Editorial - 24-2

There are a lot of things the rest of Canada could learn from the Waterloo region. With a combination of entrepreneurial savvy and collaboration, the area's high-tech sector is booming and holds considerable upside potential as it builds a powerful niche within digital media. At the same time, Waterloo is home to a global hot bed of theoretical physics funded in part by Mike Lazaridis—one of its high-tech titans who understands the profound connection between discovery, experimentation and application.

The region has all the attributes that one would expect in a flourishing high-tech centre—an enlightened university, a powerful cadre of entrepreneurs and angel investors and a community that celebrates not only success but the drive to create wealth and the willingness to bounce back from failure to try and try again.

But there's another attribute—not as widely recognized—that is perhaps the product of the region's long, illustrious manufacturing history. Two of the region's biggest high-tech employers, Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) and Christie Digital Systems, conduct a significant portion of their manufacturing locally. Major components of the Blackberry are manufactured at one of RIM's local facilities, while the bulk of Christie's digital projection and display systems is produced on-site.

Rather than succumb to the lure of cheaper manufacturing in lower-cost jurisdictions, these firms and others have recognized the importance of co-locating manufacturing with R&D. The results— growing revenues and profits—speak for themselves.