Interview Notes: At the time of the interview, Bruce Gjovig was the CEO of UND Center for Innovation discussed the center's focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in technology, specifically in bio, UA industry, sensors, and data. North Dakota has the potential to become the third-largest industry in the US.
During the meeting, they discussed the need to organize and utilize data through software automation and the demand for skilled and educated blue-collar workers in industries like manufacturing and construction. Participants agreed on the importance of continuing education to keep up with technology's rapid evolution.
Jason Spiess
Certainly Bruce Jovi, CEO and entrepreneur coach, UND Center for Innovation Foundation. ...
Bruce Gjovig
OK. And uh talk a little bit about the Center for Innovation, the inception and you know what you guys do.
Jason Spiess
Well, 30 years ago, we started the Center for Innovation around three principal missions, innovation, entrepreneurship, and private investment. And it sort of it has evolved over the years, we started out more, I would say in manufacturing areas, obviously, right now, we're a lot more into the technology innovation, especially as such things in bio, which we didn't see much in the 19 eighties. But now we see a lot of the same thing with the U A industry, the unmanned
technologies and sensors and data. Uh and also as well as doing a lot more in finding access to capital for private investment in being the uh the E B five Regional Center for the States of North Dakota and Minnesota and as well as angel funds. And we're working now with over 10 funds in the in the region, uh over 100 and 60 angels to invest in companies. And so that is a very much important part of the uh entrepreneur and angel ecosystem.
Bruce Gjovig
The I'm going to make a statement that was said and just get your reaction on it. The US industry could be the third largest industry in North Dakota in five years.
Jason Spiess
Five years seems a little quick, but I have no doubt it's going to be huge and very large to be, to be the third largest, you would have to be approaching $10 billion. So that's why I think five years might be a little soon for that. But you take a look at the number one application they're expecting for the commercialization of U technologies is precision agriculture and this is a huge agriculture state, early adapters to precision agriculture.
The farm from the farmers in the state and the grower groups are very anxious to get their opportunity to lower their input costs, maximize their profits and in, in the in the margins and reducing stress in the crops is one of the greatest way to do it with great monitoring. It's perfect for that. Energy industry is the second largest. And that of course, this is a great whether it be monitoring pipelines transmission lines flares making it could even be for delivering products
out in the oil field. There's a number of terrific uses for this. And then of course, the next biggest markets that we expect. The first responders, fire police, border patrol and so forth and some of that's already been just utilized, but it's a huge growth
Bruce Gjovig
area. North Dakota is one of six test states. Um What does that do for the entrepreneur community? And what does that do for the state?
Jason Spiess
The um FAA designated the six U A S test sites and has really done more for the research and that's the focus and then that and getting some data to the FAA and the safe integration into the airspace. Unfortunately, they do not do the commercialization. So the we're really waiting for the commercialization opportunities there and we're really pushing the FAA and they're doing it through a program called 3 33 where they can get AAA certificate of authorization to fly.
And we have a number of North Dakota companies doing that. So it's going to be rapidly going. But we need to push the fa and our senators have and our congressmen and we need to push them harder so we can get the commercial applications in
Bruce Gjovig
faster. I'm on record stating that I believe that when the US industry does go kind of public, I guess because it's in a test state right now, you're going to be required to have an aviation license for many of these standard U deals because of the social responsibility involved. What do you think of that prediction?
Jason Spiess
I don't think they will necessarily need a pilot's license, but they certainly were going to have to go through safety training because safety is going to have to be absolutely essential. Um, you know, the, the more weight, a small R P A U A s has the more dangerous it becomes to both property and people and we have to make sure that the safety standards are being met.
And, uh, so there's certainly will be safety training. Um And because a lot of these uh R P will not need a pilot's license because they really are programmed to fly in a pattern, let's say over a field or down a transmission line. Uh So there is, it's less about piloting, but it's more about the safe usage and making sure that other operators in the area could be, you know, an egg pilot, make sure that they know that there's us operators so that they can avoid each other.
And, and also I should say that technology is going to improve the safety, the sea and avoid technology coming up. There should sense and avoid some call it uh which would be very important to, to make sure that these U don't hit people or, or property.
Bruce Gjovig
Um You mentioned a would be number one industry in the state, oil or energy would be number two uh would technology ever become an industry because it's so powerful in the egg sector, it's so powerful in the energy sector. It's so powerful in the U A big data is now a buzzword. Just technology is an industry. By
Jason Spiess
the way, I predict that the data side is going to be a huge growth industry in big
Bruce Gjovig
data, big data. Yeah, I do too. I think that's that, that's where I was leading with this
Jason Spiess
because the precision agriculture at the end of the day, it's about data. You know, it, it is at the end of the day, they're gonna take a lot of data off the fields. It's gotta be done with other data and that integration. So you gotta collect it, you gotta store it, you gotta analyze it and then you got to use it and all that is going to be a huge amounts of data.
