Once, she was the most prolific scorer in Canadian women’s collegiate basketball. Today, Nancy Knowlton relies on many of the same competitive instincts in driving SMART Technologies, the dynamic company she runs with her husband, David Martin.

In this interview, Knowlton, SMART’s president and chief operating officer, harkens back to her days on the basketball court, attributing much of her success in business to the hard lessons from the hardwood.

1. Who’s the boss of SMART Technologies, you or your husband?
“Early on, Dave (Martin) and I had to figure out how we would divide our responsibilities so that our overlap was as small as possible. So we decided he would be, coincidentally, Mr. Tomorrow in charge of future visioning and that I would look after today. On a day-to-day basis, I guess you could say that I’m in charge of the company.”

2. Your first job?
“I was eight or nine years old and I worked with my brother and father and we had a little maple-syrup business. We took that opportunity and made some maple syrup and made some money and learned a lot of lessons.”

3. While playing collegiate basketball, did you envision an entrepreneurial life?
“Absolutely. I always thought I’d have a business.”

4. Have you channelled your basketball experience into business?
“I think I have. A lot of the things that made me successful in basketball are the same traits that I rely on on a daily basis. When I played basketball, I practised probably more than people would actually realize. So, today I guess I continue to practise — by reading, by studying. I feel driven. I feel a lot of people right on my heels and if I don’t continue to learn and develop my skills, then I don’t think I deserve the job I have.”

5. So your drive to stay on top of your game, so to speak, is a product of your basketball days?
“Whenever I lost or didn’t play well, I actually worked harder. And after a game when my performance was sub-standard, that night when all my friends would be out in the bar, I would be in the gym two, three, four hours just shooting and working on everything that caused me to play poorly. And that’s what I do now.”

6. Do you still have that scoring touch?
“I can step in a gym now without having picked up a ball in months, progressively step back from the basketball net and just drain them. I may have to play a pick-up game at my little girlfriend’s school. She’s got some boys in Grade 7 and Grade 8 who tell her that all girls are worse than boys. They told her to pick up any two girls and they’ll just destroy her. So I’m thinking of taking Jackie Simon (former University of Alberta star) and going down to play there at lunch hour.”

7. Do you miss the adrenalin rush of basketball?
“It’s still very difficult. I’m in too poor of a shape now. The reason why I stopped playing was because I was working too much. Things were very difficult in our business and I felt I had to be at work.”

8. Is winning everything to you?
“I’ve matured probably just a little bit, so I now actually enjoy the journey a whole lot more than when I was younger. Even when we don’t immediately win, I still enjoy that — as long as I see the progress and as long as I feel we will win in the future.”

9. What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome with SMART?
“A lack of financing. We bootstrapped the organization so we didn’t have an influx of capital when we started. The next biggest hurdle was trying to attract the right type of people. We always wanted top-class people but, until we became a little bit proven, we couldn’t attract really the top-calibre people.”

10. The greatest lesson you’ve learned in business?
“To stay focused on the longer-term goals and short-term setbacks are simply that, just short term. And to stay true to that longer-term vision and keep plugging away every single day.”

11. How tough was it before the company established itself?
“This was not a fun place to be for us. What drove us then was that some of our friends had borrowed money to invest in the company. And many nights I stayed awake thinking about two friends in particular who borrowed about $30,000. I was thinking: ‘I want to give you your money back, I don’t need this burden.’ So when times were tough, I thought of those two friends and we wouldn’t give up.”

12. Any role models you’d like to mention?
“My high-school basketball coach (Vince Hall), who was also my English Composition and Literature teacher, taught me a huge amount about digging deep more when you thought you were totally finished.”

13. The last movie you saw?
“Jackie Chan. I love Jackie Chan! It was Shanghai Noon.”

14. A celebrity you’d like to meet?
“Shaquille (O’Neal, the Los Angeles Lakers’ superstar). You bet. I find it absolutely fascinating that he’s such a large man and so capable in his sport. He seems to have such a big personality and I’d like to see what that’s like.”

15. Someone you wouldn’t want to meet?
“Dennis Rodman. To be a shocking person with actually low moral values, I find that inconsistent today. I think when you ask kids who they would like to meet, a lot of them say they would like to meet Dennis Rodman. I find him about as deep as veneer. He’s very, very shallow.”

16. How was your home town in Quebec, Knowlton, named for your family?
“Both sides of my family were United Empire Loyalists. So in the late 1700s, they moved up from the U.S. Colonel Paul Holland Knowlton arrived and he just named the place after himself.”

17. You call in sick tomorrow, but you’re feeling fine. How do you spend the day?
“I’ve been sick less than half a day in 13 years. But I really prefer spending my time with the children of my two best friends. There are three girls in one family and two little boys in another. I find it infinitely educational and amusing and heart-warming all at the same time to be spending time with them.”

18. What are your goals for your company’s SMARTer Kids Foundation?
“It’s now engaged in an exchange program called Connections. I’d really like to see that program flourish and become well known. I’d like to see people really, really, really want to participate in that program because it’s so good for the children. For the upcoming year, we’ll be selecting Grade 5 classes around North America. What we’re really trying to develop through this program is healthy self-esteem in the children and also give them a bigger perspective of themselves and how they fit into a bigger world. It’s tough as a kid, so we’re just trying to make it easier for them to grow.”

19. What’s your vision for SMART Technologies for 2005?
“I see us a number of times larger in terms of staff and revenue than where we are today. I’d like to see us with operations around the world. We are just in the process of setting up our first sales offices outside of Canada, in Washington, D.C.; in Bonn, Germany; and in Tokyo. I’d like to see us firmly entrenched as the largest supplier in this market. We are now (the largest supplier) but the market is really in its infancy, so in the next five years I see the market growing very substantially and I’d like to maintain our leading position in the market. I’d like to see us with new and complementary products.”

20. God taps you on the shoulder and says you can do one thing over?
(Laughter) “I’d like to go back to 26 and get to do this all over again with a lot more knowledge and a calmer approach to things. When I was younger, I used to worry way too much about certain things. Age and experience, I’d say, has given me a better perspective. I think the second time around, I would probably sweat the little things a lot less.”

THE COMPANY: Smart Technologies

* Brass: Nancy Knowlton, president/COO; David Martin, chairman/CEO; Nancy Macnab, vice-president, finance/CFO.
* Profile: SMART is a privately held company founded in 1987 by Knowlton and Martin. Its focus is on development of Roomware – hardware and software solutions for shared spaces that help groups access and share information required to meet, teach, train and present. It has 300 employees and customers including NASA, Texas Instruments, Procter & Gamble, Harvard University and the L.A. Lakers.
* Awards: Named to list of Canada’s 50 best-managed private companies three straight years, made list of Alberta’s 30 fastest growing companies, recently named by Canada Export Awards as Canadian Exporter Of The Year.
* Web site:smarttech.com
* Address:#600-1177 11th Ave. S.W., T2R 1K9.
* Phone/Fax: 245-0333/245-0366.

IN PROFILE: Nancy Knowlton

* Born/Raised/Age: Cowansville, Que., Knowlton, Que., 47.
* Title: President, Chief Operating Officer.
* Education: Bishop’s University, BA (business administration), honours; St. Mary’s University, MA (business administration).
* Family: Husband David Martin.
* Role model: High school basketball coach/teacher Vince Hall.
* Claim to fame: While at St. Mary’s University, Knowlton was the top scorer on the women’s basketball team and once was top collegiate scorer in Canada.
* Passions: Spending quality time with friends and their children, reading books on business success stories.