Entrepreneurship!

The REAL hero of "Students Are Our Secret Weapon"!

2012-01-25T01:24:00.005-07:00

All too quietly a landmark was passed in Idaho. Nancy Bergmann, INL's Wonder Woman of economic development formally retired. Some of you know just how much she mattered to Idaho, the rest of you in Idaho need to find out. In fact, I am convinced that we need to do much more to honor Nancy. Anyone else in?

For those of you outside of Idaho - PLEASE go find your own local "Nancy Bergmann" and... appreciate them. Ask how you can help.

Some of the best things that has ever happened in Idaho to make Idaho more entrepreneurial could not have happened without her. I refuse to take credit for any of what I did without invoking her name. When someone in another state or country yells at me "Students ARE Our Secret Weapon", I remember how she championed my students to greatness.

If you know her (or not) send her a note ASAP. Nobody did more to grow jobs in Idaho; nobody did it more graciously.  nb-woa@hotmail.com

I know that I owe her more than words can convey. So much so that as I drove over to the lovely retirement party INL threw for her, I was actually nervous over what I'd say, if asked to share my thoughts and feelings. Here's what I would've said (assuming that I didn't get too choked up, a definite possibility).

"Dear Nancy,

If there is one thing to say about our collaborations, it is this:

    'We Were Ahead of the Curve!' and... People. Remember.

Last fall I visited Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. They have the most amazing program using students to turn local technologies into viable businesses (check out their School of Entrepreneurship and their Encubator). As they were ramping up they noticed what we were doing in Idaho. I'd like to think that we gave them bona fide evidence that students really can be deployed effectively to turn ideas into reality.

There are no more than 15-20 universities able to pull this off. [http://www.vcplist.com] Nancy, back when we got TRAILS/TEAMS rolling, that list would have been half as long.. but WE would've been on it.

Nancy, I know that you would rather not grieve about what might have been and instead celebrate. So, let's... celebrate!

My friend and great economist David Audretsch argues that despite all the seeming bad news, this IS the Century of the Entrepreneur. In recent years, the number of schools on that list? It has grown and the things they're doing have grown even more. I really wish that we would have been allowed to stay the course. But even if it isn't in Idaho....the torch is still burning.

    TRAILS/TEAMS proved that:
* Entrepreneurial learning is deep transformative learning.
* That "hands on" is not nearly enough. You need the right processes and the right people.
* Genuinely experiential learning will help people closer to the expert entrepreneurial mindset
* AND the right processes just happen to be the #1 best way to help turn Ideas Into Reality.

    The best and brightest in the entrepreneurship education world now know:
* What that usually-undefined "entrepreneurial mindset" really is
* And how to get there. How to get there effectively and joyously.
* And the clear policy implications for growing a great entrepreneurial ecosystem.

    The evidence?
* Problem-based learning is on the rise. It's 95%+ outside 4-year schools [think Startup Weekend, the lean startup model, etc.]
* The best programs put the entrepreneurs and the learners first - TRUE immersion
* The best entrepreneurial programs now focus on mindset and ecosystem.
* Empirical evidence overwhelmingly shows the keys are growing human capital and social capital
    (Removing barriers helps, of course.)
TRAILS/TEAMS showed all of this - but we could not have done it without your ideas and energy!

[for those of you who have no idea what TRAILS and TEAMS program was about, here's the back story. A problem-based learning project that partnered INL, my Boise State classes, the economic development community and an assortment of Idaho's great entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. Student teams would identify, plan and execute projects that made a difference. Helping potential gazelles, helping economic development projects, helping social venture and most fun of all, help technology commercialization! [more here, here]

Serious funding from the Kauffman Foundation. Three national best practice awards, including NGA, SBA and Kauffman [http://bitly.com/d3FzcW] Honors for INL from DOE. Great student learning. A better Idaho.]

    Nancy, be very proud.
    INL, be very proud.

To further embarrass Nancy: Back in our heyday, a few of us conspired to nominate Nancy for one of EDA's National Awards. Some of you wrote totally brilliant letters. After submitting, I got a call from a higher-up at EDA. who said "You know that we never consider individuals for this award, yes?" I stammered something like "I know but Nancy so deserves it." He replied, "I agree. It will be taken very seriously. Can't win, probably, but after reading it, I assure you it will be a finalist." Those of you who know Nancy B are nodding your head and smiling, aren't you?

In the last year, I've had national-level officials from DOE, NSF and EDA all ask when we are going to re-boot TEAMS. (In one case, let's say the officials was less than polite in his language, LOL.) EDA
was actually willing, it seems, to help us reboot- we had full funding lined up from another group. The biggest obstacle to funding the next version isn't the funding so much as much higher the bar has been raised by Chalmers' School of Entrepreneurship, Utah's Foundry, the Danish Entrepreneurship Foundation, Aalto plus long-time role models at Stanford and Babson. Definitely grounds for us to celebrate!

Nancy,if we weren't ahead of the curve, we were surfing near the front of the wave. You should be VERY proud. INL too should be very proud of their support (without Chris Hertz, Tom Harrison and the tireless Ray Barnes, who constantly challenged us to go to the next level. Thank you all. I never say that enough.

    Ideas into Reality: The "ABC's" of Tech Commercialization?
Maybe TEAMS died an untimely death but, Nancy, it did play a part in advancing The Cause, that the answers are indeed Entrepreneurial! Research has advanced. Pedagogy has advanced. Turning university/lab research into reality has advanced.

What our students did gave us new insights. Nancy, we kicked a few pebbles down the hill and today the avalanche is starting to grow. The steps were small but we can celebrate how right we were. Rather... How right YOU were, Nancy.

I am honored, blessed and humbled to know you. Thank you.

p.s. and knowing Nancy, she would INSIST that I also thank all of you who have helped the world move toward a more entrepreneurial society. I am honored, blessed and humbled to know you as well."

N.B.: Again, her email address still works - send her a note ASAP. Nobody did more to grow jobs in Idaho; nobody did it more graciously.  nb-woa@hotmail.com

Have you emailed her yet? ;)

2012 - A Year For Gratitude

2012-01-04T01:13:00.002-07:00

Even if we end up in a nasty double-dip recession.. I see so many things to be grateful for.

I've been saying this mantra almost obsessively of late...
"Celebrate, Educate, then.... Initiate"

Growing a more entrepreneurial community (or organization) requires all three.

In Idaho, I'm grateful that we are getting better at "Celebrate"!
I'm even more grateful (and humbled) that in this winter's recent Idaho Innovation Awards, i was actually a finalist for "Innovator of the Year". Totally blown away.

If I had won, I would "have" to give a 1-minute speech. (I think it was 2-3 minutes, but they knew they'd better tell me "1"... LOL)

But in the spirit of gratitude, here's what I would've said to that beautiful audience:

My 'would-have-been' acceptance speech for Idaho Innovation Awards
(only get a minute at the mike, so...)

[while walking to the podium]
"Do you want to grow a more entrepreneurial Idaho? Do you?
Then stand up. STAND UP!"

[at mike]
"This is beyond humbling. This is truly about you. It's a 'we' thing not a 'me' thing

Whether growing entrepreneurial mindsets or growing entrepreneurial ecosystems two things are key:

1) Do the Right Things the Right Way... and for the Right Reasons

2) Celebrate. Educate. Initiate.
Tonight is evidence we're getting better at celebrating!"

[Raising my hand] "Let's celebrate entrepreneurs!... how many of YOU are entrepreneurs? [raise both hands] PROVE it!"

"Repeat after me... I. Am. An. Entrepreneur! (http://www.slideshare.net/norriskrueger/i-am-an-entrepreneur )

[this gets under a minute but I'd hope that the final 'bit' took us a little longer... or maybe a LOT longer! ;) ]

Why, yes, I AM an entrepreneur...

And time to rock 2012!!

HAPPY GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK 2011!

2011-11-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

HAPPY GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK 2011!

"Celebrate, Educate and Initiate"

Who would have thought a few years ago that entrepreneurship would explode in the consciousness of so many people?

It now looks like:
2010 2011
Countries 70 123 (so far)
Participants 7 million 15 million

Whoa.

There have always been "how to start a business" books but the last year-plus has seen some marvelous books (hmm... another blog post? But take a look at "Entrepreneurial DNA" by Joe Abraham)

Personally, I have been slacking on getting people engaged in GEW -for that I apologize (How can I make it up to you?) However, if you have ANY interest in waving the entrepreneurial "flag", the week is not over yet! [In fact.. it is NEVER over.. Like Christmas, we should keep the spirit year-round, yes] Just head over to http://www.gewusa.org & sign up as a Partner. Costs nothing AND gives you an opportunity to brag on any entrepreneurial events you might be doing or might have done (October & December events are ok, not just November!)

Too Much Travel, Not Enough Monetization? ;)
As I type this I'm in Denmark to speak to the Danish young entrepreneurs group - the Danish Entrepreneurship Awards which may draw more than 5,000 attendees. Gulp. Anything you'd like me to share with this audience?

Denmark is still about as egalitarian as you can get.. however they have tranformed themselves into what might be the most entrepreneur-friendly country on earth. Overnight. Soooo.....

Why can't WE?

From Ideas to Reality
My prior trip was a week at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. How good is their technology commercialization program? Top 15.

They really have a marvelous model. (They claim they stole part of it from my old TEAMS/TRAILS program with INL but if they did... they took to the next level, hell, took it up several levels, LOL) Anyway, check 'em out at http://www.entrepreneur.chalmers.se - the website doesn't do it justice but I have additional information such as their program for vetting new technologies!

The short conclusion -- there is much we can do, so let's.. well... DO!

My promise to you? Time for Norris to get busy. Suggestions welcome.

"Ecosystem" or "Ecosphere"?

2011-10-18T12:18:00.000-06:00

"Ecosystem" or "Ecosphere"?

Warning: Cool... and important... trivia ahead!

As I type this I'm somewhere in the air en route to another expedition, this time to visit Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. They have a killer program for university-based technology commercialziation, partly stolen from.. us! (My old INL/BSU "TEAMS" program) However, it's only a small part of their overall effort. And... they want to expand and do even more. Should be fun! (I also get to teach and engage the local ecosystem and work with junior scholars to help them with research, teaching & community involvement. Funny how the formerly ivory-tower European schools now get it that teaching, research & community outreach are synergistic and that they get the synergies only if they get fully immersed in the ecosystem!)

Recent debate has bubbled over whether we have beaten the term "entrepreneurial ecosystem" into oblivion. (We now have more than 100 formal definitions of "cluster".. are we headed for that?) The reality is that the entrepreneurial world really IS an ecosystem in the biological sense with many implications we still need to wade through. On the other hand, where it really ISN'T is already leading us astray... needlessly. What might be different? Consider these cool stats:

1) Did You Know? In the last 12 months, ~48 million people were hired for a job? That 47 million people in the last year left an existing job? An awful lot of action for a net of +1 million jobs? The magnitude of that 'churn' is:
a) Normal and
b) Healthy
We're just a 'bit' low on job creation (the norm is a net of nearly 3 million new jobs.)

2) That every year, more people QUIT their jobs than are fired/laid off? That is, at least 50% of people leave their jobs... voluntarily. I did not know this (or #1) but apparently this is common knowledge in workforce development circles. Think about it: Even during a recession, 23-24 million Americans chose to leave a paying job. And it's normal. Wow.

3) EMSI (data rock stars in Moscow, Idaho) recently discovered that the US has at least 40 million "1099 workers" - who are not formal employees of a registered business. Some are business owners, some are independent contractors, etc. This number is growing nationally through good times & bad and Idaho has an above-average number of these. They maty not be entrepreneurs but they are most likely entrepreneurial.

4) Data from the NETS database & elsewhere show that existing middle-market forms (20-500 employees) are by far the biggest generators of net new jobs and of innovation, of patents, of exports, etc. Startups are still incredibly valuable but the real economic powerhouse for jobs & GDP are entrepreneurial growth firms, typically over 20 employees.

Just as policy makers need to find ways to help -and not hinder - startups, especially high-potential startups... policy makers need to remove barriers to job creation by their older cousins. Labor regulations appear to be a particularly horrendous barrier.

There is such a thing as an "entrepreneurial ecosystem" but it has some amazing properties that make it both more like biological ecosystems and more unlike them. (I'm still wrestling with inventing a new term like "ecosphere")... so what do YOU think?

About "ecosphere" versus "ecosystem"?

About the 4 realities listed above?

Please feel free to comment here or on twitter [@entrep_thinking], facebook or email

Growing the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: What It REALLY Takes

2011-09-30T01:45:00.003-06:00

I had the fun of being Allison Warren's last interview for KTRV Channel 12 before she takes the red pill &makes the entrepreneurial plunge. Of course, of all the good stuff I gave her, they used the most controversial comment, LOL.

What I want from you, my readers, is to contact KTRV (@12KTRV or @SkryNEWS12; comments@12ktrv.com) and sell them that they become THE station to cover entrepreneurial issues ( technology issues too!) for Boise and beyond. They are in the middle of reinventing themselves entrepreneurially so... what a great fit! And not saying there's Pulitzers out there but there is no shortage of killer stories to tell. So call them, email them, tweet them & let 'em know that you will love it if they do!
And, before you read further, please check out these slides -[ goo.gl/8GiuU ] and be thinking what *Norris* needs to do and.. .what YOU could do.. tomorrow.

A "gentlemen's C"
Old-school term, used to nudge students to do better. It's not so much a measure of "average" but a signal that an "A" is still within reach (but so is an "F".. hope that makes sense.)
Remember - Fred Smith's initial plan for FedEx only earned a "C"... it sure didn't take long to get a whole lot better, eh?
My full quote was to give a grade of "Incomplete" with an "A+" for potential. And, to be honest, we were no better than a "D" when I moved here. Anyway, Allison wanted me to sound bolder, I guess... LOL.

The best stuff was the mantra of what we need to do -
Celebrate
Educate
...and...
Initiate

Celebrate what we DO have, a focus on our assets not our liabilities is critical. What better way to start bringing the ecosystem together productively & get past the turf issues, the grudges and often just a lack of communication.

Educate - nurture the entrepreneurial mindset broadly & deeply across Idaho (not just Boise) -remembering that the only way that someone can 'get it' is to immersed (not just engaged) in the ecosystem. The slides give us some strong directions of what can be done... right now!

Initiate - "Entrepreneur" is a freakin' VERB, folks. If I have failed Boise, if I've failed Idaho.. if I've failed Norris... it's in not taking bold action.
That WILL change. Be watching on LinkedIn etc.

Back to the slides... I have talked about the real "drivers" of entrepreneurial activity earlier in this blog.. but let me briefly recap. Years of data from dozens of countries & millions of people tell us there are 3 critical drivers of entrepreneurial activity:

#1 is Entrepreneurial Human Capital: The quantity and quality of our potential entrepreneurs.
How many people truly understand the mindset ? Do they feel personally prepared to be entrepreneurial? Boise (and Idaho) could do one helluva lot better at nurturing the mindset. We simply have not stepped to grow entrepreneurial human capital. We are capable of doing that; we have chosen to NOT do it. Hard to grade this much higher than that 'gentlemen's C' - when the quality of entrepreneurial training has declined and the best programming comes from internal efforts like how EO helps their members and from IDLA's online HS course...we could do so much better. But it requires commitment that I cannot see happening from our institutions.
What DO We Have? We have entrepreneurial passion & brains out the wazoo.. The tinder is dry, the kindling is handy. We just need to get busy.
What must Norris do? Time to finally start some world-class entrepreneurial training. Be watching for the first salvo, my Minimum Viable Product!

#2 is Entrepreneurial Social Capital: How connected, how supportive is our entrepreneurial ecosystem?
We have a long way to go here, but we do have social and cultural norms that many places would envy. People here appreciate the role of entrepreneurs, not just in the economy but in society. (We also have turf issues that Chicago might envy, LOL.) We have institutions who don't get it.. but we also have those who do. Let's encourage them. Hard to grade this higher than a C+ & that's only because of the grass-roots rise of new organizations like TechBoise, ITC , Innovation Council and (of course!) Startup Weekend.
What DO We Have? Entrepreneurship is in the DNA of Idahoans. Clearly, entrepreneurship is desirable and feasible in the eyes of many citizens & taxpayers. It amazes people to hear that the Idaho Rural Partnership gets it, that IACI (supposedly big business) gets it, that some of out banks (like Zions & Washington Trust) get it. How many of you have heard of EO?
We need to beat the drum about what we DO have. There are so many great entrepreneurial stories in Boise and in Idaho that nobody knows about. In every corner of the state, young firms & old, high-tech & low-tech, male & female founders, even large firms & small. We need to CELEBRATE those stories and learn from them. (Our entrepreneurial champions too.) Lt Gov Brad Little has already expressed that he wants to start identifying Idaho's "Entrepreneurial Heroes" and we should help him!
What must Norris do? Almost every city out there needs a first-rate map of its ecosystem. OK, it's time. But we have to do it right. (There's even funding for this.) We also need a visioning effort, but there too, we must do the right things the right way. (Funding is out there for that too.) Once we have these two pieces, we can start moving forward rapidly.

#3 is The Ease of Starting/Running Business: Here we look pretty good. The first two are far more important but this is still something that we can build on. And I think we've made additional progress of late. (Especially compared to DC... yikes!) Grade = A- (good results, good effort)

p.s. Of course... I really hoped that KTRV used the "Boise, take the red pill" quote. There is no 'safe' in this economy; ignorance is not bliss. We're all in this together, so let's get busy... together!

June AdVENTURES! Startup Weekend, Babson & ICSB

2011-06-13T12:36:00.003-06:00

p.s. Don't forget to sign up for Idaho Startup Weekend 3, June 24-26 -- you WILL like. http://idaho.startupweekend.org. Think of it as our first real salvo as we gear up for Global Entrepreneurship Week (www.gewusa.org). You want Idaho to move forward? Just remember that "entrepreneur" is a VERB! Time for all of us to get busy.

I'm home for a day+ between a trip to the magical Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference in NY and the huge International Council for Small Business meetings in Stockholm.

The Babson shindig is THE cutting edge of great research on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. I felt surrounded by rock stars... think "We are the World" without the weirdness. It is such an honor. My paper was essentially on the impact of entrepreneurship education/training, focusing on assessing the deeper, more constructivistic elements. You can see the slides at www.slideshare.net/norriskrueger [also look at the prior blog post!] but the paper was NOT the story.

I was the 3rd of three presentations, starting with two of Babson College's own veterans who had surveyed >4000 alumni...

Would you be shocked to know that business plan training still sucks? ;)

But the real fun was that we were at the end of the day AND had a rock star audience. Of the top 20 minds in entrepreneurship education.. at least 10 of them were in the room. So, I shut up & let the rock stars, well, rock! Anyway, we kept discussing for another 30-40 minutes, spilled into the hall for another 10-15, then ended up for another 30+ in the bar.. and the discussion is not going to fade out. (And it validates that my teaching ideas & practice don't just work.. they *ought* to work, LOL. I think I need to write more on this.) These are the days you want to live forever!

Also, lots of timely discussion re the recent Big Win for university researchers AND the entrepreneurial community with the SCOTUS bitchslap in Stanford v. Roche. The proper reading of Bayh-Dole is very liberating. (There's a really blunt blog on tech transfer issues that has huge readership but little PR... www.rtei.org/blog) But again, far-ranging discussion of how
entrepreneurial technology commercialization is the key, no, the only key to tech transfer. (And that most universities will hunker down & try to avoid listening to the Supremes, LOL)

I head out today to Stockholm - looking forward to reprising my role as the World's Great Magnet for Screaming Babies. :) The ICSB conference will likely be nuts -way too many people and way too many distractions. ("Oh, I am*required* to meet some people at the Ice Bar... and it's an open bar?" OK, maybe I can do that, LOL)

The doctoral consortium is Wednesday - you should be encouraged by the steady stream of young brainiacs entering the field - most of whom are recovering entrepreneurs and kickbutt teachers. There is ZERO excuse for any university to hire some to teach anything related to entrepreneurship, innovation who doesn't have sterling academic credentials, serious research
chops, equally serious teaching skills and direct entrepreneurial experience. (And even... social skills? Hmmmm, maybe the world IS going to be OK!)

I am 'junior' author on Thursday on two papers - the senior authors' ages add up to less than mine (gulp) but so glad to be helpful rather than taking the lead. The first is a young Swede who stumbled across a treasure trove of accurate, timely data on Sweden's innovation systems. It will drive forward our ability to quickly & skillfully assess entrepreneurial ecosystems. The
second was a study of South Asian immigrant entrepreneurs that offers powerful evidence to support the Startup Visa (and some alternative strategies should the Startup Visa continue to languish). [I also get to present another paper on how entrepreneurship education makes an impact with Europe's #1 mind on this topic, the brilliant Danish scholar, Helle Neergaard.]