So uh we're, and we're already seeing that I, I'm talking to a number of data center companies already having a huge interest in the state. And the same thing, you know, with the oil industry is producing a lot of data right now and they need to give more thought to how it's going to be stored and collected and stored and analyzed and disseminated.
Bruce Gjovig
And the nice thing too about uh the state of North Dakota, the Laird library, which was a huge research, had the foresight to collect all that historical data in Montana, which is, they really had done something like that still today, they're still trying to figure out how to get that
Jason Spiess
through. As you probably have heard, Harold Hamm has given that core library a lot of credit for his ability to be successful in North Dakota in the early
Bruce Gjovig
years. And so uh the uh next question I had had to do with uh seed money and uh just the new definition of a business. Uh Have you ever been to Wyoming? OK, Wyoming has two political parties. They have the uh Democrats which would be the hard nosed Republicans and then they have the Republicans which are the Libertarian Tea party. So that's what you have in Wyoming, right?
Uh We had some interesting conversations about the kind of the Facebook entrepreneur versus the Procter and gamble, uh old time entrepreneur where you're after 10 years, you're a billionaire versus you're a billionaire before you even have a product. Just your comments based on that conversation being had in Wyoming. ...
Jason Spiess
I'm not sure what to say. It's
Bruce Gjovig
kind of, it's kind of a new thing which says angel fund, seed money, you have a product, but it's a technology based product. So
Jason Spiess
it, here's the thing. I really think a lot of the angel funds, a lot of the angel investments I've seen actually have already been in technology in North Dakota and Minnesota. And that's also true in South Dakota. I'm just going through my mind in Montana. It's really very interesting how I would say that so many of them are already a technological software based services, software, um biotech, especially if it's not the human side, more the animal side because that just takes so
much capital to get a market. So it's not really a great area for Angels. Um I've not seen very much on the data side has been large company, but I will tell you that some of those data companies were not long ago, startups. They just have not, we happened to be a start up in North Dakota. Uh I, I, I just really think at the end of the day, this technology play it, it is that is where so much of this is at.
I mean, you just think of even looking at agriculture, it's not the biotech there in terms of crop varieties, use varieties and so forth. It is so much apart already, certainly finding ways that are chemicals that are effective for whatever, whether it's in terms of a fungicide or herbicide or insecticide.
And, you know, when they're looking for ways to use less chemicals and again, early detection is a part of that to the US. But you know, it is and then you got the storage, everything right now has a technology innovation factor. I can't think of anything that doesn't have a technology almost.
Bruce Gjovig
Oh, totally. It's, it's just like, uh I can't think of anything that doesn't require energy or oil almost. Even the egg industry relies so much on oil and gas. But a couple of things I've heard with this question I've been asking and it's kind of a pop quiz question because it is relatively new. But one was at the end of the day, no matter what you do, you got to have a product, you got to have something that you a service or a product.
Another one was the comparison to the cell phone industry that much of these new entrepreneurs are so tech based. If you take a look at the cell phone industry, the way that advanced so rapidly, whether we wanted to get into Moore's Law or not, the speed of processors and the size of chips. But that was a big part of it too. That just the escalation. So versus the old Procter and Gamble, where you had to actually go door to door and knock on doors and now you can just push a button and send
an email and there you go. So it's, it's a speed factor too. It's just, it's kind of a, I don't know, the program's coffee and capitalism. So there's a little bit of a chewing here involved. Uh Where do you see North Dakota going? You're, you're uh majorly involved with the center of innovation and innovation seems to be North Dakota's future.
Jason Spiess
Well, we absolutely our opportunities. Look at our, just our two biggest industries and agriculture and, and energy. Both of those are highly technologically advanced. I mean, everything about them is technology. So I think, but then we really need the, the third largest is just a broad manufacturing technology side as well. And I think we're going to see a lot more of it.
We have a huge opportunity in the US and we have to think most people think of unmanned vehicles, they think of the platform, the plane, but quite frankly, it's the sensors and there's hundreds of sensors out there, but there's going to be thousands of sensors, then it's the communication, making sure there's communication. So there's a lot of cyber security and the communication advances there.
Then we already talked about the data and the importance of collecting and storing and disseminating data. Uh And, and then we're gonna have to figure out ways with all that data. How do you make it more efficient? So it's gonna be software driven, how to not use human eyes but to use software eye to figure out what's the actionable item here that you need. I don't need all this data that does has nothing in it.
