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Between A. Rock and a hard... case.

A name unfamiliar to many a folk outside the IT profession is Arthur Rock. Arthur Rock, a fairly modest character, came from humble beginnings to invent an industry - an industry which later went on to spawn the likes of Intel, Google, and Facebook. But what makes Mr. Rock so important I hear you ask? Two words, “venture capital” - more specifically, venture capital investments in tech firms.

In this post I’d like to briefly discuss the impact venture capital has had on the tech industry, and talk more about the entrepreneurial spirit Capgemini tries to instil in all of its BTC recruits.

During the “pre-boom period” – a turn of phrased coined by Professor Andrew Metrick - venture capital investments were sluggish and many fund managers would often have portfolios consisting of low-risk, long-term, investments. The five years leading to the bursting of the internet bubble, in March 2000, was a period of unprecedented economic growth within the tech sector. The investments made by venture capital firms were instrumental in the building of companies whose primary goal was to capitalise on the expansion of the internet bubble. And in turn these investment companies were looking to reap the rewards of a substantial initial public offering on floatation. In effect a win-win situation, or so it seemed. As history dictates, the internet bubble burst and many fund managers had to write off bad debts going into the millions of dollars.

But what this shows is that those venture capitalists who invested during the late 1990’s were willing to take a chance, a gamble based on a good idea showing financial gains. And at the helm of every one of these investment firms was a fund manager with an entrepreneurial spirit. A visionary who was willing to take a punt on an idea that showed real potential.  And at Capgemini you’ll find like minded people, senior management who have a vision for the future, people who can differentiate a good idea from an excellent one.

In 2008, John Gillard – the head of the BTC – launched a competition looking for aspiring business leaders to come up with innovative ideas to solve often complex business problems. The competition - which involved a team of four presenting a case - was in a similar style to BBC 2’s Dragon’s Den, and it was called the BTC Challenge. This summer see’s the return of Capgemini’s much praised BTC Challenge, and members of the BTC community have been forming their teams, compiling their ideas, and working on plans of action to win this highly coveted competition.

This year’s theme is based on Software-as-a-Service implementations across the none-for-profit sector. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on the competition and a blog later in the year summarising what went down.