Act Your Dream

You may not believe me, but I have news about the 'f' word; good news! The four-letter word is the open secret behind the success of companies like Facebook and Google. That is precisely correct. Had it not been for this fascinating magic word, we would not have come to know of the many forward-thinking business models that are considered the cornerstone of disruptive innovation we are awed at today. In fact, the modern concepts of collaborative consumption and share-economy, that companies like Uber are driven by and companies like airbnb consider their bread-and-butter, all began with the f-word. The word, ‘FREE sits at the centre of the new-age economy – the freeconomy. In Chris Anderson's widely read article in Wired Magazine,  Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business , he observes, "Once a marketing gimmick, free has emerged as a full-fledged economy." Like the other 'f' word you had in mind when you started reading this article, t...

The only thing more important than what is said is who said it. Or is it? We know all too well that perception is greater than reality. That includes our perception of famous people whose opinions are perceived as gems of irrefutable wisdom regardless of whether or not they have any merit. Well, it's not their fault. We tend to judge a lot, both positively and negatively. As a result, people who have gained a certain stature in life are considered more entitled to share their views based on their experience. The truth is, everyone is entitled to share their opinions based on their experience. The only difference is that if something is said by a billionaire, nobody runs it up the flagpole even if it makes no sense. But every once in a while, a statement jumps out at you as so witless that you don’t really need to scrutinize it to figure out it is absolute dopey. It is so contrary to common wisdom, that you don’t even care who said it. Why such quotes still get million...

This article was originally published on  The Market Mogul . Please read  here . It is perplexing to see the contrariety between the performance of knowledge-based small enterprises in Canada and similar ventures in the US despite the two counties having so much in common. Canada’s potential to create disruptive innovation is demonstrated by individual success stories that are few and far between. However, there is apparently no dearth of talent and entrepreneurial risk taking when it comes to tech startups or innovative social enterprises. What lacks in almost all cases is the ability of the businesses to organically grow by leveraging a partnership-based innovation ecosystem. The reason is simple; one doesn’t exist. The gaps in the venture financing systems warrant creating a collaborative ecosystem for innovation that would build on the existing strengths by augmenting partnerships between private, public and non-profit sectors nationally, while on the other ha...