This past weekend, I finally watched the latest Star Trek movie (quite entertaining). In reconnecting with the franchise, it reminded me how innovative Gene Roddenberry (and his writers) were in developing some remarkable ideas, like the Transporter.

But despite the “genius” of Roddenberry’s ideas, it’s a stark reminder that ideas aren’t inventions; meaning just because you’ve thought of something doesn’t make it your invention. Last time I checked, Gene doesn’t have a patent on the Transporter, the Replicator, the Warp Drive, or any other Star Trek created idea. Turning ideas into reality is hard, and that’s where the true genius is – let’s not forget the words of Thomas Edison:

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Here we’ll explore the requirements for an “invention”, and the stages for successful commercialization.

What makes for a patentable invention
According to the USPTO, “a patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion”. So, there has to be some real manifestation of the idea in order to protect your IP (for more information check out this link). However, having an invention alone is just a ticket to entry, for an invention to be patentable it must meet the following criteria.
[Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer and hope to never be one].

1. Statutory: You’ve got something that is even eligible for patent protection
2. Novel: The invention you’re claiming was not publicly disclosed more than a year before you filed
3. Useful: Your invention serves a potentially commercial purpose, and includes “operativeness”, that is, if your invention cannot perform the intended purpose, it’s not “useful”
4. Nonobvious: You’ve come up with something thats an evident improvement over the “prior art” (existing products and processes)

Patents Aren’t Businesses
Defensible technology does not ensure success. I don’t need to go into much more detail here, as I focus a lot on this topic; however, extra credit goes to anyone who can identify the object in the image to the right — which is the epitome of this rule.

Actually, Derek Sivers does a better job at illustrating this quantitatively, in his post “Ideas are just a multiplier”. Basically he says that execution determines the return on a venture, where the quality of the idea is the multiplier.

Good Businesses May Not Have Patents
I know it’s hard for the venture-backed-startup-mindset crowd to realize, but across many industries, success can be had where there is (gasp) no defensible technology (anyone know this image?). Again, we have, and will continue to discuss this further on this blog.

A Few Takeaways
OK, so nothing earth shattering here, but a reminder that having an idea is only the beginning of the journey: you have to develop the technology, find a market, and build a business if you want to turn that idea into something lucrative. So feel free to reference this post the next time you hear any of these classic gems come up at your next cocktail party:

• “Why didn’t I think of that?” -  this is actually the highest form of flattery when people (finally) bestow it on your “obvious” invention
• “My name should also be on the patent because we discussed it over coffee
• “I thought of Facebook [or other commercialized venture] years ago”
• “I’m going to mail myself a letter with this idea to protect it”

By the way, for those in the neighborhood, feel free to catch Lime Design’s presentation at the MIT Enterprise Forum event tomorrow night to hear the story of Lime Tree Cove’s Barmaid, about how we turned an idea into an invention, and what we’re doing to turn that invention into a business.

We’re fast approaching the final month of the year.

Who’s going to admit it? At least one of us has said “I don’t know where it went!” It’s almost as traditional as putting mince pies out for Santa!

Have you actually considered what you did achieve this year?  Whether it’s in business or your personal life, what can you honestly say you are proud to have accomplished in 2009?

The beginning of a new year can start with great intentions filled with New Year’s Resolutions and comments such as “This is the year it will happen”. The question is, at what point do we review the last twelve months, allowing ourselves to celebrate successes and use our experience to improve?

The answer is NOW!  Grab a piece of paper and a pen…..

What were your three principal ambitions for this year?  In no particular order, write one at the top of the page, another in the middle and the last near the bottom.  Underneath each, write the answers to the following:

• How successful were you on a scale of 1 to 10?
• What would have made the difference between the score you gave and a 10….or an 11?!!
• How often did you monitor your progress?  Would it have been helpful to have done this more often?
• If your priorities changed throughout the year, did you adapt your goals to ensure they were still realistic and achievable?
• Did you use all resources available to you?  What or who else could you have used?

Take five minutes away from these questions to make a cup of tea, check your email or make some calls.

……go on, put the kettle on!

Now, imagine the answers you have in front of you are not yours, but those of a colleague who has requested your help. They’ve asked for your opinion on each of the points and are in need of complete honesty to help them improve for the future. What would you say to them?

• Do you think the scores they gave were fair?  
• If it wasn’t a 10, was something holding them back? 
• What obstacles prevented them from achieving each of their goals
• How could they have overcome them?
• In what way have you seen them progress and grow this year? 
• What do you see as their main achievements?

Finally, I’d like you to raise your mug (you DID make that tea, didn’t you?!) and congratulate yourself on everything you achieved during such a testing year – here’s to even more success in 2010….CHEERS!!

I’ve been looking to out source the development of my applications for the iPhone. I just am no where as knowledgeable on the subject as I’d need to be if I want to get an app out anytime soon.

I’ve got ideas, no money, and very little time to devote to coding – rather, learning to code. I also have very little talent in designing a UI or any sort of fashion sense for that matter. So I need to find people who would be interested in helping me out and help build a small company. Nothing too serious, at least not yet.

I’ll need a developer and a graphic designer who will work for free until our app makes us money. Well that’s a dumb idea right? Who’s going to be willing to work for free?  I certainly am not giving 45-60 hours a week to a company for free now, so who would want to tack on more side work for no immediate return?

I know, it’s a shot in the dark, but I have to at least try and see what happens. If no one is really interested, it won’t mean the end of it. I will just have to accept that I won’t be selling apps as soon as I would like to.

