Mike Halloran says to “plant lots of seeds, and a few sequoias (trees) will emerge”
He was in Knoxville to speak about business models to the participants in the “Innovation Crossroads” and the Spark Cleantech Accelerator.
“Plant lots of seeds, and a few sequoias (trees) will emerge,” Mike Halloran advised during a lunch interview on Monday during the second week of the joint programming for participants in the 2024 cohort of “Innovation Crossroads” and the Spark Cleantech Accelerator. His topic over a day and one-half was building the business model, using a book titled The Business Model Navigator: 55 Models That Will Revolutionise Your Business as a guide.
Our conversation during the lunch break was focused on communities that have successfully built strong ecosystems such as Cincinnati where he has lived for four decades, worked for 10 years as Marketing Director/Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble (P&G), started five companies – some more successful than others, and is now a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at Xavier University.
Citing Nashville, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Cincinnati as entrepreneurial ecosystem models, Halloran said the formula is simple to articulate but challenging to do: “Putting the right combination (of people) together and getting them to work together.”
Obviously, he knows Ohio particularly well, having lived in the Buckeye State for 40 years, and Halloran talked with us about regions versus city-focused ecosystems. While a regional approach might work better in the greater Knoxville area, that’s not always the case.
Halloran noted that, in the case of his home state, there are three vibrant entrepreneurial communities – Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus.
“They work together when it is convenient but also do their own thing,” he explained.
How did Cincinnati get started with the vibrant entrepreneurial community that exists there today? Our takeaways from the conversation were leadership, private sector support, and involvement of area universities.
“Cincinnati had seven Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in the city,” Halloran said. Some are household names like Kroger and Macy’s Department Store. An individual by the name of Bob McDonald, P&G’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the time, led the Cincinnati Business Committee’s innovation task force. He and his team built a strategic framework and action plan which would dramatically accelerate the development of an innovation economy in the region benefitting existing companies and start-ups alike – a bold economic development angle never before attempted by a city of its size.
In the words of the late Andy Holt, a beloved University of Tennessee President, they put their money where their mouths were, fueling part of the growth. That resulted in the creation of Cintrifuse, the entrepreneurial engine that helped drive much of what has resulted.
At about the same time, then-Governor Bob Taft created the Ohio Third Frontier program that quickly accelerated local efforts by pumping money into various ecosystems.
And, as another old saying goes, the rest is history.
We asked Halloran what his advice would be for the local community. After all, he’s from more than 50 miles away.
“Find a great leader and hire a couple of people to support them” was the first piece of advice.
Second, pre-sell five or six companies that invest in innovation, then let them help sell those investments to other business leaders.
Finally, make sure the higher education community is fully engaged.
“The message is that technology and business disruption are occurring so rapidly,” Halloran noted. “We need innovation here. It will create new customers and attract more students.”
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