An Interview with Aquaman

Coming to us this month is an environmental entrepreneur from the water industry. With over 70% of the world's surface covered by water and recognition growing of the role that it can play in addressing many of the issues facing modern society, water treatment, preservation and management, is an area that is getting a lot of attention these days. And Edward Quilty is on the leading edge with his company, Aquatic Informatics.

Aquatic Informatics develops and markets software for the water and climate information industry, an industry that may seem rather daunting at first glance. Their customers include, municipalities, engineering firms, universities and state and provincial government who use their easy to run software for a variety of tasks related to maximizing use of this natural resource in safe and conservation friendly ways.

A trained biologist, just shy of his Ph.D. and BC native, Ed started working in the environmental data monitoring industry straight out of university. He has seen massive changes in the industry as weather and climate changes have impacted a variety of aspects of daily life around the globe. The thriving clean tech industry in our part of Canada keeps Ed busy, but he took some time out to talk to us a bit about running a small company, his inspirations and guiding principles.

I found Ed's comments on hiring and managing people to be particularly inspiring. He is not a fan of micromanagement and believes in hiring the right people. All of us who manage people aspire to the same thing, but often are able to achieve it. Ed believes it comes down to hiring people who can believe in the company's core values. A great comment really resonated with me was, "It's amazing how much time and energy can be wasted wrestling the wrong people in the right direction."

I'd never really thought of it that way, but it strikes me as true. As increasingly we look for people both with expertise in a narrow body of knowledge and with the right personality and work style to fit into the corporate culture, it comes down to espousing the same core values. While it seems the pool of talent is great, finding the right fit for any organization takes time and effort.

One of the benefits of conducting these interviews each month comes from learning more and more about running my own small business. My interview with Ed turned out to be a treasure trove. He digs deep down to his philosophical core when discussing core values and how to imbibe that in a corporate culture. He believes in taking opportunities, even if they don't always seem to have a specific goal in mind - the mark of a true entrepreneur.



Who were your early role models and what were the main things you learned from them?

Nearly straight out of University I worked as a contractor for BC Environment. My boss during those few years had an amazing ability to motivate our team, somewhat passively. While other units were micromanaged and stereotypically disengaged, our unit had a real collegial spirit - we were very tight, worked exceptionally hard, and had tons of fun. It was us against the world. My boss's strategy was to hire great people and remove roadblocks for them. I've adopted this approach in my own companies and I think it's been a cornerstone for the success we are now seeing at Aquatic Informatics.

In your opinion what are the key trends affecting your industry?

The environmental data monitoring industry is undergoing radical change. The combination of climate change, growing water scarcity and rapid technological advances is prompting governments and private entities to rapidly modernize and enhance the collection, processing and timely publication of environmental data. Extended droughts in California, Australia, and China, and recent floods in Europe are all good examples of how big the problems can be and the scale and timeliness of the response needed. The industry used to move at a glacial pace whereas now it requires real-time collection of data, and fast interpretation and decision-making.


What is the greatest business advice you've ever received?

Ralph Turfus, a well known local tech entrepreneur, told me to take the time to really understand my own core values and then build a company around them. As a small company, you need to be really efficient and responsive, and therefore you need great team alignment. It's amazing how much time and energy can be wasted wrestling the wrong people in the right direction - I like to save my battles for the competition. So we have made a real push to ensure our core values are living and breathing within the company - they aren't just lip service. They are part of our hiring process and drive our team's 360 degree performance reviews within the company.


If you could redo something in your past, what would it be?

Two things. First, in university I had an opportunity to take an international co-op work term. Instead I chose to stay in BC and continue to build my local contacts and experience - it seemed more practical whereas the alternative would be more fun. In hindsight I should have gone for more fun. Also, I now look at the globe as one market and I think I would have gotten to this mindset more quickly if I had worked abroad earlier. Second, I wish I had finished my PhD before throwing myself completely into building Aquatic Informatics. I thought I could do both but really I needed every second and more for Aquatics. I do intend to complete my PhD down the road, but likely with a new focus.


What is an example of an innovative company that people have never heard of?

There is a really inventive Austrian company called S::CAN (www.s-can.at) that are making waves in sensing technology in the water industry. They have built spectrometer technology into portable and robust devices that can be deployed in situ to measure a large and growing list of water quality parameters, such as dissolved organics, nutrients, and contaminants. In the same way that we are transforming the way our industry can handle massive amounts of environmental data in real-time, S::CAN is transforming what our industry can actually measure in real-time - they are opening big doors and it's really exciting for us.


List a few of your favourite business sites.

www.bctia.org
www.acetech.org
www.gazelles.com

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Edward Quilty - Founder, President & CEO

Edward Quilty is the founder of Aquatic Informatics. Ed has worked in the water industry since 1992 and has specialized in automated monitoring, data management and assessment, and environmental impact assessments. Prior to founding Aquatics in 2003, Ed was principal of QA Environmental Consulting, a regional firm focused on designing and managing hydrometric networks. Mr. Quilty is a registered professional biologist with the British Columbia College of Applied Biology, is a Director of the Canadian Water Resource Association, is a member of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and the American Water and Wastewater Association. Ed is also an active member of ACETECH and BCTIA, technology associations focused on rapidly growing British Columbia companies.

Incremental vs Radical Innovation - Do Consumers Care

I was reading yet another article on innovation on the web when a short sentence caught my eye:

Do consumers sincerely differentiate between incremental and radical innovation?

The author went on to describe the difference between the two

As I see it, incremental innovation... is most times, short-term and more profit-oriented. Furthermore, incremental innovation is used by larger corporations who might not have the right tools, creativity or knowledge to create new original cutting-edge products/services yet have the financial capabilities to execute and implement them!

It's true that most radical innovations are actually discrete accumulations of much smaller improvements yet they have the ability to be life changing, and those seem to have seized to exist these days!

In a nutshell, it seems in his view, radical innovation is what happens when you do a lot of incremental innovation. Sooner or later you reach a Tipping Point, where the next iteration is a radically new idea. (For further discussion of Tipping Points read Malcolm Gladwell's fascinating book of the same name.)

In some sense I would have to agree. Often radically new ideas are iterations of ideas already being explored, but aren't seen by the general public. And this is where I would diverge form the author's opinion.