As for the ideas…

The Task Manager App
For team environments, having real time updates for on-going tasks saves time and energy. Having a slim, efficient tool to keep everyone informed while on the go could increase productivity.

Not too easy since this will require a server(s) for the push notification system to work. This is where I get stuck since I have no cost recovery method in place or even planned yet. I would like to keep this application a “one time fee” thing, and something reasonable like $2.99.

The Social Music App
A simple, one button interface that updates your status on the social sites of your choosing with what you’re listening to at the moment.  The idea would be to keep this as simple and as quick as possible.  Launch the app while the iPod/Music player is running, push one button, watch progress of the update, then exit app.

The accounts for each social site would be configured through a one time setup process which would run the first time you launch the app.  This would be a pretty standard utility type app with a very sleek and snappy UI.

If you’re interested, hop on over to the contact page and drop a line of your choosing.

start business,work less , earn enough, be happy http://ping.fm/O5STX

One from the Archives (Circa 2000)

I think everyone at sometime has probably dreamed about running their own business. The freedom to do it better by doing it your way.

But beware your dream doesn’t become a nightmare. The price of freedom is high.

99% of all start-ups fail within 10 years.

So ask yourself this question: How can I survive the odds?

The self-employed professional tends to value freedom and independence. For these people industry respect and quality are equal, if not more important, drivers than money.

That’s why the successfully self-employed are always very busy people.

They think in terms: My expertise, My time, My money

They are constantly threatened by others: The weak let them down. The strong are unwelcome competition.

The value driver is to always be “Be Better”.

The problem is they do not have the resources to deliver on the promise in a truly commercial context. They always want to be “Be Better” and yet they simultaneously suffer from the flexibility and the limitation of the “power of one”.

The daily challenge they face is finding work, then delivering it on time and in fill and then find the time to make sure the clients pay. Depending on their cycle their business capability is either higher than their sales or they are swamped with work. This why business continuity is a real challenge for the self-employed. They sit at the bottom of the industry food chain.

These are highly intelligent people operating a very dumb business model. The power of one.

In contrast successful business people are busy building networks.

They think in terms of  where is my next job coming from and who is available to do the work?

They also recognise that all business is brokerage.

“It’s not what I can buy it for that counts, it’s what I can sell it for!” 

They think in terms of Other people’s expertise, Other people’s time, Other people’s money

They may not have all the skills to deliver on the promise but they know that what they don’t have they can find. All they are really interested in is getting paid and getting a referral out of the client.

They are constantly strengthened by others:

The weak present an opportunity to make a profit.
The strong are invited to strengthen the business.

As you can see successful business people think differently to the professional and the self-employed.  That’s why, in the end, one owns the business and the other just works for it.

Don’t worry there is nothing to be ashamed about if you think and act like a professional. After all that is how you have been conditioned to think. Not only at School and University but also in the workplace.  

However, if you are thinking about going into business and you think like a professional then take my advice: Don’t. Stay where you are. The time to leave and set up shop is when you are thinking like a business person. Until then enjoy the fruits of your career: )

If you enjoyed this then you may like to look at eBusiness? It is just Business Process Re-Engineering on steroids. This earlier post deals with the problems of managing new business growth by employing smart process and smart technology to offset the ongoing market shortage in smart people.

Dinamismo da rede entre universidades e empresas é “único no mundo”

Três anos depois da sua criação, o programa Carnegie Mellon Portugal é já considerado um caso de estudo pela universidade norte-americana. Segundo Tim McNulty, vice-presidente das relações governamentais da CMU, é raro encontrar uma iniciativa que agregue educação, investigação e comercialização da tecnologia numa rede tão dinâmica. E isso surpreendeu o responsável norte- -americano, que este mês veio a Portugal participar num workshop sobre transferência de tecnologia organizado pela UTEN Portugal - University Technology Enterprise Network.

“É o único programa deste género no mundo e tem uma intensidade que muitas partes dos Estados Unidos já perderam”, disse ao i Tim McNulty, adiantando que um dos objectivos futuros do programa CMU Portugal é facilitar a entrada de start-ups portuguesas nos Estados Unidos e vice-versa. “Há uma energia tremenda por detrás destas iniciativas, algo que poucas vezes vi noutros países do mundo”, considera o responsável, sublinhando que “o facto de Portugal ter conseguido criar uma rede destas é muito inovador”. Criado em 2006 e financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, o programa promove o intercâmbio de 168 alunos entre Portugal e os Estados Unidos e dez projectos de investigação, cujo orçamento é por vezes superior a 500 mil euros.

No entanto, o grande desafio é transformar a investigação em produtos capazes de serem comercializados no mercado. Há alguns anos, Portugal sofria de um fenómeno apelidado de “vale da morte”, já que os grandes projectos de investigação não conseguiam fazer a transição para o circuito comercial. O que os norte-americanos vieram fazer a Portugal, durante o workshop “Experiencing Technology Transfer: Collaborating with Carnegie Mellon”, foi explicar como isso se faz. Tara Branstad, directora do Centro para a Transferência de Tecnologia e Criação de Empresas da CMU, indica que um dos principais factores de sucesso é a política de incentivo à criação de start-ups e spin-offs. “Removemos uma grande barreira ao simplificar o processo de transferência e reduzindo os custos do licenciamento”, indica a responsável, para quem é preciso forçar uma mudança de mentalidades no campus universitário.

