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Before the COVID pandemic, the International Data Corporation projected data creation to grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, 10 times the amount of data created in 2017. That number could soon well be higher, given the lockdowns that have forced businesses to rapidly pivot to online.

Few other companies understand the importance of data as much as Pelmorex Corp, which owns the Weather Network in Canada and El Tiempo in Spain. It’s the third largest weather platform in the world, attracting 60 million users to its business each month.

In an RBC Disruptors conversation from February, 2020, Pelmorex’s CEO Sam Sebastian shared how Pelmorex uses data to create insights for its clients and how companies can collect and capitalize on data as a resource to grow their business and gain an edge.

With COVID upending traditional business models and accelerating the shift to digital, it’s more important than ever for firms to tap into data and use them to power their growth. Understanding how customers behave, sales trends, and yes, even the weather forecast, will be critical to succeed in the new economy.

Data isn’t the new oil. It could soon be much bigger.

Heading into the 2020s, data is worth more than $200 billion to the economy, according to Statistics Canada. That’s almost as big as the value of Canada’s established reserves of crude oil, at roughly $300 billion.

When it comes to regulating this new virtual resource, the public can be just as conflicted over it as we are over the stuff in the ground, as the federal government may soon discover.

Sam Sebastian, one of the country’s leading data executives, worries governments may want to exert themselves too much in the name of privacy protection. And that may hold Canada back in a new era of growth in the so-called intangibles economy, where firms with a growth mindset around data are excelling.

Sebastian’s company,Pelmorex Corp, owns the Weather Network in Canada and El Tiempo in Spain, making it the world’s third largest weather platform, attracting 60 million users a month to its business of “weather information systems.”

Sebastian, who spoke at RBC Disruptors, our regular event series exploring innovation, believes excessive regulation could stifle a new generation of innovation on the internet, including universal, free access to information like weather forecasts. About 70% of Pelmorex’s revenue model is advertising-based, which depends on user data.

To keep that data flowing, Sebastian argued, we need a principles-based approach around transparency and user protection – and to be careful not to hinder the ability of smaller companies to compete.

He pointed to Europe’s new law, known as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as having an unintended consequence: it was designed to protect individuals but may have benefitted large companies like Google and Facebook because they have the resources to stay compliant with complex regulations while small and medium businesses are left vulnerable to potential fines and penalties.

“I don’t know if governments are always the answer,” Sebastian said.

The Trudeau government is exploring the biggest changes to privacy legislation in 20 years. And while many entrepreneurs and business leaders like Sebastian have pushed for a principles-based approach, privacy advocates want clearer rules and restrictions, especially in new fields like artificial intelligence.

Sebastian said Pelmorex uses a simple and transparent approach to data management to build the Weather Network into the country’s fourth most frequently used app. One example: the terms and conditions page on its website is only 1,972 words. AccuWeather’s is 4,000; Facebook’s is 12,000.

The keys to capitalizing on this rich new resource are to:

• find ways to use data to become more relevant to customers;
• build public trust through data;
• use data to be more efficient to shareholders;
• enhance data to be more impactful to our communities and our world.

Tell your users what you’re doing and why, and outline in advance what you want to do, Sebastian counselled the audience. “You just have to communicate in a way that’s pretty straightforward.”

Companies need to take an entrepreneurial approach to data, not a legalistic one. With only 400 employees, Pelmorex has been able to gain 60 million monthly users.

To develop a more entrepreneurial culture around data, the company created a separate “Data Solutions” unit that has its own culture, speed and freedom from revenue-driven targets. It’s also used acquisitions, like its 2017 purchase of Addictive Mobility, Canada’s largest mobile-first data management and media buying platform.

The acquisition reminds Sebastian of the lessons he learned about growth culture from his time working at Google – that it’s not about the free food or relaxed workplaces so much as the opportunities for employees at all levels to feel like they’re changing the world with their work.

He also knows Pelmorex’s growth is fueled by more than data. The company employs 50 meteorologists to keep ahead of Google’s surface-level weather reports, melding the art and science of forecasting.

Beyond daily commutes, weather is a huge variable in many businesses around the world. Pelmorex is able to offer value to other businesses, taking their sales data and matching it up with historical weather data to help businesses understand what to expect over the next 14-day forecast, and make informed decisions.

For all the focus on privacy, Sebastian worries we’re not focused enough on security. Last year, three in four Canadians had their data compromised. Many of us don’t understand how our data is used, or how vulnerable we might be to a hack.

To learn about how Pelmorex Corp is using AI and machine learning along with location, weather and behaviour data to generate insights, listen to our podcast episode.

The COVID pandemic has locked down much of society and driven many of our activities online – working, shopping, entertaining, and catching up with friends and family.

