Fast Pack 1999

In this case, the startup team took the money it had been allocated and went to work with an investment banker. In essence, it took $10 million and told the investment banker, "Manage this as if you were making any entrepreneurial investment." This approach simply ripped the project right out of the guts of the organization, and the result was a project that works and feels like a $10 million startup. The larger, older company is actually seeing and experiencing what it's like to do a startup -- learning more than it could any other way.

Chris Newell: The challenge facing every company and every organization today -- whether or not it's a startup -- is, How do you get people to think in a new way? I had an experience with Lotus and Lotus Notes several years ago that illustrates how easy it is for people to become captives of their own mental models. Lotus has always been a technology-driven company. But about four years ago, a group of us began to see Notes as more than just technology -- it was an enabling technology. It could actually create customer intimacy, capture intellectual capital, facilitate knowledge management, and, in the process, create new value. But concepts like these -- global teaming, distance learning, knowledge management -- are hard to implement. If you're used to thinking in terms of technology, rather than in terms of solving problems around people working together more effectively, these terms sound vague. They make you very uncomfortable.

What it takes is learning to think in a way that sets you apart, that defines a whole different playing field. We've created a new mission for Lotus: to inspire innovative solutions that transform communication and knowledge into value. And our value is both in connecting communities in a way that shrinks the world and in providing access to ideas that will expand the world.

We came up with that idea through a process that involved 450 people inside the company. When we presented it to the operating committee, I asked, "Does anybody have a clue what this actually means?" One senior manager said, "It means we'd all better get ready, because a whole lot of sacred cows are at risk." That's what it takes to stay entrepreneurial -- whether you're a startup or you're trying to reinvent yourself.

Maggie Hughes: There's less and less difference today between a startup and an established company -- in fact, that may be an outmoded distinction. The success or failure of any company boils down to one question: Are you operating from passion? If you are, you're going to succeed. If you believe in what you're doing, you're going to make sure that everyone around you believes in it too.

Our company has grown from zero dollars to $5.6 billion in assets because of passion. I have told the same story to Wall Street analysts for years: This isn't the soft stuff; this is the stuff that matters. To me, the lesson is simple: If you're a startup, stick to your guns. Because there are some smart, big companies out there, and they will want to partner with you. They won't want to destroy you, they'll want to work with you. And eventually the tables will turn, and you'll become their biggest source of new income.

Here's the phrase that sums it all up: If you're doing the right thing, it will work. The right thing is hard to define, but you know it when you hit it. Eleven years ago, our company was a pay phone and a card table. Today two of the world's largest financial giants consider us their partner. We have around 450 employee-owners. Last year, we generated almost $400 million in revenues -- that's nearly $1 million of revenue per person -- and we wrote more life insurance than any other company in the United States. So we know that we're getting scale without becoming gigantic -- which tells us that we're doing the right thing.

John Patrick: Big and small companies, old and new companies, established companies and startups, are all facing the same challenge. But it's not really about how you organize your company; there are a lot of organizational models that can work. And it's not about whether you're centralized or decentralized; I think the world is moving in both directions at the same time. What's really important is recognizing that, because of the Net, individuals are in charge now.

The companies that understand this, and act on it, will win. Take the news business, for example. Editors and publishers no longer decide for us what we're interested in, when we're interested in it, and the depth or degree to which we're interested. We decide. We choose what we want to explore, and when and how we want to explore it.

That shift is happening everywhere. Companies that still think that they're open only Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., are operating on a totally obsolete notion. You can see the shift happening industry by industry: The Net turns everyone into a startup. It's a radical shift -- it really does mean power to the people. And you have to evolve if you're going to survive.