M&M's - Paramount for Success

M&M's are critical to a company's success and I don't mean the plain or peanut kind! Measurement & Management Dashboards are important tools for building sustainable success.

A couple of months agoTerry Matthews - a great Canadian icon was speaking at a MaRS event about his success model for start-up organizations. Having started over 80 successful organizations in the past 25 years, he has a record of credibility. Terry explained that one of the keys was to have each of his organizations' create a monthly report that measured a number of indicators in the Rear View mirror (We Accomplished this, We achieved that, We we unsuccessful with this.) and out of the Front Windshield (We plan on completing this, We are Scheduled to achieve that). These monthly Dashboard reports were prepared by the CEO as if the company were publicly traded on the TSX - a great standard of Governance.

For my clients at the RIC-Centre I am also encouraging the drafting of these telltale M&M Dashboards that cover the important facets of their start-up. The CFO and CEO need to ingrain that culture of measuring and taking management action in their early evolution as an organization. Measurements should cover the basics of financial reporting but also drill down a number of layers on key indicators such as Customer Acquisition, Product Development, Human Resourcing, Regulatory Approval, Channel Development etc. The clarity of the historic indicators and forward looking statements will do wonders for the focus and accomplishment of these early stage organizations.

Many of my Followers are also curious to hear about how the High Handicapper is making out. After a couple more lessons, hours on the practice tee, a loud shirt and 15 rounds later - there is considerable improvement. "Jimmy the Genius" continues to work his magic - the hard work however is clearly in my hands. Following my own entrepreneurial advice I have implemented my own M&M Dashboard process for my journey to a lower handicap.

On the top part of the card I write down the three things that Jimmy has me working on (grip, alignment, aim) for the current week. I also articulate what I hope to Accomplish - 2 less lost balls, gross stroke reduction of 6, 5 less putts for example. This sets the tone and provides a constant reminder of what I am trying to accomplish each time I make an entry onto the card.

In the middle section I create a series of drill down measurements that allow me to manage each part of my trek down the course. Off the tee I note if my ball went where I had intended it to go with a simple check mark. If if doesn't go where it should have, I add additional indicators - did it go Left (L), Right (R)or Duff (D)? For Left and Right I also note if it went Long (LO) or Short (S). For Lost balls I count the number and location -Woods (Wo), Water (Wa) or those nagging ones lost on the Fairway (F). (I decided not to measure Deep Woods or the number of Skips across the pond!) For Putts, I count the Total including the number less than 3 feet and greater than 20 feet. At the end of each hole in addition to my Gross Score I have some interesting statistics to help me M&M at the next tee.

By the way, don't ask me to keep your score as well as mine - There is no room on the card and my M&M Dashboard is all consuming to my focus and Paramount to my Success.

Have you seen "In Business" on Rogers 10

In late June I had the pleasure to do some Live TV. David Wojcik the host and producer of In Business (www.rogerstv.com/inbusiness) had been at our Innovator Idol and was inspired to do the final show of the 2008/09 series on Business Incubators. I was joined on the program by Av Utukuri - the CTO of Nytric (www.nytric.com) - a company focused on "bringing exciting new ideas to life." David W facilitated a lively discussion in which AV described a number of the cool companies he was incubating in his Mississauga based office and I got to outline what we do at the RIC-Centre (www.ric-centre.on.ca) as part of the Ontario Commercialization Network. The In Business program was wrapping up for the season - but it will be back in September. If you live in Mississauga and have access to Rogers 10 I suggest you check out the summer re-run schedule. David has done a terrific job packaging a show that concentrates On Business, For Business and of course In Business. I look forward to David's new season and the opportunity to get some of my clients profiled on his program.

Innovator Idol - A new pilot for a TV show?

The concept came to us as we thought about all the neat companies that we were seeing through our Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) work at OCETA and the RIC-Centre. James Sbrolla (www.ebccanada.com) another of those EIR's in the Ontario Commercialization Network and I were keen to showcase some of the companies that we were working with. With significant support from the RIC-Centre team (Sharon, Radi and Pam) were created Innovator Idol. The concept mirrored that popular TV show that concluded in early June.
We created a panel consisting of an Angel investor (Henry Vehovec www.mindfirst.com), a Venture Capitalist (Michael Curry www.investeco.com) and a representative from the Innovation Accelerator Fund (IAF) (Shriley Speakman www.oce-ontario.org). Over a beer or two James and I sifted through a signficant number of applications and chose 4 companies that were clearly up to the challenge. These included Thoughtspeed (www.thoughtspeed.biz) - a ecommerce health application, IDAlerts (www.idalerts.ca) - an identity theft protection company, Refined Data (www.refineddata.com) - a risk management software system and Real Tech (www.realtech.ca) - water quality test instrumentation. Each company was given 6 minutes to present their unique story and another 6 minutes to answer questions from the panel and audience. The panelists were then asked to provide their constructive feedback to each of the presentors. In a stroke of innovative genius, Radi and Sharon found some SMS voting software and with a little help we were able to have the sold out audience vote the company that they were most likely to invest their own money into.
The winning company was Real Tech represented by their CEO Jodi Glover. Congradulations to all of the presenting companies and to the audience for their support and appreciation. The event was such a success that James and I are already scheduling the next visit to the Pub to plot the next version - I am thinking something like: "...Ontario's Got Innovation Talent..."

What do you think?

"Is there anyone out there....?"

Having recently done some maintenance on my Ipod, I was reminded about one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs that contained the phrase: "..... Is there anyone out there...". For those that know me well I have spent the past 2.5 years trying to increase my Significant Impact. I have done this by focusing more on Not-For-Profit work, increasing my level of Coaching and Mentoring and spreading the word about Good Governance, Climate Change and Sustainability. Encouraged by colleagues such as Gordo, Pinky and the 'Dag, I have been long overdue in establishing a Blog to support these efforts.

Late last year I signed up to be an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) within the Ontario Commercialization Network. This network includes many well known brands including MaRS (www.marsdd.com), Communitech, Tech Alliance, ISCM, OCRI, OCETA and BioEnterprise. Most of my EIR is centred in Peel, Halton, Hamilton and occasionally in Toronto. I initiate my work from the RIC-Centre (www.ric-centre.on.ca) in Missisauga. This brand is emerging as one of the key resources in the commercialization network. Supported by the Ministry of Reaserch and Innovation (MRI), the Brampton / Caledon / Mississauga Board of Trades and the University of Toronto Mississauga, we are helping young organizations "...Accelerate Their Time to Commercilization." The work is challenging, fulfilling and a ton of fun - especially if you can see the progress these companies are starting to make.

Consequently, I now have a steady and reliable feed of interesting and exciting stories about our Innovation Economy in southern Ontario. The time is ripe for me to get onto the computer and create a regular feed of information for my newly minted Blog. As a result of my 'slow off the mark' approach, I have some key catch up to do this month.

Once again, I ask the Question: ".... Is there anyone out there........?"