Innovation
What is Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship (IDE)?
Innovation-driven entrepreneurship is a very important part of our economy today, and will be even more important in the future. But what does it mean, and how is it different from small-medium size entrepreneurship (SME) and traditional corporate business?
MIT REAP describes innovation as a “process of taking ideas from inception to impact.” Entrepreneurs who focus on growing innovation-based companies develop new to the world solutions that address global problems and markets. The solutions are scalable and they create new value. Entrepreneurs who bring such ideas to life create deep impacts that shape the world around us, from the kind of work we do, to the way we communicate and to the health care we enjoy.
Think of it as the difference between your local bookseller (SME) and Amazon (IDE). Both sell books, but Amazon has scaled and now offers transactional platforms like Amazon Marketplace, and innovation platforms like Amazon Web Services, not to mention their advancements in cloud computing, AI, and the fact that they employ roughly 675,500 people around the world.
Innovation-driven companies also enable other businesses to grow and develop. Some create network effects where positive feedback loops link different users and markets together accelerating investments, value creation, jobs and growth. In fact, the newly formed Innovation Economy Council which includes Canadian accelerators like MaRS and DMZ conducted a study which “found that innovation companies create an outsized share of new jobs and grow at a much faster rate than the overall economy.”
Moreover, innovation-driven start-ups are in a position to help traditional businesses re-tool and pivot while adopting new technologies to make them more globally competitive. With global economic uncertainty, we have never needed innovation-driven entrepreneurship more than we do now.
Why is Inclusive Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship Important?
At ONSIDE, we believe that Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada have a high innovation capacity and the right resources to have a thriving region based on innovation-driven entrepreneurship. But, in order to see the maximum benefit of innovation-driven entrepreneurship, we must be inclusive. We must create access for women, as well as rural, African-Nova Scotian, and Indigenous communities so together, we can share in the co-creation of our prosperous future.
What is Collective Impact?
Source: MIT
ONSIDE understands that innovation and entrepreneurship do not happen in a vacuum but as part of a system.
Collective impact is an evidence-based framework for mobilizing stakeholders and resources to tackle a common problem for deep structural change. Typically, it is used to address complex issues that cannot be solved by independent actors such as improving health outcomes.
ONSIDE leverages a version of collective impact developed by MIT REAP. This method focuses on understanding and accelerating innovation-driven entrepreneurship in evolving ecosystems. There are three main components. These are; understanding the system, key stakeholders, and creating and executing an acceleration strategy.
Once partners understand these fundamentals, mobilizing stakeholders around a common agenda is the “special sauce” to effective and sustainable change.
Collective Impact has five main principles:
Defining a common agenda,
Maintaining accountability through shared measurements,
Coordinating different, but mutually reinforcing activities greater sustainability and impact of efforts,
Constant communications,
Backbone support through a separate organization that acts as a coordinating body for the initiative and its participants.
If we focus on these behaviours and work together, we can create meaningful change. We invite you to join us on this journey.