The Intentional Entrepreneur

Welcome to our blog which originates from the Chair of the Technology Management Entrepreneurship program within the Faculty of Engineering at University of New Brunswick. Its ‘intention’ is to inspire growth in the number of students that practice their innovation and entrepreneurship abilities right now, right here, while they prepare for their independent lives.

Wake up to an improvising world which is turning ever more quickly. The pace of change is accelerating, markets are volatile, and comfort in the status quo has been replaced by a need to discover new opportunities, create new wealth and new values. Entrepreneurs and innovation are keys to this improvising world of ours. Be open to randomness and new opportunities, embrace change, assemble and pack your toolkit, get ready for the adventure ahead and empower your intention to attract the life you want.

What do you think?

I look forward to your wisdom, your stories, and your conversation, but most of all I look forward to our intentions joining forces.

~ Linda, TME Chair

I have noticed the word “innovation” being used a great deal more these days in print media. It appears close to other words like, “driver of economic growth”, “resolving Canada’s prosperity gap” and “key to competitiveness”. A newer buzzword combo that is also generating discussion is “open innovation”. (See Henry Chesbrough).

Let’s think back a decade or more when individuals, research teams and enterprises worked under the premise that idea generation and development needed to be kept inside and centrally oriented. Progressive thinkers and companies of today are letting go of this paradigm and sharing the innovation process with the external world to leverage internal bottlenecked ideas, quicken the pace of iteration and achieve competitive advantage. They are recognizing that they can not employ every brilliant mind but that innovative ideas can be externally sourced from suppliers, creative customers, a fresh minded student or just some random unique thinker residing in the vast lands of cyber space. The internet provides us with the means to connect, converse, collaborate and co-create value with these innovative communities and individual creative minds. That’s nice but is introverted thinking, stale business philosophy or the fear of losing control still preventing you from taking the next step of intentionally tapping into the creative brilliance of the universe?

I ask you then, “How quickly is that idea or challenge that you have kept inside moving forward? How well has ‘closed innovation’ been working for you these days?”

Linda – TME Chair

We have heard that innovation can happen deliberately or be facilitated by an accident. We humans have an imagination that can picture things in thin air that do not yet exist. The root of deliberate innovation often grows from an empowered imagination. Or sometimes, unexpected things happen like a production error that feeds air accidentally into a soap mix resulting in an old family faithful, the floating Ivory Soap bar.

Regardless of how it happens, the discovery has little to no value until it is matched to a problem or a need that exists. It is even nicer when a real need shows up first and it is acted upon by capable creative minds. After all- ‘Necessity is still the mother of invention’.

Great news either way because ‘innovation dating services’ have arrived! Check out this site for example: InnoCentive® where ‘solution seekers and problem solvers’ can make a match. Another one, IdeaCrossing focuses on “ bringing buyers and sellers of technologies together”. And yet2.com’s helps you to locate required innovations or to place innovations that you want to sell, license, or leverage through their global online marketplace.

Have you gone dating lately? Give us all the details.

~ Linda, TME Chair

In entrepreneurship circles we commonly discuss marketing strategies for our products and services but less about a networking strategy which can also reap significant additional benefit. Building a strong network of mutually beneficial business relationships does not happen by chance. It takes intention and practice. You never know when you will meet the right person who has just the right information at exactly the right time. So the first rule of your strategy is to show up and circulate. Just like Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is just showing up”.

Define your networking goals and do your research to determine what people, organizations, or associations would best help to achieve those plans. Websites are key for finding the names, personal information and contact details for people you have not met yet. Go to targeted corporate websites and pull down menu items like “Our Team”, “Advisory Board”, “Board of Directors” or “About Us” and gems of information appear such as names, email addresses, telephone numbers, as well as University and Professional Association affiliations.

What if you are not gifted with memory or conversation skills? Just do it! In a handy easy read book, “The Fine Art of Small Talk”, Debra Fine suggests that we can become better conversationalists when we embrace two key principles:

1. It is up to us to take the risk of starting a conversation with a stranger. We can not assume others will just walk up to us and besides, what’s your fear, being rejected? Entrepreneurs need thick skins, a little rejection is such a minor risk when the conversation can add so much value.

2. Assume the burden of conversation; make others comfortable in our presence. SMILE, listen, be responsible for coming up with the topics, set the memory hooks that we leave and that we receive from our contact and take charge to smooth out awkward moments and ‘pregnant pauses’.

I will add that good memory boosters also include taking digital pictures while at a networking event and writing key trigger words on the back of newly received business cards.

Also key to your strategy can be finding out more about the online networking phenomena ‘social networking’ and how it can work for you. These social network service sites and social software associated, allows members to create a profile of themselves, making them searchable and facilitates connection to other business professionals. For example, get linked in https://www.linkedin.com/register?trk=p02c0017reg

Believe me “Talk is not Cheap” and a good Network Strategy execution is priceless.

~ Linda, TME Chair

In baseball, the ‘heater’ is fast, accurate, and straight into the strike zone. The ‘knuckler’ is erratic, unpredictable, “Of all the freak pitches, nothing is freakier than the ‘knuckler’”.

Several of our students are taking the mound this spring to deliver a 3 minute ‘elevator pitch’. Real money, visibility and recognition are at stake. They want to ‘bring the heat’.

From the coach, this advice is offered:

• Pitch from the fire in your belly. Deliver the pitch with contagious passion and confidence.

• Capture the imagination of the crowd as soon as you step up. Hook them with your uniqueness and competitive advantage.

• Display the combined strengths of the team behind you. The united, committed, connected and informed package of talent that will navigate all the bases.

• ‘Show me the MONEY’, where it is and how you will bring it home. Describe the market’s playing field and what part, when and how you intend to own it.

• Book a second game date where you can show more of your moves and talent.

• Lastly, pitching requires practice. “Practice like you are the worst; perform as you are the best.” Get in front of a mirror, your pet, your Mother or anyone that will listen until you have mastered the delivery.

