The Way I See It… by Michael C. Volker
Entrepreneurship
is the weakest link
Everyone
is jumping on the innovation bandwagon. The commercialization of technology is
a hot subject at several conferences I’ve attended in the past few months.
Innovation is seen as being the key to improving Canada’s productivity gap in
comparison to the U.S.
At
a recent Industry Canada presentation, I learned that one of the goals of
Canada’s innovation strategy was to triple commercialization outcomes at
Canadian universities while doubling the investment in research and development
by 2010.
The
May, 2002 Innovation Summit conference in Vancouver identified various
inhibitors to the innovation process. A business-friendly environment,
competitive taxes and de-regulation, better access to education, increased
R&D spending, better management and more venture capital and improved
access to early stage venture funding are the commonly cited success factors.
Most
will agree that innovation is a creative process. It is also one that entails
substantial risk. No amount of capital, education, tax reduction or management
talent can produce a successful venture without one key ingredient:
entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs
are the champions of innovation. They are the ones who build the bridges, i.e.
the new ventures that turn inventions into viable commercial products. This
requires an intense personal commitment of time, money and reputation. Some
innovative companies, for example 3M Corporation, have done well by encouraging
corporate entrepreneurship, i.e. intrapreneurship.
We’ve
heard the stories about risktaking and failure in places such as Silicon
Valley. Indeed, “failures” don’t exist. They are merely “learning experiences”.
I haven’t seen the same attitude here in Canada. If your company flops, you’ll
have a tough time getting backers for a second deal.
Talk
to entrepreneurs and investors and you’ll discover this paradox: the
entrepreneurs seeking financing say that there isn't an ample pool of capital
and investors claim that there's not an adequate supply of good deals. On the
other hand, I've yet to see a really great start-up business not get funded.
The fact is that “good” people behind a great opportunity will always find investors.
I
subscribe to Michael Gerber’s “E-Myth” theory which states that many people who
think that they are entrepreneurs are not really entrepreneurs. They are
technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. He says that just
because someone may be vocationally or technically good at doing something does
not mean that they will be good at running a business doing those things.
Venture
capitalists will often insist on bringing in or recruiting proven managers to
run a venture. That makes good sense but it’s not sufficient. You still need
the entrepreneurial zeal. You can teach an entrepreneur how to manage but I’m
not convinced that you can turn a manager into an entrepreneur.
Across
North America, I’ve observed the creation – mainly on University campuses – of
centers for Entrepreneurship. Some, such as the University of Washington which
I recently visited, focus on technology entrepreneurship. UW’s Venture Creation
Lab takes teams of students, supported by external mentors, investors and
entrepreneurs, to work on the task of identifying and commercializing new
intellectual properties. These are an intense form of start-up boot camp for
entrepreneurs. In this process, the real entrepreneurs will surface while
others will discover the E-Myth truism.
Happily, many Canadian institutions are responding to this need by
establishing such centers. We’re fortunate in that we’ve now got quite a few
Canadian success stories to boast about. Hopefully, some of the entrepreneurs
behind these successes will see fit to personally support these centers as
mentors and coaches.
Entrepreneurs
are goal oriented. They know their weaknesses and these centers will help them
to address these shortcomings by helping them to team up with others or by
providing them with coaching or management training.
The way I see it, we need new initiatives to nurture and promote
entrepreneurship. Most importantly, we need to make entrepreneurship part of
our high technology culture. We need more entrepreneurs. This is the weakest
link in the proverbial innovation chain.
Michael
Volker is a high technology entrepreneur and director of Simon Fraser U's
University/Industry Liaison Office. He runs Vancouver’s Angel Technology
Network and is Chairman of the BC Advanced Systems Institute and past- chair of
the Vancouver Enterprise Forum. He may be reached at mike@volker.org.