Jim Balsillie powerfully makes the urgent case that Canada must join the race to control the IP and data that drive the creation of wealth in a world were intangible assets dominate all others. Canada has all the elements that could enable world-beating success, but our economy continues to be built on the assumption that tangible assets will win the day. They won’t. Consider this one extract from Balsillie’s OpEd: “IP and data are not inputs available in the market — they are protected, intangible assets. Productivity gains in this economy don’t come from buying value-added technology from others, they come from generating, and crucially owning, valuable IP that generates new and high-margin revenues. Buying more data servers does not make your company a competitor to Google nor does investing in advanced equipment to create a vaccine give you a right to produce the vaccine.” Ownership and control over intangible assets is crucial to wealth creation in the world we now live in. The good news? We can do this and only non-monetary changes are needed. We have the pieces, we have the ability, we just need to realize that the global rules of the wealth-creation game have completely and utterly changed while Canada still determinedly play by the rules that worked for our parents and grandparents. Our Senate Banking Committee examined this issue a year ago, and published a report in June 2023 called “Needed: An Innovation Strategy for the Data-Driven Economy”: lnkd.in/eyHPydDb I encourage you to read it, but first read Balsillie’s OpEd. #IPMatters #FTOMatters #IP #DataMatters #Data #IntangibleAssets