Hey Folks!
[warning - as I occasionally do, this particular post is not about PR]
It's been a while since I've blogged (I'll get in to that later), but I came across an interesting article - Productivity great worry for Carney - in the Gazette, although I'm sure it's appeared in all the papers.
The article got under my skin. Basically Carney, Bank of Canada governor, has said that Canada's productivity (how much a person at work outputs in a day) is lacklustre.
A whole bunch of factors combine to create this, including a high Canadian dollar and businesses not purchasing new equipment that increases productivity. But when you put it all together, basically, Canadians aren't outputting like they should be.
What frustrated me was how little the article talked about the real reasons behind lower productivity (hey, who would want to talk about them, because they aren't pretty).
From what I've experienced first hand, and from what you've likely experienced, it seems to me the real things holding businesses back are:
1) Cost
We are in a recession so not many businesses can take out loans to increase their capex/opex. As a result, everybody is trying to grow while at the same time contracting. It's like putting one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brakes. If you've been in the grocery store you'll notice how many goods are the same price, but the container is just a little smaller than it use to be - just one example of this growth through contraction process going on right now.
2) Anti-Innovation mindset
Canada use to be a place of true innovation. We had the best internet in the world - we truly did. We had more per capita users and better internet quality than any other country. I don't know where we stand now, but it's nowhere near the top.
And let's not get in to Canada's insane wireless industry and regulations that ensure Canadians (and Canadian businesses) pay the most in the world for wireless.
And I won't even go in to the fact that you cannot get a Canadian telephone number for Skype in Canada because the CRTC won't allow it. This inhibits remote working and small businesses from embracing a cheap alternative to traditional telephony services.
3) Baby Boomers
No offense to the baby boomers intended, but from what I can see most of them are tired, and rightly so. They've spent a lifetime working and with the recession many of them have had to put off retirement, right when they thought they'd be relaxing and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Productivity is linked to passion, energy, ambition, etc. (not simply knowledge) and I think it's fair to say that a good portion of the baby boomer generation is simply worn out on these fronts.
4) Workplace Cultures
You know, I'm still young enough to remember what it was like coming out of school in the late 90s. Things were booming and people were eager to start their careers. Kids today are graduating and they can't get a professional job with their training. If they do get one, they are making less and working harder than ever before.
Our workplaces are driven more by the stick than the carrot now-a-days. And while on the surface fear can motivate people to increase productivity, in the long run it destroys people's ability to collaborate, to be invested in what they are doing and to think creatively and passionately. And I believe a big part of our decreased productivity is the result of workplace cultures that simply don't maximize the potential of their employees.
5) Entitlements
Lastly, in Canada, entitlements are out of control. Half the country seems to be unionized to me. While I'm all for treating people fairly (do unto others as you'd have them do unto you is my motto), unions are out of control to the point where good employees are treated the same as bad employees, where often times employees abuse the benefits that come from their union, and lastly the spirit of entrepreneurship has basically died. It's not about how can we make our organization better any more, it's become 'How much more can I get at any cost to the organization as a whole'.
I'd like to see a story that calls out our productivity issues for what they are, a result of a culture change in Canada. Where once we were a country committed to innovation, today we're all about the status quo, and in some cases not even the status quo but rather simply milking what's left in the cow before it goes dry.
We could easily increase productivity if we returned to how things use to be, which included:
1) Compensation based on performance
2) Encourage entrepreneurship (why is it easier to get a home loan or a car loan than it is a business loan? Because we've embraced consumer debt as the golden goose of return on deployed capital.)
3) Regulate/deregulate industries in ways that encourage smaller companies to compete with larger companies (ultimately driving down cost and increasing access to new technologies).
Anyway, it's kind of sad to see our productivity issues simplified down to a high Canadian dollar and decreased capex spending.
[warning - as I occasionally do, this particular post is not about PR]
It's been a while since I've blogged (I'll get in to that later), but I came across an interesting article - Productivity great worry for Carney - in the Gazette, although I'm sure it's appeared in all the papers.
The article got under my skin. Basically Carney, Bank of Canada governor, has said that Canada's productivity (how much a person at work outputs in a day) is lacklustre.
A whole bunch of factors combine to create this, including a high Canadian dollar and businesses not purchasing new equipment that increases productivity. But when you put it all together, basically, Canadians aren't outputting like they should be.
What frustrated me was how little the article talked about the real reasons behind lower productivity (hey, who would want to talk about them, because they aren't pretty).
From what I've experienced first hand, and from what you've likely experienced, it seems to me the real things holding businesses back are:
1) Cost
We are in a recession so not many businesses can take out loans to increase their capex/opex. As a result, everybody is trying to grow while at the same time contracting. It's like putting one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brakes. If you've been in the grocery store you'll notice how many goods are the same price, but the container is just a little smaller than it use to be - just one example of this growth through contraction process going on right now.
2) Anti-Innovation mindset
Canada use to be a place of true innovation. We had the best internet in the world - we truly did. We had more per capita users and better internet quality than any other country. I don't know where we stand now, but it's nowhere near the top.
And let's not get in to Canada's insane wireless industry and regulations that ensure Canadians (and Canadian businesses) pay the most in the world for wireless.
And I won't even go in to the fact that you cannot get a Canadian telephone number for Skype in Canada because the CRTC won't allow it. This inhibits remote working and small businesses from embracing a cheap alternative to traditional telephony services.
3) Baby Boomers
No offense to the baby boomers intended, but from what I can see most of them are tired, and rightly so. They've spent a lifetime working and with the recession many of them have had to put off retirement, right when they thought they'd be relaxing and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Productivity is linked to passion, energy, ambition, etc. (not simply knowledge) and I think it's fair to say that a good portion of the baby boomer generation is simply worn out on these fronts.
4) Workplace Cultures
You know, I'm still young enough to remember what it was like coming out of school in the late 90s. Things were booming and people were eager to start their careers. Kids today are graduating and they can't get a professional job with their training. If they do get one, they are making less and working harder than ever before.
Our workplaces are driven more by the stick than the carrot now-a-days. And while on the surface fear can motivate people to increase productivity, in the long run it destroys people's ability to collaborate, to be invested in what they are doing and to think creatively and passionately. And I believe a big part of our decreased productivity is the result of workplace cultures that simply don't maximize the potential of their employees.
5) Entitlements
Lastly, in Canada, entitlements are out of control. Half the country seems to be unionized to me. While I'm all for treating people fairly (do unto others as you'd have them do unto you is my motto), unions are out of control to the point where good employees are treated the same as bad employees, where often times employees abuse the benefits that come from their union, and lastly the spirit of entrepreneurship has basically died. It's not about how can we make our organization better any more, it's become 'How much more can I get at any cost to the organization as a whole'.
I'd like to see a story that calls out our productivity issues for what they are, a result of a culture change in Canada. Where once we were a country committed to innovation, today we're all about the status quo, and in some cases not even the status quo but rather simply milking what's left in the cow before it goes dry.
We could easily increase productivity if we returned to how things use to be, which included:
1) Compensation based on performance
2) Encourage entrepreneurship (why is it easier to get a home loan or a car loan than it is a business loan? Because we've embraced consumer debt as the golden goose of return on deployed capital.)
3) Regulate/deregulate industries in ways that encourage smaller companies to compete with larger companies (ultimately driving down cost and increasing access to new technologies).
Anyway, it's kind of sad to see our productivity issues simplified down to a high Canadian dollar and decreased capex spending.
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