Think about your big game days and share your experiences here with these up and comer pitchers.

Come on, Bring the Heat!

~ Linda, TME Chair

“You can accomplish much if you don't care who gets the credit.”
(Ronald Reagan).

Last night, at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) Student Entrepreneurship Prize, 90 people gathered for the prestigious Awards Ceremony.

Two of the night’s BIG prize winning teams grew from the Winter TME 3113 Business Planning and Strategy course.

The third prize of $5,000 was presented to Brent Crawford BSE (EE), Johnathan Gravel BSE (ME), Laura Paul BSE (CE) and Travis Skinner BSE (ME), from UNB, Fredericton Campus, for their company, ExtraVision.

Second prize of $10,000 was presented to Wei Zhang BSE (EE) and team members Tao Peng BSE (EE) and Rui Zhou MSE (EE) from University of New Brunswick, Fredericton Campus, for their company Dynamic Restaurant Customer Management.

The highest credit goes to this empowered group of engineers who are taking charge to fully experience the dynamic entrepreneurship process which is spurring their imagination, exploration, innovation, venture creation, and change capabilities.

Credit goes to our seasoned TME Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Marcel LeBrun and our other TME instructors, Patrick Guest and Mike Oliver who provided direct feedback and coaching to all three winners last night including 1st Prize Winners, VerifyRX .

Credit goes to you, the TME Community business leaders that come into our TME classrooms weekly sharing your knowledge, experience and mentorship to these enterprising students. Thank you! The success of this program truly comes from engaging entrepreneurial role models and experts like you with our students.

Credit also goes to the NBIF competition organizers, the judging panel and others that commit their interest and time to foster our provincial entrepreneurship culture.

Should I go on? OK, perhaps some credit goes to the TME 3113 instructor, I will let her know.

TME Chair – Linda Bulmer

“Our planet has a fever.” Al Gore recently said in the context of alarming global warming.

Reported claims of “Worldwide water shortage and oxygen depleted seas” talk to our drinking water supply and fishery crises.

Alarming news continues with “Rising numbers in melanoma cancer” and “Increasing rates of childhood cancers, obesity and Autism”.

Entrepreneurship is often called a team sport. From the look of things we need more people wanting to make money teaming with those who want to help others. Social entrepreneurship is not an oxymoron. Profiting by doing good can lead to more good and more profit.

The competitive “Not for Profit” environment, now vying for limited government and philanthropic money sources have the social minded entrepreneur questioning the balance between advancing the cause with sustaining their business. As a result they are working towards increased revenues, edge and efficiency by adopting “for Profit” business methods.

On the “For Profit” side, the awesome power of the socially conscious connected customer that can single handedly cause an overnight internet Blogstorm and product boycott have the savvy entrepreneur testing how authentic and deliberate balancing of financial, market, social and environmental values can result in profits, brand protection and sound risk mitigation policy.

Double and triple bottom line enterprises measure their financial outcomes as well as their social and environmental goal attainment. This “hybrid” model is a growing value mentality in both “for profit” and “not for profit” circles.

We will be hearing more about ‘the 3P’s’ of entrepreneurial success from enterprises that intentionally practice and capture Profit, People and Planet values.

Let’s start here! Tell us about your commitment to creating a double – triple bottom line entrepreneurial success. The planet is dying to hear it.

~ Linda, TME Chair

- I warn you, this might get emotional – but it is a blog afterall.

“Success comes to those who are unafraid to work.” ( - Harold H. Bulmer)
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” ( - Aristotle)

The title of this blog site is the “Intentional Entrepreneur” to reinforce with students that the art of innovation and entrepreneurship also requires practice and habituation. In this spirit our Centre hosted our first annual Technology Innovation Pitch (TIP) challenge to give students an opportunity to step up their game, practice their ‘pitching’ skills, get feedback from an experienced judging panel and network with a group of entrepreneurial community minds.

Before I get to hail the winners, I need to bask in some old memories that the competition prompted as well as the new ones it created. The TIP Prize was named in memory of Harold H. Bulmer as his friends and family donated the ongoing prize money. He also exemplified the spirit of intentional entrepreneurship, persistence in pursuit of goals, hard work, adapting to change and never giving up.

Returning from the war, my father had his business plan and dreams already formulated. Unfortunately failing to secure the start-up capital needed, a different plan of action was required that entailed working daytime jobs, bootstrapping and sidelined entrepreneuring and innovation in the area of heavy equipment operation and construction. Considering he had a lifetime struggle with his war time wounds and responsibilities of raising eight children (seven girls and one boy), a full blown launch of his construction business achieved at the age of 40, without any debt, still amazes many. I must say though, that he partnered with the most beautiful and capable woman that I have ever met in my life, my mother.

Getting back to the TIP competition. We had a fantastic judging team with Toon Nagtegaal of Wave Venture Partners (thank you for your ‘give it to them straight’ feedback style), Peter Clark of GrowthWorks and Gerry Pond of Mariner Partners. Gerry, along with his ‘Hall of Fame’ recognized business expertise, brought another significance to the event being an ex CEO and President of NBTel, my father’s major business client. It is unlikely they ever crossed paths in this context, living very different lifestyles and at least a couple of decades apart but I imagined them meeting each other that night of the competition. My father, a true conversationalist, always with a genuine heart and smile soon would have discovered the common ground between them - their shared love for this front-runner innovative communication services company, and the sweat that they personally committed in different ways to NBTel.

Everyone who gave it their full effort, were of course winners that night, however the prizes went to:

1st Place Prize of $500 and book “Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki went to:
Solutions Inc., Nick Coleman BSE (ME) and Robert G. LeBlanc BSE (ME), Power Gate Key

2nd Place Prize: $200 and book “Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki went to:
Megan McAllister BSE (CHE), BioDrive.

