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/1332052
8 BCBUSINESS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 PORTRAIT: ADAM BLASBERG H appy New Year! I don't know about you, but for me, the holiday break couldn't arrive fast enough. I needed a couple of weeks to decompress—in near-solitude, of course—from nine months of what-on-earth-is- happening-and-when-will-it-be-over. This time last year, British Columbians had no clue that a novel coronavirus just identified in Wuhan, China, would trigger a pandemic that killed and sickened millions worldwide. We'd recently published a 2020 outlook with the usual disclaimer about unforeseen events— but who knew what fate had in store? Then along came COVID-19, delivering a gut punch to the provincial economy and quickly forcing every- one to change how they work, socialize and do business. Even with the rollout of several effective vaccines, our path to recov- ery looks treacherous. But through- out this crisis, B.C. companies have kept doing remarkable things, prov- ing that they can compete with their peers anywhere. Many of the 15 busi- nesses profiled in Part 2 of "The Inno- vators" (p.31) also grew in 2020 as the pandemic failed to slow them down or created more demand for their products and services. That's worth celebrating—and a reason to feel opti- mistic about the year ahead. There's also some good news in "Our Most Resilient Cities in 2021" (p.45), Andrew Macaulay's revamped version of the Best Cities for Work in B.C. ranking he's compiled for the past three of its seven years. Empha- sizing overall economic health during the time of COVID, Macaulay created a new set of indicators to gauge 50 com- munities' ability to bounce back from the outbreak. The list looks quite dif- ferent from previous editions, and its winners and losers may surprise you, especially if you think the Lower Mainland will lead our rebound. Macaulay also puts the ranking in context by talking to several experts about B.C.'s mixed economic prospects. If you follow the stock market, you know that the forecast for 2021 is cloudy there, too. On page 20, associate editor Michael McCullough offers his Plan B: "How to Survive the Financial Apocalypse," an accessible and informative guide for anyone thinking about investing in so-called alternative assets such as gold, art and collectibles. No matter what you do with your money, here's hoping the apocalypse doesn't pay us a visit. Stay well, and I look forward to seeing you in person someday soon. Nick Rockel, Editor-in-Chief bcb@canadawide.com / @BCBusiness ( editor's desk ) We honour the winners of our second annual Business of Good Awards I N M A RC H Starting Over C ON T R I B U T OR S This was Kamloops-based community planning analyst and geographer Andrew Macaulay's third time putting together our annual Best Cities for Work list (p.45). "The task of compiling this issue's ranking was a very different exercise than years past, given the economic uncertainty around COVID-19," Macaulay says. "The pandemic really has the potential to restructure many of the province's key industries, create new regional dynamics and redefine the role of its cities." "I guess the most I could say right now is that I have been 'investing' in whisky more than usual for the past year," says Byron Eggenschwiler, who illustrated "How to Survive the Financial Apocalypse" (p.20). The Calgary artist's pictures have appeared in and on books, graphic novels, posters and album covers in addition to publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and GQ.