Discovery Centre for Entrepreneurship Inc. (est. 1996, incorporated 2006​) is a Leadership Development Academy with a single vision in mind: Empowering clients to improve individual and organizational performance. 

The Problem We Solve

• 80% of startups fail within three years.
• 90% of corporate innovation labs don't work. 
• 49% of small business employers don’t survive to year five. 
• 31% of self-employed contractors work 15+ more hours per week for less money.
• 4 out of 5 adult workers start a new learning experience with a feeling of inadequacy.​​​
  

What We Believe

The traditional approach to business development is incomplete. Focusing solely on the mechanics of business (sales, marketing, operations, HR, shareholder value), is a disservice to not only the founders who fail but to the families and communities impacted by job loss. Old school businesses are dying and there is a DNR (do not resuscitate) order on their chart. 

Business mechanics are part of the picture but having a better business plan is not the secret to business success and profitability. Successful ventures capture peoples' HEARTS and MINDS. Their products and services fill a void no one else is filling. This happens on both a tangible level (the solution the business provides) and an in-tangible internal level (how people feel). And by people we don't just mean customers. We mean EVERYONE - customers, employees, suppliers and lenders.

In a world where people care about social justice, consumers have little tolerance for businesses that market feel-good products manufactured by mistreated and unhappy employees. Likewise, environmental awareness states in no uncertain terms - it's no longer socially acceptable to boost shareholder value at the expense of human health, animal welfare, or the environment. 

What We're Doing About It

It's important for entrepreneurs to work on their inner game. In addition to building from the outside (business mechanics), we teach business owners and their teams how to start from the inside - with people - and work outward to build the structures of the business together. To this end, 100% of our projects follow Six Rules to Emotional Engagement, as discussed in Chapter 10 of The Possibility Process. 

When businesses are disconnected from natural human behaviour, valuable talents and business resources are wasted. Ineffective work environments leave people feeling frustrated, stressed out and overwhelmed. This can trigger a downward spiral for the organization and its people. Fixing mistakes and working too hard drives away profits and creates more work for everyone. It’s exhausting for people, leading to burnout, and fuels the statistics on business failure.

Public education in the field of business and entrepreneurship over-emphasizes business mechanics (the tactical how-to skills) and ignores the realities of human development and risk-taking (soft skills like attitude, empathy, and communication). Once you begin to see that flourishing business ecosystems form a greater whole by inter-connecting 16 dimensions of business systems design - you can't un-see it. We call this The Cure to Business Blindness, which you'll find in Chapter 5 of The Possibility Process.  Beyond that, our clients learn to bridge the gap between the inner world of people and the outer structures of business by deploying many effective tools and strategies...using simple language that everyone can understand and relate to. 

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Workplace-Based Training & Facilitation

• Just-in-time learning for entrepreneurs, managers, and staff.
• Educational outcomes achieved through projects that matter to you. 
• Solutions that deal with what’s really going on in the company. 
• Aligns employee needs and values with company profit goals. 
• Our strategies are highly relevant, credible and add-value.

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Giving Back

We inspire "whole system change" by giving back to youth at risk. ​The Doorway is Discovery Centre’s charity of choice. It is a self-funded charity that uses a critical path method to empower young people to plan their own way off the streets. Partial profits from book sales help to release trapped potential in street-involved youth. 

​WATCH VIDEO - Watch a short three minute video about The Doorway.

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Remember

When emotion goes up, intelligence goes down. We see examples of this everyday. Human emotion is the untapped million dollar resource right under your nose. Learn to harness it in positive and productive ways. When people work together effectively, it makes the world a better place - for all of us.

"None of us is as smart as all of us"
Warren Bennis, Organizing Genius The Secrets of Creative Collaboration

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