Growing Your Business

Attract

Talent

Future-Forward

When it comes to the future of work, there are a lot of unanswered questions and mysteries about what the future actually holds. One thing is clear: the needs of talent will dictate the future of work — and the talent that we’re all competing to attract is looking for workplaces that offer human experiences. To stand out in this market, leaders of organizations across sectors, jurisdictions, and sizes must innovate their employee experience offerings to shift “the great resignation” into “the great retention.”

Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director of Digital Economy, Technology, and Innovation with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, sat down with Kyra Jones, Head of Talent and Academy at Communitech — one of North America’s largest innovation hubs, which is based in Southwestern Ontario and supports more than 1,600 start-ups, scale-ups, and at-scale tech organizations — to discuss why fostering an inclusive, future-forward organizational culture is a key ingredient of any successful talent attraction and retention strategy.

How would you describe the current state of Canada's talent market, particularly in Canada’s tech ecosystem?

Canada’s tech ecosystem has experienced record-breaking growth over the past year. For example, capital raised by Communitech member companies reached $2.8 billion in 2021 — almost as much as the previous 10 years' worth of investment combined. While we’ve grown to just shy of 26,000 tech workers here in the Waterloo Region, our tech ecosystem needs more talent to keep up with its current growth trajectory.

That’s impressive, and growth is great.

To keep that greatness, how have the past two years and the early onset of “the future of work” changed the talent landscape for Canada’s tech firms?

The shift in how and where we work was in motion before the pandemic, but now many people — employers and employees alike — have had a chance to see that work can look and feel different than it has traditionally. The old approach of compartmentalizing work and home is gone. The old dichotomy of “work-life balance” has been replaced with a more flexible and integrated approach to building a lifestyle that aligns with both skills and values. The firms that are winning are embracing future-forward values as part of their corporate culture.

What are some future-forward values that companies should embrace to stand out in the increasingly competitive talent market, including DEI?

In addition to flexibility, people want meaning and purpose in the workplace — especially younger workers. Making sure that your organization has a clear and positive mission is the key. For example, at Communitech, one of our core principles is Tech for Good®. We’re here to help founders create technology and companies that change the world for the better. That has legitimately helped us make some amazing hires in the last several months alone. Additionally, it’s absolutely vital that organizations have strong policies that support and champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workplaces.

How can companies of every size, from small firms to scaling shops and global players, set themselves apart with a future-forward culture?

The companies that will stand out and retain

the best talent will be those that offer the flexibility and personalization that come with embracing the “future of work.” Companies of all sizes need to understand what talent wants and ensure that their offers match up — things like flexibility, diversity, inclusion, and meaning are critical for talent attraction. People want to work for purpose-driven organizations that support both their personal and professional lifestyles. For example, research indicates that a four-day workweek can boost both productivity and employee wellness. Embracing the “future of work” also means thinking bigger about how and when we engage with work — offering sabbaticals, having clear policies that support pursuing hobbies and turning those into side hustles, and being intentional about career planning.

Moving from local to global, what out-ofthe-box tools can smaller firms apply to find the niche, top-tier talent they need to grow from homegrown start-up to global scale-up?

First, understand the talent market more deeply. Consider using technology to augment your hiring and recruitment process as well as retention. For example, Plum is a Canadian technology company offering an AI-led talent assessment platform that ditches resumes in favour of behavioural assessments.

Second, employers should also look beyond our borders. Employer-of-record services, such as Communitech’s Outposts program, work with companies of all sizes to help hire international talent from previously unreachable markets. I’ve heard people say that to solve a problem you have to make it bigger. Competing globally, and not just locally, for top talent helps you to do just that.

Visit chamber.ca/ committee/ digital-economycommittee to learn more about the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s approach to the digital economy.