I actually DO believe that big corporations have the " .. right tools, creativity or knowledge to create new original cutting-edge products/services... ". They also have the financial wherewithal to launch them. What they don't have is the ability to take a huge risk.

Large companies are risk adverse by nature (unless you are a financial institution apparently given how we've been watching them implode over the last year.) Large companies often come up with radical new innovative products but for one reason or another choose not to launch.

Sometimes this is due to how destabilizing the innovation would be to current products. Sometimes it is because of entrenched political positions against this type of innovation. Sometimes it's just that the champion is not well connected. (He or she has been known to leave said big company and go out on his or her own for just that reason and successfully launch the radical new idea.

But back to the question: Do consumers care if a new idea is radical or just an incremental innovation? No, I don't think so. Consumers are motivated by products and services that meet their needs. If that need can be met by making a small change - great. If it requires a radical change- that's fine too.

True consumers get a lot more excited about a radical innovation, but there's a place for both in any well run business. Why, because radical innovation is much riskier. For every success there are hordes of failures.

A well run company pursues both strategies. Incremental innovation builds the infrastructure for radical innovation and provides the fall back when things don't turn out quite like planned.

Which happens rather more often that one would wish.

Tackling Telecom: Innovation at Telus

This month we're featuring an interview with Bob Petrovic, Director of Services Planning at Telus. In his role at one of Canada's leading telecommunication companies, Bob has been closely involved with managing innovation and sheparding new communication products through the new product process.

As Bob is at the forefront of one the fastest growing segments in virtual communication, mobile services, I was interested in his take on managing innovation. Huge capital expenditures are common in the telecommunications industry, so Bob has a common challenge on a bigger scale, in these economic times - trying to manage long-term investment with short term risk.

In times of financial crisis where companies of all sizes are challenged with funding projects, innovation tends to come from those smaller, more nimble and less capital intensive companies. However, on the telecommunications front, where building the infrastructure takes massive amounts of money, larger companies with legacy systems have the advantage.

In my interview with Bob I was particularly struck by his comments regarding the disconnect that often occurs between Marketing and R&D. In a technology company, in particular where new product development tends to reside with those involved in technology development, this

communication gap can mean the difference between being first to market with an innovative and successful product and time spent developing products that don't meet consumers' needs.

I've talked before about how crucial I believe it is to develop strong working relationships between Marketing and Product Development. Cross-training and working groups comprised of members of both departments tend to improve communication and prevent "orphan" products. I've seen this time and time again, where a great technology product lacks a champion in marketing and so languishes in development stage or the reverse, when marketing research uncovers a consumer need but, without R&D support never moves beyond the idea stage.

In the fast moving and competitive telecommunications marketplace, this type of disconnect can mean the difference between being first to market, and obtaining critically important patents and scrambling to play catch-up as the industry moves forward. Marketing is tasked with correcting identifying the drivers that rule the market is critical and communicating that to those responsible for developing products to meet those needs. When this type of communication breaks down, the result is lost time and lost opportunities.

Bob points out in our interview how critical it is for those of us on the forefront of innovation to reach out beyond out own industries for new ideas and expand beyond our computer screens for ideas on managing innovation. I know you'll enjoy reading his thoughts on managing innovation in this critically important time.

What is your role at Telus?

My primary responsibility at TELUS is for consumer services planning. The scope of the role is broad, ranging from development of product strategies through to incubation of new mobile and broadband services. The goal for these activities is to align activities across the organization & assess emerging opportunities.

In your opinion what are the key trends affecting your industry?

Economic conditions are obviously a key consideration for network operators, impacting a range of decisions from market planning to capital spending. This will be an ongoing consideration for mobile and wireline service providers for the foreseeable future.

In terms of technology trends, it's fair to say that the rise of 3G adoption, driven by smartphones and mobile applications, is a key mobile trend. Video continues to be a key theme in the home with an increasing number of options for time & placeshifted viewing. As with any trend, there are opportunities and risks that need to be understood and acted upon.

How do you measure innovation success?

Commercial endeavors are ultimately measured by profitability and I don't think innovation can be treated differently. Successful innovations will be those that drive usage and adoption in a sustainable way - they have to fulfill a need and be convenient so that people will want to use them. While forecasting commercial success for new initiatives can be tricky, convenience, as measured across economic (price, cost) and esthetic (ease of use) dimensions, is usually a pretty good indicator of future performance.

What is a biggest pitfall that impedes successful innovation?

In any industry, a disconnect between technology and marketing organizations is probably the greatest hindrance to innovation. Opportunities that arise in one area may not be fully appreciated in the other. Maintaining an on-going conversation across these groups goes a long way to realizing opportunities appropriately by managing priorities & expectations.

What is an example of an innovative company that people have never heard of?

In my industry (and hometown), Teradici stands out as a company that's using technology to solve some real problems today with a great vision for the future. They develop thin client solutions that push computing power into the cloud efficiently and transparently.

Outside my industry, I really like what folks like HippoRoller and Kyoto Energy are doing by creating low-cost, simple solutions to real-world problems for emerging nations. Both are applying innovation in a way that increases convenience for the basic needs of life.

List a few of your favourite sites on innovation.

I find myself gravitating to books more than websites for understanding the art & science of developing ideas - I really liked Blue Ocean Strategy and find myself going back to it often.

Lightreading.com is a great site for telecom developments and they do a great job of covering startups which helps me keep a pulse across a wide range of my industry's topics.

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Bob Petrovic is the Director of Services Planning for TELUS Consumer Solutions. In his decade with TELUS he product managed the mobile computing services portfolio from early telemetry to mobile broadband. Prior to joining TELUS, he launched a number of industry-first solutions for Internet developers. Bob has a Bachelor of Mathematics (Computer Science) from the University of Waterloo. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, 2 kids, and some fish.

Telling stories through numbers - An interview with Stewart Marshall

Stewart Marshall photo courtesy of Kris Krug

This month we are featuring an interview with Stewart Marshall, self-styled, "financial storyteller". I was intrigued by his description of himself as so often we are presented with numbers that, recently frankly are quite appalling. As we struggle to understand the meaning behind these numbers, we look to financial storytellers to interpret them for us.