Ahhh… Megan a soon to be fellow female Chemical Engineer; man I sure could spend hours reminiscing with her knowing the path well that she has chosen, but best for her to discover blissfully herself.

It was a great night, to honor students who take work and new challenges head on and to remember the spirit of those before them.

A special thank you to our event sponsors: NBSC, NBIF and Enterprise Fredericton.

I invite you to take a look at the recent TIP memories at www.unb.ca/jhsc/tipphotos.html. Official competition photos to come.

We can’t help it and truly would not want it any other way, that a strong connection is developed with and among the TME students over the year. The many hours spent with each other, the discussions had, the team building activities done and the eye contact made all lead to a growing curiosity that has me wondering where will the TME graduates go from here.

A debate has been going on for approximately the last 30 years since entrepreneurship studies have been gaining academic ground on whether ‘entrepreneurship’ can be taught at all. World renowned promoter/pioneer of entrepreneurship education, board director, investor, business advisor, prolific author, and National Entrepreneurship policy advisor, Dr. Jeffry Timmons, regularly dismisses the debate when at a world-class annual Entrepreneurship Educators conference he says, “Some people ask me if anyone can really teach entrepreneurship, I only ask if I can teach it well.”

So what is a measure of success for a program like TME? A research report published in 2003 by Theresa Menzies and Joseph Paradi, stated that engineers taking one or more courses in Entrepreneurship were almost twice as likely to own a business at some time since graduation and 32% of those venturing did so within two years of their graduation. Also the study stated: “Taking one or more courses in Entrepreneurship was also a strong predictor of later reaching top management status”. Another study done by Matthew Ohland of the North Carolina University stated that engineers who participate in entrepreneurship training are more likely to stay at the university, remain in their college of entry and achieve a higher GPA than those that do not.

In the Fall of 2005, a TME alumni survey was conducted. The voluntary response to the survey and positive nature of the results were also very promising. It was confirmed that
some do start ventures, they clearly believe themselves to have more career options, over 50% work within micro, small to medium size enterprises, they challenge the status quo and create value as an intra or entrepreneur, and they continue their post graduate study and research with an entrepreneurship mindset.

The survey although rewarding, is not enough to continue to satisfy my curiosity. We want our current students, new grads, and all TME Alumni to feel a part of a growing TME and general Entrepreneurial community. We hope that they stop by, virtually and in person to continue to keep us informed of what they are doing. That is why we have added a new feature to our website http://www.unb.ca/jhsc/tmecommunityroom/venturedevelopments.html
where TME Alumni can keep us informed of their venture development successes. We also encourage alumni to contact us to update their file information, let us know what you’ve been doing, or to find out what we’ve been doing since they graduated.

Networks and contacts are a key asset to the Intentional Entrepreneur.

~ Linda, TME Chair

Well I am flying to Boston today with 3 kilograms of colorful Lego bricks tucked away in my luggage, hoping I am not breaking any US Customs regulations and slightly worried that all of my bright toys will be confiscated.

You might be wondering why an Entrepreneurship Professor and Management Consultant is traveling with a Lego load? The reason is I am off to Babson College to attend and present at the Symposia for Entrepreneurship Educators and get this group of scholars to experience a new student engaging technique in their entrepreneurship classrooms.

This is the “Before” blog - before I give my presentation and demonstration and here’s a bit about how I got here.

Most of my career has been as a business consultant and executive coach. About 18 months ago, always having a pulse on new business consulting methods, I was introduced to Lego Serious Play (LSP) by a dynamic Canadian entrepreneur. As the story goes, researchers in the areas of behavioral science, strategic planning, organizational behavior, learning and development as well as executives from Lego Company collided in 1996 at a University in Switzerland. The research resulted in the development of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) - a creative, novel and experiential consulting method that facilitates strategic planning, team building, innovation mining, and change management through the use of LEGO® bricks. Designed for the corporate environment, it made its formal debut in 2002 and since that time over 250 global organizations, in 27 different countries have used this facilitated thinking technique. Example companies that offer enthusiastic testimonials for the methodology include Daimler/Chrysler, Verizon Wireless, eBay, Ikea, WesWay and Pfizer. Although strong in the European business community, North America is much slower to grab onto this technique. Apparently our ‘work ethic’ is inhibiting the discovery of benefits that stem from our ‘play ethic’.

I believe that teaching innovation and entrepreneurship studies requires methods, models and techniques that are themselves innovative, challenge the status quo and embrace change. With this in mind, the TME Program experimented with the use of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY in the classroom during the 06/07academic year as a complementary instructional technique to build and reinforce such skills as communication, reflection, expression, teamwork, idea/prototype development and innovative problem solving. It appears that UNB is the first University in Canada to do so and one of a few in all of North America.

Imagine, with the help of this picture two dozen engineers expressing themselves through building Lego models to answer questions about how they would handle different business performance scenarios and product development snags. When using LSP, everybody builds, and everybody tells the story behind what they have built. No one on the team can sit back to just observe and listen, they must contribute their perspectives and impressions as well. This is not comfortable for everyone at first, but the value was immediately apparent. The reason is that our collective knowledge is multi-sensory, consisting of not just the facts/information we have stored but also our emotions, intuitions, and past experiences. When we tap into the whole brain using our emotional, social and cognitive dimensions integratively, our individual uniqueness in reasoning and perspective comes alive. LSP demonstrates that through play we can relax social barriers and draw on elements of the creative imagination. By adding Lego bricks we introduce Constructionism - enhanced learning through building a product or model - and a totally new communication medium to express our whole and complete knowledge.

TME Students positively evaluated their initial introduction to LSP and I am motivated to learn more about it’s effective use and potential. After being invited to submit a presentation abstract for this conference, I realized that my entrepreneurship colleagues are at least curious to learn more. Now the question in my mind is will they roll their eyes or will they get ‘serious’ and play along in developing and harvesting the potential of LSP?

I only have 30 minutes - stay tuned.

