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competitiveness
Through concerted collaboration executed in a spirit of co-opetition, over the last three years 11 Canadian cities have executed seven joint Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) missions with the Federal government to 12 countries.
Through investment missions done in cooperation with Invest in Canada, the leading lights of Canada's economic development agencies have learned two clear lessons: First, the battleground for Foreign Direct Investment is at the city level; and second, the weapons employed are the relative strength of city ecosystems and talent.
I think competition is good for us, and is critical to helping us find performances that we didn't know we had. Sometimes I feel we have become so sensitive about not leaving anybody feeling left out that we have all but obliterated competition in our schools, and to a large degree in our workplaces. Nobody gets recognized, and actually nobody feels special.
Like Harper's GST cuts before it, Liberal campaigning to increase taxes on stock options was designed to ride a wave of discontent. In this case, it is the stagnation of wages and promising employment while top exec comp in Canada rises pro rata with American counterparts without supporting increases in productivity.
Kevin O'Leary has created an entire persona around a sort of modern-day Gordon Gekko. O'Leary is fond of and famous for employing phrases like "it's all about the money," "people only care about money," and "money makes the world go round." To put it mildly, this is a superficial, even one-dimensional understanding of markets.
One would think that, as the global economy struggles to recover, businesses would be looking at all opportunities to expand, be more competitive, bring in more customers and reduce costs. Online retailing seems to make sense in this climate. Heck, I won't even go to a restaurant without first checking out menus and reviews online.
The message that we're sending to our children is loud and clear: we want you to excel at sports, so you'd better do it. We want to see you become an athletic star, regardless of your interest (and often skill level). Until we let go of our collective dreams of athletic super-stardom, of touchdowns and home runs, we will continue to negatively affect our children's psyches.
I haven't been able to pick up a paper or surf online recently without getting bombarded with news, research or expert opinions featuring Big Data and its value to the future of business. I worry that without engagement and investment, the promise of Big Data initiatives will remain just a promise.
When you meet these bright young students, the first impression is "wow, they're pretty normal teenagers." That impression doesn't last long. The minute they begin to describe their research, my mind reels as I try to keep up with each project's premise and findings. These are exception children, and they are our future.
