In this article, John Sculley highlights the fact that many of the largest and most successful companies begin as noble causes that are shaped by huge customer problems. This article also mentions that companies that were standardly industrial companies such as GE, Intel and Cisco are looking to reshape their companies around smart cities, etc. in order to keep up with these “noble cause” companies that have been hugely successful. I thought this article provided an interesting look at how corporations may be shifting their focus in the near future.
This article is interesting because it mentions that smart cities are attracting technology companies. I’ve attached an article that describes South Bend’s recent funding to become a smart city. This has been attracting tech companies into the area. South Bend is well sized to see how a smart city project can help the local economy.
http://fortune.com/2015/09/16/smart-cities-160-million-white-house-program/
I really liked this article because it drew out some of the differences I’ve been noticing in entrepreneurship. It seems like there is limited potential for product entrepreneurship–like if I wanted to make a new sports drink product or something. My success in those businesses depends on the size of the niche of my product can fit in to. But when entrepreneurs focus on process problems, like the distribution of health care, their potential seems limitless. Everyone can benefit from a process improvement, and improvement may have multiple applications. I think that’s why we see a lot of product entrepreneurs trying to link their product to larger social problems.