With this in mind, he offered 4 rules for choosing business partners:

1— Start with someone you know well in a business context (especially considering that people’s work personalities can be very different from their personality as a firend)

2— Pick someone who is resilient under pressure and won’t “go hug themselves in a corner” when things get tough

3— Pick people who bring skills that you don’t have, ie stay away from forming a team of only other MBAs

4— Having 4 co-founders is too many; 2-3 co-founders is best

While these points may have seemed obvious, it was eye-opening to hear him say how even great ideas can falter if the team isn’t strong. As the entrepreneurs in the room were eyeing each other, it occurred to me that some of the best business partners may not be the people that you’re naturally drawn to. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, it’s important to cast a wide net and interact with people outside of your comfort zone.

It was useful to hear him talk about starting a business as a marriage, because it’s easy to forget how long-term the commitment can be. Entrepreneurs can forget that they will be “married” to their business partners and to the business itself for the life of the business or at least until you’re bought out. Thinking about a business as a potential life-long commitment makes it all the more essential that you pick something you’re passionate about – and will be passionate about for a long time – and to pick people you don’t hate spending time with as time goes on!

By Rupal Patel

This was no ordinary “how to be an entrepreneur” presentation. It focused on Charles’ own experience, which in many ways bucks the trend of establishing a start-up in today’s environment. Through a presentation composed of photos which he himself has taken on his amazing expeditions to places like the North Pole, Charles presented some great alternative ways to think about entrepreneurship. For example, he told us how, through creative product offerings, he was able to avoid leaning on venture capital when growing the Claranet Group, and challenged us to think differently about how to finance our businesses. He pushed back on the importance of a Business Plan, and emphasized the importance of the idea and the team.

Charles also outlined his view of the key differences between a leader and a manager, and spoke about the importance of having both kinds of people in an organisation in order to succeed.

Perhaps most interesting of all were Charles’ thoughts on the importance of culture, hiring and HR, and how these have played out beautifully in recent years at the Claranet Group. Along with his executives, Charles has identified some great HR processes to ensure people continue to progress in their careers, while at the same time enabling them to remain focussed on what they love the most.

This event continued the strong trajectory of amazing speeches in our 2010-2011 series. We can’t wait for the next event and we hope to see you there!

You guys have been amazing coming to all the talks during the first year of Entrepreneurial Leadership Series.

We had some of the most exciting entrepreneurs in the land come and share their stories with us during the first season of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Series.

Stefan Glanzer spoke to us at great length about the excitement of being an entrepreneur and his experiences with Last.fm.

Herman Hausser spoke to us about his illustrious career in technology and Jos White spoke with great irreverence about taking on the big boys of the business world and winning.

This year we got off to a dream start with Kristian Segerstrale, the founder of Playfish, the social gaming company. Kristian Segerstrale spoke to a packed room about what drives him in his work. His desire to change the world, to make it a better place and to connect people through the magic of gaming.

His passion for his business and the people he has recruited and nurtured at Playfish shone through with one of the most professional and vibrant presentations I have been fortunate enough to witness. He reminded us something that we often forget while in business. Ultimately, we’re in the people business!

The talk ended with hushed whispers from the crowd saying “This is the best talk I’ve been to at London Business School” so far. The bar has been set high by last evening’s talk by Kristian Segerstrale.

We here at the Entrepreneurial Leadership Series will endeavour to clear that bar over the following year and continue to inspire you all.

This year we’ve lined up an all-star cast of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to come and speak about the industry, and their experiences. And best of all, we’ve double the number of sessions! That’s right; we’re now running a session on the first and third Thursday of each month. So grab out your diaries, iPhones, PDAs and the like, and lock in those nights!

The series kicks off this week with Kristian Segerstråle, co-founder Playfish – acquired in late 2009 by Electronic Arts for ~$400m. As I write this, Kristian’s session is already booked out, but we will be recording the whole session and posting the best parts online very shortly.

In addition to a whole new line-up of all-star speakers, and twice as many sessions per month, we’re also about to launch a brand new web-site. Stay tuned for more, and we look forward to seeing you at this year’s events!