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.”
Zeynep Sarılar
ITEA Chairwoman
Alex Miller
President Esri Canada Limited
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?”
Make new again
“Let me put it like this,” Alex replies. “Typically,
an entrepreneur sees the opportunity amid
a kind of chaos – something is not working.
The root of the word innovation can actually
be found in the Latin innovare, to make
new (again). I think what we will see in the
healthcare system in its response to the chaos
of COVID is an explosion of entrepreneurs
and innovation looking at how we can think
differently the next time such a situation
comes around. There’s technology innovation
and business innovation – the latter uses
the former to create a new kind of business.
Dell is a good example of this. Michael Dell
took the technology and used it in a different
way, buying components from manufacturers
and assembling them in his college dorm,
undercutting the competition and building
an empire on the basis of online supply. Bill
Gates’ great innovation was to separate the
operating system from the hardware. Nobody
before Gates had ever thought of buying an OS
without a computer. I think the world is full of
opportunities to make new again.”
A perfect partnership
For me as an entrepreneur, my problem is to
apply discipline. That’s where my wife, Mary-
Charlotte, comes in. She keeps me from going
off into too many different directions. She helps
me focus. She has an economic and business
degree but then decided to do an education
degree and become a math teacher. But that
was before she took on the role here at Esri
Canada in which we have an inside-outside
split. I look out at the customers and she makes
sure that everything ticks along as it should on
the inside – do we have the right people, do
they have the right resources and so on. So, she
innovates internally, working with my CFO and
COO. The four of us together form our executive
management committee. Essentially, then, my
wife ensures that we operate from a very stable
base, and that gives everyone the assurance
they need – after all, employees require
stability. I would also mention that she also took
another degree in computer science since she
said she needed to be able to communicate with
me. That’s what I call commitment. And because
we do communicate well both in business and
in private, I guess you could call us a perfect
partnership.”
Ocean of opportunities
“That’s great to see the balance that a woman
can bring,” Zeynep says with a smile. “Coming
back to what you said about a world full of
opportunities. With software we have such an
‘ocean of opportunities’ to create a better life
for people across a vast spectrum – healthcare,
housing, nutrition, transportation – the list is
endless. But, of course, as an entrepreneur
you need a certain discipline to get across
the finishing line and create an outcome that
benefits the customer, and this in turn can
create a business stability for the organisation.”
Alex agrees. “Exactly, many entrepreneurs create
chaos within the organisation, thinking it’s a
good idea to keep people on their toes. That’s
not my experience or philosophy. Discomfort is
never a good environment for work. And once
again, I would like to emphasise here the need
for good coaches and good teamwork. Like
an ice hockey team, the players don’t need to
think about skating but focus on the game.
The famous Canadian ice-hockey player Wayne
Gretzky was asked how he scored so many
goals. He answered that you need to skate to
where the puck is going to be, not where it is at
that moment.”
Anticipation? “Yes, and reading. You’d be
amazed how many entrepreneurs get ideas from
reading. I heard that the founder of Shopify,
an online supplier of software licences to
businesses that want to run their own stores
online and extend their reach by doing so,
reads two to three hours a day. I do, too. I get
new ideas all the time from this. For instance,
I read a book – or rather the free version part
that’s available on the internet – called ‘The
Innovator’s Prescription’, which prescribes how
to be an innovator using the US healthcare
system as an example. I’m going to read
the whole book because the first chapter has already given me a brand new idea. Not
specifically related to healthcare but it provides a
networking model that can be applied to all kinds
of domains.”
"I am motivated by change and seeing the world become a better place"
Networking
“So, you talk about networking,” Zeynep says.
“Collaboration will be important to you. Among
your business entities and with your customers?”
Alex: “My view, and I think this is why we
as an organisation are heading increasingly
in the direction of the networking business
model, is that all successful people, companies
and countries are built on a foundation of
collaboration. It’s how we became a success
as humans. Here we’ve had an initiative that
has been running over the past ten years called
‘One Esri’. We’re 84 organisations worldwide,
all with the same goal of building a GIS and
dealing with environmental sustainability in the
respective countries. So, as far as I’m concerned,
collaboration is critical. Especially with customers.
We put our customers and employees first, and I
think if you do that, then your shareholders won’t
have to worry about their dividends. I spend
the vast majority of my time with customers,
although this tends now to be phone or video
conversations. They may learn something from
me, but I learn far more from them.”
Motivation
“I want to make clear that my motivation is
not money,” Alex stresses. “I am motivated by
change and seeing the world become a better
place for the generations that follow us. Also,
the wildlife that I see flying past my window at
this very moment. We’re also working for that
bird. For the environment and the resources that
sustain us. We cannot think of money as anything
more than a mechanism to help us grow our
business and get the things done that need doing.Unfortunately, there are too many billionaires
whose sole aim is to climb the ladder of Forbes
magazine.”
At a crossroads
Zeynep concludes with a final question: “You’re
a seasoned world traveller, Alex, so do you view
this ‘global’ experience as a valuable asset to an
entrepreneur?”
“Let me come back to Steve Jobs again here. He
always said that you constantly have to force
yourself to do different things. Like go live in a
third-world country for a while. When I was 23,
I was recruited by an engineering company to
go to northern Nigeria to map an unchartered
region. I found myself in this magical faraway
world of the missionaries I had only heard of
as a child at Sunday School. I’ve been to some
45 countries or so, and I have seen how very
different the world can be. It’s a very large and
complicated place. So, I’m very conscious of
the global perspective and of the need to have
one. I have learned that solutions in the US,
for instance, don’t work in Iraq. So, it’s clear
to me that we have to think more about how to
organise ourselves as a network, a bottom-up
organisation. I think the big innovation is to
use information as the principal organiser of
society as opposed to power or geographical
boundaries. I think we’re at a crossroads in
world history. And I believe that information will
play a key role in getting right the decisions that
have to be made. Bringing this back to ITEA, ITEA
is a bottom-up organisation and everyone brings
in something of great value that enables the
right decisions to be made at the top. This is the
way forward.”
