Hey Canada, it’s time to dream beyond bronze.
About three years ago I wrote something shamelessly optimistic about how Canada was the next great frontier for innovation. I just re-read it here. I was naive. It’s pretty weird for me to write something positive, I normally save writing for my more cynical moments. This is one of those.
Over that time I’ve learned that this place isn’t the innovator’s paradise, it’s far from it. Over coffee chats lately, a couple of quotes stood out to me.
“The only thing Toronto, and Canada actually, excels at is creating mediocrity.”
“In Canada we’re happy to aim for the bronze. We don’t aspire to be the best.”
Now do we all remember the lesson Ricky Bobby taught us?
Sidewalk Labs’ recent update is a timely example of this.
After years of thinking, planning and inspiring, the whole thing now looks well, a little underwhelming. Any big tech firm getting into the space of urban planner should obviously have some data and privacy concerns but issue has become quite the battle between city and enterprise as opposed to an endeavour where enterprise and government are working on a collective vision.
And the result? Well the project is moving forward, but in a scaled back format. What should have been seen as an audacious gift to the city is now a heavily scrutinized, slow moving, watered down urban development project playing by the old rules. I’m not on the side of chaos here but Toronto is desperate for more development, new thinking on what we build, how we live, move, work and play and we’re not taking the risk to dare to be different.
I’m a big believer that Canada should be the world’s innovation lab. It’s (still) a pretty liberal nation in a world of growing populism. It’s like the US but not the US, and close enough in many ways to Europe, not to mention home to burgeoning Asian, Indian, African and Middle Eastern populations.
The big banks are still bloated and our fintech scene is well behind American and European peers, our retailers follow what has happened elsewhere and top talent often has to leave to find fame or fortune.
Last year I was in a Canadian boardroom where a collection of execs who discussed the merits of doing something very different, audacious even, to solve what was both a big business problem and customer frustration then decided not to pursue the idea because it hadn’t been done before. Instead they would wait and see if it could be done by a foreign peer before taking the plunge.
With that attitude and approach, what’s the point? Organizations here talk the talk, there’s an innovation conference in town every other week, but don’t walk the walk. Are we comfortable being good enough, being pleased to be on the podium, playing it safe once we’ve seen someone else do it elsewhere or do we actually want Canada to be a leader?
The talent is here, many of the startups are here, enough money is here, there’s foreign companies that can try things away from key markets are here and a good few big Canadian companies that could be leaders in their field if they just let go of the handrail rather than celebrated the PR fluff.
Next time we have an opportunity to do something audacious, different, that hasn’t been done before, let’s actually try and do it as if we want the gold. I seem to remember as kids we were told to aim for the stars because we can be anything we want to be, as adults, we need to be reminded of that vs. settling from out the outset.
The right conditions here won’t last forever, now is the time for courage and guts.