This article was

Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia Senior Director of Digital Economy, Technology, & Innovation, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Kyra Jones Head of Talent & Academy, Communitech

made possible with support from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia

Entrepreneurial Success: Six Start-Up Tents

D.F McCourt

The pace of change in the world of business continues to move at lightning speed. It’s difficult to pause and uncover the recipe for entrepreneurial success. Young Canadians looking to start and grow a business or rise as leaders at start-ups, need to understand the landscape of the present. Though many of the classic entrepreneurial fundamentals remain unchanged, there are also old adages that no longer fit into the tactics and strategies required in 2022.

Here, to help tease one apart from the other is Scott Stirrett, CEO of Canada’s national entrepreneurial skills and mindset development organization, Venture for Canada (VFC).

These are six of the most important lessons Stirrett hopes to instill in entrepreneurs, founders, and recent grads in pursuit of a brighter and more innovative Canadian future, from his own experience and witnessing that of over 5,794 VFC program participants since 2015.

1. Entrepreneurship can’t be learned from a book. You learn by doing.

Before VFC, there was no non-profit or charity in the country that was really focused on entrepreneurial skills development through work-integrated learning. “The most effective way to develop entrepreneurial skills is through work-integrated learning,” says Stirrett. “In particular, having young people work in small businesses and see

what's involved in building a company from the ground up.” Try and test new business environments as much as possible early in your career. The more you do, the more you learn.

2. A changing landscape is challenging the underlying assumptions about how we do business.

“Five years ago, a lot of people would have said you can't build a remote-first business,” says Stirrett. “But we’ve all been working remotely for the last two years, and all these companies haven’t collapsed. That’s just one clear and recent example of how the rules have changed.” Instead of thinking about how things used to be, embrace change and ambiguity to succeed in unprecedented scenarios.

3. A good idea is not intrinsically valuable without good execution and followthrough.

“Ideas are a dime a dozen,” says Stirrett. “There are seven billion people in the world, and it’s likely that someone else has had the same idea before, or comes to the same conclusion as you. Entrepreneurial skills are in the execution of bringing that idea into reality in a way that actually creates value for the world.” Build a plan to bring your ideas to action, even if it’s just for fun.

4. You are motivated by the success of your business. Your employees are motivated by other things. And that’s okay.

“To hire and retain people, you need to care about what they care about,” says Stirrett. “The reality is, most people just want psychologically safe workplaces and they want to be fairly compensated. They want meaningful work and they want a sense of autonomy. Companies that do not prize the well-being of their employees are going to lose a lot of

their employees. The pandemic has really emphasized the importance of looking after your team members.” Don’t expect others to have the same motivations.

5. To attract and retain the best talent, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion need to be part of your roadmap from the start. “A lot more start-ups and small businesses these days are recognizing the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion from the very beginning,” says Stirrett. “There’s been a big and positive shift towards building DEI into the DNA of the company or organization. It helps that, like the Canadian population as a whole, entrepreneurs are themselves diverse.” Call “things in” and enlist subject matter experts when you don’t see a clear roadmap.

6. Starting a business is hard. You don’t have to do it alone.

“There is so much support out there,” says Stirrett. “Obviously, there’s Venture for Canada, but there are also great organizations like Futurpreneur Canada, and there are incubators and accelerators all across the country. There are also peer groups like Young Presidents Organization that are so helpful because the life of an entrepreneur is full of ups and downs. The more support you have, the better a position you will be in to be successful.” Life and business are about the relationships you hold and value, don’t let those get away.

Support for Local Entrepreneurs and Innovators Starts with IDEA

Small businesses represent 99 percent of the business community in Mississauga and are a key economic driver. The City of Mississauga is taking the lead in creating a robust innovation ecosystem to support them by providing appropriate resources, tools, services, and space for entrepreneurs and innovators to start-up or scale-up.

Last month, the City launched IDEA, the Innovation District of Mississauga and a new virtual innovation hub — IDEAmississauga.ca — was also recently launched to make it easier for start-ups to connect with service providers and assets they need to help grow their business. The new site features an interactive concierge tool that enables the client to create a customized list of resources for their unique business needs and an interactive Asset Map which aids users in finding innovation assets and information on vital services.

