#perspective engagements

The Funding Roadshow is an initiative designed to give entrepreneurs, across Canada, the opportunity to pitch to a panel of funders.  In each city, an entrepreneur (with their team) had 5 minutes to present their business pitch to a panel of funders and 5 minutes for Q&A. 

I, and my AgileAgree Co-founder/CTO, Jerry Waese, were selected to pitch AgileAgree at the Toronto stop for The Funding Roadshow in May 2013.

It was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences for me. Though, Jerry and I got an applause at the end of it from the panel of 12 (or 13? can't quite remember) representatives.  That definitely helped ease this 1st time pitch experience :-).  

It was also the beginning of discovering the extreme challenge of securing investment funding..particularly for the (as I was told) "not sexy enough" legal industry:

I was invited to participate in a Major Research Project designed to gather the opinions and reflections of leaders who are already involved in the transition towards sustainability.  The Thesis was researched, analyzed and written by Ben McCammon, MDes candidate of the Strategic Foresight & Innovation program at OCAD University in 2012-2013.  BCorps were included in his research, which led him to be in touch with me.  The purpose of the study was to understand the “mental models” of leaders within Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ontario, and how these mental models influence core strategic decisions regarding sustainability. The goal of the research was to generate qualitative, exploratory insights into the nature of these mental models, which was explored in a Master’s Thesis, entitled, “How mental models influence decision-making: insights from leaders of sustainable Ontario SMEs”.   

The process involved completing a self-reflective survey, which included writing stories, drawing pictures and diagrams, and working with ideas and concepts in a creative way, with a follow-up interview over the phone, in order to clarify some of the responses or obtain some more detail. It was probably the most engaging and fun surveys I've ever experienced.

I was invited to be among a panel of 5, at an event entitled “IMAGINE” that was held at 5-7 pm on October 29th, 2012 for one of the flagship programs that the Richard Ivey School of Business runs on sustainability. The other panelists were:

Kanika Gupta. Founder of http://mysojo.co/

Tim Masson, Chief Steward & CEO of http://www.ianmartin.com/

Bruce Taylor, Founder of http://www.enviro-stewards.com/

Jason Robinson, Founder & CEO of https://sustainabilitytelevision.com/

The theme for the event overall, and the goal for the panel was re-visioning the world as sustainable – rather than fix what we know does not work, imagine what might.

Prof. Oana Branzei, PhD,  framed our thinking before the panel by sharing this extract from p. 71 of John R. Ehrenfeld’s book, “Sustainability by Design”:

Paradigm shifting is eminently practical. New paradigms replace the old only when those seeking success in their lives assess the new to be a more effective way by which to live. And those who find the new to be what they have been waiting for will almost always have to convince a lot of skeptics and entrenched interests that they should join in.

We were informed that the focus of the discussion would be on the notion of flourishing and that we should try to structure the dialogue around our own related views and efforts (i.e. pushing for true sustainability not for lesser unsustainability).  

The dialogue was structured around the five following themes, with each of us commenting on each one.

How does the past constrain the future we see and how did you (personally and professionally) identified and breached through the boundaries of the past to imagine a different future?

What are the possibilities that a sustainable future would unlock in us as individuals (as human beings) and in business (as better businesses). What causes us to be short-sighted or even blind to these possibilities? What enabled you to envision these possibilities?

Were there moments of transformation -personal, organizational, cultural – and why might others look for such awakening in their regular day at the office?

If you were to see yourself as an instrument of social change, what kind of social change would you like to see happen through business? What role do you think businesses have in making this change happen?

What kind of lessons – insights, role models, conversations – we need to flourish within business schools and the business community to reclaim business as fundamentally sustainable (rather than progressively less unsustainable).

Professor Branzei’s pre-event instructions to us ended with:

You have answers – and the audience will be keen to follow your lead. They already to path-breaking research; they have found sustainability to be their calling.

The questions that we fielded from the PhD candidates, and from Prof. Branzei generated a panel experience that was a wonderful mix of academic and deeply personal perspectives.  Prof. Branzei ended with a series of questions that resulted in a couple of us panelists actually tearing up at the end...it went that deep!  Wasn't expecting that at all, but it was quite inspiring and affirming.