Give yourself the gift that keeps on giving

With the Vancouver Olympics on the horizon the Canadian Olympic Committee supported by the Government recognized a need to change the status quo – a need to disrupt the traditional methods and find a way to achieve the winning performances expected from the host country. The situation demanded an entrepreneurial approach based on opportunity and determination. The opportunity was hosting the games – the determination to win existed with the athletes but the momentum to surpass previous achievement came from the Own the Podium program that created an ecosystem promoting pride, confidence and results. It worked – in Vancouver the Canadian team set a record for the most gold medals won at a winter Olympics and collected more total medals than they had ever won in a single Olympics. The key was creating a culture that nurtured success and established that success as a new normal, an expectation. In the simplest terms a philosophy or mindset focused on making things happen- the essence of being entrepreneurial.

On an individual basis this program is a great example of breaking free of prison thinking and letting your determination take you through to success. But Own the Podium is far more significant than that. It is a great example of the collective creating the support system that produces individual success to the benefit of the entire country. We must do the same in the business world. Did you know that over 350,000 Canadians live and work in Silicon Valley? Why? Because the Valley offers the most highly developed tech ecosystem the world has ever seen. Do you also know that there is a worldwide competition for talent going on? Governments around the world are building programs to attract entrepreneurs to their countries. Canada has already introduced a fast track system to provide visas and a path to citizenship for entrepreneurs/innovators who can attract venture capital investment from Canadians. However if we can just keep our best and most brilliant home we can do well in this talent war and improve our prospects and results. We need to Own the Podium in tech development and in entrepreneurship.

We have a good start with programs like MaRS , Communitech and The Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School but we need the collective will and the support of government to build an ecosystem that is second to none and that brings out the very best from the natural ability that exists here. If one per cent of our total population representing a much higher percentage of our intellectual capital are living in California than we have the tools here but we are both losing them and underutilizing them. More or less like our Olympic performance prior to Vancouver. If we can do it in sport we can do it in business.

Thursday I attended the Demo Camp at the Creative Destructive Lab at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. The Lab is focused on converting innovation to entrepreneurship selecting concepts with merit and guiding the founders through the process of getting to market. In the process the goal is to encourage the brightest and best to stay in Canada. The first program was completed in June. It is a competitive environment as it should be. Last September when the Lab was in it`s gestation period there were 76 project submitted. Of these the G7 founding partners selected the 18 that they felt had the most merit. The groups were assigned specific targets to carry out over a six week period at which time they met with the partners again. The one with the weakest performance was dropped. By June on completion of the program there were ten projects left. In less than a year the survivors have created over $ 65 million in equity with more to come. Great performance for a program in its infancy. Great things are destined to come out of this program. It`s already started.

I am very proud to have been invited to become a partner of the CD Lab. Not as one of the G7 partners who will continue to run the program in conjunction with the founders Professor Ajay Agrawal and Jesse Rogers but as one who is passionate about entrepreneurship and willing to help these people with phenomenal potential in whatever way I can. There are many levels and forms of entrepreneurship. The common bonds are the personal issues and fundamental business issues that every entrepreneur has to address from team building to funding. The transition from innovator to entrepreneur is difficult at the best of times but the pace at the Lab as for any accelerator is fast and furious. Understanding what to expect on these basic challenges can facilitate the transition and keep things in perspective.

Which brings me back to the title of this post. The adrenalin of the Demo Camp was contagious. Ajay and Jesse along with the G7 partners are building a culture of success. The combination of seeing the progress that was made last year as reported by the charter participants along with over twenty new pitches to show what is on the horizon was compelling and just plain exciting. There is a developing worldwide race to attract talent. Keeping our own is critical. Attracting sources from other countries nearly as important. Canada has introduced a new visa program to attract innovators who can confirm capital to support their programs BUT the key to attracting others is to keep our own, build a world class ecosystem and foster the culture of success. The Creative Destruction Lab will be an important factor in the process. Very exciting !!!!

Much as we would like to, we never really love our parents as much as we do our children. Your business is exactly like a child. In the early or startup years it will depend completely upon you, looking to you for all the answers. You will always supply them with confidence, belying the uncertainty that you may feel as a first time owner just as you do as a first time parent. The child will look to you 24/7 in sickness and in health and as the parent you will always be there regardless of the problem, dropping everything else in the process. Your business and its components from customers to your team will do the same and like the parent you will be ready and willing to oblige. You cannot easily walkout on your children. Oh some due but for the majority it’s a non-starter. Same thing with your business. You are your business but try to remember your business is not you.

The middle years are the best when you have become comfortable within your developing family and confident in the decisions that must be made. Neither your child or your business will question you during this peak period. Things do get into a groove on both fronts but then comes the maturing years, the transition from total dependence  to independence. Tough for the parent to admit it’s time to let go and let the child mature  developing all of it’s capabilities, finding new methods and learning new things that the parent doesn’t know or understand.  So difficult to do but you the parent do it willingly in the best interest of your child. And so you must with your business. At some point you will become the limitation in your business. The day will come when it has outgrown you. It will not mature and reach it’s potential unless you let go. Easier said than done but be ready.