The City of Mississauga delivered the first IDEA Scale-up Program that supported innovative and inclusive companies in growing and overcoming barriers and challenges to growing their sales and impact. “IDEA Mississauga does not represent one specific location in Mississauga — rather, it represents the city's entire ecosystem made up of industry, government, education, and providers of space and programs that support innovation.” says Bonnie Brown, Director, Economic Development, City of Mississauga. To highlight the success of the program, the City is proud to showcase four winning participants and their innovative businesses:

Abraham developed the first commercial

auto-tuner for fuzzy logic controllers, a type of AI controller, which is 35 percent more energy efficient, saves on raw materials, and produces less air and noise pollution. The idea came from a collaboration between two PhDs working in the field of AI, control engineering, and software — Dr. Talib Janabi and Dr. Alain Marsman. Being a small company trying to sell to big businesses means many bureaucratic hoops to jump through to get a sale. Logistical, knowledge resources and connections to various clients and investors through the IDEA Program helped Abraham move forward.

Arbre

After one of Arbre’s founders acquired a painful scalp sunburn on a summer beach trip, they started to investigate ways to protect sensitive scalps from the sun. Finding nothing on the market, they set out to create a sustainable and functional product to fill that gap. Figuring out how to access the necessary resources to start a company at the beginning of COVID-19 was a big challenge, as was trying to build their prototype and access lab equipment to conduct product testing. Through the Scale-up Program, Abre’s founders learned valuable foundational business knowledge for starting a company plan to launch their first product this summer.

TheLeanSuite

The founders of TheLeanSuite understand the link between employee engagement and productivity. Their Digital Suggestion Platform offers a fast and easy way for employees to voice their ideas and suggestions and for managers to provide feedback and act on them. Finding creative ways to minimize

expenses while delivering on the platform’s MVP was a challenge, as was the need to keep scalability and quality in mind. Participating in the IDEA Program enabled the developers to gain valuable sales knowledge and make important connections to bring their idea to market.

Artcryption

Artcryption is an art-tech platform that uses blockchain technology to help creators and artists manage, protect, and monetize their assets and intellectual property in a secure way without the need for intermediaries. It was developed by an IP lawyer and art agent, whose clients deal with copyright infringements or buying works that are not authentic.

Access to IDEA’s virtual community of support systems, that included workshops, talks, meetings with investors and mentors, and feedback, helped the founder to overcome the challenges of networking during COVID-19 restrictions and getting people to understand the technology.

Starting and growing a business in 2022 can be challenging and diving into entrepreneurship is often mystified. The team at Venture for Canada shares some guidance to clear away the uncertainty.

Anne Papmehl

Abraham Janabi General Manager, Xiera

Vandana Taxali CEO & Co-Founder, Artcryption

Kristina Knox and Stephanie Tien Co-Founders, Arbre

Angad Singh Co-Founder, Business & Sales, TheLeanSuite Prabhpahul Singh Co-Founder, Product & Technology, TheLeanSuite

IDEA Mississauga does not represent one specific location in Mississauga — rather, it represents the city's entire ecosystem made up of industry, government, education, and providers of space and programs that support innovation.

Visit venturefor canada.ca for the best support in realizing your entrepreneurial career.

The more support you have, the better a position you will be in to be successful.

Scott Stirrett CEO, Venture for Canada

Local entrepreneurs spark innovation and bring prosperity to the community. Cities need to provide them with support, resources, and tools to succeed.

This article was sponsored by Venture for Canada

article was sponsored by IDEA Mississauga

ACCESS Community Capital Fund Gets Entrepreneurs the Support They Need

Tania Amardeil

The pandemic spurred the creation of many new businesses, with nearly two million Canadians launching a business during the first 12 months of the pandemic. At the same time, small business owners and entrepreneurs were some of the hardest hit during COVID-19 pandemic.

