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Canadian Fiscal Policy – Issues and Options Canadian Defence Policy – Issues and Options Accountability of Canada’s Governing Institutions – Issues and Options University of Guelph-Humber Course: Ethics & Values in Business (BADM2050), Winter 2004 Semester

Week 4: Raw Realities and Hard Costs: Justice and the Corporation
Lecture Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Goodbye Canada?, Paul Kemp (Breakout Educational Network - Dundurn Press, 2003) pp. 22-25

PAUL:
Mike Okincha was one of my first interviewees and I conducted several in-depth interviews with him over an eight-month period. Two of these interviews were on camera for the television show— one of them in Oakville, Ont., his hometown, the other in Sunnyvale, Calif., in Silicon Valley, his new home. I even tracked Mike to Pearson Airport in Toronto to witness him saying goodbye to his family, his girlfriend, and Canada, perhaps for good.

> MIKE OKINCHA, graduate

When I started to think about a career, I realized, if I were a star performer in a Canadian company, I would only get paid the same as the mediocre performers in exactly the same job. So everybody with the same job designation would be paid within a narrow band. It would not be important how well or how poorly I performed, I would get paid based on where I ranked in the company.

Therefore, if I were going to be paid for being a star performer, I would have to go to the United States to be rewarded. If I stayed in Canada, I would be recognized as a good employee but the financial rewards and potential for advancement would not be there. Even if I did not want to be advanced, I would not be rewarded for doing a job well. The only incentive that Canadian companies offer is to try and move you up into management or into a higher rank. Sometimes that is not your career path.

I want to go for the gusto. I want to build companies that are stellar performers, I want to be at the leading edge of things, I want to be where the action is. Whether I do that in Canada or in the U.S., does not matter. I am going to go wherever it is geographically the easiest to achieve those goals.

The education I received was fantastic. I spoke to people at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and students at Harvard University and major schools all over the world, and Canadian students were at least as good, if not better in some respects, than just about every other school. My education was excellent and that was one of the biggest attractions for the people in the United States.

From a business perspective, I have managed to pay a very low price for my education. Taxpayers and everyone I know would argue that I have been subsidized by their money, and that is one of the unfortunate features of the system. Now, I have a motivated self-interest to make the best use of my education.

If I can do that in Canada, then I stay in Canada. If there is a better place, then I will look at going there as an option. The fact that I received this subsidized education really does not influence me a whole lot. I did not choose to have that subsidy; I was born into the system and because I have made use of it, I do not think I should be penalized or held responsible for taking advantage of what already exists.

Everywhere, there is a demand for people of quality and for people with good skills. That demand does not stop at any national border, nor at any sea border. It is worldwide. People want to make the most of their skills. We want to earn the highest salaries and get the best opportunities. If we can do that somewhere other than Canada, then there are no barriers preventing us from leaving.

PAUL:
Mike was a unique person to contact for several reasons. First of all, he was a 24-year old graduate from the University of Waterloo’s esteemed Engineering program, and held a Masters of Business Administration degree from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University. In other words, he was a very heavily educated Canadian. Not only was Mike educated, he was also incredibly entrepreneurial. When I stated I wanted to look into some of the reasons Silicon Valley was so appealing and why it had become so successful in helping finance upstart companies, Mike was immediately interested in the potential financiers and venture capitalists I may have contacted. Clearly he had his own plans for some sort of venture in the future. In fact, throughout university, Mike had operated his own computer consulting company and employed up to five people. He had closed the company down to accept his new job in San Jose.

Despite his young age, Mike was reflective about his choice to go south to work in the digital optics field with a cutting-edge technology company. The tech boom in the U.S. was taking off and Mike wanted to be part of it. What interested me most were the reasons he was going. He opened my eyes as to why Canada was losing people like him because of some of the inherent difficulties in this country’s corporate culture.

> MIKE OKINCHA, graduate

One of my problems here was finding mentors, people that I could develop my skills by working with. These people are even in greater demand than me and so they are leaving faster. As the number of people that I can really learn anything from are diminishing, I have no choice. Either I stay here and become stagnant and stale in my own skills, or I move to wherever the experts are and try and learn from them.

Canada has not developed a large number of leading-edge, technological companies and those that do come here find the environment more hostile than in the United States.

Canada is a bit of a desert in a bureaucracy in that sense, if you want to look at it in an ecosystem kind of way. There are many companies with divisions all over the world and major technological companies come to Canada to try to start a division here. They find the tax system is difficult and it is hard to find qualified or particularly talented people. They find a whole series of hostile environmental factors that act as a disincentive for them to stay.

Canadian companies are big on pay equity and on equal treatment and equal opportunity. I realized that a person in a particular job would be paid the same as everyone else in that same job regardless of whether they were a mediocre performer or a particularly stellar employer or particularly stellar employee.

I am really not sure what Canada could do to keep me. I am looking for a place where I can be recognized for my skills and for my drive and ambition and my abilities. I am also looking for people with the skills and abilities to be a mentor to me and help me develop my own abilities to a higher level. I do not think I would find that in Canada.

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