Dr Kamiel Gabriel, founding associate provost of research and graduate programs, UOIT

Innovation is important but how do we move the dial on Canada's poor performance?

By Dr Kamiel Gabriel

At the recent World Future Energy Summit held annually in the UAE, some illuminating statistics on population growth, natural resource usage, deforestation and human poverty were provided. The world population is growing at 90 million annually and is now 7.4 billion and CO2 emissions average 45 million tons per year. Forest loss has reached 250,000 hectares a year and global water consumption worldwide now totals 500 billion litres.

At the same time, people are dying of hunger at an average 14,000 a year and, energy consumption has escalated to 5.6 × 1020 joules (2012) — yet more than one billion people have no access to electricity.

When we consider these diverse global challenges, we must ask ourselves: how could we meet the Paris targets with such enormous CO2 emissions on one hand while, on the other hand, depleting the CO2 sink (forests) at such large scale? How do we curtail large consumption of energy and water while maintaining the lifestyle we have become accustomed to? How could societies deal with such a high number of people dying of hunger every year and with no access to sanitary water or electricity? The answer to these questions and many more is: innovation.

Innovation must be the way of conducting day-to-day business. In Canada, it desperately needs to be imbedded in companies, schools, hospitals and higher education institutions to the extent that it becomes our cultural norm.

How does Canada fair in this regard? The answer is pathetic and getting even worse. In a recent lecture at Carleton University, Dr Kevin Lynch asked: Can Canada become an innovation nation? And why does it matter? Lynch, vice chair of BMO Financial Group, said innovation is no longer a luxury, but the key to competitiveness in the current and future economic environment. With escalating technological change and the need for companies to continually innovate, those who stop paddling will find themselves on a losing stream.

Lynch used Apple and the late Steve Jobs as an example of understanding the importance of perpetual innovation to succeed. He pointed out that while others changed their products on a two- or three-year cycle, Apple kept on introducing two or more new products every year with functions and styles that directly addressed users' needs and wants.

Lynch added that the scale and scope of innovation have both increased in importance and magnitude. In Davos 2016, the talk was about entering the fourth industrial revolution with innovation touted as the "secret sauce" to economic success. The scope of innovation has become complex with multiple platforms and diverse suites of technologies. It has also become expandable in the physical, digital, business strategy and policy domains. With these accelerating changes in size and scope, there is no room for the faint hearted if Canadian businesses want to compete and win.

In my recently published book, The Anatomy of Innovation — What makes innovation succeed in the 21st century?, I provide some suggestions for moving the dial on Canada's poor innovation record. (Canada now claims the 26th place in the world in the ranking of "capacity of the private sector to innovate." UAE, a country with a mere 44 years of history, is in the 25th spot).

• Extracting value from excellence. Canada must resist mediocrity and focus on key niche areas where it is globally competitive. Simply put, to win we must have winners on our team.

• Focusing investment on global opportunities. Government programs need to be structured in such a way that SMEs and other businesses find a clear pathway to global markets.

• Leveraging skills and knowledge. Colleges and universities need to introduce innovation management and entrepreneurship in their curricula with a view to providing the tools necessary for graduates to be innovative in a market-driven economy.

• Creating a business-friendly climate. It goes without saying that access to investors and investments is crucial to the success of budding enterprises. Investors and businesses need to become more risk takers rather than risk avoiders.

• The government needs to become a catalyst for change. STI programs needs to be revamped to focus on areas of national strengths.

In regards to the government's role in addressing the innovation gap, I argue that it needs to be the first reference sale through strategic procurement and must provide or assist in funding market intelligence studies

Governments can also offer international perspective and provide connections through trade offices around the globe, help attract more capital investment by de-risking a new technology and provide funding and support to innovation intermediaries.

It was also mentioned at the Lynch lecture the importance of emulating places like the Silicon Valley with its high concentration of talent. I also address this in my book and provide the "anatomy" of a successful community of innovation.

Such communities are typically well mobilized in a region and could result in spillover from promoting innovation activities in a particular geographical area. Studies show that innovative companies, particularly smaller firms, have a tendency to amalgamate in particular geographical areas, giving increased impetus to the creation of such places as the Silicon Valley and North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. These regions have a relatively higher concentration of the main actors in the innovation cycle, becoming a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs and highly successful people.

Finally, we need an ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of our innovation system, ideally with metrics gauging impact as far downstream as possible. We need a strong conceptual framework regarding activities leading to ultimate goals, intended uses and users. All players need to understand the end-goals and agree to commit to them.

Short-term, narrow-focus, innovation initiatives must be replaced by well-focused, well-defined goals with measurable impact. There is a need to focus on measures that have long-lasting impact.

Dr Kamiel Gabriel is the founding associate provost of research and graduate programs at the Univ of Ontario Institute of Technology. Kamiel.Gabriel@uoit.ca