The Walrus Talks - Banff - Dani Reiss

Good evening. My name is Dani Reiss and I am the president and CEO of Canada Goose. So honored to be here tonight with this great group of speakers, and thank you Shelley and The Walrus for the really tiny sixtieth anniversary video. In 1904, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier first boasted that the 20th century belongs to Canada. I think Mr. Laurier was right. The 20th century was indeed good to us. I think the 21st century can belong to us too. It's been said that we as Canadians struggle with identity. We're often joked about for being polite, apologetic, and nice, but we're also bold. We are pioneers and we are explorers. We're a country full of people who have pushed boundaries and who have overcome obstacles. Over the last 150 years, Canada has become a country that has created truly great things. We're a country that is revered around the world. Now, I'm obviously not an official ambassador of Canada for our country, but with the word Canada on my business card, I often feel like one. And what I've learned over the last 20 years of extensive travels around the world is that the world truly loves Canada and wants more of it. Over the last 60 years, Canada Goose, our company, has grown from a small company into a global brand. We've helped create a new category that many companies have since joined and validated, and we've done all of this while keeping production of our core products on Canadian soil. We own five factories and work with over 30 other manufacturing companies across the country. We employ close to 2,000 people and have established offices across Canada, the United States, Europe, and we export to 37 countries. I don't mention these things to be promotional, but rather as an example of what is possible for Canadian business. I believe that success stories like this are rare in Canada, and I'm not alone in this belief. I'm just one of many Canadian business leaders who believe that the world needs more Canadian success stories. All of us here tonight can make a difference in this. So where do we start? I would like to propose three things. Number one: we need to believe in ourselves. Canada needs to support Canada. There's no reason why more Canadian businesses can't achieve success in a global marketplace. However, what I've realized over the years is that as Canadians, we spend way too much time imagining failure and being afraid of it instead of imagining success. We focus on what could go wrong, on the doubts, on the possible downside, and we wait for someone else to validate our success before we believe in it ourselves. The result is we miss opportunities that are right in front of us—big opportunities that can play out on a global stage. Now, of course we need to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios, and of course we need to mitigate risk, but we also need to plan for the best-case scenario. We need to believe that we can be great. So what can we do about it? Our collective mission is to get excited about what we see Canadians accomplishing. Don't wait for someone else to do it first. Get behind Canadians with new ideas. Evangelize the amazing things that Canadians are accomplishing. We need to do whatever is in our power to help Canadians and Canadian businesses succeed. The world loves Canada, and we love Canada ourselves too. The second thing we can do to solidify our place in this century and the next is to invest in Canadian companies, gain products and Canadian jobs. Canadians are great at coming up with ideas, and there's no shortage of companies with innovative products and brands. They are often successful at the start, but somewhere along the way, their ideas are co-opted by other investors who have higher appetites for risk, who are way more willing to invest than we are. So we end up losing thought leadership in those categories. We need to start taking risks ourselves and invest in some of our best companies, especially ones outside of our historical wheelhouse. Canada is known, of course, as a resource-based economy, and it's a very strong one, but we need to invest in companies across all verticals, including ones that are outside and beyond our comfort zone. An example of this: I'm a big fan of the Canadian Business Growth Fund that was announced in March. It's created by leading banks and insurance companies, and the fund will invest in small and medium-sized Canadian companies to finance continued growth and enable them to scale their existing operations while allowing owners of these companies to maintain majority control, therefore keeping those companies in Canada. I love this initiative, and I believe it's the kind of thing we need to thrive in the next century. The bottom line is, if Canadians don't invest in our own businesses, other countries will, as they have, and they will benefit from our innovation. If we do invest, we'll continue to cultivate world-class talent and keep them here, and Canada will be known as the center for growth and innovation. We'll be in a place where great companies in all categories aren't just born but thrive for generations to come. And finally, I believe we need to leverage the brand of Canada. People around the world value Canada. That's a powerful brand that we don't export nearly enough. It's often disappointing for me when I see that some Canadian companies are actually afraid of admitting that they're from Canada. They'd rather people assume that they're American. Now, I'm not suggesting that everyone needs to put the name Canada in their name like Canada Goose does, but why go out of your way to hide it? I speak from experience. Being from Canada is an advantage. It can give our businesses a significant leg up in the global marketplace and send a strong signal of being innovative, stable, multicultural, and trustworthy. So as we celebrate this country's 150th birthday and continue building a better country in this century and the next, seize the opportunity to let our companies speak on your behalf. Canada is a great country. We have an enormous amount of opportunity in front of us, and it's ours for the taking if we believe in ourselves first, invest in our own ideas, and properly leverage the brand that we have built that the world admires. Canada will be absolutely unstoppable in the next century. Thank you very much.