Category Archives: Directing Business

VCs back in the reckoning

The venture capital sector is finally bouncing back from its post-bubble blues, although it’s still a long way from the euphoria of the late 1990s. Blockbuster deals — like YouTube’s recent sale to Google for $1.65 billion and Skype’s sale last year to eBay for $2.6 billion — are giving venture investors new confidence in their ability to cash out, said a group of venture capitalists who spoke on a panel at the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit. In addition, new sectors like “clean tech,” an umbrella term for environmentally friendly technologies, and trends like the aging of populations in the developed world are creating promising investment opportunities.

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‘Dude, You Need a CEO’: The Return of Michael Dell

It’s a common occurrence in Corporate America: An entrepreneurial founder starts a successful business, builds it to a certain size and hands it over to a CEO to run. But then, when things don’t go well, the founder steps back in to take direct control of the organization. That, essentially, is what happened last week when Michael Dell returned to become the CEO of Dell, replacing Kevin Rollins. What will it take to turn Dell around? Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli is the director of the school’s Center for Human Resources.

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