Getting real about going global: Northern Ontario investment readiness program prepares entrepreneurs.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: NEWS

Albert Behr, founder of a Toronto-based firm dedicated to moving companies into market leadership, has two words for Northern Ontario entrepreneurs with global aspirations: get real.

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"Canadians are world-class engineers, and we're really amazing at building stuff, but the problem is we're completely terrible, generally, at scaling businesses on a world scale," he says.

"We don't have the money to do it, we don't have the resources to do it, we don't have the people to do it, we don't have the connections to do it. Develop partners who have the dollars and the presence to do it and use them to bring you to market."

Using what he refers to as his "Dr. Phil" approach, the high-octane Behr offered his boundless energy and advice to a group of seven entrepreneurs at the Northern Ontario Enterprise Gateway's (NOEG) most recent conference on angel investment readiness.

Taking place at Cambrian College over March 26-27, the event sought to show attendees how to prepare to make pitches to potential investment partners, with Behr and National Angel Organization president W. Daniel Mothersill as the key speakers.

Behr argues that the single most common mistake he's seen from entrepreneurs "over and over and over again," he sighs, is the idea that they can bring their own product to the global market.

This is far too often a recipe for stunted growth or even failure. Talented engineers often lack the experience needed to survive alone in the cut-throat global market, he says. What's more, bigger players with deeper pockets can almost always squeeze out the solo up-and-comer.

The solution, he suggests, is nothing less than strategic partnerships with the biggest players in the industry who can use their strengths and established networks to handle distribution.

While links with global firms may seem out of reach for people in Northern Ontario, the advent of the Internet and various online business networking services such as Linke-dIn has shrunk the business community to manageable size, he says.

In other words, people with a proper business plan and a good product shouldn't hesitate to track down the phone number of a potential partner's business development officer and at least make the attempt.

Behr should know. Aside from having been the owner of a highly successful technology firm, he's also served as the worldwide product manager for global technology giant Fujitsu.

"No big company builds by themselves," he says. "They need...