How can Canada win? The brightest minds in Canadian innovation have their say
Innovation is happening in all industries across the country, and our Vision to Reality (V2R) Awards recognize the organizations leading the charge — and whose vision has become a reality.
A hallmark to V2R is bringing together this innovation community, representative of all industries across the country, to facilitate visionary thinking. So it was exciting to see more than 60 of our finalists, judges and PwC partners for a thought-provoking workshop just prior to our V2R Awards ceremony in May.
The conversation focused on the challenges holding Canadian organizations back from being truly dominant in our global innovation ecosystem.
We asked a simple, yet controversial, question:
“How can we win?”
To answer this question, attendees broke into eight groups to tackle four related challenges: the aspiration gap, tall poppy syndrome, government regulations and the idea that we’re sub-scale.
The problems were debated and the answers were as interesting as the question itself. Here are some of the highlights we came away with:
A special thanks to How We Can Win author Anthony Lacavera for moderating the open discussion based on insights from his book.
Challenge №1 — The aspiration gap
When it comes to hockey, Canadians expect to win. We go for the gold. So how do we bring this mentality to business? As one group put it: we need to overcome our entrenched aversion to risk.
- Turn research into reality: Canada has the research and talent it needs to become a global leader, producing vast amounts of innovation through government-sponsored R&D. But compared to the United States, we fail to commercialize it here. To support a knowledge-based economy, we need to remove constraints from entrepreneurs and invest in commercialization offices at universities. Enhanced support for research — either from homegrown sources or in collaboration with international partners — is fundamental to building a better Canada.
- Encourage entrepreneurship from an early age: To truly have an impact, young people need to see what they can achieve with entrepreneurial thinking. One group talked about encouraging junior achievement with spaces like The Knowledge Society, an incubator for teenagers to collaborate and explore big ideas with peers. Another suggested launching an “innovation Olympics” to help children aspire to be entrepreneurs. These programs may spur young people to take risks and turn their visions into reality.
- Reduce costs to grow nationally: In Canada, our populations are geographically distributed, so there’s a cost to being able to succeed at a national level. We need to help our entrepreneurs grow mobile earlier. So when it comes to taking the next steps, it’s important to increase access to risk capital for scaling.
Challenge №2 — Tall poppy syndrome
Does Canada celebrate its successes? It’s often said we suffer from a tall poppy syndrome — where if anyone gets too big or ambitious, we cut them down. The discussion centred around the need to recognize people’s achievements so they’re encouraged to stay.
- It’s time to stop being so apologetic: Is any other country as known for saying “sorry” as we are? And this culture of “nice” is common within our businesses, too. Evergreen CEO Geoff Cape said that often Canadians with the skills to take on the world conduct themselves tentatively. But it’s in Canada’s self-interest to put doubt aside and focus unabashedly on building new and bigger companies — which will help nudge our GDP in the right direction.
- Market ourselves to the world: It’s important to market Canada to those both inside and outside the entrepreneurial space. One solution is to encourage the press to cover success stories beyond large-capital businesses by pushing stories that come from within incubators and accelerators. By promoting emerging companies, the people who are starting companies have role models to focus on.
Challenge №3 — Government regulations
How can the government encourage domestic growth and help Canada compete globally? Attendees didn’t believe the current political environment supported new ideas or talent retention — but there were several ideas about how to overcome this.
- Open up the bidding process: HackerNest CEO Shaharris Beh suggested reimagining the lengthy request-for-proposals/qualifications processes, which can often favour large businesses over smaller ones. He added that people need to “push for change.” One proposal involved a try-before-you-buy system, where instead of submitting traditional bids (where you say how great you are) bidders have the opportunity to show what they can with the help of limited funding.
- Reimagining funding: Participants talked about the “zombie” companies — those only alive thanks to Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) funds. One group proposed limiting funding to the first five years of startups (and “at the end of five years, it’s done”). This wasn’t to say the government should discourage research, but many said spreading limited resources too thinly doesn’t have the necessary impact. As one speaker said: “We need to double-down on winners.”
- Keep good ideas in Canada using incentives: One group recommended a national intellectual property strategy, where valuable patents can help international researchers with an “automatic path to citizenship.” Another suggested offering relocation subsidies for promising startups and companies. Overall, many thought it was important for the government to help attract businesses and help them compete on a global scale.
Challenge №4 — We’re sub-scale
How do we overcome the fact Canada is sub-scale? The answer is to be nimble. And since we’re never going to be an economic Goliath, we have to figure out how to be the best David we can be.
- Highlight our strengths as a country: Everyone agrees. Canada is an amazing place to live. So how do we make sure people know that? Yan Fossat, Vice President, Klick Labs, recommended we continue to leverage our strengths, such as our education system, diversity and public services and funding programs. We need to shout this from the top of the mountains.
- Thinking beyond south of the border: Turbulent NAFTA talks with the United States may necessitate looking for other trade partners. One group talked about the importance of thinking globally rather than relying on our relationship with the United States. Other countries have challenges we could help solve, so it’s time to branch out.
So how do we help Canada win? In a global economy that’s constantly being disrupted, small improvements aren’t enough. It takes big bets and new ways of thinking to stay ahead. And for proof that Canada is leading the charge, explore the stories of all 20 V2R Awards finalists.
Looking ahead
Is your organization driving innovative change? The 2019 V2R Awards applications will open in the fall, so sign up to get updates and join the community.
