I recently attended the CleanTech North event and I have to say, I was really impressed with the energy at the event, the high level of awareness it received and the genuine desire to make things happen that both the attendees and presenters displayed.

Here are a few sales/revenue focused messages that resonated with me:

Canadian CleanTech Companies Need to Look Outside of Canada to Really Succeed

The global market is where we need to play. We need to leverage our R&D skills, develop a more aggressive global can-do attitude, go and do it vs. talk about it, and then simply make it happen! When I look at our client portfolio, whether it be a client in the renewable energies space or the water purification space, the opportunities for them outside of Canada is where true success will be found. This can include the U.S., South America, Middle East and Asia. These technologies and companies, like many others in this space, can be nurtured in Canada and then launched out to the world. In both these cases, our clients have the leading technologies in their markets and the opportunity is there for them to succeed.

Don’t Focus on All International Markets

Pick the markets that best match your product or solution – this could be determined by incentives, competitive environment, proactive partners etc.

Made in Canada and Sold Globally

Canadian technology development, manufacturing and distribution partnerships between small innovative technology players and large Canadian icons can effectively tackle the global market together. Made in Canada and then sold globally can work. The case study I am referring to here is that of Cavet Technologies and what they did was work closely with Celestica on the design, development, testing and now manufacturing of an intelligent lighting control solution that has now been commercialized into a product that has massive global potential. Cavet Technologies within a couple of years of founding the company has distributors of this product lining up globally. What they do is reduce electricity needs, creating “negawatts” which is even better than producing megawatts as no new infrastructure has to be built. This product is simply and cost effectively wired into the existing electrical infrastructure.

For any CleanTech entrepreneurs reading this, take note of Cavet Technologies success. It can be done. If it is applicable to you, see if you can search out large Canadian partners where the senior management team has an interest and a passion in helping to bring Canadian technology global. We definitely need more firms like Celestica and folks like RIM who actively get involved in this process.

For any Senior Executive at a large Canadian player, irrespective of their industry, lets work to drive Canadian success, jobs and affluence. We live in a great country, lets support it and the talented people working here developing great and world beating technologies in our backyard. Remove the layers of bureaucracy and roll up your sleeves and get into it. Canadian technology entrepreneurs need your help and this sort of help can’t be provided by the government. Your knowledge, expertise and resources are a huge asset. The opportunity for you, as in Cavet’s case, is to have a product you support in some capacity go global – this can internally drive revenues, jobs and the company bottom line.

To learn more about our services, click here, or consider subscribing to our monthly newsletter.