Finally, I'm chairing a quasi-workshop on how to convert research findings (in combinstion with expert findings in the field) to inform public policy - what will work AND how to sell it. If even our own government seems willing to support entrepreneurs, imagine what other places might be willing to pursue! You can see the workshop overview also at slideshare. This too is a signal honor. Talk about bringing together rock stars... very exciting but very, very humbling.

I know I still owe you some reflections on my trips to Germany & Spain - I promise to get to them.

And did I mention Startup Weekend? Go to the main site, www.startupweekend.org - read about Startup Weekend CAIRO, the joint Israeli-Palestinian events, Startup Weekend Mongolia (Mongolia? Whoa.) So sign up... don't make me hunt you down. ;)

Educational Arsonists![1]

2011-05-10T12:13:00.010-06:00

(or… what if we stuck a Startup Weekender’s head in an MRI?)

“Learning isn’t filling a vessel, it‘s lighting a fire” – Plutarch

Deep transformative learning is not easy. But positive emotional engagement really, really helps. Few places show that better than Startup Weekend.

As a veteran entrepreneurship scholar, my own teaching/training and research was molded by a sordid past as a tech entrepreneur (and now social entrepreneur). What has always fascinated me: Why is it the best entrepreneurship education is so insanely effective? How can we use this knowledge to grow entrepreneurial thinking in our communities? (And, sadly, why is it so hard for people who don't 'get it' to understand??) So..... What on earth is happening inside the minds of those students and, yes, us?

Transformational learning = Changing deep beliefs

True experiential learning is far more than “hands-on”. Transformative learning operates at very deep levels. What does it take to change very deep assumptions about how things work, moving us from the mindset of a novice to that of an expert? While it usually takes 10,000-20,000 hours of deliberate practice, deep transformative learning can accelerate the process. Doesn’t it seem likely that knowing what expert mindsets look like will help us get there faster?

Learning operates on two trajectories, incremental & transformational (figure below). We can acquire subject-area knowledge via incremental learning but “getting to expert” requires changing how we structure our knowledge. To change deep beliefs requires true experiential learning, through a series of critical developmental “lessons”.

Consider the series of experiential “jolts” that immersion into Startup Weekends provide: Upending, then rebuilding some very deep beliefs about what it means to be an entrepreneur.

[Note: This is equally true for other immersion & accelerator programs like TechStars, Founders Institute, Be Unreasonable and Y-Combinator, but I've been through SW.]

Critical Success Factors: Experiential Education

Immersion is one key to experiential learning because it forces you to let go of many deeply help assumptions… about entrepreneurship, about entrepreneurs, about ourselves. But the special sauce is having mechanisms to guide us. Expert mentors can help us learn the right ‘lessons’ of our experiences. But so can peer mentors (cooperative/collaborative learning has remarkable power). Is it any surprise that SW has such mindset-changing power?

Problem-based learning represents the best entrepreneurship learning. Rather than texts and homework, learners must solve messy, often ill-defined problems. I love how PBL lets me give students impossible problems and they rise to the occasion every time. And, along the way, they still acquire all the “textbook” knowledge. Forcing intent to become action makes all the difference. (Now you know why I love the SW/accelerator model!)

Finally, positive emotional engagement turns the madness of all this into a safe and fertile ground for dramatic changes in our deepest assumptions about entrepreneurship and…about ourselves.

Aren’t all of these exactly what programs like Startup Weekend provides?

So... what IF you stuck a Startup Weekender’s head in an MRI?[2]

So what ARE we learning in immersion programs like SW? (That we don't get in the usual "how to wrote a business plan" course?) What do we take away from the problem-based, peer-mentored/cooperatively-learned, expert-mentored, positively emotionally engaged immersion experience? As a cognitive developmental psychologist and neuroscientist -AND as an entrepreneur- here’s what I see.

Draw a Picture?

Imagine asking Startup Weekenders to draw us an “entrepreneur” – before and after. That mental model of “entrepreneur” is often going to change in fascinating directions – even for us ‘veterans’. In both Boise’s SWs, we had participants who really didn’t see themselves as an entrepreneur. Their mental models were limited at best and often flat wrong. Seeing the “light bulb” go on is a rush for this organizer... and their teammates and… themselves.

I consistently saw how participants’ mental models of what’s an “opportunity” go from “cool idea” to “I can do this”, from hypothetical to very real. They now perceived different barriers, more realistic & more likely action-oriented. (What’s really fun to see is that we come out of SW asking MUCH better questions. Here’s something I saw in both of Boise’s SWs: “Why can’t I find funding?”morphs into “How can I best qualify for funding?” (even better, “What kind of funding do I really need?” or "Do I even need external funding?")

And doesn’t all that sound like us accelerating toward a more expert entrepreneurial mindset? Learning. Without any “teaching”. That’s the genius of SW and programs like it.

My other favorite entrepreneurship education quote is from Epictetus:

“Experience is NOT what happens to you.
It is what you DO with what happens to you.”

In short: “Entrepreneur” is a verb. Startup Weekend and other programs like TechStars never let you forget that.

Thoughts?/nk

[i] Courtesy of Paul Hudnut, wizard of Colorado State’s awesome cross-campus program in commercializing sustainable technologies.

[ii] For more neuroentrepreneurship & entrepreneurial learning, see http://bit.ly/9VyUJm & http://bit.ly/b6aUYq

Help Me Celebrate My Birthday?

2011-04-13T20:59:00.001-06:00

Help Me Celebrate My Birthday!

A while back I asked you, my fellow champions of entrepreneurship, "What should I do?" The #1 answer was...

"More!" ....of course, I haven't blogged since. ;)

How can you help me celebrate?

April 14 is known for two things:

Lincoln was shot

The Titanic hit the iceberg

and if things do come in threes...

well, I don't want my birthday to join the above! ;)

Therefore.. in honor of my elderliness, here's my offer:

I will offer up to 1 hour of my services (within reason, LOL) pro bono* to help you or your community.

Obviously, you really don't want me trying to help you with things I'm clueless about. (decluttering a residence comes to mind). But if it's something where i can be helpful, even useful? (Check my bio, if you like: http://bit.ly/NKshortbio)

....especially..

Something that could have entrepreneurial impact on you, your community, or? Exactly.

Big impact? Even better.

I'm likely to get swamped here, so things I'm actually good at or things I love (or if you pick up the coffee/beer/lunch, LOL) will affect how quickly I can get to a particular request. Let's negotiate!

So.. how can I help?

What do I ask in return? I was going to ask that you promise to get involved with Global Entrepreneurship Week but as I have plenty of time to bug you (it's mid-November) here is my "ask": Do something to celebrate entrepreneurship - whether an entrepreneurial hero, an entrepreneurial champion, or just repeat the entrepreneurial mantra in public.Get others to chime in. Loudly!

I. Am. An. Entrepreneur. [http://goo.gl/Jc3Eg]

Honored to know you all. /nk

p.s. Steal-able Items for Idaho: I will post very soon re my teaching in the University of Seville's brand-new Masters of Entrepreneurship program (their model would make a perfect certificate program here...)

How You REALLY Commercialize New Tech: I will also share the amazing insights & achievements in commercializing green tech that I saw at the recent NCIIA conference [http://www.nciia.org/ ; schedule: http://open2011.sched.org/ ] where we saw how doing entrepreneurship education the right way & for the right reasons.. really can change the world. (And, sadly, how if you're not doing it right, where people don't 'get it'... it may be worse than not at all.)

More Hope for the Future! And I will share my meeting with Scott Case, the new ceo for StartupAmerica Parternship. (And, yes, I did invite him to Idaho. Heh, heh)

Norris

* pro bono is Latin, of course, for "sucker".. ;)

"2011 will be the Year of the Entrepreneur!"

Norris Krueger, Ph.D.

Entrepreneurship Northwest
208.440.3747
twitter blog SSRN slideshare bio more
"How can I help you to help grow entrepreneurs?"

What Can I Do???

2011-01-20T15:25:00.008-07:00

What Can I Do?

(What Should I Do?)

or if you like... What Should I Do MORE Of?

Happy 2011!

Now that January is well under way, an update is definitely overdue. it may not be a New Years resolution (not that they ever work) but it's more than time for some blogging. I've accumulated some great stuff to share, muvh of which is very timely now that the legislature is back in session with zero cash (at best) but also a burning need to support the economy. Fortunately, those of you who know me also know that there's much that we CAN do!

To start off 2011, though, let me throw out two things. The first is a request; the second is an invitation!

First (the request): What Should I Do MORE Of?

Whether you know me well or only know me through these posts & emails... I want to make sure that I'm doing the right things the right way. Doing the right things trumps doing the wrong things brilliantly ;) So....

I want to hear from as many of you as possible - whether your immediate gut reaction or a well-thought-out response, I want YOUR answer to that question. What Should I Do MORE Of? (if you prefer, tell me what I should do LESS of...)

The famous blogger/writer Seth Godin asked his readers - Who has your back when things get tough? Whose back do YOU have? So if you have trouble with my question, please feel free to be a bit selfish. Answer THIS question instead:

What can Norris Krueger do to have YOUR back?

What would that entail?

Is it something I need to do more of?

Something I need to start doing?

(Something I should stop doing??)

I would be honored to have your back. (I am hoping it doesn't involve a street brawl, though... LOL) And if enough people respond... I've got a special 2011 surprise for ya!

Second (the invitation): "Existenzgründungen aus der Wissenschaft"

In December I headed to the Ruhr valley (think the Cleveland of Germany) an area that is working hard to entrepreneurial-ize itself and, like most of Germany, is inching forward. However, their perceptions are that they aren't making progress. One of my hosts, Tobias Kollman of the University Duisberg-Essen, threw out a metaphor that really stimulated my thinking (Tobias is a cashed-out web entrepreneur as well as a professor - good guy to know).

Tobias said "Germans look at entrepreneurial culture like a dance party. They are peering into the windows and see all the Americans, Canadians, etc. out there on the entrepreneurial dance floor dancing their hearts out. And all we can do is look in the window and wish WE were dancing."

Funny but I know lots of Americans with the same general feeling. So how do we amp up the dancing?

In my presentation, I riffed on Tobias's metaphor that there are three possible strategies to take.

#1 Dancing Lessons. There are some skills that you need but just like entrepreneurship, you need to cultivate the right mindset. And with just the right coaching/mentoring, we can accelerate that mindset in a lot of people.

#2 Learn to See Ourselves as Dancers. Find ways to nurture that mindset especially as a community of dancers.

#3 Just Start Dancing. Find ways to simply get out on the dance floor and make it happen (learn to learn vicariously and learn to learn by doing).

The reality probably is that we need all three - and there are ways that we can do all three without spending much money (at least not our own!)

BTW, "Existenzgründungen aus der Wissenschaft" means "science-based startups" [think "innovation-based"]

So all I'm asking for you in this first post of 2011 are two questions:

What should Norris do MORE of us? (Especially to help have your back)

Ready to DANCE???

Tweet/DM me at @entrep_thinking

Email me at norris.krueger@@gmail.com

Initial Thoughts: Technology Transfer Society

2010-11-24T13:06:00.003-07:00

Global meeting in DC last weekend where I also got to visit our tax dollars again... or what's left of them? ;)

For old fans of “Laugh-In”, my reaction to this year's global meeting of the Technology Transfer Society was.... “verrrrrrry interesting....” ;)

Good papers & speeches but the REAL fun was in the "other" meetings... the hallway chats and the private huddles. Got to chat up some pretty high-powered folks both in T2S and in government (Tekes, NSF, et al.) As Yogi said, "You hear a lot by listening."

Also had an informative meetup with Peter Fischer in Crapo's office. Thanks, Peter!)

My preso went very well (whew!) – – a great co-author [she had just returned from speaking to the UN on entrep!] Despite her massive jet lag & my usual "norris-isms", we managed to blow a few minds. WHY we blew some minds reflects the “verrry interesting” part. The audience at T2S<>

a) the top researchers of tech transfer and the

b) top thought leaders in the T2 world (like the tech transfer star at France's NASA -what a cool cat!)

Bottom line on most of the audience:

they all recite the mantra “we must be much more entrepreneurial” and
they have no idea what they really means or how to do it
BUT have open minds, making this a big, big opportunity for entrepreneurship experts*
AND it remains clear that the tiny number of truly successful tech transfer programs** are all characterized by the kind of entrepreneurial culture & ecosystem that we can only dream about. (Though, alas, we COULD create that IF we chose to do so.)
* p.s.: again, look at the U of U's success - my case study is at http://bit.ly/buI3uU

So.... what an opportunity for the entrepreneurship experts there to present on how we can move in that direction (and diagnostics for why we can't as yet...)

** it's also a huge opportunity for any tech transfer/commercialization program that chooses to go this route! (and diagnostics for why we can't as yet...)

My presentation built on the intersection of two things you'd like:

First, can you imagine mechanisms where all the different states' innovation councils & tech councils compared notes? I've been asked to help develop a major study that will talk to all of them. (Given I already have three requests to do comparative studies of local innovation systems/entrepreneurial ecosystems to compare Idaho to the Basque country, Oregon & North Carolina.. why not expand the scope?)

But what will we look for? Especially, how will we assess whether they are doing the right things the right way..and for the right reasons? Maybe we look to what they'd never do & philosophies they embrace?

Second, so where are some new clues? What do approaches like the "lean startup model" and "Startup Weekend" have to tell us about what it REALLY takes to grow entrepreneurs?? (Hint: Bureaucracies freak out... and entrepreneurs get energized!) It turns out these approaches are VERY informative... Fun watching the audience reactions to concepts like Startup Weekend, TechStars & Y-Combinator!)

P.S.: Anyone interested in the councils project? Should be serious fun.

The PDF of the slides is here - http://www.slideshare.net/norriskrueger/t2-s-2010-v4 please feel free to comment. I'd love your feedback!

Our Major Conclusion -- supported by the best minds (well, partly stolen from the best minds...LOL) So....

#1 Best Practice for Tech Transfer,

#1 Best Practice for Tech Commercialization, AND

#1 Best Practice for Entrepreneur-Led Economic Development in general?

Grow the entrepreneurial mindset.

That requires the right 'training' (the right training done the right way) and

Also requires supportive local communities & ecosystem. (likewise, the right things done the right way.. and for the right reasons)

Takes considerable expertise to design & deliver, as the 'mindset' part is far more critical than just skills. But, that talent is at our fingertips; all we need to do is ask. And. most of what we can do is free/cheap; the rest is eminently fundable (I've already had multiple discussions with funders.)

Seems simple but not for the faint-hearted or the inexperienced ;)

Eagerly awaiting your feedback!

Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week!

2010-11-16T22:52:00.006-07:00

Global Entrepreneurship Week November 15-22, 2010

www.gewusa.org and www.UnleashingIdeas.org

In 2009, well over 2 million participants in over 100 countries

In 2010, we expect as many as TEN million participants worldwide

It's not too late to sign up & join the fun!

The gauntlet has been thrown down. Idaho has been challenged to sign up a bunch of official partners for GEW. In response to that challenge, the regional GEW coordinator for the state of Idaho cordially invites you to be an official partner in GEW 2010. There is no cost, so why not be part of the fun? And...

The real power of GEW is to inspire continuing events all the way through 2011!

Global Entrepreneurship Week typically features one or more marquee events during the week, if possible, connected to one of that year's feature events. However, there's nothing to preclude additional events before, during & after the Week. For example...

In 2009, Idaho put on one of GEW's signature events, Startup Weekend. (In fact, it's because of Idaho that Startup Weekend became a featured event for GEW!) For 2010 and on into 2011...

Here in Idaho, please feel free to register any entrepreneurship-related event that you are doing in November and December as a GEW event at www.gewusa.org or www.unleashingideas.org (or feel free to ask me to post it for you – whatever is easier for you.) Finally...

Isn't it about damn time that we start doing more things together as an ecosystem?

I'd love to figure out some things we can do together (not just now but all the way through 2011!):

* How can I help YOU to put on an event all the way through 2011?

* How can I help you get others connected to your 2010-2011 events?

* How can I help you connect with events that others are doing?

The good folks at GEW HQ are “nudging” me [with blunt instruments] to recruit partners far & wide across Idaho, so I'd be particularly jazzed if you & your organization would sign on.

Will you do us the honor?

Just Entrepreneur It!

Norris

p.s. and did I mention? Sign up at www.UnleashingIdeas.org or www.gewusa.org (and it's free)

2010-11-12T07:34:00.002-07:00

WHAT DRIVES ENTREPRENEURSHIP... REALLY?

Dear entrepreneurial friends - here is a synopsis of the absolute state-of-the-art about how we grow entrepreneurs. This data is 'hot off the presses' from the largest high-quality data sets available (GEM, PSED, World Bank) What amazing talent... humbling for me, as usual.

A FAVOR: Please give me feedback - argue with me -cheer me on - buy me a beer -make me buy YOU a beer. Idaho needs to talk about this stuff - now.

Drawing on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data set (ultimately involving well over 1 million respondents globally over nearly a decade) several realities are beginning to emerge. None should be that surprising, except maybe just how strong the conclusions appear. And that there are direct policy implications... that need not cost much.

Total entrepreneurial activity (both entrepreneurship from the push of necessity and from the pull of opportunity) has very clear predictors that we need to recognize.

* Globally (and definitely in the US) opportunity-driven entrepreneurship has been in decline since 2005 and plummeted in the last year. Unsurprisingly, necessity-driven entrepreneurship has increased but that creates fewer jobs. We simply are not growing ventures that create lots of jobs. And Idaho lags the US...
Implication for Idaho: We need to help businesses (of any size/age/industry) to grow!

(* We already knew that the decline of job creation since 2008 has been unprecedented. Layoffs increased, of course, but that pales in comparison with the fall-off in job creation. Meanwhile, we seem hellbent on increasing the barriers to entrepreneurial job creation.)

* So how can we change all this?
Here are the three most important factors - all of which are things that we can influence as a community.

i. Entrepreneurial Potential is a Function of Potential Entrepreneurs.

The strongest predictor of entrepreneurial activity is the prevalence of adults who are prepared for entrepreneurial activity -- they have the entrepreneurial mindset: I can be an entrepreneur. I want to be an entrepreneur. And I know how to do it right.
Implication for Idaho: Quality, not just quantity of training. This is not about entrepreneurial training - it is cultivating an expert mindset. You've heard this often but now even more critical: Truly experiential, deeply transformative entrepreneuirial learning. (Think Startup Weekend, not "how to write a biz plan"!)

i-a. Fear of Failure?
Fear of entrepreneurial failure or do potential entrepreneurs accept (or even embrace) that failure is a possibility?

And a possibility for learning?
Implication for Idaho: See experiential learning above! Book learnin' won't cut it.

ii. Is Growing a Business Highly-Regarded?

Cultural support for entrepreneurship - Do people believe they'll be encouraged if they try, does the media "get it" (do they focus heavily on newer & especially fast-growing businesses?) Is entrepreneurship generally considered a good career option? Is entrepreneurial success rewarded by the community?
"Old school" values are also important: Respect for authority wedded to a healthy skepticism of authority (sounds pretty Idahoan, doesn't it?)
Implication for Idaho: Communities are often more supportive than we realize so we need to do anything we can to let prospective entrepreneurs know that there is a supportive ecosystem. And to help local communities to help entrepreneurial growth. (In turn, this helps grow the ecosystem.)
Implication for Idaho: Structurally, revamping your local innovation system will obviously help:
(a) Really map the existing ecosystem, as it is & as it is perceived,
(b) build a first-cut road map for upgrading the innovation system,
(c) then align your resources to the roadmap in terms of distinctive (not core) competences.

iii. Is It Getting Easier or Harder to Grow a Business?

Ease of doing business - how hard is it to start a business in terms of bureaucratic hurdles? Is the regulatory regime friendly? (Is the tax & regulatory burden actually shrinking?) How centralized are the control mechanisms for the local economy?
Implication for Idaho: Identify the systematic barriers - actually measure what is required. However, it is also a great opportunity to identify missing/needed facilitators (what will trigger entrepreneurial action?)

We can do this!

2010-10-29T14:11:00.002-06:00

"If 2010 wasn't the Year of the Entrepreneur, then 2011 certainly will be!"

(yes, you can quote me...)

