How We Can Win

And What Happens to Us and Our Country If We Don't

By: Anthony Lacavera, Kate Fillion

Narrated by: John Cleland

Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Our kids are smart, our banks are sound, our health care system is humane, our democracy is stable - but technological change is about to disrupt our economy and threaten our way of life. Canadians aren't ready for the race to the future. Can we still catch up - or even win?

Yes, says Anthony Lacavera, one of Canada's most successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. But we need to change the way we think and talk about our own abilities - dream bigger, aim higher, and go for gold, not bronze. We also need to change the way we do business. Our dominant business culture, Lacavera believes, is fundamentally unCanadian: traditional, backward-looking, insular, timid, greedy, unoriginal - everything that Canadians themselves are not. And that unCanadian business culture, protected by outmoded regulations and government policies, is stifling our economic growth. It dumps roadblocks in the paths of entrepreneurs who want to build the kind of powerhouse businesses that will create jobs and fuel our economy.

Anthony Lacavera faced those roadblocks himself when he was building WIND - an epic battle against the big three telecommunications giants in Canada. But he's certain we have the talent and the brains to tear those roadblocks down. He gives us vivid portraits of some of Canada's most important natural resources: our talented, innovative entrepreneurs, who want to change the world for the better (and, yes, make money while they're at it). But we are shipping far too many of them to the United States, gift-wrapped in our tax dollars. They don't want to leave - they're forced out because it's just too difficult to build big, bold businesses in Canada.

How We Can Win explains what we need to do to keep them here and what all Canadians must do to ensure our future prosperity. Our biggest problem is not that we are a small country but that we think too small.

We can be a nation of big dreamers and bigger doers. Not by aping Silicon Valley but by focusing on uniquely Canadian strengths and then doubling down on them. If we bet aggressively on ourselves and our future rather than clinging to the status quo, we will create a new, more solid economic foundation - one that allows us to win the race to the future without leaving home.

©2017 Anthony Lacavera and Kate Fillion (P)2017 Penguin Random House Canada

Critic reviews

"A breath of fresh northern air that has cleared my view of the future - and what we need to change to succeed together." (Chris Hadfield)

" How We Can Win delivers an urgent message: we don't have the luxury of waiting to sort things out. The world economy is evolving quickly and Canada needs to catch up in the ways this book so beautifully demonstrates." (Ajay Agrawal, Peter Munk professor of entrepreneurship, Rotman School of Management)

wake up Canada!

Loved it, after listening to this compelling tale of Canada's woeful innovation record, I'm ready to be part of the solution! Really inspiring.

Very important book for Canadians!

Anthony Lacavera's analysis on entrepreneurship in Canada is excellent. He went through absolute hell with Wind Mobile, if Canadians weren't so submissive Wind could have withstood the onslaught from the big 3 mobile companies and would still be standing in a truly competitive environment. Anthony provided excellent examples of how we as Canadians can succeed on the world stage but it will take a total shift in mentality. My only drawback with this book is that I wish Anthony Lacavera himself did the audiobook narration.