Videos that showcase Canadian entrepreneurs changing the world. Learn and be inspired.
RBC has joined forces with the C100 to share stories of Canadian entrepreneurs and our connections with Silicon Valley. “our stories” is your inside track on what it takes to succeed as a global player. RBC and C100 will be sharing videos that showcase Canadians changing the world, provide real-life stories of successes (and failures) and advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.
RBC is committed to sharing Canadian technology, entrepreneurship and innovation stories to elevate the conversation at home and abroad. Sharing and highlighting content elevates the conversation around infrastructure, education, talent, regulation and resources needed for economic prosperity in Canada.
C100 is dedicated to giving back to the Canadian innovation economy and fostering the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and innovative companies in Canada. Showcasing Canadian business thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay area through storytelling sheds light on their successes, their challenges and their advice for those who are building global players based in Canada.
About the C100:
C100 is a non-profit, member-driven association of Canadian thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area committed to supporting and accelerating the innovation economy in Canada. The C100 represents a select group of experienced entrepreneurs, executives of leading technology companies, and venture capital investors.
Even for Canada’s digital natives, that might seem like distant dream. But it’s a reality in Estonia.
A lucky accident of history enabled the small Baltic state to embark early on the path to a fully digital society. Estonia’s independence from Moscow in 1991 — and the simultaneous need to reboot its institutions and economy — coincided with the birth of the Internet. As Estonia’s Chief Information Officer, Siim Sikkut, tells it, a group of Estonian visionaries saw an opportunity not only to foster citizens’ ties with the new state but to enable the country to punch above its weight by exploiting one of its greatest resources, a computer-literate populace.
Sikkut spoke about the birth of Estonia’s digital state at the latest RBC Disruptors, held at Montreal’s C2 conference on May 24. The conversation came on the eve of sweeping new European regulations on data protection that may reshape the relationship between citizens, companies and states.
What can Canada learn from a country of 1.3 million people?
It Empowers the Citizen
Sikkut said digitizing citizen-government interactions can strengthen people’s relationship with the state, making it “more beautiful” by taking some of the red tape and frustration out of the experience.
But Estonia’s bold digital experiment can only work if citizens retain trust in the system — a responsibility Estonia’s government takes seriously. That’s why it has put safeguards in place around data access and data privacy. He cited Estonia’s decision to make citizens’ health records — and all information about who has looked at them — transparent.
It Saves Money
Estonia went all-digital in part to drive efficiencies. Sikkut said putting a number on the overall savings is tough, but that the country has been able to quantify the benefits in some spheres. He cited Estonia’s practice of using e-signatures for anything that in other places would require a physical one. The country estimates the resulting savings amount to 2% of Estonia’s GDP — which happens to be how much the country spends on defence.
It Can Ease Trade and Investment
Estonia’s gained global attention for granting something called e-residency: basically, making it easy for non-Europeans to establish a virtual presence from which to conduct business in Estonia and therefore the EU. It’s more than a gimmick. Some 40,000 foreigners have taken up e-residency and are actively contributing to Estonia’s economy by accessing financial services and the like.
It Requires Vigilance
You’d think Estonia’s proximity to Russia would be a concern, given the latter’s reputation for global hacking. But cybercrime from non-state actors is a bigger concern, according to Sikkut. Either way, the country takes cyberthreats seriously, and it’s no accident that NATO’s cybersecurity centre is in Estonia.
Another aspect of the country’s defence is teaching digital hygiene — by making sure citizens are aware of cyberthreats and practice smart online behaviour. That’s baked into the school system (along with learning how to code) at an early age.
It’s a Matter of Balance
Will Europe’s new regulations on data protection drive businesses to jurisdictions with less stringent rules? Sikkut prefers to take a values-based view common in Europe, noting “we don’t want innovation at any price.” That sentiment underscores one of the biggest challenges facing governments and regulators as the world goes digital. People want all the convenience that digitization brings, but they want to be protected from its worst aspects, like loss of privacy and data theft. So far, Estonia believes it has found a balance.
