Innovating from Within: Patty Tang and the Launch of Dell’s Latitude Z Laptop

“It’s about going out of our normal way of doing things in order to deliver on the product.”

The original Skunk Works was a specialized team formed in 1943 at Lockheed Martin, operating within the corporation, but free of the formal restrictions inherent in the corporate bureaucracy. Waiting around for a purchase order to clear accounting isn’t a winning proposition when you’re trying to outpace the growth of German jet fighters in WWII.

Plenty of corporations have taken stabs at skunkworks-style operations, specialized groups of workers hyper-creating in an entrepreneurial environment unfettered by nasty protocol and silo issues. Rob Adams often makes the point that the skills of entrepreneurship (risk analysis, rapid prototyping, customer insight, etc.) have utility in any work endeavor, even if your cubicle is number 213 on level 4A.

I recently sat down with Patty Tang (MBA ’00), Product Manager with Dell, to explore what it was like to operate in an “intrapranuership” mode during the development and launch of the Latitude Z laptop.

Hoover on Forecasting Business Success by Observing Business Past

Entertaining video short features Hoover’s latest wisdom for entrepreneurs.

Gary Hoover’s second-in-the-video-series on keys to successful enterprise is about the importance of Understanding Business History. His warning is that business people cannot react to the future while being oblivious to what has happened previously. “Almost everything has a pattern,” he asserts. “I’m not saying the answers are always going to be the same, but many of them are.”

Hoover believes that many entrepreneurs miss the huge trends because they don’t fit the daily news cycle. “Fortunes are lost, enterprises collapse and others are created, all because of these trends,” he says. Speaking of one trend, the aging of baby boomers, Hoover joked, “I see it in the mirror every morning. The clothing makers are all doing buttons, but hey, it’s going to be Velcro time pretty soon!”

Read more.

Austin’s Grease Monkey Wipes are Shark Tank Survivors on ABC

Erin Whalen

The duo walked on stage dressed in sharp, yellow bicycle jerseys emblazoned with their playful logo, which panelists loved.

Have you discovered ABC’s Shark Tank? Think of it as American Idol for entrepreneurs. All the basic elements are there, the emotion of a “once in a lifetime” performance, snarky bickering among the judges (who have real dollars to invest in winning companies), awkward meltdowns by ill-prepared participants, and finally the vicarious thrill of watching a talented contestant walk away with real dollars in hand. You needn’t be a new-business junkie to enjoy Shark Tank.

Last week Grease Monkey Wipes appeared on the show, and I was prepped in my recliner, with a bowl of popcorn at hand, ready to cheer on this Austin startup, founded by Tim Stansbury and Erin Whalen (a graduate of McCombs).

The Entrepreneurial Grab Bag: Busy Week at UT Austin

I’ll bet you’re just the type who would want to know…

• Gary Hoover continues to delight as entrepreneur-in-residence at the McCombs School, which is a role he so obviously relishes. He recently discussed his Eight Keys to Building a Successful Enterprise, the first installment of which is posted here: Curiosity. What Gary does so well is survey the landscape of business history and connect the dots to draw conclusions for today’s entrepreneur. Here, he talks about chicken feed, Toys R Us, and the serendipity of learning. An edu-taining 11-minutes. You’ll smile, you’ll learn something. (Another Hoover speech is recapped here by Neville Medhora who took this snapshot.)
• Shawn Lesser of Sustainable World Capital recently ranked the best universities for promoting cleantech energy initiatives. UT Austin is number three on that list, and Franklin Fuchs (outgoing president of the McCombs CleanTech Group) sent a note to make sure we told the world. World, you are hereby told, and there is a bit more on this story here, with a video if you wish.
• It’s too late to attend Jim Nolen’s webinar on venture capital and private equity (sorry) but there is blurb about it here and I hope more will come.

Phurnace Software Born as a Class Project, Sold to BMC Software

Any budding entrepreneur who understands the power of this combination should be camping on the university steps begging to be admitted.

This week’s announcement of the acquisition of Phurnace Software by BMC Software of Houston is one more evidence that one of the richest environments for entrepreneurship is in the university classroom. The news reminded me of the comment by Piryx CEO Tom Serres that “being a business student and building a company at the same time is probably one of the smartest things any young entrepreneur can do.”

Phurnace was started by Texas MBA student Daniel Nelson (photo) as a class project along with Robert Reeves, a UT economics major.