Do these ideas get implemented?

To keep up to date, entrepreneurs do appreciate great idea people. I was sent this top 50 list of the best ideas people by an ideas man himself, Flavian Delima. To qualify, your ideas must get implemented and show results in companies. The top thinker on this prestigious list is CK Prahalad who used to co-author with Gary Hamel. Together, they introduced the idea of Core Competency to businesses which is one of the most enduring strategic concepts of the past 50 years.

I met both Hamel and Prahalad at a strategy conference in Chicago back in 1993 and was captivated. Hamel was by far the more showy of the two, and he can be credited with popularizing their ideas. Prahalad was more difficult to understand as he spoke in complex terms but obviously the deeper thinker of the pair.

They stopped working together and – like The Beatles – I have found their later work not to have had the same depth of theory combined with fiery rhetoric to get your ideas jumping from the text into your business. Maybe they will stage a reunion?

Jacoline Loewen, author and partner in private equity firm.

The interview with Prahalad is terrific and well worth a listen.

Remain calm when rejected for finance

Remain calm when rejected by people with finance. Listen to their comments and ask for more feedback. You can rework it and then come back or go to a new source of capital and try yoru plan again.

Canadian Business has a useful podcast on attaining financing for small and medium businesses. Read more.

Your business will benefit from you goofing off

If you want your business to grow, you need to work all the time, right? Not according to one the most interesting entrepreneurs who started and ultimately sold Flickr. Read more.

Caterina Fake, who, with her husband Stewart Butterfield, founded Flickr, knows a thing or two about bliztkreig work schedules. But she points out that late nights are seldom very useful in the grand scheme of things. Hard work? Overrated:

When we were building Flickr, we worked very hard. We worked all waking hours, we didn't stop. My Hunch cofounder Chris Dixon and I were talking about how hard we worked on our first startups, his being Site Advisor, acquired by McAfee--14-18 hours a day. We agreed that a lot of what we then considered "working hard" was actually "freaking out". Freaking out included panicking, working on things just to be working on something, not knowing what we were doing, fearing failure, worrying about things we needn't have worried about, thinking about fund raising rather than product building, building too many features, getting distracted by competitors, being at the office since just being there seemed productive even if it wasn't--and other time-consuming activities. This time around we have eliminated a lot of freaking out time. We seem to be working less hard this time, even making it home in time for dinner.

Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen. But you can save yourself a lot of time by working on the right thing. Working hard, even, if that's what you like to do.

Why you shouldn't miss the Profit Small Business Show October 15th

Get entrepreneurial lessons from those who have crossed the chasm and made it. Profit magazine supports and encourages SMEs here in Canada and is putting on a terrific event.

http://events.unisfair.com/index.jsp?eid=465&seid=28

Profit has given Canadian companies a powerful forum to be showcased and attract opportunities.

PROFIT: Your Guide to Business Success, is Canada's preeminent publication dedicated to the management issues and opportunities facing small and mid-sized businesses. For more than 25 years, Canadian entrepreneurs across a vast array of economic sectors have remained loyal to PROFIT because it's a timely and reliable source of actionable information that helps them increase their revenues, boost their profitability and get the recognition they deserve for generating positive economic and social change.
Visit PROFIT online at www.PROFITmagazine.ca.

Starting and growing your own business and needing inspiration? Here is Mary Aitken, Verity, talking about how she did it with Robert Gold on BusinessCast:

http://www.mevio.com/episode/188239/125+-+Starting+And+Growing+Your+Business+with+Gold+n+Brown/?psRef=twte