The Need for Innovation Association reform

Greetings and salutations fellow members of the innovation, entrepreneur and capital society.

I was going through my schedule last night for the next several months and there are a lot of upcoming programs/initiatives; I mean a lot. This led me to think .... "Do we have too many innovation focused, entrepreneur, trade associations, lobbying, and venture capital support organizations? Would less be more, and is more...well, less?"

I read recently where AeA is in talks to merge with ITAA (article). And I thought, good for them! That makes a lot of sense. There is power in scale, consolidation and a common voice, particularly for advocacy issues, purchasing and the other trade groups. (As a note at OCTANe, we decided not to focus in this area (we partner instead!) and focus on pure company development; the ONLY full-time model in OC/So Cal laser focused on this!)

Some people think consolidation is a bad thing; I am not so sure. Having scale, focus and working together to "move the needle" is what innovation support groups should be about. Right? Having less money spent on admin/hotels and more helping to create, grow, support, staff and fund innovative companies should be the goal for any business support organization. Shouldn't it?

Is there harm in having a plethora of volunteer or other business support groups? Probably not. But imagine if there were a few strong ones working more together (more partnering) and applying resources to solve (not just report on) our innovation economy problems; this is what is needed.

Additionally, there is an inherent urge for a successful support association to expand (I get asked all the time why not do OCTANe in LA or SD or AZ or Guam). This is the easy/overhead route. What is hard (and needed) is for organizations to continually innovate (yes non-profit business groups should innovate themselves) and focus on developing local IP driven companies and jobs ...minds and money are our future economic drivers here in Orange County.

We are in unprecedented economic and financial times here in the US. We have some serious issues but developing and growing innovative companies and high paying jobs needs to be one of them!!!!!! We must develop a robust, efficient, RESULTS ORIENTED local/national innovation ecosystem to help grow our regions and industries.

So how does everyone think we are doing?

PS: I'm not alone in my thoughts...check out a recent LA Times blog that shares my views.

People people everywhere and not a one to hire ...

Was at a great program last week about the "War for Talent" ... the same day the March unemployment figures came out and the US lost about 80,000 jobs in March, to run the total job loses this year to 230,000 and the unemployment to go to 5.1%. Wow. We're in the crapper.

BUT there are thousands and thousands (OCTANe knows of over 400) high paying, high innovation jobs that go unfulfilled and Biomedical, IT and Clean Tech companies are yearning and competing for talent. What gives?

Simple. Convert mortgage workers to scientists and technology workers. Run a credit report? Just like running an FDA study. Explain an ARM mortgage? Just like writing XML code. No down payment needed with interest rate resets at will? Just like venture capital. Oh if life were that easy...but I digress.

Are we positioning our workforce to be aligned with our future competitive growth industries?

Is there such a thing as an "un-trainable worker"?

How come millions of kids now don't like engineering and "the hard stuff" for careers?

Which brings us to good old supply and demand. We are demanding more innovative talent; just need the supply to catch up. The "War for talent" is now everywhere, from local to regional to global; now only if we can go PC and change the phrase to "quest for talent". Maybe this would help us find more good people.