Entrepreneurship and Innovation Today

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 4 of 28 “Left Behind “Opportunities

 

 

Every human concept or invention has 4 effects on society, according to Marshall McLuhan. As we switch from plastic bags to bring-your-own cloth bags in grocery stores, we see one of these unintended effects or consequences. It’s what I would classify as a “left behind” combined with a  "process" opportunity window, in the Opportunity Clinic ™ ©  jargon. I'm less of a "trends" fan, althought this does present another "opportunity window" because trends such as a shift from plastic to bring-it-yourself (biy) bags are ovbious to most people and the opportunity space gets quickly crowded out.

My good friend Susan Abbott writes about this unintended consequence of the switch in bags on her blog

What happened when everyone started bringing their own bag: the law of unintended consequences

"I just got a call from a good buddy leaving Loblaws, which recently introduced a save-the-planet charge of 5 cents a bag for those no-goodniks that don't bring their own.

"I'm just leaving the Superstore now," says buddy."Everyone is bringing their own bags.

"And you would not believe how this has slowed down the checkout process. At least 30% slower."

I witnessed this myself at a Wal-Mart. The bags are not all the same size. Some are floppy and need to be held open. One guy was handing the bags over one at a time.

Last week when I commented about the cost of human-delivered services, I wasn't even thinking about this.

Researchers like me know how much customers hate waiting in line. They hate watching inefficiency in line. It used to be just the brown rice brotherhood that took their own bag. Soon everyone will be doing it.  Yikes! "

These are touch-points for the opportunity savvy entrepreneur that can 1) recognize this change event or shift and notice the unintended consequences ..they are usually in your face if you only take the time to look and ask a few strategic questions and 2) find and fill an opportunity space or opportunity window here with your unique solution.

Here's a freebee for someone..... design a cloth bag holder for your store-bought cloth bags, so that the checkout clerk can scan and pack groceries right away into your cloth bag, (but not for bags from the competion's store).

Related posts in this series:

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 3 of 28 Design Opportunities- Hope or Nostalgia

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 2 of 28 Innovation or Efficiency?

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business (& surviving and thriving) in a Recession Part 1of 28

Related Posts over that past year:

·         Opportunity Recognition in Difficult Times

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn – June 25, 2008, Ontario College of Art Design, Toronto, ON

·         Recession-Proofing your Business-Strategies and Tactics for smoother sailing in turbulent seas

·         Master Class in Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs> May 30th 2008> University of Toronto

·         Turning Misery into Opportunity

·         Vacuum leaves pullout opportunities;

·         How will baby boomers handle the recession? Zoomers, Doomers, Gloomers, Opportuneurs

·         Recession, Depression and Shortages as Opportunities

·         Restructuring of American Business-A New Business Model?

·         Using New Yorker Cartoons for Opportunity Recognition /Sense-making & Pattern Recognition

·         Text Mining for S&T Scouting, Foresight and Opportunity Recognition

·         The Opportunity Clinic-swapping opportunity scenarios 08-002

Walter Derzko

 

Every human concept or invention has 4 effects on society, according to Marshall McLuhan. As we switch from plastic bags to bring-your-own cloth bags in grocery stores, we see one of these unintended effects or consequences. It’s what I would classify as a “left behind” combined with a  "process" opportunity window, in the Opportunity Clinic ™ ©  jargon. I'm less of a "trends" fan, althought this does present another "opportunity window" because trends such as a shift from plastic to bring-it-yourself (biy) bags are ovbious to most people and the opportunity space gets quickly crowded out.

My good friend Susan Abbott writes about this unintended consequence of the switch in bags on her blog

What happened when everyone started bringing their own bag: the law of unintended consequences

"I just got a call from a good buddy leaving Loblaws, which recently introduced a save-the-planet charge of 5 cents a bag for those no-goodniks that don't bring their own.

"I'm just leaving the Superstore now," says buddy."Everyone is bringing their own bags.

"And you would not believe how this has slowed down the checkout process. At least 30% slower."

