In sports, teams sometimes take on new names, colours and uniforms to draw attendance and boost revenue.
This past off-season, the Toronto Blue Jays paid homage to their teams of the early ‘90s by reverting back to a vintage-inspired logo and colour scheme.
These business-related moves seldom translate to success and, almost always, the teams that spend money on improving the product on the field, court or rink see the best results.
Recently, Ottawa’s headquarters for high-tech nurturing and development did both.
The city rebranded the Ottawa Centre for Regional Innovation (OCRI) as Invest Ottawa. The centre – said to be the flagship of Mayor Jim Watson’s $5.5-million commitment to economic development – was also given more money with the goal of making the nation’s capital the best place in Canada to start and grow a knowledge-based business.
While the name change and reconstructed mandate will draw attention to the centre, it will take more than a name to entice venture capitalists to invest in the city’s businesses.
Invest Ottawa stands to benefit more from its increased funding and the resulting resources than a new image.
Although the centre is heralding a brand-new mandate, the new initiatives sound awfully familiar.
The most obvious change is the name, which is more concise and addresses the task at hand. This strategy has been tried before. The name change is the second in as many years, after the organization made the slight change from the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation. Evidently, that banner didn't cut it. It would be shocking if investors obeyed the punchier and more directive name.
Another change is the centre’s mandate, which is aimed at training the city’s entrepreneurs and attracting business in key sectors.
The website does a poor job of explaining how Invest Ottawa differs from OCRI. It mentions that the centre’s top three priorities are entrepreneurial development, foreign direct investment and business retention and expansion.
The centre’s website points out that, as OCRI, the organization modified its mandate several times. Even though the new mandate has a broader entrepreneurial focus, Invest Ottawa’s fundamental goals seem very similar to OCRI’s. The fostering of business growth and innovation still remains the overarching focus.
The organization’s initial goal was to connect Ottawa schools with the city’s blossoming high-tech sector. Invest Ottawa’s new mandate aims to “work closely with students at Ottawa universities and colleges to encourage them to stay in Ottawa to start their own companies or discover job opportunities at existing companies.” It sounds like Invest Ottawa is going back to the future.
One of the mandate’s wrinkles that might spark some economic diversification is a new initiative to grow non-traditional Ottawa sectors like digital media, green energy film and TV.
Ottawa’s high-tech sector has been in its twilight for the better part of a decade. A push to branch out into other sectors seems behind schedule. However, it is the most innovative modification to the mandate, and is the kind of expansion that could spark some fresh interest in the business community.
Hopefully, investors will take notice and recognize Ottawa’s diversified economy and high quality of life.
But if they do, it won’t be because of another new name or overdue mandate, it will be because the city has done some savvy investing in itself.