Innovare

The news of the day and the crucial phase in which civilisation finds itself provide the inevitable backdrop to this conversation about entrepreneurship – after all, business is carried out in a context. And that context is the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitics and the wider implications of data and privacy. Indeed, Alex points out how the efforts in Canada to instigate COVID tracking in the public interest are coming up against privacy concerns and the legal framework.

“It’s a very interesting time for software and software innovation,” Zeynep remarks. “I understand the dilemma, and it’s not an easy one to resolve. It’s an issue we see reflected in some ITEA projects, too. How far can you take the tracking of individuals without impinging on their privacy? Last week, we met for a project review and it was clear that it was not only a question of the technology but also the extent to which the innovation complies with the legal rights in respect of using data. We’ve gone from gathering data to understanding the data and now the rights of use.”

Necessity is the mother of invention

“That’s true,” Alex says, picking up the subject. “We were contacted in the summer by CANON, a Canadian anonymisation network about providing a cloud service whereby the organisations in that network would be able to take, upload and anonymise data suitable for publishing. Two methods for doing this are currently being used: aggregation, a method that is widely used by statistical companies, and data synthesis or synthetic data. I had not heard of this term before but I realise I’ve been doing this for all my working life. And in fact, it is what we did in PS-CRIMSON. You take all the property assessment data – real sales – and a number of specific characteristics, such as size of the property or proximity to public transport, and apply the set of characteristics to all the properties to derive en masse market value assessments for all the properties. However, this is synthetic data – only the properties that are actually sold represent real data. And for COVID-19, you would use the same method, applying comorbidity characteristics, like obesity or high blood pressure, to create a surface of individuals modelled on the basis of synthetic data and thereby identify the vulnerable groups and individuals. The third method that I am developing is an adaptive algorithm whereby clusters are created for a minimum number of people but are geographically aligned and use population characteristics to make the data meaningful. It’s early days yet but we are getting some funding to help us along the way.”

See what others can’t

“And there you are, the entrepreneur in action! It’s great to have you and Canada quite literally on board at ITEA. I’m really fascinated to find out how you look at entrepreneurship. And I think it would be nice to share some of your views with the wider ITEA Community,” Zeynep says invitingly.

“I have to start with a true story,” Alex begins, anecdotally. “Of course, we all know who George W. Bush is. In the wake of 9/11, he felt let down by his French allies who had refused to join the coalition forces in Iraq, complaining about their work ethic and even rebuking them for not even having a word for ‘entrepreneur’. Perhaps he didn’t have French at school. But in all seriousness, we have been using a tagline at Esri in our marketing campaign. It’s ‘see what others can’t’. An entrepreneur is, first and foremost, one who sees what others can’t. Such as using geographic information systems to see what others can’t. Entrepreneurs and visionaries share this characteristic. And when Steve Jobs came up with the tagline ‘think different’, this was an appeal to not follow conventional thinking. Of course, conventional thinking is a must when stability is key. After all, the lights have to stay on when it comes to utility companies and we want our governments to be solid. I should add, taking the ‘see what others can’t’ a step further, that entrepreneurs also see the business opportunities, and build an organisation to make them happen.”

Making the dream come true

“I agree,” Zeynep says. “Along with that vision it is, of course, important to have one foot firmly on the ground. There are plenty of people who have a dream but to make it come true, there has to be some benefit – financial or otherwise – a tangible and realistic target.”

“Sure,” Alex replies. “I think one of the traits you need to be successful as an entrepreneur is to hire people who are smarter than you are. Like a CFO and a COO who know much more than you do about their areas of expertise and can do the job much more effectively. Often, the entrepreneur who dreams doesn’t have the discipline to spend the night with a spreadsheet determining who has to do what. One of the mistakes some entrepreneurs make is to try to be and do everything. And that goes through to sales – hire someone who can sell the belief, trust that the organisation will deliver on its promises.”

Zeynep interjects. “I understand this argument, and I think it makes a lot of sense. But I would like to ask what’s the role of innovation in this? How is innovation connected with entrepreneurship, from your perspective?”