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In the fall, Wendy spoke at the Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland and conducted a workshop for incubation centre managers hosted by Enterprise Ireland.
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In January, Wendy visited Regina, Saskatchewan to deliver a workshop hosted by Springboard West Innovations.
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Next, she'll be at the Palo Alto Research Center, exhibiting at the AUTM Annual Meeting, hosting an audioconference with Technology Transfer Tactics, and delivering a workshop at the FLC Annual Meeting in Oregon.
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Be sure to visit Wendy at the AUTM Annual Meeting, Booth 501, February 28-29th San Diego, CA.
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 New York Times - Entrepreneurship Takes Off in Ireland
Irish Entrepreneur Magazine
EnterpriseSTART Program
Novation - Innovation and Incubation
Read Wendy's Blog
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For those of you interested in learning more about entrepreneurial innovation and innovation management on a global scale, here are a few online blogs I follow and I recommend for reading.
Innovationedge: - Innovationedge was founded by Cheryl Perkins, former Chief Innovation Officer at Kimberly Clark. Her blog provides a global perspective on open innovation, as well as many examples of inventors bringing high value ideas to market. I'm drawn to online journals that provide case examples to share insights - this is one of those blogs.
innovation.net: - This blog provides insightful perspectives on entreprenereurial thinking mixed with innovation. Be sure to read the post on "collaborative innovation".
VentureBlog: - This has been one of my favorite blogs for several years now. In my view, it's a must-read for inventors and entrepreneurs. It is written by venture capitalists and focuses on all things startup - pitching ideas, legal issues, valuation, entrepreneurial success, etc. Check it out.
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Feel free to pass this newsletter on to a friend or colleague. If you received this e-mail from a friend and would like to subscribe, click here.
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wendykennedy.com
300 Earl Grey Drive,
Suite 358
Ottawa, ON Canada
K2T 1C1
Tel: 613-851-6621
www.wendykennedy.com
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Feature - Profile: Entrepreneurship & Commercialization in Ireland
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The Irish economy has undergone a transformation over the past few years, with initiatives to accelerate the development of world-class Irish companies that contribute to national and regional prosperity. (This recent New York Times article provides great background on this transformation. If you're looking for deeper analysis, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) offers a detailed review of Ireland's success with cultivating entrepreneurship.)
I've been working with several organizations delivering on that agenda. In the spirit of sharing and learning, I want to provide a brief snapshot of how this agenda is being executed on an operational program level. There are many more organizations than what I will profile here, but this will give you a picture of Ireland's proactive tech-oriented economic development.
Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland is the Irish state development agency that carries the mandate for transforming Irish industry. The efforts of Enterprise Ireland are both international and local in reach, with 31 international offices and 13 Irish offices. They work to support university and industry research and commercialization, regional incubation centers, private sector venture capital funding, start-up and spin-off enterprise development, and much more. Enterprise Ireland works collaboratively with industry networks and educational institutions to implement efforts throughout the country.
Following are some examples of programs underway in Ireland, designed to fuel commercialization and economic development.
Research and Commercialization
I recently spent time with the commercialization specialists at Enterprise Ireland. They oversee three major programs offered under Enterprise Ireland's Commercialisation Fund:
Be sure to visit the web site to explore the various programs and support resources.
Incubation Centres
14 incubation centres throughout Ireland are dedicated to enterprise development -impressive when you consider that Ireland's population is the size of a large metropolis at just over 4 million people. The centres provide entrepreneurial training, coaching, support, and incubation facilities to entrepreneurs and enterprises. I had the opportunity to work with the incubation centre managers in a one-day So what? who cares? why you?® workshop. It gave the managers a chance to "test-drive" the tools and their applicability to Irish entrepreneurs.
Since then, two of these centres - The Dundalk Institute of Technology and the Limerick Institute of Technology - have launched entrepreneurship development programs for their regional communities using So what? who cares? why you?® as the course guidebook:
- EnterpriseSTART is a fast-track program offered by the Limerick Institute of Technology. It runs over six consecutive weekends with 12 interactive workshops.
- Dundalk Institute of Technology branded its incubation activities under the Novation brand. Novation is using So what? who cares? why you?® in its Enterprise Platform Programme aimed at committed entrepreneurs. That program runs over one year.