No matter when a small business is launched, however, small business owners face many challenges — doubly so if they’re newcomers to Canada, which many are. From having the know-how to get off the ground to securing loans to finding meaningful mentorship and supports, entrepreneurs have a lot to contend with. Fortunately, organizations like ACCESS Community Capital Fund are available to help small business owners navigate the choppy waters and build their dream business or career.

Helping small businesses succeed ACCESS empowers entrepreneurs to realize their potential through financing, education, and mentorship. “We mainly support entrepreneurs and small business owners or people who want to own small businesses but can’t actually gain funding through traditional lending sources — banks — due to either lack of credit, misaligned credit statements or debt ratio, or blemished credit,” says Ryan Hollinrake, ACCESS’ Executive Director. “They don’t fit the standard government-regulated banking industry that we have today.”

ACCESS supports primarily newcomers who can’t access traditional lending because they don’t have a credit rating in Canada — 78 percent of its clients are newcomers — as well as those born and raised in Canada who have

National Conveners: Canada’s

Super Power

Despite the enormous amount of support and resources available to Canadian founders, most early-stage entrepreneurs have the same problem — persisting inaccessibility of this vital information in a clear, digestible format.

That’s where non-profit national conveners, like Startup Canada, come in. In an ecosystem with a lot of players, both in the public and private spheres, with their own agendas and areas of expertise, there is a growing need for more streamlined, centralized overviews of available support across the entrepreneurial landscape.

According to the projections of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, between seven and 21 percent of all Canadian SMEs could permanently close as a result of COVID-19.

March of 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, marked a big shift in how Canada’s entrepreneurship support ecosystem showed up for their community.

When the entire world was forced to pivot to digital programming, Startup Canada recognized an opportunity to explore new ways to create real, tangible impact during a time of extreme hardship for founders. As the pandemic progressed, our team recognized three main areas of need: centralized knowledge for early-stage founders, convening partners to mobilize for disproportionately impacted demographics through annual spe-

cialized programming, and local and industry specific communities.

Entrepreneurs have the vision and drive to succeed — what they don’t have is access to streamlined resources and connections that will accelerate their business through the foundational elements. In fact, 84 percent of 2021 Startup Canada Census respondents mentioned it took them over 100 hours to

damaged or offset credit.

“We have a really unique lending standard,” says Hollinrake. “We use what’s called a character-based lending model. We don’t only look at the credit — we look at the individual, their business plan, and the market they’re going into, and we help them get where they want to go.”

Well-rounded supports

If a potential entrepreneur’s business plan isn’t solid enough to secure funding, the team at ACCESS points the individual toward its Small Business Accelerator (SBA) or Women's Business Accelerator (WBA). “These free programs help them with writing a business plan, registering with the government, preparing a marketing plan, and financial budgeting and forecasting,” says Hollinrake. The WBA was specifically designed to equip newcomer, BIPOC women with the tools they need to build a profitable business and economic independence.

Finally, ACCESS’ Small Business Loans program connects would-be entrepreneurs with low-interest loans, removing as many barriers as possible.

“The SBA program has given me the confidence to pursue my dream and business idea,” says Winnie Lee, founder of Eden's Treasure, a handmade soaps and self-care products company. “With the networking and workshops, I had the confidence to move ahead with my business.”

“The WBA helped me to target my ideal customer and concentrate on my future goals to grow my business,” says Ghadeer Herzallah, founder of Ghadeer Creations, a balloon decoration company.

research and learn about different components of their business. The newly launched Business Owner’s Toolbox is helping founders navigate the support that exists across the entire ecosystem through one centralized solution.

Startup Canada has four flagship programs intended to serve specific needs within the country’s startup landscape — Startup Women (support for women-identifying founders), Startup Global (export support), Startup Gov (advocacy to government), and the Startup Communities (grassroots networks). The focus isn’t on building new programming, but leveraging these specialized programs as a space to consolidate existing ecosystem support. In February of 2022, we expanded these previously time gated programs to run annually, empowering our community with unlimited access to specialized information

and support.

