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Confirm your interest today in an interview to advance Canada’s Competitive Innovation Nation: CATAAlliance advocacy
October 9, 2015

ACTION ITEM:

Please take a few minutes to review our Briefing Note & Backgrounder on the Competitive Innovation Nation and then reach out to us to confirm your interest in being interviewed for the new CATA Video Sharing Leadership Channel. The question is: what are your views and guidance on how Canada can best advance its innovation and competitiveness rankings?

We will take care of the setup and logistics for the interview and our team is working to advance group guidance to key decision makers.

Briefing Note & Backgrounder on the Innovation Nation

"For Canada to prosper we must adopt a Competitive Innovation Nation mindset and culture. Let's set the gold standard."

Innovation and productivity are critical to Canada's future economic prospersity. However, Canada's lack of innovation, or a C Grade in Innovation Performance, among 16 advanced OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) economies, is leading to mediocre socio-economic performance compared to other developed countries.

The 2015 Startup Ecosystem Ranking (Compass) which ranks the top 20 startup ecosystems around the world places Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal in the lower quadrant. The index is produced by ranking ecosystems along five major components: Performance, Funding, Talent, Market Reach, and Startup Experience.

To help address the above shortcomings, please read CATA's White Paper on Canada's Innovation and Technology leadership: Others do better. Can Canadian governments improve on our investments in innovation?

The mission of CATA's Competitive Innovation Nation Campaign is to move Canada to 1st place or an A grade in Innovation and Competitiveness. To do so, we are asking community members to add their views and guidance to our new Advocacy Leadership Video Sharing Channel that can be accessed at: https://vimeo.com/channels/advocacyleadership

Our goal is to cultivate every advantage and eliminate every barrier to competitiveness, a goal that is vital to realize the improvements that will let Canada rank amongst the highest performers as an innovation based economy.

Core Policy Planks

  • Developing a Competitive Innovation Nation, National Brand for Canada based on Regional Advantages;

  • Creating a new Strategy for industry that perceives and exploits parallel physical, digital and intangible value streams, linked to strategic approaches to the growth of our innovative businesses through effective commercialization of products and services, supply chains, exports, increased international mandates, expansion of social enterprise and government procurement;

  • Responding to the Flat World of global competition with the removal of trade barriers, streaming of regulatory and labour practices and the provision of support to equal the playing field for Canadian competitors and investment in the infrastructure needed to preserve and expand market strength;

  • Simplifying Canada's tax system to boost access to incentives and reduce compliance costs and investment delays due to uncertainty;

  • Leveraging the best practice aspects of Canada's SR&ED tax incentive program to create the environment that promotes the commercialization of our innovations and the growth of firms to their full potential;

  • Attracting, retaining and training best talent;

  • Fostering executive leadership, including a commitment to lifetime learning, Mentorship and Diversity;

  • Developing through Mentorship the IT capability of women and encouraging women to join the technology market and enroll in technology-related studies;

  • Creating best practices and exportable technologies for Public Safety and National Security with an eye to protecting privacy, including fostering the growth of the advanced security sector; and,

  • Advancing measures to speed ICT adoption by the public and private sectors, particularly for small to mid sized (SME) businesses.

As we receive direction from the community, recommendations are continuously updated and then communicated to decision makers as part of ongoing advocacy.

We actively encourage all of Canada's political leaders to better understand and embrace what it takes to create a knowledge based Canada.

And CATA gets results (e.g., Advocacy Initiative Wins for: Certificate 116, Crowdfunding adoption, Cloud First for Canada, Reversal of Reverse Auctions, Canadian Test Beds, Broadband for Public Safety, among other advocacy successes).

The system does respond if the issue is legitimate, well researched and documented and the timing and targets are well-chosen.

ACTION ITEM

We are drawing on the community network of business and community leaders, to develop and implement the Platform, including:

  • Accomplished entrepreneurs with the vision, and tenacity to drive the knowledge-based economy

  • Smart investors who place confidence in these entrepreneurs

  • Valued customers who trust the ability of these companies to solve problems and satisfy needs

  • Strategic partners who provide advice and add value

    • Consider submitting a leadership video as part of adding to our advocacy targets. We can set up for the video through Google Hang Outs or you can create the video at your locale and then forward to us.

    Our new Advocacy Leadership Channel has more than 66 Executive advocacy interviews. Take a few minutes to listen to what others have had to say.

    Thank you for taking the time to consider supporting the Competitive Innovation Nation Campaign. We hope to see you soon on the Channel!