~ Linda

Continuing from my last entry, this is the ‘after’ story of how LSP was received by the Entrepreneurship Educators conference at Babson College last week.

When introducing LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, I wanted to keep the theory short and get the audience to experience it right away. This was the only viable strategy with just 30 minutes to introduce the concepts, have them build a couple of LEGO models in response to a posed task and to get them thinking about how they could apply this engaging technique into their Entrepreneurship classroom.

Initially I asked, “Who has used LSP before?” Answer: ZERO. Then, “Who has heard of LSP?” About 4 people said YES, all from Denmark. Well, that makes sense.

After passing out an individual LEGO kit to everyone in the room, I encouraged them to go ahead and fiddle with the bricks, assuring them it would not be rude to play as I continued on to tell them how I stumbled upon this ‘thinking, communications, and problem solving technique of value to enterprises, teams and individuals’. I quickly hit on how constructionism theory, concrete thinking, the importance of play and one’s imagination all spur innovation, as well urged them to explore more of the Science of LSP on their own. (After all, I am an Engineer not a Behavioral Scientist.)

Short laughing bursts and plenty of smiles took over the room and when one professor immediately asked, “Can I take this LEGO with me?” I knew it was going well. I got down to business asking them to build a model that represented their response to a task that I presented to them. After telling their stories describing Model #1, I asked them to build Model #2 in response to another task. “But I don’t want to wreck my model, I’m attached to it,” groaned several participants, to which I replied. “Well that is a valuable lesson right there! How many entrepreneurs get attached to a business idea, then can’t easily let it go to make room for the next/better idea?”

Here are a few of the responses generated by a couple of LSP exercises and explanation of our Centre’s LSP pilot: “Can I have a copy of your slides?” “Why did you become a Registered LEGO facilitator?” “How can I get certified to use this?” “Lego Serious Play allowed me to SEE how entrepreneurs THINK about and VISUALIZE new venture creation.” “I have heard about this but I did not realize how powerful this simple technique can be.” “Great session, I learned a lot.”

If someone did roll their eyes, I did not see/hear them so I would say the LSP demonstration got two thumbs up. Well see for yourself:

MORE PHOTOS

Thank you Jacquie, at Lloyd Smith Solutions, for your great support and LEGO materials for the conference.

~ Linda

Seasoned entrepreneurs would agree that “Whatever you think about most you will succeed at.” But when the general population, politicians and investors also have it on the front burner of thought, golden opportunities can emerge.

I recently attended the ‘Red Herring Canadian Innovation Illuminated’ conference in Montreal. The prominent theme that emerged day 1 of the two day ‘let’s do business summit’, was growth in the Cleantech sector. Cleantech includes “products, services, and processes across industry verticals that are inherently designed to:

• Provide superior performance at lower costs
• Greatly reduce or eliminate negative ecological impact
• Improve the productive and responsible use of natural resources”

The Innovation summit profiled approximately 40 early stage technology start ups. An example of just two Cleantech companies presenting to investors were Blue-Zone and Sanarc of Canada.

Did you realize that anesthetic gases, used in hospital operating rooms have a global warming potential up to 1,900 times that of carbon dioxide? Most of these gases escape into the atmosphere during medical application. Dusanka Filipovic, CEO, spoke on a purification system that can capture these harmful gases reducing costs, harmful emissions and provide the ability to reuse http://www.bluezone.ca/index.html.

How would you like to pay for heating a house with no roof? Len April, CEO of Sanarc Canada draws this analogy to the thousand of square feet that require heating to grow food in the greenhouse environment. Not only do plants need to be kept warm after the sun goes down, they require shade at times to prevent sunburn and yield reduction. Sunarc offers a fluid foam closed loop system that offers on demand shade or insulation to greenhouse growers http://www.sunarc.ca/english/home.html.

If you are an entrepreneur or an investor who embraces Cleantech, you can belong to the Cleantech Network™ which “provides valuable investment insights, opportunities and relationships to accelerate the growth of investment into venture-grade companies deploying clean technologies” http://www.cleantechventure.com/. Or attend the Cleantech Forum™ October 24-26/07 in Toronto to network.

Vicky Sharpe, President and CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, established by the Government in 2001, presented its mission to finance and support cleantechnologies http://www.sdtc.ca/ . Up to this point, SDTC has allocated $279 million to 124 clean tech projects and has access to funds to achieve a full portfolio value of $949 million. SDTC holds two rounds of investing each year where as Oct. 24th/07 and Feb. 27th/08 are the approaching dates for new submissions.

Think but then Act! Perhaps you are an Entrepreneur that can ‘clean up’ in this new area of venture growth.

~Linda, TME Chair

I was sitting at a meeting table last week with 10 other private and academic sector members, 3 from the UK, 3 from Denmark, 2 from the US, 1 from Peru and 1 Aussie discussing new techniques to spur innovation. I am also currently working on implementing an accepted proposal to send engineering students to collaborating institutions in the US and Mexico. In addition, I have a student conducting a project on how to better serve the numerous foreign engineers that immigrate to Canada who are trying to achieve their Canadian license so that they can continue to practice their profession. With activities like this underway, I shouldn’t be surprised that I find myself contemplating, "What does an integrated global workforce mean?"

If you have not been complemplating this yourselves, check this video out from Youtube to first get yourself in the Global Workforce discussion groove.

Within this presentation developer Karl Fisch puts forward some thought provoking stats and statements such as.

• The US Department of Labor predicts that today’s learners will hold 10-14 jobs before their 38th birthday
• There were 3000 books published today
• Technical information today is doubling every 2 years
• We are preparing students today for jobs and technology that does not exist yet, to solve problems that we do not know are problems yet.

‘Job literacy’ in this global workforce can be interpreted in many ways. But in order for that literate worker to succeed we can say with certainty they will need to be innovative, creative, collaborative, mobile, imaginative, as well, be able to embrace change and multiculturalism. Marc Tucker who heads the National Centre on Education and the Economy argues, “we have entered an era in which comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the key to the good life”.