Throughout the pandemic, our team has worked tire lessly to expand the Startup Communities network from coast to coast. Currently, we have 46 unique, grassroots networks. Community Leaders consistently show up for their networks, putting on 32 events that engaged 4,000 founders in 2021, empowered by the BDC Mental Health Fund, Mastercard, UPS, and the Startup Canada Community Empowerment Fund.

In order for Canada’s inspiring startups to recover and scale post-pandemic, they need access to strong communities, engaged connections, and clarity into what support exists. Conveners and connectors can help alleviate the time and energy needed to understand and thrive in the ecosystem — after all, entrepreneurs have enough to worry about.

About Kayla Isabelle

Kayla Isabelle is the Chief Executive Officer at Startup Canada, the gateway to Canada’s entrepreneurial ecosystem that points you in the right direction, eliminates barriers, and champions your needs to private and public sector partners. Startup Canada's mission is to connect Canada’s entrepreneurs with the tools, community, and support they need to start and build their businesses. Kayla has dedicated her career to supporting entrepreneurs, both in Canada and internationally. As an award-winning strategic communications consultant and change management facilitator, Kayla is passionate about leveraging the power of storytelling in the entrepreneurial community.

Small businesses face many challenges, from financial barriers to lack of mentorship, but ACCESS Community Capital Fund is here to help.

As of late 2021, Canada was home to 737 venture capital firms, hundreds of specialized support organizations, and thousands of individuals working every day to empower entrepreneurs across the country.

The pandemic spurred the creation of many new businesses, with nearly two million Canadians launching a business during the first 12 months of the pandemic.

Visit giveaccess.ca to learn more about ACCESS Community Capital Fund and donate, volunteer, or get the support you need.

Kayla Isabelle CEO, Startup Canada

Kayla Isabelle

Entrepreneurs have the vision and drive to succeed — what they don’t have is access to streamlined resources and connections that will accelerate their business through the foundational elements.

Entrepreneurship

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STARTUP CANADA

This article was sponsored by ACCESS Community Capital Fund

Opportunities for Small Businesses Await in Kentville, Nova Scotia

Michele Sponagle

Located in the heart of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, Kentville is the centre for business in this scenic part of the province, known for its high tides, wineries, and Acadian history. It may be a small town with just over 6,000 people, but it’s big on innovation and helping businesses to be successful.

From 2016 to 2022, 22 new businesses opened in Kentville — many locally owned. That can be chalked up to many factors, including Kentville’s proximity to Halifax (about an hour away), convenient highway access, a welcoming community, and an experienced workforce. Support is multi-faceted for new businesses, coming from numerous organizations and the municipal government. They help set the stage for success with one of the lowest commercial rates in Nova Scotia, lower property taxes, and a full slate of services.

There are ample opportunities to take advantage of what’s available to help businesses, especially small ones, thrive, such as a façade improvement program from the Kentville Business Community, which will match investments up to $5,000. Initiatives such as this attract start-ups seeking a conducive environment for entrepreneurs and the self-employed.

Find out why the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has ranked Kentville as the seventh best place in the country to start a new business.

Visit kentville.ca/ about/opening -a-business to learn more about how the Town of Kentville is supporting its community.

How One CanadianBased E-commerce Saas Shoplazza is Giving Small Businesses a Competitive Advantage

Ken Donohue

Small- and medium-sized businesses are critical to a vibrant economy, especially as we transition to a post-pandemic world. But many don’t have the e-commerce skills and resources to grow globally. That’s where the power of Shoplazza comes in.

They have years of borderless e-commerce and technological know-how, and its suite of solutions are focused on providing direct-to-customer e-commerce for merchants worldwide. They have partnered with many of the world’s tech giants, including Facebook, Paypal, and Google to help businesses capitalize on this integrated expertise and provide one-stop solutions.

