Needed: Entrepreneurial Thinking

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Brad Ferguson

I’ve always struggled with the word “entrepreneur.” I tend to raise an eyebrow and wonder what is really meant when someone says, “I want to become an entrepreneur” or when government says “we need to create more entrepreneurs.” It always sounds noble, but I’m just not sure what to expect.

Is an entrepreneur someone who starts and assumes the risks of a new business? Or, is an entrepreneur someone who champions new ideas, processes and solutions that create value … regardless of their vocation? There’s a big difference, and it begs the question of whether entrepreneurship should only be taught in business schools, or should it be liberal art applied to all disciplines … entrepreneurship in medicine, in engineering, in education, in nursing as well as in business?

Which do we need more? Entrepreneurs or Entrepreneurial Thinking?

Exactly three months ago, we assembled a team of eight entrepreneurial Edmontonians from various disciplines and challenged them with the goal of building a festival that celebrates entrepreneurial thinking. There were only three criteria:

It has to celebrate creativity and entrepreneurship applied to all kinds of disciplines, as we know industries and technologies are converging like never before, and we are surrounded by an endless stream of new opportunities to make change;

It has to become a platform for many, many organizations to get involved and use in their own creative ways … and over the next three years, it needs to grow into a 5-day, scalable, multi-location festival that takes place around the city … kinda like SXSW in Austin; and

It has to be launched this September and it has to be absolutely awesome from the very beginning.

You know what I love about entrepreneurial Edmontonians? Without even a question, the group of eight (relative) strangers looked at each other, rolled up their sleeves and collectively said, “Yeah, we can make that happen.”

And exactly three months later, on July 8^th, we launched E-Town 2013 (www.e-town.ca) with Commander Chris Hadfield and The Barenaked Ladies kicking off the opening night, followed by five interactive keynote speakers that will be discussing topics ranging from “Why Culture Trumps Strategy” to “The Future of Data and Privacy” to “Using Filmmaking to Create a Movement.”

Wait a minute you say … Chris Hadfield’s an astronaut, not an entrepreneur?

Wait a minute I say …. Does the world need another coffee shop, or does the world need another Chris Hadfield? This risk-taker single-handedly changed how the world sees the space exploration industry while doubling the demand for science-based education. No entrepreneur there!!

Entrepreneurial thinking, risk-taking, rule-breaking … converging Education, Entrepreneurship and Entertainment in Edmonton makes for a fantastic start to E-Town 2013. This festival is all about the entrepreneurial mind-set … and you, your colleagues, your company, your community, your city, your country … we all need more of it.

Don’t miss it … Sept 12^th/13^th … (www.e-town.ca) … it will be remarkable.

Brand Something Edmonton

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Brad Ferguson

At Procter & Gamble we used to estimate that it costs $100 million to build a successful brand. We knew that because we had a proven formula:

Create a product and clearly define the attributes that make it unique;
Buy our way into retail chains to confirm shelf space and distribution;
Competitively price the product versus the competition; and
Build advertising campaigns that target parents with kids.

Through this formula, P&G would achieve what it called a competitive position at the point of sale, which means that if the consumer was standing in front of the shelf deciding between Tide and Sunlight, they would choose Tide over 62% of the time.

Branding a city is a bit different. Here is the traditional formula:

Get approval from council to undertake a branding exercise;
Spend a year doing market research on what the world thinks of your brand;
Pay a company in New York $500,000 to come up with a logo and tag line; and
Piss everyone off with the result.

Through this traditional formula, cities would achieve what is called a colossal mess at the point of indecision, which means that there is no buy-in, no moving forward and no money left over for marketing. And if the citizens are standing in front of their friends trying to answer “Why Edmonton?” they would fail to answer anything over 62% of the time.

Edmonton needs a new formula.

Many cities have gone down this traditional path which has typically ended in disappointment – Edmonton has had its share of these as well. So a new formula is needed. Mid-sized cities like Austin TX, Raleigh-Durham NC, Ann Arbour MI and Brooklyn NY have created new formulas – transforming their images and reputations from the inside out, not with traditional branding campaigns but with an authentic story that inspires community action and leadership. And when a city gets it right, it can be worth billions.

MakeSomethingEdmonton was launched to bring Edmontonians together towards the common goal of defining “Why Edmonton?” Why live here? Why work here? Why visit here? Why go to school here? But more importantly … Why are we unique? Why is an Edmonton experience different, special, memorable, remarkable? It uncovered those brand attributes that we can all believe in … see ourselves in … and will soon make them into a “public good” available to anyone and everyone. A great start to a new formula.

