Lessons Learned – Entrepreneurship Symposium
A symposium that preceded the June 2019 conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Educational Technology program at Concordia University explored entrepreneurship in the field. This article summarizes the discussion, including a background on entrepreneurship, perspectives of four entrepreneurs, and advice on launching one’s own initiatives.
About Entrepreneurship
Of all the branches of education, educational technology is particularly suited to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is defined as the art and science of developing, organizing, and managing a business venture with an aim to analyze opportunities, solve a given problem, and make a profit. Transforming research into new technologies and services significantly increases benefits to businesses and individual consumers. Educational technology can help businesses and organizations in operating more efficiently and effectively.
Entrepreneurship differs from invention. Although inventors and entrepreneurs are able to create new ideas, inventors are generally more focused on the tangible invention while entrepreneurs are more focused on the business opportunity involved in applying the innovation to bring these ideas to life. Particular areas of entrepreneurship in educational technology today include Online Program Managers (OPMs), mobile learning, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and learning analytics.
Entrepreneurship is often associated with innovation. Innovation is the act of generating new ideas or methods and converting them into goods or services which satisfy a specific need and create value. This association with innovation is often made because improving upon existing products or processes, along with the creation of whole new ones, is key to entrepreneurship.
Interest in innovation is strong today because of the occurrence of digital disruption. Digital disruption is the change that occurs as a result of the rapid advancement of technology, new business models, and globalization which affect the value proposition of existing goods and services. This changes customer expectations and behaviors and thus, to stay afloat, organizations then seek to shift how they create products and services, market themselves, and evaluate feedback. This is particularly relevant to educational technology because the change in demand, expectations, and capacity for technological innovation in training and development, higher education, distance education, and K-12 settings as a result of this disruption has made many in the field rethink existing ways to do business and market new tools and processes.
Four entrepreneurs in educational technology
To demonstrate these concepts, four entrepreneurs in educational technology, all of whom are alumni of the program, shared their experiences as product, service, and social entrepreneurs.
Product entrepreneur. Paul Cholmsky.
Paul has a vast amount of experience with educational gaming and has worked on a number of educational products over the years. During his presentation, Paul discussed two of his current products, Gizmos and Reflex, showing the audience how one would use them as well as their purpose. He also covered how they have been successful, through compiled statistical figures as well as testimonials, in helping young students to better learn math and foster higher motivation and positive attitudes overall towards the subject. He concluded his presentation by stating that entrepreneurship in the field of educational technology is about helping people to learn more efficiently, and to ultimately transform the lives of others.
Services entrepreneur—development services. Lorne Novolker, GP Strategies.
Lorne is the vice president of GP Strategies, a company with over 50 years of experience in helping businesses as well as individuals perform at their highest potential. He works to establish mutually beneficial relationships with partners and helps his clients reach their desired learning and performance goals. During his presentation, Lorne focused on the key lessons learned which he felt were most pertinent to successful entrepreneurship in the field. He stated that when talking about success, it is important to note the role that failure plays in achieving it. In his view, failure is part of life, as well as entrepreneurship. He believes that adapting to change is key, as one should not be afraid to reinvent oneself or to take calculated risks when appropriate. Lorne had also emphasized the importance of aligning goals and expectations with partners and clients. He noted that, in some cases, one may even need to lose a customer in order to gain another in the long run for strategic purposes.
Services entrepreneur—boutique services. Edouard Rotondo, Studio 7 Communications.
Edouard is the president at Studio 7 Communications. His company supports a multitude of clients with strategic training solutions, and performance improvement is their core purpose. Edouard described Studio 7’s business model as E-lite, focusing mainly on traditional e-learning and gamification. They also engage in business performance analysis, have their own training and development (T&D) strategy and engage in consulting practices. Drawing on his experience with his company, he outlined the challenges involved in establishing a T&D agency in detail. Some of the challenges he described were finding and investing money in people and processes for making the best products possible, defining their services, building their portfolio, and maintaining a balance between quality and cost of output. Edouard also explained that accepting too many projects or simply the wrong ones was an issue at first. He emphasized the need to be selective in accepting projects. Establishing brand value along with taking the time to properly evaluate projects and estimate timelines were a few other challenges discussed. Understanding market threshold along with the interplay between clients, expertise, and markets proved essential to their success.
Social entrepreneur. Haidee Thanda, Hacking Health.
Currently working as a senior learning platform architect at Shopify in Montreal, Haidee discussed the current state of technological as well as social innovation in the health care sector. She focused on her experiences managing a health innovation project with a research and development (R&D) team at a fertility clinic. During this time, she was in charge of managing both people and resources. Haidee shared some of her key takeaways related to the time she spent on this project. She learned that it is important to have the right stakeholders present when identifying and discussing problems to be addressed during a project or initiative. She also noted that adopting a more agile and iterative approach for the evaluation of the program would have been more effective for its success. Haidee also stated that it is important to have a healthy attitude around failure while remaining curious about new approaches to problem solving.
Advice from the entrepreneurs
During the panel discussion, Dr. Carliner asked the panelists four questions relating to entrepreneurship in educational technology. The audience was also welcomed to ask questions during this portion of the symposium.
How to build entrepreneurship skills
When asked how to build entrepreneurship skills, the panelists suggested to:
- Observe others
- Experiment with different approaches
- Engage in self-reflection
- Share stories and experiences with other professionals
- Gain an understanding of business systems, data analytics, and accounting
- Be well aware of what all the workers in an organization are doing and how their tasks are related to one another
- Trust one’s instincts
What experiences can prepare you to be an entrepreneur?
Relevant experiences suggested by the panelists included:
- Taking on leadership positions in low-risk environments
- Partnering up with fellow professionals to solve real problems
- Working on honing one’s writing skills
- Building a professional portfolio
- Engaging in volunteering
What were you most unprepared for?
In the panelists’ individual experiences in their work, they were most unprepared for:
- The need to think proactively
- Partnerships that took a turn for the worst
- Managing conflict between individuals
- A good win with regards to partnerships with clients
How do you maintain and expand your knowledge?
The importance of networking, staying informed, and investing in professional development was clearly stated during the discussion. This relates to:
- Attending events including webinars and conferences
- Connecting with many people on LinkedIn
- Asking questions to other professionals
- Continuously reading and staying up to date with the trends and technologies in the field
- Noticing the trends and thinking critically about productive innovation and what product(s) could potentially be successful
Conclusion
The Entrepreneurship Symposium which preceded the June 2019 conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Educational Technology program at Concordia University was a very valuable experience for many. The guest speakers offered many insights based on their own diverse experiences as entrepreneurs in the field. Through presentations, active learning, discussion, and networking, participants were given many opportunities for professional development and inspiration for continuing their own work.