And because technology has allowed us to carry on with as much of life as is possible, our dependency on it has only deepened. It’s become a common pattern – glued to our screens for work all day, and then connecting with close ones through video conferencing in the evenings. Rinse, repeat.

But what effect is all this technology having on us? In an RBC Disruptors conversation from June 2019, Dr. Murali Doraiswamy, a physician and brain scientist at Duke University, said that the human “brain is continuously adapting to new things we do in our lives and rewiring itself.”

In the age of Zoom meetings, the lessons and insights he shared are as relevant as ever.

Read on / listen to learn how technology is changing the brain and mind – and what advice Dr. Doraiswamy has to share about keeping our brains balanced between our natural world and our digital one.

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Technology is doing more than changing our world – it’s actually changing ourselves, too. How is all that time we spend on screens changing our brains?

Dr. Murali Doraiswamy, a physician and brain scientist at Duke University, says there’s cause for concern: an estimated 8%-10% of people in North America show signs of a serious addiction to the Internet and gaming.

Nevertheless, he’s a techno-optimist. Thanks to its neuroplasticity, the human brain can rewire itself – it matches the tech that serves us. Going forward, we may become super good at typing, or mastering voice tech devices.

The key is to balance our screen time and our time in the real world. Dr. Doraiswamy shared five things we can do today to keep our brains in prime operating condition.

1. Get Up From Your Desk

It’s a challenge in an era when everything seems urgent – but don’t sit in front of your computer for more than an hour at a time. It’s not good for your productivity. “We are so over-scheduled, we are constantly in a task-oriented mode,” Dr. Doraiswamy said. Get up and walk somewhere, go to a coffee shop. That break from emails and meetings will help to shift your brain from a task-orientated way of doing things to a more creative and productive mode.

2. Go for a Walk in Nature

Hands down, the best place to reset your brain is in nature. When you take a walk in nature, you’re combining the trance-like state that walking puts you in, with the sense of tranquility nature provides. This contemplative time activates the brain’s default mode network. This is the part of the brain that allows you to unlock solutions to deep problems, and inspires a sense of collective well-being in people. You just need to give it free time to do its job.

3. Meditate

Everyone should be meditating for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, preferably outdoors. Start with an app, if that helps. Like walking, meditating activates the brain’s default mode network. It’s good for your brain in the long-run, too – studies show novice meditators and expert meditators have different brains. The later have less age-relate shrinkage in their brains, and the parts of the brain involved in judgement and morality are more stimulated.

4. Have a Good Conversation Every Day

The number one predictor of how long you’ll live isn’t your blood pressure; it’s your social connections. Every day, have a deep, meaningful conversation with a friend – not over Skype, but in person. These deep personal connections are vital for physical and psychological well-being. “Don’t mistake social media for what brings true meaning into your life,” Dr. Doraiswamy says.

5. Stop Checking Your Phone Before Bed

An hour before you go to bed, stop checking your phone. If you look at your phone just before going to sleep, your brain is still processing those last few emails for at least another 15-20 minutes. Early research also suggests that the blue light emitted by devices may interfere at night with our sleep cycles, meaning you’ll sleep better if those last few minutes of your day are spent with a book instead.

The Silicon Valley – and Canadian-founded – tech darling raised another US$100 million last week, adding to the US$225 million it attracted from private investors in June.

That gives Instacart a valuation of US$13.8 billion. Not bad for a company that University of Waterloo graduate Apoorva Mehta founded in 2012 when he decided his former employer, Amazon, couldn’t figure out the fresh food business.

Mehta once called grocery delivery “the largest market in plain sight.” Delivery services had been around since the 1800s but failed to transform in the Internet age because they didn’t put the customer first. Instead, they expected people to wait for refrigerated trucks that operated on a company’s schedule. A bit like the cable guy.

Mobile apps and the gig economy changed that, allowing intermediaries like Instacart to access different suppliers and hire freelance “shoppers” to get groceries to you on your schedule.

COVID-19 turned the model into a rocket ship. In the U.S., Instacart’s share of the online grocery market spiked to 55% in the third week of May, up from 30% in February, and customer order volume has been up by as much as 500% year-over-year.

But that doesn’t spell the end of grocery stores.

“Customers love their local grocery stores, and that connection has been built over generations,” Instacart President Nilam Ganenthiran (also a Canadian) says on a new episode of the RBC Disruptors podcast.

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While Instacart works with several chains, it pioneered its Canadian model with Loblaw, the retail giant that employs 200,000 people across several subsidiaries, including Shoppers Drug Mart, No Frills and Real Canadian Superstore.

The partnership, formed in 2017, accelerated through the crisis as Canadians opted to shop from home for almost anything.

Sarah Davis, Loblaw’s President, says the shift is now pushing the company to focus on both its store and digital experience, and consumers want both – for different reasons.

