AlwaysOn 2004, The Innovation Summit, took place at Stanford University in July of this year, and the sessions are available for free viewing. I took the time to listen to a 56 minute panel discussion on Silicon Valley, Anywhere – featuring venture capitalists and IT executives. I found this to be a frank discussion about the perils of developing and selling new IT products and services in the global marketplace.
Daniel Gatti, CEO of Big Bangwidth, talked about conducting R&D in Canada. To summarize, he said that the centres of excellence developed in Canada are a real boon to technology companies, and that doing development in Canada makes a lot of sense for any IT company.
Joe Schoendorf, of Accel Partners, also made some interesting comments from the VC perspective. He said that if you are introducing a new technology to the market, then you should look at the USA, China and Europe – normally in that order. Europe is slower to adopt new technologies than either the US or China. He also said that the key to innovation is getting products to market, and that as an investor he looks at two things:
- The strength of the core team, and
- How fast the company will get its product to market
Many people forget that there is only one measurable indicator when it comes to innovation, and that is improving the livelihood of people. If you do not generate wealth from new products and services, then all of the R&D in world is of little value.
There are many other presentations available for viewing, so sit back with a glass of wine (as I did) and listen to the dialogue.
