… and what Canadians could learn from them.

Photo Attribuiton: Thomas Hawk

WE Canadians could learn a great deal from our good neighbours to the south. I have had this discussion with countless people over the past few years. Last week it was our lunch time conversation and everyone was definitely on the same page. Americans are much easier to do business with than Canadians.

Why is that?

IMHO “Our good friends to the south have fostered a business culture that is not afraid to make a decision”. This culture of decisiveness is based on two key attributes;

1) The ability to decide (wow making a decision by deciding … cool)
2) Not afraid to say yes or more importantly no.

I think the first attribute is largely a function of that remarkable American characteristic of risk taking. Making a decision means taking a risk and deciding to do something. Decisiveness and risk taking are admirable. Canadians much prefer to reflect on what a decision might feel like.

I have heard it said that saying no can actually be more respectful than yes in many instances. If you are not going to do business with someone just tell them NO and as a good Canadian politely why not. Honest/direct trumps politically correct/dithering every time in my book.

Would I like to see Canadians acting more like Americans … in terms of decisiveness and getting stuff done abso-posi-lutely. Perhaps the Canadian US productivity gap is directly correlated to doing versus dithering coefficient.

Ian Graham

Filed under: Commercialization, Featured by Ian
8 Comments »

The date is confirmed: Monday, November 29th @ TheCodeFactory from 6pm to 8pm. You need to be signed up to attend.

Keep in mind this is “Business Edition of Students and Start-ups”.

WE have our first four start-ups confirmed;

There may be another startup or two added before the event. Stay tuned.

Students – If you already signed up congratulations, the event is now full; however. If you are a student, want to attend and are not on the sign up list do not despair. Please send a note to info@thecodefactory.ca telling us how AWESOME you are and why you should attend we could see about adding you to the event roster.

Ian Graham

Filed under: Camp Culture, Featured, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
1 Comment »

Photo Attribution: AngelaShupe.com

TeamCamp is 2 years old. In it’s 2nd year we focused on more speakers (1 per month), quarterly idea sharing nights (PitchFests) and the occasional Project Night. If your interested in sharing great ideas, building things, listening to great speakers, meeting like-minded people, and perhaps starting a company, please join us on Nov 18th and share your ideas on how you’d like to see TeamCamp evolve in its 3rd year.

Please let us know if you plan to come. RSVP via Twegather.

When: Thursday Nov 18th, 2010 at 6pm

Where: The Code Factory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa (Ring the buzzer to take the elevator to the 2nd floor)

About TeamCamp
TeamCamp is a series of events aimed at forming like-minded individuals into teams for the purpose of turning smart ideas into startups.

TeamCamp is for you if you are…

Someone with an idea that you would like to turn into a web or software business;
A full-time employee looking for part-time experience running a startup;
A student looking for experience in being part of a startup;
An experienced entrepreneur willing to share advice and lend a hand.
How do you get involved?

Step 1. Contact Chris: chrisjschmitt[@]gmail[dot]com or Ian Graham: info[at]thecodefactory[dot]ca.

Step 2. Review and acknowledge the TeamCamp Participation Agreement via email to Chris

Step 3. Request access to the TeamCamp pbwiki and the Stealthy Mailing List

Step 4. Attend the next meeting – Bring your ideas!

Unless otherwise noted, meetings are held every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month.

Filed under: Camp Culture, Featured, Guest Post by Ian
1 Comment »

Legatum Properity Institute mission.
“The purpose of the Prosperity Index is to encourage policymakers, scholars, the media, and the interested public to take a holistic view of prosperity and understand how it is created. Holistic prosperity extends beyond just material wealth, and includes factors such as social capital, health, equality of opportunity, the environment, effective governance, human rights and liberties, and overall quality of life.”

Photo Attribution: afromusing

Interestingly enough Canada scores very well on these indices and perhaps somewhat surprisingly ranks very highly on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Canada is 7th of 104 countries in prosperity and a remarkable 4th in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The Legatum index has 9 sub-indices; Economic Fundamentals, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Democratic Institutions, Education, Health, Safety and Security, Governance, Personal Freedom and Social Capital. I like to refer to the sub-indices as dimensions of prosperity and I think they are very well done and provide a great holistic indicator of prosperity.

The gist of the report is that Canada is a pretty awesome place and one of the ten best in the world from a holistic point of view. What I like about the prosperity index is that it considers both wealth and well being. They even mention that money can’t buy happiness, unless you are in the world’s poorest countries in which case money is the key differentiator that brings happiness. In terms of prosperity money is the lowest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of prosperity needs. More money will not necessarily make you happier; however, not enough will surely prevent happiness.

Next post – Drilling down into the Legatum Prosperity sub-index of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Filed under: Featured, Innovation by Ian
2 Comments »

Students and start-ups 8 (business edition) matches start-ups looking for energetic and enthusiastic employees with students looking for meaningful and relevant employment. The first 6 editions of students and start-ups have produced 14 hires and you can check out some success videos from YOUi Labs, Infonium and Zeebu Mobile here .

We are looking for a few good start-ups. If you are a start-up … looking to hire a business student please contact ian@thecodefactory.ca for event information.

Students can sign up here

Filed under: Camp Culture, Featured, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
1 Comment »

As mentioned in the previous post the three key indicators that will be delved into a little deeper are; prosperity, innovation and commercialization. In terms of prosperity there are two indices that I like to refer to; The Legatum prosperity index and Richard Florida’s Creative Class Three T’s. In terms of innovation two references are also cited; The Conference Board of Canada and OECD. Finally and perhaps most importantly a review of that landmark document on commercialization: “People and Excellence, the heart of successful commercialization” by Joseph Rotman and the expert panel on commercialization.

Photo Attribution: Seven Lucky Gods (七福神) #8712 Nemo’s great uncle

The following is the outline for the measurement section on innovation series of posts:
2.1 Prosperity – Legatum Prosperity Index
2.1.1 Sub-index Entrepreneurship and Innovation
2.2 Prosperity – Richard Florida and the Creative Class 3T’s
2.3 Innovation – Conference Board of Canada Innovation Index
2.4 Innovation – OECD Innovation Metrics
2.5 Commercialization – “People and Excellence” the heart of successful commercialization

Ian Graham

Filed under: Commercialization, Featured, Innovation by Ian
No Comments »