As regular listeners to the show already know, about five months ago, the Pittsburgh Technology Council (why can I not seem to get over calling it the High Technology Council?) finally hired Steve Zylstra’s replacement.  Her name is Audrey Russo, and she has a diverse background in manufacturing and R&D.

She is an outsider (New York City raised with time spent in both Philadelphia and other east coast locales) and a self-described “bomb thrower”. Apparently, the Tech Council’s Executive Board (hell, the full board is some 45+ people - how could they be expected to render any decisions?), and after four consecutive “white breaders”, figured it was probably time to break the pattern.

I interviewed her on February 23rd and found her to be aggressive, smart, and “most likely to alienate” at least half of the Tech Council’s ruling class.  In my mind, this is precisely what is needed. But could I have read Audrey wrong?

So far, no significant announcements have come from the council --- I guess that I was probably being overly optimistic, vis-à-vis any immediate and dramatic changes being made --- but it is of course still very early in her regime. I plan on meeting again with Audrey, perhaps in early summer, to review overall progress.

During my interview with Ms. Russo, I repeatedly asked her exactly what plans she had to change the scope of the clearly moribund council while being saddled with a small operating budget, stagnating membership, and no real product to market (unless one considers the Council’s health insurance buying power to be a significant differentiator).  Her reply was, “Well, we first need to get out there and listen to what our members want.”

Hmmm.  Sound like any of ten thousand politicians you’ve heard before?

What if instead, Audrey had said, “Look, I know that this place hasn’t come up with any dramatic home run products or services in the present millennium or even before said millennium, and so rather than go out and once again canvas the council’s constituencies, asking the same questions that each and every one of my predecessors have asked, I intend to lock myself into my office and not come out until I have figured out exactly what the hell it is that this council can do (given its budget realities) to help high tech companies improve.”

Now, wouldn’t that be nice?

Unfortunately, we know that there are already eight freakin’ hundred studies of this region and its resources that include analyses of its strengths and its shortcomings.  So --- what if, rather than wasting precious time and resources re-creating these studies (which will unquestionably represent the same findings) instead steal, borrow, and beg all of the myriad research that has already been done.  Once digested, it seems to me that Audrey then needs to behave just like any other entrepreneur starting-up a brand-new business by investing every single dime into product development and the marketing of that developed product (or service).

What are these deliverables? I don’t know, but the research will clearly tell us what is needed. Maybe this means getting already-successful entrepreneurs to actually mentor start-ups? (This is something that I, as the Director of Duquesne’s Entrepreneurial Studies Program, hear almost daily.)  Maybe this means providing sales training to the cone-headed technical entrepreneurs --- the same ones who build incredibly elegant and effective products but never learn how to actually sell, or even communicate, their product’s true essence/value to its relevant buyer marketplace?

(Note: If there ain’t a study somewhere that talks about the need for sales savvy in high-tech start-ups, I’ll personally eat each and every other study in this town! By the way, I know the perfect company --- Partners Through People, a Moon-based enterprise headed up by Sam Lucci --- to fulfill this particular need.)

This, by the way, is called leadership.

Because leaders lead by figuring out what the heck has to be done, and then doing it … while followers lead by first asking what people think they need, and then proceeding to do that.

Food for thought.

Stay tuned for some regular updates on the council’s growth and/or progress.