Sorry for the delay but here's my latest. Greetings from DC & the global research conference on Business Creation. Nice to have been invited to speak but even nicer to see the steadily increasing interest by top scholars & educators in how do we craft policy to grow entrepreneurs! I have brought back a few fresh insights we can use in Idaho. (In fact, the very latest research will make you grin from ear to ear!) But first let me share some insights from my delightful, if sleep-deprived KC trip.

My trip to KC to visit the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation AND bond with the global array of terrific Startup Weekend organizers...mindblowing. I am still babbling to people about my experiences in & after KC. (And, yes, the infamous red shoes were in attendance...)

As one of the SW organizers said, Kauffman has become a "Disneyland for entrepreneurs" - not sure that's a perfect metaphor, but isn't entrepreneurship the ultimate 'E-Ticket' ride??

Kauffman Foundation

They have programs for growth entrepreneurs, education, tech transfer, you name it. Kauffman is responsible for Global Entrepreneurship Week -and now are the lead investors in Startup Weekend. They also are now the leading supporter of cutting edge research into how to grow a more entrepreneurial community -and a more entrepreneurial society. While there, I hand-delivered "fan letters" from Governor Otter in recognition of the need to do more and more to grow a more entrepreneurial Idaho. I'm working now to get a speaker or two from there to visit Idaho in the near future.(My pestering may be paying off? LOL)

There is much in Idaho that they like, there are many people & groups that they see as champions of entrepreneurship. (But I wouldn't be surprised if they also have VERY long memories about those who've disappointed them.) They want to help Idaho; shall we let them help us? ;)

Startup Weekend

While all this might seem like good news, the *real* good news from the trip was the sight of ~100 incredible Startup weekend organizers from across the globe pulling together. I'm ready to go to war with ANY of these folks. (I'm already connecting some of them to my other friends in the entrepreneurship world.) Folks, this is true experiential learning -the kind of brain-changing education that's one of my usual topics for evangelizing.

Go to www.startupweekend.org for more details -- but the most gratifying story is how entrepreneurship brought together Israelis & Palestinians at a Startup Weekend (http://vimeo.com/13359551 for more) Man, this is one Startup Weekend that I'd kill to help with next time

Came away with so many great ideas - I am still boiling them down & will share soon, I promise!

Given the Kauffman connection, it shouldn't be surprising that Startup Weekend and Global Entrepreneurship Week are natural allies. Any local SW is instantly connected to essentially the entire world.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

Last year, GEW (www.unleashingideas.org) had ~10 million people (many of them young, all of them young at heart!) in >100 countries. They expect the numbers to keep rising - don't we want to be connected?

Any organization or individual can sign on as a 'partner', just go to the website (www.UnleashingIdeas.org) & follow the links. 60 seconds & zero dollars later, you're on board! (Some of you have or will soon be getting a more formal invite; if your organization requires a formal invitation, I'd be tickled to send one!) Then let's start thinking about events:

* How can I help you do or help do an event?

* How can I help connect you to others' events? (We're all in this together...)

AND… there are a couple dozen Startup Weekends going on globally the weekends before & after GEW – and a major competition has just sprung up with off-the-hook prizes for the best SW teams. (As if we needed any more incentive to do Startup Weekends.)

ESTech

The infamous (?) Eagle Star Tech Corridor crew is gearing back up - with some great ideas, but... we want to hear from YOU. What events would help move the entire valley forward?

"Portland Ten"

Here's an amazing model from a former Idahoan, Carolynn Duncan, who is mentoring an ambitious cadre of Portland entrepreneurs who want to launch high-growth ventures.www.portlandten.com is the site -- but the really good news is that Carolynn asked me "Norris, you should do this in Boise." Nothing like a proven model with the founder willing to help us, eh? This is but one of several great mentoring-based learning programs that Idaho suddenly has access to! (More on that soon.) http://www.portlandten.com/

Other Tidbits

Free e-letter at http://www.MarketingTechie.com from my compadre at Michigan State, Glenn Omura, and his team. A nice curated aggregator of the latest & greatest news & info on techhnology & marketing.

Again, if you want to know more about my adventures, along with the education/training notes I just promised you, I'll have a longer report from my various Kauffman & other huddles - what I've learned! In the meantime, check my blog for "what I did on my summer non-vacation" ;) It’s at http://entrepreneurshipidaho.blogspot.com [I really need to move to Wordpress, don't I? and blog more? Blog better?? ;) ]

In the spirit of JFDI, keep remembering... "Entrepreneur" is a VERB!

2010-10-15T07:03:00.003-06:00

What I Did on My Summer ‘Vacation’

JUNE

International Council for Small Business

Ø Workshop on best practice in teaching social entrepreneurship

Ø Presented paper on neuroentrepreneurship [bit.ly]

Ø Assisted with doctoral consortium

Ø Workshop, Public Policy re Entrepreneur Development with Kauffman Foundation, et al. [www.slideshare.net/norriskrueger – 3 sets: Flora, Doss, ‘Cutting Edge’]

JULY

Idaho Innovation Council

Ø Invited Talk, “Entrepreneurial Job Creation” [bit.ly]

AUGUST

Academy of Management schedule

Friday –

Ø Speaker, panel on cutting edge teaching in social & sustainable entrepreneurship [ see ppts on slideshare]

Ø Research team meeting, crossnational study of entrepreneurial intent (N>60,000)

Ø Symposium of nascent entrepreneurs by country (GEM, PSED)

Saturday –

Ø Convenor, mini-workshop on Lean Startup model

Ø More job creation & firm formation data

Ø More social/sustainable entrepreneurship (research needs)

Ø Entrepreneurship Division Reception (at Miles Davis exhibit!)

Sunday –

Ø More research project meetings

Ø Executive Committee, Entrepreneurship Division (I'm newly elected Rep-at-Large)

Ø IDEA Awards for Research Excellence (invited gala dinner for leading scholars)

Monday –

Ø Business meetings, etc.

Ø Meeting with China group re potential projects in China

Ø Research meeting, crossnational study on impact of entrepreneurship education

Tuesday –

Ø Chair, symposium on nascent entrepreneurs

Ø Got interviewed re best practices at technology commercialization

Ø Speaker, symposium on neuroscience & entrepreneurshi

SEPTEMBER

Kauffman Global Organizers (Startup Weekend) Conference

Ø Speaking on 'lean startups'

Ø Meetings with various Kauffman officials

Ø Confer re NSF

OCTOBER

GWU Global Conference for Research on Business Creation

Ø Policy implications and practical implications

NOVEMBER

NYU Satter International Research Conference on Social & Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Ø “Entrepreneurs Pay Themselves Last”: Rent creation & allocation

Ø Cognitive science in social entrepreneurship: a review & research agenda

Technology Transfer Society international meetings

Ø More lean startup

Ø State of the art in Technology Commercialization: Policy Issues

Ø Research project meeting, collaboration across state Innovation Councils

Global Entrepreneurship Week / National Entrepreneurs Day!

NEW! December fun

December 1 - North Carolina

> Confer with North Carolina Innovation Council

> Speech on Social & Sustainable Entrepreneurship

December 9 - Germany

> Speech & expert panel: "Training the Entrepreneurial Trainer" (how to provide truly experiential learning.. and how not to)

*2011* commitments so far

Research meeting, crossnational study of cognitive change in entrepreneurial learning (Feb, Denmark)

Midwinter Meeting, Entrepreneurship Division Executive Committee [Academy of Management]

NCIIA (March)

Still more lean startup - how lean startup principles inform sustainable ventures

Visiting University of Twente/NIKOS/FemtoLab (EU best practice at tech transfer)

Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference (June)

ICSB (Stockholm!)

Track on public policy issues (tech commercialization)

Social entrepreneurship theme committee

Doctoral consortium?

(p.s. Now if only I could monetize most of this!)

2010-09-21T14:01:00.002-06:00

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: Friend-Raising for Idaho?

Since the Idaho Innovation Council & others have had some discussion about their ideas and/or have seen their sizable presence on economic policy issues, it dawned on me that some readers might want a brief overview of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world's #1 champion for more entrepreneurial economies. (And since at the end of the month I'm headed to KC to see my friends** there, it seems timely.)

The Foundation is (unsurprisingly) the legacy of Ewing Marion Kauffman, founder of Marion Merrell Dow & a champion of entrepreneurship & of opportunities for youth. WOTS is that the endowment is ~$5 billion and its mission is to vigorously support Mr. Kauffman's passions. They are by far the #1 funder of entrepreneurship programming in the world & the #1 funder of research into what's needed to grow entrepreneurs.

They helped more than a dozen campuses to raise $20 million or more for major university entrepreneurship programs, usually crosscampus. (They've also helped developed multi-school programs as well.) Note that a $20 million endowment yields ~$1 million annually - imagine what that can do! While some of these programs fell victim to university politics, others have continued to prosper amazingly.

If you go to their website (www.kauffman.org) you'll see a wide array of policy papers as well as examples of the innovative programs they have supported. However, they are increasingly a provider of resources, online and otherwise, for entrepreneurs -whether in developing countries or in high-tech. (Example: The newly revamped FastTrac program is the best introductory entrepreneurship training program available & is now rolling out online. Interestingly, they are rolling it out as a social venture that will be technically self-sustaining.) So, yes, they have the capability to fund programs but their expertise (and connections!) might be even more valuable.

It is imperative to recognize that they have the ear of NSF, SBA, EDA & the President's innovation commission. All these entities are talking to each other & supporting the same ideas, so Kauffman is well worth listening to. And well worth earning back their friendship.

Kauffman is the key player behind the enormous Global Entrepreneurship Week effort (www.unleashingideas.org) - last year, >2 million people in >100 countries participated (largely young people). GEW has some featured events that include the insanely fast-growing Startup Weekend (www.StartupWeekend.org). Because of Idaho, SW got connected to Kauffman & GEW. We can build on that.

My question to the readers is:

What message should I take to them from Idaho? They've had some very bad experiences with Idaho in the past but they are nonetheless willing to listen. Like NSF & EDA & SBA, they know a lot more about Idaho than we realize - in someways they may know us better than we do ourselves. They see our hurdles. They see our immense potential.

I would love to deliver multiple letters from groups like the Idaho Innovation Council. Simply offering our friendship & asking their advice would be a nice start. They are a great believer in Jim Collins's maxim about getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) so if we can show that we 'get it' too, we can move forward.

Example: A proposal from North Carolina's Innovation Council to ramp up collaboration & communication between all the state Innovation Councils. (They have invited Idaho to help with this - but that's a topic for a separate post.)

So... what would you like me to pass along?

** in spirit of full disclosure, my TEAMS program was partly funded under the Kauffman Collegiate Entrepreneurship Network. They still remember how well Idaho students distinguished themselves. also, I regularly co-present with Kauffman staff and other experts that they support.

2010-08-20T19:04:00.002-06:00

New data & best practice - More from Montreal

Newest data re job creation is courtesy of the US Census (slides available).

The short answer is:

* Growing firms are the only real engine - regardless of age, size, industry, region, urban/rural, gender, etc. There is so much turnover in jobs per year that you MUST create jobs like crazy (the US has averaged 3 million historically and now we have, um, er, a lot fewer.

* Startups are a key part of that but far, far from the only component. Existing firms can -and do- grow. Entrepreneurial cultures/ecosystems foster both.

At the recent Academy of Management, I got to hear a lot of data from countries all over:

* Almost everywhere, small-scale entrepreneurship is up (people starting businesses to pursue a lifestyle or out of necessity).

* Almost everywhere, opportunity-driven entrepreneurship has been trending lower since 2005. (2005? Yikes!)

* However, there are always pockets of great entrepreneurial activity - sometimes it is cities/states/neighborhoods, more often it's in industry niches. (Bring those together and you get.. clusters.)

* If you want to encourage innovation, you need to encourage entrepreneurship - but focus in two paradoxical directions:

? Where are you competitively strong already? (Not core competences but where you do have a sustainable competitive advantage? No wishful thinking: what are you already great at? You want a viable cluster? Go with real strengths. Me, I'd start with Idaho Tech Council's 3 focus areas.)

? Where are you under-represented by entrepreneurs? (In most places globally, women & rural are the 'ripest' low hanging fruit.)

* Ask entrepreneurs, existing & prospective: "What do you want?" (There is actually a sound methodology available to identify this - let me know if you want to know more. I'd love to deploy this - it's basically free to do)

Interesting how this matches with what we already know.

Latest data was particularly sobering - usually firms with 50 employees or less create more jobs than they shed... that is NOT the case today . This obviously reflects the slide in growth entrepreneurship. But if we are coming out of the recession, these numbers should be reversed.

OK, Norris, any good news?

Yes! It's clear that globally the interest in pro-entrepreneur, pro-innovation policies is growing past the usual pat-on-the-head "small biz is groovy" platitudes. Even if national governments seem clueless (most are), entrepreneurship has always been a bottom-up process. So....

If you haven't scanned the 'entrepreneurial job creation' slides, let me know & I'll shoot them over to you. I was just asked to write up a 'primer' on all this... no pressure, LOL but you're getting the cutting edge stuff.

Call me. Email me.

2010-08-10T17:54:00.000-06:00

Bonjour A Montreal!

Here at the international meetings of the Academy of Management (nothing like 11,000+ eggheads) -one of the largest divisions is the Entrepreneurship Division. Cool stuff already - Friday was a panel on best practice in teaching social & sustainable entrepreneurship, then lots of discussions of policy issues (more powerful intel on how entrepreneurs create jobs but ALSO how to advance entrepreneurial job creation that has continued into Saturday. Lots to bring back for the Innovation Council, et al.!)

This is a delightful crew -- big brains, even bigger hearts (just like many of you!)

Some of the people here are deeply involved with the programs that FUND entrepreneurial development. The latest salvo from the Kauffman Foundation [ link] noted their increasing role in driving the agenda for programs like NSF's Partnerships for Innovation. Kauffman has a key member of the President's new innovation council; he's here along with tech commercialization/entrepreneurship guru, my friend Dave Audretsch. I will be picking their brains to see how we can maximize Idaho's chances for getting some serious "Other People's Money"!

MUCH money is on the table - foundations fed, even private sector. Shouldn't we be working hard to go after this??EDA , SBA & the US Depts of Commerce & Energy are also here - interestingly, their preferences re what they fund is increasingly similiar & simllar to Kauffman, NSF, etc.. Again, it's surprisingly clear what they'd like to fund & that should be a good reason for us to be optimistic!

Interesting new data tidbit: Gross job creation is driven by startups but long-term net job creation depends overwhelmingly on firms that grow (*regardless* of age/size). That means newer firms are much more volatile -more exit & more grow. Thus, while we need to encourate startups.. we also need to grow existing firms. But both require... entrepreneurial thinking and an entrepreneur-friendly ecosystem. We know how to help both - the costs are minimal - but we have to DO it.

p.s. WHO should be leading the charge? Heard a great analogy using the "will run through brick walls" metaphor...

Running Through Brick Walls - Find people who'll do it for free (so many of my friends here in the entrepreneurship world are like me -- essentially we'll PAY to run through the brick walls, LOL)

2010-07-07T22:18:00.003-06:00

Startups Matter. A Lot.

(check the great Kauffman/Tim Kane blog, www.growthology.org for more**)

Firms less than a year old create the new jobs. (Meanwhile, the other huge job creators are fast-growing 'gazelle' firms -- imagine if we subtracted those from the job creation numbers in that graph!) Please look long & hard at that graph... and think about what that means for America... and think about what that means for Idaho.

[Please note that none of this invalidates the equally powerful reality that it is GROWING companies that matter. A big part of what makes startups so important is the subset of them that have great potential to grow...]

Let's take advantage of this powerful dynamic to grow some jobs! Who's in?

In a healthy economy:

* Where we gain by far the most new jobs? Startups (primarily from startups that grow)

* Over time, where do we gain net new jobs? Fast-growing firms, especially high-potential startups

I just got back from an international entrepreneurship conference (ICSB, see Facebook) where a major focus was on how to grow entrepreneurial communities. (See my slides at http://bit.ly/aoa3jN) We have an unbelievable array of talent to call on to help us.

It requires that we do the right things the right way and for the right reasons. But the expertise is out there, available to any state, city or country; We know how to do this. But we have to CHOOSE to do it.

The time is now. Let’s talk. then... let's act!

If you'd like to hear more, ping me by email or twitter, subject line/hashtag of "#RedShoesRevolution". There are things we can start doing today that make sense strategically and tactically - many of them need not cost a dime. So why not?

Norris (norris.krueger@gmail.com ; @entrep_thinking)

p.s. Tim himself asked "How many economists even guess this is how the U.S. economy works? I didn't until I saw the data." And Tim's research passion is entrepreneurship? No wonder Washington has never had a clue.

** the graph was done by Tim K and if you want to play with data on your own, try www.YourEconomy.org - it's great fun, though the job creation numbers are sobering...

2010-03-01T13:17:00.002-07:00

Are Entrepreneurs "Made or "Born"?

(this blog post is closely adapted from a response I left for both Mark Suster's great blog and Vivek Wadhwa's provocative post on TechCrunch.

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/02/27/entrepreneurship-nature-vs-nurture-a-religious-debate/

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/27/can-entrepreneurs-be-made/

Let me ask an easy question: Do entrepreneurs have an above-average propensity to take risks? As it turns out… Uh, no. On average, they do not differ from the rest of us. That study was 30 years ago, at a time where entrepreneurship research assumed, quite naturally, that there was something called the “entrepreneurial personality.” We got over it. So should everyone. (But it is more complicated than merely “nature” vs. “nurture”. And, taking a scientific approach has already paid dividends –I suspect very few of you are current with existing science on this –and approaching the complexities will continue to bear fruit of practical value to entrepreneurs, educators, even VCs. Mark , Vivek– up for a study?)

This is definitely a “theological” discussion so how about we add in some cutting edge social science? Mark Suster & Fred Wilson’s gut reaction that “nature” is critical is understandable. Entrepreneurship experts fell for that same gut reaction decades ago & it took forever to get past it. (It made us a joke in scholarly circles, a hole we’re still digging out of.) Mark – you asked for data – well, decades of work found essentially zero data that supported a distinctive “entrepreneurial personality” & what little we found offered no practical value (eg, Kelly Shaver’s great article nailed it way back in 1991). But…

Who doesn’t want to think of Entrepreneurs as Special, even Magical People?

They do such wondrous things that often seem far beyond what mere mortals can do. Look at Mark’s own list of 12 “traits” that he looks for in entrepreneurs. A person with those characteristics should be able to move mountains. (As an entrepreneur myself, I’d sure love to think I was one of them but… LOL)

What are we really measuring?

Of course, that’s the first fly in the ointment – we are often describing what any great performer might reflect. So are we not identifying great humans? (Not a bad basis for choosing people to help but…)

Dynamic processes & predicting vs explaining:

And do we care more about entrepreneurial people or about the decision to pursue an opportunity (intention) and to implement that decision (action). The second ‘fly’ is that if we care about people starting businesses (effectively) we are dealing with dynamic processes where people and situations evolve, often quickly & discontinuously. That means being able to explain brilliantly need not allow us to predict anything. Right now we explain great entrepreneurs much, much better than we can predict them. (And isn’t *predicting* more valuable to VCs?)

DNA or Human Capital?

The third 'fly' is if my parents were entrepreneurial, how do we know if my entrepreneurial mojo is from shared DNA or from a transfer of human capital?? Lots of MDs have doctor kids… and we know that it’s a matter of human capital far more than genetic capital (look up Lentz & Laband who studied doctors and… entrepreneurs.)

Occam's Razor?

Fourth, is simply parsimony –we can explain –and predict!- better with cognitive models such as simple models of entrepreneurial intentions. Human intentions are basically grounded on perceptions that the behavior is (a) desirable and is (b) feasible, all we need then is a trigger (bit.ly/a39PzE)

My own research area focuses on how entrepreneurs think, applying cognitive & cognitive developmental psychology to how we learn to see opportunities. This has taken me into a deep dive into neuroscience, looking for biological underpinnings of entrepreneurial behavior. Are entrepreneurs wired differently? Again, that evidence is sorely lacking. Let me suggest a look at two interesting volumes published by Springer that bring together the best minds on this topic, Zoltan Acs & Dave Audretsch’s “International Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research” (bit.ly/cE2qp5 for sample chapter**) and Alan Carsrud & Malin Brannback’s new “Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind” (bit.ly/a39PzE is from that **)

If you buy Howard Stevenson’s great classic definition of entrepreneurship as “pursuing opportunity without regard to resources controlled”… that is saying (in Stevenson’s own words) that *heart* of entrepreneurship is seeing & acting on opportunities. We don’t find opportunities, we construct them. We can be more alert (Israel Kirzner’s clever term) to certain cues/signals but there is still a set of cognitive processes involved. And like most human phenomena, those processes vary across both persons & situations (see Rick Bagozzi’s recent work). Models that only look at person-level characteristics are worse at explaining and far worse at predicting.

