H. Douglas Barber and Jeffrey Crelinsten completing white papers that examine Canada's innovation performance and culture. They surveyed 18 early-stage or start-up R&D firms in Canada. Ten were insolvent and the other 8 either merged or sold out with 5 of them profitably.

The main problems appeared be either no emphasis on sales and customer service and all emphasis on r&d development and a preoccupation with development and ideas led to fast \"burn rate.\"  Also lack of shared goals, lack of diversity and experience on the Board, \"lack of enterprise expertise amongst investors, and general lack of enterprise competence and experience.\"

Robin Williams once said on his Live on Broadway session, \"Canada's like a loft apartment over a really great party.\"

Hmm... I know some very bright, fun, innovative men and women who are Canadians.

But could there also be a problem with infrastructure and especially in the area of telecommunications? I personally think it hurts that long distance calling from one area of Canada to another is still exactly that... long distance with a per minute charge. I can use my cell phone and call any number in the USA and all areas are local for me and included in my cell phone package. Listen to the CEO of Eqo (based in Canada) in a podcast of Bending the Needle with Martyn Davies discuss this reality.

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