Canada's innovation and commercialization performance lagging behind.

1. We’re falling behind.
Canada’s place in the Global
Innovation Economy.
Dan Herman
Executive Director
DEEP Centre Inc.

2. The DEEP Centre: an entrepreneurial think tank
The DEEP Centre’s research informs action on
the two following axis:
1) Understanding the changing nature of
entrepreneurship and innovation-enabled
growth in the global economy
2) Assessing how governments and firms can
adapt and foster innovation, economic
growth and employment

3. Three key questions:
• How to do you build competitive companies?
• What are the investments in technology,
capital and people that enable that success?
• How do different levels of government
facilitate that success?
Our work – 250 interviews + a year with executives

5. WIPO Global Innovation Index 2015:
• 16th down from 8th in 2011
World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2015:
• 13th down from 10th in 2011
• 26th in business innovation
OECD Productivity Report 2015:
• Growth in Canada’s labour productivity over period 1995-2013 28th
out of 35
Conference Board Innovation Report Card:
• 13th of 17 countries, “D” grade
Canada’s Relative Performance

6. SMEs who export ?
Less than 10% of SMEs export.
In Germany >40%.
BERD spending?
Of 30 OECD countries, the share BERD
undertaken by large Canadian companies is the
8th lowest.
Partnerships?
Less than 20% of firms have worked with a
college or university.
Training & Development
Employers spend on T&D has declined by about
40 per cent, from a peak of $1,207 per
employee in 1993 to $705 in 2013 (U.S.
employer spending significantly higher $1,071
per employee)
Canadian Firms – leaders or laggards?

7. Canada’s R & D Performance – Inputs

8. Canada’s R & D Performance – Largest Companies

9. Canada’s Firm Performance – Outputs

10. • New entrants in the billion-dollar category
were predominantly in the energy sector,
with a net addition of 17 energy companies
since 2003.
• The consumer retail and wholesale sectors
added 7 new entrants to the billion-dollar
category.
• The engineering and construction sectors
added 4 new entrants to the billion-dollar
category.
• The transportation sector added 3 billion-
dollar revenue firms.
Canada’s Billion Dollar Firms: Oil & Gas …

11. • In knowledge-intensive sectors of the
economy, a high degree of churn sees no
change in the number of billion-dollar
firms but wholesale changes in who those
firms are.
• Sectors such as healthcare and
technology, for example, saw no net
increase in the number of billion dollar
firms.
• The IT sector, however, features a large
number of SMEs that are contributing to
significant growth and employment.
Canada’s Billion Dollar Firms: Knowledge Intensive Sectors

13. The Good News….
• 146 business accelerators & incubators
• 2nd most entrepreneurial ecosystem
in the world

15. High-growth enterprises, as
measured by employment (or
turnover), are enterprises with
average annualised growth in
employees (or turnover) greater than
20% a year, over a three-year period,
and with ten or more employees at
the beginning of the observation
period.
Contribute approximately 50% of net
job growth.
What Actually Matters: High Growth Firms

16. • Talent across sectors and disciplines enabled by strong links with
world-class post-secondary institutions;
• Enabling infrastructure and financing environment;
• Government leadership in both policy and regulation;
• Business culture that embraces risk and experimentation;
• Anchor industry firms who absorb and circulate talent, dollars and
ideas into their local ecosystems;
• Universities that remain on the cutting edge of research, teaching
and experiential learning.
Growth Ecosystems: What’s Necessary

17. Need to focus on scaling up growth
companies.
Tax policy and incentives needs to
reward growth not size.
Immigration reform to ease flow of
talent.
Firms need to step up and compete.
We have to decide if we’re going to play to win

18. For more:
Dan Herman
Executive Director, DEEP Centre
Waterloo
dherman@deepcentre.com
@danherman