Can Canada Produce its Own Steve Jobs?
In today's economic climate, innovation and competitiveness co-exist as a necessity for survival. Globalization has changed business dynamics and the supply chain, forcing business to make bold changes to how they operate and compete. The ability to be innovative is essential.
Canadian authors, Alexander Bosika and John Thompson, set out to discover if Canada has the right stuff, to compete in the 21st century. Tracing back to the nation's early historical roots, we discover a surprising range of inventions, which helped catapult Canadian business to significant new levels.
Historically, there's much to be proud for but today's media is unrelenting in its view that Canada has already lost the innovation game. In any general poll, Canadians are lost in naming more than a few innovative firms like Research in Motion, Nortel, and Bombardier. For most Canadians and many trading partners, Canada is still viewed as a resource economy with an increasing dependence on raw materials to fuel its economic growth.
This flies directly against a long history of innovation and resourcefulness forced by Canada's climate, geography, and experience. We've always been highly adaptable because we've had to be. What limits this strength and how do we overcome it?
Will Canada's wealth in future decades thrive on the staples theory, developed by historian Harold Innis in the 1920's, to explain Canada's development as a provider of valuable raw resources. Will we always be 'hewers of wood' and 'drawers of water'? Or will we finally start to play to our true strengths, allowing our economy to thrive with the development of new products or processes?
Canadians are increasingly viewed as a high-skilled labour force with a desirable talent pool but everyone realizes innovation and inventiveness are the key ways to maintaining our standard of living.
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"This is a clarion call to Canadians, government and business that we must identify, re-define, and re-focus our energies to the spirit of innovation and inventiveness," said John Thompson. "In a funny way, no one remembers the people behind the idea in the first place, and far too often, others perfect the idea and emerge to rule the day. Sadly, the Canadian media does a terrible job promoting Made-in-Canada ingenuity in technology and other sectors of business," added Alexander Bosika.
Both authors are scheduled to release their "made for Kindle" digital book this year because the message is urgent and there isn't time to wait for the old paradigm publishing models to support their passionate cause. Ironically, a previous Harvard Business Review report by Gary Pisano and Willy Shih describes how Kindle, Amazon's electronic and Android-based reader, could never be developed in North America because the ability to manufacture high-tech components was lost in the 1990's with outsourcing to Asian firms who ultimately moved up the value chain to compete against North American business in the technology sector.
To stay in touch with the authors and to join their Kindle release mailing list, readers can add their email address at www.CanadianCrunch.com . Alexander Bosika, through his corporation, owns the domain with plans to expand its mandate to ultimately benefit the Canadian technology sector in the future.
About Alexander S. Bosika
Alexander S. Bosika is co-founder of Canada's largest mobile industry networking association, MobileMondayToronto.com, which held its first monthly meeting in June 2006, with attendance totaling 300+ industry members each month and receives financial support from Research in Motion, Windows Phone, Nokia, WIND, Mobilicity, Public Mobile and many others. He currently consults for Admeris Payment Systems Inc., a leading mobile payments platform provider to telecom, integrators, charitable organizations, retail, and brand advertisers. With more than a decade of technology sector experience, he is a champion of Canadian innovation and technology and is excited to co-author his first book on a subject close to his heart.
About John Thompson
The son of an RCAF physicist, he studied history in university and combines 13 years of military service with 27 years inside the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies and the Mackenzie Institute. A highly skilled writer and commentator, he has also been involved in strategic reviews of various Canadian institutions and industries over the past 20 years, from the fur trade and agriculture to advanced medical research.
He is also the author of "Spirit over Steel: A Chronology of the Second World War", published on Kindle last December and has two other books underway currently.
