This week I hung out at MaRS doing a So What? Who Cares? Why You? workshop with scientists, entrepreneurs, and researchers from the medical field. I'm always awe struck by MaRs -- what an incredible collaboration facility in the heart of Toronto - for those of you who have not yet been to MaRS, it's an important stop on your next journey looking at global hubs that are doing meaningful things to commercialize world class ideas. Pretty neat people doing really WOWSA stuff in biomedicine, nanotechnology, and a whole lot of medical things that I know little about.
I spent the morning sharing my tools and frameworks to help scientists answer the questions investors ask. Again and again, i'm reminded of the power that these simple tools can have on helping to shape and mold the business value around very complex science and technology ideas. I always start these sessions by saying "this is not likely going to be rocket science for you" (which btw, might not be the best analogy to use with this audience :)!) but yet, afterwards, there's always a bunch of folks that hang around after inspired by the power of these simple straightforward approaches.
I've always been a fan of Jim Collins and my perennial favourite quote is one of his "the essence of profound insight is simplicity" -- so that's my goal now -- to boil things down to a simple, yet powerful tool. There's far too much complexity in technology and i think there's a big crowd of people that like it that way -- maybe they think it gives it a mystique - I think it just turns people off!
So I'm on a mission - and my latest one was to MaRS. If a group of world-class medical researchers and scientists think simple tools can help them articulate their business value better, then i think there's promise in the rest of the science and tech community.
So I'm on a road trip like Rick and Shel only i'm backpacking it :)
Smile and enjoy your journey...
Wendy
So what? who cares? why you?
author/advisor/lady with the flipcharts!
www.wendykennedy.com
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