“As universidades encaravam a criação de empresas por investigadores como a perda de um activo”, reconhece Tim McNulty. Agora “é preciso encarar essas iniciativas como um ganho líquido para a universidade”, completa Tara Branstad.

É isso que gabinetes de transferência de tecnologia como o do INESC-Porto têm vindo a promover nos últimos anos, com resultados visíveis. O serviço de televisão paga da PT, MEO, é um caso de sucesso de transferência da investigação para o mercado. A PT Inovação foi, aliás, uma das empresas sublinhadas pelos responsáveis da Carnegie Mellon como “exemplar”, num país em que o reforço do investimento em Investigação e Desenvolvimento [I&D] ainda é recente. 

O impacto da crise

As start-ups de base tecnológica viram as suas possibilidades de conseguir capital de risco altamente reduzidas, com a crise de liquidez nos mercados financeiros. Tim McNulty reconhece que a área foi muito afectada nos Estados Unidos, mas garante que “a recessão deu um impulso à inovação” e revela que a crise levou a alterações no modelo de crescimento destas empresas de base tecnológica. “As start-ups estão agora a tentar crescer com base em vendas concretas e não com base no capital de risco”, adianta.

Fonte Jornal i

I often hear clients giving themselves a hard time for neglecting to do something that they’ve been meaning to do for ages.

When I ask them how high it is on their priority list and what time they’d set aside to do it….there’s usually a silence.  This hadn’t been a consideration.

Ask yourself, have you ever reached the end of yet another week and thought ‘Oh, I’ve forgotten to do that AGAIN!” – I know I have! 

Now ask yourself is it because you forgot, or is there something stopping you from doing it?

We often set ourselves our very own ‘It’s a Knockout’ style challenges without even knowing it!   The little Stu Hall voice in our head is telling us we need to climb over that inflatable plastic castle but meanwhile we’re covering it in water and washing up liquid making it harder and harder to get up. 

Although we may blame others for putting these challenges in our way,  in reality it’s usually ourselves that are the culprits.  For example, one of the obstacles or hurdles that I hear clients use is that they just don’t have the time.  In these situations, try this:

• Write down in one sentence what it is you want to achieve, using language that assumes it has already been done.  Ensure it is the final step of what you want to accomplish.  For example, write “My car has passed its MOT”, rather than “I will book my car in for an MOT”
• By the side of this, put the date of when it will be completed ensuring it is achievable and realistic. 
• Now make a note of the steps you will take to achieve that goal.  Really break it down into bite size chunks.
• Put dates AND times of when you will complete each step, remembering to check your diary to ensure you’re still being REALISTIC about your availability.  If by doing this the end-date has to be extended then so be it! 
• Now add each task to your diary.
• Last but not least – get on and do it!

Think about the obstacles you’ve overcome in the past, something you’d put off for ages…when it’s finally done there is usually a sense of relief, a weight off your mind and you think “that wasn’t so bad after all!”

One of the key points I learnt from using this method is setting a date and more importantly a time for the tasks.  This would go in my diary like any other appointment.  This works so much more effectively than just saying “that should take about an hour” and then never committing to which hour that will be!

Try this technique out and let me know how you get on!

You can also contact me via my Facebook group hgcoaching  or search for me on Twitter @hgcoaching

Warmest Regards

Holly

http://www.venturewoods.org/index.php/2009/11/02/israel-leader-in-business-innovation/

I was lucky enough to be invited to Business Today’s 35th annual International Conference. The theme of the weekend was “Weathering the Storm” and it focused on tough business decisions made in the recent months in response to the economic slow down.

The list of speakers for the event included, Pete Miller, Jr., MIke Novogratz, Michael Gooch, and Bill Ford.  Countless others gave seminars to smaller groups of attendees.  I was lucky enough to meet for seminars with Will Lewis, Bob Seelert (book), Matt Blumberg, and Dan Sullivan.  The list of executives that participated in the conference was seemingly limitless and for that you really have to tip your hat to the Princeton University students that put it all together! Great job everyone!

I’d like to thank not only the organizers, but also the sponsors that allowed myself and the over 100 other attendees to come to the conference at completely no cost.  I’m truly appreciative, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that it was a truly inspiring experience.

To anyone outside the world of investment banking, like me, I’d highly recommend applying.  There’s so much going on in the banking world that I was completely unaware of and nearly every part of it affects your industry in some way.  Also, sometimes an engineering perspective is just what’s needed to provoke more out of the box thinking! Perhaps that’s just my personal bias, but regardless, a diversity of expertise is rarely a bad thing.

I guess this weekend has taught me to stay on my toes, but I’m not sure I could read the Wall Street Journal every day… maybe add some breaking stories to my Google Reader.

Clean tech investing is often thought of as big money, big scale, speculative returns. But not all green start-ups require venture capitalists to write large checks.

The misconception is that every clean-energy project requires the hundreds of millions of dollars that have gone to Solyndra or Bloom Energy to construct manufacturing plants or take on complex technical problems.

Clean tech investor John Doerr says he crawls through university labs looking for early stage start-ups

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner John Doerr says he has two templates for clean-tech investments. The big-scale businesses do get the big money, he says. But others firms wrestle with scientific breakthroughs and products that are still as many as 10 years out – and don’t require as much cash.

“We crawl through labs trying to find them,” says Doerr.

Other start-ups more closely resemble the young software companies of 10 years ago, which might have been working on enterprise products and needed just a couple million dollars.

