Insulin tops the list, but who made the money?

In the course of looking for background on Canadian Inventions, I came upon a list of the top 50 Canadian Inventions (Five-Pin Bowling is number four). This list came out of a show put on by the CBC (who else) in 2007. Following on the heels of the Greatest Canadian this show put it to all Canadians to rank our 50 greatest inventions.

I was trolling through this list and suddenly it struck me. I couldn’t identify a single company that had been created and gained worldwide prominence out of the first 15 inventions. Where was the pharmaceutical giant spawned from the development of insulin, the nutraceutical behemoth formed from Pablum? Instead I found a list of fabulous inventions which, for the most part, were opportunities not seized. Certainly Poutine has been a worldwide phenom but have we capitalized on its creation to bring untold wealth back home?

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What’s to become of the Rockefeller
gasoline legacy?

John D. Rockefeller is a Titan. And he’s shaking up the petroleum industry yet again.

Forever immortalized in contradictory terms; revolutionary industrialist, leader of the petroleum industry, ruthless robber baron, corporate innovator (holding companies to work around monopoly laws), target to anti-trust movement, innovator of modern charitable trusts, benevolent benefactor and the wealthiest man to ever live (inflation adjusted). Arguably one of the best business books ever written chronicled how this one man came to hold all of these titles. His legacy in the oil industry is immediately apparent when you consider the successor companies to the post-monopoly break-up of Standard Oil.

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Red Maple Leaves in the Sun by joesflickr

I just finished reading the latest report on Canada’s competitiveness (PDF) released by the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity. The report describes our current state in 2008 and the outlook to 2020, and it’s troubling to see that even though our economic performance is among the strongest nations, we are trailing the US by a whopping $8,800 in GDP per capita.

So what does this mean?
It means that we have opportunities to improve the value we add to our human, physical and natural resources, that will in turn contribute to our national prosperity and standard of living.

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At Wednesday’s Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, attendees heard Dr. Peter Hofstra of Greenrock Asset Management talk about the cost/benefit analysis of a higher education. Talking from his own experience in transitioning from a PhD in Engineering Physics to a fund manager, he discussed the transferable skills that a PhD can give you.

But for the true entrepreneur (think Bill Gates or Michael Dell) often leaving a degree program to “just do it” is the better path. Based on the questions from the audience, it was clear that many people are torn about which way to go.

Question of the Week:
What advice do you have for a Masters graduate trying to decide whether or not to do a PhD program?

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Get involved: volunteer week

With the current awareness around community involvement and volunteering, especially since this week is Volunteer Week, many businesses are interested in contributing to their local community through a group volunteer experience. They look to volunteerism as an alternative to the traditional team-building exercise or charitable gift donation, where a meaningful volunteer experience helps improve motivation and teamwork skills among employees. But an employee-supported volunteer program can also help increase corporate visibility and highlight a corporate commitment to social responsibility in the community.

Volunteer Toronto has established the Employee Supported Volunteer Program (ESVP) to help bridge these business interests with the needs of non-profit agencies.

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Last Wednesday, Entrepreneurship 101 participants heard Mike Polonsky of the Equicom Group talk about how to give a pitch - what to do (and what not to do) when telling the world about your idea.

Here’s a thought: perhaps as scientists and engineers we could apply the same lessons to our technical presentations to our peers! No more boring 6pt font tables of mind numbing data - just a clear articulation of a story. Is anyone out there brave enough to break the mold of “I have to impress them with how difficult my research is otherwise they won’t think highly of me”?

Question of the Week:
Anyone ready to do as Mike suggested: tell a story simply and clearly?

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New Radicals Button

On Tuesday, April 15th, a multitude of people came together at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics in celebration of the touted tome entitled “We are The New Radicals: A Manifesto for Reinventing Yourself and Saving the World.” The author, Julia Moulden, a five-foot-something dynamo exhibited an energy for this idea as vibrant as the red lipstick she sports.

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Donning a new hat to get stuff done

After exercising your creativity muscles during Idea Week and Creativity & Innovation Day last week (as I’m sure you all were!), it’s now time to put those fantastic ideas into action.

But how do you change gears from creativity ringleader and innovation cheerleader to schedule whip-cracker so that big ideas don’t flounder in the ether?

Scott Berkun spoke yesterday at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and told us “How to innovate on time.”

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At last Wednesday’s Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, Dr. Jeffrey Coull of Chlorion Pharma shared some of his experiences in dealing with venture capital companies. One of his messages was that “no” from a VC often simply means “not now.” Coull recounted having presented numerous times to a collection of over 60 VC’s — with one of the initial “no’s” ultimately becoming an investor in Chlorion.

His message: persistence pays!

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A truly green measure of success

Let’s start with a truism: financial results are the success metrics of corporations. People who make daily decisions on creating and executing corporate policies are trained (and paid) to think in ways that improve the performance of the corporation.

As such, it is not surprising that the success of our technocratic society so far has not been based on an ecosystem justice but rather on developing efficient ways of converting “natural capital” into “man-made capital.” Martin Herbert Kijazi in the recent issue of Idea&s magazine proposes that an ecologically compatible economy would embrace a wide range of objectives beyond economic profitability.

However, the old saying, “what gets measured gets managed,” always applies. So, how to measure the integrity of an ecosystem? Or the vitality of an urban centre?

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