Want to know how powerful selling and marketing tools can scale your business? Shoplazza has the answer. They can also support you with a payments system that will give customers across the world the ability to pay with what they are familiar with. Selling in multiple currencies is seamless. And so are Shoplazza’s fulfillment and shipping services that let you get your product out the door and into the hands of customers.

You’re not alone, because a stable of global developers and partners are with you every step. And the Shoplazza Partner Program is a simple way for you to connect with the more than 360,000 online stores worldwide who are already powered by Shoplazza.

To discover the true meaning of the phrase “jack of all trades,” find a local small business owner and ask what they did today. On top of spearheading their company’s operations, they probably handle what would otherwise fall to accounting and human resource departments in a larger organization, like keeping track of payroll — and the shifting web of regulatory requirements that comes with it — and managing an endless patchwork of employee schedules, absences, and benefits. “Keeping up to date with changing payroll legislation and labour laws can be a job in itself,” says Jeff Zielinski, Client Experience Consultant at the HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions provider Payworks. “And while most small businesses are experts in their trade or craft, they usually aren’t experts in payroll.”

A business owner can only juggle these tasks for so long before hitting the proverbial wall. Delegating isn’t a cop-out: it's sustainable business practice. That’s where a third-party solution like Payworks comes in.

Take efficiency to the next level with smart data integration

A small business differs from a large one in many respects, but when it comes to workforce management, they tend to face similar challenges. For businesses that haven’t made the leap into automation, data about employee

work schedules, time off, benefits, and payroll tends to live on disconnected spreadsheets. Integrating all this information to make sure employees are paid on time — and in accordance with provincial regulations — can be a major time sink. And as any small business owner will tell you, time is their scarcest resource.

“Whether you are a small business or a large business, in Canada there are provincial labour standards dictating that all employees are entitled to vacation pay as well as time off,” says Steve Bestvater, a Product Manager at Payworks. “Our Time and Absence Management solutions are built on the same data as our payroll offering. The collection of that data makes it instantly available for payroll, so employees can be paid accurately and on-time.”

A dedicated customer service representative for every business

Have you ever called a company to resolve an issue, only to be passed back and forth between anonymous customer service representatives, wasting valuable time reciting your question to each of them? When small business customers at Payworks need help navigating the service, they know exactly who to call. “Once clients have completed the onboarding process, they are provided a dedicated Customer Service Representative from our Canadian national service team,”

says Jeff Zielinski, a Client Experience Consultant at Payworks. “This gives our clients confidence that we know their payroll, and they know exactly who to get in touch with if they have questions or concerns.”

Identifying and going after specific goals is part of any business’s success story. In that spirit, Payworks’ customer experience representatives always ask new clients what they hope to accomplish by signing up with the service. “To date, new clients have stated that we’ve achieved 90 percent of their goals, validating that they made the right decision in signing up with Payworks,” says Zielinski. Zeroing in on well-defined goals is also an integral part of customizing the service, so you never end up paying for what you don’t need. After all, enlisting a third party to help manage your workforce should make your business more efficient — not introduce redundancies.

“We take the approach that one size does not fit all,” says Cassie Hamer, Sales Consultant at Payworks. “While our payroll solution is our core offering, the rest of our suite of workforce management solutions are available ‘a la carte’ so business owners can utilize the tools best suited for their needs.

This model allows Payworks to grow and adapt with our clients.They might start with a less complex solution; as their organization grows and changes they can add further functionality.”

With shoplazza.com turn your smallor medium-sized business into a global e-commerce leader.

Start-up companies and entrepreneurs are discovering a town offering community support and special programs for setting them up for success.

