Regulations will determine the Future of Businesses & Innovation

Over the past two decades, global capital markets, the emergence of a connected world and the growth of new consumer markets worldwide have given rise to massive global platform-based companies across multiple sectors.

Governments are stepping in to regulate global platforms who have exploited the lack of relevant regulation so far (like Uber and AirBnb), with local industry groups and lobbies rebelling to restrict their unlicensed and non-taxed profit making. Trump is pushing them to pay back an estimated $1.5 trillion held offshore, Europe is litigating against their monopolies, privacy policies and cost-free republishing of news, and China strengthening its firewalls and local data storage requirements.

The fragmentation of regulation likely implies the morphing of global companies themselves into new operating structures. We are entering an important time where the policy choices that we will make in the next few years will determine the geography of business and innovation more than the presence of technology and talent. And it will even determine the competitiveness of entire nations.

This video is a snippet from my keynote this week at the IIA Canada’s 2018 national conference in Montreal.