I witnessed this myself at a Wal-Mart. The bags are not all the same size. Some are floppy and need to be held open. One guy was handing the bags over one at a time.

Last week when I commented about the cost of human-delivered services, I wasn't even thinking about this.

Researchers like me know how much customers hate waiting in line. They hate watching inefficiency in line. It used to be just the brown rice brotherhood that took their own bag. Soon everyone will be doing it.  Yikes! "

These are touch-points for the opportunity savvy entrepreneur that can 1) recognize this change event or shift and notice the unintended consequences ..they are usually in your face if you only take the time to look and ask a few strategic questions and 2) find and fill an opportunity space or opportunity window here with your unique solution.

Here's a freebee for someone..... design a cloth bag holder for your store-bought cloth bags, so that the checkout clerk can scan and pack groceries right away into your cloth bag, (but not for bags from the competion's store).

Related posts in this series:

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 3 of 28 Design Opportunities- Hope or Nostalgia

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 2 of 28 Innovation or Efficiency?

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business (& surviving and thriving) in a Recession Part 1of 28

Related Posts over that past year:

·         Opportunity Recognition in Difficult Times

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn – June 25, 2008, Ontario College of Art Design, Toronto, ON

·         Recession-Proofing your Business-Strategies and Tactics for smoother sailing in turbulent seas

·         Master Class in Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs> May 30th 2008> University of Toronto

·         Turning Misery into Opportunity

·         Vacuum leaves pullout opportunities;

·         How will baby boomers handle the recession? Zoomers, Doomers, Gloomers, Opportuneurs

·         Recession, Depression and Shortages as Opportunities

·         Restructuring of American Business-A New Business Model?

·         Using New Yorker Cartoons for Opportunity Recognition /Sense-making & Pattern Recognition

·         Text Mining for S&T Scouting, Foresight and Opportunity Recognition

·         The Opportunity Clinic-swapping opportunity scenarios 08-002

Walter Derzko

What Industries to avoid? Lessons from Canadian billionaire Seymour Schulich

Last night I went to hear Canadian billionaire Seymour Schulich speak about his new book called Get Smarter-Life & Business Lessons at the Indigo Entrepreneur Series.

I read through about half of the book in one sitting last night (296 pages with 49 chapters) ( BTW,each chapter is only 3-4 pages of condensed wisdom).

In chapter 4 --"Jobs to seek and those to avoid", Schulich suggests that entrepreneurs work for someone before venturing into business themselves to get that much-needed experience.

He suggests finding work in industries with high profit margins and says to avoid the following (....but without providing any relevant comparative data):

• airlines
• auto parts
• retailing
• biotechnology ( I would disagree here...the industry has a 22-23% profit margin on average .....wd... see chart & story on Biotech below)
• grocery stores
• wholesaling
• machinery manufacturing
• paper and forest products
• auto manufacturing
• restaurants
• appliance manufacturing
• trucking
• any manufacturing competing with China ( ..and India I assume too)
• telecom services

Well that seems to be more then 95% of all Canadian business...I'm assuming that he would give the same advise to entrepreneurs wishing to enter these business sectors too.

He did advise to stay out of any field that India and China is likely to dominate. In the resource sector he recommended diamonds, oil, coal and platinum, all resources that Chindia (China & India) lack or need to buy.

He adds in the book:

"Don't misunderstand me. You may be able to find fulfillment and a rewarding career in the above...[..]...but you are more likely to find satisfaction and superior financial rewards in industries with superior economics."

He didn't mention anything about Nanotechnology in his book or his talk, which could easily become Canada's new resource sector. I'd be interested in what he has to say to Rotman business students and what advise he gives to researchers at MaRS dd at the University of Toronto when he speaks to these groups this term.

Here's an recent industry profit margin chart for several US Industries.

The issue of asymmetrical growth in Specialised Biotechnology Firms in the USA and the UK - UQAM

"There are over 5,000 Specialised Biotechnology Firms (SBFs) in the world, out of which at least 1500 are in the USA, 400 in Canada, and a similar number in the UK.

