052 - How Addressing Major Issues Makes the Difference Between Success or Failure for Businesses - Interview with Dr. Noam Wasserman

Published: July 7, 2020, 1:54 p.m.

Our guest in this episode, Dr. Noam Wasserman, author of The Founder's Dilemmas (https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Dilemmas-Anticipating-Foundation-Entrepreneurship/dp/0691158304/) teaches how learning to address and solve major issues like dividing or changing the equity between partners makes all the difference between long-term success or failure for small and midsize businesses trying to scale. Dr. Wasserman is the Dean of Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University and was previously a professor at Harvard Business School. He wrote one of the entrepreneurial classics, The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. He is also the author of the recent book, Life Is a Startup: What Founders Can Teach Us about Making Choices and Managing Change. Dr. Wasserman shared what he's found makes the biggest difference for business owners in lockdown and the various ever-changing stages of reopening. He also spoke about how 65% of businesses that fail do so because of people issues, i.e., mistakes due to bias and interpersonal conflicts borne of the failure to discuss hard topics and decisions.