The innovation reaction

Canadian companies that are feeling the pressure to innovate due to the strong loonie are missing the big picture. Feeling the need to innovate should not be a reaction to difficult financial times nor a last-ditch effort to survive; it needs to become part of our Canadian corporate culture and fostered continuously in good times and in bad. For many companies, recognizing the need for innovation when margins are as tight as they are is a lesson learned too late. Had these companies invested in innovation during the prosperous 65-cent-dollar, they may not be in the predicament they find themselves in today. We need to become more proactive and aggressive and break the “follow-the-leader” mindset and the belief that innovation needs to be purchased from other countries rather than developed internally.

We have the talent, skills, and education to develop our own intellectual property and control our own destiny in the global knowledge-based economy. Let’s not use innovation as a last-ditch effort to survive financial hardship; let’s choose to continuously innovate and foster an innovative society to guarantee our country’s success and prosperity independent of our loonie’s value.