The good ones put striking numbers in context and, beyond just helping us to interpret them, get us excited about what they mean for the future. Understanding the past is the first step, understanding what this means for the future and the opportunities it opens up for us personally and for our businesses is the next, key step.

As we are constantly bombarded with numbers and headlines about those numbers that can be misleading, the role of the financial storyteller becomes even more important.

The storyteller these days need not only be an expert at his or her craft but also at intersecting with technology in such a way that the word gets spread efficiently to the key people who need and can use it.

I’ll give you an example of a quote in an article I saw just the other day. "Contrary to popular belief, sales of green products are not tanking in a down economy". While this opening line makes me feel good about the opportunities in the green economy, a few paragraphs later (after many readers would have lost interest) I found the following paragraph:

...sales of green products are up 4.1 percent, driven mostly by price increases, as unit sales in this category dropped 6.6 percent in 2008.

This information, of course, leads one to the exact opposite conclusion, hence the need for not only storytellers, but trusted ones. And as we are all increasingly wired, we look to storytellers who can not only tell our story, but also have the social media savvy to disperse that information across the web using the most effective social media tools to reach our target audience.

As business owners, we all struggle to get our message across in a way that is effective and interesting. Creating interest leads to increased understanding and demand, whether for our product or to invest in our companies.

Using the multitude of new tools available on the web from Flickr and YouTube to Slideshare and Twitter we look to financial storytellers to help us get the message across to our stakeholders in an away that is interesting, creative and above all trustworthy.

Who were your early role models and what were the main things you learned from them?

Sir John Harvey Jones, MBE. He rose through the ranks to be Chairman of ICI and turned it around - proving you can run a successful company and have time and respect for everyone. In fact this is a key ingredient to his success. I remember he talked about riding in a company truck for a week just to learn about the problems his drivers experienced. Later, his Troubleshooter TV series showed me the challenges of being a change agent; what an outsider can bring and what they have to face.

Another person who inspired me early in my career was Sir James Dyson. His story about inventing the bagless vacuum cleaner demonstrated how hard it can be to convince people of your ideas and how important perseverance is in achieving your dreams. In a similar vein I was impressed by inventor Sir Trevor Baylis, who found his inspiration for the wind-up radio in the tragedy that is AIDS.

In more recent times, I've been following the fortunes of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and to a lesser degree, Michelin Award winning chef Gordon Ramsay. Both demonstrate a sense of values which I aspire to and show that the age-old idea of honest hard work can pay off.

Links:

Sir John Harvey Jones: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6285160.stm

James Dyson: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/dyson.htm

Trevor Baylis: http://windupradio.com/trevor.htm

Howard Schultz: http://www.myprimetime.com/work/ge/schultzbio/

Gordan Ramsay: http://www.gordonramsay.com/corporate/theman/biography/

Why do you call yourself a financial storyteller?

The succinct answer is that I help organizations tell their story with numbers. The aim of a successful story is to increase understanding. Numbers on themselves tell you little. It is only when you label, reference and put them in context with words and pictures that they make mean something: witness the rise of the pie chart in the late 1980s and 1990s. If you put the numbers together with the narrative and mix in some imagery, then you have a story which will resonate.

In my experience, many people struggle to make the connection between what they want or see is happening and the numbers they have available to them. Whether it's making a pitch to investors as a start-up, evaluating an investment appraisal, understanding business performance or even understanding your customer; there is a financial story to tell. Too often we can get wound up in the detailed financials and miss the bigger picture.

As a financial storyteller I can help you connect what you need in terms of facts and numbers with the meaning and underlying story to increase your understanding.

What is an example of an innovative company that people have never heard of?

BatchBlue Software out of Rhode Island - makers of BatchBook, an online CRM tools designed for small business. I've been impressed by their use of social media to connect with a growing customer base and the speed this gives them when responding. What's more I love the product!

More locally, Anthony Nicalo of Farmstead Wines is doing interesting things around wine making and farming. Anthony enables you to connect with artisan farmers who make rare, handcrafted fine wine. I had the pleasure of meeting Anthony recently when he described his goal to make farming sexy! How innovative is that?

Links:

Batchblue: http://www.batchblue.com/

Farmstead Wines: http://www.farmsteadwines.com/

What key trends do we need to be aware of?

The online world is in many ways a paradox. Through technology we can connect and reach more people. On the flipside, this can make us more insular and locked to our keyboards instead of getting out in the world and meeting people in person. I see a trend for connecting these two pieces so that one feeds the other. Social gatherings of Twitter users demonstrate this, I don't remember groups of MSN Messenger users or AOL Messaging having such impromptu and informal events.

This leads to an increasing trend of people returning to fundamentals. Technology is exciting and can in itself be exciting. What is more exciting and holds more promise is what use this technology can be put to. The world is in a state of transition and people are either through choice or necessity returning to things which don't necessarily require a constant internet connection. This could be spending time with friends, taking more exercise, growing their own food etc. Where it does involve technology, there has to be more of a specific purpose. Whether it's for business or pleasure, technology is now starting to target specific markets instead of a general populous of early adopters.

List a few of your favourite sites on innovation and business.

It feels like a simple answer but I have to mention TED. A wealth of ideas both inspiring and practical delivered in bite-sized chunks. Apartment Therapy is always throwing up new ideas in terms of design. For business related sites, I've been following Robert X Cringely for almost 20 years and I still find his columns, blogs these days; enjoyable.

Links:

www.ted.com

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/

http://www.cringely.com/

Stewart Marshall's bio is available http://www.linkedin.com/in/stewartmarshall

Time to Get Innovative

There's a lot of buzz out there about the impact that this most recent economic downturn will have on innovation. Historically, great innovative ideas have traditionally gained traction as an economy comes out of a recessionary period. That means, of course that the brainstorming, development and initial launch happened during the downturn itself.

A New York Times article, cautions now, It's No Time to Forget About Innovation and like many in the field, we agree. Yet, frequently, those groups with little to show for themselves, i.e. no sales associated with the group and no direct P&L responsibility seem often to be the first areas cut. Rather than look forward when cost cutting is required, most companies look to dissolve those business units that would cause the least harm to the present operations to the company.

