by Nam D. Pham, Ph.D.

If I were to pick three qualifications that are important for leaders of startups, entrepreneurial ventures and other business ventures, they would be:

1.  The ability to identify a business opportunity:
Business opportunities are everywhere on our daily life. A savvy leader will have the ability to identify the niche for a new business. A business opportunity could be a brand new product/service or an improvement of an existing product/service. A leader has the business instinct to see the opportunity, what is needed and why, that others could not see.

2.  The ability to formulate the opportunity into a business product/service:
Once the opportunity is identified, the leader will formulate the product/service. Others can see the problem/the need, but not how to solve the problem or meet the need. A leader will define the new product/service and has the imagination to distinctly describe the product/service and how it will serve the market.

3.  The ability to transform the business idea to a profitable operation:
Moving from the business idea to the actual operation is a major challenge. There are many brilliant business ideas. But ideas are cheap and many of them never materialize. A highly capable leader can bring a business idea to a tangible and profitable product/ service. While one needs imagination to come up with an exciting business idea, she also needs the practical skills to determine realistic goals, and then a focus on how to best achieve the goals.

Many startups disappear, not only because there is no market demand, but largely due to a lack of leadership to forge ahead to the next phase and achieve the success desired.

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Nam D. Pham, Ph.D., Managing Partner, NDP Consulting Group

Nam Pham, Ph.D. is the founder and managing partner of NDP Consulting, a quantitative analysis and expert opinion advisory firm serving legal, corporate and policy clients. Founded in 2000, the group applies economic, financial, and statistical principles to complex challenges in a variety of international, domestic, public and private sectors. The firm provides practical, bottom-line advice for executives and policy makers, as well as expert witness testimony for litigation cases.

Nam has more than twenty years of experience in multinational organizations and government agencies. This tenure includes time as an economist at the World Bank, as well as a consultant to the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission.

In addition, Nam is an adjunct professor at George Washington University, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in monetary economics, international trade and finance, macroeconomics and microeconomics. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University with concentrations in international trade and finance, economic development and applied microeconomics, a M.A. from Georgetown University and a B.A. from the University of Maryland.

Nam not only has a brilliant mind, he is an especially positive person, and is always alert to new thinking and opportunities, as well as ways he may help others succeed. I very much admire that.