Within this group of SBFs rapid growth is concentrated in some 10 per cent of the firms. This paper compares the growth patterns of SBFs in the USA and the UK, and with the previous results for Canada. These three countries represent nearly 50 per cent of SBFs in the world. By combining several different databases, the paper reveals the determining factors of SBF growth in the two leading countries. Using correlation and logistic regressions for each country, we found that five factors (patents, the targeting of human health products and processes, the support of venture capital, R&D and marketing corporate alliances, and the search for world markets) explain most of the growth of these firms. "

Source: Int. J. Biotechnology, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2007

Get full paper here >>[...]

© 2005-2007

Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Walter Derzko teaches at the Certificate Program on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, which starts in the Fall of 2007

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
• ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  --A. Einstein
• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko"
• .......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  -- Margaret Mead
• ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Last night I went to hear Canadian billionaire Seymour Schulich speak about his new book called Get Smarter-Life & Business Lessons at the Indigo Entrepreneur Series.

I read through about half of the book in one sitting last night (296 pages with 49 chapters) ( BTW,each chapter is only 3-4 pages of condensed wisdom).

In chapter 4 --"Jobs to seek and those to avoid", Schulich suggests that entrepreneurs work for someone before venturing into business themselves to get that much-needed experience.

He suggests finding work in industries with high profit margins and says to avoid the following (....but without providing any relevant comparative data):

• airlines
• auto parts
• retailing
• biotechnology ( I would disagree here...the industry has a 22-23% profit margin on average .....wd... see chart & story on Biotech below)
• grocery stores
• wholesaling
• machinery manufacturing
• paper and forest products
• auto manufacturing
• restaurants
• appliance manufacturing
• trucking
• any manufacturing competing with China ( ..and India I assume too)
• telecom services

Well that seems to be more then 95% of all Canadian business...I'm assuming that he would give the same advise to entrepreneurs wishing to enter these business sectors too.

He did advise to stay out of any field that India and China is likely to dominate. In the resource sector he recommended diamonds, oil, coal and platinum, all resources that Chindia (China & India) lack or need to buy.

He adds in the book:

"Don't misunderstand me. You may be able to find fulfillment and a rewarding career in the above...[..]...but you are more likely to find satisfaction and superior financial rewards in industries with superior economics."

He didn't mention anything about Nanotechnology in his book or his talk, which could easily become Canada's new resource sector. I'd be interested in what he has to say to Rotman business students and what advise he gives to researchers at MaRS dd at the University of Toronto when he speaks to these groups this term.

Here's an recent industry profit margin chart for several US Industries.

The issue of asymmetrical growth in Specialised Biotechnology Firms in the USA and the UK - UQAM

"There are over 5,000 Specialised Biotechnology Firms (SBFs) in the world, out of which at least 1500 are in the USA, 400 in Canada, and a similar number in the UK.

Within this group of SBFs rapid growth is concentrated in some 10 per cent of the firms. This paper compares the growth patterns of SBFs in the USA and the UK, and with the previous results for Canada. These three countries represent nearly 50 per cent of SBFs in the world. By combining several different databases, the paper reveals the determining factors of SBF growth in the two leading countries. Using correlation and logistic regressions for each country, we found that five factors (patents, the targeting of human health products and processes, the support of venture capital, R&D and marketing corporate alliances, and the search for world markets) explain most of the growth of these firms. "

Source: Int. J. Biotechnology, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2007

Get full paper here >>[...]

© 2005-2007

Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Walter Derzko teaches at the Certificate Program on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, which starts in the Fall of 2007

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
• ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  --A. Einstein
• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko"
• .......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  -- Margaret Mead
• ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Texas-based Millionaire Blueprints Magazine hits Vancouver

Millionaire Blueprints, an Arlington, Texas based magazine targets professionals and entrepreneurs who want to learn what it takes to become a millionaire.  The magazine is distributed by direct mail to the most affluent areas of 20 major metropolitan U.S. markets as well as private subscribers, digital e-magazines, and also is sold in supermarkets and bookstores across North America.  In Vancouver, 20,000 magazines will be direct mailed to the most affluent regions, including Yaletown, West Van, Kerrisdale, Point Grey, Kitsilano, among others.

