AMERICAN BILL GATES and THE CANADIAN CAUTION
Someone recently ask me if I found any differences
between the audiences I speak to in Canada and the U.S. The answer is yes.
“Americans want to be Bill Gates. Canadians want to be careful.”
This article was originally titled “Americans want to be Bill Gates. Canadians
want to be careful”
I’m not sure why this is. While Canadians are known
for their more conservative approach in general, our entrepreneurs were at
least as daring as the Americans’ in opening up the West, building the national
railway, and pushing back the frontiers of communications, medicine, and
technology. Still, when I speak about entrepreneurship and innovation in the
U.S., there’s buzz about success and fortune; you can almost hear the American
Dream springing to life. In Canada, however, the word entrepreneur is still
painfully associated with the term ‘small business.’
Across Canada, at cocktail parties and banker’s
offices, our should-be heroes of industry and innovation are still too often
dismissed as wild risk-takers who needlessly put their savings and financial
security on the line. But entrepreneurship is so much more than that.
Businesses that employ fewer than 500 people in North America have accounted
for two-thirds of job growth in the past 10 to 20 years. The dreamers and the
risk-takers are the growth engines that drive our economies. So let’s not label
the entrepreneurs behind these businesses and the opportunities they pursue
‘crazy.’ Rather, let’s go with ‘crazy important.’
Still, there is something to be said for the Canadian
approach to entrepreneurship. While we need more people to take initiative and
champion change, there’s merit in doing so conservatively. I like to advise
entrepreneurs to dream big, but proceed with caution. What exactly does this
mean? There is never a shortage of opportunities in business; they’re
everywhere. The key to success lies not in putting all your hopes and life’s
savings into the first Big Idea you see, but in taking time to define the very
best venture you will actually choose to pursue.
Last month, I addressed the process of bringing
together your team to generate great new business ideas. We talked about the
power of the group dynamic and the “Yes, and...” process that enables your team
to generate a wall of Post-It notes full of ideas.
Once you’ve done that, however, you need to begin
culling those ideas into a manageable short list. More importantly, your ideas
should be relevant to you, your business and your prospective customers.
Sounds obvious, I know, but judging by the number of
times that I read about companies selling off non-core assets or dropping
unprofitable clients, I realize that dreams of glorious short-term returns too
often overcome solid analytical thinking.
I approach opportunity assessment with a rigorous,
three-pronged approach. I like to rank each business opportunity according to
three criteria: global (which includes ensuring that each new idea aligns with
your company’s high-level, strategic direction, its vision, its mission, and so
on), sales and marketing (rigorously identifying the ideal customer, target
markets, time-to-market, and the competitive landscape) and financial
(analyzing the projected top-line revenue, contribution, productivity ratios,
net profit, and so on). The bracketed examples are, of course, only a few of
the concepts you need to think through; there are many others that your team
will think of or may already have in place.
Before anyone on your team gets carried away by a
shiny new idea, it’s extremely important that you rank each opportunity you are
considering against all three of these criteria. Don’t fall into the trap of
saying, “this is a great idea, even though it’s not in keeping with the
long-term vision of the company. I’ll worry about getting back on-strategy next
quarter.”
Unless you rank new opportunities thoroughly and
objectively, ruthlessly matching them to your strategy and capabilities, you
will have little chance of converting even the best new ideas into successful
and highly profitable new products.
The moral of the story: Embrace the American dream; believe in the
possibility of success, but exercise good old Canadian caution along the way.
Ken Tencer
CEO
of Spyder Works Inc. He is a branding and innovation thought leader who
helps organizations reimagine their futures. He is the co-author of two books
on innovation — The 90%Rule and Causea Disturbance (Morgan James Publishing, NY).
Also
read: Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship, Business productivity, Business Lessons from Tennis, Thinking Outside the Box, Business Lessons from Lagos Molue and 100 Things Leke Taught Me.
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