How we can win : and what happens to us and our country if we don't
An inspiring wake-up call from one of our great entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, who shows us ways to rescue our troubled economy, reverse brain drain--and set Canada up to truly take on the world. The Canadian economy is headed for disaster: 42% of current jobs, both blue and white collar, will be automated out of existence in the next ten years. Our currency is weak. Our productivity levels are pitiful. Our GDP is shrinking. Despite decades of costly attempts to diversify, our economy is still tied to the export of raw commodities. And raw talent. Far too many of the people who could propel us into the knowledge economy have followed the lead of Elon Musk and Uber co-founder Garret Camp and headed elsewhere to build their businesses and create thousands of jobs. Why don't our best and brightest see Canada as a land of opportunity? Because it's hard to grow world-beating companies here. Our bankers, venture capitalists and government regulators view big ideas as unCanadian. Too ambitious. Too expensive. And too threatening to the comfy status quo. Anthony Lacavera, who started his first business right out of university, disagrees. Vehemently. He says that the trouble with Canada is not that we are too small to do great things, but that we think small. If the world doesn't take us seriously, the reason is us. Through the lens of his own experience founding Wind Mobile and other Canadian success stories, he shows us that we can be a nation of big dreamers and bigger doers. Building businesses and regulatory systems that actually amplify Canadian characteristics--tolerance, humility and a capacity for teamwork, along with a certain degree of our fabled caution and decency--and then marketing those characteristics aggressively, rather than apologizing for them, is the way to go. Instead of aping Silicon Valley (which we can't beat), we need to focus and then double down on the areas in which we can win. If we find the confidence to bet aggressively on ourselves, and our future, rather than clinging to our past, we will grow a new kind of economy where being Canadian is a badge of honour--and where we can win the race to the future without leaving home, selling our souls or making the world hate us.
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- ISBN: 9780735272590
- Physical Description 262 pages : map ; 24 cm
- Publisher Toronto, ON : Random House Canada, [2017]
- Copyright ©2017
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
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Summary
How We Can Win : And What Happens to Us and Our Country If We Don't
Our kids are smart, our banks are sound, our health care system is humane, our democracy is stable--but technological change is about to disrupt our economy and threaten our way of life. Canadians aren't ready for the race to the future. Can we still catch up--or even win? Yes, says Anthony Lacavera, one of Canada's most successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. But we need to change the way we think and talk about our own abilities--dream bigger, aim higher and go for gold, not bronze. We also need to change the way we do business. Our dominant business culture, Lacavera believes, is fundamentally unCanadian: traditional, backward-looking, insular, timid, greedy, unoriginal--everything that Canadians themselves are not. And that unCanadian business culture, protected by outmoded regulations and government policies, is stifling our economic growth. It dumps roadblocks in the path of entrepreneurs who want to build the kind of powerhouse businesses that will create jobs and fuel our economy. Anthony Lacavera faced those roadblocks himself, when he was building WIND--an epic battle against the big three telecommunications giants in Canada. But he's certain we have the talent and the brains to tear those roadblocks down. He gives us vivid portraits of some of Canada's most important natural resources: our talented, innovative entrepreneurs, who want to change the world for the better (and, yes, make money while they're at it). But we are shipping far too many of them to the United States, gift-wrapped in our tax dollars. They don't want to leave--they're forced out because it's just too difficult to build big, bold businesses in Canada. How We Can Win explains what we need to do to keep them here, and what all Canadians must do to ensure our future prosperity. Our biggest problem is not that we are a small country, but that we think too small. We can be a nation of big dreamers and bigger doers. Not by aping Silicon Valley, but by focusing on uniquely Canadian strengths and then doubling down on them. If we bet aggressively on ourselves, and our future, rather than clinging to the status quo, we will create a new, more solid economic foundation--one that allows us to win the race to the future without leaving home.
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