This non mandatory, TME program draws in what most describe as the “elite engineering students” and this program must serve them well as they exit into this exponentially shifting global economy. A job well done for us would be to have our engineers leave this program as “Imagineers” - change ready life long learners that are open enough to see what is not their yet.

How are you readying for the year 2013 AD, which is also 15AG (15 years After Google was invented)?

~Linda

I come from a family of 7 girls and one boy. My father started a heavy equipment construction business which he passed on to his only son. Go figure! However, I also got something just as valuable, I was passed down the “Entrepreneurial Mindset”. “Transgenerational” entrepreneurship (Habbershon, 2005), defines “as all the practices favoring the transmission of the spirit of enterprising from one generation to the next.” While we often talk of ‘Family Entrepreneurship’ we typically think of the family business being passed down from one generation to another. Transgenerational Entrepreneurship includes the reference to another type of legacy; passing on the mindset, the capabilities, the example, the desire for innovation, independence and wealth creation.

The Atlantic Region is not known for its extremely vibrant entrepreneurial culture however, Gordon Pitts, a Family Business expert, in his book “The Codfathers” writes, “the best family-owned companies turned out to be in the Maritimes and Newfoundland”. I guess we are more than an ‘economic backwater’ in the eyes of some. The McCain and Irving family dynasties are well known examples of this but growing Transgenerational Entrepreneurship is more of what this region needs.

Studies suggest entrepreneurs are not natural born but more so a product of exposure. Dr. Takeru Ohe has reported that new businesses are founded more often:

- By children of independent business owners
- By people who have been introduced to others who have started or significantly grown a business.

Furthermore, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, of Babson College reports that a staggering 87% of private financing for startup businesses comes from relatives and friends of the entrepreneur.

So now I have 4 children myself. The oldest lives in Hong Kong part time and Macau the rest of the time as he grows his low cost airlines business that shuffles gamblers back and forth to the new Las Vegas of the East. Yes, Mom, Dad and Grandma put up equity. Our three younger children also have their eye on the prize. They scheme about visiting their older brother, getting the ‘on the ground’ view of his operation and perhaps a bit of time under his wing to learn more up to date venturing tips and the global economy. When they are home, we hear about their latest ‘Big ideas’ and start up possibilities knowing they are practicing for the bigger pitch some day to come in the next not too distant future. Perhaps their older brother will invest as well.

What is the business jargon in your home? Is it pro or con entrepreneurship? What are the views expressed across your dinner table on risk, on failure, on career stability vs. career independence or resiliency? Fostering entrepreneurship starts in the home and transgenerational entrepreneurship starts with a single generation but knowingly is nurtured and sustained to develop social and economic value creation ambitions across future generations.

We all want to “invest in our children’s future” but how literally do you take that responsibility?

~ Linda, TME Chair

The engineering profession is faced with a delicate balance in the global economy. An engineer must continuously balance the need for compliance to specification code and/or regulation with the growing need to be creative, innovative to drive improved productivity to meet the challenges of the global economy. Whoa! Sounds daunting.

I believe the TME program plays a vital role in complementing the core engineering curriculum to arm students with the tools to tackle the innovation challenge.

Innovation remains one of the most elusive concepts in the business world. People usually confuse it with creativity, a component of innovation--but not the only one.

Following are a few definitions, myths and quotes regarding innovation to get the juices flowing.

Definitions:

Innovation is anything that provides a new perceived benefit to a customer or employee.

Innovation is the conversion of knowledge and ideas into a benefit, which may be for commercial use or for the public good; the benefit may be new or improved products, processes or services.

Myths:

Myth #1: Innovation means only creating new products, services or technologies.

To the contrary, valuable innovations of all kinds are possible at all levels of all organizations; many of them come from updating or modifying existing products or procedures. We may think of a new computer chip with increased speed and flexibility as an innovation but fail to view a new accounting procedure as innovative. The truth is that an accounting system that makes one’s work easier and more efficient is producing labor and cost savings and creating value for the organization. As such, it also needs to be seen as an innovation.

Myth #2 There is no predictable process for innovation.

Unfortunately, many people believe that innovation only happens spontaneously, or at random, and is only possible from gifted thinkers. However, everyone is creative and innovations can be produced by conscious effort using a specific system for innovation

Quotes:

Paul Cook, Chairman of Raychem Corporatio says:
“What separates the winners and losers in innovation is who masters the drudgery ... the real work -- reducing the idea to practice.”

Wofgang Fürniss, when he was Mayor of a large city in Germany, said:
“You can buy almost everything today. You can buy ideas, you can buy knowledge, you can buy materials and resources, you can even buy (the use of) money. The only thing you cannot buy is the courage and the persistence to implement creative ideas.”

For the purpose of our discussion we can break down the definition of innovation into a simple equation.

Innovation = Creativity + Implementation

When viewed as an equation, it becomes clear that innovation can be taught.

Creativity can be nurtured with brainstorming sessions, practice and sometimes necessity - the mother of invention. (Creativity and Innovation, Business Strategy, Technological Risk and Opportunity are a few of the TME courses which nurture this skill development)

Implementation is the systematic detail - to go from idea to construction/competition. (Project Management, Quality Management, Entrepreneurial Finance are a few of the TME courses which provide training in the implementation area.)

Individually it may be difficult to teach innovation, but as a group/region/organization most definitively!!!!

It is clear that the TME program is designed to improve the Innovation learning opportunities at UNB. But why is this important? As we know the global economy is driving the need for productivity improvement to remain competitive. So the next link we have to make is between innovation and productivity.

To make this link, lets examine a quote from the late Peter Drucker from his book “The Practise of Management”
“Productivity is not the application of tools to material, but rather the application of logic to work.”

Labour productivity, the average level of output produced per hour worked, is a major determinant of the standard of living.

