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/1222419
14 BCBUSINESS APRIL 2020 READ THIS As Don Draper said, success comes from standing out, not fitting in. Rethink the Business of Creativity takes a similar view of running a company, from people to product to profit. Authors Ian Grais, Tom Shepansky and Chris Staples, who founded award-festooned Vancouver advertising and design agency Rethink in 1999, share the principles that have helped their firm thrive. A sampling: don't hire assholes; steal stuff and make it your own; and treat employees like humans, not resources. The Rethink crew also showcase their 1 + 1 = 3 approach to generating ideas, which involves mashing together two seemingly unrelated things. Figure 1 Publishing 248 pages, hardcover, $36.99 • ( the informer ) As 10,000 aspiring collectors gather at the Vancouver Convention Centre for the annual Art Vancouver sale from April 16 to 19, we sketch a picture of the private fine art world in B.C. by Melissa Edwards Paint, by Numbers G O F I G U R E people really want," he says. Goods that crossed the Pacific from Canada to China used to be limited to resources like lumber and metals, which remain dominant. CanTresor is one of a growing cadre of B.C. companies, including Norco Bicycles and clothiers Arc'teryx and Lululemon Athletica, seek- ing to sell lifestyle products to China's rapidly expanding mid- dle class, which could reach a staggering half a billion people in a few years. Well-heeled Chinese shop- pers are flexing their buying power online and at stores, where they snatch up items like Bordeaux wine and Italian haute couture. Luxury brands aside, Kao knows they're will- ing to pay a premium to eat well, too. "The Chinese people are concerned about the food produced in China because of past issues, so people want to spend more money and buy good-quality stuff." He's referring to the Chi- nese milk scandal of 2008, when makers of infant formula and dairy producers added melamine to make their offer- ings appear creamier and more nutritious. Melamine, a com- pound used to make things like dishware and glue, can cause kidney damage when ingested. As a result of the scandal, six babies died and thousands were hospitalized. Thanks to lingering distrust, wary consumers will splurge on food from a trusted source, says Sarah Kutulakos, executive director of the Canada China Business Council. "It's hard to erase these visions of really bad things happening from people's minds," she explains. That's why "foreign products have become more trusted and reliable." Canadian wheat from an imagined pristine prairie ticks the boxes. Toronto-based Kutulakos believes this squeaky-clean reputation is fundamental to Canada's entrepreneurial suc- cess in China. "The Canadian brand is associated with under- standing that Canada is big and open and clean," she says. "So when it comes to food… a positive sentiment toward Canada can be very helpful." The arrest of Chinese tele- com titan Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver in late 2018 has tested Canada's rela- tionship with its second-largest trading partner. Beijing's swift retaliation led to the arrest of two Canadians living in China, and at press time, Canadian canola seed was still shut out of the Chinese market. But according to Yves Tiberghien, a UBC political science professor and a dis- tinguished fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, this fallout is temporary and confined to the government and diplomatic class, with little impact on consumers. "There is anger about the arrest of Meng Wanzhou," he explains, "but it doesn't affect that deeper im- age of Canadian products and Canada as a great place." Lately, the coronavirus has been causing a different kind of economic chill. January through March, Kao's sales had plunged 90 percent. "No one is going out, no one is buying pretzels," he says. Still, Kao remains optimistic. "People will go back to work, things will return to normal." Tiberghien thinks the crisis could help strengthen Canadi- an brands, especially those that promote good health. "[The coronavirus] will remind every- body about the importance of healthy food, because all this started with wild animals in the market," he says, citing an origin theory of the outbreak. "So meanwhile, a good Cana- dian wheat pretzel will be safe, and if anything, it will have a bounce-back." More B.C. brands should follow the pretzel's twisty path to tap into China's positive ideas about Canada, Tiberghien maintains. "If that image can be triggered and called upon, the market is there." Kao agrees: "The growth in China is a huge opportunity for people who want to make money." • SOURCES: BC ARTS COUNCIL, STATISTICS CANADA VIA WORK BC, GALLERIES WEST, EASTSIDE CULTURE CRAWL SOCIETY, 337 B.C. galleries, studios and cooperatives listed in the Galleries West database M E T R O VA N C O U V E R / W H I S T L E R C O R R I D O R : 178 V I C T O R I A , I S L A N D A N D S U N S H I N E C O A S T: 89 I N T E R I O R : 59 N O R T H : 11 400,000 sq. ft. Estimated loss of artist studio space in Vancouver over the past decade due to residential and commercial conversion or redevelopment $22.80/sq. ft. Median reported annual rent for artist studio space in the City of Vancouver, not including taxes or triple-net lease $17.65/sq. ft. Average rent for industrial space At 1.1%, B.C. has the highest concentration of artists per capita in Canada $24,304 Median annual salary for a B.C. painter, sculptor or visual artist in 2016 Share that are public 65%