Profile
Member Since 2014
Site Staff, EIX Editor
James C Wetherbe
Richard Schulze Distinguished Professor / Rawls College of Business / Texas Tech University
AUTHORED RESOURCES
Entrepreneurial Brinkmanship: Lessons Learned from Best Buy and FedEx
13886 views
As these iconic companies prove, sometimes an entrepreneur has to bet the company to survive. Read More...
EIX: Reducing Cycle Time in Thought Leadership
16655 views
Time and money are two crucial resources, but they are significantly different. Money not used today can be saved and used later if we so choose. Time, on the other hand, marches on and gets Read More...
Delivering the Goods: An Interview with Best Buy and EIX Founder Dick Schulze
151531 views
Schulze’s story shows that sometimes opportunity can be found in the rubble of dashed plans -- a message that resonates more than ever today. Read More...
Garrey Carruthers: Governor, Entrepreneur, University President
3193 views
Garrey Carruthers shares his remarkable journey of going from family farm boy to professor, to governor, to entrepreneur and to dean of business school and then president of New Mexico State Read More...
Data Analytics Help Entrepreneurs Decide Where to Boldly Go
31943 views
Space programs must pick the parts of the cosmos that can and should be explored. Data analytics helps entrepreneurs navigate a universe of possibilities. Read More...
Entrepreneurs Don't Get Tenure: Should Their Professors?
11959 views
Successful entrepreneurs must be constantly open to new ideas, adapt to changing marketplaces, reinvent their businesses and occasionally bet the house. At times, they must take their businesses to Read More...
FedEx: Obtaining Corporate Sponsored Research
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Corporate funding of university research pays off for both the institution and business. Here's How FedEx was approached and agreed to engage in sponsored research. Read More...
Connecting Business Research to Practice
17017 views
Markets are a strong mechanism that force entrepreneurs to produce outputs that are useful to customers. Ironically and sadly, schools that groom future entrepreneurs too often don’t consider Read More...
Perils of Entrepreneurial Philanthropy in Higher Education
28719 views
Before funding a building, professorship or scholarship, some due diligence is necessary. Read More...
Collaborative Action Exercises Engage Students More Fully Than Lectures and Exams
64269 views
Traditional classroom lecture/discussion formats, followed by quizzes and exams, don’t prepare graduates for explaining their innovation to real-world skeptics. Read More...
A Tech Entrepreneur's Journey: Hard Work and Smart Risks
7911 views
David Bateman, Co-CEO and Founder of SitePro, Inc., has learned the art of launching a great product through hard work and smart risks. His $60 million company makes technology solutions that help Read More...
How to Care for Your Team During a Crisis
280006 views
This advice from one of our best-read articles in 2020 still rings true for startups, small businesses and family ventures who are trying to hang on until things stabilize. Read More...
How to Keep Your Favorite Business From Going Under
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When a favorite shop, online store or family business struggles because of a crisis, entrepreneurs feel loss and a sense of their own vulnerability. How to help. Read More...
Family Businesses Can Help One Another
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When a favorite shop, restaurant or other business struggles during a crisis, family business owners feel a sense of their own vulnerability. How they can help. Read More...
Which Innovations Should You Keep When the Crisis is Over?
133745 views
It's time to look at the innovations that helped you survive dark days, and choose which ones are keepers -- as one of our best-read articles from 2020 points out. Read More...
Colleagues Celebrate a Leader Who Empowered Others
4770 views
What makes for a great leader, whether it's of a startup or a giant company? These tributes to Best Buy Founder Dick Schulze can point the way. Read More...
Professors and Experts: Would You Like Your Articles to be Read?
7721 views
Entrepreneurship professors and other experts can take a cue from Super Bowl ads to encourage more entrepreneurs to discover and learn from their research. Read More...
Entrepreneur Philanthropy: What is the Appropriate Donation for a Named Gift?
7193 views
Those receiving gifts are often more experienced and skilled at receiving than donors are at giving, thus creating a knowledge gap that can lead to misunderstandings. Read More...