Lindsay Young Economic Development Coordinator, Town of Kentville

Veronica Stephenson

Steve Bestvater Product Manager, Payworks

Jeff Zielinski Client Experience Consultant, Payworks

Cassie Hamer Sales Consultant, Payworks

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHOPLAZZA

PHOTO COURTESY

Staples and Joe Mimran Bring Stylish and Ergonomic Options to Hybrid Work Solutions

One of the most important things we’ve learned from the last two years of working remotely is that a beautiful workspace can help keep you motivated, organized and even inspired.

Style and design are important to Canadians when designing their home workspaces,” explains John DeFranco, Chief Commercial Officer, Staples Canada. “Products and accessories that are found in a traditional office didn’t necessarily suit their home décor and enable their personal productivity.”

That’s what sparked the partnership between Staples and iconic Canadian fashion designer Joe Mimran, founder of Joe Fresh and Club Monaco, and a dragon on three seasons of CBC’s Dragon’s Den. Mimran joined forces with Staples to create Gry Mattr, which serves stylish products for home offices, such as workspaces furniture, modern and retro style blue light glasses, sleek wireless charging pads and beautiful carafes. The partnership has helped Staples launch hundreds of new and innovative products to support customers in the transition to hybrid work.

“We saw an opening in the market for slightly more sophisticated design concepts,” says Mimran.

Ergonomic solutions for your well-being With more time spent in front of our screens, Canadians are now turning their attention to health and wellness. Increasingly,

Canadians are looking to integrate more ergonomic options into their workspaces.

Recognizing the need for a stylish and ergonomic work chair, Staples and Mimran recently announced their newest collaboration. The airCentric 3™ is a thoughtfully-designed chair made with high-quality materials. Developed with ergoCentric, North America’s premier manufacturer of highquality ergonomic seating, it offers backrest and lumbar support that mirrors the natural curves of your spine. The armrests have height, width, and 360° swivel adjustment features, so you can type, text and read in comfort.

“The airCentric 3™ brings together all the features our customers have been looking for, and combines them with the latest science from leading ergonomists to introduce what we believe is Canada’s best ergonomic chair in its price category,” says DeFranco.

The chair can be custom fitted to your needs as a result of high-level engineering. With three size options, proprietary air-flow technology and patented adjustment features, the airCentric 3™ enables you to sit in your ideal posture.

“When you’re in a chair that is that comfortable and fitted for you, you feel better and think better — you’re more productive,” Mimran adds.

The future of work Mimran is part of the Staples Work From Anywhere Advisory Council, which brings together experts in areas like wellness, pro -

ductivity, ergonomics, design, behavioural science to create solutions for the future of work.

“As The Working and Learning Company, we have a responsibility to customers to help them through the new ways of working,” says DeFranco. “We created the Work From Anywhere Advisory Council to ensure we were thinking holistically about solutions to support our customers.”

DeFranco says that the Work From Anywhere Advisory Council has been instrumental in new product development, as well as ensuring Staples is delivering the right type of content and education to its customers.

The airCentric 3™ is Made in Canada and will be available for $599 exclusively at 300+ Staples stores in Canada, and online at staples.ca starting March 30th

Visit staples.ca/ workfromanywhere for more information.

When you’re in a chair that is that comfortable and fitted for you, you feel better and think better — you’re more productive.

Melissa Vekil

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STAPLES

Joe Mimran Founder, Joe Fresh & Club Monaco

This article was sponsored by Staples Canada

Sustainable Growth Through the Efficiency of Smart Tech

In business, growing pains are real. Every company wants to expand their reach and grow their revenues, but when it comes time to scale-up, the ways of doing business that worked well at one size can quickly become restrictive, limiting, and untenable as ambitions heighten and horizons broaden. It is a challenge that businesses of every size must continually overcome, because the only alternative to growth is stagnation and bloat. But the natural predators of stagnation and bloat are efficiency and agility. And there’s one unobtrusive piece of new tech that’s driving efficiency and enabling agility in astonishing ways across Canada.

