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Beating the Odds When You Launch a New Venture

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92 Harvard Business Review May 2010

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Clark G. Gilbert (cgilbert@ deseretdigital.com) is the president and CEO of Deseret Digital Media and was formerly a professor at Harvard Business School.

Matthew J. Eyring (meyring@innosight.com) is the president of Innosight, a strategic innovation consulting and investment company outside Boston.

Beating the Odds When You Launch a New Venture
Smart entrepreneurs aren’t cowboys—they’re methodical managers of risk. by Clark G. Gilbert and Matthew J. Eyring

ILLUSTRATION: BRUCIE ROSCH

F

or nearly 20 years the case study used to introduce Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Management course has been Howard Stevenson’s “R&R.” It looks at Bob Reiss, an entrepreneur who launches a venture in the board-game industry. Students are encouraged to explore all the production, development, distribution, and marketing costs associated with the new venture. A cursory reading of the case suggests that it’s a lesson in the rewards that come to an entrepreneur who is willing to take on an enormous amount of risk. Reiss capitalizes on what he correctly foresees is an ephemeral opportunity to ride the coattails

of the Trivial Pursuit craze before me-too products flood the market. But a more careful analysis reveals something else entirely. At every turn, Reiss seeks to reduce his risks before making any significant financial investments or operational commitments. For example, he presells a sizable number of units to ensure cash flow. As students come to understand, Reiss actually limits his at-risk capital to the cost of the game design and the prototype. Rather than the high-risk, high-reward seeker he initially seems, Reiss proves to be a manager who constantly identifies risks and finds creative ways to remove them. Over the past decade we have participated in the development of a dozen or so corporate

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