For New Research Insights, Study One Family in Depth
2500 views
Studying a single family firm over time can yield more practical and meaningful insights, and spotlight promising directions for future research. Read More...
a16z Brings Thought Leadership to the Valley
24386 views
The rise of Andreessen Horowitz holds important lessons for today's tech entrepreneurs and VCs introducing products and services whose benefits are hard to understand. Read More...
How SitePro Innovated and Diversified in Times of Crisis
9653 views
The pandemic spurred a technology startup to look beyond its customer base and expand to other industries. The innovations are here to stay. Read More...
Remembering Gordon Davis, Founder of Management Information Systems
7474 views
His innovation has forever changed how we think about, develop, deliver, and manage information technology resources. Read More...
How a Distillery Founder and His Investor Went Off the Rails
12501 views
The true story of Balcones Distilling shows how shared decision-making can set the stage for turf wars, legal dramas...and far worse. Read More...
How Professors Can Become Thought Leaders
11110 views
Research a problem that businesses care about – and partner with businesses that can identify the problem and pay for the research. Read More...
EIX's Editorial Guidelines for the Use of Generative AI Tools
19789 views
You are welcome to use these tools to help draft, revise, and/or expand on submitted articles -- but make sure you understand our rules. Read More...
What If Activists Target My Company?
10294 views
Social and environmental activism can be a blessing in disguise that helps new ventures find opportunities and older companies innovate. Read More...
Persuasive Communication for Crucial Conversations
48294 views
Here's a free, downloadable book about achieving win/win communication. It's also available as a teaching exercise. Read More...
Cash Is Not Always King in Founder/Investor Relationships
43407 views
Knowledge, reputation, and personal ties can also be leveraged and weaponized, setting the stage for clashes and disruption. Read More...
More Than an Entrepreneur: How Best Buy Founder Dick Schulze Saves Lives
7987 views
Along with funding worthy organizations and missions through his foundation, Dick Schulze also works behind the scenes to help individuals during a life-threatening health crisis. Read More...
EDITOR'S PICKS
Becoming the Best: A Journey of Passion, Purpose, and Perseverance
Richard M. Schulze. Idea Platforms, 2011Best Buy Founder Dick Schulze was once asked if he ever thought about closing Best Buy if it did not meet certain benchmarks for financial returns. Schulze responded with relaxed confidence: "No, there was never a point I would have thrown in the towel; failure was not an option." That quote explains much of what is to be learned from Schulze's book.
Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective
Robert A. Baron and Scott A. Shane. South-Western, 2008This is an excellent entrepreneurship textbook. It provides an understanding of the who, what and why of entrepreneurship, including how to assemble resources and launch the venture. It provides guidance on how to run a lasting business and harvest the rewards. Case studies are appropriately used throughout the text to illustrate concepts and techniques.
The Lean Start Up
Eric Ries, Crown Publishing, 2011This book is useful for the one-person start up all the way up to the corporate board launching a new endeavor. It provides a powerful framework for innovation and lean thinking for both current and new entrepreneurs. It provides a method for managing innovation through minimum viable products, evolving them through learning with actionable metrics to achieve successful products and services.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship
Bill Aulet, Wiley, 2013By nature entrepreneurship tends to be a chaotic process of trying, failing, inventing and reinventing. "Disciplined Entrepreneurship" provides a useful structure that reduces this chaos, by providing 24 steps to track and progress through the entrepreneurship process. The steps are not simply sequential. Rather, entrepreneurs will go backwards and forwards within the steps as new challenges and obstacles arise. Nonetheless, the 24-step framework works as a useful road map to ensure key activities are not overlooked and the process is well managed.
HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case
Raymond Sheen, HBR Press 2015Provides excellent tools for pitching a new product or service, proposing a process improvement, or for entrepreneurs seeking funds for a start-up. Shows, with examples, how to crunch the numbers and pitch your idea.
The Hard Thing about Hard Things
Ben Horowitz, Harper BusinessGreat read for anyone wanting to know the uncomfortable truths about creating and leading a company. Inspiring story from a silicon valley entrepreneur who provides a compelling guide for protecting your start up from self inflicting wounds. Inspirational, insightful and amusing perspectives from someone who has been there. Author donates 100% of royalties to help women in developing countries gain basic civil rights.