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Issue #40 May 24th, 2021 Join us - share and network, discover and learn |
CONCLUSIONS - Economic Resilience & The Innovation Ecosystem WEBINAR FRIDAY - 4PM MT MAY 28th COPY THIS https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85896241732 |
To view former webinars CLICK HERE |
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Last Friday's webinar featured the presentation and discussion of Alberta's Innovation Ecosystem followed by passionate concerns that culture and management of health services resist innovation. Many have tried. Discussion highlighted impediments of the system's commitment to privacy, public protection, and regulations. Promising are in the personalization of health care through technology and increased client cum consumer expectations. Also discussed were the implications of the the fear of death and over-extension of life. We wrapped up discussing the erosion of trust in established and traditional sources of knowledge: institutions, government, and the professions. For more visit HERE and join us this Friday 4PM MT: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85896241732 The April '21 survey of Alberta's economic resilience and subsequent discussion throughout May have surfaced several conclusions. It should be noted, that few of these are new, an indication of the broad commitment and challenge of diversifying an economy particularly one heavily interdependent on oil for energy. Economic Resilience - weak but improving Overall Alberta's economic resilience continues to reflect volatility in the price of oil. While still weak it has been lifted by recent increases in demand and pricing of oil. The prime measures of economic resilience are corporate investment and measures of employment and job creation. Measures of migration - in and out, are most sensitive to an extended downturn/ upturn in resilience. Economic resilience is not uniform across Alberta's Regions or economic sectors. The Calgary Region is viewed as the most resilient and diverse with most strength in Industry and Professions specifically energy, agriculture, and manufacturing and Public Services weakest. The Edmonton Region is viewed as the least resilient and diverse with Public Services particularly Education and Research over represented and weakest compared to Industry and Professions. The Other Regions - North, Central, and South show strength in resilience though all together are have diverse Industry representation with tourism weakest and energy and agriculture strongest. The South benefits from strength in Education. The primary role of government in economic development is viewed as in policy and providing incentives for SME development plus research support for long term job creation. Least supportive are measures for funding immediate job creation. Administrators and contractors in our earlier research HERE expressed concern with policy and practices governing pubic procurement explaining the weak support for employing public procurement as a measure for increasing Alberta enterprise. Innovation Ecosystem - essential and effectiveness improving Alberta's Innovation Ecosystem continues to increase in effectiveness, and is consistently viewed as essential to diversification and the survival, growth, retention of SMEs. While overall effectiveness approaches neutral (3:5) it is viewed as strongest for the Calgary Region and weakest for Edmonton. Other Regions are mixed, reflecting the presence or not of resources and infrastructure, that is, the presence/ absence of incubators, accelerators dedicated to SMEs. The primary contributors to effectiveness of the Innovation Ecosystem are it's Resources and Infrastructure. Secondary and weak are Vision and Leadership with Management Processes weakest. CONCLUSION The monitoring of progress in achieving economic resilience in Alberta because diversification is viewed by governments and the public as essential. The province's economy - corporate investment, employment, is vulnerable to broad swings in the pricing of oil, swings due to geopolitics events over which it has little control. Measures to increase resilience are having a positive impact overall, Regionally and in most sectors other than Public Services. Note, increases in diversity do not equate to increased resilience. And while improvement over the last 5 years are evident - particularly in the Calgary Region, the economies of all Regions and all Sectors would benefit from continued measures to reduce their interdependency on the energy industry. Edmonton is especially vulnerable to an over-representation of Public Services. Progress is evident in the development of an effective innovation ecosystem, most evident in the Calgary Region. Calgary was hard hit by the latest downturn in energy; measures taken to develop other sectors and the innovation ecosystem are noteworthy. RECOMMENDATIONS We are deferring the tabling of recommendations until this Friday's webinar. If you have a something to share please REPLY and join us this Friday https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85896241732 |
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