Disruption & Creating the Conditions for Small Business Sustainability & Success in Atlantic Canada

My friend Rivers Corbett shared a good article in Forbes today by its senior editor, Jack Kelly, who talks about the unintended consequences of the $15/hr minimum wage (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/07/10/the-unintended-consequences-of-the-15-minimum-wage/#529fd485e4a7). In response, Rivers made the comment that “we need to understand the double edge of this contentious issue” and that “we must also protect the entrepreneur.”

I agree and would include small business broadly in this regard. We must be sure we balance appropriately the socio-economic conditions being implemented—for today and for the future.

Particularly in Atlantic Canada, where roughly 98% of the 78,000 businesses operating here are small (with <100 employees) and who account for 75% of our region’s employment. The large companies that used to dominate our economy, now only comprise about 2% of business located here.

Interestingly, I saw a presentation on the new Amazon Go concept stores last year, and as with the advent of online shopping, it is unlikely that self-check outs as we know them today, let alone ones with cashiers, will exist in the years to come.

It seems strange to imagine because one of my first jobs was as a grocery store cashier where I learned a great deal about handling cash and customer service. But today very few people pay with actual ‘money,’ so the requirement for that skillset has certainly changed. In truth, I like using the self-checkouts most days because its usually quicker than traditional checkouts (and I like how I pack the bags because my bread stays intact).

Everything around us is changing, from the way we work to the way we conduct our daily lives. The Internet changed this for us irrevocably nearly 30 years ago as we integrated home and office computers into our daily routines—likely in much the same way things changed for our ancestors when they began buying the first cars a century ago. Probably not an easy transition at the time, but one that sealed the fate of many small businesses who are now simply ink on the pages of our history.

The infographic by AdWeek in this recent article (https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/era-of-disruption-means-for-your-business-infographic) aptly captures the scope and scale of change coming from new technology. As author Dan Baum contends, we’re amid another major ‘Era of Disruption’ that will require more than half of the workforce to learn new skills and companies to invest in new innovations and technologies just to keep pace and their doors open.

I guess its true, the only thing constant is change. 

And with 98% of our businesses being small—a trend that will only continue in Atlantic Canada—the question becomes how do we best support them and help them scale up operations to ensure continued and growing employment for our region?

It will require a concerted, collective effort—from our governments and communities to ensure optimal economic conditions, and from our people, businesses and education systems to ensure continuous learning and new skills adoption to maintain full employment.

The rest, as they say, will be history.