MaRS

Toronto Timeraiser. Photo: Jessica Blaine Smith

Like a lot of entrepreneurs, I spend a lot of time trying to understand complex systems. So when I was confronted with the issue of volunteerism, it helped me develop a novel approach. The outcome was the Timeraiser mash-up. We held our seventh annual Toronto Timeraiser last Saturday March 20th.

So much richness comes from inviting 700+ people to mix and mingle with 35+ nonprofit and charities to find volunteer opportunities. Add three dozen works of art for which people bid their volunteer time in a silent art auction — now we have some sparks beginning to fly. (Artists are also pleased that they’ve been paid market value for their work). Then, after we’ve raised 10,000 volunteer hours, introduce ska-funk band Franklin’s Fault for a 70-minute set and we have a night that people will remember for a very long time. (Franklin’s Fault features MaRS’ very own Don Duval on guitar).

Music and innovative entrepreneurship?

At first glance, classical music and entrepreneurship don’t have much in common. At MaRS, we’re focused on helping entrepreneurs in science, technology and social innovation turn their ideas into businesses—something that might seem like it has nothing to do with Bach, Brahms or Beethoven.

Composer Rob Kapilow felt the same way, until a professor from the Fordham School of Business approached him after a concert in New York City. The professor engaged Kapilow to deliver a lecture to a graduate management seminar: the lecture was about conducting as a management model. Apparently, business and music share a lot of the same characteristics.

Two ways of thinking: Darwin and Da Vinci

Charles Darwin, despite his momentous effect on the world of biology, was not a trained biologist. His knowledge of geology was what allowed him to think deeply about how things change over time. His intellectual curiosity brought him out of his field of study and onto the deck of a ship that travelled the world in search of the new. Upon his return, it was his collaboration with zoologist John Gould that allowed him to propose his revolutionary theory of natural selection.

“One thing we know about creativity,” says Marc Tucker, Head of the Washington-based National Center on Education and the Economy, “is that it typically occurs when people who have mastered two or more quite different fields use the framework in one to think afresh in the other.” Group-think is the enemy of innovation.

Time for creative thinking

Favours from people are perfectly fine, especially when you’re changing the world.

After the excitement of the operating theater, the thrill of learning new science, and the novelty of writing patents – and of course, talking about all of the above – I am coming to appreciate the ability to execute. This is generally the job of the “businessperson”, which is one I, as a businessperson, had started overlooking. That has come to an end. The ability to determine the right questions, ask the right people, find the best answers and make decisions is critical to moving an idea forward.

For those of you who have not read this blog series before,  I’m a Fellow at Stanford’s Biodesign program, where we spend a year between the school of engineering and the school of medicine solving medical problems with devices. We’re designing devices for unmet clinical needs. The “we” is a team that began as four and has now become two pairs of two. The needs range from heart failure to incontinence. The gospel of the program is that innovation is a process. The tales I tell are my insights for the month.

For those of you who have read this blog before and expect it to be monthly: so did I! The one thing I will say about the time missed is that with funding declined, the government will become increasingly important as will large corporate partnerships or acquisitions. Ok, shall we begin?

Jenga: Demonstrating gravity

Quick: What are the seven innovations that revolutionized the world?

According to Jacob Zimmer’s grade school teacher, our society was revolutionized by Gutenberg’s press, Copernicus’ solar system, Newton’s physics, Darwin’s evolution, as well as the Industrial, Nuclear, and Information Revolutions.

It inspired Jacob Zimmer to create “Dedicated to the Revolutions,” an innovative show that engages the audience around these scientific revolutions that have altered the course of humanity… while remembering that science is fun (and funny). It opens tomorrow and plays until April 12th.

In the following interview, I ask Jacob about what the MaRS community of innovators can learn from his show.