In a short sited way, this makes sense. Often companies that create business units focused on innovation that operate in their own silo. As we said before, this does not take advantage of the inherent creativity that abounds within the various operating units themselves and... is tempting to cut during downturns.

The fact is, innovation is inefficient. Hours and days of brainstorming often result in few if any workable ideas. Thousands of engineering dollars spent doesn't guarantee a real success. Innovation is, in some ways, a model of inefficiency. And there's the rub.

Wild market gyrations, frozen credit markets and an overall sour economy herald a new round of corporate belt-tightening. Foremost on the target list is anything inefficient. That's bad news for corporate innovation, and it could spell trouble for years to come, even after the economy turns around.

As creative pack up boxes and head out the door to home based sites and coffee shops, they take their innovative ideas with them. This is, perhaps one of the reasons innovative ideas often come from entrepreneurial ventures. And in bad times, the ranks of entrepreneurs swell and those lone operators often have time on their hands for the inefficient task of innovating.

David Thompson, chief executive and co-founder of Genius.com Inc., based in San Mateo, Calif., says that innovation "has a bad name in down times" but that "bad times focus the mind and the best-focused minds in the down times are looking for the opportunities."

All of this speaks to the issue of managing innovation in a downturn, especially for large corporations invested in producing short term profits, or at least limiting losses, for their shareholders. How to keep the innovative minds in a company from going out the door is an issue faced by most companies in this economy.

What Does It Take To Lead In Open Innovation

We've mentioned the benefits of open innovation on this blog before. We're fans of it if used correctly, which isn't all that easy sometimes. When established organizations attempt to innovate, they usually go down the tried and true path of structured, bureaucratic, top down innovation, from brainstorming to launch.

This is, as we know, not always effective in producing truly innovative results. Pure innovation is often the purview of entrepreneurial firms with no structure of which to speak and a rough and tumble environment. Out of this very model has come though, a prototype for effective leadership in an open innovation system

...open innovation communities provide an opportunity to develop theories of human and social capital in a novel context that lacks pecuniary incentives, hierarchical authority, and formal structure.

A post, Leadership in Open Innovation Communities, builds upon that opportunity and discusses several types of leaders that are present in open innovation communities and takes a stab at which is more effective.

Leadership in such communities depends more on the trust and mobilization of peers than on approval of superiors. To wit, members cannot be fired or forced to participate in any activity, nor can they be compelled to pay attention to any other member. Ascendancy in such relationships relies purely, to borrow a phrase from politics, on "the power to persuade"

The post goes on to discuss "brokers", calculating and politically-savvy operators those most likely to have made it to the top of traditional organizations. And "boundary-spanners" defined as well respected guardians who redirect crucial information both within and outside the firm. Each of these leadership styles has its merits, but boundary-spanners tend to be more respected in an open innovation environment.

This is, of course, obvious. In an open innovation situation, where leadership is determined by the group rather than by upper level management, participants will be most likely to look to the one who garners the most respect AND has the ability to lead.

Unfortunately, far too often, those with a repository of knowledge are not in leadership positions in a corporation, which means for open innovation to truly work, the management structure needs to be broken down. Participants need to disregard title and seek knowledge and innovative thinking, which may be why creative product development groups in corporations tend to be people with young employees not yet as aware of the hidden power structure within the corporation.

Is it possible to change this paradigm? Can we create open innovation working groups in large corporations by assigning group members from various functions and expect them to ignore position and title?

Well. Yes. Maybe. The make-up of the team, in terms of personality and ability to lead or follow plays perhaps a bigger role than in traditional work terms where expertise is valued. In some ways a Machiavellian approach to putting together a team of personalities seems to be in order. Careful consideration of how team members will interact and who might emerge as a leader seems appropriate.

Does this follow true to the spirit of open innovation? I don't know, but it's one avenue for large, established corporations to follow.

Interview: Rodney Gainer

I have been very fortunate to be in touch with Rodney Gainer over the last couple of years. He has worked as the Director of Business Enhancement for the Innovation Resource Centre for more than four years. During his time there, he assisted new inventors and established entrepreneurs on their commercialization efforts.

Rodney holds a business administration diploma from the college of New Caledonia and currently works as web developer for Noratek Solutions, one of the largest technology companies in North-Central BC.

I had the opportunity to interview Rodney about the Innovation Resource Centre and innovation in general. Here are his responses to these questions.

What is the Innovation Resource Centre?

Innovation Resource Centre enables economic growth and diversification based on the commercialization of innovative technology in the Central Interior of BC. We provide support to new and established entrepreneurs through both one to one advising as well as workshops and seminars. We organize networking and idea exchange opportunities and pursue an active communications and research program that creates a broader, better understanding of the role of technology in our economy.

Who were your early role models and what were the main things you learned from them?

Ray Savidan the owner of a forest company. I learned not only to work hard but to work smart. Physical strength only get you so far. Ray taught me to work smarter not harder and to trying new things, not to be afraid to think outside the box.

Dawn Miller, former Executive Director at Innovation Resource Centre, taught me to know my limits and how to work within them. By knowing your limits you learn when to ask for help before you actually need it. Also the ability to be a good listener and how to look at he big picture.

In your opinion what are the key trends affecting the innovation landscape?

Available talent and connectivity are keys to innovation.

The current labor shortages changing how people do business. They are embracing more automated systems that are able to do the jobs that used to be done by a person. The simplest example is the voice mail I got left the other day about the latest Canadian Blood Services blood drive campaign.

Connectivity is more than just a connection to the Internet. It is also to your personal and business networks. It is not only what you know it is who you know who has access to the resources that you will help you achieve success.

What is an example of an innovative company that people have never heard of?

Alterna Energy Inc. believes the world should strive to maximize the value from precious natural resources. Hence the question most often heard around Alterna, 'Why combust when you can carbonize?' Most biomass energy conversion systems take biomass such as wood waste and process it to produce heat energy and ash through combustion or gasification processes. Alterna's 'enviro carbonization' process will produce high quality carbon and heat energy which can be converted into electricity. Carbon is found in all biomass and is used in hundreds of valuable carbon products used by people around the world. Carbon for medicinal use. Carbon for filtering our water. Carbon for use as a reductant in the metal smelting industry. Carbon is a key element in our complex world and can also provide a renewable source of green energy.

What is a biggest pitfall that impedes successful innovation?

