From: rdshydur@MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9402080555.AA11296@alfredo.MIT.EDU>
To: sem095@MIT.EDU
Subject: prof ed roberts at sem095 tonight, with dr. qunio takashima;
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 94 00:55:18 EST


to:  	all participants in seminar sem095;

de:	richard shyduroff

re:	prof. ed roberts at seminar tonight;  dr. takashima note next;

tonight's principal guest faculty visitor is mit sloan school
professor ed roberts, course 6'57, sm'58, sm'60, phd course 14'62,
founder of pugh-roberts associates, principal in zero-stage capital,
and chairman of the mit center for entrepreneurship at the sloan school. 

professor roberts will lead a discussion on technology start-ups
at mit with an emphasis on mit students and alum learning to
pitch both their ideas and themselves to potential partners and
investors, as well as their products and services to the market.

all seminar participants taking the course for credit
are expected to attend, and to make use of this opportunity
to learn about the process of massaging one's ideas into
solid executive summaries for their course-based business-plan
prototypes and oral presentations of new start-up ideas.

professor robert's visit to the seminar is also "10k" timely, given
the nearness of the deadline for submission of 10k executive summaries,
and all participants, and thinking-about-it entrants, should consider
this an opportunity to hear an inspiring world class expert in
the field of technology markets research.

(special alum guest visitor to the seminar will be dr. qunio takashima.
 prof. roberts sits on dr. takashima's japan-based company board
 at tim, kk.  details of dr. takashima's visit and his company follow
 in a separate posting)

(about ed roberts, from the 1994 sloan faculty research report)

(Ed) Roberts is primarily engaged in research, teaching, and
active involvement in many aspects of technology strategy 
and management, including technology-based entrepreneurship,
venture capital, and corporate venturing and new business development.

His work manifests itself in myriad ways.

In _Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond_
(Oxford University Press, 1991), which received the prestigious
Association of American Publishers' Award as Outstanding Book of
1991 in Business and Management, Roberts presents evidence that
contradicts the widely held perception that technology-based
entrepreneurship is very risky and that most companies die quickly.
He also finds that marketing orientation and lack of business
focus are the most serious barriers to achieving success 
with high-technology firms.  _Entrepreneurs ..._ distills
Robert's long experience in the field and is the most recent
of more than 125 articles and eleven books that he has written.

Robert's newest research interests are in the area of strategic
direction of technology in large firms.  He is examining the
linkages between the CEO of a large corporation and the technology 
side of the enterprise.  Does CEO participation in technology 
planning matter?  Or involvement in product developmet reviews?
Is the "voice of technology" being heard appropriately in
the Presidential suite or the corporate boardroom?

In 1980, Roberts co-founded the Management of Technology Program,
a degree-granting, joint program of the Sloan School and
the MIT School of Engineering offered to mid-career scientists
and engineers;  he continues as co-chairman.  In 1991, 
he founded the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship and currently
serves as chairman.

Outside MIT, Roberts is a company founder and venture capitalist
in his own right.  He is co-founder and chairman of Pugh-Roberts
Associates (now a division of PA Consulting Group, LTD), an
international consulting firm specialising in strategic planning
and technology management;  co-founder and general partner of
Zero-Stage Capital and First Stage Capital Equity Funds, venture
capital funds investing in early-stage technology-based firms;
co-founder and director of Medical Information Technology, Inc.,
a leading producer of hospital information systems;  and co-founder
and/or director of numerous emerging technology companies,
including Advanced Magnetics, Digital Products, Laser Science,
SelfCare, SofTech, and Tyco Labs.
--------

(note on dr. takashima next)

	- richard
.