Campus Entrepreneurship
During my visit to Dundalk, I participated in the opening ceremonies for the Dundalk Institute, Student Enterprise Centre. The centre was created to encourage and stimulate entrepreneurial thinking and activities among the student population. It does so through events and activities to encourage students to explore entrepreneurship. Mary Larkin, a student entrepreneur, leads the Centre with support from Novation and the local community. Dundalk and Novation work closely along with the local community to develop the entrepreneurial culture - both in the curriculum of non-traditional programs such as science and technology as well as in community entrepreneurial training programs like the "Enterprise Platform Programme".
What I like about the Irish model is the spirit of collaboration and connectedness that results. The programs are coordinated across a broad landscape, encompassing campus entrepreneurship, university research, industry development, and entrepreneurship/ enterprise creation. Coordination on the national and regional levels results in partnerships with clear roles, priorities, and accountabilities. Add to this government policies and incentives to encourage enterprise creation and development and you get ideal conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship to blossom.
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Tutorial: Nurturing Idea Flow — Oiling the Wheels of Great Ideas
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In the past few months I've been working a lot with "Idea Shepherds" ... what's an idea shepherd, you ask? It's a person or organization that helps inventors and entrepreneurs bring their ideas from lab to life - often through coaching, educating, evaluating, or mentoring. Technology transfer offices (TTOs), Technology Licensing Officers (TLO's), Incubation Managers, and Economic Development Agencies, are examples of Idea Shepherds.
Idea Shepherds have a vested interest in "fattening" the top of the funnel - i.e. increasing the volume of ideas flowing in by getting commercialization on the radar of their technical and scientific communities. Many organizations will tell you that for most scientific professionals, the commercialization of ideas is not a top priority. In fact, a recent AUTM survey confirms it:
Of the $40 billion spent annually on university research, only $1 billion of the research was commercialized. This is a staggering but familiar statistic that reminds us that are at the early stages of the commercialization adoption curve.
It's perhaps not surprising, then, that many of these organizations are adopting So what? who cares? why you?® in a bid to improve that research-to-commercialization ratio. Here are some simple things that Idea Shepherds can do to help create and nurture a commercialization culture.
1. Think, Talk and Sell "Opportunity"
If you are serious about nurturing great ideas, then start by thinking, talking, and selling "opportunity". This term is more positive and less intimidating for researchers and scientists than phrases like, "business planning". It's also a better match to reality, because many researchers are NOT planning to start businesses; they may simply want their ideas to be useful to society. Position your office around opportunity identification.
2. Promote the Science of Commercialization
Engineers, researchers and scientists love structure and often lament that business is ambiguous. You can remove this barrier by making the process more structured and scientific. If you can show a linear, modeled approach to how business opportunities evolve, and show that there is a sequence of events much like research protocols, then you can reduce the anxiety around commercialization. This is precisely what So what? who cares? why you?® is designed to do.
3. Change the Game - Break with Tradition
Be honest now ... how ready and willing is your organization to change the way it does things? To nurture idea flow you've got to be willing to break with tradition - to be willing to experiment a little. Commit to trying one new activity each quarter - big or small.
Here's an idea that others have tried: Create a Friday morning coffee club - but with a twist! Yours will be a coffee club with inventors. Choose two or three evangelists (see below) and give them each three copies of So what? who cares? why you?®: The Inventor's Commercialization Toolkit. Ask them to give these books to colleagues whom they believe have a penchant to commercialize, then have evangelists invite those same people to your Friday-morning coffee club.
It will be the start of an informal initiative to engage them in a discussion about commercialization. You can use the workbook chapters to fuel the discussion topics and have the evangelists share their ideas and success stories. The So what? who cares? why you?® workbook will become a self-education tool and the coffee discussions will hopefully ignite an interest to learn more about commercialization through the workbook and methodology.
4. Recruit Evangelists
Evangelists are a key component of oiling the wheels of new ideas - they've been through the commercialization process, they "get it", and they have the DNA to want to help others. These are the people you need to recruit into your mission.
Remember that we are at the early stages of the commercialization adoption curve, so it's important to find evangelists whom others see as credible. Who are the opinion leaders and early adopters of commercialization in your community, and how can you engage them? In my experience, these are the best people to dispell the myths and set the record straight about commercialization.
5. Be Realistic
In #3 above, I suggested that you begin with a handful of new recruits (not 20 or 30). Look for small victories. It's essential to target programs at early adopters to ignite the commercialization culture in small pockets. Avoid the temptation to launch big, sweeping programs - you need to win people over one at a time.
