be done…you’ve just got to have alot of passion and emotion to just keep going and drive through all of that.” (Gian).

“As you build a company it’s really important to not have your people see the doubts that maybe occasionally cross your mind as to whether something can be done or not.” (Gian).

“It makes no sense to hire professional managers during the early years of a company, it’s the last thing you want. You want people who can thrive in change and people who are creative.” (Gian).

“The challenge for me, and I’m sure for every other leader on the planet, is to create the environment that makes these awesome people stay…we can’t afford to be so stupidly arrogant these days.” (Clare).

Thanks to freelance media and marketing journalist Jo Bowman for the use of her dulcet tones for the outro

Music 
Steffen Coonan and Theatrimus from the PMN

Series:Leadership