The former Soviet satellite, with a population of 1.3 million, went through a radical transformation after the collapse of its Communist government in the early 1990s, and has emerged as one of the most economically successful EU members to join after the fall of the Soviet Union by building a truly digital government and society.
Nearly all government services are provided online, and a national system of electronic identity cards allows citizens to sign contracts, file their taxes, and even vote in national elections online. The economic result? Estonia’s GDP per capita has quintupled since 1991, growing faster than its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Lithuania as well as outpacing Russia and nearby Finland.
It’s an unlikely result for a post-Communist country less than half the size of Newfoundland, where the densely forested landscape is dotted with castles, churches and hilltop fortresses. But now, nearly all of those forests, castles, churches and hilltop fortresses are blanketed with fast, free Wi-Fi.
“Going digital has allowed small Estonia to punch well above our weight on a global scale,” says Siim Sikkut, Estonia’s Government Chief Information Officer.
Sikkut is the person charged with keeping the country on the cutting edge. He took the job last year and is working on bold new projections including introducing self-driving vehicles to the country’s public transportation systems.
Siim Sikkut is Estonia’s Government Chief Information Officer, the man charged with keeping the country on the cutting edge. He took the job last year and is working on bold new projections including introducing self-driving vehicles to the country’s public transportation systems.
He was also behind the country’s e-residency program, which allows foreign citizens to become Estonian residents without ever entering the country. Aimed at entrepreneurs, the program is meant to offer them an easy way to get access to the EU market and euro-denominated transactions, while also helping boost the country’s economic prospects.
It hasn’t always been an easy path for Estonia. The switch from the Soviet planned economy was hard, but the newly independent country made an early bet that technology and the Internet could drive exponential growth in the economy. By 1997, 97% of Estonian schools had Internet access.
“As a small country, we had to find ways to be really efficient to pull off the challenge of being a fully fledged developed country,” Sikkut says.
All that technology required new ways of learning, and the government also focused on building a world-class education system. Estonia is now ranked behind only Singapore and Japan in the OECD’s international comparison of school performance by 15-year-olds.
While Estonia has embraced technology to revolutionize delivery of public services, it’s also familiar with the dark side of data. The detailed files kept in the KGB office in Tallinn helped the government maintain an iron grip during the Communist era. Transparency about the use of data and government activities is part of the justification for the domestically developed blockchain that the country uses for data verification and independent oversight of its processes.
Work began on that blockchain tech in 2008, before the original Bitcoin proposal was even published, and that isn’t the first time Estonia has been an innovator. Estonians were behind the original development of Skype and the file-sharing service Kazaa, and as far back as in 1970, the government used computerized data analysis to run a dating service for Estonian singles.
The country has adopted many of the social-democratic policies promoted by its Scandinavian neighbours across the Baltic Sea. Early childhood education, school lunches, and universities are free. But what sets Estonia apart is its embrace of the digital future, and building a digital present for its citizens.
Tune into our next RBCDisruptors event on Facebook Live, Democracy.exe: Estonia’s Digital Society, on Thursday, May 24 at 11:30 a.m. ET for a fireside chat with RBC’s John Stackhouse and Estonia’s GCIO, Siim Sikkut, live from the C2 Montreal conference. Click here to register, and make sure to like C2 on Facebook to get a notification when the event begins.
Videos that showcase Canadian entrepreneurs changing the world. Learn and be inspired.
RBC has joined forces with the C100 to share stories of Canadian entrepreneurs and our connections with Silicon Valley. “our stories” is your inside track on what it takes to succeed as a global player. RBC and C100 will be sharing videos that showcase Canadians changing the world, provide real-life stories of successes (and failures) and advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.
RBC is committed to sharing Canadian technology, entrepreneurship and innovation stories to elevate the conversation at home and abroad. Sharing and highlighting content elevates the conversation around infrastructure, education, talent, regulation and resources needed for economic prosperity in Canada.
