01-02 Innovation

It was 1980, and I was a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto’s School of Business and a student asked me to what do I contribute the success of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which then was a 55,000, member organization. My reply was quick and simple, “Persevere, innovate, persevere, innovate, persevere and innovate”.
It was one thing to say we were meeting a need by creating a political voice for small business, but it was another thing to turn that idea into a viable enterprise.
And in small firms, and in the economy generally, it is safe to say that most innovations come from solving problems. And it seemed at the time, that in starting CFIB it was just a matter of dealing with one problem after another.
I remember now, with great amusement, the problem I had in 1972 trying to influence politicians when I could not even afford to take a plane or train ride to Ottawa. And in a flash of inspiration, I came up with the idea of creating a cable show that would interview parliamentarians in a studio in Toronto.
We called the show, Bullseye Ottawa, and it was produced by Rogers Cable with the support of its founder, Ted Rogers. Why approach Rogers? Because their maintenance division was a tenant in our first building.
And two years later, when we killed the show, CBC copied our idea and created a show called “Some Honourable Members”, hosted by Patrick Watson.
Innovation is such a vibrant process with one great idea stimulating another great idea. And when ideas and knowledge become goods and services and new approaches you have innovation.
And of course, not all innovations change the world. In the photograph, we see examples of the light bulb improved by Thomas Edison who discovered when you pass electricity through a carbon filament in a bulb without oxygen it would burn for 40 hours. As he improved his innovation, he soon had a bulb that would burn for 1500 hours. This innovation did change the world.
If you are a believer in free markets, where there is a healthy entrance and exit of new small ventures, then you have an ideal problem-solving breeding ground for innovations.
This problem-solving reality applies to larger firms as well. I heard a lecture from an expert on the auto industry, who made the case that the challenges provided to the auto sector trying to meet California emission standards led to breathtaking innovations in automobile engine design. And if there is an automobile that represents innovation it is the Tesla electric vehicle.
But getting back to simple examples. I always thought my father’s greatest innovation at the family clothing business, John Bulloch Ltd. was adding political and religious comment to his advertisements in the Globe and Mail. And believe it or not, the readership of his weekly ads was higher than the readership of their editorial page. Such a hoot.
And when I put a letter in one of his ads protesting the 1969 White Paper on Tax Reform, his massive readership sent me on a new career.
Over the years I have pondered how problems, small and mighty stimulate innovation. It is more than small firms trying to make a product or service marketable, but it is also large companies coping with the challenges of selling and producing goods and services globally.
They are having to function in a dozen languages and in societies with very different cultures and needs. Talk about problem-solving. And all of us are linked to these global companies in one way or another.
Isolationism and nationalism may appeal to those who cannot function in the new global economy, but as a basis for economic development it will only hamper innovation and prosperity.
That’s the way I see it, anyways.