I don't need. So we, right now we're collecting all this data and trying to figure what's in here we need and we're gonna have some solution pretty soon that those here's the information I need and all the rest of it we can, you know, get rid of it. So, I mean, it is in, it's as long as there is a problem to solve, there's an opportunity for an innovator and then we haven't run out of problems.
Bruce Gjovig
Just flaring alone will keep us busy. And then,
Jason Spiess
then you have the opportunity based ones which has created an opportunity we didn't know we had, I mean, when the ipads come out I had so many people talk about, well, who needs another? I don't need another computer. I don't need another, you know, cell phone or smartphone. And, well, guess what, we found a market for ipads, a big market for ipads.
Bruce Gjovig
You, uh, do you guys know much about Hay
Jason Spiess
Busters? Oh, absolutely. In Jamestown? Yeah. Yeah, they, they, they have a new name though.
Bruce Gjovig
I was gonna say they've, um, they've increased their technology from a manufacturing side. I mean, that's a story in itself just the fact how, how advanced they've gotten with their manufacturing.
Jason Spiess
Um, and, and you're seeing that everywhere, which is my point. I mean, technology is driving everything. I can't think of anything that's not
Bruce Gjovig
driving. I can't either. I mean,
Jason Spiess
uh, baby food, but then I can turn around and find you lots of things where the technology is driving food as well.
Bruce Gjovig
Well, genetically modified organisms and, uh, even the everything that goes along with it. Um, uh, final question for you here. It's, uh, uh, kind of, and
Jason Spiess
then you got smart homes just into the construction industry.
Bruce Gjovig
That's, that's a new phase too, isn't it? Yeah, there's, in fact, there's a guy at N Ds U who's writing a program right now to be kind of a switchboard for the energy industry to say, OK, this home powers best by wind energy, it goes there for this amount to really maximize the efficiency and he's been working on it for like two years and I get excited about it.
I think more than he does because I see the big potential. I mean, energy companies would love that because it's going to solve millions of dollars in efficiencies, the global economy. Obviously, we're in a global economy. We're just trying to figure out some different global regulations. The one thing I'm noticing about the United states' role is we are becoming a very white collar and tech driven economy with a very skilled and educated blue collar.
Meaning there's a lot of these trade skilled renaissance happening because of the technology because when you're a rough neck on the oil patch and you almost need a two year degree, a four year degree to run that machine out there, you're a pretty qualified blue collar worker, so to speak. Just your comments on that blanket statement I made. ...
Jason Spiess
There's no question that the amount of professional training that is needed and whether that can come through higher education to your, for your schools, but also the apprenticeships and the use of technologies. I mean, it is labor and the professions both are going to have to go back and be continuous learners, lifelong learners because the the the change of adaption of technologies is all of us are going to become outdated every few years.
And so we have to be constant learners. And so the most important thing we learn and I don't care if you're a blue collar or white collar or any kind of worker. At the end of the day, we're all going to have to be constant learners. Now, we're going to learn different things. We're going to allow people to specialize. So you don't need to know everything about everything. No one can anymore. There's too much out there, but we're going to rely on people who have a specialty in and hey, you
can do that. Terrific. And I'm gonna pay you to take care of it. Well, I know this and you're gonna pay me to take care of that. And, you know, and it's, but it's, it's a lifelong learning is gonna be the key. I mean, I think, you know, I learned on the computer and I B M 3000 cards. Well, that knowledge has zero revel in this world, the
Bruce Gjovig
circle cards,
Jason Spiess
the card decks. So, right. So I spent a lot of time in the classroom learning something that has no use whatsoever. But you know what you adapt and you know, and you have to retrain and you learn new things and you have to be constant learners to the bottom line.
Bruce Gjovig
I, I think having a circular punch card to the, did they go to rectangular cards after that? Or maybe it started to be rectangular and circular? In fact, a lot of people don't know that was the backbone of the banking industry for about a
Jason Spiess
decade. I mean, people
Bruce Gjovig
don't understand that it was basically punch cards that ran the bank thinking industry it would. I think it'd be really interesting for a lot of kids and even college kids or anybody under 40 to take a look at that evolution on a timeline to see really how that cell phone became from just paper and punches because that's how it became. That's math. There you go. Hey, thank you. Appreciate it. That was fun. Yeah.
Since then, he has retired from UND’s Center for Innovation. He started in 1984 from a closet.
“They cleaned out a chemical storage closet, put in a World War II edition desk, and gave me a wobbly chair that a faculty member rejected, and that’s how I started the Center,” Gjovig said.
Two buildings and 33 years later—entrepreneurial coach, leader and student mentor Gjovig is retiring.
Gjovig spearheaded and then became the CEO of the Center for Innovation and Foundation, which focuses on students and business startups in their journey through innovation, entrepreneurship and securing entrepreneur capital.