C100 is dedicated to giving back to the Canadian innovation economy and fostering the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and innovative companies in Canada. Showcasing Canadian business thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay area through storytelling sheds light on their successes, their challenges and their advice for those who are building global players based in Canada.
About the C100:
C100 is a non-profit, member-driven association of Canadian thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area committed to supporting and accelerating the innovation economy in Canada. The C100 represents a select group of experienced entrepreneurs, executives of leading technology companies, and venture capital investors.
Mike McNamara, whose company Flex makes many of the world’s phones, can’t find or train enough skilled workers to keep pace with advances in digital technology and electronics.
A few years ago, the typical smartphone consisted of 800 parts. Today, that number is 3,000 — and the human skills needed to put it all together are growing exponentially.
“We’ve been talking about automation taking away everyone’s job for years, and yet I see the unemployment rate going down,” McNamara told the Milken Institute’s MI Global conference in Los Angeles.
As one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers, Flex needs to automate as the demands on manufacturing grow — and it needs to add more people to make the automation work.
“You can’t get there without automation,” McNamara said. “It’s almost necessary for the work to be done.”
Change is not a threat when you feel in control. That’s why we’re seeing the rise of populism, because people don’t feel they have control.
Royal Bank of Canada CEO Dave McKay
The skills revolution was centre stage at Milken, as investors, executives and government leaders tried to come to grips with the whiplash of technology and labour force disruption.
Is it transition or transformation?
Royal Bank of Canada CEO Dave McKay told the audience that 50 years after the advent of ATMs, banks are employing more people than ever. For vastly different needs.
“There’s not a lot of artificial intelligence,” he said. “There’s human intelligence. We’re teaching machines.”
Trouble is, much of the workforce is not ready to work with advanced machines.
In the U.S., only 35% of adults under the age of 35 have a college degree. Chuck Schumer, the Democrat’s minority leader in the Senate, pointed to upstate New York where there’s a “desperate shortage” of blue collar workers like welders.
Among the challenges: welders increasingly need algebra to work with new technology.
The skills mismatch is one reason there are 6.5 million unfilled jobs in the U.S., and many are skeptical about the ability of traditional schools to lead the transition.
McNamara said Flex, which employs 200,000 people globally, can’t find enough workers in many countries. And the younger employees it recruits want to work with advanced machines, but need training as soon as they join the company.
McKay told the Milken crowd about Canada’s approach to work-integrated learning through apprenticeships, co-ops and internships, and a commitment by the country’s leading employers and post-secondary schools to create such opportunities for every undergraduate student. He called the approach “the great democratizer,” giving students a direct path into the workplace regardless of background.
Canada is also exploring more ambitious approaches to life-long learning, to help mid-career workers develop new skills.
“There’s anxiety. The journey will be difficult,” McKay said.
He warned business and government to expect more populist movements if they fail to create clearer pathways for employees facing disruption. And he urged employers to be honest about the challenges.
“Change is not a threat when you feel in control,” he said. “That’s why we’re seeing the rise of populism, because people don’t feel they have control.”
Videos that showcase Canadian entrepreneurs changing the world. Learn and be inspired.
RBC has joined forces with the C100 to share stories of Canadian entrepreneurs and our connections with Silicon Valley. “our stories” is your inside track on what it takes to succeed as a global player. RBC and C100 will be sharing videos that showcase Canadians changing the world, provide real-life stories of successes (and failures) and advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.
RBC is committed to sharing Canadian technology, entrepreneurship and innovation stories to elevate the conversation at home and abroad. Sharing and highlighting content elevates the conversation around infrastructure, education, talent, regulation and resources needed for economic prosperity in Canada.
C100 is dedicated to giving back to the Canadian innovation economy and fostering the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and innovative companies in Canada. Showcasing Canadian business thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay area through storytelling sheds light on their successes, their challenges and their advice for those who are building global players based in Canada.
About the C100:
C100 is a non-profit, member-driven association of Canadian thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area committed to supporting and accelerating the innovation economy in Canada. The C100 represents a select group of experienced entrepreneurs, executives of leading technology companies, and venture capital investors.
