I have the first and second edition of this book on my bookshelf. It is concise, practical advice for starting and running a technology/knowledge-based company… and it is written by a local tech leader – Denzil Doyle! For those trying to figure out where to start and what to do I recommend this book as a good place to start reading.
Making Technology Happen describes in detail the techniques used to identify and exploit technology and how to build and manage a technology-intensive company around that technology. It covers such activities as ‘go-to market’ strategy development, general management, investment analysis, organizational development, and competitive market analysis – all from the perspective of a technology-intensive enterprise. It is used by governments and technology transfer professionals across North America, as well as by entrepreneurs and business executives
A friend in California sent me an article today that was very disconcerting. The article was reflecting on a recent report published in Europe relative to the impacts and consequences of the economic situation:
According to the European think tank, LEAP/Europe 2020, two factors make the US a likely candidate for civil violence: the absence of a strong social safety net and the presence of hundreds of millions of firearms.
Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has publicly expressed his fears about impending civil unrest with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You also talked about the possibility of class conflict.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I was worrying about it because we’re going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there is public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America….
And you sort of say to yourself: what’s going to happen in this society when these people are without jobs, when their families hurt, when they lose their homes, and so forth?
We have the government trying to repair: repair the banking system, to bail the housing out. But what about the rich guys?… Where is the monied class today? Why aren’t they doing something: the people who made billions, millions…. there’s going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots!
And the unrest is not expected to be restricted to the US. On Feb 23rd, London Police expressed public concern over the possibility of a “summer of rage” in the UK -
Police said on Monday they feared a “summer of rage” with mass protests over the economic crisis…
A reduction in the number of service companies related to knowledge-based companies (and Nortel), e.g. legal, accounting, recruiting, manufacturing, technical contracting, retail
Ottawa economic growth prospects will decline as the city becomes increasingly less attractive for knowledge-based multi-nationals to locate/expand in Ottawa due to declining size and skills of the local workforce brought about by:
Continued emigration of knowledge-workers out of Ottawa (Stats Canada reports have highlighted the lost high tech capabilities and workforce emigration away from Ottawa - 2 in 5 laid off tech workers left Ottawa)
Continued reduction in base of knowledge-workers with current experience (Stats Canada reports have highlighted that 4 of 5 laid off tech workers did not find work in tech)
Ottawa may soon be the “Flint Michigan of Canada” when it comes to high tech.
While Linux does well as an OS for server applications, it continues to be irrelevant on desktops. Latest numbers posted by Net Applications are below:
After this blog entry I was immediately asked about the challenges those ex-techies who joined the Federal government have found. Here is a quick summary of what I’ve been told:
Being under-employed/under-challenged (compared to their personal perceived capability)
Being discouraged from working excessive hours (one individual told me about a situation where a co-worker took them aside and asked them to stop working long hours because it was making the rest of them look bad – however all other individuals I know said they had never experienced this type of behavior and in fact noted that people in their departments tended to work more then the regular work hours as a matter of course)
Really, really bad employees who are passed from department to department like a hot potato (these employees typically know how to exploit the various government union and HR policies to effectively do nothing and avoid being fired and consume vast amounts of their managers time and reputation in the process)
Political wars and games where each department was working to position themselves for projects they expect to see funded
In Nortel, I personally experienced:
Being under-employed/under-challenged (only when working on a product transitioning to legacy support – when this happened I usually changed jobs)
Being given really, really bad employees as part of a new project team (who I first mentored/worked with to help them develop missing skills or cultural awareness, and if that failed (only on one occasion) I put them into the HR process leading to termination/transfer to a job with a better fit)
Political wars and games where each department was working to position themselves for projects they expect to see funded
Anyone else from High Tech who ended up in the Federal government have observations to contribute?
The stereotypical government employee is usually characterized as “lazy”, “inefficient”, “in by 9 out by 4″.
With the tech downturn, a lot of people I know ended up in the government. The general consensus among the ex-tech people who ended up in the government is that yes, there are pockets of poor performers and demoralized individuals – but by and large – the majority of government employees are motivated and engaged in doing the best job they can. The other observation of the ex-tech people inside the government is that the internal politics are very similar (although more pronounced in some departments more then others!) to the politics that they encountered inside Nortel.
