Jon Knutson
The Forum - 09/03/2007
This article can also be found at http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=177092&section=business.

Bruce Gjovig is helping North Dakota be a competitive player in the 21st century economy. He’s director of the Center for Innovation at the University of North Dakota. The center helps innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers to launch new ventures, commercialize new technologies and secure access to capital from private and public sources. Its work includes managing two technology incubators at the UND Tech Park, assisting the state’s tech community and forming three networks of “angel” investors in Grand Forks, Fargo and Bismarck. Angel investors help finance high-risk, high-reward ventures. Gjovig, a North Dakota native, majored at UND in mathematics and almost finished a major in chemistry. He worked in research and politics before running the multiple listing service in Grand Forks. Later, he was a UND fundraiser and met university graduates who had become successful entrepreneurs. That sparked his own interest in entrepreneurship and led him to approach top UND officials about creating an entrepreneur center. The center, which now has 11 employees, was formed in 1984. It was one of the first four entrepreneurial outreach centers in the nation.

Q: There’s a perception that entrepreneurs and innovation revolve around technology. Fair or not?

A: No, it can be absolutely any field. Take Starbucks. Who would have thought coffee shops would have seen such entrepreneurial activity?

Has North Dakota made much entrepreneurial improvement since your center was formed?

We’ve seen a tremendous change in the past 23 years. We’ve been involved with close to 450 businesses and products launched across North Dakota.

What can the state do better or differently to enhance entrepreneurial activity?

We need to continue to develop the infrastructure to support entrepreneurship. Infrastructure is everything from education and services to things like incubators and building communities of entrepreneurs. Clearly capital (is vital). Venture growth takes a lot of capital. We need to figure out how to stimulate innovation among more people. Get them to understand that the world is moving and moving rapidly, and that we need to figure how to keep up with it.

It’s been said folks in this area worry so much about failure that they’re reluctant to take chances in business. Do you agree?

That’s very true. That’s a problem in North Dakota, unlike what you’d find in Silicon Valley or Boston or Austin, Texas, which are entrepreneur hotspots. There, failure (results in hearing), ‘You learned something.’ Here, if you fail, you sort of get the scarlet “L” for loser. We’re way too quick to brand someone a loser. We need to be more willing to give people a second chance.

I understand your center received a high ranking among your peers.

We were ranked No. 8 out of 700 entrepreneur programs nationwide by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. We’re very proud of that. That’s just about the top 1 percent.

Because of their universities, Fargo and Grand Forks are in position to benefit from technology and innovation. But how about the rest of the state?

That’s why I’m a big fan of Innovate ND. It’s an attempt to help any innovator in the state. (The statewide initiative was designed to help innovators and entrepreneurs commercialize their business ideas.) We work very closely with Tony Grindberg and the North Dakota State University Research Park (of which Grindberg is the executive director). We believe in a strong partnership, that we can compete and collaborate.

We hear sometimes that entrepreneurs are born, not made. Your thoughts?

Some are born, some are made. Some are brought into entrepreneurship kicking and screaming. Some come to it because they see an opportunity. Any and all of them can be successful. But not all in every category are successful. People come to entrepreneurship in different ways. But, yes, there are some people who are just natural entrepreneurs and who wouldn’t be happy without it. Being an entrepreneur is both art and science. The art is innovation and creativity and the learning by doing. The science is understanding the solid business principles behind entrepreneurship.

There seems to be more interest in entrepreneurship, especially among young people. Why?

Everyone needs to take control of their own life now. It used to be, you joined a corporation and the corporation takes care of you. Now people are thinking about how they can take care of themself for the rest of their life. Readers can reach Forum reporter Jonathan Knutson at (701) 241-5530