Millionaire Blueprints Vancouver has brought together 6 key elements that have never been combined before.  Visit www.millionaireblueprintsvancouver.com and watch our innovating video to learn more about this  program.

Each Millionaire Blueprints issue contains over 90 pages of rags-to-riches stories featuring self-made millionaires who give detailed examples, step-by-step instructions, and specific blueprints of how they built their businesses.  Millionaire Blueprints is written in an easy-to-follow question and answer format, which allows people to follow the lead of self-made millionaires.

To receive a free copy of our September/October 2007 issue or to enquire about charter rate advertising, email Terry Nixon, Vice President - Sales & Marketing at [email protected] or call 778.737.7195

Why Quitting May Be Good for You

Are there times when it is better to simply give up?  Psychologists have been exploring this question, and more specifically a possible link between tenacity and both physical and mental health.

It would seem that persistence would be tonic over the long haul; hanging tough should increase the odds that you'll succeed, and personal success is closely linked to well-being.  But what if the goal is extremely unlikely?  When does an admirable trait like perseverance start to look more like beating your head against the wall?

To test this in the laboratory, psychologists Gregory Miller and Carsten Wrosch developed a psychological instrument that can reliably distinguish between people who when faced with a difficult goal either persist or let go of it.  In a series of experiments, the psychologists exhaustively studied these two personality types to see how healthy and well adjusted they are.

In their most recent study, published in the September issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the psychologists followed teenagers for a full year.  Over that time, individuals who did not persist obtaining hard to reach goals had much lower levels of a protein called CRP, an indicator of bodily inflammation.  Inflammation has recently been linked to several serious diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, suggesting that healthy but overly tenacious teens may already be on the road toward chronic illness later in life.

Accordingly, Miller and Wrosch suggest it may be more prudent to cut one's losses in the face of an insurmountable obstacle.  "When people are faced with situations in which they cannot realize a key life goal, the most adaptive response for physical and mental health may be to disengage from this goal," write the authors.Â

But all is not lost for go-getters.  The psychologists also sorted both groups by their willingness to re-engage and set new goals after they gave up on something important.  While they did not find a direct link between re-engagement and physical health, they did find that people who readily jumped back into life had a greater sense of purpose and mastery and were less likely to ruminate about the past.  Setting these new goals appears to buffer the emotional consequences of failure, especially for those who have the hardest time admitting defeat.

Contact the author: Greg Miller [email protected]

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2007/miller.cfm

Buckminster Fuller-successes & failures

In 1927, at the age of 32, Buckminster Fuller stood on the shores of Lake Michigan, prepared to throw himself into the freezing waters.  His first child had died.  He was bankrupt, discredited and jobless, and he had a wife and newborn daughter.  On the verge of suicide, it suddenly struck him that his life belonged, not to himself, but to the universe.  He chose at that moment to embark in what he called "an experiment to discover what the little penniless, unknown individual might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity."  Over the next fifty-four years, he proved, time and again, that his most controversial ideas were practical and workable.  He was awarded 25 U.S. patents, authored 28 books, received 47 honorary doctorates (although he never finished college) and received dozens of major architectural and design awards.

Is there a message in Fuller's story for you? what is it?

The secrets of serial entrepreneurs

On Aug 20^th, the WSJ published a story called “The Secrets of Serial Success” profiling  serial entrepreneurs -- which are defined as those who had owned and operated three or more businesses.

In 2000, Wayne Stewart, a management professor at  Clemson University in  Clemson S.C.published a study looking for common traits among serial entrepreneurs.

"Of the 664 entrepreneurs studied, only 12% fit the bill. But those who did scored higher in all three categories examined: They had a higher propensity for risk, innovation and achievement. They were less scared of failure. And they were more able to recover when they did fail."

"Beyond that, many serial-preneurs bring tactical advantages from their first venture to apply the second and third time around. For instance, they recruit top talent from their original companies to subsequent ventures. They double-dip financially, getting money -- and connections -- from people who backed their earlier brainstorms. Several lean heavily on a trusted partner for financial, professional and emotional support in whatever endeavor they undertake."

