Entrepalooza 2006 brings CEO of Craigslist to Ross
Vidhya Prakash, MBA1
Issue date: 9/25/06 Section: News
At Entrepalooza 2006: Dream Big!, leading entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business executives shared their personal visions of entrepreneurial success with University of Michigan students, U-M alumni and community members, and discussed different strategies for achieving it. The annual symposium, presented by the Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies and the student-led Entrepreneur and Venture Club at the Ross School of Business, was held Friday, Sept. 22, at the Michigan League and drew an audience of 300 attendees.
This year's day-long event featured keynote addresses by President and CEO of Autocam Corporation, John C. Kennedy (Exec MBA '05), and President and CEO of Craigslist, Jim Buckmaster. Autocam is a manufacturer of precision-machined components for the automotive and medical-instruments industries and Craigslist is a website of classifieds. Kennedy was presented with the Stephen M. Ross School of Business Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Zell Lurie Executive Director Thomas Kinnear.
Kennedy, a self-described "accidental entrepreneur," led a successful turnaround at Autocam, transforming the money-losing company that he purchased at age 29 for $13 million into a well-diversified, profitable global firm with $350 million in revenues (2004) and 3,000 employees. He attributes much of his success to a decision in the late 1990s to create a global footprint for the company through overseas acquisitions. Today less than 50 percent of Autocam's sales and manufacturing are done in North America. The firm is experiencing its fastest growth in China, where it expects to hit sales of $100 million by 2010. Kennedy underscored the importance, however, of thoroughly understanding the regulatory and competitive landscape in every market in which the company operates, and noted that the failure to do so can lead to bad acquisitions.
Autocam, which he characterizes as a "group of entrepreneurial businesses," also takes an entrepreneurial approach to growth by constantly identifying new products that the market needs and then finding ways to build its business around them. "We're always looking for things that aren't there yet," Kennedy says. In addition to Autocam, he has acquired other unrelated companies. These include the hot-tub business Emerald Spas, purchased in 1989, where he learned, the hard way, that the "highest product quality and the lowest cost was not all you needed for success."
This year's day-long event featured keynote addresses by President and CEO of Autocam Corporation, John C. Kennedy (Exec MBA '05), and President and CEO of Craigslist, Jim Buckmaster. Autocam is a manufacturer of precision-machined components for the automotive and medical-instruments industries and Craigslist is a website of classifieds. Kennedy was presented with the Stephen M. Ross School of Business Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Zell Lurie Executive Director Thomas Kinnear.
Kennedy, a self-described "accidental entrepreneur," led a successful turnaround at Autocam, transforming the money-losing company that he purchased at age 29 for $13 million into a well-diversified, profitable global firm with $350 million in revenues (2004) and 3,000 employees. He attributes much of his success to a decision in the late 1990s to create a global footprint for the company through overseas acquisitions. Today less than 50 percent of Autocam's sales and manufacturing are done in North America. The firm is experiencing its fastest growth in China, where it expects to hit sales of $100 million by 2010. Kennedy underscored the importance, however, of thoroughly understanding the regulatory and competitive landscape in every market in which the company operates, and noted that the failure to do so can lead to bad acquisitions.
Autocam, which he characterizes as a "group of entrepreneurial businesses," also takes an entrepreneurial approach to growth by constantly identifying new products that the market needs and then finding ways to build its business around them. "We're always looking for things that aren't there yet," Kennedy says. In addition to Autocam, he has acquired other unrelated companies. These include the hot-tub business Emerald Spas, purchased in 1989, where he learned, the hard way, that the "highest product quality and the lowest cost was not all you needed for success."
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