Impact Lesson Part 2: Innovation and Adaptation

At the BCTIA Impact event in downtown Vancouver this week, distinguished BC tech sector leaders and award winners gave their answers to questions that will be explored in this blog series.

Question #2: "How do you help create innovation and adapt your business model?"

Andrew Reid, President and Founder, Vision Critical: "It's like Barack Obama alludes to, that you have to be willing to look beyond old habits and ways of seeing ourselves. We don't have to be purely one thing, we can be a hybrid company."

Dr. Hannes Blum, President and CEO of AbeBooks Inc: "If you want to be successful, you have to be willing to be misunderstood and even abused for a long time. For example, with what we were trying to do, publishers hated us, because they wanted to preserve the status quo. But the world is changing."

John MacDonald, Chairman and CEO of Day4 Energy: "Part of it is about motivating your people. The thing that motivates people is exciting, world-leading work... Also, one benefit of being here is that British Columbia is the kind of place that attracts problem solvers. It's relatively easier to attract people here to do innovative knowledge-based work."

David Sutcliffe, former CEO of Sierra Wireless: "I would just add that the companies that are most successful tend to marry bright capabilities with market demand."