StartupBUSINESS.COM

Bruce Gjovig, Entrepreneur Coach & Director
UND Center for Innovation

25 years of innovation, entrepreneurship and investment

The 25 year history of the Center for Innovation is a story of 1) innovation, entrepreneurship and investment; 2) becoming a very early leader in entrepreneur outreach and tech entrepreneurship; 3) transforming students and innovative entrepreneurs; 4) constant innovation and improvement; and 5) changing the entrepreneur culture of the state and the university. This milestone provides a good time to appreciate from where we have come, reflect on where we are, and project where we will be.

Success stories involve vision and key strategies as well as leaders and stakeholders who make a vital difference. No person or entity gets to the top by themselves and rarely without severe challenges and obstacles. The UND Center for Innovation is no different. Here are the key factors to our success over 25 years:

Tom Clifford, Patron Saint

We were blessed to have the strong support of UND President Tom Clifford in the formative years, lasting long after his retirement in 1992. He was enthusiastic supporter when he allowed me to start one of the nation’s first entrepreneur outreach centers, wanting innovation on campus, and willing to back something totally new on any college campus. Most university administrators avoid risk and unknowns outside the laboratory, and only will only do the already tried and true… and well funded. However Clifford was an extraordinary leader who appreciated new opportunities, believed the future is with mavericks, and backed his campus innovators helping secure much needed funding. Clifford asked me to report directly to him to send a message to the naysayers, detractors and bureaucrats: the new Center had his blessings and support. With his extensive business knowledge, he was a positive advisor when asking for counsel, but he never interfered with operations. Clifford liked football, so I often said Tom blocked and tackled so that I could run. And he did. The Center would not have been started under most other college administrators who would be either nervous about innovation and change, or who did not see the value of entrepreneurship. I was so fortunate to launch the Center under a university leader who embraced innovation and entrepreneurship and provided good counsel and support when it was needed. I shall ever be indebted to this extraordinary leader - Tom Clifford who was a mentor and friend until the day he died this last February.

Capitalism and Entrepreneurship

I have a strong belief that capitalism - esp. entrepreneurship - is the best way for the poor and disadvantaged to raise their heads above the crowd, backed with a good education that provides know-how, skills and the ability to think. I believe it is through entrepreneurship that the economy grows much bigger, so many more people can have ownership in homes, savings, retirement plans and their own companies i.e. wealth and security. I grew up in modest economic conditions on a small farm with no particular advantage other than my mind and a supportive family. I never felt that I should be taken care of, and thought nearly all people had the ability to take control of their own destiny. Entrepreneurship is how people can best realize their potential and be rewarded for their talents. So many started with so little, and attained so much through entrepreneurship. The names on endowments, museums, foundations, public buildings are populated by entrepreneurs who grew much from little, and gave back to their community, university, and nation. I am immensely thankful to the American system of capitalism and the relative ease that people can start ventures and find their competitive advantage through innovation. Being an entrepreneur is not easy and there are many steep hills to climb, but at least not all the odds are stacked against the new and small. Entrepreneur Centers should be in every state, nation and on nearly every campus. It was our American system and values that allowed the Center for Innovation to be among the first entrepreneur centers in the nation and world, figuring how to do more and be better. I feel lucky and blessed.

Business Builders, Benefactors, Investors and Mentors

The idea to start the Center for Innovation came while working with UND alumni who were successful entrepreneurs. I was fascinated with these outstanding leaders who were innovators and business builders who were strongly committed to the university and their communities. I thought it would be good to purposefully help young people become entrepreneurs - our nation’s future innovators, employers, leaders and benefactors. In 1984, entrepreneurs were universally ignored by economic developers, universities, chambers of commerce, government officials – nearly everyone. It is difficult to remember in today's business environment that 25 years ago there was total lack of attention and priority on entrepreneurs. Knowledgeable people now recognize that our world economy is highly dependent on a constant supply of new entrepreneurial leaders and innovation. When launching the Center for Innovation, I sensed could depend on successful entrepreneurs to support future entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs remembered how lonely and difficult it was to start a new venture and wished better for the next generation. In 1984, Clifford provided the first $20,000 to launch the Center and challenged me to raise funds from UND alumni and entrepreneurial friends to operate the Center. Fifteen entrepreneurs stepped up to the plate the first year, with Walt Swingen of Grand Forks writing the first check. When thanking Walt, I quoted a Chinese proverb: "He who gives early gives twice" i.e. leadership gifts matter greatly. He liked to tease me that quote meant he had the opportunity to give more than once, which he did as did many other benefactors. We are now approaching $30 M invested in our two tech incubators, endowments, program infrastructure, and entrepreneur outreach. The Center exists because successful entrepreneurs invested in the next generation of entrepreneurs. Without these benefactors we would still be in a storage closet in Harrington Hall hoping for crumbs. These successful entrepreneurs were vital advocates and advisors for the Center, mentors to emerging entrepreneurs, investors in ventures, and helped form a vibrant entrepreneur community. The key experts are the successful practitioners who know the art and science of launching and growing ventures. These practicing experts were vital in building our Center that became world-class and recognized with seven national awards. We are still learning from these entrepreneur experts.