Like your first born that first business must move on to a new future. But then remember you can do it again. Maybe you already are. The second child is easier. There are tried and true practices that you know and understand. You can take that second child from gestation through birth to adolescence from startup to a thriving healthy entity. You can do this as many times as you can handle. And so you can with business. That’s what makes you a parent and that’s what makes you an entrepreneur. There are many mentors that can steward your child and your business into full maturity who cannot deal with the early years. You are the one who launches them from nothing and starts them along the path to maturity.

So recognize the need for that end game- when it is time to move on and begin again. It’s what you do best. The child will ask for you opinion. The business may ask you to consult. You will learn to enjoy both, but you will find your happiness doing it all over again.

We are entering an increasing – no pun intended- age where size is dominant. Big Business, Big Government, Big Unions, Big Data and most damning of all “Too Big To Fail”. We have sacrificed the principles of micro economics such as the optimum size of the firm and the law of diminishing returns to build dominant global enterprises- behemoths more closely related to their bureaucratic enemy, government, than they will ever admit. These entities lumber around the world chasing low costs and cheap labour in the name of maximizing profits. If they fail they plead their case in a public forum that they are too significant to let die. They are pyramids paying outrageous rewards to those that scale to the top.

What are the implications for individualism. Job stability no longer exists. Big data is generating information far beyond are ability to comprehend. The rate of change is staggering. 24/7 hyper-connectivity has us all chasing our tails, Are we headed for Big Brother? Globalization is both an opportunity and a threat. Small business is vulnerable to competitors around the world but at a time when things are moving at lightening speed entrepreneurs are flexible and adaptable giving them the opportunity to find a niche and move into it before others. The most important skill to learn in this new era is the ability to create your own job. Without it the threat is the loss of upward mobility for many and perhaps economic independence for most. The divergence of wealth between the rich and the poor and the eroding middle class are forewarnings. Entrepreneurship is critical for the individual.

But it is also critical for these huge entities. Without the impact of disruption based on challenges to the status quo , sometimes referred to as ‘intrapreneurship’, governments and huge businesses will never come close to producing optimum results and solutions. The current conundrum in Washington shows a government that is not only dysfunctional but is mired in a malaise of mediocrity. There are no disruptors coming forward to challenge the party lines and find compromise. Optimum decisions are a pipedream in this environment.

Entrepreneurs make things happen. They are problem solvers. The greater the problem the greater the reward. Regardless we need them at all levels. It is a skill that some are born with but many can learn. We are headed for a tsunami of Big Data that can swamp us. Machines will literally know more than any individual. It’s a scenario that science fiction writers have been portraying for generations. Individual success will be tied to entrepreneurial skills and attitude. Entrepreneurship has never been more important. We live in interesting times.

In theory as Globalization evolves resources will be allocated in the most efficient way possible ensuring that goods will be produced on the lowest cost basis to the benefit of all. In a perfect global system labour will shift around until the transition is complete and the rewards for labour will equalize around the global network. During the transition while wage rates in higher earning countries are frozen or rise slowly as wage rates in other areas catch up, those living in the higher wage countries will benefit from low cost goods during the transition. All of this takes place without impediments or barriers to free and open competition. Entrepreneurs will drive the progress by ferreting out opportunities across the global system.

In practice as we continue to embrace such a global system, the rewards to labour in the low wage countries are lagging while much of the benefit of low cost goods are not reaching the consumer. Instead the rich are becoming the super rich while the middle class is facing the reality of returning to an historical norm with relative rewards well below those achieved in the west for the past sixty years during which consumerism has flourished. In an evolving era of Big Data where the status quo is becoming a moving target while character traits such as adaptability and resilience are becoming more critical, the business behemoths of the world are getting richer by controlling markets. Much of this control stems from branding and creating the allusion that branded goods are inherently superior. At the same time effective marketing has mislead us that these behemoths are so critical that they are ‘too Big to Fail’. Branding has effectively created near monopolies effectively providing barriers to entry for aspiring entrepreneurs in the process by limiting their upside and increasing their challenges

Mammoth organizations operating on ten year plans are not appropriate for our fast paced Global economy. However control over markets allows them to achieve innovation and flexibility through outsourcing and acquisition. Oh these in themselves do create upside for entrepreneurs who can launch a startup and find an eager buyer for their initial success. However the odds against success are greater and fewer of us are likely to get there. It is certainly possible for a limited few to build new brands creating new members of the super rich club. However overall we have abandoned core economic principles such as the Law of Diminishing Returns and the Optimum Size of the firm in favour of uninformed consumerism and market control through brands owned and managed by what are effectively huge bureaucracies. Is there a tipping point ahead? Surely social media and instant communication are a threat to the dominance of brands – OR are they just additional instruments of control?

Globalization has brought large numbers into the global work force, increasing the supply of labour. Technology through robotics and mechanization is reducing the demand for labour. Together these factors create downward pressure on wage rates. Upward mobility for the individual is in decline. Capital is securing the lion’s share of the rewards. Job stability is one of the status quos that is disappearing. For all of these reasons the individual must become his or her own brand. The most important skill you can learn today is the ability to create and manage your career.