The Warm Glow of having been heard!

The panelists were many and varied. They came from all the sectors of the field: Industry, Government, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Community Colleges, National Network Centers of Excellence (NCEs),and of course Universities from all across the country. We numbered about EIGHT HUNDRED people. I am talking about the INNOVATION 2010 conference that was held on Monday and Tuesday of this week in Ottawa. This was the FIRST combined meeting of the Association for the Commercialization of Canadian Technologies (ACCT),the Federal Partners for tecchnology Transfer (FPTT) and one or two other umbrella organizations. It was the largest conference of its kind apparently in Canada.

As the three simultaneous tracks proceeded with members of all of the different sectors serving on panels to stimulate discussions about key issues for this group one theme became apparent - and this theme is what gave me the warm and fuzzy feeling that I refer to in the title of this blog. The theme I am referring to? RELATIONSHIPS MATTER!!! MAYBE EVEN MORE THAN THE TECHNOLOGIES THEMSELVES. (OK OK that last part is my own addition but the first was loud and clear!).

Now most who know me today know that I have been on that particular theme for as long as ArrowCan has been in business. It was tough in the early years to convince the Technology TRANSFER people who were focussed on selling me the latest TECHNOLOGY that I was not actually as interested in the technology per se as I was in meeting the stars on campus and building lasting relations with them. They could not believe that client companies would actually PAY me to develop relationships with the stars on campuses across Canada in ALL disciplines so that when they needed the right talent with a technology they could simply ask me who that was. My business was BUILT on knowing the right people and being able to make VETTED introductions to the right experts based on MATURE relationships that ArrowCan had cultivated already. "But what technologies are your companies interested in today?" they asked. "None!" was my stock answer. But I made sure that I helped every person I met with something that made a difference to them whether it was a contact of someone I knew in some related field or an interesting observation about some interest that the person had or simply a shared experience that may be relevent to something they were doing. I tried to carry best practices from one place where I had observed them to another office or researcher that might not have had the chance to observe them first hand. And all the time our database of GENUINE and respect-based contacts grew.

The crowning statements on this topic for me came from the last panel I attended on the second day. I drove home in a cloud of happiness that even the snow storm could not dispell. Natalie Tokers from Nigara College said something that I am sure many will resonate with. She said that when a new person starts in her office she says to them "get coffee with the people in the college, buy them a donut, get to know them, get to know their kids names". RIGHT after her came Johhny Xavier from the University of Saskatchewan Technology Transfer Office and he said that his number one "secret for success" was to develop lasting RELATIONSHIPS with the people he interacts with from industry and from the campus. Part way through his talk he suddenly turned to me in the audience and asked "Don't you agree Adi?" I could barely stammer out "100%!!" my emotions were running so high. I felt that warm glow.

I had struggled along for five years by this time. The first 18 months were at times without clients and I was not even sure if the approach would work. I had spent part of the first year's travel money out of my own pension savings but I was determined to go on. Many doubted that I would ever get enough visionary clients who could see the value proposition. Today the old saying that has adorned my e-mail signature file for all of these years "Good deals are a CONSEQUENCE of good relationships and not the other way around!" was resonating through this community. I believe we may have turned a corner. I am filled with hope again.

Johnny went on to explain that the relationships he was talking about did not happen overnight and that they took time to build and then MORE time to maintain. Turnover in both the industry business development sector and particularly in the university TTOs acts against this desire to build lasting relationships. I was reminded of why ArrowCan was formed. Those relationships we have built have lasted, they have survived many changes in TTOs (mandated from above and chosen by the frontline people as well) because of the CONSTANT visits and effort to help each and every time we visit. Today they offer us an edge that no one can easily challenge without putting in the time we have to initiate, build, and maintain these very important and personal relationships on BOTH the industry and the academic sides. There was a genuine need for a third link to make the connections possible, sensible and trust-based. We saw it and we filled it out of a genuine belief about the value of doing just that. It gives us an edge that we pass on each and every day to our industry clients and our academic partners alike.

Today I am deeply grateful to all of those people on BOTH sides of this equation who saw that vision with me in those early years and who supported the effort (each in their own way)and encouraged me on. This moment belonged to all of us collectively. I am THRILLED that we are now all involved with really getting to know one another before we actually do deals. I do believe that this is going to pay off in a BIG way for Canada in the long run.