With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1071224
BCBUSINESS.CA FEBRUARY 2019 BCBUSINESS 35 high house price–to-income ratio creates a negative spiral by prompting an exodus of young people who can't find the high- paying jobs they need to buy a home, Dietz says. "That in turn makes it harder for companies to move here, so it actually creates lower productive investment." In cities like Stockholm and Tel Aviv, meanwhile, big companies have spawned startups and enabled them to expand, Dietz explains. They've done so partly by supplying those businesses with senior executives who can use their international connections to secure financing, land con- tracts and acquire rivals. "We should see startups, medium-sized companies growing from the ground in the hundreds," Dietz says of Vancouver. "We should see big headquarters from Asia and potentially from Europe moving here, because it's easier to get a visa, it's easier to move people here. Would it put further pressure on house prices? Maybe, but the income improvement from that would be very substantial." Dietz believes government can play a role in fixing the HQ shortage. "This is a public good," he says. "When you look at countries that are very successful, it's usually the public and the private sector collaborating." ECONOMIES OF SCALE To add to B.C.'s competitive challenges, only about 2 percent of its 400,000-odd businesses have 50 or more employees, the BCBC's D'Avignon says. That tiny group shows its value by employing 45 percent of the workforce, paying wages that are 25-to-37-percent higher than average and making about 75 percent of total business R&D investment. But in D'Avignon's view, Canada's low small business tax rates dis- courage companies from expanding. Also, a feeble Canadian dollar makes fast-growing businesses a prime target for foreign buyers, particularly from the U.S. Take Vancouver-based surveillance equip- ment and software maker Avigilon Corp., which Motorola Solutions acquired for $1.2 billion last year. "We end up buy- ing back the technology, the ideas and the products at retail, instead of having the head office form and build and grow here," says D'Avignon, who also laments Canada's 22nd-place finish among 190 economies in the World Bank Group's 2019 ease-of-doing-business ranking. B.C. is slowly closing its gap in real GDP per person with Canada, recent BCBC research shows, but our average worker is 26 percent less productive per hour than their U.S. peer. Without money for technol- ogy that boosts productivity, D'Avignon fears, the province could become a back- water. "Great talent that can scale busi- nesses, they don't stay here because there isn't the productivity-enhancing capital to drive a business, and they go to the U.S." The VEC's Raymond says his agency focuses on helping homegrown successes like social media management company Hootsuite scale up. Attracting the right capital for companies at different stages— by doing things like engaging local inves- tors and building ties with U.S. venture capital firms—is part of its efforts, too. So is getting the right talent. "We need to continue to advocate for fast-track immi- gration programs that can bring in the CFOs and the VPs and that kind of C-suite level that know how to scale our companies up to the levels that we know they have the potential to reach," Raymond says. The Emerging Economy Task Force is also looking at the problem, says the CCPA's Ivanova, who doesn't believe lower taxes are the answer: "What we need is more tailored, more strategically targeted types of intervention." Foreign direct investment ( FDI) is a key part of the equation, but B.C. may have some catching up to do. Between 2012 and 2015, annual greenfield FDI in the province fell by more than 26 percent, to $1.179 billion, according to data provider FDI Markets. From 2015 to 2017, Vancou- ver's average annual greenfield FDI per capita was just $490, compared to $503 for Toronto, $879 for Melbourne, $1,872 for Ireland and $2,858 for Singapore. Then again, it's hard to track FDI, partly because there's no standard definition. Raymond estimates that about 80 percent of it comes from companies like Amazon.com expanding their existing operations. The VEC didn't start closely tracking deal values until two years ago, but in 2016 and 2017 it saw a big uptick in FDI leads. As of last December, the agency had facilitated $1.8 billion in FDI and other high-impact invest- ment for the year, it reports. If the province wants to boost FDI, it could do worse than follow Ireland's lead. That country has roughly the same is a quarterly health and wellness newsletter that provides your employees with the information they need to improve their health – on and off the job AndreA Burgers 604.473.0305 aburgers@canadawide.com Find out more... Are you investing in your employees health? print or digital versions available wellness matters Photography: iStock (unless credited otherwise) 10 FAST FACTS Pairing for Healthy Habits Choices for healthy living • nutrition • fitness • well-being • health I n a perfect world, healthy habits would come as second nature, but sometimes life gets in the way of our best intentions. "Most people don't lack motivation, but they often struggle with follow through," says Sharon Kelly, certified life coach at Successful Transitions in Nanaimo, B.C. So, given the limits of motivation, how can you form healthy habits that stick? To strengthen positive behaviour, try "pairing," an old concept that was recently popularized by Gretchen Rubin, a bestselling author who studies habits and happiness. The pairing strategy is essentially to link habits you enjoy with ones that are aspirational, like practicing gratitude while you drink your morning coffee, or exercising while you watch Netflix. "The great thing about pairing is that you're linking a new behaviour to one that already exists, and that helps with follow through," Kelly tells Wellness Matters. "Pairing also cuts down on decision-making time, allowing us to get out of our heads and into action," she adds. To make pairing work for you, Kelly suggests exploring and challenging self- limiting beliefs, getting clear on how new habits will benefit you and making incremental changes to start. For that extra level of accountability, Kelly recommends enlisting the support of a friend or an ally, such as a life coach. summer 2 017 1 The brain uses about 20 per cent of the oxygen used by the human body 2 Your heart beats over 100,000 times per day 3 Adult lungs have a surface area between 540 and 810 square feet 4 REM sleep makes up about 20 per cent of total sleep time and is often when you have your most vivid dreams 5 Infants blink only once or twice a minute, while adults average around 10 6 Similar to fingerprints, humans also have unique tongue prints 7 Antibiotics are only effective against bacteria, not viruses 8 It takes your body around 12 hours to completely digest food 9 Bacteria are extremely small and are made up of just one cell 10 In terms of DNA sequences, all humans are over 99 per cent similar to other humans Inside 2 5 Healthy Summer Treats 3 To Carb or Not to Carb? 4 Weightlifting for Beginners 7 Cultivate a Gratitude Practice That Sticks WM_Summer2017_GS.indd 1 2017-04-27 2:40 PM *Canada Safety Council, n.d. 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