“We really do want to have a sense of our customers feeling like they belong with us and this sense of emotional attachment to us,” she says on the podcast.

She thinks consumers will still value the choice and curation that goes into the store experience. But demand for the convenience of delivery – especially for seniors and busy parents – is growing too.

Pre-COVID, only 1.5% of Canadian groceries were purchased online, compared to 7% in the US and 10% in the UK. In April, research done for PayPal by Angus Reid found that 30% of Canadians had shopped for groceries online.

What else have Loblaw and Instacart learned from the crisis?

1. Our relationship to the home is changing.

Now that remote work is a norm, we’re developing new habits: spending evenings in, gardening, baking bread and knitting. Loblaw is selling more knitting needles than ever. As spending habits change, stores need to be nimbler with inventories and supply chains.

2. The future of grocery will be a blend of digital and in-store.

Grocers need to position themselves to deliver digital experiences and connect them with a rapidly changing store model.

3. Proximity matters.

Canadians want to feel connected to their food and to their local grocer. A part of community is knowing where your food comes from and supporting those who produce it.

4. Understanding the consumer has never been more important.

Data needs to help create a seamless end-to-end experience that not only makes it easier for customers to interact with brands, but enhances their relationship with the store.

5. The grocery experience should be fun.

Food is personal and shopping for it should be an enjoyable experience that can be shared.

There are 2 to 3 million Canadians living, working and studying outside our country – and 10 per cent of them are in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. This kind of diaspora strategy is how many countries such as Israel, Singapore, and India are taking on the world in a more networked and digital age.

No group better epitomizes that approach than the C100, an association of Canadian expats in the Valley that has helped build Canada’s tech ecosystem. For the past decade, it’s taken on our national innovation challenge and helped drive policy change, develop talent streams, and connected Canadian entrepreneurs with the world.

“Our ambition really is to build the preeminent global community of Canadians in tech and to take this model that we have built in Silicon Valley to markets everywhere,” said Laura Buhler, Executive Director of the C100. She joined the RBC Disruptors podcast, along with C100 Co-Chair Andre Charoo, to discuss how Canada has transformed into a global tech leader and how it can sustain its momentum.

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The last five years saw sustained year-over-year growth in venture capital investment into Canadian tech companies. And in 2019, the volume of VC invested in Canada had its greatest uptick ever with a 40% increase over the previous year.

Buhler said it comes down to Canada’s entrepreneurs. “In order to have investment, you need a founder or founders and an ambitious team who are talented enough and passionate enough about a problem to go build it and solve it.”

Few companies have attracted more investment into Canada than Ottawa-based Shopify, which has been heralded as Canada’s quintessential talent magnet.

“Having Shopify and its enormous growth … is really important for flows of capital,” said Charoo.

And coming up behind Shopify is a whole generation of promising tech companies founded by Canadians returning home after experiences in Silicon Valley –

Michael Katchen of Wealthsimple, Ray Reddy of RITUAL, and Andrew D’Souza of Clearbanc, to name a few.

It’s likely why we’ve seen an explosion in tech jobs. Over the past five years, 80,000 new tech jobs have been created in Toronto alone – more than San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. combined.

What can the Canadian tech ecosystem do to build on its impressive growth? Here are five takeaways.

1. Expats are an asset.

Canadians in every part of the world have the ability to network and plug our entrepreneurs into their local ecosystems. We need to tap into our diaspora networks to create strategic opportunities that accelerate the growth of our companies and our talent.

2. Seize the moment right now.

The restrictions that the United States is putting on immigration are a big opportunity for Canada to attract top global talent. It’s time to step up and show that in Canada, we do things differently. We value inclusion and we can foster success.

3. Pay up for talent.

Top tier tech executives in the U.S. get paid a lot more than in Canada. And to bring that world-class talent here and keep it here, we need to think about how to match ambition with compensation and ensure that we’re not undermining success. That includes our tax system.

4. Buy Canadian.

Procurement is a recurring theme on our podcast, and there’s never been a better time to support Canadian businesses. Large corporations and governments can invest locally to develop a thriving ecosystem that can compete on a global stage.

5. Innovation is happening coast to coast to coast.

It’s not just a Waterloo or Vancouver thing. From Whitehorse to St. John’s, Canadians are building sustainable and innovative businesses that are solving big problems. Some of the most successful, scalable companies are found in our smaller centres. So wherever you are, don’t be afraid to look beyond your own backyard. You might see exactly what you’re looking for.

Now they have a chance to reinvent themselves.

COVID-19 has crushed pretty much every retail category, nowhere more so than in malls. Clothing sales alone were down roughly 50% in the early weeks of the crisis.

In the U.S., Green Street Advisors predicts more than half of department stores in malls will close by the end of 2021. Coresight Research expects upwards of 25,000 stores in the U.S. to close this year – 60% of them in malls.