On a personal level, my observations and experiences with Federal government employees include:
I have made submissions and worked with the NRC-IRAP team over the years. I have found the NRC-IRAP team in general to be top-notch from the executives down to the ITA’s – they recognize the importance of their role in the future of Canada tech development and they work as an engaged and committed partner.
Stats Canada produces high quality research reports that I have found to be very insightful and valuable in supporting my various market analysis activities over the years.
The Passport office is a model of efficiency and customer orientation. When I look back to the first passport I got compared to the last one a few years ago – they have made massive improvements. In general I have found they are increasingly efficient and customer service oriented. The last time I went in to get my renewed passport – in-spite of a full waiting room of people – I was in and out in less then 30 minutes. I personally like the way they introduced an option for a taxpayer to pay extra for expedited services.
On the e-Government side, e.g. making it easy to find information and access services online, the government continues to make improvements year over year. I have always been able to find the information I need online. As an aside – I believe our government’s expertise in e-Government is a area we should be looking to export/develop into commercial businesses.
Politicians aside, in general it is my opinion that we have a pretty good group of people working for us in the Federal government.
One in five persons living in Canada is foreign born
In Toronto, almost half of the population is foreign born
Census statistics from 2001 provides a broader overview of immigrant origin in Canada:
I personally believe this is a great advantage for Canada. The more ties we have with other countries, the more likely that business relationships will be developed.
As of Sept 30 2008, the US national debt was estimated to be$10 Trillion. This is roughly $35,469 per US taxpayer. The debt is continuing to grow in the wake of the increasing size of the stimulus budget items.
Canadian Federal Debt as % of GDP
As of February 2009, the federal debt stands at roughly $458-billion. This is roughly $13,685 per Canadian taxpayer. This is an upward trend with the recent federal budget, which reduces the debt reduction activities of past government budgets.
Who Owns the US National Debt?
The view from an independent analysis based on January 2007 data:
The view from the US Federal government for Sept 2008:World National Debt by % of GDP (2007 from CIA estimates)
With all the talk of government stimulus and spending it is disappointing to see the government not using programs that have already been approved and rolled-out.
“We’re stepping up because Ontario is not going to let others steal our future out from under us - we will produce the next wave of clean technologies that create jobs and clean up the environment,” said Premier McGuinty.
“We’re sending the message to companies around the world that if you’ve got a project that will grow your business and create jobs, we’ll make it happen in Ontario,” said Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello.
“This fund is about building on our strengths to ensure Ontario can compete and win in the global economy - and create a better standard of living for Ontario families,” said Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson.
There was also much noise made about how:
Companies are guaranteed a decision within 45 days of submitting a complete proposal.
So, since being announced a year ago…. nothing has happened.
Furthermore, last summer – Nortel, IBM and Carleton University submitted a proposal to establish and collaborate on a project called “Coral CEA”. The group’s proposal was to setup an organization to focus on development of communications enabled applications with the objective of spinning-off companies and jobs. In-spite of being under bankruptcy protection Nortel remained committed to the proposal because of it’s strategic value.
This was a proposal from two of Canada’s top innovators and Ottawa’s leading University… and nothing has happened.
In fact, worse then nothing has happened – good ideas have been submitted and no action has been taken.
It appears that the only jobs that the NGoJF is creating are jobs for government organ grinders whose purpose is to turn our “Creative Class” into dancing monkeys for the bureaucracy -
If McGuinty is serious about his commitment to innovation and the NGoJF – he needs to roll up his sleeves and take direct personal action in his government. Right now McGuinty and his government fall into the category of “Big Hat, No Cattle”.
Applications to Oxford and Cambridge rose 9.9%. The University of Exeter said it had an 18% increase in applications from British students and 88% rise in those outside the EU. New universities and smaller specialist institutions also reported record rises. Bedfordshire University had a 24% rise in home applications.
