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Letter from the Editor - The Enterprising Spirit The Czech-Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) is famous for, among other things, contributing to the modern concept of entrepreneurship. He argued that innovation and technological change comes from risk takers with Unternehmungsgeist, German for an enterprising-spirit. The companies they establish need to discern today what customers will want tomorrow, and then set about taking the risks to profitably develop and market those things. Adventus Group follows this philosophy, and our Spring newsletter highlights ways our scientists innovate for your benefit in managing impacted soil, sediment, and groundwater environments. Intrinsically the "innovation and entrepreneurship" model does not assure success, and being the first is not always being the best, as a view of history shows. The Hindenburg was highly combustible. The Titanic had too few lifeboats. Betamax got marginalized by VHS. And ISCR is increasingly preferable to plain Hydrogen Releasing Compounds. You get the picture. Simply put, bad things often happen to marginal technology. Many of the detrimental effects experienced by such enterprises are attributable to; i) refusal to integrate technical advances/improvements with time, and ii) a failure to innovate their business models to properly commercialize new ideas and technologies. For the most part, doing so is a simple process of trial and error. But at most companies it also requires the removal of some barriers to innovation and creativity. What are those barriers? Perhaps the most basic is that companies can get trapped by their own short-term successes. Once a business model or technology has proved its effectiveness, the natural tendency is toward only additional opportunities that fit that model -- and to play down any technologies that do not. Repackaging of an old theme is sometimes appealing to the eye, but a new cover, or a modified pricing structure, does not improve technical efficacy. Ultimately, the business model fails, the customer base becomes "presumed" or taken for granted, and the client set gravitates towards truer technical innovation provided by others. We intentionally did not replicate the business models of others, who mainly seek to charge exorbitant prices on the back of strong marketing, weakening science and poor customer technical support. Instead, we compete in the marketplace of ideas by providing engineers, consultants, site owners and regulators with the safest, most effective, cost-efficient and permanent environmental biotechnologies available both now, and in the future. This newsletter highlights a few of our most recent advances; some of which have received highest recognition by the international community. As a US-Canadian joint enterprise, we have an innate international focus and seek to continue identifying the best people, processes, and technologies from around the world. Chart 1 (below) summarizes an interesting country-centric ranking of innovation. By using in-house resources and partnering with best-in-class complementary enterprises throughout the world, The Adventus Group continues to build out a unique portfolio of proven soil, sediment and groundwater biotechnologies. In conjunction with our strategic partners, the Group's growing patent estate crosses borders and business cultures. We look forward to working with you, and your clients, today and in the years ahead. Thank you for your business.
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