Is there evidence to support “nature”-Sure.

Take a careful look at the growing field of behavioral genetics. Did you know that there is a significant heritability coefficient for job satisfaction? Genetic influences are much more widespread than most realize (& it’s not terribly PC, of course) Scott Shane argues that self-employment really does have a heritability coefficient that is clearly non-zero. However, in most studies we find that nurture trumps nature and the interaction of nature & nurture often dominates.

Neuroentrepreneurship?

However, the deeper I look at neuroscience shows how remarkably malleable our biological systems are. Life experiences can and do mold our wiring. What we do see is that entrepreneurs engage in cognitive processes that are available to all of us, choosing mindfully or not to do so. An example: Barbara Sahakian’s lab at Cambridge found that successful (serial) entrepreneurs and a matched set of top managers were equally great at ‘cold’ cognition (emotion-independent) however, on emotion-dependent “hot” cognition, the entrepreneurs were consistently superior (bit.ly/a2fAWR). Abilities at ‘hot’ cognition are clearly learned but there’s also the choice to engage in it.

Neuroplasticity. Returning to my first question about risk-taking propensity, we do know that people with more dopamine receptors in their brains tend to take more risks, prefer novelty, etc. (eg, Zald’s work at Vandy). However, we also know that people who take more risks… grow more dopamine receptors Neuroplasticity is very real. So why don’t we look at how we grow great entrepreneurial thinking?

“Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.” Epictetus was right. Life experiences also change how we structure knowledge. Think about how novices evolve into experts- they typically gain more knowledge content but they are even more likely to have very different knowledge structures (sometimes even simpler than novices’).

“Growing Up Entrepreneurial” might thus be better thought of as going through critical developmental experiences that mold how we think in ways that support, reinforce & grow the entrepreneurial mindset (bit.ly/9VyUJm). Everyone of Mark’s great list of 12 key characteristics can arise from the right kinds of developmental experiences. [Mark & Vivek, if you’ve read this far-again, would you be interested in a serious research project? It’s very fundable!] In fact, it’s a far simpler explanation to argue for the cognitive developmental model than to torture the data to find a “nature” explanation.

Anyway, isn’t the real question: “Do we want to explain great entrepreneurs or predict them?”

Or put another, better way” “Don’t we want to know how we grow into great entrepreneurs?”

Anyone interested in pursuing this, give me a holler – at worst, I can probably connect you with a great scholar in your own backyard. Thanks for indulging me here!

Entrepreneur Up!

Norris Krueger, RE*, PhD

@entrep_thinking ; norris.krueger@@gmail.com

* RE = Recovering Entrepreneur (LOL)

** Sorry to be self-referencing – the only chapters I had handy were my own, but they address issues relevant here. But I urge anyone interested to look at both of these volumes. I have wonderful colleagues globally who could argue this better with their own great work.

2009-11-19T13:56:00.005-07:00

Startup Weekend & Global Entrepreneurship Week - Doing the right things the right way for the right reasons!

The following is my report to the GEW HQ about how we kicked off a great week for entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs globally -- but it was great to think about how entrepreneurship really happens (to quote @msuster.. 'JFDI'... LOL, but it really is about how to unleash & channel passion into something of value!)

There is SO much we can do - and looking to models & expertise outside is a key part of that. It was disappointing that so many offered to help, then wandered off, and some even declined to help. If you check the videos, etc. below - how could anyone not help?

It was Idaho that introduced The Startup Weekend team to the GEW team... a match made in heaven & I'm very proud of that - connecting good people to each other always pays off! (And it doesn't hurt to be reminded of the incredible entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial experts that I know around the country & around the world. GEW is for YOU, my friends!

Entrepreneur Up!

Norris

p.s. please scroll down & check out our two "asks" from the SW participants - TIA!

To: Global Entrepreneurship Week HQ

From: Norris Krueger, Regional Coordinator for Idaho

Dear GEW Friends from all over -

Wow! Isn't this amazing?

Here in Idaho we kicked off the week with the amazing Startup Weekend model (one of the 'official' GEW Events). Assemble a bunch of people on Friday after work, brainstorm ideas then form teams around the best ones... then by Sunday evening... start a venture! www.startupweekend.com has more info or contact the irrepressible duo running it, Marc Nager & Clint Nelsen (contact info below). They only have FOURTEEN of these before year's end... It was my honor to introduce these guys to GEW – always great to connect great people – the Entrepreneur's Code says “We're all in this together!”

Four teams rolled on Friday - 2 starts & another that will likely be a new product & the fourth has a great platform designed to build on after SW. Check out http://idaho.startupweekend.org for overall info, weblinks and short videos on all four teams. I've been an entrepreneur & an entrepreneurship educator a LONG time and I was thoroughly impressed.

We got great media support - both TV (http://bit.ly/188DDV, thanks to Mike McLenna at KTVB) and NPR (http://bit.ly/yp1vt, thanks to George Prentice at KBSU).

We also drew the attention of the state's Commerce Director, Don Dietrich, who did our Friday kickoff, then came back on Sunday for the presentations (and by now he has delivered a t-shirt to Idaho's Governor!) GEW made some serious friends in high places!

We have two favors to ask, if we might:

1) Morgans Journey - a mechanism to connect families and friends of children with cancer. As you'll see above, it was inspired by one entrepreneur's daughter (we all love ya, Morgan!) and you'll see the results of 50 hours of passion at www.MorgansJourney.org
[Our 'Ask' = please follow on Twitter (@morgansjourney) then visit the site & please make a small donation!]

2) Yaro - www.getyaro.com, @getyaro - a new social media aggregator that will allow to better manage multiple social media accounts (no more confusing your Facebook friends with cryptic Twitter posts or sending "that" photo to the wrong places, LOL) Should integrate nicely with other aggregators like Gist.com or Idaho-bred www.MyReMa.com (you should sign up for both their betas too. We're all in this together!) Yaro also caught the eye of local TV - founder Jana Briggs shines at http://bit.ly/1P0zv4
[Our 'Ask' = please follow @getyaro on Twitter, then visit www.getyaro.com & sign up for the private beta... make both of these a real #GEW Success Story!]

I highly recommend Startup Weekend - we had a terrific local crew of Lisa McGrath, Andre Nosalsky plus Kevin Donaldson - Andre got off his deathbed to join us for the presentations. But please don't ask about "#redshoes" - it could get ugly (LOL) and we also got a bit carried away with #blamenorris (relates to #redshoes.. I think.) We can't wait to get the next SW going next spring! Thanks too to the Kauffman Foundation & Mark Marich for cheering us on.

p.s. Another great model for your city is Ignite - while not formally part of GEW, it's a model you all should consider, so check out www.igniteboise.com (ugly sample video at http://bit.ly/fnTWV). In a state where we too often squabble over resources rather than help entrepreneurs... Ignite & SW are evidence how the entrepreneurial spirit can pull people together! I am humbled to be involved.

Norris Krueger, PhD
@entrep_thinking
norris.krueger@gmail.com

For more info on Startup Weekend contact info:
www.Startupweekend.com, @startupweekend
Marc Nager, marc@startupweekend.com, @marcnager
Clint Nelsen, clint@startupweekend.com, @clintnelsen

2009-08-12T19:06:00.002-06:00

AS PROMISED in LAST BLOG! "Low-Hanging Fruit", "Quick Wins" Ideas

Thanks to all of you who responded with questions about my offer to share some easy/free/cheap things that we could right now! We should be thinking about how to leverage the growing number of groups out there who have human capital to deploy and exploit the crap out of them! Groups like: ESTech, Idaho Cubed, Jigsaw (Wood River Valley) plus maybe Meridian's CORE and ??? Those bottom-up organizations can play a nice role in “picking” these “low hanging fruit”!

Contact me if interested in getting involved! (norris.krueger@gmail.com)

LOW HANGING FRUIT for IDAHO (free/cheap; already at our fingertips)

#1 Idea to Product Competition (www.ideatoproduct.org)

What: Turning an Idea into a Product, developed at U Texas (home of the #1 college biz plan contest) in reaction to flaws in biz plan model. Far superior for entrepreneurial learning. Works for K-12 and for the general public (heart of Innovate North Dakota) Successful past history in Idaho.

Who: Allies already identified. Could be deployed immediately for fall semester in colleges and in high schools (e.g.. through IDLA Entrep course) AND could be run for adult population through IEDA, IRP, TechBoise, etc. Idaho-Cubed and ESTech are both willing to step up & lead.

Cost: Negligible, other than prizes (sponsors).

What Now?: Give the word. I have the license for the Inland Northwest.

#2 IDLA H.S. Entrepreneurship Course

What: Online "Entrepreneurial Economics" fulfills required HS econ course plus significant experiential entrepreneurship training - engaging entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Needs more marketing but also is opportunity for dedicated sections with specialized inteest

Cost: Technically, the course costs students and schools $0. (State already paying)

Who: IDLA already doing, we just promote it [longer-term, turn course into adult ed class and add a full entrepreneursip or sustainable entrep class to IDLA curriculum!]

What Now?: Spread the word. Guest speaker and mentoring opportunities.

#3 Sponsor (and participate in) Global Entrepreneurship Week [www.unleashingideas.org]

What: 2nd annual global celebration of entrepreneurship, especially younger entrepreneurs. Sponsored & supported by all the major "players" (Kauffman Foundation, NSF, R's & D's, SBA, EDA, NCIIA, etc.) Global & naional events - opportunity to do a series of events (see below)

Cost: Negligible but groups signing on as Partner would facilitate sponsorship of other events

Who: Regional Coordinator for Idaho plus other engaged groups/individuals (again, ESTech & Idaho Cubed)

What Now?:Sign up online as Partner, proclamation of support, etc. (& have fun with it!)

#3A Stanford's Global Innovation Tournament

What: Take an ordinary item (paper clips, Post-It notes, etc.) & teams turn it into something incredible in 5 days. Global college tourney [but Tina says if Idaho has a HS team.. "Bring it on!"] Key part of Global Entrepreneurship Week

Cost: Minimal

Who: We have personal invite from GIT director Tina Seelig (director of the legendary Stanford Technology Ventures program, http://stvp.stanford.edu)

What Now?: Partners endorse & co-brand as part of Week.

#4 Major Entrepreneurial Bootcamp (1 or 2 days)

What: Multiple models already handy but best version is NCIIA's Invention 2 Venture (“I2V”, www.invention2venture.org) which has several 'flavors' (high tech, SBIR/etc., industry-specific and my favorite, green/cleantech entrep). Day-long format but could be expanded to 2 day (ultimately even week-long but that will require some funding)

Who: I work with NCIIA, we've done a pilot one before with ASME who will support along with presumably INL. NCIIA will help & there's $$$ left over from last time.

Cost: Minimal, especially with leftover sponsor money.

What Now?: Make plans - maybe do this in/around Global Entrepreneurship Week [Ignite is fortuitously the week before]

** possible roster of events for Idaho's Global Entrepreneurship Week: [alternately, we set up weekly/monthly events and (again) maybe coordinate with existing events of ESTech, others]

> StartUp Weekend (before/after)

> I2V Boot camp

> "BlobLive" [www.bloblive.com]

> Speed Dating/Speed Netowrking (Kickstand, TechBoise already doing this)

> Other major entrepreneurial training event [see .LuckyNapkin.com & LaunchersCafe.com]

+ Global Innovation Tournament, other national.global events [e.g. partnering in online co-events with foreign schools already identified!]

There are a few more cheap/free "Quick Wins" but I'll save those...

p.s.: A couple ideas that are timely but requiring a bit more resourcefulness

#1 Recruiting talent from downtrodden states - recruit top scientists/engineers from collapsing colleges (e.g. Cal State system, Florida, etc.)

#2 StartUp Weekend (www.startupweekend.com) - Get large group of interested folks together on Friday afternoon/evening, form teams and stat something by Sunday night. Founder Andrew Hyde & TechStars mentor Paul Jerde made me promise to do this, LOL.

2009-07-30T19:38:00.004-06:00

SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA WATCH THE SAUSAGE BEING MADE...

Four hours is a long time to watch any task force move forward, but it's left me still optimistic that the Idaho Innovation Council has great potential. The surface issue is tech transfer (I do wish they'd say "technology commercialization") but they are focusing on the Governor's mandate that we need to apply the new knowledge.

Innovation Summit (& Business Summit)
First item of note is the newly announced Innovation Summit (Sep 24, in conjunction with Stoel Rives Innovation Awards) and the Industry Summit (Aug. 31, for more traditional industries). Looks promising with the Governor planning to spend the day and 6 panels clustered by industry (high-tech manufacturing, software, power & energy, agtech/biotech, INL & higher ed research & small business). [Ed. Note: I must admit that I think attendees at both summits need some serious grounding in the 'big picture' BUT I hope the skeptics of the IIC will wait until both summits are done before unloading on these efforts, Have faith!]

Metrics
Nice discussion of the metrics that the Council needs to work up - whether metrics for the innovation economy or metrics for the IIC's own performance. Jason Stolworthy (INL) made a great case to focus on process metrics. Much as we'd like to look at outcomes, those can be long-term & at least partly beyond our control. Mark Warbis made an eloquent case that if we can get a handle on job creation, etc. that would be highly useful for the Governor as we move toward the goals of Project 60.***

Jefferson Jewell raised the issue of the huge number of metrics already being used by different states/organizations. We need to develop a dashboard but what are the right measures?

One interesting set of metrics that arose relates to the barriers that entrepreneurs see as impeding progress toward turning ideas into commercial reality. The ensuing discussion led to the conclusion that we need to assess barriers [ed. note: need to also address facilitators, not just barriers to action].

The good news is that Idaho's DC delegation already asked Kickstand for exactly this list back in early 2008 but got lost in the shuffle, but not before the survey was already developed. This existing draft survey is based on the growing research on entrepreneurial intentions and barriers. And ESTech is already going to use this survey in the Treasure Valley. [Note to self: deliver draft survey and concise research review to the Council.]

*** Doug Sayer announced that he's now calling it Project 75 ! Gotta love the optimism and.. it does work if we argue that "60" is in base-12...

Regional Reports
North: Robin Woods (Alturas Analytics) noted that in her area the #1 concern is lack of resources [awareness?] though there was an undercurrent of feeling that universities really don't understand the process of tech commercialization [nor entrepreneurship at all..] Lack of mentoring was glaringly evident. (Shoot, if Brad Feld said at IdaVationthat we don't have enough mentors in Boise, so this is not surprising. However, doesn't growing a state-wide pool of mentors sound like a great long-term objective?)

East/Southeast: Doug Sayer (Premier Technologies) - very, very long PPT presentation [2 slides, 2 minutes] -
Jason Stolworthy - used the great 2004/5 report from Innovation Associates. See the link for some great bullet points. And read them.
[Ed. note: Very similar lists surfaced from the President's Council on Applied Science & Tech and the National Governors Association . I will follow up on the list in the IA doc -where we stand & we can actually do.

Doug Sayer then raised the issue of how Idaho businesses also work productively with outside universities like Stanford. Not only is this an additional opportunity for Idaho businesses but also role models for Idaho's innovation system. Check out my buddies, Tom & Tina, et al. over at http://stvp.stanford.edu !

Doug also raised another interesting question: What stimulus dollars are out there? Are we getting any??

Southwest: Steve Hodges introduced Mary Givens to give BSU's perspective – one interesting emphasis is that not all technologies are equally ready, so one issue would be find ways to advance the Technology Readiness Level (pretty cool). Really nice job by Mary to describe where BSU is going. (Gene Merrell checked in later from UI.)

Lots of discussion about gap funding - can we develop a microgrant-type fund to get, say, $5K to people to help them move their idea forward? (BSU has a great rapid prototyping gizmo but it's not free.) Research says that it's great bang-for-the-buck, but I'm thinking it probably should start as an informal mechanism outside normal channels. Jefferson noted the evidence that $ spent on SBIR had a much larger ROI than spending on SBDCs. Anyway, the discussion made me want to pass the hat and raise $10K for 2-5 of these seed grants!

Jefferson ended with his observations from 9 entrepreneur interviews. General consensus was that entrepreneurs didn't have bad experiences with universities, rather they had trouble engaging at all. (The basic vs. applied research battle may never be resolved. But we do need to ask our institutions this:)

Do universities (or any institutions) see themselves as: (pick only one)
a) engines of economic development or
b) engines to generate research dollars?
Which is it... really?

Jefferson then suggested a "heretical" observation - we need to ask the question of whether we overfocus on startups, when so many times the ideal home for a new idea is an existing business. Can incentives aimed at startups be better deployed?
[Note: Actually, he's not wrong. The latest gazelle data suggests the median age is over 15 years old AND that the growth spurt came from entering a new arena (e.g., with a new technology) Remember too that Idaho's net job creation is mostly from existing firms growing.].
Maybe Idaho's differentiation is figuring how to develop INTRApreneurship. Why not develop programs to help existing businesses become launchpads for new ideas? [Ed. note: We also have well-tested curricula for that... readily available.]

Brian Dickens then made the great observation that the two are not mutually exclusive. It made me think of Will Baumol's recent work on how large firms, small firms and other stakeholders are all needed for a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem. [great book! Glad to loan it out...]

The last two agenda items were essentially tabled but appealed to my own biases. (1) What other info does the Council need to make sound recommendations? and (2) What guest presentations would they like to hear. (Doug Sayer argued for a DOE speaker and Jefferson thought he could lure the estimable Krisztina Holly from USC (and MIT) here. Later, I'll inflict a list of my contacts that might provoke some discussion. (I think the Council could create a killer National Advisory Board that would give us instant 'street cred'.)

Anyway - sometimes you DO have to spend some time watching the mills grinf the grain fa more slowly than we'd like. But I came away with my optimism intact!

2009-07-29T09:55:00.002-06:00

What Do Outside Entrepreneurship Experts Think About Idaho?

I think the discussions about where Idaho needs to go has been circling the real questions. Back in April, Utah was referenced as a great model for us, though skeptics point to the top-down support they received (including hefty financial support.)

HOWEVER, there is a great deal that we can learn from them. Yes, they had some terrific advantages that persist today, but what we need to focus on is: What they DID with what they had. The heart of what made them so effective had everything to do with making their culture more entrepreneurial and making their system remarkably entrepreneurial.

Strategy , not Tactics
I've been able to get observations from outside experts (a fair subset of the experts) about what Idaho is doing. One key observation of direct relevance here is that we have focused far too much on tactics – throwing out ideas that we'd like to see happen. However, they do not see that we have started with first principles, that we have not done a good job of looking at the strategic level. Part of that is that we don't have much expertise that understands the key strategic-level phenomena at the heat of a truly entrepreneurial economy. The Dept of Commerce's 'Project 60' is a nice first step and the entrepreneur-heavy makeup of the Idaho Innovation Council is another.

Step One: Understand what characterizes a successful entrepreneurial economy.
Step Two: Identify the key policy levers that help us grow an entrepreneurial economy
Step Three: Only then can we begin looking at ground-level tactics.

Here's a 'big picture' item that we should focus on: Knowledge Spillover. To be of any value, knowledge must 'spill over' into the marketplace. How does knowledge get turned into something of value? We have policy levers at our disposal to cost-effectively reduce barriers.

Another: Entrepreneurial economies grow bottom-up, one entrepreneur at a time. Technology commecialization is not driven by top-down institutions, Institutions can faciliate & can remove barriers but it's encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit of Idaho that will make or break the effort.

Think Strategically (not tactically)
Let me ask the question a different way - we seem fixated on tactics (what worked or not in a specific setting) when we really need to step back and look at the big picture.

The big question is: “How do we get more ideas to market?” (Jason Stolworthy noted back in April that it need not even be "Idaho" ideas.) This is more than just developing new technologies, this is about changing mindsets. Ideas we have, but that's not remotely enough to grow innovations – you need entrepreneurs. The real question is how do we do THAT.. and we do know how to do that. Yet, that has rarely been on the table. Why not?

Creativity + Entrepreneurship = Innovation
The best way to promote Idaho innovation is to grow a more entrepreneurial Idaho. A more entrepreneurial climate is almost always the scarce commodity. The dirty little secret of innovation is that the invention part is never the bottleneck, it's the entrepreneurial side where most places fall short.