Total labour productivity in New Brunswick was about 21 percent lower than the national average, with lower-than-average labour productivity levels in all private sector industries.(Stats Canada for the period of the 2000-2002)

The fact that innovation is directly linked to our standard of living focuses us on why Innovation is so important and why the TME program is important for providing today’s students with the tools to contribute to innovation.

Mike Oliver, Entrepreneur
Enterprise Account Executive, Aliant
and TME Instructor

The Executive Summary is a condensed version of the Business Plan for the convenience of your overworked reading audience. Although this is a true statement, it does not reflect the “stickiness” factor that an executive summary must have to truly be powerful.

I recently got to hear Chip Heath discuss his new book, “Made to Stick”, a guide to communicating ideas that will succeed in the world. When you consider an Executive Summary, it is likely the only two pages a potential investor is willing to read. It is critical then that you know which points to convey and how to communicate them so that they will persist/stick in your reader’s minds until the decision is made to actually lay some money down.

The “what” to write about is not that difficult. Think of the Executive Summary as a Business Plan “Mini Me” - it needs to highlight briefly all of the business plan sections. Accepting that, key points include:

• Description of the business concept, product or service
• Description of the pain being resolved by the solution and the market it serves
• Company mission
• What is the company’s sustainable competitive advantage
• Describe the management of the company
• Your most important business goals in terms of market share, revenues
• Describe the “ask” - what you need to succeed.

The “how” to make it read like Velcro requires the greater effort.

First of all, the opener. The brevity of the Executive Summary forces prioritization, but consider this: Your reader picks up your business plan; you have no way of knowing when they will be interrupted by someone walking into their office or the phone ringing. This is a good reason to lead quickly with the most important information first (the idea) and then trail into the supporting key points.

Making it memorable. Your reader is suffering from information overload before they even pick up your business plan. The Executive Summary has to penetrate that tangled neuron mass encased by a hard skull. Your best weapon, suggests Chip, is simplicity. Great designers of our time (think of Apple’s iPod) understand that with simplicity comes elegance. You as the writer must ask “What is the crux or core that needs to be conveyed and remembered?” No doubt, behind innovation is complexity but it is essential to strip it back down to an image or a digestible concept. Analogies and comparisons are ways to achieve this by connecting the innovation to a concept that your reader already knows. Another way to make it memorable is using emotion. For many years we tended to keep emotion out of the business lexicon but now it is needed to wake up our senses. Do you respond quickly to statistics, specifications, analytics and logic or does a simple touching story move you to action? Let’s put these points together in an example.

How would you rate the memorable factor of the following explanations of the SHIFT – self stabilizing bike:

“The SHIFT tricycle has a single front wheel and two slim rear wheels that are initially splayed outward to stabilize and prevent the rider from toppling over.”

Or:

“Who can forget the thrill -- and terror -- of that first solo bicycle ride: Mom or Dad letting go, the magic of two-wheeled freedom and the inevitable fear, toppling over in a knee-scraping crash? The SHIFT slowly transforms from a tricycle to bicycle configuration as the rider pedals faster, then returns to trike formation as the rider slows down.”

The clinching close. Congratulations! You have kept your readers’ attention this long, all of 2 to 4 minutes. You have cleverly prioritized your sequence of important points in a simple and compelling way but now it is the time for the strong close. Time to get your readers into action mode. In the close, use words to simulate/rehearse the action you want from them. Describe the part that the investor can play in the success of this deal going forward (the ask), what the direct benefit to them will be, and what confidence factor you can reinforce that lessens the risk of them taking that action.

It may be ‘mini’ but writing a powerful Executive Summary is ‘mindful’. Improve your chances by further investigation into Chip’s “Made to Stick” principles.

~ Linda Bulmer, TME Chair

I recently decided to raise money to support the NB Arthritis Society. The information packet that I received stated that "Baby Boomers” - born between 1946 and 1964 - are at prime risk for developing Arthritis. Actually orthopedic experts have labeled this “Boomeritis”. But Baby Boomers, like me, do not accept the limitations of aging lightly. Therefore came the idea for this blog and the realization that entrepreneurs have an incredible market opportunity coming of age.

Baby Boomers do not view aging through the same trifocal/transition lens that their parents’ did and are not prepared to settle for less like the ‘Silent Generation’ before them. The forefront of boomers is turning 60 and they are redefining retirement and the concept of aging in general. They are determined to live longer, more productively and healthier as well they do not shy from the technological and health science innovations that can keep their dreams alive.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• 25% of the Canadian population is predicted to be over the age of 65 by the year 2030.

• In the US a stat retrieved from the US Census Bureau states that there are “78.2 million
  estimated number of baby boomers, as of July 1, 2005”. They represent $2 Trillion in annual spending.

• Associated Press found in a recent survey, “that most boomers expect to retire around age 63 -- but 66 percent of them expect to work for pay after retiring.”

• The Canadian Institute for Health Information reports that “close to 60,000 Canadians received hip or knee replacements in 2004-05. And in the following year, hip replacement rates rose by 12 per cent, and knee replacement rates increased by 20 per cent.”
  

Entrepreneur.com predicts “Seniors” as one of the "hottest new industries" ripe for entrepreneurial picking for 2008. The full article suggests that Baby Boomers are investing heavily in innovations that facilitate care for their elderly parents, products to help them keep a sharp healthy brain, and technologies to allow them to age with increased mobility and independence.

MIT is getting on the trend too partnering with companies like Procter & Gamble. “MIT in conjunction with several well-connected "laboratory partners" has created the AgeLab...the AgeLab's goal is to go where no aging hipster has gone seeking out new products designed just for us Baby Boomers.”

Baby…What is your brainchild to capture some of that BOOM in BOOMER economics? This consumer segment has distinct lifestyle traits as well as unique influencers that trigger their purchase decisions. Best of all, they are willing and able to invest in what they want.

Check out this site for ideas. http://www.boomersforever.com/index.htm.