Try a few small, tailored, low-key projects to plant the seeds of commercialization and let your community of researchers, scientists, engineers self-discover. Get the evangelists face-to-face with the newcomers, but do so in a way that is informal and with no-strings-attached. This will also help you to avoid the risk of finding that your new initiative has been labeled as "another administrative flavor of the month".
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Quick Tip: The Entrepreneurial Journey — Words to Live By
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As an entrepreneur myself, I understand the rollercoaster of emotions that play on your psyche as you pursue an idea. Keep these "words to live by" close at hand for the times when you need a shot in the arm or a kick in the pants!! I've collected these over time from trusted mentors and advisors. They work for me, so hopefully they'll inspire you, too.
1. You've got to EXECUTE!
Never forget this - every day, you have to move the ball down the field. Your idea or product has got to be out there in the market and not just in the lab. What are you doing to build out the business TODAY?
2. You'll have your doubts. It's never crystal clear when you're starting out.
It's important to have direction, but you need to be flexible, too. Visions are just that - so keep executing - I'm a big believer in instincts at the early stages of idea development. So don't look for all the answers before you start. Get started, get out there in the market and let things evolve.
3. You have to SELL your idea - you'll be told NO more times than YES.
Tough as this is to accept, it's true. So get used to it. Next time you're told "no", remember that you have to get through a lot of "no's" before you'll hear a "yes". Every "no" you hear is one step closer to that "yes"!
4. Quiet confidence - you have to believe you will prevail.
If you've read the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins, you'll recall this: "Always believe you will prevail." Tied to this is the idea of quiet confidence, introduced to me years ago by my own mentor. Quiet confidence is believing that you can be successful. Success breeds success.
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What's New @ wendykennedy.com?
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There are lots of new developments at wendykennedy.com, including new organizations adopting So what? who cares? why you?®, new co-branded book programs, new faces, news from the road, and so on.
Below are just a few highlights - check our news page to stay up to date on the latest developments.
1. Upcoming Audio Conference - March 19th, 1-2:30pm
Join Wendy March 19th 1-2:30pm EST for an international audioconference hosted by Technology Transfer Tactics. The topic is: "Separating the Winners from the Losers: Conducting an Effective Market Analysis for Your University's Inventions". Join Wendy and learn how to conduct a thorough market analysis and accurately assess the commercial potential of promising but untested innovations. Click here to register.
2. Igniting Entrepreneurship at Springboard West Innovations
Wendy was recently in Regina, Saskatchewan to deliver a
So what? who cares? why you?® workshop hosted by Springboard West Innovations.
Springboard is focused on commercialization and economic development for the province of Saskatchewan. The organization fosters collaboration among researchers, entrepreneurs and companies to move Saskatchewan innovation to the marketplace.
The Leader Post published a story on the workshop and the event - you can read it here.
These photos are a testament to the power that a few tools and flipcharts can have to engage a group and ignite innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. The 8-hour day kicked off with teams working through the So what? who cares? why you?® toolsets in groups.
In the late afternoon, with a series of tools completed on flipcharts, we moved each team's pages of tools to the walls so that everyone could see the opportunity and the value proposition start to unfold.
There's no disputing the power of a flipchart-sized tool and a few markers to draw out the opinions and ideas of others. You can try this for yourself in a training or coaching environment using the 4-color, wall-size, dry-erase posters that are available at wendykennedy.com to accompany the workbook. Many incubators and commercialization offices are using these posters to actively engage their inventors and entrepreneurs to work through the So what? who cares? why you?® methodology. Contact Wendy for details.
3. A new face at wendykennedy.com
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Lynn Thurston to the team at wendykennedy.com. Lynn is globally engaged in business strategy, innovation and economic development. She holds a PhD in urban and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation research examined job creation in small-scale enterprises.
Lynn has worked with entrepreneurs and economic development professionals to ignite innovation through training and research support in more than 30 countries around the world. Lynn's focus area at wendykennedy.com is on international development opportunities. You can read Lynn's professional profile here.
Lynn is based in New York and can be reached at lynn.thurston@wendykennedy.com.
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Got an idea or a suggestion? We'd love to hear from you.
Email us at wendy@wendykennedy.com or call Wendy at 613-851-6621.
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