Interview with Dr. Alan Cornford
Dr. Alan Cornford has served as Assistant Deputy Minister for Science and Technology in British Columbia, Director of Simon Fraser University's Technology Transfer Office, and President and Chief Execuative Officer of SF Univentures Corporation. In the past 12 years, he has worked in the private sector, building technology companies in the innovation economy. He recently carried out a major study for ACOA on innovation entitled Innovation and Commercialization in Atlantic Canada.
Q: Is it possible to learn to be innovative?
I think it is. All of us, in fact, have the capacity to be innovative because we all have the capacity to learn. We all have new ideas, better ways of doing things. There's no question in my mind that anybody and everybody can learn to be innovative.
Q: Do Atlantic Canada's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face particular challenges when it comes to being innovative?
In Atlantic Canada, there's not a long history of creating new knowledge-based companies leveraging value-added from natural resources that have traditionally been the economic mainstay. So there hasn't been a climate or a culture for innovation. There are also not a lot of large, cosmopolitan centres, which tend to attract the young, bright innovators from this region.
So in Atlantic Canada, adequate wage scales are important so that employees can travel, network and interface with colleagues in larger centres. They need this exchange because, in the knowledge economy, ideas and businesses are maturing quite rapidly. We also need the experience and mentorship of folks who've succeeded. We need to find those ideas and concepts that fit with the needs and aspirations of the local community - that build on our existing strengths - then evolve them into other areas that traditionally weren't there 10 or 20 years ago.
Q: How important is management in terms of building an innovative culture in a company?
Absolutely essential! I think it comes right back to the basics of building any enterprise, whether it's in a traditional area like the fishery or whether it's in biotechnology or information technology. The basic skill sets of company building are the same. In the innovation economy, we find that traditional skill sets have to be quicker and nimbler, and more attuned to building companies in three to seven years as opposed to traditional companies that take five to 15 years. Venture capitalists place 70 per cent of investment emphasis on management. To succeed, the key is management skills, no question about it.
Q: How important are employee training programs in terms of building an innovative culture in a company?
Again, they're essential. An innovative culture is built upon knowledge. The knowledge base is changing rapidly, especially with the introduction of the Internet, which allows for a quick and inexpensive transfer of information. Employees in a value-added or a knowledge economy need to keep their skills state-of-the-art. It's no longer a question of going back for refresher courses. We're into continuous lifelong learning.
Q: How important are employee reward systems in terms of building an innovative culture in a company?
Again, it's very important. We're finding that almost all new companies these days tend to have employee share option plans, where each employee has a small stake in the company. This is becoming the norm, at least in the high-tech industry. Employees are being rewarded essentially as the developers of the assets and value of the company.
Q: Some Atlantic Canadian SMEs have resisted training their staff, either because of limited resources within the company or a fear that employees will then just pick up and go elsewhere. Are these fears justified?
Small companies don't have a lot of money to train their staff. When they do, they may find that their best people may see other opportunities for which they have the skill set, and can perhaps make more money elsewhere. So it's a bit of a double-edged sword. In Atlantic Canada, they may not have the chance to continue to work locally. So they tend to move out of the region. Your previous question regarding reward systems is important here. Companies with good reward systems keep the brightest since they own part of the company and are less likely to leave, even for higher salaries elsewhere.
I think the message is that you have to invest in your employees in order to be innovative and stay competitive, especially if you want to be in the world market. As you grow a more and more innovative economy in Atlantic Canada, one would hope that you'd have communities of companies so that if employees leave one company, they'll still remain within the region. So you'll build up your whole innovative base. One strength of Atlantic Canada is the very strong family bonds. Most young people would rather work in close proximity to the family. The challenge is to make sure those jobs are available within the community.
Q: How important is it for Atlantic Canadian SMEs to build linkages with universities and research institutes and how can a firm do that?
It's absolutely essential. As a society, we have made fairly substantial investments in our research institutions. Atlantic Canada's universities have very strong assets. The biggest challenge is to blend the two cultures - the university culture and the community culture. There has to be free access and transparency so that the community and graduate students and even the small companies that are not university-based can easily go and chat on campus. Looking at some of the statistics, small companies in Atlantic Canada do actually interface with the universities - but there is considerable room for more. Existing and new companies only have to partner with the university for a particular skill set, at a particular time when they need it. So they don't have to carry the financing of that asset.
Q: What are the most important things firms need to do to be innovative?
For firms to be innovative, they have to want to be the best. They have to want to grow. They have to believe that there's nothing that they can't do in their own knowledge and skill area. They have to reach out and look for market opportunities, and believe that they can compete with anyone in the world by being better and faster and that they can, in a more cost effective, more innovative way, deliver services and products to the world. In the traditional resource-based economy, you have to maintain those resources, make sure they're sustainable. The nice thing about the innovation economy is that there's no limit on how far you can go because you're worki ng with new ideas and value-added processes and products. In the innovation economy, there are no bounds!
Q: Does being innovative improve the bottom line?
Absolutely. Those companies that fail to innovate will become obsolete and lose price competitiveness and market share rapidly in an innovative global economy. Those that do not innovate will soon have no bottom line at all.
