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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Miri Katz

Miri Katz

Globe and Mail: Time for action on innovation, not more study - 0 views

  • Time for action on innovation, not more study By BARRIE McKENNA From Monday's Globe and Mail If more recommendations from important 2008 federal report Compete to Win had been implemented, Ottawa might not still be talking about innovation deficiencies
  • If innovation was measured in the output of reports about innovation, Canada would be a world leader.We're not. We are a laggard. The report tracked Canada's progress over the past two years based on 24 different indicators, such as the percentage of GDP spent on research and development, R&D spending by businesses, investment in machinery and equipment, PhDs and high school test scores. Since the council's initial report in 2008, Canada's performance is down in 15 categories, stagnant in three and improved in just six.
  • Here's a passage from L.R. (Red) Wilson's seminal 2008 federal report, Compete to Win: "We rank poorly across almost all aspects of innovation: the creation of knowledge, the diffusion of knowledge, the transformation of knowledge and the use of knowledge through commercialization."
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  • The R&D focus should be on industry clusters that can leverage the country's natural resource wealth and traditional strengths. Think energy, water, agriculture, forestry, mining and manufacturing that serves vital Canadian needs.
  • In areas most closely linked to innovation, the progress is equally slow. Mr. Wilson, for example, urged Ottawa to look at creating tax incentives to encourage venture capital and speeding up the commercialization of intellectual property developed in universities.
  • The to-do list on the path achieving that objective is long. There's overhauling the Investment Canada and Competition acts, opening up the telecom and broadcast industries to more foreign competition, creating a national securities regulator, reforming copyright laws, eliminating remaining internal trade barriers and lowering personal income tax rates.
  • It may mean that government plays a larger role in some industries while leaving others to their own devices. That, at least, is how other similarly sized economies successfully leverage limited government funds.More study has become an excuse to put off these much tougher, but inevitable, choices.
Miri Katz

How The Private Sector Can Drive Social Innovation - CIO Central - CIO Network - Forbes - 0 views

  • How The Private Sector Can Drive Social Innovation
  • Out of the 100 largest economies in the world, about half are multinational corporations. Given their impact on global communities, it is becoming increasingly essential that these large corporations execute responsibility to society, rather than rely on governments and non-profits to address difficult social issues alone.
  • oday, the world’s largest companies are in a unique position to play a much greater role in driving social change than ever before.
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  • Aside from pure monetary donations, however, is a new model that is transforming corporate philanthropy.
  • Increasingly, corporations are turning to a shared value model, in which companies work in alignment with society rather than against it, producing mutual benefits to both the community and the corporation
  • It evolves the traditional model of financial and material goods donations, to one in which corporations leverage a range of corporate assets including employee skills, business acumen and partner networks, to drive social change.
  • Here’s the shift: Instead of viewing it as our responsibility to drive business and social value, view it also a valuable opportunity to rethink existing practices.
  • The business case for social innovation
  • there are a variety of benefits for an organization, from brand building, to staff retention, and even improved client stickiness. Shareholders and the investment community are also increasingly considering corporate responsibility when making investment decisions.
  • collaborations can drive innovation through necessity. Non-profits work in extreme environments, faced with limited infrastructure, connectivity and staff. Operating in these situations exposes corporate staff to new sets of customer challenges, which can often deliver innovations in product design or services into the business.
  • by working with a non-profit organization, a corporation can demonstrate its expertise to a new audience, expanding its business network.
  • Increasingly, investors weigh environmental, social and governance  data when making investment decisions. While such data has been a benchmark for European-based companies for some time, we are now seeing a more global adoption and interest in this, which should be another forcing function for more corporations to act as good corporate citizens.
  • Applying social innovation in practic
  • A good starting point is to assess the company’s available skills, expertise, partnerships against the touch-points the company currently has within a given community. From there, establish specific goals to achieve and a strategic plan to meet those goals.
  • Companies that have an expertise in technology, for example, can collaborate with non-profits or social entrepreneurs to provide the infrastructure backbone that turn their ideas into reality. With the social enterprise mPedigree Network, HP leveraged its technology expertise in cloud-based services to design and build an anti-drug counterfeiting service in Africa. Counterfeit medicine is a significant problem in developing countries, causing more than 700,000 deaths each year. The new service helps save lives by enabling patients to validate the integrity of their medicine by sending a free text message.
  • Gabi Zedlmayer is Vice President of Hewlett-Packard’s Office of Global Social Innovation.
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    Out of the 100 largest economies in the world, about half are multinational corporations. Given their impact on global communities, it is increasingly essential that these large corporations execute responsibility to society, rather than rely on governments and non-profits to address difficult social issues alone
Miri Katz

WAMC: Non-profits share concerns on bond-funded social programs (2011-06-27) - 0 views

  • Non-profits share concerns on bond-funded social program
  • Under the funding model, also known as "pay for success," organizations would receive the money of private investors or investment groups who purchase bonds from the government that are linked to specific program benchmarks.
  • Joe Kriesberg, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, said the bonds could be an appropriate way for governments to fund prevention programs, but that there will be several challenges going forward in any type of SIB funding structure.
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  • "I'd be really concerned about corporate ideals taking precedence over a non-profit's mission, and I would be equally concerned about the stigma of government money sometimes really limiting what you can do. How can you promote the real, true essence of a non-profit's mission with the restrictions that a corporation or a government might put on that?"
  • Bryan Ayers, CEO of Great Barrington-based Community Health Programs, said the bonds would offer a new way to fund long-term community-based prevention and health programs, but that to be truly effective investment groups must be willing to wait for results.
Miri Katz

Canada slips further in innovation rankings - 0 views

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    Canada is now a mid-level player in the global innovation race, passed by rising powers China and South Korea in some categories and falling further behind long-time rivals such as the United States, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
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