People. Many inventors and entrepreneurs are very short sighted when it comes to the success of their inventions and businesses. They believe they can do everything to make their product or service successful which makes them their own worst enemy. To achieve success people need to work with people who can get their innovation to the next level. Is it better to have 100% of nothing or 10% of a million dollars?

List a few of your favorite sites on Innovation.

www.changethis.com - Change This ' uses pdf's, blogs and the web to spread important ideas and change minds.

www.sethgodin.typepad.com - Seth Godin's blog - the agent of change.

www.innovationtools.com - Innovation Tools - a collection of resources on business, innovations, creativity and brainstorming.

www.thecis.ca - The Centre for Innovation Studies - a non-profit in Calgary, Alberta that focuses on research, networking and education.

Thanks Again Rodney!

Protect Your Cleantech - IP May Play A Role In Determining Who Leads The Pack

With Vancouver named one of the top 10, "New Silicon Valleys" of the clean tech industry, worldwide that is, the role of innovation and the associated pitfalls is on my mind these days. Burnaby based, Ballard Power Systems may be said to have pioneered the fuel cell industry and ex employees are busily creating new companies and uses for the technology.

In the midst of all of this activity certain essential tasks associated with successful innovation can be overlooked. In any rapidly evolving industry, inevitably innovation will overlap and application of existing technologies will tend to be "discovered" by several, if not many different companies. So, it is in cleantech.

That activity that will play such an important role in the ultimate success of a clean technology product turns out to be protection of intellectual capital.

I've written before about the importance of intellectual property protection. A post Mass High Tech.com, Energy, Clean Tech and IP: Protecting Innovation, speaks specifically to the challenges firms in the cleantech industry face.

While an important component to any technology-based company's success, intellectual property is especially important for "clean tech" ventures encompassing energy or environmentally related technologies.

For clean tech companies, it's important to note that investors consider strong IP essential for both first to market companies and those that follow (to protect a key technology for later market entry or licensing/acquisition.)

Cleantech is, of course, an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of technologies and spans a variety of different industries. The rationale for application of intellectual property protection therefore varies by industry. Does it promote investor confidence? Is it important as a defensive strategy? Can it be used to encourage licensing down the road?

Clearly, whether or not the reason is immediately obvious, innovators in the space need to take steps early on to protect technological innovation and continue to revisit the applicability of those technologies as the company grows and the discovers new uses for existing patented processes.

Similarly, don't dismiss patent protection for clean tech ventures with a long time-frame to market or long technology lifespan. Strategic patent filing approaches may be available in some jurisdictions, increasing patent enforcement life, for example, until the effort reaches a certain state of commercial viability. It's also possible to file initial applications relating to core aspects of the technology, then stagger subsequent filings for incremental changes.

Like the early days of the dotcom boom, intellectual property protection will play a big role in who turns out to be the winners and the losers in cleantech. Those companies which use forethought and innovative thinking, in every aspect of their business, including legal protection, will be much better positioned to be on the winning end. As new uses for the current technology, as well as, new applications for technologies currently in development arise, appropriate intellectual property protection will be key.

I know I sound like an advertisement for the legal profession, but in an industry highly dependent on break through innovation, the appropriate IP may be the deciding point between leadership and second place.

You Just Don't Understand - The Conflict Between Corporate And Business Unit Innovators

One of the challenges that every large business seems to face is developing an actionable innovation strategy. In smaller companies innovation often happens naturally. Company employees and founders gather in a room to discuss day-to-day operations. The conversation veers off into a brainstorming session; everyone gets excited. Tasks to make the innovative new idea happen are assigned and off everyone goes to implement the latest great idea, often dropping other initiatives along the way. But, that's OK.

In larger organizations with more developed job descriptions; bonus structures tied to quarterly or annual performance and clear lines of communication drawn, taking an innovative idea to fruition can be frustrating and hampered by conflicting priorities.

So, it was interesting when I ran across this article The difference between corporate and business unit innovation at Innovate On Purpose I don't think you can be any clearer than

... the corporate team and business unit teams are a lot like a pushmi-pullyu - both want to innovate, for different reasons and purposes and have different motivations and concerns.

Corporate strategist are often the champions of innovation. They may be innovators at heart or they may just realize that the key to growth goes beyond continual improvement. Stellar growth requires a constant parade of new products and new ideas, as well as, improvements on existing ones.

However, corporate strategists, while great at cheerleading are rarely in a position to implement innovative strategies. Sometimes they are in advisory or ancillary roles and not in a line position with the authority to allocate resources. If they are responsible for a business unit, they may be so far or so long away from actual tactical responsibility that they may not be aware of the enormous resources needed to actually create and launch an innovative product or service. More importantly, they may not have the authority, which often comes directly from the top, to change priority so that time and resources can be given over for innovation.

Bottom up innovation is stymied because clear lines between business units and the corporate power brokers may be limited or, more often, corporate executives feel powerless or do not understand that a priority shift is needed to accomplish the goal of innovation. Worse, those with the power to allocate resources to innovation may they themselves have conflicting priorities. But there are options to break this gridlock.

- a corporate team focused on longer term disruptions that are suggested by the business units that simply don't have the time or bandwidth to focus on what's next, and a corporate team that provides trends and strategy insights to business unit teams to extend their visibility. A corporate team can provide resources and funding to assist the business units with their mid and longer term innovation needs and take on the creation of new markets or "blue oceans".

In my opinion, this outline has possibilities. It does however veer away from the traditional path toward innovation - setting up separate innovation teams. Managers pulled from various business units and assigned to a group tasked with developing innovative new products. While I agree that corporate innovators have their place. Engaging them in the process and more importantly, getting them to back the project and free up resources I think is a better role for them to play.

Real innovation travels up the corporate ladder, not down. Just give a cross functional innovation team the resources they need and the power to make things happen and get out of the way.

Finalists anncounced for the 2008 Burnaby Business Excellence Awards

The Burnaby Board of Trade announced their finalists for the 2008 Burnaby Business Excellence Awards. Congratulations to the nominees!

