The Business of Managing Tensions

The fundamental tensions which companies must manage well was the primary topic of a panel I spoke on last week. We discussed H2OAudio, a company which makes waterproof cases, waterproof headphones/headsets, and waterproof armbands for iPods and MP3 players. The panel was part of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a regular gathering of business leaders in which a case study method is used to uncover valuable business insights. Each month a presentation is made by a CEO of an innovative technology company and then panelists discuss the key challenges the company is facing. An audience of nearly 250+ people attended this month’s forum which focused on “re-starting the start-up” H2OAudio. The discussion ended up focusing a lot on the tensions which most growth companies have to figure out how to manage well.