By Maurice Smith
Jim Duffy is a man in a hurry. Since creating Entrepreneurial Spark little more than a year ago, he has expanded twice, helped more than 130 would-be entrepreneurs and stirred up the start-up environment in Scotland.
Who is Jim Duffy? A former police sergeant who moved into business – with mixed results – Jim won a Saltire Fellowship (a quasi scholarship funded by the Scottish Government) and landed himself on a course at Babson College, Massachusetts.
He returned to Scotland, inspired by all that the greater Boston area had to offer business start-ups, from the high tech spin-outs of MIT to the slam-dunk pitching of hopefuls taking part in the high-profile Mass Challenge.
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By Francis Moran
It doesn’t have much to do with bringing technology to market but today’s post is one I’ve been meaning to write for a while. Having spent the last two weeks travelling across three continents, six time zones and nearly 20,000 miles, it seemed appropriate that I tackle it today. A lot of entrepreneurs and startup CEOs become reluctant road warriors as they raise funding and meet with customers who can be globally distributed. If today’s post helps stretch your scarce travel dollars while making things less stressful, then I will have done well.
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By Bob Bailly
“Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
— Harry S Truman, 33rd president of United States (1884 – 1972)
Over the last several months Canadians have watched the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau move from the fringes of the Liberal Party to become its newly elected leader. After he garnered 80 per cent of the first ballot votes at the party convention last weekend, Justin Trudeau has finally been able to overcome the disdain of his opponents and the media. But as journalist Michael Den Tandt observes, “the latter will not last – unless Trudeau proves to be as effective a leader as he is a campaigner.”
But what constitutes an effective leader?
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By Leo Valiquette
Focus.
It’s what distinguishes talkers from doers, which I touched upon in last week’s post about lessons learned at a literacy conference that apply to entrepreneurs as much as they to do authors.
While I was at that conference, I ran into Canadian fantasy fiction author Ed Greenwood. Over a span of less than 30 years, this man has published scores of books, hundreds of magazine articles, a pile of short fiction and worked on countless other related projects. He is a working writer well accustomed to navigating the often-absurd complexities of the publishing industry and trying to earn a fair living while doing so. Anything beyond a month to crank out a draft of a novel is a luxury for him. He’s scarce on social media and I’ve probably just given you the reason for that.
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By Daylin Mantyka
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Fast Company, Gabriel Weinberg’s Blog and ReadWriteWeb.
The sex panther formula for finding your brand’s secret sauce
Anchorman’s Brian Fantana may have been off the mark with his sex panther cologne — but his head was in the right place. Mark McNeilly writes about the importance of product differentiation and finding that secret sauce that separates your brand from the rest.
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