Videos that showcase Canadian entrepreneurs changing the world. Learn and be inspired.
RBC has joined forces with the C100 to share stories of Canadian entrepreneurs and our connections with Silicon Valley. “our stories” is your inside track on what it takes to succeed as a global player. RBC and C100 will be sharing videos that showcase Canadians changing the world, provide real-life stories of successes (and failures) and advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.
RBC is committed to sharing Canadian technology, entrepreneurship and innovation stories to elevate the conversation at home and abroad. Sharing and highlighting content elevates the conversation around infrastructure, education, talent, regulation and resources needed for economic prosperity in Canada.
C100 is dedicated to giving back to the Canadian innovation economy and fostering the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and innovative companies in Canada. Showcasing Canadian business thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay area through storytelling sheds light on their successes, their challenges and their advice for those who are building global players based in Canada.
About the C100:
C100 is a non-profit, member-driven association of Canadian thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area committed to supporting and accelerating the innovation economy in Canada. The C100 represents a select group of experienced entrepreneurs, executives of leading technology companies, and venture capital investors.
Videos that showcase Canadian entrepreneurs changing the world. Learn and be inspired.
RBC has joined forces with the C100 to share stories of Canadian entrepreneurs and our connections with Silicon Valley. “our stories” is your inside track on what it takes to succeed as a global player. RBC and C100 will be sharing videos that showcase Canadians changing the world, provide real-life stories of successes (and failures) and advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.
RBC is committed to sharing Canadian technology, entrepreneurship and innovation stories to elevate the conversation at home and abroad. Sharing and highlighting content elevates the conversation around infrastructure, education, talent, regulation and resources needed for economic prosperity in Canada.
C100 is dedicated to giving back to the Canadian innovation economy and fostering the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and innovative companies in Canada. Showcasing Canadian business thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay area through storytelling sheds light on their successes, their challenges and their advice for those who are building global players based in Canada.
About the C100:
C100 is a non-profit, member-driven association of Canadian thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area committed to supporting and accelerating the innovation economy in Canada. The C100 represents a select group of experienced entrepreneurs, executives of leading technology companies, and venture capital investors.
As Senior Vice President, Office of the CEO at RBC, John Stackhouse is responsible for interpreting trends for the executive leadership team and Board of Directors with insights on how these are affecting RBC, its clients and society at large. Prior to this, John was editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail (2009-14), editor of Report on Business, the newspaper’s national editor, foreign editor and its foreign correspondent based in New Delhi, India (1992-99).
This is what you’ll hear whether you ask a third generation winery, the country’s largest home care provider, or an entrepreneurial program within a university – and we did just that.
Canada is currently facing a ‘quiet crisis’, with half of all jobs being disrupted by technology and automation in the next decade. In a recent year-long study, conducted by RBC, our team crisscrossed the country to speak with a wide range of students and youth in their early careers, employers in virtually every sector, as well as educators and policymakers.
We found that recent grads are overqualified for the jobs they have now, and youth are unemployed without the skills needed for the jobs currently out there.
“We have to prepare youth for the future, from a skills perspective, and from an inclusion perspective,” said RBC President & CEO Dave McKay.
McKay kicked off the last RBCDisruptors, our regular forum on innovation and how it’s changing the world around us. The event was organized in part to celebrate RBC Future Launch, a $500-million commitment over 10-years to prepare young Canadians for the jobs of tomorrow.
We also welcomed three dynamic employee/employer pairs that told us how they are preparing for, and adapting to the future of work in their respective industries. Here’s some of what we learned:
We have to prepare youth for the future, from a skills perspective, and from an inclusion perspective.
RBC President & CEO Dave McKay
Technology Doesn’t Replace People
When it comes to automation changing the nature of (some) jobs, technology should be embraced and not feared. There are many things machines can’t do, such as communication, critical thinking, complex problem solving and social perceptiveness.