60 Spinouts in Under 4 Years
At the April meeting, mention was made again about the Utah model. If you want a primer on what they've done, couched within the bigger picture, please look at http://www.tinyurl.com/utahmodel - you can see the implications for Idaho. It's easy to dismiss what the U of U did because of their blessings - especially the budget surplus that enabled a major cash influx. However, what made Utah so successful was that they changed the climate to become much more entrepreneurial.

What that required will be very difficult for Idaho, but not because of any great cognitive complexity. It will be difficult because it requires a sea change in how the whole system operates. In a nutshell, here's what they did that WE could do. However, that also means we CAN change more quickly than we realize!

The Bully Pulpit - have all the top leaders beat the drum for making the system more entrepreneurial. Idaho's leaders will do this but only if/when they have faith in the key players. Do the things below and Idaho's leaders *will* step up. You heard Butch at the initial IIC meeting being very clear that he sees entrepreneurs as the answer. Legislative leaders agree completely. Why aren't we building on this?

No More Amateur Night - DIY is great for building your deck but not for building a state innovation system. Expertise from outside the state is likely necessary (and local wannabes need to let the experts drive the bus.) Outsiders look at Idaho & wonder why we've allowed local pseudo-experts to have any say at all. Just because they have the job title doesn't mean they get it.)
A huge part of any successful development effort is to start with strategy. It feels like 99% of what talk about are tactics. Strategy first, then tactics. (My next posting will address the key strategic elements that we must consider.)

Focus on Applied Research - commit to putting new dollars into applied research. The fetish for basic research is a hindrance (and I'm a basic researcher myself).
Look at the example of Ireland... and New Mexico and Utah and North Dakota and...

Put Entrepreneurs at the Heart of the System - make it not just entrepreneur-friendly but that having entrepreneurs heavily engaged throughout the system needs to become the norm.
* Open every door imaginable to the entrepreneurial community; make it clear they are more important.
* You will need to grow entrepreneurs - in the system and throughout the state (in Idaho, we'll need to grow entrepreneurial communities as well.)

Grow Entrepreneurs Everywhere – entrepreneurial citizens, entrepreneurial organizations (nonprofits too) and entrepreneurial communities. Why else would youth entrepreneurship programs be the #1 no-brainer in economic development these days?
* Grow entrepreneurial human capital – we know how to do this... cheaply.
* Grow entrepreneurial social capital – we know ho to do this...cheaply.

Signal Persuasively that the Climate HAS Changed
* Show that we fully understand that market pull always trumps technology push. No matter how cool and sexy the features of a technology might be, if features don't translate into customer benefits... we will never make progress.
* For example, Utah signaled the new culture by banning the phrase "tech transfer" - henceforth they want to say "technology commercialization".
* Don't go piecemeal - develop and deliver multiple best-in-class programs so that every member of the ecosystem will see credible evidence that things are indeed different.

Align Resources to a Strategic Road Map
* What makes an economy entrepreneurial? What are the critical characteristics? Once we have that, we can ask what are the policy levers available to us? Experts, national & global, can and should help us with that. Then and only then does it make any sense to talk tactics. But that's actually the easy part IF we listen to the experience & expertise available to Idaho.
* Once we have the strategy & likely tactics in place, then we have the tricky part: Aligning the resources to the road map. Odds are that most 'players' will not be doing what they want to do or feel entitled to do.. but they WILL be doing what adds the most value to the process. (Think 'distinctive competence' not 'core competence.')
* INL led the charge years ago when Idaho developed its initial list of competencies and harped on the need for alignment. We need to honor that strategic intent and make all of this happen.

* This might be a good place to start as Idaho is already working on a 'summit' with 8 key industries.

** Most important: Demonstrate that we "get it" - that everyone involved in designing and delivering programs understand how entrepreneurs think. Doing all of the above will send that signal - to the experts we want (and need) to help us AND to Idaho's entrepreneurial community.

Let me add my usual plaintive cry: How can I help? How can I help Idaho to "Entrepreneur Up!"

2009-07-23T15:40:00.003-06:00

The Blog-Slacker is Back... Twitter Captured Me (but getting better)

Interesting news - I've polled my wonk friends in DC, etc. & they already are optimistic. But it will be an uphill battle to get entrepreneurs on the front burner.
http://idahobusiness.net/archive.htm/2009/07/23/Risch-named-to-Small-Business--Entrepreneurship-Committee

I've had multiple short chats with Jim at meetings like IEDA and IRP and he gets "it" to a greater degree than many in DC. I'm passing along my contacts to his office & I've sent this news to them. There are some things that we can be doing here in Idaho that this could help but one thing I've been meaning to blog about is this.

When I talk with the 'best & brightest' folks on how to grow entrepreneurs, they perceive Idaho as needing to pull together, have one voice and we need to be thinking at the strategic level. Policy makers and policy implementers need to REALLY understand how an entrepreneurial economy actually works (some of which is pretty counter-intuitive and a lot of it runs contrary to the prevailing policy winds in DC.) To that end, the people I can send Jim's way will help & some of them are already in contact with the committee/staff; Jim can help them to be heard.

If any of you are interested in a chat about taking advantage of this - not just for us, but for the whole entrepreneurial ecosystem.. just drop me a note.

Norris.Krueger@@gmail.com
(or - LOL -tweet me via @entrep_thinking)

2009-05-22T12:38:00.002-06:00

TECH FIRMS & R/E FIRMS: A Chance to Learn from Each Other!

[p.s. Any tech firms interested in sharing insights on the panel? (ping me: norris.krueger@gmail.com)]

2009-05-18T14:14:00.002-06:00

May 20 ESTech Science Cafe!!!

2009-01-15T13:45:00.004-07:00

I "hate" it when someone else says it better than I do... LOL

THIS is what I've been ranting about.. Wow! This is from my buddies at RUPRI's Center for Rural Entrepreneurship (Don Macke, take a bow.)

What this says below is easier to say than to do -- VERY easy to do, but a pain to actually stay the course & do it. That means.. it;s a great horse, but we need great jockeys.

Is RUPRI reading our playbook? (Well, except that I read theirs first, lol.) But it does indeed read like the playbook for ESTech, my last meeting with Miles Mahoney & Brian Cummings and even my last conversation with Don Dietrich. This is not only a nicely written item, it's grounds for optimism. People ARE getting it - and the RIGHT people are getting it.

BTW, latest cool stat - since 1980, employment has grown an average of 1.8% a year. Jobs from startups are 3% of new jobs each year! Not double, but... not bad!)

But let's let CRE tell the tale... [with my insertions made for my committee colleagues..]

from CRE [emphasis added]:
"In a recent article in IEDC’s Economic Development Journal, Steve Buttress (Senior Fellow with the Center) and Don Macke (the Center’s Director of Strategic Engagement) suggest that understanding the roles that entrepreneurs play in the growth of local economies must be a key part of any community’s economic development strategy. [Check!] "Energizing Entrepreneurs, Development Strategy for the 21st Century" begins by reflecting back on an article written by Buttress in 1989 which identified the challenges for rural communities, particularly the rural heartland. According to Buttress, he was struck by how similar the needs are now to what he identified in 1989. In fact, entrepreneurship is “more important now than it was three months ago” when the current article was written. Buttress noted the need for communities to “fish where the fish are” and, in order to do that, community leaders need to be “calling on individuals and businesses in your community and asking how you can be a bridge between them and the resources they need to be successful.” [Check!]

The strong belief in the importance of entrepreneurship development to long term community sustainability comes from the Center’s experience throughout rural America and the work both Buttress and Macke have been doing in the heartland for several decades. Buttress notes that there’s nothing better than a story to help communities understand the importance of entrepreneurship development. Based on their work in Nebraska, Buttress “saw communities declining since the 1920s that have turned things around by going out and talking to local businesses, helping them access resources.”

The article outlines the case for an entrepreneurial strategy and identifies some “shining examples” of places and organizations that are actively engaged in energizing and supporting entrepreneurs – Littleton, Colorado, HomeTown Competitiveness communities in the heartland, Northern Initiatives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation in Appalachian Kentucky, Network Kansas operating statewide.[And soon.... Idaho!]

The authors also point to elements of a successful entrepreneurial strategy. Buttress suggests that community leaders should begin by doing three things – (1) Articulate that entrepreneurship is something important to the community; (2) Assemble people – usually volunteers – with the energy and skills to help local entrepreneurs and give them an “identity so people can find them”; (3) Identify existing businesses, call on them, and ask them what the community can do to help. [Check!]

Buttress argues that once a community identifies entrepreneurship as an important strategy, the “entrepreneurs will find you!” And, he noted the importance of getting out ahead of events rather than reacting to things that have already happened. [Check!] Buttress quoted Wayne Gretsky’s response to a question about what made him a great player, “Well, I try to skate where the puck’s gonna be.” Such an approach would work well for rural communities. To access the article, please go to http://www.energizingentrepreneurs.org/new/new.pdf " [You'll love their whole website..]

Damn, this makes me proud of my friends at ESTech and of my friends in Commerce, Governor's Office and the legislature and in the Idaho community (Doesn't this ALSO also kinda sound like the principles behind TechBoise, Ignite, IdeaMarket, etc.?)

It's so nice to have your core beliefs validated like this, but that's #2 for me - #1 most important for me is:

We're getting it. (But let's not drop the ball, ok? As I said up top, this says below is MUCH easier to say than to do -- thankfully we've got some great jockeys.)

Entrepreneurially yours,
Norris

2009-01-08T15:14:00.003-07:00

Hobnobbing with my Fellow Wizards? Off to Learn More About Growing Entrepreneurs!

Good news = got bumped to first again on Delta
Bad news = all that means is I fly too much! LOL

UPDATE: Better news - Read Mike Boss's newest wordsmanship on IBR (www.idahobusiness.net)

En route to a huge national conference of the top entrepreneurship educators and top scholars. If you want to see what madness I'm officially doing, go www.usasbe.org, check out the conference & see the program**

Unofficially (the fun part) I'll be seeing old friends, plotting new research projects and a meeting of the top folks on growing entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship-led economic development is key for Idaho and I'm going to get feedback on what I'm involved in here (ESTech, yes, but also including a major white paper that is already selling entrepreneurship-led development to all the right people...who actually know this is imperative.) Further validation would be nice, but new intel would be even better.

[One thing we do know all too painfully is that - just like teaching entrepreneurship - this is NO job for amateurs. In other states, what killed efforts was listening to people who *think* they are experts.. LOL but... ouch...]

Anyway I will attempt to keep people posted- twitter, facebook, etc. If I get ambitious, I'll add comments here as well.

Cheers for the ever-popular SLC airport...
your obedient correspondent.

** yes, I am speaking on [I will try to post my ppts on Slideshare]:
> Neuro-Preneurship (very cool/sexy but need to find better applications)
> How expert entrepreneurs think & why/how that matters for training entrepreneurs, and
> Edu-Preneurship -- a way cool session with me bragging on LSU's entrepreneurial-izing Baton Rouge schools AND them bragging on Idaho's first-of-its-kind online high school entrepreneurship course.
[shamelessly, I'll admit that all three are nominated for awards... it was easy, the head judge is some guy named Blagosevich? LOL]

2009-01-04T18:27:00.002-07:00

What Do YOU Think?

We've often said that "technology" and "agriculture" are actually natural allies. Today, the technology required to be competitive in agribusiness pretty sophisticated and some of the very best high tech opportunities can be found in this market. Yet there seems to be little movement to cross that apparent divide.

In Sunday's Statesman: http://www.idahostatesman.com/readersopinion/story/621863.html

Yes - there is a bit of a cultural divide between rural and urban. There's also a gap between the "come here" in-migrants and "been here" natives. I've been horrified to heart the contempt expressed toward rural Idaho and its values. (And the fear that some rural people understandably feel toward what they see as arrogant newcomers who think they are smarter & better than the "hicks".)

Yet - there is so much common ground. During all the planning, etc. for ESTech, it's become painfully obvious that one area that most people seem to agree on is that Idaho ought to become more entrepreneurial. It's more than "mom & apple pie", it actually works. (See my prior blog post for the stats.)

Probably understandable given my biases but growing a more entrepreneurial Idaho is absolutely the key to moving everyone forward, rural or urban, tech or ag.

We need each other: Economic activity in metro & nonmetro counties are correlated reciprocally.

We also want each other: Plenty of "tech" firms in nonmetro counties here, same for gazelles. [In fact, southern Idaho had the highest % of gazelles!]

Idaho has tremendous entrepreneurial potential -across the state. We have the expertise to nurture a more entrepreneurial Idaho & it doesn't even cost much.

But are we taking advantage? Maybe not yet, but I see lots of hints that we may be moving forward and soon.

P.S. Let me plug Idaho's first-of-its-kind online high school entrepreneurship class ** offered via Idaho Digital Learning Academy - costs school districts nada. The class starts again Jan 16, so if you know any HS seniors who are entrepreneurial (or should be, LOL) get thee to www.idahodigitallearning.org - now!

Thoughts? (and think entrepreneurship!)

** btw, this course would not have happened without the Idaho *Rural* Partnership (whose exec dir, Shelby Kerns, authored the Statesman piece.

2008-12-15T16:31:00.006-07:00

Where Did Idaho's Jobs Come From?

From 2000-2007...

*** New businesses created around 297,000 jobs
*** Expanding businesses created around 200,000 jobs
*** Businesses moving in created around 10,000 jobs.

Please read those numbers again. (Counting the jobs that exited, Idaho gained ~70K jobs overall...)

Smaller Firms versus Larger Firms [again, 2000-2007]

Idaho firms under 10 employees: Created 88,626 jobs
Over 10 employees: Lost 21,312 jobs

Conclusion: Smaller firms, especially growing firms, generate the bulk of new jobs for Idaho (just the same as everywhere else)

However... businesses do close their doors, others shrink, still others move out of state - this kind of turnover or 'churn' is normal and healthy. Could we do better, though?? Of course.

Let's Look at the Net Job Gains (the dynamics of Idaho employment)

Businesses opening: created 296,983 jobs
Businesses closing: destroyed 291,824 jobs

>>>>>>> Net jobs from business creation/destruction: +5,519 jobs

Business expansions: created 200,383 jobs
Business contractions: destroyed 135,602 jobs

>>>>>>> Net jobs from business expansion/contraction: +64,781 jobs

Businesses moving into Idaho: created 10,555
Businesses moving out of Idaho: destroyed 10,757

>>>>>>> Net jobs from business attraction/recruitment: -202 jobs

[all this adds up to an increase of 69,738 net new jobs]

Idaho entrepreneurs, whether starting a new business or especially growing their business, are key to growing Idaho! Thus...

Idaho needs more high-potential startups
Idaho needs more high growth firms
Idaho also needs to do a better job of reducing exits and contractions.

Do we know how to do this? Definitely.

Does this fit with the state's Project 60? Definitely.

And What About Today? (2005-2007)

From 2005-2007, job creation for Idaho dropped - and jobs created by those new businesses dropped significantly. Idaho is now only 37th in terms of jobs per startup, not nearly enough to offset jobs lost by exiting businesses.

New startups created 74,351 jobs [proportionately lower]
Exits destroyed 77,996 jobs [proportionately a bit higher]

>>>>>>> Net = a loss of 3645 jobs [definitely a current weak point]

Expanding firms created 49,093 jobs
Contracting firms destroyed 26,156

>>>>>>> Net = a gain of 22,937 jobs [definitely our success story]

In-migrants created jobs 2,646
Out-migrants destroyed 1,270

>>>>>>> Net = a gain of 1,376 jobs [still small but an improvement over 1993-2005]

Suddenly, Idaho is losing a lot of ground on job creation by startups. We are also losing ground on business expansion (relative to contractions) but clearly the current shortfall is in generating startups with solid growth potential (and helping them to grow). Consider these totals:

Startups & growing firms created 123,444 jobs in 2005-2007 alone [497,366 in 2000-2007]

Exiting firms & shrinking firms destroyed 104,252 jobs in 2005-2007 alone [356,605 in 2000-2007]

Some of you wonder why I seem obsessed about entrepreneurship's importance in economic development... maybe these numbers help?

(technical note: data is from NETS, the National Establishment Time Series -however, other data sources show the exact same patterns. The key difference is that this covers “establishments” - new businesses plus expansions to a new location in-state.) There's data at the county & industry level - let me know if interested.

2008-11-26T11:12:00.003-07:00

For Thanksgiving...

Please scroll down to September 5 & that great post I snagged from E-Action . It says what entrepreneurship is all about MUCH better than I ever could...

p.s. if you do, here's a bonus from the always-great Guy Kawasaki:
http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/11/25/the-art-of-bootstrapping/
(are you getting his blog? following him on Twitter?)

Thanks to all of you for what you do to make Idaho - and the world - a better place.
Gratefully, NK

2008-11-25T21:05:00.002-07:00

Here's yet another state ranking..

The link below takes to the state rankings for the New Economy Index. One of the better regarded rankings, it ranks the states on their capabilities to engage with the New Economy - just came out today.
http://tinyurl.com/NewEcon

For once, we're neither at the top or at the bottom, but the subscales might be enlightening! Subscales look at knowledge workers, economic dynamism, etc. We look good on some scales, need work on others. Now are these leading indicators or reflect the past? That's not clear without a LOT of analysis but I am encouraged that where we appear to lag are areas that we are aware of & trying to address (e.g., shortfall of knowledge workers).

Thoughts? We also just scored high on 'economic freedom' - isn't it time we did some really fine-grained analysis? Projecting economic growth (whether jobs or GDP) is a pretty complex matter... but we DO know what supports a more entrepreneurial economy... maybe we start there?

2008-11-09T06:35:00.002-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/6gn88m

also
http://www.eagleindependent.com/newspaper/November2008.pdf (see pages 23 & 18)
(edited for links added above)

THE “STATE” of TECH.... (...or is that the Tech of “State”?)

What IS this ESTECH effort anyway?

ESTECH (Eagle-Star TECHnology corridor project) is a broad, rich partnership to support economic development that is largely technology-based and extraordinarily entrepreneurial. Physically, the corridor follows an axis that corresponds to State Street from west Boise all the way out to Star. (Most corridors end up looking more like an amoeba but it is important to carefully define what the corridor is... and isn't.)

ESTECH has been years in gestation as certain people like Chamber chief Teri Bath noticed that (1) the Eagle area needed to become more entrepreneurial, (2) there was already a budding tech community here and (3) it would be vitally important to partner with neighboring communities, especially Star.

At every meeting of economic developers (like IEDA) Teri would ask me “Norris, we need to get more entrepreneurial – you'll help us, won't you?” I don't know who else she pestered, but hearing that made me smile. My response was “Just. Do. Something.” Professionally, I travel all over and talk to communities and universities about how to become more entrepreneurial and they ALL say this. Eagle-Star stepped up. Big time.

I got involved with an effort that centered on building upon the existing base of tech entrepreneurs. The most notable example was, of course, Ugobe and CalebChung's remarkable Pleo. Rosemary Regner of Ugobe ally, R-Squared Digital Media took the lead with John Sosoka from Ugobe and other volunteers like Julie Howard & Brian Dickens from the Idaho Commerce Department.

Meanwhile, a second group focused on the physical development issues, led by the irrepressible Lloyd Mahaffey, retired tech executive and entrepreneurial vintner, and what turned out to be the lovely surprise of participation by mayors Phil Bandy & Nate Mitchell (along with both cities' economic developers and chambers of commerce) plus local legislators like Mike Moyle, Raul Labrador and Chuck Winder.

ESTECH is now essentially one group with four key committees (Business Development, Real Estate & Infrastructure, Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Communication) planning the next few month's efforts and attracted still more top talents like Mary May, Curt Rideout, Bob Bruce and more!

Why Should You Care?

First, all sorts of projects are moving forward, despite our extravagant budget of $0.00. First up is a monthly “science cafe” to share the latest cool science with our friends and neighbors. Next up is a regular “open mike” night for local ventures. (If you only knew what entrepreneurial potential is already bubbling up.... and just wait till we start encouraging it!)

Ugobe's move “home” is just the start of more exciting people and companies heading to the Treasure Valley. (This is good for all Idaho, not just here.) As the synthetic life forms industry grows, Eagle-Star is uniquely positioned to be its epicenter! (Did I mention our international conference on synthetic life forms next August?)

Second, there is still ample opportunity to join the fun! Part of thinking like an entrepreneur is recognizing we're all in this together. Want to help? Contact Teri Bath (teri.bath@@eaglechamber.com) or me. Believe me when I say that ESTECH is doing the right things the right way and for the right reasons.

2008-11-09T06:24:00.004-07:00

ESTECH - The Next Step (Want to Get Involved?)

