Francine Masson combines entrepreneurship with innovation and a passion to communicate.

Entrepreneur, lecturor and author, Francine Masson EMBA is a dynamic woman! In addition to teaching every week, she travels throughout Quebec and international level to share her passion for innovation strategies with entrepreneurs and incubators. She has advised more than 1,250 innovative small and medium-size businesses!

Second generation of entrepreneurs, Francine rose through each level in the family business to  then create and direct her own enterprise, to later sell it before joining the Canadian Technology Network, an initiative of the National Council of Research of Canada IRAP Program in 1996. Her mandate is to support and coach innovative companies in their marketing challenges. Francine crosses all of Quebec to meet with researchers and entrepreneurs with innovative challenges.

Excellent popularizer, enthusiastic and energetic, Francine is a frequent public speaker on Best Practices for InnovationTM (MPII) to audiences of CEOs, researchers and start-up entrepreneurs. Her favorite themes include creativity and business models, value proposition, and positioning of the company in the innovation ecosystem in Québec.

Since the foundation of CTN in 1996, Francine works in the entrepreneurial environment and specializes in the development of business strategies for the marketing of products that do not yet exist / marketing the unknown, so as to support innovative companies in their startup or during their growth.

She created her own the MPIITM innovation management model based on best world-class practices, thus harmonizing the different services of the company, referencing the Stage Gate model of Robert Cooper, Studies of markets which do not yet exist by Paul Millier, the Blue Ocean Strategy of Kim and Mauborgne, the Business model generation of  Osterwalder and Pigneur, as well as several others (Christensen, Moore, Trott …) Designed for managers of growing companies, Francine unveils the mysteries of innovation management by mapping the MPII ™, which illustrates the different applications spread over 7 strategic areas, from idea to market. Moreover, with MPII ™, the process to achieve this trajectory is supported by a diagnostic tool which measures the rate of penetration of innovative business practices, determining performance indicators and the innovation activities to accomplish for each of the strategic axes of the company.

Marketing Management graduate of HEC Montreal, Francine also holds an Executive-MBA from Paris-Dauphine in France, with a minor in Asian studies (Japan). Recently, she obtained the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® certification (level 3: business models, teambuilding and individual). Mastering this kind of game has taken work. Francine is committed to adapting this knowledge to her program, all after researching case studies that led her to the training workshop in Billund, in the heart of Denmark where LEGO started a century ago. Francine Masson has a peripheral vision of innovation and is known for her outspokenness, her drive and her philanthropic involvement.

Jury in various competitions such as the Quebec Entrepreneurship Contest, the Octas (IT), Dux (Food) and  selection judge for incubators, Francine Masson is a member of several boards and lecturer since 2013 at Master Level for École de Technologie Supérieure University (ÉTS) part of the technical program, innovation management concentration. Francine offers you the fruits of her observations and the results of her experience in innovation management.

Testimonial

« Francine and I started to cooperate a couple of year’s back with the intent to develop and grow the EBN network in Canada and her help in understanding the local context has been precious. She is widely connected, extremely competent, when it comes to discuss innovation and incubation, and holds a contaminating postive energy that you just can’t let go!
In short: my experience with Francine is both stimulating and good fun and if you are looking for someone who will deliver, who will put heart, soul and brain-cells in the job at hand, and who will not shy from « telling it as it is », then look no further! »

Giordano Dichter, Incubator/Accelerator Auditor, Economic development, Brussels, Belgium