“Technology is not a job stealing, it’s job enhancing – it’s freeing up your time to use your human skills to devise new processes, and create community that can’t be done via technology,” said Thirty Bench winemaker Emma Gardner, who was joined by John Peller, CEO of Peller Estates. Thewinery is using innovative technologies such as drones and heat maps, empowering the winemakers and producing better wine.
Gardner uses her smartphone to track and harvest important data from their precious vineyards, such as wind speed, water saturation and vine health.
“We are overwhelmed with data and it’s helping us be smarter and make decisions more quickly,” said Peller.
He points out that machines don’t make wine, they help people make better wine.
Always Embrace Learning
One question Peller asks his employees is, “are you learning as fast as this world is changing?” He believes in creating a culture of learning and growing as a team.
This means more co-op placements with local post-secondary institutions, team collaboration, communication and leadership development. “Drawing all those things together is what will keep a company successful in the future,” he said.
At Guelph University’s Arrell Food Institute, students learn entrepreneurship first-hand by building businesses from scratch, and gain workplace relevant, team-based, training experience that cannot be taught in the classroom. “It’s an experimental space, and gives people the full skills portfolio of what they need in the workforce,” said Evan Fraser, the Institute’s director.
Leah Blechscmidt, a Masters Candidate and one of the student entrepreneurs at Arrell, is a firm believer that everyone should take marketing and business classes to further develop their communication skills, to sell their ideas. “It’s definitely an extension of our studies, as it gives us the opportunity to really apply the skills we’ve learned and develop new ones we wouldn’t otherwise have – it’s not every day you get the opportunity to start a business,” she said.
Focus on Communication
“All business is a human sport,” said Peller.
Arrell Food Institute students work in inter-disciplinary teams, gaining valuable interpersonal, critical thinking and project management skills.
The caregivers at Saint Elizabeth, which has a 9,000-strong workforce, act as coaches rather than directors into their patients’ health. Nurses used to be the main holders of information, informing patients on their conditions. Nowadays, information is easily found online.
“We’re not telling anybody about their disease – we’re sometimes translating it and interpreting it for them. We’re certainly not providing care to people, we’re providing together care, in a partnership,” said Shirlee Sharkey, CEO of Saint Elizabeth.
“I’m not just a nurse, I’m a caregiver, a shoulder to lean on and a social worker,” said Felicia Kontopidis, a registered nurse with Saint Elizabeth.
Credentials Aren’t Enough
It used to be that credentials alone were enough to land you that dream job, but not anymore.
“I now look at credentials as the minimum requirement,” said Sharkey.
When hiring, Saint Elizabeth looks for comfort to work independently, the ability to multitask and incredible organizational skills.
“We’re bringing in and testing for those competencies well above and beyond credentials. We need to create the future and future proof the organization and our talent – or else we’re going to have a huge wake up call,” she said.
To hear more from our three sets of guests, subscribe and listen to our episodes of the RBCDisruptors podcast, available on Soundcloud and iTunes.
Videos that showcase Canadian entrepreneurs changing the world. Learn and be inspired.
RBC has joined forces with the C100 to share stories of Canadian entrepreneurs and our connections with Silicon Valley. “our stories” is your inside track on what it takes to succeed as a global player. RBC and C100 will be sharing videos that showcase Canadians changing the world, provide real-life stories of successes (and failures) and advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.
RBC is committed to sharing Canadian technology, entrepreneurship and innovation stories to elevate the conversation at home and abroad. Sharing and highlighting content elevates the conversation around infrastructure, education, talent, regulation and resources needed for economic prosperity in Canada.
C100 is dedicated to giving back to the Canadian innovation economy and fostering the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and innovative companies in Canada. Showcasing Canadian business thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay area through storytelling sheds light on their successes, their challenges and their advice for those who are building global players based in Canada.
About the C100:
C100 is a non-profit, member-driven association of Canadian thought leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area committed to supporting and accelerating the innovation economy in Canada. The C100 represents a select group of experienced entrepreneurs, executives of leading technology companies, and venture capital investors.
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