When you look at all of the innovation that has been added to the world in just the last one hundred years, it is absolutely astounding how far we've come. Start-ups endeavor to capture that innovation and make its benefits available to those whose lives will be forever improved by it.Yes, there can be great wealth and fame for those intrepid entrepreneurs who dare beyond the dream, to actual execution. But there is also great risk and no guarantees. Today the barriers to starting a company are almost too low and that can seduce an entrepreneur to build without truly thinking the idea through to its rightful conclusion. ¿ It's just full speed ahead - of the competition even when there isn't any. ¿ It's millions of investment dollars spent on a product with no customers yet. ¿ It's build it and they will come. Well, what if they didn't come? What are you going to do now? This is a far different situation than when you were driving the original idea, selling the vision, seeking and getting the intoxicating "Wow's", when everyone would talk to you and everyone was chasing you to share his or her sage.But when you've built it and they didn't come, when you have that epiphany that maybe they aren't ever coming, when the buzz and the fervor turn into fear, uncertainty and doubt, where do you turn?Well I've accepted that I can't get to every start-up's CEO before he builds a product with no orders for it. He wouldn't listen anyway as most are too busy building to listen then. But what I can do is help him figure out his Now What? when it happens. This book is not about theory. It's true stories with practical advice on what to do next.Getting it right creates jobs, provides for the future of the families involved, brings products to the world that can forever improve lives and bring benefits to our global economy. It is with great courage that these Executives so candidly have shared their own true stories of how they came to their Now What mome
Jackie Bassett is founder and CEO of BT Industrials Inc., a strategic management and technology consultancy where she helps CEOs of global 500 companies with their innovation strategies.
Her expertise is in closing the Business-to-Technology strategy gap by identifying ways to turn problems into profits.She was one of the first 100 employees at Netscreen Technologies; which started in 1997, successfully IPO'd in 2001, then was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for $4Billion.
Her background is in investment banking having worked for nearly a decade at State Street International as Assistant Treasurer for Capital Markets - Eurodollar Trading.
Bassett works extensively with CEOs on strategic planning issues specializing in innovation strategies. She holds an MBA from Babson College and a private pilot's license.
Jackie can be reached at: jackieb(at)btind.com or go to: www.btind.com
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