Tehran(Bazaar)-Farahnaz Sepehri: Dr. Corrie Block in interview with Bazaar News Agency said: major challenge for investors is an accurate valuation of the company. Valuations are often inflated, and a good investor will know how to challenge the assumptions in a valuation or NPV calculation.
Dr. Corrie Block is a world leading expert in Business Strategy, Organizational Behavior, and Leadership. He is the Professor of Strategic Management at Monarch Business School in Switzerland, and certified NLP & Executive Coach, with over 25 years’ experience working on more than 150 companies.
A multi-industry expert, Dr. Corrie travels between Canada, USA, UK and Dubai for speaking engagements and workshops, delivering deep insights on employee engagement, meaningful management, executive performance, culture, tech, innovation and the organization of the future.
He coaches the world’s top executives, from multinationals to small family businesses. An addicted learner, Dr. Corrie completed all of his graduate studies while working, including Masters degrees in both Business Administration & Global Leadership, a Swiss Doctorate in Business Administration and a UK PhD in History along with certificates in Finance from Harvard and in Artificial Intelligence from M.I.T.
He is the author of many academic and mainstream publications, including Spartan CEO: Six Pillars of Executive Performance, and Business is Personal: A Blueprint for Finding Meaning at Work, and he has been published in Gulf Business, Forbes, CEO Magazine, Entrepreneur, MEED, Oxford Journals and Routledge Academic Books.
Dr. Corrie Block rose to prominence after establishing 5 businesses and receiving awards for product innovations. In the 2000s, Dr Corrie founded Paragon, a boutique consultancy providing high-profile strategy and implementation across industries and organizations such as Microsoft and World Bank, tech start-ups, multinationals and governments.
Following is the full text of interview:
Bazaar: What are the challenges of investing in the field of startups?
Block: The biggest challenge for investors is establishing valuation and proof of concept. If the proof of concept is established, and the startup’s product or service is solving a problem in a way that a real market will pay for it, then that’s a good start. The second major challenge for investors is an accurate valuation of the company. Valuations are often inflated, and a good investor will know how to challenge the assumptions in a valuation or NPV calculation.
Bazaar: What are the strategies for leading countries to invest in startups? Block :For countries to invest in startups, they need to be willing to bear the cost of failure. Most new businesses fail in the first 2 years, and countries sometimes have to provide support not only for the startup to get going, but to support entrepreneurs if the business doesn’t work out. Countries can help by lowering the barriers to entry by providing inexpensive and flexible licenses, tax breaks for new companies, and injections for SMEs that are struggling.
Bazaar: What do you think should be done by governments to get startups into international trade?
Block: Starting up a business in traditional trade is capex heavy and low margin. You can think of it like a diesel engine. Often it will run forever once you get it going, but getting it going requires a lot of energy and fuel. Governments can help by providing access to low interest (or no interest) business loans for companies starting out in traditional trade. Import tarrif relief and tax breaks also help these companies to get off the ground.