You've perhaps been hearing about ESTECH - the new Eagle-Star Technology Corridor project - but it has a great delight thus far. They are definitely doing the right things the right way and.. for the right reasons.

The goal is to build a more entrepreneurial area with a special emphasis on nurturing the existing industry (most prominently Ugobe, but there's more there than you may realize.)

They are forming 4 committees to stat putting wheels under this - if you are in SW Idaho & would like to hop on board, here's a great "ground floor" opportunity! Contact me if any questions! And definitely contact Teri Bath or me if you are intrigued by one of these committees. (I'm biased toward my own committee, LOL, but the other 3 are doing good work already - and all need more good minds.)

ESTECH Committees

Hi, everyone - in the spirit of getting some wheels under ESTECH, at the last meeting Teri & Lloyd announced 4 official standing committees & their chairs. If you have interest in one of these, please contact me directly as we are gearing up for meetings next week. (Alternately, contact Teri Bath, teri.bath@eaglechamber.com)

Marketing (includes mapping, working with local governmt & chambers)
POC: Ms. Mary May, chairperson

Business Development ( business retention & expansion as well as attraction)
POC: Mayor Phil Bandy & Mayor Nate Mitchell

Real Estate & Infrastructure
POc: Mr. Lloyd Mahaffey, co-chair (RE)
POC: Mr. Bob Bruce, co-chair (Infra)

Entrepreneurship & Venture Finance (see below for more)
POC: Norris Krueger, chairperson - norris.krueger@gmail.com
(Mr. Curt Rideout, co-chair)

All the committees want to meet, both virtually & physically, next week. Teri B asked the chairs to map out a draft of the various possibilities, especially any 'quick wins' we can identify! However, there is plenty of room for additional ideas and energy. (Energy is especially welcome!)

This effort will do some serous good for Idaho, not just Eagle/Star and... This is going to be fun!

ENTREPRENEURSHIP & VENTURE FINANCE COMMITTEE

May I plug the EVF committee? LOL

The 'big picture' task is obviously to:
(a) identify ways to nurture entrepreneurs & entrepreneurial businesses and
(b) identify ways to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem

Build a pipeline of businesses (deal flow across the life cycle) and to keep growing the area's entrepreneurial culture!

Key pieces identified so far (though still very negotiable):

1) Evangelizing - also working hard with key stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including legislative leadership ( !)

2) Events - we're committed to starting a monthly "Science Cafe" to showcase Idaho' cool science/tech and a monthly "Pub Talk" (open mike) night for entrepreneurs. Thanks to Ugobe, there's a major 2009 conference on Synthetic Life Forms.

3) Training/Education - to grow a more entrepreneurial Eagle/Star implies training needs, from HS entrepreneurship and/or programming classes to general entrepreneurial training to very specialized training to support new Eagle-Star businesses, there are some surprising resources we can get geared up.

4) Venture Finance - a critical piece of growing the whole pipeline is access to capital. Lloyd is convinced that we can raise some serious funding, but deal flow is obviously critical (hence the training, ppen mike, etc.)

These are all interconnected.

The really good news? Most of of the "low hanging fruit" will cost little/nothing (or we can use OPM!)

Other things WILL surface - mostly from YOUR ideas. These items are just the start - and how they get implemented is up to the committee. (Which will be true for all 4 of the committees!)

If you're ready to roll up your sleeves, contact me via norris.krueger@gmail.com.Next up, a wiki so we can communicate better - and be thinking about when you can meet physically. I'll also send you copies of the memos developed so far.

Entrepreneurially yours,
Norris

p.s. did I mention how much fun and... how much good we can do?

2008-10-30T09:51:00.003-06:00

Good words about being entrepreneurial!

The latest from Mark Loschiavo, center director at Drexel U's excellent Entrepreneurship Center (their academic director, Donna de Carolis is excellent too.)

I thought this was a nice way to phrase some things that we all already know, but occasionally lose sight of. I will slip in a couple comments of how this applies to Idaho at the end, but enjoy Mark's eminently stealable words!

"The Executive Director's Corner

When speaking to members of a CEO think tank recently I was asked to comment on the top three critical success factors for entrepreneurs. This depends on many variables - stage of company, industry experience, and company type, just to name a few. After some thought I selected three critical success factors that I think transcend many, if not all, variables. More importantly, I wanted to select three factors that are unique to entrepreneurs.

The first is to become intimately familiar with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which includes all of the stakeholders in the entrepreneurial community. Whether talking about service professionals, private money sources, customers, suppliers, advisors, mentors or economic development agencies, it is important for the entrepreneur to understand the roles - more importantly the sweet spots - for each of these players, who they are, and how to exploit the rich resources they have to offer.

Secondly, the entrepreneur needs to interact early and often with the players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Because the entrepreneur does not have access to the vast resources of a large company an entrepreneur has to leverage the vast resources of this ecosystem. This includes everything from capital access to subject matter expertise.

Finally, the entrepreneur has to be singularly focused. A friend of mine founded a company focused on service and support for PCs. Having spent time in that industry myself, I am acutely aware of just how competitive an industry it is, and the slim margins it typically yields. When asked how he was able to build such a successful company, competing with the likes of IBM, Compaq and others, his response was revealing. He said, "while this was only one of many products, offerings and solutions that IBM thought about on a daily basis, it was the only thing I focused on, all day, every day”. (again, credit to Mark Loschiavo, Drexel University -thanks, Mark!)

NK: What does this mean for Idaho? One thing that's clear to me (and many others) is that we really don't have the map of the ecosystem that we need. There are people working on this mapping, but we really need that comprehensive, detailed directory. There are so many resources out there and even I get surprised now & then. Local communities need a detailed map of what's out there. Figuring out to build- and maintain – a detailed “directory” for the state would be well worth it.

However, this also extends to the human assets within the community members themselves! ("Wow, I didn't know you were...") We can help communities map these assets' and it's neither difficult nor expensive, but it does require commitment.

Another dimension: Directories/maps need “high touch” - human guidance. However, one real key is that entrepreneurs (current and future) need to find ways to interact, whether at Kickstand meetings, sitting outside Dawson-Taylor (or Cazba) or taking the initiative to communicate. Why not use tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and (gulp) Twitter to make it easier to communicate?

On Mark's third point, “focus” is NOT “obsession”. Passion is good, but it needs to be harmonious passion not obsessive passion. A recent Pavarotti quote struck me: “I am not disciplined. I am devoted.” Devotion is what Mark is telling us to cultivate.

I am devoted to helping Idaho, even though it seems foolish at times LOL). What keeps me going is that I know just how devoted many of you are to your own efforts and to a better Idaho. I applaud you; your devotion honors us all! /nk Oct 08

As ever, email me at norris.krueger@gmail.com if you want to know more.

2008-10-04T14:40:00.003-06:00

Pleo Comes Home! Pleo Comes Home!
(ok, he never really left... but Ugobe is now HERE!)

As many of you know, I've had the great pleasure of working with the efforts of Eagle & Star to nurture their nascent tech corridor. Great fun - despite 7 am meetings, LOL.

One of those pleasures is working with passionate professionals like Teri Bath & Lloyd Mahaffey (not to mention a host of others who re working on Teri & Lloyd's goal of growing a more entrepreneurial region). Appended below is the press release on a nice little coup... that could become the launching pad for more... a lot more. (I love the potential for synthetic life forms as a tech niche! And the underlying science is unbelievable.)

In the Eagle team, I'm tasked on the entrepreneurship side (and you will dig at we're working on) but today the kudos are for Teri & Lloyd (and Rosemary & John & Gretchen and all the rest.

Well done, gang, well done! Proud to know ya, Norris

For immediate release:

October 3, 2008: California tech firm moves headquarters to Eagle

Ugobe, creators of the “life form” Pleo the dinosaur, will move its headquarters to Eagle, Idaho from Emeryville, Calif. – part of the first phase of the development of a new technology corridor in the southern Idaho city.

Ugobe’s move affirms the state’s “top-to-top” strategy in recruiting new businesses to Idaho. The Department of Commerce is using Idaho executives to reach out personally to targeted company executives in other states. The strategy is part of Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s Project 60 initiative to grow Idaho’s gross domestic product from $51.5 billion to $60 billion.

“Our best salesmen are the folks who already live, work and raise families here. They know the quality of life, the quality of our work force and the kind of business climate that appeals to those with entrepreneurial spirit,” Governor Otter said. “We’re pushing economic opportunity on a number of fronts, and I’m proud of the great example being set by the community of Eagle.”

Ugobe already has a 9,000-square-foot research and development facility in Eagle. Luring the headquarters away from the Silicon Valley is an added coup that lends credibility to Eagle as a burgeoning technology hub, said Teri Bath, president of the Eagle Chamber of Commerce.

“We already have a little cluster here and that drew Ugobe,” said Bath. “We have the infrastructure here to support it, and the quality of life that draws the employees they need.”

The move was the result of a dedicated effort by the Eagle Chamber of Commerce, the Idaho Department of Commerce and Idaho Economic Advisory Council Chairman and former Apple Computer executive; C. Lloyd Mahaffey. Business costs, workforce and quality of life were the key issues that convinced Ugobe executives to make the move.

"Pleo and our life form technology started right here in Idaho. Ugobe's headquarters were later established in Emeryville, California. As the corporate and R&D teams traveled between California and Idaho the benefits of consolidating in Eagle became apparent. The depth and loyalty of the technical workforce, the pro-business attitudes of Eagle and the state government's support for new technology made this an easy decision. We are delighted to have the international attention on Pleo being directed to Eagle, Idaho." Said John Sosoka, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Ugobe.

“This creates a solid robotics foothold in the Treasure Valley, which will spawn other companies over time,” said Mahaffey, who has also been instrumental in establishing Eagle’s wine industry. “When one company comes, others have a tendency to follow. This opens a whole new area of technology interest in the Treasure Valley that doesn’t currently exist.”

Ugobe’s Web site describes itself as a company that has blended “engineering, life sciences, philosophy, and artistic design” to create life forms that “blur the line between technology and life.” Time Magazine called Ugobe’s first product, Pleo, one of best inventions of 2006.

Pleo recently was featured in The Wall Street Journal, ABC’s Nightline, and in Wired. The Today Show called pet robots, using Pleo as an example, as one of the “top 6 tech trends of 2008.”

More information on Ugobe is at www.ugobe.com and www.pleoworld.com. [p.s. Don't open the Pleoworld site with short people around you, they will want you to buy them one. Hell, you'll want one yourself! ]

2008-10-01T15:03:00.003-06:00

Gallatin Group 1st "Technology Summit"

Not quite what I'd expected but I learned a few things - and met some good folks and potential allies.

The two key speakers talked about the DOD acquisition process and the Congressional budgeting process.

Good news: Plenty of opportunities for small/new firms to get involved. No shortage of talented people who will help you.

Bad news: It takes work and serious planning ahead (of course, for the more devoted of you, that only weeds out the amateurs!)

Note: They gave us a binder with a Guide to DOD Contracting and the PPT slides. Not sure what's available online, but any of you want a copy, let me know.

As usual, some of the very best intel came from side comments, such as:

Get thee to FedBizOpps [I'd add www.grants.gov] and register. You can get alerts sent to you based on the keywords you choose.***

Also, it really helps to get on the Central Contractor Registry & make sure you have your DUNS and CAGE numbers, etc.
You also need to ID which set-aside categories you qualify for.

After Wendy Jordan's take on the bureaucracy entailed in DOS acquisition, I was a little daunted but was emphatic that more entrepreneurs should get involved in government contracting & procurement.
she had some hints -
* put your product/service on the GSA's "schedule"
* identify lead contractors who you could subcontract for
* get expert legal help, as they can help you write winning contracts
* And.. Have a great story. And that's still the entrepreneurs edge.
[google on anti- hemorrhage bandages from shrimp shells]

Procurement dollars are bigger, but fewer (I heard an avg $11 million)
R & D dollars are smaller, but more frequent (~$1 million)

Be ready by early February - that's when the next numbers are released - what I heard was that if you want in, especially for procurement, you may have a month to make your case. Have that killer white paper ready in advance.

"Dual Use" - if you've got something with excellent commercial potential, that makes DOD very happy unless of course it's sensitive technology. Otherwise, dual use is a BIG plus and (as Mr. Ritter would say) you should be thinking that way anyhow!

Dennis Kedzior talked budget - he had some some great charts (if a bit frightening) about the growth of the federal budgets.

What really hit me, though, was that work on the FY 2009 budget started in February 2007. Twenty (20) months.
[So if you want to make the President's budget, there are people with a 20-month head start. So if you've got something that a federal entity should buy... start NOW. Especially if you're going for a "Congressional Interest Item"! LOL]

p.s. and don't forget SBIR/STTR. Idaho is starting to get traction, thanks to Rick Ritter & TechConnect (and Mark & Brian at Commerce) but we're still leaving money on the table. (If you're not from Idaho, ignore this! LOL)

In sum, I'm not sure I would have labeled this a "tech summit" but a welcome reminder that procurement and R&D opportunities abound... if you're willing to put in the effort (and to listen to those with expertise.)

Regardless, it's clear that the Gallatin Group has added their voice here. I fully expect there will be more events, whether they organize them or help others. I do think that they'll get feedback from attendees as to what would make sense in future events. I was certainly pleased to meet Joe Hardy from their DC office and finally meet local partner Marc Johnson. (Thanks too to McKinsey Miller for hooking me up for this.)

nk

*** since 'economic development' is one of mine, I keep gtting alerted to a sizable rural ec dev opportunity in rural.... Afghanistan.

2008-09-25T12:11:00.002-06:00

You've got to read this one!

Stolen from Tim Stearns' great newsletter "E-Action" - copyright 2008 Lyles Center, Fresno State

Entrepreneurship is NOT about you. And that applies to its champions too.
(but that turns out to be what makes it work and what makes it so much fun!

So how I can help YOU today??

read on, please!

Success as an entrepreneur:

Why it’s not about you

"Looking across the living room of his expansive flat in Hong Kong’s tony Victoria Peak neighborhood, Peter Hamilton spoke in the calm, slightly world-weary voice of a man who will never again worry about earning a living.

“The ones who made it,” he said softly, “are the ones who weren’t in it for the money. The fortune-seekers couldn’t sustain their passion through the hard times—and there were hard times.”

A transplanted Brit who launched a Web production company in Hong Kong in 1995, Hamilton was one of a handful of Internet entrepreneurs in the island colony who enjoyed a multimillion dollar payday after his firm was acquired by a company that later went public on NASDAQ.

What entrepreneurship is not
Peter Hamilton is not alone. In interview after interview throughout Japan, Asia, and North America, successful entrepreneurs told me the same thing, in different words and in different languages: “It’s not about the money.”

What, then, is entrepreneurship about? Exploiting a market opportunity? Fame? Fortune? Proving yourself? First, some tips as to what entrepreneurship’s not about:

Entrepreneurship is not about you.
It’s not about you getting rich.
It’s not about you proving something to the world.
It’s not about you struggling to overcome the odds.

Rather, entrepreneurship is about you helping other people to achieve their goals. [emphasis added/nk]

This is obvious when you think about it. Business is all about satisfying customers, right? Well, to satisfy customers, you need to help them save money, solve annoying problems, experience more satisfaction or pleasure, or earn a better living.

Put simply, in order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must help other people.

What entrepreneurship is
Entrepreneurship, therefore, is about helping other people achieve their goals. It’s not about you. Successful entrepreneurs focus on others. Take Derek Sivers, for example. As the leader of a successful touring band, he needed a way to make his CDs available to fans everywhere, all the time—not just at concerts.

BBut Derek and his group were unattached to a major label, and big sellers like CD. Now and Amazon required bands to have in-place agreements with large distributors. What was a hard-working, independent musician to do?

Derek decided to set up his own modest online sales channel, and soon friends from other bands were asking for help selling their music. Within a couple of years, the store, renamed CD Baby, was distributing the work of more than 90,000 artists. To date, it’s paid out more than $70 million to the 200,000 independent artists it now represents. Derek focused on helping others.

Successful entrepreneurs like Derek undertake ventures that benefit many people. My personal theory (completely lacking empirical evidence) is that ventures are successful to the degree that they generate social benefits. I’m no fan of Microsoft’s products or business practices, but who can deny that the company enabled personal computing for a billion citizens? (Too bad Apple missed its chance to make that contribution—we’d probably all be a much mellower bunch.)

Success as an entrepreneur isn’t about you—it’s about helping others achieve goals you care about."

Damn straight, Peter. My 2nd favorite Guy-Kawasaki-ism: "Make meaning." That's what real entrepreneurs do; that's how they think. That how we all should think.

2008-09-23T22:36:00.000-06:00

A key to growing any local economy is also growing the local community... and vice-versa.

Just got back from a terrific training session as part of the WIRED* grant that Joe Herring & his crew landed for innovative workforce development on mapping community assets to build a strong basis for nurturing a more entrepreneurial local economy.

The entrepreneurship focus has motivated a delightful trend away from “OK, what's wrong, what DON'T we have” to.. “OK, what do we HAVE... and what can we do with what we've got?” [google “effectuation”] This is how entrepreneurs think... and that's how we all have to think today!

Mapping a community's assets is powerful and there are several great models for doing this. I've been to two prior train-the-trainer trainings on this, both were wonderful... but this one was the best yet.

Simple. Cheap. Fast. (OK, and maybe a wee bit scary? Wallowing in despair can have its pleasures... as I've personlly been guilty of myself, LOL!)

The semi-legendary Godfather of Rural Entrepreneurship, John Allen of USU led the training along with the Western Rural Development Center's Jim Goodwin and UNR's Tom Harris. Absolutely terrific team. Day Two of the training is October 6 & 7 (two separate WIRED committees for the One-Stop Biz Center and the cool kids, er, Entrepreneurship.) Please let me or Joe Herring know if I'm intriguing any of you – maybe your town or neighborhood would want to do this?

I thought I knew how to do great asset mapping (e.g., the tools at www.energizingentrepreneurs.org) but today I know more... a lot more. And after next month's second day... Anyway, on Monday, this old dog learned a new trick. I'm sold. How can those of us in this training help you to grow your local communities??

For tons more info – head to http://wrdc.usu.edu and look at 'Publications' – much of this applies anywhere, not just rural and small towns.

NK

p.s. It gets better – Randy Shroll reminds me that the state's fall workforce summit is going to get into asset mapping! (Be sure to chck out the new Commerce website, btw.)

* Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development, a $5 million US Dept of Labor grant.

2008-09-18T13:10:00.001-06:00

Free Engineering Classes from... Stanford (online)

Wow! Is that the sound of a business model changing? [@Phil R: note I did NOT say 'paradigm'! LOL]

If you think education is more about learning than a piece of paper...

It's just 10 courses so far, but... (MIT has something very similar,etc. Check the "other ways" for the sick array of what's out there for free. And there are online communities to connect with if you want to make this less solitary. [@Brian Critchfield: At some point, you gotta share your Web 2.0 Thunderbird experiences...]

It's definitely a great time to be alive!!

p.s. some of you already subscribe to Lifehacker's feed and/or Lifehack.org... if not, worth a look.

Norris

Sent to you by Norris via Google Reader:

Stanford Offers Free, Full Courses Online [Education]

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on 9/18/08

The Stanford Education Everywhere program offers online access to full courses in the school's engineering program—including classes in computer science and artificial intelligence. Courses include lecture videos, reading lists, handouts, quizzes, tests, and even a social network for fellow online students. Not quite your speed? Check out other ways you can get a free college education online.

2008-08-20T11:00:00.002-06:00

EDU-PRENEURSHIP???

Can we actually find way to build a more entrepreneurial culture in education? A tall order, indeed. But people are certainly trying. And... suddenly, there is serious hope.

My prior post bragged on the new Entrepreneurship/Economics course that the Idaho Digital Learning Academy is launching this fall. That's a great start; let me tell you about some initiatives that seek broader, systemic change!

The key to a more entrepreneurial culture is nurturing a more entrepreneurial mindset- here it's growing that mindset in educational leaders. In turn, we also need to provide strong mechanisms to enable leaders to implement more entrepreneurial solutions. Across the nation, one typical mechanism is to fund a public, inclusive charter school. (In some places the public charter school will supplant a failed existing school.)

In Louisiana they are beginning to train future principals and other administrators to think and act more entrepreneurially. (A solidly bipartisan effort hosted by LSU and pushed by new Governor Jindal.) Meanwhile, they've raised a ton of money to launch several of those inclusive public charter schools. By the time the schools are ready to go, a cadre of entrepreneurial principals will be ready to take charge. Eventually, this will become an official alternative certification for principals and these "entrepreneurial principals" will the ones assigned for all school turnarounds. (That is, if you want the job of doing a turnaround, you must have this training!) Fascinating model, but there are comparable programs nationally, from NYC to rural Indiana.