Enrollment/application numbers for Universities in the US and Canada for late 2008/early 2009 are hard to find, however here is what has been published so far:
In US, Universities share similar concerns as in Canada. In the US there is particular concern regarding decreasing endowment funds which are due mainly to the stock market decline:
… the average college endowment lost 2.7 percent in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2008, according to Commonfund, an organization that manages many colleges’ endowments. A follow-up survey found endowments lost another 22.5 percent in the five months that ended Dec. 1, 2008.
In the US and Canada, Universities are likely to be beneficiaries of the various stimulus packages, which should off-set some of the concerns that are currently being expressed.
Sun has developed Sun Small Programable Object Technology (SPOT). It’s an experimental platform to inspire developers to build the next great toy, sensor, communication device — who knows — using Sun technology. The Sun SPOT devices make include a flexible hardware platform as well as the software and tools to make it easy to innovate, experiment, and prototype whatever a developer can imagine.
The Sun SPOT Device is a small, wireless, battery powered experimental platform. It is programmed almost entirely in Java to allow regular programmers to create projects that used to require specialized embedded system development skills. The hardware platform includes a range of built-in sensors as well as the ability to easily interface to external devices.
This little platform is full of potential for “Creative Class” people to base a microbusiness on.
There is more data and complexity everyday. There are a number of very interesting sites on the web that present visualization of data on a wide variety to topics, including:
I particularly like the site “Visual Literacy” which provides online training on methods to represent information visually. They have an interactive diagram which summarizes, with examples, all the various various visualization techniques. Not to be missed!
The Pew Research Center published a report in Dec 2008 which identified a significant trend that may represent the beginning of the end for traditional Newspapers.
For the first time, more people (40%) said they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%).
Another interesting trend is the Amazon Kindle. I have had one of the Kindle’s since it came out. For travelling, there is nothing better. On the Kindle you can get books and newspapers delivered wirelessly to the device.
The price for the Kindle is around $349, but is likely to continue to drop in price.
Newspapers and magazines have repeatedly tried to sell their content in various online formats targeted at PC users but generally met with limited results. I have tried several of these “digital editions” and have found them to be cumbersome to navigate and inconvenient to access. Portable devices such as the Kindle and Sony eReader present a much more portable, and straight-forward user experience. I imagine an Apple eReader can’t be far off…
For years I religiously subscribed to home delivery of local and national newspapers (more then one). I stopped subscribing more then 10 years ago after I subscribed to broadband internet service. Looking back on the last year I have purchased a newspaper less then 10 times when I have been out of the house with some time to kill.
Google is helping the demise of newspaper with it’s recently announced plans to start offering advertising on it’s Google News service.
A related personal trend I have noticed is that I no longer simply rely upon traditional news producers for my insights and opinions, but tend to draw upon a much wider set of sources – including blogs, ezines, etc.
Allan Mutter has a great blog that talks to the mistakes, challenges and general state of the news publishers.
There are a vast, and increasing, number of technical certifications available. A big question many people have is what is the value – if any – of an individual spending the time and money to obtain a certification. Will the certification increase prospects for employment? Will the certification increase the salary of the holder?
A study published by TechRepublic “2008 IT skills and salary report“, gives some insight into the salaries of various certification holders:
TechRepublic also published another report identifying the following IT-specific certifications as being the “Top 10″ relative to increasing employment opportunities:
Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS) or Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) (formerly MCSE)
Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA)
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP)
GIAC Security Expert (GSE)
Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)
Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP)
Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Certifications for Special Situations (including VoIP)
For local tech job seekers – be sure to pickup your copy of the Ottawa Business Journal’s Ottawa Technology Magazine which hit the newstands this week. The magazine features more than 1,300 technology company listings in clean tech, life sciences, high technology and other sectors.
“A year ago, there would be 30 people looking for one airplane,” said Jay Mesinger, a corporate jet broker, who said that prices had fallen 30 to 40 percent since late 2007. “Today there are 30 airplanes looking for one buyer.”
Recent reports from the international shark attack files shows that shark attacks decline with the economy, presumably due to the fact that fewer people can afford to travel and swim with the sharks.
