[Top] [Previous] [Next]

Wealth through Technological Entrepreneurship

Recommendations

• The objectives of technological entrepreneurship are to increase the global competitiveness of Canadian business and to create more knowledge-based jobs for Canadians that directly benefit the Canadian economy. The Academy believes engineers are principal agents in achieving these objectives and that organizations dedicated to the engineering profession should actively participate in these efforts.
• Increasing innovative enterprise in Canada can only happen if there is a national will to do so. Governments must recognize and make known the importance of these activities to our continuing prosperity. Public policies affecting innovation must be aligned to foster (and not impede) it. These policies must be effective, consistent and widely known.
• The best efforts of engineers and governments will fall short unless the business community in Canada fully endorses and supports these initiatives. Business leaders and organizations must be effective participants in shaping and implementing the necessary steps.

• Successful entrepreneurs have to recognize and evaluate the needs of prospective markets before investing much time and money in designing and developing appropriate products and services. Programs to help engineers understand and develop technology marketing skills should be provided through the Internet.
• A Canada-wide technology-based entrepreneurship opportunity network should be created on the Internet. Export market opportunities should also be reported on this network.
• Awareness of developments in research should also be improved through an Internet subscriber service, updated by participating universities and research institutes.

• One or more innovation and technological entrepreneurship centres (ITECs) should be established in each province in association with universities and research institutes. Such centres should provide incubator facilities, training programs, conference activities, networking and information services, etc. (the Industrial Technology Centre Corporation in Hong Kong is a useful example).
• A mentoring network linked to each ITEC should be established.
• The experience of the Ottawa-Carleton Research Institute (OCRI) should be reviewed and its example adapted to other hi-tech regions of Canada.
• Large companies and universities should adopt policies that promote and facilitate spin-offs, small business units (SBU's) and spin-outs.

• Start-up entrepreneurs need to know how to find and communicate with sources of financing and venture capital. Basic information on writing business plans, determining financial needs, identifying and negotiating with lenders and investors, etc. should be available through the Internet, at ITECs and through financial institutions.
• Venture capital funds and lenders should place more emphasis on the evaluation and funding of technology-based start-ups and should acquire or upgrade the necessary tools and skills.
• While the federal and provincial governments should not be directly involved in funding specific ventures, their fiscal policies must minimize the negative impacts of taxation in the initial years of a technological start-up, both to stimulate spending on product development and marketing and to facilitate further investment in growth and employment.

• In schools and colleges, literacy in maths and sciences must rank with reading and writing in terms of student learning and outcome. To achieve this, provincial governments must radically modify the preparation of teachers in these subjects and the way such courses are taught, and must build in each student the motivation to learn, and the confidence to use, maths and science as gateways to further learning.
• In universities, faculties of engineering and faculties of management should be encouraged to collaborate in the design and delivery of courses on technological entrepreneurship and in the establishment of entrepreneurship centres.
• Faculties of engineering and the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE) should be encouraged to co-operate in implementing programs that effectively develop innovative and entrepreneurial abilities in undergraduate students.
• Successful technological entrepreneurs should be enlisted to serve as program advisors to ensure relevance and practical substance in entrepreneurship programs.
• Case studies and other course material on technological entrepreneurship need to be funded, written and shared among all engineering faculties. In this context, the possibility of developing computer-based simulation models should be investigated.
• Research projects in technological entrepreneurship should be encouraged by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council and faculties of engineering and graduate studies. More industrial chairs in technological entrepreneurship should be established.

Wealth through Technological Entrepreneurship