Seriel entrepreneurs where you may not be looking | Patrick Dempsey | TEDxLivermore
Richard Branson’s model of a serial entrepreneur—finding needs and filling them—is transferable to large corporate settings where such individuals can create new opportunities. The speaker illustrates this with his own 29-year career at a National Laboratory, detailing multiple transitions from utility modernization to data-driven cost reductions, culminating in applying his passion to support the post-recession private sector.
## Speakers & Context
- Speaker presents experience working for 29 years at a National Laboratory, beginning as a mechanical engineer.
- Audience context is implicitly academic, following a presentation on a broader definition of Entrepreneurship given by "Nick."
## Theses & Positions
- Serial entrepreneurship is defined as having the passion to build, create, and risk the status quo to make something better.
- Large companies need serial entrepreneurs internally because these individuals are the ones who create new opportunities.
- The core trait defining an entrepreneur, regardless of setting, is the drive to *risk the status quo* in pursuit of passion.
- The capacity for self-directed, challenging work fuels personal life goals (e.g., Iron Man competition).
- The goal should be to encourage the idea of "Serial entrepreneurship in a large company" by changing the language used to describe it.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Utility Systems Retrofit:** Led a program to transform the lab's utility systems from poor standards ("Baghdad Power and Light") into a national benchmark for reliability, requiring investment in people and equipment.
- **Internal Construction Company:** Took an organization, gave people broader responsibilities, and reduced inter-person handoffs, leading to increased job satisfaction and cost savings.
- **Cost Control Analysis:** Used engineering background to analyze maintenance costs, discovering that about 80% of the cost resulted from less than 10% of the work, leading to cost reductions by almost a third.
- **Transitioning Role:** Successfully transitioned the company during a contract change in its 50-year history by combining operational expertise with a newly acquired MBA, proving the company's investment was worthwhile.
- **Technology Transfer:** Proposing to help the company participate in the federal government's Recovery Act by bringing lab technology to commercial sectors.
- **Public Private Partnerships:** Developing partnerships, such as with California utilities, to bring High Performance Computing (HPC) to the electric grid for data analysis.
- **Manufacturing Sector Improvement:** Formed a collaborative effort involving federal government, state government, industry, labs, and universities to improve California's manufacturing sector.
- **Additive Manufacturing:** Technology transfer is shown in prosthetic limb creation, where 3D scanners create customized replacements, or in giving away designs of prosthetic hands online for 3D printing.
## Named Entities
- **Richard Branson** — Example of a serial entrepreneur (founded Virgin, over 400 companies under the Virgin brand).
- **Brookley in Columbia** — Institution where the speaker obtained his MBA.
- **California** — Geographic focus area for current technology transfer efforts.
## Numbers & Data
- **Age 34** — Age Richard Branson started Virgin Airways.
- **400+** — Number of companies under the Virgin brand.
- **29 years** — Duration of the speaker's employment at the National Laboratory.
- **17** — Number of distinct jobs held at the same National Laboratory.
- **5** — Number of companies/organizations the speaker ran or was associated with.
- **Over 500** — Approximate size of the organizations run or associated with.
- **$100 million** — Dollar value of the utility systems retrofit program.
- **40 years** — Span of time during which operations were managed before the utility upgrade.
- **Over $20 million a year** — Amount of cost cut by creating the internal construction company.
- **80%** — Percentage of cost resulting from less than 10% of the work in the maintenance organization.
- **50-year** — History span of the company when the speaker had to support a contract transition.
- **$800 billion** — Amount the federal government invested in recovery.
## Examples & Cases
- **Initial Career Interest:** As a young child, the speaker enjoyed creating, building, and repairing things, leading family members to suggest he was a serial entrepreneur.
- **Utility Modernization:** Transforming old utility systems into highly reliable ones through expert management.
- **Cost Saving Example:** Identifying that focusing efforts on the key 10% of work dramatically reduced operational costs.
- **MBA Application:** Using the MBA to support the company through a major contract transition.
- **HPC Application:** Applying HPC from the lab to the analysis of data on the electric grid.
- **Prosthetic Limb Market:** Using scanners and 3D printing to create customized, artistic replacement limbs, or providing open-source designs for printing.
- **Mathematically Generated Art:** A specific example of 3D printing capability: an artwork that took 8 hours to render via time-lapse video, compared to a non-time-lapse version taking only 8 seconds.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **High Performance Computing (HPC)** — Technology being brought to the electric grid for data analysis.
- **3D printer** — Technology used by commercial companies for prosthetics and artistic output.
## References Cited
- **Forbes** — Source defining a Serial entrepreneur.
- **Nick** — Person who previously defined Entrepreneurship for the speaker.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Working for large vs. small entity:** The speaker argues that large companies *need* internal serial entrepreneurs to create opportunity, rather than needing to always start entirely new ventures.
- **Current Job Scope vs. Passion:** The speaker initially had a job that was running smoothly but recognized the need to change it because his core motivation required challenging circumstances.
## Methodology
- **Self-Assessment & Reflection:** Initial personal reflection on building and creating (childhood tendency).
- **Systemic Process Improvement:** Identifying bottlenecks (utilities, maintenance) and redesigning workflows to increase efficiency and reduce waste.
- **Education & Skill Acquisition:** Obtaining an MBA to broaden expertise during a period of organizational instability.
- **Cross-Sector Collaboration:** Building partnerships across government, industry, and academia to transfer technology.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The speaker concludes that the ability to build, create, and risk the status quo—the core entrepreneurial drive—is present in many people.
- The immediate recommendation is to change the language around corporate structure to actively promote and encourage "Serial entrepreneurship in a large company."
- The ultimate vision is that *the sky is the limit* when embracing this concept widely.
## Implications & Consequences
- Institutionalizing the role of the internal entrepreneur prevents organizations from stagnation, allowing them to remain relevant through technology transfer and adaptation.
- The skills developed in science/academia (like advanced computing) have tangible, high-impact applications in civil infrastructure (utilities, electric grids) and healthcare (prosthetics).
## Verbatim Moments
- *"somebody with the passion to build and create and risk the status quo in order to make something better"*
- *"we need serial entrepreneurs in our large companies because they're the ones that create new opportunity"*
- *"I've had 17 distinct jobs at this same company"*
- *"transform our Utility Systems from what some called Baghdad Power and Light into what became one of the most reliable in the nation"*
- *"we cut costs by over $20 million a year"*
- *"what I really needed and what I needed to search for was an opportunity where I could explore my passion where I could be an entrepreneur where I could build and change"*
- *"challenge is what fuels me"*
- *"I was looking at how I could help my company help the world"*
- *"I think the sky is the limit"*