Canadian Businesses are Wimps

This post is a response to an article on theglobeandmail.com entitled:

Needed urgently: more creativity from the business class

This latest report reveals that Canadian businesses do not innovate enough

As an Entrepreneur I think that the culture of Canadian business is the real challenge to innovation in Canada.  There is a saying "in Canada, no one wants to be first, everyone wants to be second"

We used to do all our business in the US and we got used to their cowboy attitude where everyone wanted to be first out of the gate or have something the other did not.  Not in Canada.

We are in Digital Signage, the business of putting plasma screens in retail areas and elevators.  It is an expensive, capital intensive business with an unproven business model and Canadian companies, save Tim Hortons, have little appetite for such things.

Canadian digital signage companies, and there are many, have floundered for the most part.

For our current project I did not even bother trying to look for capital in Canada, I went straight to the US.

This is a cultural issues that goes to the very heart of Canadian identity.  American business entrepreneurs are aggressive, daring risk takers, traits Canadians view as pejorative terms.  All the regulations and government programs in the world cant change that.

I love this country but I don't like doing business here.