But we’ve just started. MakeSomethingEdmonton hit over the first pin of a 10-pin game. They started with the civicly-engaged, twitter-connected 104^th street crowd … the first pin. Hitting that pin has allowed them to knock over the next two pins – students/post-secondary campuses and entrepreneurs – which collectively make up about 6% of the population. The next three pins, however, are most important – the immigrant communities, the seasoned builders of our city, and the major employers. And that is where critical mass will be formed, and when we really start to get busy.

See, we don’t have $100 million for a campaign. And there is no shelf space and no distribution system.

In his book Competitive Identity, Simon Anholt suggests, “99 times out of 100, when there is something wrong with the way the world perceives a place, it is because there is something wrong with the way the place perceives itself.”

Our image and reputation rests in the hearts and mouths of Edmontonians, and those people who interact with us. For us to be successful, we need to turn the 820,000 Edmontonians and the 35,000 Edmonton-based businesses into our marketing department … our distribution network … which means we need to arm them with the language and tools and stories that allow them to speak confidently about their City and to answer those questions of “Why?”

A city’s image is by far its most valuable asset and is perhaps the most significant determinant of its ability to attract business, people and investment. The new formula is designed to create a competitive position at the point of sale …

… when the high school graduate is choosing between two great universities, she picks the opportunity in Edmonton;

… when the military graduate is looking for a job and a new start to his career, he picks the opportunity in Edmonton;

… when the robotic manufacturing company is deciding between two places to locate, they select Edmonton;

… when the family of four from Regina is choosing where to go for the long weekend, they shout Edmonton;

… when an international sports committee is choosing between Edmonton and Quebec City, they award it to Edmonton.

This isn’t fluffy stuff. This is about winning, and it is about our economy. We’re all in this together … we are all part of the marketing department … and we can all Make Something Edmonton.

Commercialization Redefined

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Brad Ferguson

It’s convocation season … that spring season when the University of Alberta commercializes 9300 new products into the Edmonton market … all of which walk across the stage on two legs. Our new medical students can save more lives. Our new engineering students can build better bridges. And our business students can start new companies.

Everyone is excited about the possibilities … except … there is a quiet hush and whisper that surrounds the liberal arts graduates. Engineers become engineers. Teachers become teachers. Nurses become nurses. But arts grads … what do they become? This is the question that stumps many of our elected officials, who are quickly swinging the education pendulum away from “intellectual exploration” and rapidly towards “technical training” such that our youth can immediately become … as we say in economics … factors of production.

So for the public policy pundits, whose vision for Alberta is to be the industrial engine of Canada and the Banana Republic of North America, I offer the following perspective for consideration:

Not all liberal arts graduates work as baristas at Starbucks. This fact disappoints many who love to point to the liberal arts graduate as the poster child for unemployment … but it is far from the truth. You see, only some liberal arts graduates work at Starbucks, and thank God they do … because someone has to be responsible for weaving human psychology, anthropology, addiction and economics into a $50 billion empire built on $5.00 non-fat lattes.

Not all graduates with history degrees are unemployed. Some are. Some probably should be. But some make a lot of money understanding that societal unrest in Chile affects the price of copper, and thus the price of electricity and the price of houses … and they tend to make terrific long term investors. History grads also tend to understand that markets are driven by world events, and world events are driven by markets … making events like the Arab Spring – Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain – highly predictable.

Not all political science programs are the same, contrary to what some people might think. But what all programs teach in common is that empires always overreach and they always overspend … and that politicians will always come up with ways to create more money while finding creative ways to avoid discipline. Political history shows that debt ceilings and quantitative easings are often a band-aid solution to a slightly larger problem called fiscal hemorrhaging.

Not all fine arts students are street performers. Some work at Apple Computer … because a guy named Steve Jobs believed that technology needs to be married with the humanities, and human beings need to interact with technology in ways that bring both joy and productivity. Not sure if Apple will remain as the most valuable company in the world, but I have a feeling it has forever changed the way the world sees industrial design.

The case for liberal arts education needs to be reframed. Not only is there economic return as shown through these cheeky examples, but there is massive societal return given that the root causes of our global challenges are often grounded in human behaviour … and the understanding of how people live, think, co-exist, network and interact … and frankly I’m not imagining a world where adding more engineers will help us answer the most important questions that seem to all start with the word … why?

The public policy pendulum across the country is swinging, and I am gravely concerned with the narrow direction we are taking around technical training at the expense of intellectual exploration. It is not one or the other. We need both. We need the technically trained, but not at the expense of our need for interdisciplinary, liberal arts graduates to help us shift from an industrial powerhouse to an intellectually curious city that embraces creativity, entrepreneurism, thought-leadership and democratic freedom.

Great cities, provinces and countries have great universities … and our University of Alberta must continue to commercialize liberal arts students as part of the portfolio of youth that will help make us remarkable.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: