Workshop at Judge Business School Cambridge University. These were slides I used during my external entrepreneur led workshop as part of the two year Masters in Entrepreneurship class.

1. Richard Lucas
10th December 2020
www.richardlucas.com
richardlucas@richardlucas.com
Industry Seminar
Real world management challenges in
startups: processes, culture and leadership

2. Housekeeping
• Workshop not lecture/participation/ interaction
expected – use the Live Document
• Change screen-name to reflect location/Webcams
on/mute except asking questions, in breakout
• Tools, follow up
• No bad questions
• I will answer e-mails/posts in my FB group
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5. Goals
• Share lessons of founding/investing in 34
companies turning GBP10K in maybe GBP10
million, 700 employees, 2 small exits, 3xCEO
• Actionable insights
BUT
• No magic – WWFMMNWFY!
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6. Agenda
Background - why this topic matters (getting this
wrong has cost me, may save you millions of
pounds)
Role of leadership in defining, creating and
embedding the culture in participants’ startup
Case study early stage startup
Action orientated check list
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7. 35 years of success/
failure
35 ventures
19 failures, 16 not yet
failed
Started with about
GBP10K
Invested GBP 1
million and still have
about 900K
Businesses worth ? +
three office buildings
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8. richardlucas.com

9. Why are startups badly managed?
What culture would you want in
your startup
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10. Why are startups badly managed?
What culture would you want in your startup
Key priorities (keep it simple)
(what’s a sign of bad culture?)
Two minutes, paste summary into chat
Live document
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11. Groups of two: breakout (2-3 mins)
Discuss what culture would you want in your
startup
Notice “type“ differences and measurement
issues
Start thinking about how to instil this culture in
first employees
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12. Groups of four (5 mins)
Make combined list of culture goals
Discuss how you are going to
communicate, measure and “enforce”?
them
What are danger signs
Raise difficulties
Choose leader
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13. Group discussion
Why getting culture right matters
1 Pre-
2 During-
3 After- business startup/sustaining/
scaling a functioning company
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14. Leadership
• Defining and explaining direction, strategy, and
priorities
• How do we organize?
How do we communicate?
• How do we hire (and fire) ? Roles, Teams,
Responsibilities, Management Systems
• Leading by example
• Being fair/not popular
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15. Entrepreneurial Leadership
Actionable insights
• Take your leadership skills seriously
• Define and refine your purpose
• Develop LD action plan: (education, youtube,
podcasts, blogs, books, other)
• Critically observe leadership in the world around
you/other organisations/people. What’s
good/bad/I would do better).
• Embed habits into your life style (volunteering,
communication skills, feedback)
• Don’t delegate richardlucas.com

16. Leadership for entrepreneurs

17. Leadership for entrepreneurs

18. What lessons can we learn
from Sivers?
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19. My ”Sivers” lessons
Identify and demonstrate the desired
behaviour
Encourage it
Good ideas don’t have to come from the
top
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20. Green Energy Case Study

21. What’s different when you
come into an existing
organization
What are the pluses/ minuses
Green Energy Case Study

22. Green Energy Case Study
Read the case study (3.5 minutes) and then
make notes on how you would prepare for the
all team meeting?
Questions in chat
Discuss in groups of four
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23. Groups of four (5 mins)
How are you going to prepare for the all team meeting ?
• What questions do you have?
What do you want to find out ?
• What are your key priorities and goals in the first hours, days and
months longer term?
• What are you doing to do ?
• How are you going to organise your work, and organise the work
of other people.
• What are you going to measure?
• What are the potential dangers? and upsides?
• What culture do you want to develop in the company, and why?
Choose a leader (be ready to support them)

24. ’An idiot with a plan
can beat a genius without a
plan’
Warren Buffett

25. Actionable insights
• It’s all BS if the business fails
• You never have a second chance to make a first
impression – Politics and business. They are
assessing you just as you are assessing them.
• Get to know people (identify who you want to
keep)
• Talk to clients – get their voice in the room
• Lower expectations and then beat them
• Don’t make assumptions
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26. Concluding remarks
• It isn’t over if you use
the Live doc
• Questions welcome,
Now or later
Leadership and culture matter even if you are not
in charge
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27. Richard Lucas
10th December 2020
www.richardlucas.com
richardlucas@richardlucas.com
Industry Seminar
Leadership, Management and
processes in startups

28. Navy Leadership

29. Navy Leadership

30. Participant questions /1
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31. Participant questions /2
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