A report from Insala provides some interesting insights into a business sector that is growing and expected to continue to grow in 2009:
Providing outplacement support to exiting employees has become standard business practice for many companies. The demand for such services is increasing in this heavy job-cutting market. This is evidenced by the following research:
81% of employers engage help from external outplacement providers (The Value of Outplacement, Reed Consulting).
50% of employers use only external outplacement providers (The Value of Outplacement, Reed Consulting).
34.1% of surveyed organizations offer outplacement services to certain classifications of employees, while 13.6% offer it to all of their employees (HRfocus Termination Survey 2008).
30% of 600 surveyed companies outsource outplacement services (H.R. Department Benchmarks and Analysis 2008, Bureau of National Affairs).
With this increasing usage, the outplacement industry has grown to a 3 billion dollar industry, and some sources state it is as high as 10 billion.
Financial performance data on individual outplacement firms is extremely limited due to the fact that the majority of firms are private. One public firm however recently reported a 25% increase in net revenue this year compared to last year. In September, Penna Consulting, a U.K. based public limited company reported their net revenue to be approximately 25% ahead of the same period last year and pre-tax profits earned in the first six months of this year will be higher than those of the full 2007/8 year. Consequently, they are projecting that market expectations for the full year ending in March 2009 will be materially exceeded.
Business incubation has been identified as a means of meeting a variety of economic and socioeconomic policy needs, which may include:
Creating jobs and wealth
Fostering a community’s entrepreneurial climate
Technology commercialization
Diversifying local economies
Building or accelerating growth of local industry clusters
Business creation and retention
Encouraging women or minority entrepreneurship
Identifying potential spin-in or spin-out business opportunities
Community revitalization
Business incubators typically provide a range of services to clients that may include:
Help with business basics
Networking activities
Marketing assistance
High-speed Internet access
Help with accounting/financial management
Access to bank loans, loan funds and guarantee programs
Help with presentation skills
Links to higher education resources
Links to strategic partners
Access to angel investors or venture capital
Comprehensive business training programs
Advisory boards and mentors
Management team identification
Help with business etiquette
Technology commercialization assistance
Help with regulatory compliance
Intellectual property management
Facilities (e.g. office space, specialized lab space) and associated business services (e.g. security, receptionist, meeting rooms, phone service, photocopiers, printers, internet service)
Stats Canada released a report in late 2008 “The Business of Nurturing Businesses” which takes a look at business incubators in Canada based on survey data taken in 2005. Some key findings from the report include:
Almost all business incubators are sponsored by economic development organizations, governments, academic institutions, i.e. tax money
1 in 6 incubators offer facilities and on-site support services
Almost half of all incubators were focused on professional, scientific and technical services businesses
The top three most used services of incubators were: legal consultation, management guidance and assistence in obtaining financing
There are various lists of incubators in Canada, unfortunately none up-to-date, including:
Unfortunately, with the exception of Carleton University’s Tony Bailetti, there is little/no information available on the public incubators relative to return on investment of the tax money in the operation of the incubators – which would lead me to believe that compelling results do not exist.
From the perspective of efficiency, it appears that our tax money is being spent a bit recklessly relative to overlapping mandates and services. The Ontario government and Ottawa Municipal government have both being doing a review of how they are funding and delivering their economic development programs. I hope that as part of this review, they look towards stronger collaboration and reduced overlap of services between Provincial and Municipal programs.
A future blog entry will examine how business incubators role will evolve/change in the context of Business Ecosystems.
Keystone organizations in an Ecosystem need money to operate and sustain their functions. The nature of how the keystone organization makes money depends upon whether it is a not for profit (social economy business) or a for profit (commercial business).