While much more expensive, building the schools isn't the hard part. The hard part (duh) is "converting" educators who've been immersed in the bureaucratic mindset -- Definitely not a job for amateurs! This is really a process of surfacing their "inner entrepreneur" - but at least the initial volunteers are visibly not your typical school administrator. And the "hook" of social entrepreneurship reduces resistance from the usual suspects while drawing increasing support from the entrepreneurial and social entrepreneurial community. If there was a core group of future Idaho principals going through first-rate entrepreneurship training, can you imagine the buzz if they attended a Kickstand meeting?

The highly constructivistic nature of entrepreneurship education turned them on too - great entrepreneurship training is far from the norm of most college classroom, so the entrepreneurial exercises they are going through are also building the credibility of this training. Like any competent entrepreneurship training, this isn't about transferring knowledge; the truly important part is changing how they structure their knowledge at a very deep level. That meant this was a pretty intense experience for me - you can't train entrepreneurial minds without understanding entrepreneurial minds and you can't train them without deep knowledge of constructivistic learning. In particular, we have to keep the students immersed in that deep change in how they think. Whew! (But we are getting there... so, yes, there's much hope!

[On a humorous note, I had the fun of showing them "entrepreneurial resource acquisition". My syllabus mentioned the OPM model... but instead of "Other People's Money", the teachers thought OPM stood for "Office of Personnel Management", which understandably baffled them, LOL! But... humor can be a powerful ally in this effort, eh?]

2008-08-09T11:25:00.002-06:00

Youth (High School) Entrepreneurship Course:

The Idaho Rural Partnership's Entrepreneurship Task Force commissioned the Idaho Digital
Learning Academy (www.IdahoDigitalLearning.org) to create a new version of the required
'Economics' course that has a major, major entrepreneurship spin to it. It must meet the
state's standards which aren't too high, but do push students toward financial literacy (which we've talked about before). They develop and deliver true distance-delivery courses in an amazing array of subjects. Definitely worth checking out, even if this course doesn't interest you.

IDLA's deal is that schools do not have to pay extra for students to take their courses.
Obviously, the home-schooled, et al. are a key market, but it's open to any Idaho HS student. And it really pays off for rural students.

IDLA is REALLY good at distance-delivery and are very cost-effective. Only $10K to develop
and TechConnect has put up the $10K, so added kudos to Reverend Rick!

Course content obviously must follow the Econ standards BUT we also have adapted cutting-edge entrepreneurship material provided to us by the entrepreneurship training group of the International Labour Organisation. [Note: ILO has done entrepreneurship training in developing countries since the late 1970s! Not your typical UN-type outfit...] ILO's youth entrepreneurship program in (or will be in) ~30 countries. Their flagship is "Know About Business" first course & IDLA is adapting much of that KAB material. Students also have a series of genuine experiential exercises provided by yours truly that will make this unique. All this will be followed by at least one more course that will be a 'pure' entrepreneurship elective.

* Nobody has a true distance-delivery HS entrepreneurship course of this type
* Nobody else has access to the ILO's battle-tested content material & their guru, Bob Nelson
* Nobody else has the bleeding-edge experiential approach... (well, almost...)

Now, two or three national conferences want this presented - a real coup for Idaho.

Note: This is particularly good for the entrepreneurial community (and the economic development community) - the students will want to build bridges to both, so there should be opportunities for all of us to help.

PLEASE feel free to pass this along to parents... and students who might have some interest - thanks!

/nk

2008-07-21T12:19:00.001-06:00

Economic Development Administration Webcast
on Green Economic Development

I hope that some of you got to see this; I'm also hoping it gets archived online for future reference. EDA is showing some excellent leadership here. It was also well-structured, so it was easy to follow.

It definitely had some good news (sustainability is a great way to create jobs) and it definitely tells us what directions that the Dept of Commerce is favoring, regardless of who wins in November. If anyone you know might be looking for federal $$ in the future, this gives us some big clues for what will get funded.

The broadcast was anchored by Deputy Commerce Secretary Benjamin Erulkar who led off by talking about EDA's fast-growing interest in alternate energy projects and preference for green buildings.

Panelists included Thomas Darden of Cherokee Investment Partners who invest in brownfields [Note: so any of you are doing brownfield projects, CIP might be worth contacting!] and Ted Wysocki from Chicago's LEED Council whose interest & expertise is in creating "green-collar" jobs.

They also had interviews with Paul Farmer, head of the American Planning Association, and Nancy McKeever, the sustainable energy chief for the California Energy Commission.

McKeever mentioned the record amounts of VC $ being poured into green energy. Darden sees this trend as having legs, demand is still growing (that is, greener energy & energy efficiency are still in the "no-brainer" stage).

Farmer pointed out that saving money is always a plus. He sees telecommuting & cycling is something that we need to plan for explicitly, especially with the awful costs of commuting these days. He noted that this is easily tied into the always-present demand for improving quality of life. However, energy efficiency is the key lever right now.

Wysocki followed that with a persuasive discussion of the need for new kinds of training (not just content but methods) to develop green-collar jobs. For you CWI & CSI fans, they are working very closely with a local community college. It was clear that he didn't see such training as something we're good at, but we can learn if we invest the time. [Note: the WIRED grant effort in southern Idaho has this kind of 21^st -century training as a key focus!]

He also mentioned a very current example, Chicago's re-purposing of a factory into the new Green Exchange, a mini-Merchandise Mart where every tenant is a green operation of some kind. Please, please take a look at its website [ http://www.greenexchange.com ] as this is a model that Idaho cities could readily emulate.

(Have you clicked on www.greenexchange.com yet?? )

The participants then offered their closing thoughts on the key leverage points for moving forward. McKeever argued that green collar jobs require explicitly tying all economic development topics to sustainabilty. [Ed. Note: Here's a link to some PPTS on the essence of sustainable economic development. The short version? True sustainability meets the entire "triple bottom line": Environmentally, Socially and Economically Sustainable - you need all three. http://pronetos.com/disciplines/5/articles/127 ]

Farmer warned there's a lot of lip service being paid [a/k/a "green-washing"]. His two big opportunities here were (a) it's a perfect way to engage youth in development and (b) an opportunity to "audit" everything we do -- re-think how we do everything. Wysocki agreed, arguing the need to simultaneously pursuing multiple angles on alternative energy and energy efficiency [how can we do things better/faster/cheaper?] There's no home, there's no business that can't improve cost-effectively.

[Note for IEDA members: For those of you at the last IEDA conference, you'll remember the panelists that Hank Artis brought in who showed how any of us, even at home, can save serious money.]

Darden noted that for many of these new developments, we're still very early on the learning curve, so current costs will go down and go down enough that it's worth helping along [tax credits, etc.] For example, a Platinum LEED building will cost you significantly more up front, but over the lifecycle of a building that's but a small fraction of the cost. [Note for IEDA: Again, we heard exactly that at the last IEDA meeting.] Darden also urged businesses to take a long look at the ISO 14001 standards as a great guideline for moving forward on energy efficiency, etc. Wysocki closed by reiterating the vital need for training & re-training managers & employees alike to best take advantage of the many big opportunities in an increasingly-greener world.

Nice 30-minute webcast -- more info at the EDA's website.

2008-07-06T23:19:00.003-06:00

Are gas prices dooming rural town --- or inspiring entrepreneurs??

An interesting - and perhaps chilling - article originally from the Kansas City Star that landed in the Idaho Statesman today:
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/683605.html

The cost of gas is a huge threat to any situation that calls for commuting, especially lower wage jobs.... and one victim are rural communities. As the article suggests, this makes it all the more compelling to think entrepreneurship in rural Idaho. They quote Don Macke whose Center for Rural Entrepreneurship has developed a ton of powerful free tools that can be used -- they take a little training but there are two or three people already with this training & who could move this forward pretty quickly (some of you sat in on the Entrepreneurial Effect training while back).

There's also now an Entrepreneurship Development Committee in Region III chaired by Brandon Armstrong as paprt of Joe Herring's WIRED project; there's also of course the IRP's Entrepreneurship Task Force, chaired by Mike Field. In any event, isn't it time to start thinking more about this? Youth entrepreneurship is a good place to start - and we have started (like the IRP-backed H.S. entrepreneurship course this fall) and there are more opportunities we can explore right now (such as November's Global Entrepreneurship Week - more on that later!)

You'll find some additional useful resources on rural entrepreurship development at http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75 [thanks, Shane & Chris!] but read that article, whether linked here or in the Statesman.

Things may look bad - but the alchemy of entrepreneurship is turning threats into opportunities!

Optimistically yours,
Norris

2008-07-01T20:28:00.002-06:00

Web 2.0 Meets Government?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0425/p01s05-usgn.html

This could be wonderful (and it could be deeply boring, LOL). But if you want to reach younger citizens, YouTube is not a bad alternative.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the conference of the Idaho Digital Learning Academy (www.IdahoDigitalLearning.org) as they are the good folks developing the IRP's online HS entrepreneurship courses.

Their keynote speaker, Marc Prensky, blew us all away. I'm hoping to get a link to the video, but he made a powerful case for how to engage students who are far more connected outside of school than in... More on that later, but these "Web 2.0" tools are so powerful [channeling Brian Critchfield, Justin Foster, et al. here] and we ignore them at out peril.

Anyway, I'd love to hear how YOU would use YouTube to help grow Idaho's economy!!!

2008-06-09T23:50:00.004-06:00

Howdy - just back from the Research Triangle, North Carolina's legendary tech park (actually, attended the premier entrepreneurship research conference there)

One of their best take-aways is that it is both feasible & necessary to link rural economies with cutting edge innovation. It took them a while, but made it happen. Idaho should see this as encouraging evidence for what WE need to do!

Lots of insights about rural entrepreneurship - it remains the critical linchpin for smaller communities & it's still all about nurturing the mindset.

* People & Networks: You've got to grow entrepreneurial people, while developing & supporting the networks that nurture current & future entrepreneurs. Both formal & informal networking is vital.

* Thrive, Not Survive: It's also vital to move past "necessity" self-employment & help people to build businesses that thrive!

* Grrrl Power? Whether the US or the UK, your best indication that entrepreneurship is taking off in your community is how many women are starting businesses (again, not just self-employment)

Even more insights about growing tech-based entrepreneurship, too!
* Lots of buzz over Ohio's Third Frontier initiative - the latest bold stroke was negotiating a deal to spend $143 million to generate 26 new research centers (all have multiple universities & private sector leadership). For more details, please see: http://tinyurl.com/6oyjx2 .
The money allows them to hire 26 of the very, very best experts, one for each new program. [Ohio has about 8X our population, so if we scaled to Idaho's size this would be about $18 million & 3 new multi-university centers.]

These centers all focus on areas where Ohio already had great competitive strengths in both academic research and commercial success. They even got the universities themselves to pony up over $30 million of these new funds. [Again, in Idaho terms, that would be the same as each Idaho university diverting ~$4 million each of their existing research budget.]
More on that later, especially how that would work for Idaho & what it would take to make it happen. (But I promise there is reason to be optimistic!)

* Knowledge spillover, knowledge filter: Why do new firms create so many jobs? They are typically much better at turning ideas into practical value - we now have more & more evidence that it's the entrepreneurs & innovators that matter. You can always find ideas, you can't always find great people to put them into action.

* IdaVation Luncheon Keynoter: While we're at it - how many of you heard Brian Cummings, U of Utah's technology commercialization officer at IdaVation? Utah has spun out over 50 companies in less than 4 years, all but 3 are still viable. What Brian and his staff managed to do would be very difficult to imitate anywhere, including here in Idaho. However, I think it would be well worth the effort to overcome the obstacles.
Again, I'll write more later, but two of the keys were to keep the office under control of the experts. To do that, strategy and governance is led by the private sector. I'll be chatting more with Brian on the specifics & will report back. Again, there is much to be optimistic about, if we're willing to step up & do the smart things. (Note: Brian's office is more than self-supporting.)
(And, again, here too it is all about growing a truly expert entrepreneurial mindset - and what it takes to do that is well within our grasp!)

Also still the same...

The three keys to a more resilient, self-renewing local economy - our bona fide "no-brainers" that we still know how to do:

* Grow local entrepreneurs...everywhere you can
Train your potential entrepreneurs
Train your *existing *entrepreneurs

* Build capacity for communities & its members to grow entrepreneurs
Train citizens in "economic gardening"
Encourage entrepreneurial networks

* Start out early - youth entrepreneurship!
Grow the mindset in Idaho's youth

Till the next time, keep entrepreneuring!
Norris

2008-06-03T22:03:00.000-06:00

Back from Germany and now headed to a conference but... to honor the absolutely terrific IdaVation & TechLaunch last week, I'll have a couple of short items for my economic developer & entrepreneurial friends!

A "Tool You Can Use"
Presentations are critical - but as our Web 2.0 friends like Brian Critchfield & Justin Foster tell us - it's really conversation!

Check out www.liminalevent.com - this was to be a 1-hour free webcast last month in honor of National Small Business Week, but we blew up their servers. The CEO called everyone who emailed in & offered all 3 hours free. (The in-person attendees dropped $600.) It's an easy registration and, yup, it's still free. However, the links are going away very soon, so check it out ASAP.

[But if you want the Cliff's Notes version, go over to:
http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75/articles/163
where I've posted a link that covers the gist of this guy's approach - his "POWER" model and the diabolically clever "8 second drill" that ALL of us need to use! I've also linked there to the Geoffrey Moore worksheet for drafting your elevator pitch, a TechConnect favorite.]

This is all stuff worth sharing with friends, clients & others who talk too much (ok, others who talk as much as *I* do! LOL)

Enjoy!

Norris
208.440.3747
norris.krueger@gmail.com

2008-05-09T20:27:00.000-06:00

Tech Tools Bring Success for Small Firms

USA Today can be awfully "fluffy" but today's (Friday) paper has a nice little article by Ed Iwata on how small firms are finding the use of new technologies to be a LOT easier than they thought. Even no-tech firms USE a lot of tech & we all could get better at it. If you don't use these tools, you will be at a distinct disadvantage. No website isn't much different than no telephone.

The link: http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2008-05-08-small-business-tech_N.htm

It's not just about having an effective web presence, but all sort of interesting new things that will help you deliver better value to your customers.

Yes, you need good advice - hence Yahoo, Google & others are increasingly offering advice - and for entrepreneurs and economic develops alike, there's plenty of good advice not too far away. The linked article has a table of resources that just scratches the surface.

Anyway, I saw this and thought it nicely written and makes a good point...gently & optimistically.

nk

2008-04-27T00:02:00.002-06:00

Entrepreneurial Joy!!

Howdy, all- Lots of good stuff to share in the next few days (this blog has a rather large backlog of stuff I need to share... or just rant about?)

Sometimes, we lose sight of why thinking like an entrepreneur is so, well, rewarding...

I'm training Air Force officers up here in Montana (typical Montana day - from white-out snow to 65 degrees, LOL) and one of my young colleagues from Germany, Rene Mauer, is traveling the US with two of his fellow doctoral students. They are having a lot of fun, as you'll see. (I'm lobbying them to visit Idaho, but there's just too much to see in the Bay Area, I guess.But you can get a sense of the entrepreneurial *joy* they are finding out there. And "joy" IS the right word...

http://www.ventureroadtrip.com/

If you like it, drop Rene an email!

2008-04-26T18:05:00.002-06:00

Great news to share!

I have accepted formal status as Fellow of the Max Planck Institute of Economics, specifically to their Entrepreneurship, Growth & Public Policy Group , the #1 think tank for promoting entrepreneurship & economic growth in the world!

They might not have tapped me if it hadn't been for working with you all. The best theory, yes, but also the best practice too!It's exciting but a bit daunting BUT it also has great potential benefit for *Idaho*.

The opportunity to collaborate with David Audretsch, probably the #1 guy in understanding entrepreneurial economic development is huge.Here's the first example: We've already been discussing how to design a virtual, multi-institutional program/center to advance technology commercialization & tech transfer. The POC model (below) is excellent, but only works if you can kill off all the turf battles.

Dave has already assessed best practices in single-institution programs (the so-called "Proof of Concept" center that I shared with you all a couple times since last year, so forgive me if I inflict that report [linked] on you a 3rd or 4th time). Dave thinks Idaho is a *perfect* situation with its three universities, INL and the private sector. (I've also touched base with pretty much all the top programs that we should model & getting good feedback. This could even induce some Idaho envy.) Anyway, it's a logical step to show what will work (and what won't) - all the evidence points in the exact same direction. Of course, we still have the big "if" - can we zero out turf issues & let the experts run things?

If not, well, we'll move on yet again. Still..... time to start working, I guess! (Allies & friends welcome... always!)

I am ramping up a bunch of blog posts, so keep your eyes peeled!
Norris

2008-04-22T00:04:00.004-06:00

Another great Win-Win strategy....

LIBRARIES as ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL!

Sometimes there is grant money, etc. for libraries - especially if they partner with local economic developers. Your local librarians, in fact, might be on top of the grants scene from their own perspective. Also, wouldn't this be a nice way to help your local library to approach donors??

p.s. Even your small local libraries are often remarkable windows into the info people need to start a business...

Entrepreneur up! /NK

Libraries and Rural Development

If you think about key institutions involved in revitalizing rural America, you probably don’t put libraries at the top of your list. Yet, as a new Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs study notes, libraries and librarians are key assets in many rural communities. Public libraries serve as community centers, but they can also contribute to local economic development efforts. This is especially true when it comes to serving local entrepreneurs who can benefit greatly from marketing research and other materials available at local libraries. The study reviews several case studies of effective programs (for example, in Lancaster County, PA), and offers tips for how libraries can be better partners in support of local entrepreneurs and their companies.

Download the Winter 2008 Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs Rural Research Report, “Public Libraries and Community Economic Development: Partnering for Success,” by Christine Hamilton-Pennell.

Here's the link directly: http://www.iira.org/pubsnew/publications/IIRA_RRR_688.pdf

2008-04-16T19:57:00.000-06:00

Measuring where we are and where we need to go?

Or. a “Swank” look at rural entrepreneurship!

[ http://www-agecon.ag.ohio-state.edu/programs/Swank/self_employment_2007.pdf ]

Always good to see the Buckeye logo on a well-done report – this one is from the Swank Center at Ohio State, assessing the state of rural entrepreneurship and its role in rural economic health. Ohio is more rural than many would guess (just as Idaho is more urban than many realize) and the parallels are remarkable, so we can definitely learn from this. The data is rock-solid, as is the analysis.

Self-employment is absolutely critical for rural economies! However, it has to be truly entrepreneurial self-employment, not just out of necessity.

Self-employment can sometimes be a last-resort way of having a job. But it doesn't have to be. That is, what helps rural communities are entrepreneurial businesses that have a future. And we know how to help that process.

Here are the Swank Center's main conclusions for public policy that apply anywhere:

#1 You want a strong rural economy? You need a strong economy state-wide.

It's very hard to have a strong urban economy without a strong rural economy and rural economies need strong urban economies.

#2 You want more jobs? Make it easier on new and small businesses.

Lower tax burdens (on business income, business property and personal income)

[note: lowering tax burdens seems to be a lot better than adding new tax credits]

Lower regulatory burdens... a lot.

#3 Need to step back and really assess rigorously what we're already doing (& not doing)

What are we doing that actually helps start businesses? To keep them? To grow them?

Are we following known best practices?

What is working for us these days?

#4 Tax incentives need to target smaller and newer businesses

It's very hard to avoid these incentives being captured by larger firms, but the impact is proportionately much higher for smaller/newer business. (Odd as it may sound, incentivizing nonprofits is good policy too.)

Use this issue as a political excuse to look at all the state's incentives, credits, etc. (You think we have an impenetrable maze of these in Idaho? Ohio's worse.)

#5 (but should be #1 & #2): Health care/insurance still the #1 headache for entrepreneurs

If a state can figure out this one, they will draw entrepreneurs & businesses like crazy. (Ohio may be looking at NFIB's plan, but how hard would it be to create a pool for all smaller firms in the state?) As my insurance guy will attest, this is not something I remotely understand.

#6 Broadband access – the government stats can be very misleading.

The stats show how many zipcodes have at least one (1) customer getting broadband – and “broadband” is often defined as low as 256K. Ohio has as many T1 lines as we have potatoes & they still have issues... We need to be vigilant here.

One innovation we might adopt is having a college 'adopt' local communities who lack broadband & wire 'em up. Great learning experience & a really cost-effective way to bring rural communities into the New Economy!

