There are a wealth of tools, resources, and programs available to innovative small businesses that want to move their idea further along the commercialization pipeline. However, it can be extremely overwhelming and unintuitive to navigate the ecosystem. So, organizations like Peak help these businesses figure out the process. But, are we taking the right approach here?
The old adage comes to mind of “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” We can give an organization a fish by sending them a link to an open #solicitation, or we can teach an organization to fish by showing them how to navigate the ecosystem. But, that just teaches them the mechanics of fishing. It shows them how to bait a hook, throw out the line, and land that fish. What happens though when they want to radically revolutionize their business, their product, or even their mission? When they are trying to navigate uncharted waters? When they need to change their gameplan because the old way isn’t working anymore?
Instead, we need to be teaching the concept of fishing. Why should they fish at certain times of day? What do they need to know about changing currents and how that affects their prospects? Why should they know the difference between different environments and how that changes what the fish will latch onto so they can reel it in for the win? Or how about the things they can add to their hook to make it more appetizing for those fish?
We can continue to talk abstracts here, but how about we put it in concrete terms related to the innovation ecosystem?
From our post last week, there are a lot of hidden opportunities with each of the SBIR/STTR agencies out there that you have to dive below the surface to find. And while we can teach people to look through the priorities or funding opportunities, and pay attention to the details, how about teaching how to align their goals as a company with the expected outputs from the agency? Or how they need to think longer term with a contracting agency so they can rapidly scale for deliverables? Or how they should pay attention to supplemental and companion funding that a certain agency offers and make it a priority to seek those? Or even thinking about their approach and how to frame their critical problem/challenge to a 5 year plan from that agency?
We can either spend time working with a client to explain these programs and which agency they might fit with, or we can take time to explore innovation in more depth to keep them from looking at the ecosystem through a pinhole.
So, are you teaching people how to fish, or are you teaching them why they should fish and how vast the ocean is, if they just know the angle of approach?