Corporate CEO – Ask Yourself… Are You In It To Win It?

George Roberts

June 30, 2011

OpenView Partners is a Boston based venture capital company that invests growth capital in expansion stage software companies. Our partners all have operational experience and we work with the CEOs, founders and management teams on operational execution as they focus on dominating their chosen market segments.

I recently wrote a couple of blogs titled “Peacetime or Wartime CEO… Who Would You Rather Have Running A Company” and “Ray Kroc, Founder Of McDonald’s… Was He A Wartime CEO”.

I wanted to share an article with you I discovered in this week’s WSJ. It was written by Colleen DeBaise and it discussed her interview with LivingSocial co-founder Tim O’Shaughnessy about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

LivingSocial recently raised 400 million to fuel expansion as it competes with Groupon for customers, capital and flusht.

Tim’s advice…

“Whenever you’re being aggressive, double or triple that.”

Tim also states “There’s a lot of ideas out there, and what ends up winning at the end of the day….is execution and seeing when there’s inefficiencies and really being able to go and tackle them.” A lot of people think they’re being aggressive, “but there’s always someone that’s actually being a little bit more aggressive,” he says.

Tim also believes, “You can be aggressive without coming across as an edgy, angry person. If you ask people around the office, they would say that I am willing to take risks, and be pretty aggressive about them.”

You can read the article here.

As the founder and or corporate CEO, what you do sets the tone for the company, which is why you should wake up every morning and ask yourself if you are “In It To Win It” and make sure your team understands and believes this. If you have a management team member who does not demonstrate this behavior you should get someone who does. Life is too short not to have a 110% commitment from your management team. Being an entrepreneur is not for wimps and if you are not “In It To Win It” you might want to do something different for a career.

All the best!

G

Venture Partner

<strong>George Roberts</strong> is a Venture Partner at OpenView. He enjoys partnering with companies and helping them achieve their goals through strategy, focus and operational execution. From 1990 to 2003, George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.