These companies might be developing energy conservation software or products to spark new grid efficiencies. They require money “the same way the software companies were funded back in the 1990s,” says Scott Wornow, a partner at the law firm of Baker Botts.

One such company is Reality Mobile, whose software helps field workers and office staff communicate more effectively. The better communications helps avoids unnecessary repair trips.

Another is Consolidated Green Services, with offerings as varied as waste collection and carbon tracking.

It is not a capital-intensive business, says Wornow, and in that way is like many other green startups.

• Early Stage Venture Fair hosted by Connecticut Venture Group will be held on December 9, 2009 at the New Haven Lawn Club in New Haven, CT (registration info here).
• 2010 Alumni New Venture Contest was announced by the Harvard Business School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and Alumni.  It is a business plan competition for Harvard Business School alumni with a $25,000 cash prize to the winning team.
• 2009 New England Venture Summit will be held on December 8, 2009 at the Hilton Boston Dedham in Dedham, MA.  The conference is presented by youngStartUp Ventures, which is a company that assists companies in finding/accessing angel and venture capital investments.  According to the Summit’s website, it “is the premier industry gathering connecting senior executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, venture capitalists, angel investors, technology transfer professionals, university researchers, incubators, successful entrepreneurs and premier service providers”.  Registration info can be found here, and an agenda for the event can be found here. 

Below is a video highlight of the 2008 New England Summit:

   - Gregg J. Lallier 

Genotrope Record:  Micronotes

Funding Status:  Seed Round

Founders Backgrounds:  Okena (Cisco), Entegra, Akamai

Investors: ?

Industry:  Mobile, Consumer Finance, B2C Marketing

Offering Description: Micronotes interactive direct marketing system enables consumer brands to mass-produce face-to-face sales interviews to deliver highly relevant offers to a target audience driving sales at lower cost than existing platforms.

ALIOMI Co-Founders

Yesterday, I mentioned the fabulous ALIOMI clothing line….and now I have an interview with a fabulous ALIOMI founder! Baha so ahead of the curve.

Anyway.

Co-founder Naomi Bishop was kind enough to sit down and answer some questions about style and inspiration in NYC. I snagged all of these photos from their first shoot, and they created, literally, one of each piece, so ladies if you like anything, call it now!

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration from?

A: I draw my style inspiration from various sources, primarily from my parents and my wonderful aunts, my travels around the world, and definitely from NYC’s sidewalks! My parents were kind of out there: my father wore blue eyeshadow, leather jackets & berets. My mother was the most fashionable person I have ever met: elegant, ahead of the curve, and always experimenting. She wore miniskirts when every Javanese woman wore traditional kebayas; she had on vintage silk red dresses at 9.00 a.m. & always, always wore an orchid in her hair. But, New York is definitely the springboard of my motivation. I’m working on a Memoir, and often people-watch to stimulate creativity. The artistic way that New Yorkers dress just snags my imagination…

Q: How do you describe your style?
A: A mix between vintage, new, studded DIY (do-it-yourself), high & low. I like irony: floral dresses with studded blazers, leather with Victorian lace…. Monotone basics always allow for loud accessories. The greatest thing is to be able to express different angles of your personality each day through the way you dress. And like true a New Yorker: I like to put a good spin on black, black, black!

Q: What is your favorite vintage store in the city?
A: ALIOMI!  But around the city, there’s a plethora of vintage/consignment stores that I really like–not one in particular.

Q: Tell me about ALIOMI
A: ALIOMI is headed by Naomi Melati Bishop and co-conceived by Allison Sparkuhl (hence our name: ALIOMI). Created by agroup of New York City chicks, ALIOMI is like raiding a friend’s closet whose style you love. As girlfriends who grew up together in Manhattan, we joined forces to form ALIOMI: an online boutique that brings you fashion inspired by our city’s sidewalks. New York is our stomping ground. It is in our core and the catalyst of motivation that runs through our veins. Our clothing reflects and embodies the veritable and ever-changing palate of NYC: its avant-garde trends, social climate, pace, and diversity. NYC is the fountainhead of our inspiration, but online is our home–allowing us to be anywhere and everywhere. Our stuff is so diverse, we want people to wear ALIOMI with pride and hope to appeal to fashionistas, society girls, and biker chicks alike.

 

Q: When are you launching?
A: We are in the process of setting up custom orders and fine-tuning various facets of our start-up. Our tentative launch date is mid-December. Keep posted with our blog: http://aliomi.blogspot.com!

Q: What type of stuff do you sell on ALIOMI?
A: We sell an array of first and second hand items: vintage, custom, DIY, couture, and resale of new and up-and-coming designers. Our DIY items are embellished and tailored in-house. Each garment is unique, handpicked, and carefully selected by our team. Our items are limited release. Once it’s sold out, it’s gone! So catch ‘em while you can, ladiessss!

Right it is time to get off that sofa and make it happen! I have said it for years “Anyone can learn anything”

Through this blog I am going to give a running account of building my business, from the desk of my currant employment, to my own palatial office. A blow by blow account of getting it right and of course the inevitable wrongs.
First a bit about me. 30 years old! Only just, not happy about it, but what can you do. Travelled the world a bit, Meet some great people had some great times. It was whist meeting one these great people that changed my life. The person in question showed me what was achievable, albeit they had no idea they did. Currently
I am the UK manager and a medium size business. I like this job it feels like were building something big. Don’t get me wrong though it’s still not enough, hence starting my own business.
It’s a difficult thing to do building your own business whilst working for someone else ! You have to be carefully ! Even if you hate your Job, don’t upset them, they are key to your success and this point.
The first lesson I leant!
Balance your time ! Now like most, you will have to work evening and weekends. Its a given! deal with it.
Assuming that you have had your idea, your eureka moment. First step, get on with it! You never know what’s going to happen so there is not much point worrying about it. This is what I did and  am still doing.
If you ever follow this blog you will notice that I am not going to mention exactly what my business is, Frankly it does not matter. I have read to many business books where the principle ideas are great business lessons but will only work for the business you are reading about.
It does not matter what I do, It’s how I do it. It really does not matter what you do !! It’s all about how you do it. Every industry, every business, from high flying traders to the men who clean the streets. Someone is the boss ! Someone makes the money!
Now lets talk about the person making the money in your currant employment. your Boss ! Is He or She close to you? Will they help you? Will they invest? Are they open people? Could you tell them about your plans ? Its great if you can ! I did . Now it’s all out in the open. It will force you to manage you time properly because once to tell him/her they will be watching ! Start to view your Job as another business, I need to produce results from both, so do you!

I was working on a piece on innovation that I was going to entitle “The Day America Ran out of Big Ideas” but I saw this piece from TechCrunch European startups need to work as hard as Valley ones – or forget it and I think it acts as an excellent counter point to the position I was going to take so I have decided to use it as the foundation of this article.

In the anonymous article there are one or two fundamental logical flaws that have now become urban myths about Silicon Valley and its impact on world innovation.

These urban myths are best expressed in this statement from the article.

Something I’ve realised and have to admit is that while obviously the absolute pool of talent is smaller here in the UK/Europe than it is in the U.S. (and that cannot be disputed nor is it anything more than a function of population) another factor. It is one which I keep hoping will change, because if it doesn’t it threatens to make a small pool even smaller. And that is a cultural and behavioural issue: work ethic.

As anyone who’s ever been there or visited will attest, in Silicon Valley everyone is working *all of the time*.

The first problem is simply there is no correlation between the size of the talent pool and the level of innovation within that pool. A couple of quick examples to prove that point.

One from Silicon Valley. If size was the only thing that determined success then Microsoft would have won the Search Engine Wars and Google would have been consigned to the scrap heap a decade ago.

Now to Europe. Where does the global Market Leader in Mobile Phones come from? Finland. The other market leading players? South Korea and Japan. Apple as we all know has just 2.5% market share.

The same can be seen in the Automotive and Pharmaceuticals industries. The prestigious innovation leaders in the auto market aren’t Americans they’re Italians. What would you rather be driving today? A GM, Chrysler or Ford, or a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati or Bugatti (admittedly French/German but the inventor was an Italian)?

In the Pharmaceuticals industry, the market leader (Pfizer) is from the US but the rest of the top 5 are European. While 2 of the top 7 are from Switzerland. And talking of Swiss, what about Chocolate? 

If you’re into the history of ideas then you’ll also know that Ancient Athens, Renaissance Florence and Elizabethan London were very innovative places with very small populations by today’s standards.

No, the size of the talent pool is not a function of innovation or a prerequisite for Market Leadership. If anything, as I said in previous posts, The ability to generate new and innovative products is inversely proportional to the size and success an organization.

The correlation between innovation and market leadership is all about the quality of the talent pool and equally importantly the quality of the champions within that talent pool.

Put simply ideas are a dime a dozen. What is rare is the ability to discover the true future value of the idea and then champion that idea in the marketplace. And this is just as much a function of the entrepeneur as it is a function of the investor.

What Silicon Valley does have is a pool of experienced and proven champions like Sequoia Capital. Champions who can recognise an idea and fund it but more importantly set the up the market expectation down stream to ensure there is a “an earn” for everyone at the end of it.

If Silicon Valley has one thing going for it over other parts of the world as an innovation centre it simply this: It isn’t afraid to fail fast, fail often and fail big time (e.g the dotcom boom/bust). It isn’t afraid to dream and it isn’t to get very excited while it dreams. How efficeint it is at learning from its mistakes is a discussion for another post.

The second part of the myth is Silicon Valley works harder.

Again there is no correlation between hard work and innovation. I’m not even sure there is a correlation between hard work and the ability to execute. However a correlation does exist between a high degree of technical skills and the ability to execute.

As I have said in previous post. To be a market leader you need to be more than clever. You need to be able to consistently deliver on both your promise and your potential. You can have the best ideas in the world but they are just that unless you have the skills and ability to deliver on the promise (on time and in full).

Innovation is more than brilliant ideas. It is also about your ability to execute brilliantly.

What Europe may need to accept is that it has a very different innovation culture to Silicon Valley. As I pointed out in my recent post on the The Discipline of Innovation Teams: Different organisations have different value cultures and it is these value cultures that should determine how they choose to innovate and deliver new products to market.

As an aside… Perhaps this idea can be extended further and is an expression fo national cultures? e.g. Perhaps the US as a hero driven culture are naturally incline towards the Product Leadership innovation model? Maybe Europe, being more of a more family and socially orientated society, is better suited to the collaborative innovation model? More likely however is the idea that the various nation and cities states within Europe are unique entities who can embrace multiple innovation models and that in itself will deliver it a significant competitive edge over the one size fits all US innovation model.

Which now brings me to the core of the idea for my original post “The Day America Ran out of Big Ideas”.

The day I decided it was time to start blogging was the day I found out that RedBeacon had won this years TechCrunch50.

The elevator pitch for this revolutionary, and ultimately prize-winning web site, went something like this.

“Simply type whatever service you’re looking for (be it plumber, gardener, or hair stylist), and the site will present a list of recommended service providers in your area.”

My position is simply this. 40 Years ago the world was excited by an American landing on the moon. Look back at that time and you’ll remember an America full of BIG IDEAS. An America whose business it was to change the world. To make the world a better place. Today, while China builds eMetropoli and Detroit crumbles, Silicon Valley gets excited about a new way of finding “Bob the Builder“?

If Europe is looking to reinvent itself as an innovation center it should not be looking to Silicon Valley for ideas and methods. It should be looking to where the action is. Get on a plane and go and visit Japan, Korea, China, India… Go and see the future today.

And if you have kids, call in via California. They have some great theme parks.

I guess what I am trying to say is simply this. What made America great in the 20th Century was BIG IDEAS. America will not be great in the 21st Century if its innovators and investors dream of a future based on aggregating ”mom and pop” eBusinesses. 

Oops! I almost forgot… The Question the Europeans should be asking themselves is what made Athens, Florence, London, Paris, Rome and Hollywood great. The Artists or the Patrons?

This is no Chicken and Egg problem. The answer is simple. It was the patrons. It was the Medicis and the Disneys of the world.  The relationship may be symbiotic but the reality is the champions don’t go in search of talent. Creative talent is drawn towards the innovation champions like moths to a light bulb.

The secret to success for our anonymous European author? Be an innovation champion and the brightest and the best will follow you in your quest for market leadership.

Barcelona Activa está elaborando una  Guía de Expertos con el objetivo de homologar expertos en diversos servicios especializados en las necesidades de las start ups.

Hay 23 servicios distintos en los que puedes optar para homologarte: defensa legal, coaching profesional, estartegias de marketing y comunicación, estrategias de venta, diseño, servicios de administración, estrategia para la entrada en mercados internacionales, estrategia desarrollo de R+D+i, tramitación de patentes, optimización de compras y logística, sistemas y redes, etc.

Hay que tener en cuenta, que Barcelona Activa no homologará tu empresa, sinó a profesionales concretos de tu empresa, que son los que podrán realizar estos servicios.

Para hacer la homologación se mirará principalmente el background del profesional, y que se sigan las condiciones de la Red de Expertos:

• Será el profesional homologado el que dará el servicio, y no lo subcontratará a terceros.
• Aplicar las tarifas para empresas de Barcelona Activa, que se hayan puesto en la Carta de Servicios Profesionales entregada.
• Respetar los compromisos de calidad.
• Informar a Barcelona Activa sobre los contratos que se firman gracias al uso de la Red de Expertos.

Creo que es una buena oportunidad para ofrecer tus servicios y aumentar la cartera de clientes.

El plazo de presentación termina el lunes 23 de noviembre!!!

Para apuntarte

Photo: Sanja Gjenero | Stock.xchng

The dragons are a notoriously hard bunch to pin down for an investment, so when they finally do decide to shovel cash into a business, it really is cause for celebration. But wait a minute. Not everybody who’s been offered money in the den has accepted. In such cases, it’s always because the dragons’ equity share is way above what the entrepreneurs are willing to give up of their companies. In many post-presentation interviews, they’re often heard saying that the dragons were being a bit too greedy. (Duh! What did they expect? These creatures have voracious appetites, even legends document that. ) On the other hand, among the recipients of dragon moolah, a common statement is heard, paraphrased here: “My remaining 50 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing.”

It’s really very important to enter into business negotiations, knowing that it will have to be a lot of give and take on both parties. And I suppose, if you’re the one with hat in hand, eyes glued to the ground, you can expect to do a lot more giving than taking. The thing is, you just have to know what it is you want from the whole encounter.

In the early months of CAN-DO! I’ve had to do a lot of giving myself. I’ve had to offer ridiculous discounts and gazillions of freebies. All in the name of survival. While I almost always felt like an abused and exploited worm afterwards, I realised that I was gaining something else from the whole experience. I was building relationships, learning negotiation skills, and valuing my assets. As time went on, I learned to stand firm and assert my presence in the boardroom. I am almost certain that this is the path towards dragonhood.

You can’t have the upper hand in the beginning stage of your development as an entrepreneur. (I’m thinking of an anecdote about the founders of Google. They used somebody’s garage as their office and did their laundry as they worked, but they were still taken to task for it. In spite of their paying rent!) You sometimes have to do a queen’s sacrifice just to move another square forward. You will most certainly feel like a schmuck for giving up so much of your beloved company. But guess what? Sometimes, it just has to happen. Stroke your hurting ego (as I have) and get over it. You give up a little to gain so much more. I like what Levi Roots (Reggae Reggae Sauce) said in an interview. Although he surrendered a big chunk of his sauce enterprise (can’t remember the exact percentage now), he said that his experience with his dragons has been nothing but a move “from strength to strength”.

Money (ergo, cash flow) is indeed very important to the business. Ownership is, too. But I also need to factor in some intangibles in the equation, when I roll up my sleeves and enter the negotiation fray. Sometimes, it’s also about the expertise, the wisdom, the connections that dragons bring into the picture. And for those essentials, I’m really willing to negotiate.

Naturally African

INTRODUCTION
NetWek is a conference networking tool which is specifically designed to help meeting planners facilitate networking during meetings and conferences. The meeting / conference attendees will be able to use NetWek to maximise their networking experiences at conferences (i.e. to manage who they want to meet and who can find them at the conference).

