Abstract

Venture management is not a product manager system with a slight addition in authority. The true venture manager is like the president of a small company with a mandate to develop and execute a total business plan. Typically, his mission is to transfer new technology from the laboratory to the marketplace as efficiently and quickly as possible. This almost always involves the organization of an interdisciplinary team of specialists designed to capitalize on the excess technology, human expertise, and financial resources of the large corporation. It also involves the creation of an organizational climate conducive to innovative ideas and creative approaches to problems inherent in the assigned mission. This process is fraught with misuse, mismanagement, misinterpretation, and all the other ailments which afflict the unfamiliar. In order to clearly position a venture within the operating organization and foster its compatible relationship with other operating units of the firm, the charter should include certain specifics. It should specify the nature of venture activities, the administrative procedures to be followed in their pursuit, the powers and prerogatives of its manager as well as the risks and rewards associated with them.