Does Canadian Tech Need A Rebrand?

Gentrification. Job loss. Toxic cultures. Data breaches. I’ll be the first to admit that “tech” — at least as commonly discussed in the media — has been difficult to love of late.

In Canada and beyond, tech has acquired an image problem that’s partly of its own making. It’s increasingly seen as an elitist, self-serving sector reserved for brash engineers and fly-by-night startups with little regard for societal values like personal privacy, civil conversation or even children’s mental health. When we’re not exploiting user data, we’re deepening social divides and making good manufacturing jobs redundant, all the while lobbying the government for handouts — or so the argument goes. It’s no wonder so many Canadians regard “tech” with a heavy dose of suspicion.

As the CEO of a technology company, I’ve seen this perception build as I’ve grown my own business in Kitchener, Ont., and here’s the thing: it’s not completely unjustified. Elements of these critiques are true, but others are dead wrong. What I’ve come to realize is that separating myth from fact is of paramount importance to the Canadian economy. In fact, I think Canada’s “tech” sector is in desperate need of a rebrand because the misunderstandings and misconceptions surrounding our digital industries are killing our economic potential to move ahead as a nation.

The federal government has lofty goals for Canada’s innovation economy — as evidenced in the $950 million it has earmarked for five innovation “superclusters” throughout the country. But according to a growing number of experts, as well as an internal federal government report obtained by the tech news website The Logic, our tech sector is at risk of falling behind much of the rest of the world. One ominous sign: the TSX index — a rough calculus of the country’s economic drivers — only has a 3-4% weighting in technology. South of the border, the S&P 500 tech weighting is around 25%.

But it’s the characterization of tech as a unique silo that’s the biggest problem. At heart, technology is not a discrete sector of special interests, but a vital component of nearly every sector in our economy and every role within it. The continued growth of our economy, and Canada’s future prosperity, depends on busting out of the “tech silo” so we can build on our potential to innovate — before the rest of the world passes us by. 

Canada has always been a nation of innovators and explorers

From insulin and the Canadarm to breakthroughs in mining and resource extraction, Canada has a long and rich tradition of innovation and exploration. The digital technologies that are profoundly changing our world now are simply the modern expression of that ethos. But we seldom see “tech” presented in that light.

The reality is that every business today is in the business of innovating simply as a matter of survival in a connected, globally competitive world. Whether it’s “intelligent” mines stocked with autonomous vehicles and robotic machines, digitized health records, or ordering take-out via an app on your phone, there is no corner of the economy — no industry no matter how traditional — that digital innovation hasn’t touched and won’t continue to transform. As noted recently by Manulife CEO Roy Gori, who helms a 130-year old Canadian insurance company with more than 100,000 agents and employees, "We need to think of ourselves much more like a technology company … Technology's got to be the way that every single person in this company thinks and operates.” He emphasizes that embracing technology is the key to staying competitive and creating simpler solutions for customers — even in a sector not traditionally associated with tech. 

Companies that are surviving and thriving in the digital age have recognized that the business landscape has fundamentally changed, as well. Competition for customers and talent is global. Winning depends on the ability to access and share information instantly and easily. But more than that, it depends on our ability to develop and integrate systems that enable that transfer of information, otherwise we’ll be beholden to — and paying for — the use of intellectual properties developed elsewhere. Embracing technology as an integral part of the Canadian economy at large is the only way to find those efficiencies, stay competitive and get ahead.

Redefining work and supporting “new collar” jobs

Of course, a big part of the resistance — and unease — around innovation is in the context of jobs. As new technology comes online, some jobs are made redundant. There’s no getting around that. This has been true ever since the industrial revolution drastically reduced the need for farriers (horseshoers) and dramatically increased demand for locomotive technicians. Yet the fact that huge shifts in the job market due to technology have always been the case doesn’t reduce the fear, or the impact, this has on people’s lives. That’s why it’s crucial to educate about the new careers that innovation has enabled, and will continue to enable, as well as support training and transition programs.

Yes, technology is changing how we work in many sectors — autonomous cars will upend the transport industry and voice to text software has put transcriptionists out of work. But entirely new classes of jobs are simultaneously being created across broad sectors of the economy — and not just for software developers and engineers.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty recently coined the term “new collar” to describe the whole universe of jobs that have emerged around the digital economy, from database managers and security analysts to salespeople and interface designers. These are positions that don’t require advanced degrees or a lifelong love of STEM. At the same time, digital technology is reducing demand for people to do rote and repetitive jobs, like cashiers or data-entry clerks, and increasing demand for work that requires uniquely human traits like creativity and critical thought. 

Platforms like Etsy and Shopify, a Canadian company, now make it possible for skilled craftspeople to become entrepreneurs by eliminating the need for physical storefronts — and the capital to support them. The rise of Netflix, Wattpad, Spotify and other on-demand and streaming services has exponentially increased demand for original content, leading to new opportunities for everyone from writers and musicians to actors, production assistants and set dressers.

Importantly, even inside traditional technology companies, more and more roles are opening up that have little to do with coding. Sales, marketing and customer service are huge parts of every tech company I know, and they have less to do with tech than with the arts. More than half of the people in my company have a humanities background; some have even found new applications for skill-sets commonly associated with industries on the decline. For instance, my company’s lead video producer studied broadcast journalism.

Finding a way forward

Canada is at a crossroads in our economic development and what we do from this point forward matters: we can marginalize innovation or we can prioritize it. The latter will take a multipronged effort. One the one hand, we must invest in and support digital companies that can offer the kinds of careers our homegrown tech professionals too often leave the country to pursue. But beyond that, we must nurture a digitally enabled culture. Doing so requires both tangible steps, like ensuring all parts of the country have fast, efficient and affordable Internet, and rhetorical changes to the way we talk about “tech” — not as an amorphous, job-killing force but as a tool for Canadian innovation that lifts the economy as a whole, across all sectors.

We should all be proud of our history of innovation, exploration and resourcefulness. We should be equally proud of more recent achievements — from the growth of Blackberry to the global success of Shopify — and the untold number of innovations still to come. These may one day be just as deserving of a “Heritage Minute” as the goalie mask, maple syrup and the pacemaker — an integral part of Canadian identity, not an exception from it.    

This article was originally featured in The Financial Post. Stay up to date with my latest by clicking the "Follow" button next to my name above. Or follow me on Twitter.