Full story >>[...] 

Innovation directly tied to profits and stockholder value-Innovation revival at Xerox & Mastering the "Art of Customer Delight"

In at story just published by Fortune Magazine called "Xerox's inventor-in-chief An innovation revival has lifted profits to $1.2 billion." we get Fortune's Geoff Colvin asking CTO Sophie Vandebroek about the innovation revival at Xerox and  if the company can keep it up?

Fortune starts off:

If all goes as scheduled, President Bush will hand Xerox's Sophie Vandebroek the National Medal of Technology at the White House in late July.  It will be a sweet moment for her and for a company that was built on a world-changing innovation - xerography - but that lost its way for a while in the Digital Revolution.

The story of how Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s failed to capitalize fully on two of the most critical elements of the personal computer - the graphical user interface and the mouse - has become legend.  In 2000, then-CEO Paul Allaire admitted that the company's business model didn't work anymore - a conclusion Wall Street had already reached.  A year later Xerox's innovation ranking among its peers plunged to tenth (i.e., last) on Fortune's annual list of America's Most Admired Companies. (see chart in article comparing innovation ranking and stock price)

[…]

Recent years have been better.  At a shade less than $16 billion, revenues have not changed much since 2003, but Xerox (Charts, Fortune 500) has increased profits every year, added $7 billion in market cap, and more than tripled its profit margins.

One key to the turnaround: Xerox has become an innovation power again, producing new technologies that can read, understand, route, and protect documents, among other things.

Fortune's Geoff Colvin asks CTO Sophie Vandebroek: Innovation may be the hottest topic in business.  How can it be a competitive advantage for Xerox?

Sophie Vandebroek replies: It's a matter of making sure that our customers constantly want to buy our products and services.  Ultimately innovation is about delighting the customer, and that results in great economic returns for Xerox.  If you innovate and it doesn't end up as something that the customer benefits from, then it's not innovation.

Fortune's Geoff Colvin asks: How does Xerox make sure that what it comes up with is not just what the engineers think is cool but what customers actually want?

"It's tough, replies Sophie Vandebroek.  "Innovation has two elements." 

"No.  1, there is the creative piece, the "Aha!"  Moment.  These are our own scientists and researchers and engineers, and our partners.  A lot of what we do early on is dreaming and innovating with the customers.  These are the early moments of understanding and seeing what nobody else has seen before that could result in a great product or service." 

"The second piece is the "intrapreneurial" role within Xerox, making sure that this creative idea goes through the whole value chain and becomes the right product for the customer."

Full story here>> […]

Want to know how to continuously delight your customers? Innovation is not a mysterious "hit and miss event" as the above article suggests. There's a tried and true process that focuses in on the cognitive (thinking) skills behind "customer delight" and brilliant strategic thinking in general. It's a process that most entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs can master in less then an afternoon, but that most MBA, business or design schools don't teach. Tools such as "attribute maps" can help entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs design blockbuster products and services. The big secret here is that most small and nible firms are better at this then their larger less-agile cousins.

......Invest in your own thinking skills and become a brilliant strategic entrepreneurial thinker.

Source: Certificate program in Entrepreneurship & Innovation; University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, St George Campus.

© 2005-2007 Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Walter Derzko teaches at the Certificate Program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, which starts in the Fall of 2007

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
• ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  --A. Einstein
• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko"
• .......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  -- Margaret Mead
• ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Boosting Britain's Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs

Great Britain's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has recently announced creation of a new Ethnic Minority Business Task Force to help boost business ownership among Great Britain's ethnic minorities and to help existing businesses achieve faster growth rates.  As in the US, Britain's minorities face some unique hurdles when trying to start or grow a new business.  Recent DTI-sponsored research that British minority business owners are more likely to be rejected for business finance and to be discouraged from applying for outside financing in the first place.