The finalists in the 8 award categories include:

Burnaby Community Spirit Award Finalists:
- Best Buy Canada Ltd.
- Brentwood Town Centre
- Scotiabank
- Vancity South Slope Community Branch
- Westminster Savings Credit Union, Metrotown Community Branch

Business Innovation Award Finalists:
- Day4 Energy
- Icron Technologies Corp.
- M&R Environmental
- Snap Technologies Marketing
- Web Tech Wireless

Entrepreneurial Spirit Award Finalists:
- Icron Technologies Corp.
- Image Path Printing Solutions
- Imagine Redesign
- MetroLeap Media Inc.
- Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc.

Environmental Sustainability Award Finalists:
- Day4 Energy
- Encorp Pacific (Canada)
- Jacques Whitford AXYS Ltd.
- M&R Environmental
- SFU Facilities Services

Non-for-Profit Organization of the Year Award Finalists:
- Basketball BC
- Bonsor Seniors Society
- The Neil Squire Society
- L'Arche Greater Vancouver
- Progressive Housing Society

Business Person of the Year Award Finalists:
- Keith Beedie, The Beedie Group
- Richard Davies, G&F Financial
- Don Hardman, 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup
- Randy Hnatko, Trainwest Management & Consulting
- Coro Strandberg, Strandberg Consulting

Small Business of the Year Award Finalists:
- Binary Stream Software, Inc.
- Jubilee Cycle
- Petal Pushers
- Simba's Grill
- Snap Technologies Marketing

Business of the Year Award Finalists:
- ABC Recycling
- The Beedie Group
- Best Buy Canada Ltd.
- Kin's Farm Market
- Stormtech

Management by Not Having Any - A Key to Innovation?

I just attended a workshop co-hosted by Ralph Kerle of the Creative Leadership Forum and was struck by his discussion of Arup.

Who?

Well, if you spent a significant amount of time watching the Beijing Olympics this year you may have seen their work: The Water Cube- The National Aquatics Center where the swimming events were held. Other projects to their credit include The Sydney Opera House and the Millennium Bridge in London.

Arup is an engineering firm... of sorts. Actually it is an organization held in trust for its 9000 staff members including engineers, architects, designers and consultants in over 37 countries. There are no shareholders and no discernable management structure. Yet, they manage to work on over 10,000 at any one time and build some of the most memorable and innovative structures in the world today.

One might call them innovators.

As Ralph Kerle wrote in his article Creative Leadership and the Water Cube at the Beijing Olympics,

... innovation in the building industry is very difficult... Every building is a prototype that mustn't fail. In structural engineering, you just cannot fail or the building will fall down.

This might lead to the conclusion that engineering firms must remain risk adverse at all costs, but risk adverse doesn't mean and mustn't mean forgoing innovation, for one important reason.

The production of the basic building materials on which our civilization exists is depleting our natural resources. As the global population rushes towards 9 billion, our consumption is exceeding our resources. The destruction of the rainforests, the depletion of oil supplies, the failure to find reliable energy alternatives and food shortages offer compelling evidence of this occurring.

The lead in changing the risk-adverse paradigm in the building industry therefore falls to innovative firms like Arup. Founded by Ove Arup, a philosophy and mathematics major from Copenhagen, Arup is unique in its management approach and its business philosophy which might just be little different than what I claimed here was one of my favorite quotes:

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison.

At Arup, new employees are introduced to the firm philosophy and encouraged to go and seek out projects that hold his or her interest. The new employee is expected to be innovative and creative and a full fledged partner in the project, as all team members are.

Ove Arup's philosophy is the guiding principle that enables the company to create such beautiful, innovative and practical structures.

Arup recognised individuals as being innately creative. He reasoned if you provided employees with the simple humanitarian conditions of self organisation and creative freedom, an employer gained loyalty, respect and integrity from the employee, these values became recognised and respected by stakeholders and as a consequence the organisation was seen as reasonable, reliable and ethical.

Is this philosophy transferable to other types of companies? Of course and it must be because we are all faced with a global crisis in the making, as our natural resources are depleted.

Is this philosophy and management structure the only way to create innovative products. Of course not, but providing employees with an environment where they are valued for their creativity; their input is solicited and where they work on projects they like is certainly one way that's worth trying.

Insights from Honeywell's IP Expert in India

We were delighted to recently become engaged in a dialogue with an engineer and intellectual property expert, Suddha Basu, from the Honeywell Technology Solution Labs in India. He is nothing short of an IP junkie, having responsibilities at HTSL that include: intellectual property research analytics, patent mapping, IP mining, technology clustering, IP licensing analysis, IP led business growth, planning and strategic innovation counseling.

Honeywell is a large and diverse manufacturing company that is primarily the 1999 merger product of US defense giant AlliedSignal and the well branded consumer products manufacturer that made products like home heating thermostats. Wikipedia describes the company as "a major American multinational conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations."

Before joining HTSL last year, Suddha worked for Wipro, serving multiple Fortune 500 clients as an IT OEM specialist. He also hosted a radio show at Entertainment Network India which isn't something common to most engineers and IP experts.

Suddha was quite willing to share some things about himself, some trends to be mindful of, current examples of innovation successes in India, how to measure innovation success and avoid a common pitfall. Here are his responses to these questions.

Who were your early role models and what were the main things you learned from them?

When I was younger I thought that conceptualizing a scientific principle or manufacturing novel products with great lot of complex math behind them, are the most critical factors in determining the success or failure of that invention, little did I think about the usefulness of inventions which were never commercialized or inventions which never became an innovation, ( i.e. a new stuff which did not become popular to its end users en masse) In my high school days, my school teachers, various discovery channel science shows and the Indian IT boom of the 1990s, made me realize that consumer needs and /or wants when get satisfied in a product or service, creates an innovation. And that is not always necessarily related to difficult mathematical equations. As we all know great things are always simple in their concept.

What key trends do we need to be aware of?

When a highly experienced researcher or a veteran marketer who is an expert in his / her area or market, working for a big university or a multi billion dollar corporation, suddenly quits his/her job and creates or joins an obscure startup company; is an example when you should expect a trend to emerge in a small and niche technology / market gap. Mere patent numbers, financial or market research data don't give you any real trend. It's the people behind all those numbers who can show you the future of science, society and money!

What is an example of an innovative company in India that people have never heard of?

Till date human civilization has showed us a model with industrial production, human migration for economic prosperity and proprietary knowledge owned by the wealth creators.