Center for Innovation Foundation

When launching the Center, I was fortunate that an early leader in entrepreneurship education was a native of Ashley, North Dakota. Dr. Dwight Baumann started teaching entrepreneurship classes at MIT in the late 1950s and launched an entrepreneur program at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1970s. He strongly advised that if the university did not supply the necessary funding for the Center, he said we should utilize a 501(c)3 foundation to attract funding and entrepreneur leadership, who serve as catalysts for change and protect the funding from the bureaucracy. President Tom Clifford agreed. Dwight lectured often that the natural enemy of innovation and entrepreneurship is bureaucracy, and that universities will embrace innovation only with strong catalysts from outside and good leaders on the inside. He was so right. The Foundation has been instrumental in attracting great entrepreneur talent as trustees as well as benefactors to help build the Center and the academic entrepreneur program. The 25 year outcome would be quite less without the Foundation, and our future remains closely tied to the success of the Center for Innovation Foundation and its entrepreneur trustees. Entrepreneur benefactors are attracted to a foundation that has entrepreneur trustees to provide oversight and direction.

Dean Dennis Elbert & the campus supporters

I was a strong advocate for Dennis Elbert when he was being named Dean of the College of Business & Public Administration in 1997. He was an outstanding marketing professor, a strong student advocate, had extensive military and consulting experience, had worked with entrepreneurs, and knew UND as he was a North Dakotan and graduate. When he was named Dean, the Center for Innovation found a good home in the College of Business. After many years of trying to get an entrepreneur major launched, we finally had receptive leadership. UND’s entrepreneur experience is unusual in that most colleges have an entrepreneur outreach program grow out of the academic entrepreneur department. It was the other way around at UND, with the academic program growing out of the Center for Innovation in 1999. Within a five short years we were ranked in the top 1% of entrepreneur programs nationally by Princeton Review becoming a signature program for UND. The Center enjoys strong support from Denny as well as many business faculty and other faculty across campus. It is not universal support, but we did have vital support from key faculty and administrators that has allowed us to excel nationally, even on a shoestring budget. We are blessed. On many campuses, entrepreneurship programs have been starved, attacked, robbed, micro-managed by the unknowing, and faced every obstacle one can imagine. Politics on a college campus can be brutal, esp. for the newly successful. Dean Elbert has helped us avoid those pitfalls and setbacks for which we are thankful. I was pleasantly surprised when UND announced their new branding statement in 2008: Creative ~ Innovative ~ Entrepreneurial ~ Spirited. The campus culture has changed, embracing key principles and values of our organization. No finer compliment can be received.

