Bill Tam joined the ECE Advisory Council recently. He is the President & CEO of the BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) and has been guiding the success of entrepreneurial companies for over 20 years. Bill spoke to ECE about the BC’s technology ecosystem and the role post secondary institutions can play in helping that ecosystem thrive.
What would you like to contribute to ECE’s Advisory Council?
It’s a privilege to lead the BCTIA and my hope is to further the connections between tech companies in BC and the vast talent, research and innovation capabilities that are indigenous to the ECE program. At BCTIA we believe in an ecosystem approach to everything we do. Working together with ECE@UBC will undoubtedly accelerate the growth of our industry and at the same time further the goals of ECE in forging industry partnerships and research capacity to solidify its position as one of the leading institutions in the world.
What can UBC do to help companies startup and thrive?
UBC, and other post-secondary institutions, play a pivotal role in the overall technology ecosystem. Education and research institutions foster new ideas that are the centerpiece around which new companies are formed. In BC we celebrate our vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. We have more start-ups per capita than anywhere else in Canada. I think that is a function of new ideas that are often generated in university settings.
As ideas start to get commercialized and companies start to form, the university plays a few different roles. It needs to continue to feed the ecosystem with talent – people who understand what it takes to help support the growth of these companies – and this talent is graduating from the diverse disciplines and programs within the university environment. The other important aspect is the ongoing collaborations that need to happen as companies continue to grow, to continue to have an opportunity to reach back into the university setting and work with researcher scientists that have expertise in various disciplines. This ensures that growing companies have access to the latest technologies and discoveries; the things that may ultimately affect the path of the products that they are building.
What would you like to achieve during your tenure at BCTIA?
BC has seen the tech industry grow from about a 4 billion dollar industry to a 20 billion dollar industry over the last 20 years; a 5 fold increase. What we’re looking to see is growth that is twice that rate. BC is now at the point that we’ve got most elements of the ecosystem needed to support technology startups as they grow into sustainable, large scale companies. We are in a position to actually grow more substantive anchor companies and to grow across the whole spectrum. So instead of seeing 6-7% growth, we’ll see closer to 10-12% annualized growth. And instead of a handful of anchor companies, we should see hundreds of anchor companies.And instead of 20 billion in revenue, we should see 100 billion in revenue. We often talk about the middle class gap, if we do all these things right, that will fill itself. We will have a whole bunch of companies that will be the emerging stars of the future, instead of having 3% of companies being midsized or larger, we’ll be 10% of companies being midsized or larger. And we’ll move from a second-tier technology jurisdiction to a first tier one. That is what success looks like.
What advice would you give to our undergraduate students?
Dare to dream. That is actually how I found myself in the entrepreneurial game. You often find, as an engineer, the opportunity to question why things are done and how they work. So engineers sit at that point where they can look at things that are assumed to be the way they are for a reason – and they can reinvent them. If they dare to dream, in some cases it’ll make a difference with the company that they work for, in other cases it will revolutionize the industry that they choose to be a part of.
For students, as they look for employment opportunities, either in a co-op term or post-graduate work, there aren’t the same number of large-sized technology employers in BC, compared to some other technology centers such as Ontario or Silicon Valley. As a consequence, a good proportion of students motivated to do something interesting, will seek to
do it within startups or, emerging companies. This creates a challenge for researchers and post-graduate students because it’s not quite as easy as it can be in other places. In Ontario you have IBM, Nortel, and Blackberry, and others. These companies actively recruit; they will come to the university door, all you have to do is apply. In BC, you have to lace up your boots, and get out, you have to meet the community, and discover the opportunities that are right for you. I would encourage everyone in the ECE program that is the key to success if you’re going to make it in a big way in BC.
BCTIA recently introduced student memberships because we want to emphasize that students can participate in the kinds of events we host. We try to make events for students as inexpensive as possible, recognizing the financial constraints that they have. Our events provide the perfect avenue for students to start to network with companies that are either startups or in the emerging state.
We have an event called TechBrew, we do that several times a year. It’s a mixer of three or four hundred professionals. Obviously aptly named for the fact that beer is the theme. It’ll be a great chance for students that are thinking about what their career options might be if they are graduating in the upcoming Spring, or those that are seeking next co-op terms. It’s a chance to meet a lot of the companies and the people in the tech community.
Find out more about the BC technology ecosystem
Startup Ecosystem Report 2012, Compass
BC Technology Reportcard 2012, KPMG
Startups Present and Future, 2012, CIBC