We Bring Technology to Market.

Just let me pay for it

• Posted by Alayne Martell
• February 10, 2011
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By Alayne Martell

The Internet. Love it or hate it, most of us need it. And with it comes many debates. Most recently the controversy is growing over the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) recent ruling regarding usage-based-billing (UBB). The ruling would allow large telecom companies such as Bell and Rogers to force independent Internet service providers (ISPs) to adopt the same UBB structure they use. Interestingly enough, the same big guns sell wholesale access to these smaller ISPs, essentially preventing them from remaining competitive.

Then the federal government chimed in. Last week, during an industry committee hearing, the CRTC indicated it would be delaying the implementation for 60 days while it is reviewed. Industry Minister Tony Clement followed that up with the proclamation (by Twitter no less…that could be fodder for a whole other blog post) that if the CRTC comes back with the same outcome, cabinet would overturn it.

Looks like this debate could become heated.

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Alayne Martell

Posted in:

• Public and media relations
• Random thoughts

Flow-through shares for technology companies

• Posted by Denzil Doyle
• February 09, 2011
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As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked the dean of Ottawa’s technology sector, Denzil Doyle, to weigh in on some of the critical issues facing technology companies. This is the first of Denzil’s commentaries and we welcome your comments.

By Denzil Doyle

During the past three or four decades, Canadian policy makers at both the federal and provincial levels have tried just about every trick in the book to finance technology companies, particularly those that are at an early stage in their development. In the early 1980s, we had the Scientific Research Tax Credits (SRTCs) that allowed technology companies that were not yet profitable to predict in advance what their R&D expenditures were going to be during a certain year and then effectively sell those expenditures to taxable corporations and individuals for use as tax write-offs. The troubles came about when the companies were asked to verify their expenditure to the tax authorities. Many CEOs and CFOs ended up in jail or spent years dealing with aggressive tax auditors.

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Denzil Doyle

Posted in:

• Commercialization ecosystem
• Financing and fundraising

The new risk capital reality: What’s happened to VC?

• Posted by Francis Moran
• February 08, 2011
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This is the second article in a continuing series that examines the state of the ecosystem necessary to successfully bring technology to market. Based on dozens of interviews with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers, this series looks at what is working and what can be improved in the go-to-market ecosystem in the United States, Canada and Britain. We invite your feedback.

By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Sean Parker, the entrepreneur behind Napster and Facebook and himself a venture capital investor, provided a rather gloomy assessment of the VC industry and the future of U.S. innovation in general.

“The risk-reward doesn’t work out in favor of putting money into venture capital anymore,” he said.

And yes, again, to confirm, Parker is himself a VC investor. He went on to say that the contraction of the U.S. VC market means that “innovation could gradually grind to a halt or at least become less effective,” a trend that could serve to erode the ambition and vision of entrepreneurs.

“Ten years ago, venture capitalists would ask the question: Do you want to build a company and flip it or do you want to build a company and IPO it? It’s a trick question. The correct answer was always, ‘I want to build an incredibly valuable stand-alone business and maybe we get bought, maybe we go public but we’re going to build an incredibly valuable company,’” Parker said. “Now it’s actually not clear that that’s the right answer. There’s a lot of venture firms that are clearly interested in building something and selling it either to Facebook, Google, Microsoft.”

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Francis Moran

Posted in:

• Commercialization ecosystem
• Marketing strategy
• Startups
• Technology marketing

Why my pony tail ain’t my brand

• Posted by Francis Moran
• February 07, 2011
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By Francis Moran

One day last week, I tweeted the message you see to the right because I was tickled by the email that came in. In my haste, however, I added a snappy hashtag and thereby made the same common mistake I often accuse marketers — even branding experts — of making.

The prospect who sent me that email remembered how I look. I will be the first to admit that a red — okay, rapidly greying — pony tail, full-but-tidy beard and what used to be a curly moustache do tend to set me apart from the average corporate consultant, even in the less-buttoned-down realm of marketing. Based on how I look, he was able to easily remember who I am.

He wasn’t, however, looking for a pony-tailed, bearded guy; he was, in fact, looking for a PR firm. And, because of whatever impression about my abilities as a PR guy that I had left with him during a past engagement, he immediately thought of me.

In that nutshell, then, you have the difference between branding and visual identity, something that, as I said at the opening, many marketers and not a few so-called branding experts often confuse.

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Francis Moran

Posted in:

• Marketing strategy

Discourse on diversification

• Posted by Linda Forrest
• February 04, 2011
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By Linda Forrest

A few weeks ago, as I trundled through a sparsely populated HMV, a retailer that’s rumoured to be on its way out of Canada (if not about to shuffle off this mortal coil altogether), I couldn’t help but wonder if its acronym still stood for His Master’s Voice or if its meaning had shifted and now accounts for the hats, mugs and videogames that have overtaken shelf space once devoted to recorded music.

Pair that with the intensive work we’ve been doing to launch our strategy practice and my mind turns to diversification as a marketing strategy. Wikipedia defines diversification in this usage, rather than its other recognized definition as a financial investment strategy, as “a form of corporate strategy for a company. It seeks to increase profitability through greater sales volume obtained from new products and new markets. Diversification can occur either at the business unit level or at the corporate level. At the business unit level, it is most likely to expand into a new segment of an industry which the business is already in. At the corporate level, it is generally…very interesting entering a promising business outside of the scope of the existing business unit.”

When does it make sense to branch out? How can your company go about determining if and when diversification is the right approach for you? Marketing experts like several of our Associates can provide you with strategic counsel on your particular scenario, but there are some tried and true considerations that must be truthfully answered to determine whether this is a successful evolution of your brand or a desperate move to increase revenues by trying to be all things to all people. Diversification is a risk, but it can be a calculated one.

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Linda Forrest

Posted in:

• Marketing strategy
• Technology marketing