If Ottawa is the city of comfortable brown shoes, Toronto a bland tweed jacket and Montreal warm woollen slacks then Canada justly deserves the title of innovation laggard. One of my favourite blog posts from “The Road Less Travelled” a while back is “Ottawa the city of comfortable brown shoes”. I love this post because it is so indicative of the Ottawa and perhaps the Canadian craving for comfort and aversion to risk taking. This mentality has served Canada very well going into the Great Reset. However, it will also be our downfall when prosperity returns and the new world order emerges.

Apparently I am not alone in thinking along these lines. The Globe and Mail had an article yesterday entitled “Canada has everything going for it … except innovation”. Canada is #1 in spending on public innovation; however, we are #14 in terms of innovation productivity. Innovation has long been a challenge for Canada yet we continue to stay the course.

In fact there is a good article in the Ottawa Citizen recently by Richard Florida on “Why Canada needs a Great Reset”. Change seems like a good thing when you are spending like a gold medal winner but performing like an also ran. The two key points from my perspective are;

- Focus on growth industries
- Create new and better jobs

This 1st place spend coupled with a 14th place finish has me pondering Canadian innovation performance. I’ll be dong some pondering and writing of the “Innovation Series” over the summer break.

Stay tuned.

Ian Graham

Why Canada needs a great reset!
Canada has everything going for it … except innovation.

Coming to Suite 408 real soon “Media Style Studio @TheCodeFactory” The studio is a joint venture of Media Style and TheCodeFactory and our newly minted logo is shown above. Couldn’t wait to show it off.

The studio will be of professional quality for podcasting and video complete with Green screen and an array of tech gadgets. Expect an announcement about some custom TheCodeFactory content in the near future.

Ian Graham

In the picture from left to right are:

Richard Alam – co-founder Blindside Networks, BEng/96, MEng06
Tony Bailetti – Associate Professor, Technology Innovation Management Program
Michael Weiss – director, Technology Innovation Management Program
Jason Daley – President Ucreate Media, BComm/99
Steve Muegge – faculty member, Technology Innovation Management Program, MEng04
Ian Graham – founder TheCodeFactory

Toward the end of his presentation Manuel started to show the amazing shapes and structures that his research allowed him to create. This blew me away and I was totally amazed. The light went on and I realized that there is in fact great value in research that may not always be readily apparent at the onset of the project.

I get it. Research is important.

The challenge IMHO is how do you determine what projects receive funding and perhaps even more importantly how do you connect University research to private enterprise for commercialization.? These two questions are the foundation for a whole new series of posts … perhaps one day.

Next Post: Focus on Commercialization – Maria De Rosa PhD.

Ian Graham

Here’s my fist post in this series. This one is is based on things I’ve learned in TeamCamp. Enjoy.
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While watching Zombieland over the weekend I couldn’t help thinking how similar surviving a zombie attack is to becoming a successful startup. The film Zombieland stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Together they take an extended road trip in an attempt to find a sanctuary free from zombies, following a set of “rules” designed to keep them alive where others have failed, killing zombies in a variety of creative ways while trying to “enjoy the little things” in a ruined world. (source: Wikipedia)

A central plot theme throughout the film is the list of rules Columbus comes up with for surviving in the zombie-infested world. By the end of the film, his list has thirty-three rules; here’s how I think these rules aptly apply to the life of a startup:

1. “Cardio” – To be a successful startup you have to always be one-step ahead of your competition
2. “Double tap” – If you going to fail, fail fast. If you’ve developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and you get no takers, then kill it fast and move on to something else.
3. “Beware of bathrooms” – When the going get’s tough there’s no place to hide – face your challenges and get on with it.
4. “Wear seatbelts” – Being a startup isn’t the only thing in life – take time for family, friends and your health.
5. “Cast iron skillet” – You don’t have a business until you have paying customers. Concentrate on what value your product or service brings and figure out how to charge for your service.
6. “Travel light” – don’t hire until you have to; keep your team small; keep the number of founders to 3 or less; don’t incur any expenses you don’t have to.
7. “Get a kickass partner” – Don’t try to go it alone – ‘nough said.
8. “Bounty paper towels” – Keeping your ideas secret because you think someone will steel them is crap. Ask people for their input and ideas and soak them up. Collaborate.
9. “Bowling Ball” - Look for opportunities to disrupt your chosen market.
10. “Don’t Be a hero” – Yes, it’s be a hero: Be courageous, be a strong leader, be confident, be positive – even when times are tough. Having a kickass partner helps.
11. “Limber up” - Learn everything you can, read everything you can and tap into your local startup community. Never stop learning.
12. “Avoid strip clubs” – Meetups and events are a great places to meet people and network, and they can be enjoyable. But don’t bother going if all you’re going to do is watch. Participate.
13. “When in doubt, know your way out” – Make sure you have a backup plan. Don’t put your life savings into your startup. Keep your day job for a while if you have to.
14. “The buddy system” – Get a mentor. Find someone else that has “been there, done that”.
15. “Check the back seat” – Keep an eye on your competitors once in a while – but don’t dwell on it. Meet your customers’ needs and always keep driving forward.
16. “Enjoy the little things” – Celebrate successes: your first customer, your 100th customer, getting code released, getting good feedback from a customer, a mention in a blog or article – anything that smells like success – enjoy it, it’s the fuel that’ll keep your team going.
17. “Swiss army knife” – Build a versatile, multi-purpose team. When you’re just starting you have no room (or money) for specialists.

If you’re alert you may have noticed that’s not 33 rules; you’ll have to figure the rest for yourself.
So what are you waiting for? Go get started!

Professor Banu Örmeci was the first presenter and spoke on the need for better more effective water purification strategies. In the developing world there are a significant number of deaths caused by water borne diseases that are 100% preventable. In fact during the 10 – 20 minutes of the presentation 72 children died from water related diseases.
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The traditional method for large G20 type nations to come in and help the developing countries in Africa is to;
- Install large filtration plants,
- A complex network of pipes and pumps,
- Large irrigation channels.

Basically a very western approach to solving an African problem. The challenge is that after all of the aid workers and volunteers have left the local population lacks the technical knowhow to keep the system running. The plant falls into disrepair and the pipes become jungle gym play structures for kids. The end a result is that, however, well intended the root cause of the water problem persists.

A new approach is to develop very simple sustainable solutions with the local people. Instead of a complex network of pipes and plumbing the water problem is solved with plastic bottles on a hot tin roof. Brilliant. A small drop of chlorine is placed in a plastic water bottle full of water. The bottle is in turn placed on a hot tin roof for 6 hours.

Simple … Sustainable … Solution.

Perhaps we in Canada could learn to solve our commercalizaiton dilemma in a similar fashion.

Ian Graham

Precarn is seeking immediate applications to this program. A total of $4 million has been allocated for this call. Precarn funding will be up to 40% of the total eligible project costs to a maximum of $100,000. Once a project is approved, 50% of the Precarn funds will be paid at midterm of the project and the remaining 50% will be paid upon project completion and delivery of a final report.

Full details can be found on the Precarn web site by clicking here or pasting the following in your web browser (http://www.precarn.ca/ProgramsFunding/COREFundingPrograms/TGAP/)

< download the details Here>