University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Secrets of Silicon Valley
Book

Secrets of Silicon Valley

What Everyone Else Can Learn From the Innovation Capital of the World

Deborah Perry Piscione
Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Overview

Recommendation

Deborah Perry Piscione comprehensively portrays all aspects of America’s innovation hotbed, Silicon Valley, including its unique ethos and ecosystem. A Stanford University business school case study documented her experiences to demonstrate how a Silicon Valley outsider can secure new opportunities in this California capital of forward thinking. Despite a few glitches in editing and some mistaken literary references, Piscione hits her stride after the opening autobiographical section. Her intelligent, readable overview of Silicon Valley competently reflects her six years of research, and includes a useful guide to meeting places and local resources. getAbstract recommends her lively, knowledgeable account of the home of high-tech to entrepreneurs, inventors, managers, futurists, and urban planners or municipal officials considering establishing business incubation areas in their jurisdictions.

Summary

Silicon Valley

The Santa Clara Valley – now more popularly known as Silicon Valley – is a heavily populated corridor south of San Francisco Bay, California. Writer Don Hoefler popularized its nickname, which refers to the area’s numerous manufacturers of silicon chips for microprocessors. Silicon Valley’s culture features hard workers who eschew hierarchy, celebrate creativity, strive to achieve their passions and recognize the importance of a healthy working environment. The Valley’s remarkable record of innovation stems from three core factors: high-tech advances, technological entrepreneurs’ ability to accept “risk and failure,” and brilliant innovators, including scientists, engineers, academics and entrepreneurs drawn to the area by its resources.

Eight primary factors explain how Silicon Valley came into being and why it continues to thrive year after year:

  1. Stanford University – Dedicated to science’s “direct usefulness in life,” Stanford University is Silicon Valley’s guiding spirit. From its earliest days, the university encouraged professors to consult with corporations, an unusual idea at the time. Today, Stanford academics credit...

About the Author

Former congressional and White House staffer Deborah Perry Piscione was 2009 Silicon Valley Woman Business Owner of the Year. She founded Alley to the Valley, a women’s business network; the content site BettyConfidential; and Chump Genius, an educational gaming company.

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