~ Linda, TME Chair

A student in my TME3133 Managing Engineering and IT Projects asked a very good question a couple weeks ago: How far do you go with regard to stakeholder analysis and expectation setting – with all the potential stakeholders and impacts, it could go on forever… Very true. As with much of project planning, a ‘reasonable’ limit needs to be applied based on the size, complexity, and priority of the project.

The first step is to identify your stakeholders. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines stakeholders as “Persons and organizations such as customers, sponsors, performing organization and the public, that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. They may also exert influence over the project and its deliverables.”

Given this definition, the list of stakeholders for most projects can be quite long. However, the list can be prioritized by determining who has the most influence and who has the most to lose or gain (interest). Key stakeholders are those who have a great deal of interest and influence – these stakeholders need to be tightly managed. The level of influence and interest a stakeholder has in the project can vary with time throughout the project. For example, the HR department of the performing organization might be included on many stakeholder lists – but for most projects, they will have little influence and little to nothing to lose or gain. On the other hand, if your project is going to require the hiring of a large number of staff to complete the work, or if the result of the project may lead to a significant reduction is staff – then they will be a key stakeholder whose interest will peak when they are most impacted.

Influence is typically thought to mean those who can take action to help the project succeed or fail. In some cases though, a stakeholder can help the project fail simply by doing nothing at all.

I recently went to coffee with a project manager who was working on a project to develop and launch a new service to consumers in Atlantic Canada. I can’t go into details about this service, so let’s just say it’s an online shopping type of service. His sponsor, the primary stakeholder, was responsible for the consumer market segment. During the initial stakeholder analysis, it was determined that the sponsor’s peer responsible for the business market segment was a minor stakeholder because on a scale of 0-3 they rated:

• 2 for potential for gain
  
• 0 for potential loss
  
• 1 for influence
  

The sponsor reasoned that since it’s his budget, and it’s targeted to his customers, he is the only one who needs to sign-off on the project. The business stakeholder should just be happy that their customers will receive the benefit of a free service at no cost to the stakeholder. Although arguments and issues were raised, the business stakeholder was put on the “informed” list. As the project progressed however, it became apparent that they would need more and more support from this stakeholder. In fact, without this stakeholder on board as a partner the project could not succeed as consumers can’t shop if there is nothing to buy – and it’s the business customers that bring that to the table. It turned out that the business stakeholder wasn’t satisfied just being informed, even if they did have the opportunity to benefit at no cost of their own. The result? The service is developed and ready to launch, but has nothing to sell. In order for business to be brought on side now, the project will have to take a couple steps back and include this stakeholder on design decisions that may now be much more costly and time consuming than if they had be brought in early on.

This particular example may seem too obvious, but in fact this type of situation happens a lot more often than you might think. There are still a lot of organizations who practice product and service development in a vacuum. Little to no stakeholder analysis is done, those with the budgets make the (uninformed) decisions, and projects are delivered on time, on budget, and to specification – and are also failures. One of the top reasons for short changing stakeholder management is time – it takes more time if you have to involve more people or groups. This is usually true – however, it’s rare a project will be a success if they are not included. So it’s pay now or pay later.

Ever use a product or service and think to yourself “did they ever ask the end-user how this should work?” Have you ever been a part of a project that failed to identify an important stakeholder, or intentionally left them out in the cold? What was the result?

-Troy Kearns, PMP
TME 3313 Instructor

I met John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing at mesh last year in Toronto. I was impressed with his down to earth, effective approach to small business marketing. In fact, this blog is partly based on our conversation! In a recent post, he talks about how Tis better to be found than to find..

I am linking to it because of the relationship between his topic and one near and dear to my heart, Sales 2.0. John points out that the Internet is, “the greatest small business enabler of this strategy ever created”. I couldn’t agree more.

Now we need to take it one step further. We need to say that the Internet, and particularly the new social tools such as blogs, RSS, instant messaging, twitter and so on are great tools for big business too.

Historically, Fortune 500’s look down their long CRM noses at these tools as “playing on the Internet”. They couldn’t be more wrong. People, thousands and thousands of peopleeveryday are joining the growing mass of people communicating via these tools. Everyday! Detractors say, but there are still only a few hundred thousand people reading even the most successful blogs each day. I say yes, that’s true; but how many people read your literature everyday? How many do you need to make a difference? I would wager that the 175,000+ people that subscribe to John’s blog have made a difference in his life. Why not yours?

If you want to get ready for what’s next, not wait for what’s already here, figure these tools out. Try them, use them, master them or you will be left behind.

~ Patrick Mason, TME Instructor
Visit Patrick's blog at www.simplesales.ca

Getting your grades is a big part of life this time of year on campus. Sometimes a pleasant experience and sometimes not so nice.

Our nation is also getting graded in critical areas of performance and right now Canada is seriously underperforming in innovation with a lackluster grade of ‘D’. In 2007, Canada ranked 14th place among the 17 OECD nations. In partial response, Industry Minister, Jim Prentice, communicates ‘his’ strategy on innovation involves, “attracting the best minds, funding the most cutting edge research and commercializing the best ideas”. The federal government introduced a science and technology strategy and announced that it has “invested $2.3 billion in new money for science and technology”. Is this the makings of a successful strategy that will champion Canadian innovation and significantly lift its grades?

In December of 2007, Booz Allen Hamilton published its annual study on the world’s largest corporate R&D spenders. Overall, the latest statistics reports that R&D spending across the Global Innovation 1000 companies rose 10%. The study finds that the 1000 publically held companies around the world that spent the most on R&D succeed through “in depth customer understanding”. “They all have processes in place to pay close attention to the customers in every phase of the innovation value-chain, from idea generation to product development to marketing.”

In today’s customer driven economy, commercializing innovation starts and finishes with customer demand. The competitive battleground is won through gaining the deepest and earliest insights into the actual needs of customers.

