A think-tank has issued a report on Canada and the results are grim.
"Our culture is unwilling to accept the failures that are built into an environment that genuinely supports risk taking. Nor are we wholly comfortable with differentiation, success and excellence. This culture holds Canada back in entrepreneurial and technological innovation."
The Conference Board, the think-tank in question, says that it has discovered a "story of governments, businesses and people punching below their weight.
"[T]oo often we trail the pack. The failure to innovate is a large part of the explanation for our mediocrity — a mediocrity that is hampering what we can do and what we can be."
References
Viera, Paul. ‘Mediocrity’ threatens way of life: report card. National Post. June 13, 2007. here.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Mark Medley and National Post for the report card image.
To Leora Kornfeld for the head’s up.
What a great blog. I got here through Ogilvy China’s brand new blog and it took me quite a while to leave. I will definitely be back.
This is really bad news. I hope the Harper Government is listening to this! I don’t see much else in the Canadian news in general about this lack of innovation issue which probably means that the country is a long way off of to facing its problems and dealing with them… If you look at the top brands in Canada, you’ll notice that most are located in the financial sector and are highly mature (read: old) companies. There are some innovative brands among the top (Cirque du Soleil is a perfect example) but they are few and far between!
as disconcerting an assessment as that is, the first quote, especially, applies to many other organizations. substitute “canada” for, say “world bank group” (or any other multilateral or public institution), and the statement remains patently true. maybe one could even substitute “canada” for “the state” more generally?
Ouch. Changing something of that magnitude…whew, tough sledding.
food for thought from cbc.ca…podcast @ link below
Author Andrea Mandel-Campbell: Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson
Mandel-Campbell is a business and financial journalist specializing in international markets and global competitiveness.
In her 10 years in Latin America, she wrote for The Miami Herald, The San Francisco Examiner, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and The Globe and Mail, among other publications.
She returned to Canada in 2002 and became a feature writer for the National Post. She has also written feature articles for Maclean’s magazine and The Walrus.
Mandel-Campbell’s new book, Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson: Rescuing Canadian Companies From the Suds of Global Obscurity, is an examination of why Canadian companies have failed to compete on a world stage and why they must.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/chats/2007/05/author_andrea_mandelcampbell_w.html