Entrepreneurship | Page 11 | www.brendonwilson.com

October 15, 2003April 21, 2012 by Brendon J. Wilson

That’s With a Capital “E”

I was talking with Gordon Bird from the Advanced System Institute earlier today after his presentation to our MBA class. We got to talking about a number of thoughts that had been rattling around my head about the needs of technology entrepreneurs and how to promote entrepreneurship in Vancouver.

One of the popular ideas I’ve heard proposed by a number of business leaders: universities need to create programs that bring together students from business and science faculties. The hope is that would break down the traditional separation that exists between science and business both inside and outside academia, and poses a barrier to innovation. Collaboration would not only expose each group to each other’s expertise and vocabulary, it would also build mutual respect between the two parties, thus enabling students to build relationships they could leverage once they complete their degrees. In addition, bringing students together would also promote mingling between researchers from the different faculties (and their respective connections in the community), thereby further promoting a healthy environment for innovation.

Another idea in the theme of promoting collaboration: a service to match ideas with entrepreneurs with the capabilities to execute/deliver on those ideas. Ideas are dime a dozen, but the people who usually have the ideas are also the least likely to be able to act on them due their lack of access to the resources, expertise, or relationships required to transform the basic idea into a product or sustainable business. Think of the loss to our economy this represents – all because we haven’t created a system to “harvest” ideas and put them in the hands of those with the greatest chance of capturing the value in those ideas.

The question is: which organization should be responsible for developing such programs and services? Academia? Industry associations? Private companies? Again, the answer appears to lie in collaboration. Though individual organizations are already addressing some of these needs in their own way (for example: Zerendipity is attempting to provide entrepreneurs with the tools to find the expertise they need) no one organization in Vancouver has all of the requisite resources or expertise to pull off these types of programs. Sounds to me like what we really need is one of the big players in the local tech community to step up and coordinate a focused effort to “create” local entrepreneurs.

July 21, 2003April 21, 2012 by Brendon J. Wilson

BC Tech For Sale?

In an earlier topic I posed the question “who are the giants in BC”, seeking to prompt whatever readership I might have to help identify the important figures in BC. As I pointed out in that topic, I believe British Columbians don’t celebrate our leaders, don’t take pride in what we are capable of accomplishing. In a similar vein, I want to consider the recent acquisitions of BC corporations.

Last week, Intel decided to acquire the gaggle of PMC Sierra emigrants that formed West Bay Semiconductors in 1999. In a similar move, Business Objects splurged and purchased local reporting software success Crystal Decisions. Great, right? Some home town entrepreneurs strike it big, and somewhere a venture capitalist gets both his wings and a liquidation event. Everybody wins.

But consider a similar story: in mid-2000, Intel acquired local communications software developer Trillium Digital Systems. Trillium, a leader in producing standards-compliant communications protocol software, developed software required to implement the hardware backend driving today’s modern telcos. Trillium was especially popular in its industry, due primarily to its support for a variety of hardware platforms. However, after the acquisition Trillium became an Intel-only shop, shedding bales of valuable intellectual property in the process, to please its new corporate sugar daddy. But when the hard times hit, Intel sold Trillium to Continuous Computing Corporation for a conveniently undisclosed sum.

What’s sad about the Trillium story is that an otherwise healthy company chose to be acquired, and then driven into the ground by a foreign parent company. On the one hand, it was probably a good strategy for Intel – after all, they managed to eliminate support for their competitors’ products. But on the other hand, it really sucked for the large numbers of local engineers and software developers that lost their jobs, and the local companies that benefited indirectly from Trillium’s past level of performance.

The question is this: do British Columbian companies look to sell out too fast, rather than try to become the world leader in their industry? Do we talk a good game about building world-class companies, but lose our nerve when presented with a cheque? Will I be here lamenting the decline of West Bay and Crystal Decisions in a year or two?