THE OPPORTUNITY / PROBLEM
Meetings and conference industry leader, MPI (Meetings Professional International) reports that there are currently about 1.2 million professional meetings and conferences taking place annually around the world. The report also notes that these meetings and conferences are attended by some 100 million people from around the world, whose main aim is to meet and network with other attendees. This is where we see the opportunity to provide both the conference manager and conference attendee with a tool that addresses their respective needs.

OUR SOLUTION
NetWek provides meeting planners with a platform they can use to facilitate networking during networking sessions at their meetings and conferences.
We integrate a third party registration platform with NetWek to allow conference attendees (Sponsors /Vendors, Session Speakers and Regular Attendees) be able to register and pay for conferences, create and manage personal profiles. They will also be able to manage who they want to meet and how they want to be found by other attendees. In the first release of the application, attendees will be able to recommend attendees they know to others they do not know. Secondly, the ‘match making feature will match attendees up based on common interests.

I want to thank everyone who has submitted questions about their business.  We’ve been answering them in our free teleseminars and on this blog.  We received another question from a seasoned business owner who asks, “How do you handle non-responsive prospects who request information but never respond back?”

It can be frustrating when you invest your time and energy on potential clients who have requested information but haven’t responded back.  You’ve heard that expression, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.  This request-response-wait model is time consuming and an unproductive use of time. 

It is important to change the cycle you’ve created.  Many business owners (new and seasoned) fall into the trap of responding to information requests and never hear back.  Keep these tips in mind as you change your process/approach:

• Develop a system where prospects self-select as preferred clients. 

Face it.  Not everyone who requests information from you is your preferred client.  It is important to pre-qualify your prospects so that by the time you have a conversation, they know all about you, have seen testimonials and results from other clients, and your message clearly helps them self-select.  You must be very specific about your preferred client.  Many business owners are not utilizing their website to help pre-qualify; however, when you do, this process saves you time and energy.

• Ask questions in the pre-qualification process to find out what your client really wants/needs. 

Some entrepreneurs try to jam in a conversation from a prospect as soon as that prospect calls.  When the prospect calls, ask if they’ve been on your website (assuming you have a pre-qualification process in place.)  Schedule a meeting with them after they’ve reviewed the pre-qualification area.  Send them a pre-qualification questionnaire they complete prior to meeting with you.    

Often times, businesses who offer services, make the mistake of guessing, after a short conversation, what the client needs or wants.  Find out specifically their short- and long-term goals.  Ask them what they want “it” (the “after” picture) to look like after working with you (or your solution/product.)  With a carefully constructed self-select and pre-meeting questionnaire, you can identify the solution together making the conversation more productive and helping your prospects make an educated (and often on-the-spot) decision.

•  Schedule a follow up meeting.  

Many business owners fail to schedule a follow up time with their prospects leaving an open-ended, “I’ll follow up with you” statement.   Without a date, it doesn’t happen.  Set expectations up front and set a specific date and time for follow up so each of you are utilizing your time and energy efficiently.

•  Propose clear, simple options, and Keep It Super Simple.  

Don’t cloud your programs or packages with complexities.  Use the KISS method – Keep It Super Simple using bullet points and short sentences to describe the benefits.  Remember to:

•  Give options so that the prospect has a choice.  You don’t want to have only one solution or package – it leaves the decision with a yes or no (and go) option.
• Provide a range of prices so that if the prospect simply can’t afford a certain-priced product, you have other choices where they can still work with you.
• Name your packages.  Don’t use “the $8,500 Program.” Call it “Fast Track or Premium Package” and respond to the package by its name.

Successful entrepreneurs realize that they must execute the right plan, the right process and right system to see profitable changes in their business.  For additional information on how to seal the deal and take a systems approach to profitability, visit http://www.freebusinessplanformat.com and sign up for our next free high-content teleseminar, Get It, Got It, Go! The Entrepreneurial Edge on either December 2 or January 26.

The beauty of a start-up is that you can make changes quickly… it can also be the pitfall of the start-up. How do you prevent the beauty from becoming the pitfall?

Communication is first and foremost, just because everything is running at light speed, and you are zooming about, remember to tell everyone else what is going on, to avoid the feeling that things are “dropped over the fence” to the rest of the team. Encourage people to “ring the sales bell” not only for external triumphs, but for internal ones as well – CELEBRATE successes.

Build strong teams – if you can’t roll up your sleeves to pitch in, show your appreciation when everyone else is hip deep in alligators. Assign tasks playing to the strengths of each player – you don’t see coaches using their running backs as defense against someone 2 times their weight. If you don’t know the strengths of your team go back to communication – ask them!

Oh and BTW, this approach works for established companies as well. Go figure…

I am currently at the border of Europe (Macedonia) for the global entrepreneurship week. I have been invited by a truly international friend, also MBA alumnus from UAMS, who’s working now for USAID, as well as been in the former foreign investment agency in Macedonia and many other places accross the planet.  USAID has been active in the area focusing on investing in more mature and fundamentally needed segments of the Macedonian economy. Next is to build also some foundations that can seed a first generation of start-ups. With experts flying in from Silicon Valley, as well as from neighbouring countries (business angel associations, VCs and foreign entrepreneurs) a one-day conference session is being organized by the BredCenter tomorrow. Objective is to achieve some cross fertilizatioin between the local entrepreneurs and the participants from outside. The stakes are high as a lot of talented individuals are moving abroad (Western Europe/US).  I hope that they understand that this is a very dounting job with a lot of uncertenties and still a lot of unavailable ingredients to make it work. Yet most importantly the drive and the dedicated souls seem to be present. And if there is one thing needed the most then it are the hungry and dedicated souls. I hope they find the support that they need to make it work!