So Science and Technology, innovative ideas, the best minds, and investing the most money, is a recipe that still could fall flat if not driven by insight on what customers really want. A customer-driven economy requires customer driven innovation. Since value creation is in terms defined by the customer, sustainable, marketable R&D efforts need to develop an early connection to the customer and attach like ‘Velcro’.

What is your view? Got insight?

~ Linda Bulmer, TME Chair

What comes to your mind when you think of entrepreneurship in Africa? What are the opportunities and barriers? What is being done to build the entrepreneurship ecosystem/culture?

Being on my way to Tanzania, I got curious. Tanzania is considered a ‘least developed’ African country. Is your prediction of what examples of entrepreneurship that I may encounter, the same as most who I have asked: some tour guide companies, a jewelry/craft stand, and open food markets, etc?

Is that it? Some secondary research set a bit more promising picture.

Tanzania has a solid natural resource foundation. In 2002, it exported US$431 million in minerals and gemstones. Offshore gas and oil deposits have been discovered at Songo Songo off Pemba Island. Agriculture, mostly operated by women, is the foundation of its economy (coffee, tea, cotton) and generates 50+% of the nation’s income. Zanzibar is the third largest producer of cloves in the world (yum - I will definitely be picking some up). The untapped potential of the agriculture sector is huge. Now 90% of all cultivation is done by hand or ox, it relies on rainfall (no irrigation) and old/poor farming technologies limit the land productivity. It produces 1.76 BKwHr of Hydroelectric per year and tourism is a booming sector bringing in over US$500 million annually. The economic activity is not enough, however, and Tanzania receives over a US$1 billion of aid annually.

Funding and technical support is coming from various agencies such as Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations International Development Organization (UNIDO), Danish Development Assistance (DANIDA), and USAID. Monies are directed to infrastructure development, the strengthening of democracy, private sector growth and labor force development.

Tanzania is the most rapidly growing and urbanizing population in Africa. Currently, at 35 million, its population slightly exceeds that of Canada’s. Young people make up almost two thirds of the population. People have a hard time growing old there with a national HIV/AIS infection level of 7% and a low life expectancy. The human resource entry into the labor market is approximately 700,000 per year which is 7-10 times less than the employment opportunities being created by the formal private sector. The need for entrepreneurial expansion therefore seems clear. What, then, is being done?

Human resource development is key! Thirty years ago The Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA) was formed. Tanzania has 20 CAPA member institutions aimed at producing technically qualified graduates for wage employment in the formal sector. Globally, it was realized that economic infusion and social transformation also requires a supply of innovative entrepreneurs. In 1988, CAPA responded by expanding its curricula to offer the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDE). The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce was also established at that same time to promote the private sector. Its network includes offices in 21 regions and 67 district centres providing business education, consultancy, and partnering assistance.

These efforts and others have produced some results. The Department of Labour, Employment and Youth Development manages an empowerment fund set aside in 2006, called the ‘JK’s 21 Billion Fund’ (TZS). As of 2007, over 21,000 businesses were reported to have received low interest loans. In 2008, however, a report suggests that many mistakes have been made in its management thus far and intended goals have not been served well. Also an issue, the Tanzania Revenue Authority is trying to keep up with the need for entrepreneurship training to try to support the borrowers.

Tanzania, although still poor and gasping, is becoming one of Africa’s promising performers. In 2006, it ranked second in Africa for “Doing Business”. A great distinction to further attract investment into the country and some needed encouragement to help sustain the climb to an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem.

It is probable that most of the population will continue to earn their livelihood on rural farms. However, the justification for entrepreneurism is irrefutable. Entrepreneurial activity and growth is trekking a tenuous slope that will require continuous deliberate/strategic support, investment, and regulation balance and policy development in the years to come. Hey, that sounds familiar.

In a couple of weeks I will get to experience Tanzania. Let me know if you want to know more about its tenuous slopes.

~ Linda Bulmer, TME Chair

Marketing budgets have taken a punch to the gut. Advertising dollars overall, are predicted to sink 6.9% in 2009, representing the largest drop in 29 years. According to ZenithOptimedia, all media are negatively impacted but one, internet advertising.

So how does an enterprise battle for consumer focus in a sea of clutter with fewer dollars but still get seen, heard and remembered? The answer is quite “SHOCKING” really, or is it? At first, I logically accepted that shock advertising or “shockvertising” was going to be the ad trend of choice for 2009. (Trendhunter TV ranked it at 16.)

It seems reasonable that if you want the attention of your audience to be attained quickly and to last, why not alarm them, upset a traditional norm and create conversational buzz. Sometimes the buzz goes exponential when broadcasting media reports on the controversial ad creating free PR. Right?

Of course there are several Shock Ads to choose from and you can view a couple of examples below. Interestingly, shock ads deploy different shock factors which could include violence, fear etc. Please be prepared to cut your viewing short if you start to feel uncomfortable. I am sincerely warning you.

Shock Factor – Repulsion

Shock Factor – Creepy Crawly

After viewing these ads, as desired by their developers, they have crossed my mind several times, however, when they do, my reaction is to immediately stop the playback in my mind rather than to go purchase underwear.

I totally get the research and intent that emotion over logic evokes a product sale. The catch is that there are positive and negative emotions. Different people experience emotions and concerns differently, therefore reactions to product design and ad design is a personal matter. Just as product design should consider the unique needs of their targeted segment, it would make sense that the advertising used to promote the product should also understand the emotional responses of their targeted segment. This is getting to sound like a pretty sophisticated science, isn’t it?

This complication suggests there is an optimum shock factor or mixture of evoked emotions which will produce the desired results “sales”. If you need more proof you can follow the rough road taken by Benetton, Italian clothing retailer, during its pioneering shockvertising days.

The bottom line for effective advertising for 2009 is that it produces real sales not ‘shock’ value.

Men – I have a question. Which would get you to BUY bona fide Viagra? A man coughing up a dead rat or these happy go lucky ads?