So What? Who Cares? Why You?

Off to Seattle and the land of coffee

Well it's travel time again....off to Seattle for the National Association of Business Incubator (NBIA) Annual Conference. 

NBIA is the most recent organization to adopt my book.  They've put it in their bookstore here under Hot New Titles!  I'm excited to have them as a partner. 

I'm looking forward to meeting the many entrepreneurship organizations, incubator managers, research labs and others attending the conference.  I will be exhibiting and look forward to sharing news of my travels when I get back.

PS -- I'm also excited about visiting the city home to some of the best coffee houses - or so everyone keeps telling me.  More on that too!

Until then,

Wendy

Tool Tip Time

For those of you who missed my newsletter last week, here's a taste of what's included. If you would like to get future newsletters, hop over to my web site and sign up www.wendykennedy.com

Here are 5 key takeaways to get the most out of the toolsets that make up So what? who cares? why you?:

1. “Don’t try this alone!” The So what? who cares? why you?™ tools come to life in a team.  Try to assemble a group of 3-5 people – include research or development team members who’ve got experience with the idea. These individuals bring a different perspective and new thinking about customers and opportunities will unfold.  It’s a good idea to include someone who can play the role of “devil’s advocate”.

2.      Appoint a ‘designated driver’– you need participants as well as someone to drive and focus the discussion. Appoint one person to facilitate and drive the discussion.  Back seat drivers are always annoying and dangerous in these situations.

3.      Flipcharts work best – They are in your face and promote open dialogue among the team. If you want to kick-start the exercise, give people post-it-notes to label their own ideas on the Market Fishbone. But don’t let the exercise become “pin the post-it-note on the tool”.  What you want is a lot of discussion and sharing of ideas around the table.   

4.      Don’t evaluate ‘on the fly’ - Avoid the temptation to critique as you go – let the ideas flow.

5.      Experiment – The most useful tools are full of notations, side-bar notes, and call-outs.  As the tools evolve, they begin to look cluttered, messy and disorganized to a passerby. But to participants, it captures the essence of the exercise.  Be open to trying different combinations and derivatives.  Don’t look for the “right” answer out of the gate.  Be patient as you work through the process.

That's it...

Enjoy your journey!

Wendy
author/advisor/lady with the flipcharts!
www.wendykennedy.com

Thanks to everyone at AUTM!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a visit at my booth at the AUTM annual meeting in San Francisco.  It was great to meet so many of you in person who i have been dealing with via email, as well as to meet many new people.

For those of you who read this blog but are not familiar with AUTM, you should check it out:  www.autm.net.  AUTM is a growing network,(over 2,000 members worldwide attended the Annual Meeting), of University Technology Managers.  These people are responsible for bringing the science and technology from "lab to life" as I always say. Licensing managers, technology transfer officers, etc. who work with scientists, faculty, researchers, etc. to get their ideas ready for the dance with industry. 

For those of us on the private sector side, we are missing a huge opportunity if we're not plugging in to the universities around the country to look for both incremental as well as revolutionary ideas.  It's just plain smart business to be looking for faster time to market with the "buy it/license it" scenario.  And as we all know, there's no shortage of good ideas hiding in these labs.

To get you started, here's three places to check out.  I call these "brokers/technology matchmakers".  The first is www.ibridgenetwork.org set up by The Kauffman Foundation and the second, a Canadian, www.flintbox.com, managed by the University of British Columbia. There's also www.techquisition.com, set up by a friend of mine from Louisiana Tech.

We often get knee deep in the daily grind of business building that we forget there's places to tap into innovation that can potentially give us a competitive edge.

Your competitors are looking to leverage relationships like this to their advantage -- you should too.

Start today by visiting these three sites and seeing what they have to offer.

Enjoy your Journey!

Wendy
author/advisor/lady with the flipcharts!
www.wendykennedy.com