However, in the coming years a more socially committed innovative business model (but also with great profits after tax!) might be showcased by India or any country with an emerging economy. I believe where there are more problems with fewer resources but with more creative heads to think about such problems, then innovation flourishes there. Nimbhkar Agricultual Research Institute (NARI) is a non profit research organization developing very low tech but promising bio-fuel technologies of the near future! http://nariphaltan.virtualave.net/

How do you measure innovation success?

This could be measured if we notice, high market share with high profits, growing and varied product line and very less engineering or technology input costs. For Example; Google and Coca Cola, these two companies have the lowest budget for their global intellectual property protection needs. And as I previously mentioned innovations are not always inventions and thus are not necessarily measured by patent strength, patent activity or trade mark portfolio.

What is a biggest pitfall that impedes successful innovation?

For a knowledge intensive business, to impede a successful innovation, a lack of either or both the factors of, Organizational culture and individual mindset of each and every of all the employees, (and not only the VPs and the chairman,) matter the most. In such a situation, everyone stops thinking as being the primary beneficiary from an innovative product or service launched into the market by their company. This employee isolation is not good for innovation. All R&D employees should think of themselves as a scientist and also as a marketer, all at the same time. A less rigid job role / hierarchy help in achieving this impediment.

What advantages does Honeywell gain from having a major global R&D lab now based in India?

Indian engineers, scientists and managers who had previously lived in foreign countries for their jobs or education are usually happy to work from the Indian soil, while still being associated with an R&D giant like Honeywell.

Thank you Suddha for sharing these insights with us.

Why Vancouver - The City's Surprising Rebirth as an Innovation Centre

Does Silicon Valley in California come to mind when I mention innovation? How about Boston or the Research Triangle in North Carolina?

How about Vancouver?

Traditionally a western outpost far from the major city centers of Toronto and Montreal, In Canada, Vancouver as often played second fiddle. Yes, it's a large metropolis but, compared to the large companies of Eastern Canada, Vancouver was a backwater devoted to mining and timber.

No Longer.

Increasingly fast growing high tech companies are locating major operations in Vancouver. Microsoft recently opened a new development center where software engineers and developers will work on over half of Microsoft's products. And of course, Vancouver is home to a thriving cleantech community.

Sure, Vancouver's proximity to high tech centers in Washington and California plays a part, but that's not the only reason. So, what makes Vancouver so special? The cost of living is high as compared to many Canadian and US cities. It's a long way from San Francisco and New York. It's not all that well known on the international scene, though that is changing.

Probably the better question is what makes any city good for innovation.

Jeffrey Chu, of Fast Company in a podcast discusses some of What Makes a City Fast. Chu cites a confluence of different factors including diversity and in migration. Both of which characterize Vancouver. He goes on, in a specific piece, Fast Cities - 2007 discussing Vancouver, that besides being named one of the world's most livable cities in a Mercer survey...

Its EcoDensity initiative aims to focus that growth by developing more crowded neighborhoods at the city center. The dual goal: to build sustainable neighborhoods with the scale to make green energy technologies affordable and to preserve surrounding forest and mountain ecosystems.

Our take is that Vancouver has much of what is needed to support thriving companies. Our diverse population brings an international flavor. Like many West Coast cities, proximity to the Far East and Far Eastern manufacturing centers has brought a highly educated foreign workforce to our shores. The relatively mild climate has made them stay, bringing diverse perspectives on life and on business, a key for successful innovation as we've mentioned in previous posts.

Vancouver's highly skilled workforce and established technology companies like Electronic Arts has attracted other and often younger workers to the city and created a cultural center with nightlife and activates that attract still more workers.

Vancouver's proximity to major tech centers in the US plays an important role as well as we've mentioned, but there's more. Canadian government support for development of newer, innovative industries and the spotlight that has turned to Vancouver, as host of the 2010 Olympic Games has encouraged companies to take another look at the city.

We believe that cities that are prepared to host innovation in the 21^st need to be diverse, green, creative and influential. Vancouver is certainly one of them.

10 Key Ingredients to Corporate Innovation

Yesterday in the midst of scanning a variety of articles on innovation, as I do on a regular basis, I came across this post on Now Europe listing the top eight, actually ten, attributes companies that successfully innovate share. I've summarized them below, but you can read the full article here.

1. Top management buy-in

If senior management do not buy into your innovation process, no one else will.

2. Budget

One of the most effective ways for senior management to buy into innovation is for them to allot budget for the initiative.

3. Communication

Once your initiative is ready to launch, it is critical that people know about it, what it is meant to accomplish and how they should participate.

4. Rewards

Complementing communications is a rewards scheme for participating in your innovation activities. Rewards should be relatively small and recognise participation rather than good ideas.

5. Dedicated Innovation People

Assign an individual, individuals or a team the mandate of managing your organisation's innovation strategy.

6. Collaborative Innovation Tools

Enterprises need collaborative tools. Each individual has her own tools and methods for creative thinking, but rather than demand the use of a particular personal creativity tool for all employees, firms should give employees the freedom to use the tools that work best for each person.

7. Effective Evaluation System

It is important that your evaluation process is not a purely critical one. It is easy for evaluators to find all the weak points in an idea. But this can result in very promising ideas being rejected. So, evaluators should be asked not merely to criticise ideas, but also to provide suggestions on overcoming the problems they have identified.

8. Willingness to Invest in Innovative Ideas

Surprisingly, many organisations invest in creativity and innovation tools, but then fail to implement the most innovative ideas they generate.This is usually the result of excessive risk aversion, large approval committees, too much internal bureaucracy or a combination of these. Whatever is the cause, the result is a creativity programme which generates ideas rather than an innovation strategy in which creative ideas are implemented.

9. Enthusiasm

.Enthusiasm encourages participation in the initiative, makes people feel good about their participation and tends to encourage more radical thinking. If employees know that their crazy ideas are enthusiastically welcomed, they are encouraged to push their creative thinking ever further.

10. Diversity

..., if your firm employees a wide range of people with different educational backgrounds, different kinds of experience and of different cultures, your firm will have the advantage of breadth of knowledge, experience and thinking. That results in a wider range of ideas and a higher level of creativity.

