NABI Blog

Holiday Dental featured in FOCUS Newsletter

kjanzen@nabi.ca — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:06:00 GMT

Each month, the St. Albert Business and Tourism features a St. Albert business in their Focus on Business Newsletter to help support our business community and get the word out about all of the great businesses we have here!

(Post from March 2012 Newsletter)

Claudia caught up with Daren Frick from Holiday Dental to chat about doing business in St. Albert...

Daren Frick of Holiday Dental

Why did you start your business in St. Albert?

St. Albert is where I live. After finding out that my family and I would be relocating from Ontario to the Edmonton area in 2007, I asked around at work and St. Albert was recommended as a great place to live by a number of people.

After launching Holiday Dental in late 2011, I quickly realized I needed office space. I'd walked and cycled past the NABI building on Mission Avenue a number of times, and I'd heard of the business incubator concept while living elsewhere, so I enquired about what NABI had to offer. It's worked out really well. Having access to the ideas and energy of other entrepreneurs and the staff and resources at NABI has helped me move the business forward.

St. Albert is a very livable city, so it comes as no surprise that working here is also enjoyable. Although it seems we're playing catch-up, City council seems to be aware of the need to foster a favorable business climate.

Category: General

Book Review: The Other Side of Innovation

kjanzen@nabi.ca — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:39:00 GMT

Book Review by Kendra Brosseau

“Companies can’t survive without innovating. But most put far more emphasis on generating big ideas than on executing them – turning ideas into actual breakthrough products, services, and process improvements.”

In the book, “The Other Side of Innovation,” by Chris Trimble and Vijay Govindarajan, the authors provide clear guidance for developing innovative ideas that cannot (or should not) be developed within an organization’s day-to-day operations (i.e. the organization’s Performance Engine). The authors elaborate on two kinds of "teams" in most firms. The Performance Engine; or the portion of the business focused on the day to day execution of the business - creating products, shipping products, etc. This portion focused on earning profits, performing consistently and efficiently. The other type of team, the one focused on leading innovation projects, is called the Dedicated Team. The authors note that many things that this team does are in direct conflict with the Performance Engine. The Dedicated Team talks about "breaking all the rules," which, "sounds like breaking the Performance Engine.” There is direct conflict between the goals and expectations of the two teams.

Category: Book Reviews

Small businesses can be beacons of hope

kjanzen@nabi.ca — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:45:00 GMT

By Dar Schwanbeck, Managing Director, NABI

If you’re not worried, maybe you just don’t understand the situation. As we begin 2012, many economic challenges are emerging and we’re not immune.

Category: General

How Stella Saved the Farm – Making Innovation Happen

kjanzen@nabi.ca — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:00:00 GMT

A Book Review by Kendra Brosseau

In this ever-changing, competition based society, there are so many challenges and demands that an entrepreneur faces in order to succeed in business. The book, “How Stella Saved the Farm” by Chris Trimble and Vijay Govindarajan, is a “wild and wooly yarn about making innovation happen”. This parable helps you understand that your idea is only the beginning, and examines ways in which to take your thoughts, and make it into a reality. ”How Stella Saved the Farm”, delivers eight core ideas to guide your own innovation initiatives to success; and will help you avoid some of innovation’s most “toxic myths”. You will discover how to build the right type of team, and how to learn quickly from experiences as your initiative proceeds. In this short, 130 page book, you will examine different types of leadership abilities, evaluate your organizational history, review your company’s finances, employee attitudes, new product introduction, and organizational charts; learn the value of flexibility; understand how to make tough hiring and promotional decisions, and examine the cultural diversity that may exist within a company. By having the main characters as animals, it makes those difficult issues, somewhat less “bullying”, but still very realistic, and enjoyable to read. This book was a quick and amusing, and would really benefit anyone who currently has a business, wants to expand, or is just looking into an idea they have. It ultimately makes you look at your company’s next step(s) and who truly stepped up to “save the farm”.

A summary of the lessons to take away from the book….

A. For any innovation, the “idea” is only the beginning, and

B. Asking one leader to “go make it happen” is a very inadequate approach to moving an idea forward.

To make it happen, 6 steps are necessary, organized around building a team and then planning and managing progress.

Build a Team

1. Assign a dedicated team any activities that are beyond the normal capabilities of the existing organization (and these may be just time-related, such as fast prototyping)

2. Build the dedicated team as if you are building a new organization from the ground up

3. Nurture a healthy relationship between the new team and existing organization

Plan and Assess Progress

4. Put learning first (before profitability) – learn through disciplined experimentation. If you do, you’ll make better decisions and achieve profit sooner.

5. Gather evidence to validate each major expenditure.

6. Evaluate the innovation leader based on whether he or she executed a disciplined experiment.

More ...

Category: Book Reviews

Are great businesspeople more important than great ideas?

kjanzen@nabi.ca — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:35:00 GMT

A Book Review by Dar Schwanbeck

Category: Book Reviews

Book Review: SWITCH How to Change Things when Change is Hard

kjanzen@nabi.ca — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:11:00 GMT

SWITCH How to Change Things when Change is Hard
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

A Book Review by K. Janzen

Change is a constant in our lives and yet how much do we really understand the process of change.

If you have tried to change your eating habits to lose weight, you know that it is difficult. If you are trying to influence change on a global level (like, for example, the Global Organization for Parliamentarians Against Corruption) it is really, really hard.

Many business challenges also involve change; you may need to change the attitudes of customers or a business or a corporate environment. Sometimes a small change can make a big difference in your business.

The authors break change down into three main elements:

First, the rational mind (the Rider), needs to understand why the change is important, how it will work and the small steps that will be required to accomplish the change.

Second, the emotional side (the Elephant) must be motivated. People need to feel something to enable change.

Third, the environment, habits and behavior must be shaped to change things when change is hard.

This book is inspiring and entertaining as the authors explore the elements of change with many illustrative and often humorous examples.

Summer is a great time to relax with a good book, so if you want a break from the summer romance or sports illustrated, I would highly recommend SWITCH.

What changes will you orchestrate?

More ...

Category: Book Reviews