By: Karen Behune Plunkett, President/CEO, WEtech Alliance
In my over three years in this role as President/CEO at WEtech Alliance ( a Regional Innovation Centre of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs), it has been abundantly clear that our regional success(es) will be reliant and measured on our ability to successfully collaborate. Through the strength of expertise, programs and funding sources, opportunities are elevated for our entrepreneurs in several key sectors which would benefit from the creation of a more robust cluster or the identification of the ability to create and support a new emerging sector based on the existing expertise that resides in this region. Perhaps what will lead to the greatest outcomes will be in the collaborative “conversations” which typically result in innovation and innovative solutions- sometimes to problems that we didn’t even know existed. We are fortunate in this province to have various organizations, Economic Development Agencies , Academia and Not-for-Profits that are designed to support entrepreneurs and SMEs. By pooling our intellectual inventories- we accelerate the successes- resulting in a more vibrant economy and providing opportunities for our youth and industry alike.
A magical recipe.
As I began to construct my blog for WEtech, I discovered this article which speaks directly to the concept that I was forming “Innovation with Cooperation”. Enjoy!
http://insme.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/clusters-as-a-platform-of-innovation-with-cooperation/