Cadillac Fairview has launched a new program called Ravel to counter the unravelling of malls. The digital platform is not just one-way information about sales or locations; it’s a blended model to allow shoppers to see styles and colours that may not be in stock, and to compare items across stores.

“It’s a virtual mall in your pocket,” says Jose Ribau, Cadillac Fairview’s Executive Vice President of Digital & Innovation. Ribau joined the RBC Disruptors podcast to discuss how the world of retail is shifting.

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“Wouldn’t it be great if you could have the efficiency of a digital platform but also try the blazer on before you buy it?”

CF owns 68 properties in Canada, including Toronto’s Eaton Centre and Vancouver’s Pacific Centre. In South America and East Asia, where CF also operates, malls deploy digital platforms to allow customers to choose items and have them delivered to their cars or their homes, often while paying through an app.

A lot is at stake. Retail employs more than two million Canadians, and accounts for a big chunk of commercial real estate. In 2017, there were 3,742 shopping centres larger than 40,000 square feet across the country – up from 3,496 such properties in 2012.

If those malls want to disrupt themselves, here’s some of what they need to consider:

1. Online shopping is here to stay.

But so, too, is the blended model. Yes, we love the convenience of e-commerce, but most of us also love to explore, to see and to touch. Malls allow us to browse stores while also browsing online and to use online platforms to get the ideal items sent to us whenever and wherever we want.

2. The mall of the future will be built on data.

Malls are a goldmine of data that can help retailers feed information to shoppers while they’re shopping — and use that data to enhance the shopping experience with alerts, deals and photos of products.

3. Delivery services are shifting from B2B to B2C.

As customers continue to go online, delivery services are becoming a key part of retailer and restaurant supply chains. Smart malls are figuring out how to get products to shoppers wherever they are.

4. Malls need to be fun and inspiring.

Those that can capture that spirit in a safe physical environment will be the ones that thrive.

Think video consultations, tracing apps, biometric screening – all of which are rapidly becoming part of the new normal.

Many Canadian hospitals and technology companies are already leaders in healthcare innovation. Dr. Abhinav Sharma, professor and researcher at McGill University Health Center, and Valérie Pisano, CEO of the Montreal Institute of Learning Algorithms (MILA), joined the RBC Disruptors podcast to share how the pandemic has been a catalyst for the adoption of new technologies and how Canadian healthcare is transforming.

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What amazed Sharma is how quickly doctors and healthcare professionals pivoted to telemedicine amid the pandemic.

“It was a big shift to actually embrace this technology, which seems sort of basic and rudimentary, he said. “But actually from a medical point of view, to deliver healthcare over a phone or over a Skype visit is actually quite a paradigm shift.”

Arguably, the ability of front-line professionals to adapt in real-time is made possible by the ongoing work of the tech community over the past several years. When the COVID-19 crisis hit, tech and AI researchers were able to respond immediately.

Pisano said that within days of the pandemic hitting Canada, dozens of researchers at MILA mobilized multiple projects, including lung imagery for diagnostic testing and predictive analytics for virus tracing.

“There’s so many different ways where AI is being solicited right now,” Pisano said.

“It really is the perfect context to say, ‘OK, if we push the boundaries of innovation, how can these technologies support us as humble and vulnerable human beings as we face this pandemic in the months and probably years ahead?'”

That’s a question researchers are exploring.

So, what can we expect? Here are 4 key takeaways.

1. The future of healthcare is here.

COVID has shown us that virtual healthcare is possible. Telemedicine and online doctor visits aren’t hard. Yes, we will still need and want face-to-face contact for all sorts of reasons, but we need to focus on evolving to create a better, more inclusive, and accessible system.

2. Data and privacy.

Right now, we have an opportunity to help more Canadians be proactive with their health. But to do that, people need to be comfortable with the idea of allowing their data to be used through new technologies and protocols. So the question becomes, how do we clearly communicate the benefits of these new innovations and how data helps us get there?

3. Healthcare is global.

We in Canada focus a lot on the balance of power between the federal and provincial governments while the pandemic has shown us how health problems and health solutions are increasingly global. How can we ensure that the innovations being developed here in Canada are global in their ambition?

4. Humans matter.

Yes, technology is going to increasingly shape healthcare. But without the human adoption of technology, we’ll never see its potential. A cultural shift needs to take place in how we view the use of technologies and the implications of data sharing. Researchers and entrepreneurs can develop the best AI or equipment, but it’s up to healthcare professionals and patients to talk through how to make this work in our daily lives.

As Canada fights the COVID pandemic, health tech has never been more important. The challenge will be to continue to innovate, and to build on our existing foundation to create a system that’s both inclusive and accessible.