Summary
In this set of four articles, we have seen the evolution of a company, from a germ of an idea in an entrepreneur's mind to a public company trusted by several thousand shareholders. The essential ingredients in this transformation are vision, money, and execution. Wonderful ideas may flounder without the funds to launch or sustain a company. Excellent vision and money without a management team that can execute to the promise of the company lead to eroding market share and internal problems such as employee attrition or loss of key customers. Finally, public companies often wither in the absence of continuing vision to take on new frontiers and are rewarded with low P/E ratios, indicative of low growth potential, and fall by the wayside of the public markets.