Entrepreneurship 101: Specialization vs. Career Diversity

Slide 2: Entrepreneurship 101 MaRS Center April 30, 2008

Slide 3: Is Specialization Limiting or Empowering?  Cost/Benefit analysis of education.  Personal experience: mine and others.  Observations from an unexpected career path.  Summary.  To specialize or not to specialize?

Slide 4: What is Education:  Up to and including undergraduate you’re assimilating known information.  Getting up to speed with the current state of the art.  Demonstrating capacity to apply new knowledge/tools – critical thinking.  Given the vast information known, a narrow focus is required to achieve “state of the art” knowledge.  To make an original contribution (graduate studies) an even narrower focus is required.

Slide 5: Benefits of Education:  Quality of life:  Knowledge is good.  Opportunity to get paid for what you know, not what you do.  Earning Potential:  On average, higher degrees means higher income.  Promotion Potential:  There can be inherent ceilings associated with a given level of education.

Slide 6: Cost of Education:  Opportunity Cost:  Time & Money that could have been spent doing something else.  Lost earning years.  Your education debt is not just tuition, books, room and board but should also include all money that could have been made.  Lost experience.  If you’re inclined to start a business it is generally “easier” when you’re younger and have fewer responsibilities and dependants.  Travel or altruistic experiences.

Slide 7: Personal Educational Experience:  Well educated family. Graduate school was the expectation.  Directly into undergraduate program (Physics at Guelph) after high school.  Switched to chemistry to improve employment odds.  Refused to apply to graduate school and was hired at Xerox Research Center. Contact was a 4th year polymer chemistry Prof whom also worked at Xerox.  Xerox Research Center had ceilings.

Slide 8: Educational Experience (con’t):  Went to graduate school at McMaster (Engineering Physics) believing it was a necessary hurtle to manage technology projects.  Tried to pick a relevant project and complete it as quickly as possible.  Worked with two staff members to help construct a lab, one had a Ph.D. in physics and worked 8 years on a pacific island, the other was finishing an undergraduate degree he had dropped out of several years prior.  Completed graduate studies in 4 ½ years with a Ph.D. and no Masters.

Slide 9: Work Experience:  In 1994 joined a start-up firm looking to bring a novel flat panel display technology to market.  The firm was associated with a Prof I had done course work with.  Other opportunities were with 3M, Nortel or a Post Doc. overseas.  Dealt with angel and venture investors early on. IPO in 1996.  Stock appreciated 10 times IPO price in 18 months.  Spent 8 years with the company. Went from staff scientist to VP of R&D reporting to the CEO.  Traveled the world to interact with suppliers, customers, joint ventures and licensing partners.

Slide 10: Work Experience (con’t):  Left the tech firm in 2002 to join Canada’s largest privately owned mutual fund company, AIC. Hired as an investment analyst.  Was part of the team that invested in technology stocks globally.  Completed the CFA program in 2005.  Challenging industry hurtle  Became lead Portfolio Manager of a Science & Technology fund in 2006.

Slide 11: Work Experience (con’t):  In March of 2008 joined Greenrock Asset Management as the founding Portfolio Manager.  Mandate is to create and manage a hedge fund focused on Clean Technology.  Building the company, and the fund, from the ground up.

Slide 12: Observations:  The wealthiest people are not the most educated.  Elements like: determination/laziness, tenacity/insecurity, risk aversion/appetite, fear of failure/drive for success are more important.  Relational skills also more important.  If maximum wealth creation is your goal, education is not important.

Slide 13: Observations:  Personality traits are not binary.  Don’t ask “Am I an entrepreneur?”, ask “How entrepreneurially am I”.  We are all somewhere on the spectrum of intelligence, determination, risk appetite, salesmanship, etc.  Always show willingness and function to the best of your ability. It is your attitude that will open doors more than specific results.  You can conclusively abandon a pursuit only after you’ve given it your best effort.

Slide 14: Observations:  Generally, the corporate leaders of the world (CEOs) have the position because they desperately want to be CEOs not because they’re the most competent.  Education will open the door and ambition carries you through to the top.  The best leaders realize the more they empower others the more effective leaders they become – a great irony many don’t realize.

Slide 15: Observations:  Being effective at assimilating and applying information is a very powerful skill.  Building understanding from 1st principals enables discernment and originality.  Learning to ask the right questions is critical.  Understand what the circumstance requires – not what you want to do.  It is the skills you acquire through education that are most valuable, not the content of what you learn.

Slide 16: Summary:  Every definition and path to success is unique.  You will better understand your unique abilities and passions by being diligent in all that you do.  Maximize the benefit of every experience by learning the principals at work then specialization leaves you with tools applicable to a broad range of opportunities.