Innosuisse trainer Nanci Govinder: ‘The training fuels my two passions: innovation and entrepreneurship’

07.06.2021 10:05, Isabelle Mitchell

The Innosuisse Start-up Training in Business Growth and Business Creation equips entrepreneurs with the tools to build world-class start-ups. Around 30 times a year, the Innosuisse trainers—more than 160 entrepreneurs, investors, and experts—share their expertise and provide hands-on experience in tailor-made workshops for ICT, advanced engineering, medtech, and biotech start-ups. One of these trainers is Nanci Govinder, the managing director of nancigovinder.com, a personal evolution and leadership development firm in Lausanne. Learn more about Nanci’s training sessions, her expectations of the participants, and her favorite apps and productivity tools.

The Innosuisse Start-up Training comprises accomplished entrepreneurs, investors, and experts who help young companies accomplish their missions. Many of the Innosuisse coaches have built start-ups themselves, and all of them know the challenges and opportunities entrepreneurs face. To learn more about the experts who support the Swiss innovation ecosystem, we ask them to complete a short profile and choose at least eight questions from a questionnaire about their training session and their personal and professional life. 
 

About Nanci
 

Name: Nanci Govinder
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Born in: 20th century, South Africa
Graduated from: University of Natal, BSc Chemistry 1984; UNISA, MBA 1992; Corporate Coach U, Corporate Coaching Diploma 2003; BSc Holistic Counselling, University of Holistic Theology 2009
Job title: Managing Director, nancigovinder.com
First touchpoint with Venturelab: 2009 as a CTI start-up coach

“I engage with entrepreneurs and business professionals to facilitate their path to professional and business mastery through coaching, webinars, workshops, and lectures.”
 

About Nanci’s Innosuisse training

Business Growth in Advanced Engineering, ICT, medtech, and biotech
Business Creation in Medtech and ICT
Topics: Day 1 and Day 4

What is your motivation to join the workshops as a trainer?
The training fuels my two passions: innovation and entrepreneurship. It allows me to experience and contribute to both by sharing my knowledge and experience, learning about new technologies and products, and working with passionate, courageous, creative, and smart entrepreneurs in our ecosystem.

What is the best advice you can give to start-up founders?
Keep your feet on the ground, and reach for the stars—ambition with humility. Participants who are open and willing to learn and be challenged; can step out of their comfort zone; and have a high level of curiosity, interest, and engagement, paired with a good sense of humor, make for a great learning and training environment. I am a high-energy person, so I enjoy dynamic and controversial discussions with blue-sky thinking—that is where the magic happens. Ideas and tools emerge from unexpected places, so swimming in the ocean of the unknown can be exhilarating and rewarding for both the participants and me as a trainer, as I learn a lot in the process as well.

What do you hope to accomplish with the participants?
If they leave the training with one thing that they cannot wait to act on or implement with a sense of excitement and confidence, and which will have an impact either on themselves personally or their business—that is an accomplishment. Thereafter, witnessing their progress and growth in the media or at start-up events or when meeting them a few months or years later, and they recall the impact of that take-away, that is awesome!
 

About Nanci’s professional life

I use a scheduler for meetings, coaching calls, webinars, and trainings. Acuity Scheduling is my favorite, as I can view all my activities on a color-coded dashboard. It integrates perfectly with Outlook and Gmail, and I can then directly schedule calls with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc. The tool creates structure, allows me to control and manage my time effectively, and most importantly, gives me peace of mind.

What do you do when you are creatively stuck?
Firstly, it is important for me to acknowledge that I am stuck and that the creative process cannot be forced. It needs to unfold in its own time and way; having the patience for this is the challenge. I try to manage it by doing something active, like going for a walk, or something creative, like a jigsaw puzzle or creating a new cooking recipe. The trick is to let go, be forgiving of yourself, and appreciative of and sensitive to the creative process. 

What are your three favorite apps?
1. Blinkist: It summarizes business books into 10- or 15-minute reads, which helps me to stay updated with the latest books without investing hours of my time.
2. Medium: An open-source platform of great ideas and writing from diverse contributors—such as journalists, businesspeople, authors, thought leaders—that has a section on start-ups, which I find interesting and insightful.
3. Ten Percent: This meditation app helps me kickstart, manage, and end the day with mindfulness.