Gjovig said he received great advice from Dwight Baumann, a native of Ashley, N.D., and graduate of North Dakota State in Fargo, who started teaching entrepreneurship classes at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1950s and launched an entrepreneur program at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1970s. Bauman strongly recommended the formation of a nonprofit foundation to attract funding and supportive entrepreneurial leadership and to serve as a catalyst for change.
Bauman told Gjovig the natural enemy of innovation and entrepreneurship is bureaucracy, and that universities will embrace innovation only with strong catalysts from outside.
Former UND President Tom Clifford, who led the University when Gjovig was getting started, agreed.
Currently, Gjovig is a strategic advisor for Grand Sky, the nation’s first UAS business park and UAS airport in the United States, located on the Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota utilizing an enhanced use lease (EUL). Opened in 2016, Grand Sky includes UAS facilities in programs by Northrop Grumman, General Atomics, Thales, Vantis (Beyong Visual Line of Sight for North Dakota), and the OSD Test Resource Management Center (TMRC) which is repurposing 24 Global Hawks for hypersonic missile testing in the Sky Range program.
Gjovig is CEO Emeritus - and was Founder, CEO and Entrepreneur Coach - of the Center for Innovation Foundation, a program focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, private investment, and the entrepreneur ecosystem at the University of North Dakota for 33 years.
Launched in 1984, under his leadership the Foundation became one of the premier venture development organizations in the world. It received 18 national and international awards for excellence and was one of just six entrepreneur centers nationwide featured for best practices and outstanding performance of venture development organizations.
In March 2017, the Center received three international awards, two of particular note: the InBIA Mixed-Use Business Incubator of the Year and the Dinah Adkins Technology Incubator of the Year Awards.
Both worldwide awards were for best incubator exemplifying overall excellence and serving as the leading model for others to follow when serving innovators and entrepreneurs. Gjovig built a world-class program out of UND.
From 2006 to 2017, the two incubators were certified six times as a “Soft Landings International Incubator” from InBIA, just one of 31 incubators worldwide - and among the first six - for being business friendly to international entrepreneurs entering a foreign market. Gjovig raised over $33 million for the Center for Innovation Foundation and helped launch one of the nation’s first Schools of Entrepreneurship.
In 2008, Sir Gjovig was presented with the Knight of the First Class, Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by HM King Harald V of Norway for 25 years of educational and business exchanges with Norway.
In 2014, he was presented the national Ronald Reagan Award for his 30 years of promoting free enterprise, innovation and entrepreneurship. He has two degrees from the University of North Dakota. In 2010 he was co-founder of the North Dakota Bioscience Association of North Dakota and continues to serve as chairman of the board to help grow the bioscience industry in North Dakota.
Since 2016, he has been one of 30 Civic Leaders appointed by the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Air Force, serving as an advisor and advocate for our nation’s Air Force and Space Force.
Gjovig is the author of seven books, the last three are about the Innovative Entrepreneurs from North Dakota.
Please consider supporting those who are Living The Crude Life! The oil and gas worker is experiencing the same public relations issues the farmer’s faced decades ago when the grocery story replaced them. Only it’s the light switch that has replaced those Living The Crude Life.
Your company and/or personal support will allow positive, informational and educational stories, interviews and podcasts to continue. Real talk. No scripts. Just energy experts and real crude talk.
Paid Subscriptions are only $5 and keep the articles, podcasts, news, essays and insights coming.
Network online, in social media groups and in podcast land! Support the industry’s voice for only $5!
Did you know supporting The Crude Life is more sustainable for the planet than a $5 Starbucks Coffee? You have the power to make a difference! Support The Crude Life today!
For guest, band or show topic requests, email studio@thecrudelife.com
About The Crude Life
Award winning interviewer and broadcast journalist Jason Spiess and Content Correspondents engage with the industry’s best thinkers, writers, politicians, business leaders, scientists, entertainers, community leaders, cafe owners and other newsmakers in one-on-one interviews and round table discussions.
The Crude Life has been broadcasting on radio stations since 2012 and posts all updates and interviews on The Crude Life Social Media Network.
Everyday your story is being told by someone. Who is telling your story? Who are you telling your story to?
#thecrudelife promotes a culture of inclusion and respect through interviews, content creation, live events and partnerships that educate, enrich, and empower people to create a positive social environment for all, regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation, or physical or intellectual ability.
Spread the word. Support the industry. Share the energy.
Click on picture for BIG SAVINGS! Check out these Amazing American Environmental Entrepreneurs! Don’t forget that the promo code OTIS unlocks big big savings!
if link is broken, use promo code OTIS at www.mystore.com and www.mypillow.com
The Crude Life Podcast: Bruce Gjovig Energizing Entrepreneurs