A BRILLIANT TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION combined with outstanding entrepreneurial business leadership … is still not enough to make a successful business. Money is the essential third component. The booming economy of Silicon Valley in recent decades was enabled by investors wise enough to pick more winners than losers and courageous enough to take calculated financial risks.
Don Valentine founded Sequoia Capital (www.sequoiacap.com) in 1972. In the thirty years of its existence, Sequoia has funded nearly 700 companies, the most famous of which are Apple, Cisco, and Yahoo. Our conversation with Don Valentine (page 6) is a fascinating look at how a successful venture capitalist thinks and works.
The Institute for Business, Technology, and Ethics also requires a certain amount of money to survive (and a little more to really thrive). We are a non-profit corporation that is partly funded by Ethix subscriptions and fees for speaking, seminars, and consulting. But at this early stage, more than 80% of our budget is coming from charitable donations from the grass roots—“venture philanthropy” from people like you who value our material and believe in our mission of promoting good business through appropriate technology and sound ethics.
Your investment is what will help us to develop our consulting, seminar, and research programs and broaden our readership and web constituency. All of this is to say “thank you” to those of you who have contributed to the financial support of the IBTE—and to invite others to join in supporting this mission. IBTE is a 501 (c) (3) non profit corporation, so gifts are tax deductible.
On page 11 we propose “Eight Traits of a Healthy Organizational Culture.” Even if an organization has a fine ethics statement or code, without a healthy culture it will have little impact. We would love your feedback. E-mail your reactions (contact@ethix.org) to be included in the next Ethix Forum.
As you plan for summer and fall, think about scheduling an IBTE presentation to help you motivate and orient your colleagues and employees in pursuing good business through appropriate technology and sound ethics.
Al Erisman
Executive Co-Editor
David W. Gill
Executive Co-Editor