Here’s an ambitious question: what impact will AI have on the future of jobs? Since the invention of inventions, workers have always been concerned with potential impact of technology on their jobs. The potential for machines to replace workers has been accompanied by fear and trepidation. Gasoline was poured onto those concerns earlier this decade... Continue Reading →
The OECD’s Global Productivity Forum is like Coachella for economists (if all the acts at Coachella lacked diversity and all the concerts were played in the dated function room of a downtown Marriott). This year, the Forum took place in Ottawa, co-hosted by the Bank of Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Canada. The... Continue Reading →
Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Second Cup, Timothy’s World of Coffee, Bridgehead, McCafe. Canada’s coffee scene is dominated by half a dozen chains. Some are imported from the US, others are homegrown success stories. They each have a loyal customer base who dutifully line up for their preferred cup of mass-brewed medium, dark or coconut roast. Each... Continue Reading →
At its peak, Nortel accounted for about a third of the value of the Toronto Stock Exchange, employing nearly 100 thousand people worldwide. The telco manufacturer was enormously important for the innovation system, accounting for more than a third of Canada’s total BERD (Business Expenditure on R&D). Rocked by scandal, the Toronto based company came... Continue Reading →
We lack, above all, the entrepreneurial initiative achieved by others, not because their people have greater potential than Canadian’s, but because their corporations and their countries have been forced to develop more vigorous responses by exposure to severe conditions from which we have been insulated… The generation of indigenous technology, and the relentless search for... Continue Reading →
TALES FROM THE LONG TAIL 