Public Policy Leaders

Entrepreneurs depend on a favourable business climate to increase their opportunities to succeed thus decrease their chances of failure. From the very first year, I have advocated many tax, regulatory, legal, financing and other reforms and programs to improve North Dakota’s entrepreneur business climate. I have been fortunate that US Senators and Congressmen, Governors, State Legislators and government administrators have responded so favourably. In particular, I have teamed up with three leaders many times to innovate with public policy that has helped advance North Dakota as an entrepreneur friendly state – Sen. Ray Holmberg of Grand Forks, Sen. Tony Grindberg of Fargo and Governor John Hoeven. These are great quarterbacks who will carry a ball across the goal line, plus add their own good ideas. By embracing innovative policy ideas, North Dakota has programs like InnovateND, 45% investment tax credit for angel investors, the Beginning Entrepreneur Loan Program, tort reform for aircraft manufactures, $5 M for growing the UAS mission at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, and much more too numerous to mention here. Special mention should be made of Sen. Kent Conrad who was a key advocate in 1992-93 to help the Center for Innovation Foundation secure a $3.5 M competitive grant from HUD to build the first campus incubator on the Great Plains, now called the Skalicky Tech Incubator. Our Foundation gave the incubator building to UND to secure the building’s operational support at a time the Foundation was unsure it could secure those resources. It is never easy to secure funding for a new building, esp. when you are a young program with more opportunity and vision than track record and funding. We are fortunate to have these elected officials who understand and embrace innovation and entrepreneurship. North Dakota was an entrepreneur state from the time of the homesteaders and immigrants until the Great Depression, a period of 50 years. We lost that entrepreneur culture for four decades after the depression, but it is coming back strong. Our best years are ahead of us thanks to innovative entrepreneurs who have a good entrepreneur business climate.

Entrepreneurial Students

The Center has continuously bootstrapped our operations, patching together the funds from many sources required to get the job done right. That is constant stress and strain. Often the only talent I could afford was student talent who were looking for an opportunity to prove themselves. Entrepreneur-minded students consistently out performed in quality and quantity those ‘experts’ hired from a corporate or academic backgrounds. So we built a world-class entrepreneur center with a large dose of student talent. Many predicted that could not be done, as experience and credentials were premium. They were wrong. We built the Center on young talent and at a fraction of the cost of other university centers, esp. at big named schools. I would put our students from North Dakota and Minnesota against experts, students or faculty from the Ivy League and the elite universities. Our students are bright, practical, hard working young people who are immensely resourceful and creative in a way the rich kids could not be. I have a good eye for talent, and there is lots of talent here to choose from. If anyone doubts the wonderful talent of our student body, think of the incredible number of successful alumni from UND. That number keeps growing. Bart and Lynn Holaday provided a grant in 2006 to the Center for Innovation Foundation to start up the nation's first student-run venture fund - the Dakota Venture Group. This student group works at a very high level of expertise and ability, more than 15 to 20 years above their age and credentials. Just one more example where our students do compete with anyone from anywhere. Students helped build a world-class entrepreneur center, and in turn we give them experience that could not get anywhere else. That is great win-win situation.

Entrepreneurial Talent

Every great organization is built with great talent whose leadership, creativity and productivity are unleashed. As my comments above testify, I have been able to surround myself with student talent, and have worked with an amazing number of emerging entrepreneurs across the state with ideas, leadership, vision, and entrepreneur gumption. Their success reflects well on us, but they did the heavy lifting with innovation and new ventures. We were the coaches on the sideline urging them on as they were on the field competing. There are so many good people to recognize and appreciate; there is danger in mentioning some and not others. North Dakotans are cautious entrepreneurs and tend to underpromise and over deliver. Most shun bringing attention on themselves, and would rather do a very good job with no special notice. The challenge before us to is unleash the entrepreneur talent of so many more people. Good news is that entrepreneur talent is all over North Dakota, too often waiting to be empowered and encouraged. Help us unleash that talent.

Two academic colleagues - Craig Silvernagel and Jeff Stamp - deserve special attention as they are the dedicated professors who do superb work in the classroom resulted in our top academic rankings. The Center is the entrepreneur lab for our academic program. Our foundation and center have secured a good share of the necessary funding for professors, internships, programs, etc. investing in the future of young talent and great professors. Most serial entrepreneurs think about becoming an entrepreneur when quite young. Providing the knowledge and tools early will only accelerate success that our economy needs. These two professors provide the academic rigor and they have dedicated their professional lives to our students and excellence in the program. Every day I have evidence of their good work. When you see Craig and Jeff thank them. They are entrepreneur educators who are best of class.

Staying on Top is Hard Work

To remain a top ranked and nationally recognized program is hard work. Our entrepreneurship program has been ranked in the top 1% of programs in the nation for five years. Entrepreneurship has become a signature program for UND, bringing honor and recognition to our students, faculty, Center, University and State. However, our competitors and colleagues do not slack off so we can stay ahead and coast. It is just the reverse: they copy success and work harder. I have re-invented the Center a half-dozen times in 25 years to keep it state-of-the-art, and am in process of doing it again. My early goals were to be among the best in the nation, and the best in rural America. I did not give a lot of thought during that time of growth of what it would take to stay on top. Electronics and plastics entrepreneur Shelly Schjeldahl gave me a quote from Rudyard Kipling that helped sum up the need for innovative leadership, "The copied and copied but could not copy my mind, so I left them sweating and stealing a year and a half behind." With the help of our students, entrepreneur friends and benefactors, we will stay on top.

Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Investment

From the beginning the Center for Innovation was focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and investment - plus the programs and infrastructure that support that focus. Innovation is the what provides the competitive advantage. The focus has remained constant for 25 years as we have developed several improved and new programs, new facilities, new infrastructure, and better ways of supporting creative entrepreneurs. I have enough ideas it will take me a decade to find ways to implement them all. There are better ways to provide quality entrepreneur education that will reform entrepreneur education nationwide. It needs to be focused more on entrepreneur practitioners as professors, more leadership and entrepreneur experience for students, better integration of knowledge, be campus-wide and better engagement of students with emerging entrepreneurs for win-win situations. There are opportunities to turn on the entrepreneur spirit for middle age folks who want a new challenge and focus in life. And there are more ways to engage potential angel investors in entrepreneur ventures. Stay tuned for more.

Recessions provide opportunity too

What is behind us is not as important as what is ahead of us. There is so much opportunity to capture, and so many creative people who are waiting for someone to help them start their entrepreneur journey, even in hard times. Let us not regret lost opportunity - the hardest thing to measure in the world. The Center was born at the end of the 1980-83 world recession and the malaise and inflation of the 1970s. We have been through several North Dakota and national recessions in 25 years. In every market - up or down - there is opportunity for those who are looking, sometimes more opportunity in a down market. Dynamic change creates opportunity, and creative destruction (thank you Joseph Schumpeter) helps us advance with innovation and entrepreneurship. Out with the old and tired, and in with the new and innovative. I am alarmed that so many leaders have quickly forgotten the great lessons of entrepreneur capitalism in the current recession. Luckily creative entrepreneurs are paying more attention to potential customers than political leaders. Often I am discouraged when I see talent and opportunity wasted, but always optimistic and rejuvenated when I am around innovators and entrepreneurs. Our country has been through 37 recessions and depressions in 230 years, and from each cycle we came out stronger than before. The leading indicator in each recovery was innovation, entrepreneur and investment activity in the private sector. Our government and institutions learn slowly from experience in economic and business cycles. Luckily there are entrepreneurs busy doing things seeing what others do not see. There is lots of opportunity before us. Help everyone you can find opportunity. The best resource man has is man himself, and we are everywhere. Unleash that resource.

Finding your passion

It did not occur to me growing up to become a social or campus entrepreneur, growing a non-profit to national prominence. I was around self-reliant Norwegian farmers around Crosby who were great problem solvers and practical thinkers, but I cannot think of any family or friends that I would identify as an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur gene was turned on when I was president of my fraternity learning leadership, and then tapped on the shoulder by alumni to help build a new chapter house on campus. At that time we started the first chapter educational foundation in the nation, proving the experts and naysayers wrong. I liked that. That process of innovation and pioneering helped me realize I liked the building and growth process, being creative. After four quick jobs changes in four industries, I found my passion and calling with the Center for Innovation a few years after graduation. I did not think I was the type that could do one thing for 25 years much less being an entrepreneur coach and pioneer in the entrepreneurship field. I underestimated the power of passion. What I wish for others is they find their passion too. It gives life such meaning and purpose. My mother died early when I was in college and my farmer father was never sure I could make a living as a entrepreneur coach in a university, but he was proud of my success anyway. Good fathers are like that, supporting your children's dreams even if it is to pioneer and not do the safe and secure. I have been blessed in so many ways, even during the tough times over this stretch of 25 years (which I will not talk about here). We learn from challenges and problems too, and as the Slavic's say, what does not kill us makes us stronger. I have dedicated my life to entrepreneurship and innovation with few regrets. There is nothing else I would rather do for a career that work with innovators and entrepreneurs. I see lots more to do to advance the entrepreneur world. I see entrepreneur talent is so many places. Too often I have not expressed my appreciation and thanks for those who were on the journey too. This is the time to do that. As the Norwegians say - mange tusen takk - many thousand thanks.