John Ricci has spent thirty years in the retail industry, watching businesses struggle to grow in the face of inefficiencies and labour-intensive processes. A diligent student of details, he found inspiration and opportunity in a seemingly innocuous, but quite universal, pain point: labelling. As the founder and CEO of Danavation Technologies Corp, today Ricci helps businesses of all sizes and stripes streamline and modernize their labelling with Digital Smart Labels™. And the follow-on effects of that targeted change are far-reaching and surprising. Surprising, at least, to everyone but Ricci.

“Dealing with labels is a time-consuming task, and you have all these really smart people who could be doing a lot more with their time to help the business grow,” explains Ricci. “Especially with the labour shortages, it’s archaic to still have staff spending hours sticking labels, worrying about printers and ink, and dealing with file management. Putting a Digital Smart Labels™ system in your store provides you a clean and efficient method of maintaining a good pricing strategy, staying competitive, and showing your customers that you mean business.”

No business is an island Business success is very much a social endeavour. Responsible and sustainable growth, after all, is built on an understanding with the customers and the community that your growth benefits them as well. With Digital Smart Labels™, companies are providing value to their patrons, easing shopping journeys and ensuring that pricing is fair, and

engagement is high. And, even as the technology saves on labour and operational costs, it is also reducing waste and lowering the carbon footprint of the business. “Our three wins are operational efficiencies, customer engagement, and sustainability,” says Ricci.

People notice these things.

As with any technology, of course, the impact of Digital Smart Labels™ lives and dies by ease-of-use. That’s why Danavation is so dedicated to ensuring that the product is as simple as possible, designed to seamlessly integrate with existing point-of-sale solutions straight out of the box. It’s a do-it-yourself set-up even the least tech-savvy can be comfortable with. But critically, that doesn’t mean you have to go it on your own.

“We’re selling a tech system, and that means being flexible and being available to support our customers 24/7,” says Ricci.

if the product can do something novel, the answer is never ‘no.’ It’s ‘leave that with me and we’ll see what we can figure out.’

Therein, perhaps, lies Danavation’s greatest strength. For all that they are helping other Canadian businesses grow sustainably through the power of engagement and agility, those are also qualities they hold dear in their own operations. The Canadian business landscape is their home, and they want to see it flourish. They see the changes in how the Canadian retail environment operates, and they see those same transformations echoing through industries like hospitality and healthcare. And every time there’s a new business problem that Digital Smart Labels™ could address, Danavation looks for ways to level up their tech to solve it. Because they know that the best solution to Canadian challenges is Canadian innovation.

“We’re always listening and looking at the pain points that are brought to us by our customers. We’re really good at collaborating with retailers and helping them figure things out, whether it’s a problem we can fix right away, or a challenge that we can help them make a plan for. One of our biggest advantages is the way we can work with our customers to get them their wish lists.”

Canadian businesses grow together Ricci loves hearing about new business scenarios where Digital Smart Labels™ can help. More often than not, the technology is already up to the task. But, even in the most unusual applications, when Ricci gets asked

“We’re a Canadian company, grounded and founded in North America, and we design and engineer our own software and hardware in-house,” says Ricci. “We have our own OEM manufacturing facilities so we can control all aspects of our product. And when you deal with us, we give you one thing that no one else can give you: home field advantage.”

Growing sustainably is never easy, but it becomes a lot more achievable with homegrown innovation in your court. Canadian businesses are resilient and adaptable,

Labels™

and technologies like Digital Smart

open up brand new horizons of growth as we all evolve into the business landscape of tomorrow.

To connect with agile and sustainable growth, visit danavation.com/ contact for a consultation.

John Ricci Founder & CEO, Danavation

Growing sustainably is never easy, but it becomes a lot more achievable with home-grown innovation in your court.

Danavation Technologies is laser-focused on tech solutions to the hidden inefficiencies that hold North American businesses back. Their Digital Smart Labels™ are empowering businesses to work smarter and more efficiently, facilitating sustainable growth.

D.F. McCourt

This article was sponsored by Danavation Technologies Corp