[http://www.ohiostatealumni.org/newscenter/chesterhill.php ]

#7 You want higher workforce productivity? Ramp up workforce training.

Invest in community colleges & technical colleges.

Let them drive the economic development boat.

#8 Everybody's got ideas. Everybody's got good ideas. Not everybody gets them to market!

Heresy, I know, especially from a PhD.. but the dirty little secret is that all the inventiveness in the world doesn't help any local economy, any rural economy... unless they get good at transforming intellectual property into things that customers value.

Ohio got pretty good at this through the famed Thomas Alva Edison Partnership that helped rural entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses; the newer Third Frontier program has raised the ante even higher. But they still need to do more to teach its citizens how to be innovators. We need to do the same. (We even know how to do it!)

#9 You want to grow rural jobs? Knowledge workers are key.

The “creative class” is more of a metaphor – in fact, it's the more entrepreneurial rural economies that attract the creative class, not vice-versa. Getting and keeping employees who are more tech-savvy is critical to growing and keeping jobs in any area. Ohio is trying to do more with their community colleges and with programming in their high schools, including more distance learning. (Did you know that Idaho has the Idaho Digital Learning Academy? Local communities could be doing a lot more with programs like that.)

But knowledge workers like quality of life – Idaho's rural communities have that in abundance. We've simply not as good a job as we could in showing people that entrepreneurship can flourish anywhere in Idaho. We've begun to address that (a distance-delivery youth entrepreneurship course is under development) but there's more that we could do (like the “Entrepreneurial Heroes” model).

I come away from this thinking that Idaho's potential for rural entrepreneurship is pretty amazing, but there's so much more that we could do. Fortunately, much of that are things we already know how to do and are, um, “cost-effective”! Not easy, but need not involve a lot of cash.

2008-03-21T15:34:00.000-06:00

Did you know the USA has over 100 self-made millionaires? ..... Under 14?

The #1 "no-brainer" for economic development is nurturing youth entrepreneurship.

Youth entrepreneurship training is associated with:

1) increased HS grad rates,
2) increase college attendance, and
3) an increased belief that there's a future for their hometowns.

Idaho as Best Practice?

One killer best practice for nurturing young entrepreneurs is the "Business Week" model. And Idaho Business Week is one of the best and director Vickie Horn is a passionate champion. For 30 years, it's provided an immersion experience for HS students that's a lot of fun (check the video at www.launchidaho.org!) AND provides a first-class introduction to what it takes to think entrepreneurially.

“Master Class” for Entrepreneurial Thinking

The key is to learn an entrepreneurial mindset - to think more like expert entrepreneurs do. We can teach kids (and adults) all about the tools they need. But it takes truly experiential learning, guided by experts, to grow that entrepreneurial mindset. Idaho Business Week's genuine problem-based learning delivers! (Think of IBW as a "master class" like even young musicians have.)

Key Piece of the Puzzle

Moreover, Idaho Business Week is an important piece of Idaho's puzzle. We have other mechanisms with more in the pipeline, but IBW adds a unique component. It's only real limitation is that it needs to be statewide. I would be remiss to not mention just some of the other pieces of Idaho's growing entrepreneurial efforts.

Earlier this month, I got to judge the finals of Invent Idaho at the Discovery Center, where Woody Sobey's program gets amazing inventions from 1st-8th graders... who all seem to understand the concept of the value proposition. The Idaho Rural Partnership's entrepreneurship task force under Mike Field is working on a distance-delivery course so any Idaho student can get world-class entrepreneurship training. Just this year, 4-H clubs now have a killer new program for their kids. And, yes, Junior Achievement is still out there doing well too. And this is just a few of the programs out there (apologies to the others!) However, none does what IBW does.

Or Why I'm Telling You This...

Idaho Business Week ain't cheap, folks. They heavily subsidize the participants, so anyone can attend regardless of circumstances, though distance is an issue, so Vickie is working to deliver IBW in 3 different spots (hosted by NNU, UI & CSI). To make IBW available across the state, Idaho Business Week needs to raise $110,000 ASAP. This is an investment in Idaho's future. [TechBoise.com graciously linked the full letter from IBW's Board.]

Please pass this along to friends, employers, and definitely the entrepreneurs you know! And even if you can't invest, will you drop Vickie an email of support? Or invite her to speak? (If you're an alumnus of IBW, she'd love to hear from you!) Vickie Horn's email is vickieh@iaci.org.

Entrepreneurially yours,
Norris Krueger, PhD
IRP entrepreneurship task force
(norris.krueger@gmail.com)

2007-09-02T13:34:00.000-06:00

Hey - go over to this post on www.techboise.com !

Tech/Entrepreneur Community & Idaho's Education System

2007-08-09T13:39:00.000-06:00

To those of who keep wondering "Norris, what exactly ARE you doing?"

Hey - thought I'd update you on a few things... Life is very screwy, but the essentially non-paying part of my life (the research on entrepreneurial thinking and how to nurture it, both micro & macro) has accelerated. Really blowing the doors off. (What will frighten many of you is that at conferences, people show early to get a seat for one of my papers, LOL.) Next stop: A project using neuroscience!! ( http://del.icio.us/NorrisKrueger/neuro for some cool links)

However, I do need to work a wee bit more on stuff that gets me paid. (Advice *always* welcome, LOL)

I had a great June expedition that got extended to give talks in Sweden & Finland on how to grow a more entrepreneurial economy (plus the research conferences & teaching doctoral students)- I was in northern Sweden [ Lulea**], Stockholm, Madrid and Turku [Finland]. Lulea included my being the Distinguished Opponent for a doctoral dissertation defense; Madrid was the Babson Entrepreneurship conference for cutting-edge research; Finland was ICSB which has a more practice/teaching emphasis.

I even got to indulge my jones for social entrepreneurship, meeting with experts in getting the disabled back to work in all 3 countries [a friend has a colleague who's a social entrepreneur in this space. I had a crisis to deal with that further delayed my re-surfacing in my Boise routine, but that seems to be handled.

I'm off for a few days to Philly for the outsized Academy of Management meetings (I have 5 sessions, including THE workshop on social entrep, more cognition stuff and the "double helix" for development that Idaho is using - you'll see in the attached) then back here to keep trying to figure out what I can do to help Idaho nurture a more entrepreneurial economy. (I also did get my arm twisted to write the attached for "Idaho Business IQ" magazine. Comments are MOST welcome! You can even leave me rude comments on the IQ's site - http://www.iqidaho.com/ )

I've been writing for the www.techboise.com blog site (check it out!)
And now I'm edging into my own blog: http://entrepreneurshipidaho.blogspot.com (ditto!)

Please check it out & tell me:
What should I write about next?
What will matter the most to help entrepreneurs?
To help Idaho??

** 22 hours of daylight was a bit much, LOL

2007-07-30T13:01:00.000-06:00

For those of you who wonder what exactly I do at entrepreneurship conferences, here's one session I helped put together ... (I'm also presenting on entrepreneurial passion and on the "double helix" model of entrepreneurial development -- the one that Idaho uses!)

OK, so you want to learn how social entrepreneurship is worth all the buzz? Whether you've been at it for a while or a complete newbie, this is for you!
These are the 'best & brightest' and include those who first brought social & sustainable entrepreneurship to academe (Johanna, me, Ana Maria). A wonderful confluence of teaching, research and community engagement!

Ping me at norris.krueger@gmail.com, if I can be of any help!

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
ADVANCES IN RESEARCH & PRACTICE

Academy of Management Preconference –
Saturday, 4 August, 2007; 12 Noon to 3:30 PM

Social entrepreneurship is a premier example of "doing well by doing good." This workshop, specifically designed for doctoral students, explores the following questions. What are the prevailing ideas regarding social entrepreneurship? How are scholars explaining social entrepreneurship? How should social entrepreneurship be explored as a field of study? What are the challenges in pursuing this area of research?

Our goal in this workshop is to provide a venue for discussion and exploration of topics in this emerging area of research. Doctoral students interested in this topic are encouraged to attend. Social entrepreneurship is a premier example of "doing well by doing good." In recent years theoretical and empirical research on social
entrepreneurship has increased. For example, several professional development workshops and papers on social entrepreneurship were presented, well attended and applauded at the Academy of Management, Babson and ICSB meetings in 2006. This workshop is an extension and enhancement of a rapidly self-organizing community of research around the theme of social and sustainable entrepreneurship and economic development. This inclusive community of scholars and practitioners will share their research including theoretical developments, best
practices in teaching and profiles of global social entrepreneurs.

The relevance of social entrepreneurship has been recently validated by the Nobel Peace prize awarded to Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank. Professor Yunus has had significant collaboration with Ashoka Fellows before and since his election as a founding member of Ashoka's Global Academy in 2001. Professor Yunus will be directing some of his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize Award towards building eye hospitals for the poor in Bangladesh. The idea, sparked by Ashoka Fellow David Green in collaboration with his own organization, Project
Impact, and eyecare partners Aravind and Seva Foundation, will develop an initial five eye hospitals in Bangladesh.

Another significant event that illustrates the importance of the social dimension of entrepreneurship was the conference "Business as an Agent of World Benefit: Management Knowledge Leading Positive Change". This Global Forum, which was sponsored by The Academy of Management and The United Nations Global Compact, was held "October 22nd-25th at Case Western Reserve University and online uniting top business leaders and educators to focus on ways of doing business that are both profitable and succeed in addressing the world's most
pressing social needs. This event united corporate and thought leaders to combine theory with practice to develop strategies for businesses seeking to respond to social issues like the environment, health and poverty while also making a profit." Panelists Ana Maria Peredo & myself attended that - an intriguing exercise.

Participants will present their recent research and best practices to the audience which would then be invited to share their experiences and lessons learned in round table discussions facilitated by the panelists. The intent of this interactive workshop is to expand, enrich and enhance the development of a community of research on
social entrepreneurship. The outcomes of the workshop should include collaborations for articles, books and additional workshops on this important topic. A summary of the outcomes of the workshop will be drafted and shared with colleagues at Ashoka, USASBE, ICSB, AIB and other interested scholars, foundations, organizations and practitioners around the world to build stronger bridges and increase traffic over those connections.

This workshop will have break out sessions that will explore the following questions. What are the prevailing ideas regarding social entrepreneurship? How are scholars explaining social entrepreneurship? How should social entrepreneurship be explored as a field of study? What are the challenges in pursuing this area of
research? What are the best practices in teaching social entrepreneurship? What are some of the best practices of social entrepreneurs that can be used as case studies? How can we obtain funding for research on theory and practice of social
entrepreneurship? What are possible publication outlets for our research? What are the best strategies for getting published in quality peer reviewed journals?

AGENDA (3.5 HOURS)
I. Welcome and Overview of Session (20 minutes)
II. Research Perspectives Presentations (50 minutes)
III. Best Practices (Cases and Teaching) (50 minutes)
IV. Coffee/ soft drink break (10 minutes)
V. Breakouts Sessions with facilitators (30 minutes)
VI. Lessons Learned - Report out from breakouts (30 minutes)
VII. Concluding Remarks (20)

DETAILED AGENDA

I. Welcome and Overview
Recent Conferences on Social Entrepreneurship Research and Practice
Jeff Robinson – Summary report on the NYU event in April (10 minutes)
Kai Hockerts- Summary Report on ISERC3 (10 minutes)

II. Applied Research Perspectives (10 minutes each)
a. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti (Institutional View of SE)
b. Norris Krueger (Cognitive [entrepreneurial learning] View of SE)
c. Ana Maria Peredo (Community Entrepreneurship View of SE)
d. Alan Carsrud & Moriah Meysken (Evolutionary View of SE)
e. Questions

III. Practice (10 minutes each)
a. Dianne Welsh (Art House Project)
b. Bayou Bill Schulte (Beyond Intent: Social Actions of Entrepreneurs)
c. Bob D'Intino (Social Entrepreneurship Education/ Micro lending)
d. Susan Davis (Ashoka Update)
e. Tom Dean (invited) (social venture competition)
f. Questions

IV. Introductions of Participants and Roundtable Sessions (Schulte,
Robinson, et al.)

V. Lessons Learned - Report out from Roundtables (facilitators)

VI. Concluding Remarks: Toward a Community of Research and Practice on
Social Entrepreneurship and Suggestions for future publishing and research opportunities (Bill Schulte)

VII. Adjourn and Social Networking

You will NOT want to miss this!
--
Keep entrepreneuring!
Norris

Norris Krueger, Jr., Ph.D.
Teams / Entrepreneurship Northwest
"How can I help YOU to help grow entrepreneurs?"
(208) 440-3747; skype: norris.krueger
"I criticize by creation, not by finding fault" -Cicero

2007-07-26T22:15:00.000-06:00

still working on this one... but if you want "the rest of the story" re Idaho's rankings, read on! NK

We’re Number 37! We’re Number 37!

Idaho is #1 in new firms, according to the annual Development Report Card for the States (www.cfed.org) yet we are only #37 in the number of jobs created by those new firms. #1 in firms, yet #37 in creating jobs from those firms? What’s the disconnect?

Who's More Entrepreneurial? The Northwest or the Rustbelt?

The “entrepreneurial” Pacific Northwest states average 6^th in new firms, yet averaging 45^th in job creation by new firms. Yet, the boring Midwest averages only 43^rd in new firms, yet their new firms average 5^th in creating jobs. So what is going on?

Are we creating new businesses? Evidently!

Are we creating entrepreneurs who will grow…. And create jobs? Evidently… not.

Here are more stats that paint a pretty clear picture of Idaho's economy. These are also from CFED, but other indexes and scorecards keep showing the same clear patterns

The Good:

Here are areas where Idaho ranks highly -

* We are #1 in patents per capita and lest you think that this is all Micron, HP & INL, we're still #11 in inventor patents. Not too shabby.

* We are #11 in the percentage of our jobs that are in the high tech sector and #12 in R&D spending by industry.

* In terms of having a dynamic economy, we're #6 in 'churning' (business entries plus exits)

That tells us that we are probably pretty good at creating ideas and getting comfortable with a fast-changing economy. However...

The Bad:

Here the story is less encouraging -

* We are short-handed in IT professionals (#38) and even worse for knowledge workers (ranked #44) and they aren't migrating here (#45).

* We're #43 in broadband access to the internet.

* We aren't doing well on the global front either, only #43 in global businesses and #42 in package exports.

* Not only are we #37 in jobs from new firms, we are #41 in jobs created by high growth “gazelle” firms.

* Finally, we are #50, dead last, in manufacturing value-added.

Here's where our shortage of high-growth “gazelle” firms costs us dearly...

Only 0.9% of Idaho workers are employed in manufacturing industries that offer above-average value-added. Less than 1 percent? (The national average is 26.9. No matter how you rationalize it, there's a problem here.) It's more than we have relatively few jobs in manufacturing, our manufacturing is in industries driven by costs and shrinking margins.

And where do you find the most high-growth entrepreneurial firms? In industries where firms add enough value to earn that growth. High value-added industries are where entrepreneurs find the most opportunities for explosive growth.

Yes, we have a tech-driven economy, but we are not creating jobs or wealth. We need to build the tangible infrastructure (e.g., broadband) and the human infrastructure (e.g., knowledge workers and IT professionals). Most of all, we need to start creating businesses that are truly entrepreneurial and create wealth and create jobs.

So What Can We Do?

As I travel around, I get asked all the time “How do we make a place more entrepreneurial?” Yes, we do know an awful lot about what it takes to make organizations and communities more entrepreneurial. Across the US, across the globe, these best practices work.

However, getting people to listen can be tough. One way to do that is that we must never lose sight of the true goal: Creating economic wealth (which usually translates into creating good jobs)! Starting lots of small business simply is not enough.

Even urban Idaho needs to grow its own jobs. Long term, job creation only happens two ways: (1) New startups and (2) Growing businesses. The CFED stats suggest we can be optimistic about the first but really need to obsess about the second.

Creating jobs is very much a human process, driven by passionate, expert individuals. Increasingly, though, policymakers tend to take the bureaucratic view and look from “40,000 feet” –and a corresponding focus on institutions. (If we fund the right entities in industry, academe and government….jobs happen. But where are the humans?)

Brute Fact: Institutions don’t create jobs; entrepreneurs do.

Fortunately, policymakers are returning to the reality that job creation depends on people, on entrepreneurs and those who help them: That you grow an entrepreneurial economy – that you grow jobs - one entrepreneur at a time!

Consider the three key ingredients of job creation. The first two are “innovation assets” (Ideas) and “entrepreneurial assets” (People). Idaho is already investing in supporting those. Both are obviously essential but too often we lack the ingredient #3, what we call “bridging assets”. The critical leverage point is having and supporting those connectors who not only support the first two, but work energetically to proactively connect people, ideas and resources.

States and communities that champion their own champions create a lot more jobs and a lot more economic wealth for their citizens. (p.s. Having lots of gazelles also translates into higher future quality of life scores!)

Fortunately, Idaho has recognized this and begun the arduous, yet rewarding process of building the selfless partnering that generates and supports connecting people, ideas and resources. Led by the Governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council, Idaho TechConnect, INL, the Idaho Economic Development Association, Idaho’s Economic Development districts and Idaho Rural Partnership, Idaho has begun to map out important new directions to grow jobs and begun to find ways to bring our existing resources into alignment with those needed new directions.

We have ideas and people, now we need to invest in connecting. We need to invest in the people who already know how to do this, they are your connectors.

Maybe the “entrepreneurial” Northwest lags the “boring” Rust Belt for a reason? And just maybe we can reverse that trend – using the power of connecting to grow jobs!

-30-

2007-07-08T22:21:00.001-06:00

Where to start? Where to start?

Gulp.... my first attempt at blogging. A little scary for some reason, but there is so much out there to share about entrepreneurship and how to nurture it, so.... let's get busy!

"My main man, Thomas"

The Thomas Register was once described as the "Victoria's Secret Catalog for Industrial Purchasers" - it used to comprise a huge set of hardcover volumes that contained information on a dizzying array of products and components -almost anything you needed to build stuff. (Extensive use of Thomas helped save my sorry entrepreneurial behind!) Alas, the hard-cover days are gone but Thomas lives on in cyberspace.

I strongly recommend going to www.thomasnet.com and playing around with it. It's great for competitive intelligence work - who is in a particular space (or claims to be?) Trying to find info about an obscure product-market niche? While it's a way to find suppliers, obviously you can use tot to ID customers.

While at the site - sign up for their e-newsletter. Each month or so, they send you an e- letter with links to short articles, mostly focused on a specific topic. The one that arrived today looks at procurement. Sometime the topic is a business function (even creativity!) and sometimes the topic is an industry (like CAD/CAM).

They also link to more general news of interest. Usually, those are pretty bland but this one had a nice synopsis of recent work from Harvard that says:

"Don't motivate your employees!" rather...

"Quit DE-motivating them!" LOL - it's not really anything we didn't know, but it drives home the essential point that as managers (and as entrepreneurs) our Job #1 is to facilitate what our employees do - we work for them. Anyway, here's the direct link for your reading pleasure: http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2006/04/managing_motivating_employees_without_pompoms.html?WT.mc_t=nlimt&WT.mc_n=614I (and if click on the link containing 'Sirota', that will take you to the original (which has tons of links to other Harvard stuff).

(As an old Caltech guy, I gotta side with MIT over the Crimson most of the time, but this is a nice resource. Besides, MIT can always claim "Car Talk")

Anyway, drop me a note with any comments - maybe examples of how you are able to live up to the article prescriptions? I know it was NOT easy for me and I'm not sure all my students survived my following these principles in class, LOL.

EDIT: Of course, there's the OTHER "Thomas" - http://thomas.loc.gov - that's the info portal for the Library of Congress, a great way to look up info re government, especially legislation. Give it a whirl! (But only after you explore thomasnet.com , LOL)

Norris

Norris Krueger, Ph.D.
norris.krueger@gmail.com

2006-04-25T11:24:00.000-06:00

Entrepreneurship!

The REAL hero of "Students Are Our Secret Weapon"!

2012 - A Year For Gratitude

HAPPY GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK 2011!

"Ecosystem" or "Ecosphere"?

Growing the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: What It REALLY Takes

June AdVENTURES! Startup Weekend, Babson & ICSB

Educational Arsonists![1]

Help Me Celebrate My Birthday?

What Can *I* Do???

Initial Thoughts: Technology Transfer Society

Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week!

Success as an entrepreneur:

Why it’s not about you

Sent to you by Norris via Google Reader:

Stanford Offers Free, Full Courses Online [Education]

What Can I Do???