OC Entrepreneurship

Recently, Anil Puri, the dean of the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University Fullerton, helmed a panel discussion with industry leaders in Orange County. The topics covered ranged from real estate to banking to globalization. To read the edited transcript of this event click HERE.

To me, the most interesting part of the panel discussion centered on how the panel was dealing with the recession. Here’s a snippet:

Puri: What do you think is needed for a business to get on a growth trajectory now? What should they be planning for? How can they take advantage of improving conditions?

Young: The number one thing, all aside, comes from a conversation Paul and I were having, where Paul was talking about his commitment with his company to research during the recession. It’s now helping Emulex grow.

The same story within the Irvine Company. What we did was we spent more in the depths of the recession on research then the company ever has in its history.

And we spent lots of time in focus groups. We talked to people everywhere we could. We used every methodology that you can, ethnography research and so on, to find out what would get people excited to buy a new home. We wanted to go to some kind of creativity, an innovation, do something different.

The homes we opened on Saturday are very different from anything you have seen. So creativity, innovation, research is going to be the foundation of how you find a way to grow out of this recession.

Secondly, you have to be organized to get the capital, which it’s delightful to hear from our banker because it’s been absent in our industry. The third component is that the buyer is in the mood to buy, but they want quality. So you have to have innovation, you have to get organized on the capital side, and I think we are going to see a flight to quality.

So if you can touch those key components, you can go meet the market.

Even though this is a long piece it is well worth the read.