Who’s Who & Who Does What?
Capital has always been regarded as the root factor in the business growth that is why growing businesses look into those companies which can lend their investment into their businesses so that these companies can nourish and expand their operations. Integral Capital Partners is one such organization that functions as a family of partnerships that invests in expansion-stage private and growth-stage public corporations in the sectors of Information Technology and Life Sciences. This company was kept alive by the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) since the year 1991, founded by Roger McNamee and John Powell with the KPCB.
Together, McNamee and Powell developed a working strategy in their company that could increase the strengths of the company while bringing investment opportunities from the marketplace by developing a closed-end limited partnership circle with a duration of five years for every investing company.
Key Issues of Dilemma
Notwithstanding the success factor of Integral Capital Partners, the company was in need to modify its infrastructure according to the demands of the advancements brought to the current era. This is why Powell and McNamee were very concerned about the performance of the corporation that it was not generating as fruitful results as it used to in the historical years. Seven successful years in the competitive market let the company face a considerable inflow of investment capital, and assessments were immensely high by historical comparisons. The company wanted to indulge a fourth partner into its infrastructure but there were drawbacks not only in the capital investment sector, but also in the technological aspects. The company was led behind as compared to other companies when it came to evaluating the technical market – for example, personal computers that were matured instantly with the passage of time and with the help of technology innovations. For this purpose, McNamee and Powell realized that it was very important for the company to manufacture a strategy that could respond to the changing environments of the social and technical structure of advancements at the same time.
Description of Alternative Solutions to the Dilemma
At present, the company had total of three investment entities and the company wanted to include another fourth partner in the work field so that it could bring huge revenues and profits as it used to in the past. The company had the infrastructure of allowing 100% discretion to its general partners so that they could invest in any company which they think is qualified enough to invest in. this allowed the company for “crossover” investing by following the expansion stage venture companies. But this was not overwhelming for the business because there was a need to expand its operations and open arms for both the public and private sector companies from various industries, which are not limited to the venture companies. Powell and McNamee had their concentrated positions to invest up to 25% of assets into the industries so that it could limit their perspective to assign resources to key industry areas as market opportunity goes up. Relationship with KPCB allowed the company to enjoy vast experience in the venture market. The approach to success was not taken as a bible, but was regarded as a tailored package that could be changed whenever needed. The investment company pursued three aspects into which they could improve; these were connectivity, interactivity, and mobility; so that the company could join hands with the enhanced technologies and investment advancements around. In addition, the dual competition of finding new companies for investing and modifying the infrastructure according to the modern technological innovations was challenging while focusing on the product cycle. Also, the company was more interested in investing in those companies whose themes were the same as of Integral’s; this was known as “participative” research philosophy.
Making Final Recommendations
After doing a proper assessment of the given criteria, there are some recommendations which the company might consider in order to modify its infrastructure and enjoy overwhelming profits and revenue-generating as a whole. The company could focus on past activities, such as crossover investing while providing concentrated p0ositions to Powell and McNamee, and maintaining good relationship with KPCB. Apart from that, the investing philosophy of the company is also fine in that it concentrates more on the firms with same themes so that they never face conflicts or crashes while interrogating and communicating with one another. In this way, the company could continue whole enjoying tremendous advantages, such as understanding the business requirements while estimating its cash flow and earnings; they could follow a different relationship with the companies as well. This could allow the company to have a better access and enhanced information flow on the company’s future perspective.
Another recommendation that is made is to adopt the Portable Software, so that the company could save on several expenditures and traveling expense management costs from an average of 36$ per report to 7$ per report. This could be beneficial for the company in various ways. As far as the technology sector is concerned the company could consider buying Dell’s personal computer systems because it is known to everybody around the globe that Dell is one of the most cost-effective personal computer providers, and that the company can cut its costs while implementing Dell’s system into its infrastructure which is not only advanced, made-to-order, direct-to-the-customer, but cost-effective as well. And the company could enjoy Dell as its major investing customer while focusing to meet its satisfaction level. Apart from that, the company could also incorporate the E*Trade system into the infrastructure in order to provide online discount brokerage services that include automated portfolio tracking, order placement, and other investment information to its customer companies. Integral could also implement Visio Software into its advanced technical system so that estimating, drawing, and business diagramming could become easier for the business planners. Another appealing system which the company could afford is @Home Corporation so that homes and businesses could access the Internet while using existing cable infrastructure. With all these modifications, the threat for data theft and data storage could be settled down with EMC Corporation’s storage software and server for mainframe and open systems environments. Last but not the least; the company could adopt Platinum Software so that it could provide proper financial accounting applications to its customer companies at particular time intervals.
All these recommendations might charge the company in the beginning but they are very overwhelming and cost-effective on the long term basis because they are capable of saving costs and management expenses for the company as a whole. Apart from that, the company would have to focus on short-selling which implies buying high and then selling it low in the market. All these advancements would not only help Integral in facing the marketplace challenges but would tempt other investment firms to become a member or partner of the company with more power and enthusiasm. All these changes would be beneficial in the end as the company would get an appearance on the CNN channel and public or private sector would know about its innovations and advancements made to the infrastructure.