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Five Questions to test if your start-up will be successful?
March 15, 2011
I have a new job, or at least one more job to add to my time-slicing life. A few weeks ago, I began as an Executive-in-Residence at the Innovation Factory, the newest Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation sponsored Regional Innovation Centre. In this role, I will be mentoring and advising early stage companies as they …
Read moreStarting a Start-up Part II
February 11, 2011
Wow, Howard Gwin and I must have been sharing a brain over the last couple of weeks. I just read his blog "Left and Right Brain: The Execution Factor". I was looking at the problem of starting up a company in terms of domain skills: Technical versus Sales versus Business. Howard adds a complexity …
Read moreStarting a Start-up
February 3, 2011
It has been two weeks on the job as an Executive-in-Residence at the Innovation Factory and I have met with about a dozen entrepreneurs looking for advice. The meetings range from companies with a management team in place and a product or prototype ready to launch; to single entrepreneurs with an idea or technology, looking …
Read moreMaking Big Bets #2
February 1, 2011
I was reading a blog by my friend Jim Carroll "Why thinking big could save you in the 21st century". He talks about companies that are using "Big Bets" to drive stunning levels of innovation such as Wal-Mart's goal to completely eliminate packaging. I am a big fan of "big bets" and "shoot for the …
Read moreMore on Networking
January 30, 2011
I took a break from writing during December and January. It was a combination of being busy with too many other activities and a bit of writer's block. I decided that with ten hours on a plane last week, it is time to get back at it. For those of you that use LinkedIn, you …
Read moreBusiness Ethics and the Bottomline
November 24, 2010
Steve Tennant posted an interesting tweet yesterday, "SAP must pay $1.3B in TomorrowNow damages. Add $160M legal costs, that's a -14,700% ROI on your $10M acquisition.http://bit.ly/fjtF6p" His tweet got me thinking. For those of you who don't know the TomorrowNow story, they were founded by ex- PeopleSoft employees who left the organization to start a …
Read moreWill my product sell?
November 23, 2010
I have been engaged in a email exchange with a young entrepreneur over the past couple of weeks. I met him at the C100 Accelerate TO event. Like any good CEO, he was trying to get exposure for his company by pitching it to senior execs and investors in attendance. I gave him some coaching …
Read moreHow are you hiring today?
November 19, 2010
How are you hiring talent today? Still using job boards? Stll using the traditional recruiter that is paid on success fees when you hire someone? How is that working for you? What about social media? Do you post status updates to your LinkedIn profile? Do you use Linked In job postings or ads? Do you …
Read moreBeing Competitively Different
November 12, 2010
On Monday morning, I attended a presentation by Professor Youngme Moon on how companies differentiate themselves from their competitors. Similar to her colleague, Clayton Christensen, Moon points out the danger of listening too much to your customers. Her point is that doing so will lead competitors to move towards a point where they look like …
Read moreWhy is the start-up world different? (or How to choose your advisors and employees)
November 10, 2010
I recently had coffee with a colleague who spent many years with large global consulting firms, specializing in large complex projects involving strategy, restructuring, governance and project management. He now has his own consulting firm which focuses on strategy, and primarily works with medium to large organizations. Over coffee, he wanted to pick my brain …
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