As I have been working the whole day in a loungy coffee place (Plaza Toros) with free WIFI (thanks!) downtown Skopje, I was surprised to see so many iphone users around (!  = niche market that can be served). Automatically, my gut feeling would argue that mobile technologies should be something the Macedonian people should be focusing on (lower entry barriers, quicker ROI compared bio/cleantech). Also with 50% of the countries living in one city, it is a perfect living lab for mobile technologies.

Tomorrow I am supposed to engage in talks with local entrepreneurs and business angel initiatives originating in other parts of SE Europe (Bulgarian BA, Romanian BA and Slovenian BA) and provide some experiece/toughts on ‘venturing in Belgium/Europe’ and on the general ‘access to finance markets’ in Europe/US.  Also a few VCs active in Central/Eastern Europe will be present. Previously, I had the benefit of digging into other early ‘ecosystems for startups’ in other eastern European countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic), but Macedonia is quiet different. It is not an EU member country, and also not yet a candidate one (but talks with the EU are supposed to start soon). Especially if you’re just outside a 500M user market it offers a lot of competitive disadvantages (but luckily also some advantages).

Anyway, I am looking forward to what I am about to experience and learn in the next 2 days.

As everyone knows, with each new presidential administration, comes new policies with new focuses over a variety of issues.  As everyone also probably knows, the Obama administration’s policies on Iraq, Afghanistan and healthcare have dominated the public’s attention for most of the past year.  However, there are other policies to be revealed and developed, including intellectual property policies.  Over recent weeks, the administration has given inventors, developers and holders of intellectual property (and, in particular, patent holders) some reason for optimism about the Obama administration’s IP policy.

Most recently, Gene Quinn of IP Watchdog posted in No Climate Deal in Copenhagen Good for Green Patent Rights that:

It had been feared that in order to obtain an international agreement the Obama Administration would broker the patent rights held by US concerns and give them to third world and developing nations in exchange for them taking steps to curb carbon dioxide emissions

The IPWatchdog post goes on to say that, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, it seems unlikely that the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (December 7-18, 2009) will result in a binding international treaty which “can allow patent and intellectual property advocates breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now”.

This comes on the heels of the November 6, 2009, recorded video of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announcement to the Independent Inventors Conference at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as reported in the same IPWatchdog post, that “the Obama Administration pledges to continue to provide full support to all inventors and to continue to support the strongest intellectual property protections in the world.”  (See also IPWatchdog Secretary Locke Promises Strongest IP Protection in the World)

These are encouraging signs of the Obama administration’s commitment to IP, which is good news for the business community, and entrepreneurs and start-ups in particular.

-Gregg J. Lallier

I love the new marketing tools! I use them every day. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, SEO, and Inbound marketing are all essential tools for any Internet marketing program.

But here is my gripe. More and more, I hear entrepreneurs and VCs claiming that this is all they need to launch companies or generate momentum for their young developing companies. I have also heard frequently “Customers will find us…organically” (BTW, I have a bridge to sell you). While I understand that many of these statements are motivated by the fact that new companies don’t have or need to preserve cash, when I hear blanket statements like this, I see a giant red flag waving in the wind.

Back in the day when I did a three-year stint as an analyst/management consultant, I specialized in the start-up world in the area of network convergence (ok – I am really dating myself here!). During that time, my team sat through close to 700 start-up briefings and we quickly became very astute predicting a start-up’s success based on what we heard in the initial briefing. By the end of each briefing, my colleagues and I would confer, count up the number of red flags we could see, and form our opinions on whether or not the company was going to make it. Our track record turned out to be very good.

Each one of my colleagues had a hot button – for me, I wanted to dig into their go-to-market strategy. If I believed that the company had a product that somebody actually needed (you would be surprised how many don’t) and that the management team had the fortitude and passion to see the venture through (this is really about believing in what you do and have the perseverance and know how to make it happen), then I wanted to understand the strategy and tactics of their go-to-market strategy.

I wanted to know how the team was going to help the sales force, the guy on the front lines, holding the bag every day because that person had the biggest mountain to climb. I wanted to know the details of who they wanted to partner with, how they were packaging themselves, how the company was going to generate leads, and how the company was going to shorten the sales cycle. I want to know how they were going to create the “push and pull” needed to generate momentum.

The devil is in the details. This is where we would usually see many red flags.

So, let’s examine the new tools.  SEO and Inbound Marketing allow you to be “found”.  Blogs, Facebook, and microblogging allow you to have conversations with prospects and customers. All are very good things. But each one of these tools serves a particular purpose in the marketing mix.

How can you be “found” or start a conversation if nobody knows that you exist? How can people search on a new product category that isn’t defined? Who is going to read the blog that you have spent days and weeks creating and populating with content? Why would anyone follow you on Twitter if they never heard of you?

I would argue that you need to communicate both broadly as well as in a targeted fashion using all types of tools – that you need to blend the old with the new. Even in this new world where Social Media or Inbound Marketing are without question important tools in your marketing mix, if you tell me these are all you need to market your company and product this is another one of those huge red flags.  I would place my bet that you will not be around next year or will not have had a lot of success to talk about. Good marketers understand that you need a number of activities and communications vehicles working in harmony to generate momentum with the buzz.