EQ Journal

Category

Things Every Tech Startup Needs to Know about Business Models

By Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (Civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD Abstract The Business Model is supplanting the Business Plan in many organizations. It not only describes the complete business ecosystem, it is a mechanism to discover profitable new relationships amongst stakeholder groups. The Business Model is more resilient than a plan and harder for competitors [...]

Why Businesses (Really) Fail

And Why Even Mighty IBM Can’t Forget the Basics Below are some data published by BusinessWeek on why businesses fail. I’ll bet you that the top five reasons (too much debt, inadequate leadership, poor planning, failure to change and inexperienced management) are in fact related to number six on their list: not enough revenue; i.e., [...]

Publishing

Why so many established enterprises let entrepreneurs eat their lunch There is no industry that is changing faster than this one. Not music, film, television, nothing. It’s not just book publishing that is changing at an incredible rate as e-publishing platforms proliferate across the Internet and tablets, smart phones and computers become the medium of [...]

Moneyball Movie

10 Things You Can Learn about Sports and Business from Moneyball What the Ottawa Senators did Right to Make the Playoffs 12 out of 13 Years Television’s Golden Age could be Ahead not Behind I am an Aaron Sorkin fan from his days writing A Few Good Men, The American President and, of course, The [...]

Great Art

At TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) 2011, U2′s Bono made an offhand, almost throwaway comment that stopped me in my tracks. He said something like this: ‘The difference between good, maybe even very good art and great art is HUGE.‘ Entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and artpreneurs would do well to keep this in mind. Steve Jobs was [...]

Looking Back to Look Forward

To find out if your startup is really going to be of any real use, take a few moments to perform an Einsteinian thought experiment. Ask: If my product or service had been around ever since Jan 27, 1756 (Mozart’s DOB), what would it be worth today? Imagine YouTube, for a moment, having been around [...]

IOE, Institute of Entrepreneurs

IOE5100, Advanced Business Models Exploriem.org’s Institute of Entrepreneurs presents IOE5100, Advanced Business Models for Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs and Artpreneurs, an MBA level course (For available dates and times as well as more information, please contact: Ms. Theresia Scholtes, tscholtes @ exploriem.org or @tclsholtes) Come study with Prof Bruce, a leader in designing and building business models [...]

Why I Wrote Quantum Entity

Here below is the dedication I wrote for the upcoming release of the first book in my new trilogy, Quantum Entity, which will be available later this year. Below that I include the Foreword. Dedication I wanted to write a great mid-21st Century story, a trilogy as it turned out, focused on five themes—entrepreneurship/science, science [...]

Institute of Entrepreneurs

Introduction Exploriem.org is launching the Institute of Entrepreneurs (IOE) this year. Why? To bring advanced research, education and mentoring to student entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs from self-capitalized and forward-looking enterprises across Canada and around the world. IOE provides access to research, education and a network of high achievers that you just can’t get anywhere else. The [...]

Letter to Marie Lemay, NCC CEO: December 10, 2011

Marie—many people are grateful that the NCC has a new leader with vision—you. I read the story in the OC today headlined ‘Cue the Gondolas’: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/gondolas+puts+calls+ideas+animate+Rideau+Canal/5839093/story.html where the NCC has put out a call for gondolas to animate the Rideau Canal. You should know that former student of mine, Darcy McCrae, brought a beautiful $85,000 [...]

Defining Leadership

Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, says leadership is about getting people to do things they know are not in their best interests. WRONG. This is absolutely not what leaders do, at least, not the successful ones I have known in RL (Real Life). So for Adams and others, here is my attempt at defining what a [...]

Product Managers and Decoy Pricing