Last year, I worked on an #economicdevelopment #cooperative concept for #yyc, #ab but stopped due to time constraints. Now, here’s the open proposal:
How might we supercharge Calgary’s 50k+ small businesses? I imagine a multi-stakeholder, scalable, business intelligence consulting platform co-op. It would support small business while providing pathways for knowledge workers who have been laid-off, under-employed newcomers, & students to re/upskill through apprenticeship.
It builds on economic gardening: an entrepreneurial #ecdev practice about sharing strategic information through business research & geographic information systems (GIS). It is fairly popular in the US, but rarer in Canada.
Our globally-networked co-op would grow the pool of practically experienced entre/intrapreneurs while improving the prospects of small-and-medium-sized-enterprises (SMEs) – individually and sectorally – through strategy, digital transformation and open foresight.
Imagine the possibilities if thousands of small-business members had the next three, evidence-driven, strategic things they could do to expand! The cooperative could also generate & tend to a crowdsourced database, or atlas, of open innovation: a treasure map of entrepreneurial discovery, such as import replacement opportunities.
ESRI Article on Economic Gardening
Atlas of Economic Complexity for Canada
Centre for Local Prosperity (NS) report on import replacement (2018)
geoff evamy hill 