Survey findings include:

• Ethnic minority-owned businesses pay higher bank loan charges than White-owned businesses, on average;
• The gap between the amounts of business finance sought and the amounts agreed is significantly greater for Black African and Pakistani-owned businesses;
• Black African and Black Caribbean-owned businesses are much more likely than Indian, Pakistani and White-owned businesses, to be rejected for loans outright;
• Black African and Black Caribbean owned businesses are significantly more likely to feel discouraged from applying for finance than Indian, Pakistani and White-owned businesses;

Some of these differences may be the result of market forces, but researchers have found that other factors may also be at play.  The Task Force's job is to assess the role of these additional factors and to offer recommendations for closing the finance gap.

Learn more about Great Britain's new Ethnic Minority Business Task Force. 

The 263 page survey, 'Finance For Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises: Comparisons of Ethnic Minority And White-Owned Businesses' is available here.

© 2005-2007

Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Walter Derzko teaches at the Certificate Program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, which starts in the Fall of 2007

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
• ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  --A. Einstein
• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko"
• .......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  -- Margaret Mead
• ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Working for your Kids?

More and more retirement-age executives are taking jobs at their children's companies. Senior writer Anne Fisher, at Fortune Magazine has a few interesting family business profiles on June 21 2007-a reversal from the traditional appoach-kids who work for dad or mom.

Abstract (Document Summary)

"Going to work for one of your kids, as more and more retirement-age executives are doing, is a challenge.  It requires a huge psychological shift on both sides, and experts say that many an enterprise has gone down in flames because parents and their children can't shed old habits and adopt new, businesslike roles.  Most entrepreneurs with a parent in their employ admit to experiencing deja vu, especially if the employee is also a stockholder.  Because her dad owns 25% of her company, Marissa Shipman says sometimes when she needs to spend money to launch a new product, it reminds her of being a kid asking her dad for allowance money.  [...] Robert Shipman sold his clothing manufacturing company that had $130 million in annual sales and retired in 1980, at age 45.  Today Shipman works for his daughter Marissa, 28, who started a cosmetics company called the Balm in 2003"

[...]

"Plenty of parents know they need to back off and let the kid run the company, but they just don't know how.  Ira Bryck, director of the Family Business Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, recommends learning a new way of making suggestions that he calls strategic questioning.  The deadliest power struggles, it seems, occur between fathers and sons.  Some families work out private code words for defusing the stress of an argument.  Having performance objectives from the get-go can make a huge difference."

Full story in Fortune here>>[...]

© 2005-2007

Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Walter Derzko teaches at the Certificate Program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, which starts in the Fall of 2007

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
• ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  --A. Einstein
• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko

• ".......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  -- Margaret Mead

• ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Business Survival Rates in Canada

The way the mainstream media reports on SME business creation/survival is highly biased and skewed. The press likes to report on the wild success stories and ignores the all-to-real failures, which gives the general public and budding entrepreneurs a false sense of hope and security, ignoring the stark reality of small business life in the first 5 years of existance.

Here are the bare facts that you won't see in the media every day, as reported by Canadian designer, John Arnott at a recent Design Exchange annual conference:

• 140,000 new firms started in Canada (2004)
• 130,000 businesses closed
• Net 10,000 new firms, creating between 20,000-100,000 new jobs
• Only 10% of new companies survive
• 25% < 2 yrs,
• 36% > 5,
• 20% > 10
• If we could change that to 20% from 10%  it would add $6 billion to the economy

Blog reader Gray Hammond also reminds us of a Strategis web site with a title: How many businesses appear and disappear each year? at strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/sbrp-rppe.nsf/vwapj/KSBS_July2006_Eng.pdf/ The above failure rate has a number of implications, least of which is a 90% loss of your customer base annually, if you play in the busines to business (B2B) space or if you are a bank, lending money to them. Want to improve you chances of SME success? ...keep reading this blog and enrole in the new University of Toronto Certificate program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Source: Certificate program in Entrepreneurship & Innovation; University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, St George Campus.

© 2005-2007 

Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Walter Derzko teaches at the Certificate Program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, which starts in the Fall of 2007

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

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• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
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• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko

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