The right mix of experience and innovation generates a great start-up top management team.  The pre-entry experience of the top management team tends to affect its initial strategic choices. This experience also tends to affect the ability to access complementary assets, other resources (including the acquisition of talent) required to succeed in the industry. It tends to affect the evolution of the team itself and the eventual survival of the firm.  A diverse group is more likely to learn. Equipped with a learning mindset, it is more likely to adapt and therefore succeed. Rather than focus only on start-up founders, we also need to value the entire management team. Dynamic capability and cognitive flexibility allow teams to revise their ideas about products and the marketplace, helping them find new paths in a shifting environment.  In sum, it is critical for entrepreneurs to develop the cognitive flexibility to adapt to new and changing environments. Much of this cognitive flexibility seems to be related to broad experience in prior industries as well as learned experience. For those who may not have such experience, there is still great hope of success. Being aware of the need to change and being open to it may be the most important quality of all.  Read More >>