A not for profit Keystone organization typically makes its money through some or all of the following means:
Selling memberships
Selling consulting services
Selling documentation and books related to the Ecosystem platform product
Accelerating feature developments on the Ecosystem platform product in return for cash
Selling support for the Ecosystem platform product or service
Selling advertising on Keystone-associated websites, printed publications
Selling t-shirts/etc with the Keystone logos/tag-lines
Soliciting donations from Ecosystem users/consumers, e.g. through Paypal
Running conferences and symposiums
Selling company/product listing services for Ecosystem suppliers
Selling training services/courses related to the Ecosystem platform product
Selling certifications for products which use the Ecosystem product platform
Selling infrastructure services which the Ecosystem product uses, e.g. webservices
Selling sponsorships to commercial organizations in return for access to Ecosystem members, e.g. through offering of meetings, special offers/discounts from commercial businesses to its members
Government grants
A for profit Keystone organization may also make its money from any of the above, but may also include some or all of the following as key sources of revenue:
Sales channel and associated contract/transactions between consumers and suppliers of the channel (e.g. Apple Apps Store, oDesk)
Selling products that are complimentary to the base product platform and other Ecosystem members that the Ecosystem is based on (andnot competing directly with the Ecosystem suppliers)
For a start-up, one of the biggest challenge is gaining access to customers and being able to transact business with them as easily and quickly as possible. In the last 5 years, new business models have been emerging that help reduce that challenge, referred to as Ecosystem business models.
These new business models are providing knowledge workers (aka the “Creative Class“) access to ready-made delivery platforms and selling channels to a well-defined market.
These emerging channels to market typically provide a means to connect suppliers with consumers, usually handling the transaction between the two as a trusted mediator (taking a percentage in return for the channel services, e.g. selling platform, marketing, customer management, fulfillment, transaction handling):
Apple Apps Store – sells applications to Apple iPhone phone users, handles delivery and payment, payment is via iTunes account
Google Android Market - sells applications to Android mobile phone users, handles delivery and payment using Paypal
Amazon Webstore - sell your wares online, access Amazon shoppers and Amazon store tools, handles payment using Amazon account
99Designs - companies/individuals post requests for graphics designs and designated “prize money”, companies/individuals post responses, the winning design selected gets the “prize money”
oDesk - teams or individuals post skills/availability, companies/individuals post jobs with desired fee for completion (fixed rate or hourly)
Shutterstock – royalty-free photographs, individuals/companies provide photos and get paid based on sales
Innovation Exchange – companies/individuals post challenges and cash, suppliers post responses
Mechanical Turk – people post questions/tasks, suppliers post answers/accept task
Cafepress – individuals/companies generate graphic content, Cafepress puts it on mugs, shirts, etc and handles all fulfillment for the supplier
Amazon Kindle – sell eBooks via Amazon and their new eBook reader
Spot Us - allows journalists to post story ideas and solicit funding from public
One channel which can be very significant for Microbusinesses is Paypal -
Paypal – “one-click” purchasing between suppliers and consumers. Many niche sellers, e.g. 3rd party add-on suppliers for Joomla! use Paypal as their transaction vehicle. Most eCommerce solutions provide a gateway to Paypal as the payment means. Paypal itself also can accept credit cards on behalf of a seller. Paypal by itself provides access to a group of consumers who are comfortable transacting business online. Paypal provides a trusted supplier relationship between the buyer and the supplier. I have to confess I never thought Paypal would amount to anything when I first heard about the business many years ago…
Eliminating all costs that add no or little value to customers
Selling services previously provided for free
Increasing efforts to steal customers of competitors
Improving operational efficiency
Eliminating inventory payments
Reducing payments to suppliers
There is some interesting analysis in a thesis report from Carleton University (COMPETITION DURING MARKET MELTDOWNS: THE PERFORMANCE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS DURING 2001-2003, by Yanxia Hao, 2004) which suggests that:
“…companies should focus on a narrow range of effective actions to improve company performance during market meltdowns.”
Indeed.com is an interesting website – it allows you to specify terms which it will then use to search historical job postings from the web. It will plot the frequency of occurance of those terms in a graph. I don’t know how accurate this data is for use as anything other than entertainment value!
Here are some examples:
Click on the following chart to get a current view of aggregated industry trends from Indeed.com:
Stock market analysts are now working to understand and predict when the stock market rebound will happen, and what sectors will come back first. Looking back – the greatest stock market rally ever occured during the depths of the Great Depression.
Sectors that lead the market after reaching the bottom are, in order of historic strength: information technology, consumer discretionary, financials, industrials and materials.
February 28, 2009