What I like about this list is that it covers a wide spectrum of necessary "ingredients" that will result in effective launches of great innovative products... over and over again. Too often companies manage to develop and launch an innovative new product in spite of their corporate culture rather than because of it.

Large companies often embark on an innovation campaign, throw a few creative people at it and railroad an idea through and, if they're lucky, the product is a success. But too often it IS luck that plays the largest role in the achievement, which makes the whole process... unrepeatable.

To create a true innovation machine a company needs to look closely at its culture and determine what changes need to be made to re-energize the business and direct it toward innovation. This isn't an overnight process, which may be why the most innovative companies tend to be those that are smaller, newer and have not yet developed the stagnant corporate culture that typifies large businesses on this side of the Atlantic... or perhaps everywhere.

Not to say that it isn't possible for a large company to become innovative. Many of the steps listed above are easy to implement and should be applied across the corporation. Others require wholesale change which may be a bit difficult in an established company. (Who wants to fire half the workforce and hire on new to meet point number 10, Diversity?)

Other changes may need to be made on a smaller scale in a separate operating unit, dedicated to innovation. Many organizations have found success this way. This strategy too will fail though if only lip service is paid to innovation in the larger corporation.

Every company needs to determine the best way to create an innovation strategy that works best with their particular challenges and within or at least compatible with their own corporate culture. We've helped clients from a variety of different segments to reach these goals by keeping this fact, and the 10 ingredients for innovation success, in mind.

Watching And Waiting For Early Adopters On Web 2.0

The credit for the explosion in Web 2.O companies goes to early adopters and Web 2.0 companies' ability to reach them. Unlike the Web 1.0 companies of the early part of the century which, diverse though they were, focused on one to one interaction with consumers, Web 2.0 companies focus on multi user platforms.

Web 1.0 companies were selling something; supplying something; providing something for individual users. Web 2.0 companies are providing platforms for users to create their own experience…with other users. Think Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, FriendsFeed, Flickr, blogs and wikis.

Early adopters, that is, the technologically savvy have played a big role in driving the popularity of these new companies. When you're a tech or Internet Company, your early adopters, the ones that eventually drive your business or sometimes are your whole business, are easy to find.

But there are ramifications of Web 2.0 and the companies it spawned for traditional companies, old line manufacturers, service providers and even offline retailers too. Web 2.0 companies have made it much, much easier for many traditional companies to find innovators and early adopters for their products and reach them with marketing messages...maybe.

While frequently early adopters are associated with technological products, the basis for the theory Everett Rogers developed that segments users across a bell curve based on how quickly they adopt innovations, is applicable to just about any category of product.

Two key challenges marketers face is finding and communicating with early adopters and crossing the chasm where momentum picks up and the product gains acceptance by the early majority. Web 2.0 solves both of these problems for many companies.

If you follow Lazarfeld and Katz' Two Step Flow Model, which goes something like this:

... mass media information is channeled to the "masses" through opinion leadership. The people with most access to media, and having a more literate understanding of media content, explain and diffuse the content to others.

You can see why the new way of communicating, creates a funnel which smart marketers can use to direct marketing messages to the wider market. Opinion leaders have always played a key role in the success or failure of new products. In the 21^st word of mouth marketing is becoming one of THE key strategies used to launch a product.

Seth Godin writes this week in The Myth of Launch PR (which by the way, I found when it popped up on Socialbrowse) about companies that passed on the big media spend usually associated with a new product launch: Starbucks, Apple, Nike, Harry Potter, Google, William Morris, The DaVinci Code, Wikipedia, Snapple, Geico, Linux, Firefox and yes, Microsoft. (All got plenty of PR, but after the launch, sometimes a lot later).

Many of those names you'll recognize because... someone told you how wonderful the product was. Today that's even easier and happens at a much faster speed through social networking sites, blogs and other Web2.0 companies.

Finding and exploiting that user or users that can spread the word about a new innovation, cheaply and quickly is the Holy Grail of marketers in the 21^st century. But, the quest is not without its challenges.

Social networks and book marking sites frequently rise and fall before anyone has a good grasp on the audience they serve. Unlike the mainstream media, potential reviewers are fickle. They agree then choose not to review a product. (OK, sometimes the mainstream media does this too, but less often.) They create a big presence and attract a large following ...then disappear because life gets in the way. They get lost in the shuffle overshadowed by tech savvy, early adopters of the Web 2.0 TECHNOLOGY.

Just as marketers scrambled to try to determine how most effectively use Web1.0 technology, we'll struggle with Web 2.0 in its nascent stage. We know that early adopters are much easier to find now…if we could only figure out how to locate them. :P

Burnaby Board of Trade's Know You Neighbours

1. Full name and position/title: Tatsuya Nakagawa, President and CEO

2. Company/Organization Name: Atomica Creative Group

3. Company website: www.atomicacreative.com

4. Education/Credentials:

University of San Francisco, University of British Columbia

5. Average meetings per month: 20

6. Name a skill or talent you possess that is not in your job description (i.e. marketing background; can speak 3 languages)

Tennis Coach and NCAA Division 1 Tennis Player

Brown Belt - Karate

7. What makes your job fun?

New and innovative products and technologies.

8. Personal Peeves?

Bad cell phone manners

9. Favourite quote?

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison

10. Name one person of influence who is in your professional network

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple.

11. Who inspires you? Any mentors or role models?

Thomas Edison. Tiger Woods.

12. Imagine you had a working lunch with three prominent (or fictional) people.

Richard Branson, Virgin Group

Russell Simmons, Rush Communications

A.G. Lafley, P&G

13. Your favourite website is:

LinkedIn.com

14. Name one thing you cannot live without:

Family

15. List committees, organizations, or boards you sit on or have been a part of.

Burnaby Board of Trade, Board of Director

Japan-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Former Director

BC Export Awards, Steering Committee

BC Supply Chain Career Network, Former Director

16. What are you currently reading? Any favourite books?

Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell

Innovators Dilemma, Clayton M Christensen

Unleashing the Idea Virus, Seth Godin

17. What would be the professional legacy you'd like to leave behind? (i.e. increase sales by 300%; make corporate social responsibility a natural business practice; introduce technology that changes our lives).

To help change the global corporate innovation success rate from 25% (currently) to over 50%.