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We must encourage more entrepreneurship and innovation: Vancity CEO

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Tamara Vrooman is the president and CEO of Vancity.

Interviewed by Monica Pohlmann.

PohlmannWhat has shaped your perspective?

Vrooman: I started out as a public servant, mostly because I was interested in how decisions and laws were made, and why some were made in what appeared to be the favour of certain sectors and not others. I learned that finance is at the heart of many decisions. How we allocate capital is one of the biggest single determinants of the future that we create. Loaning money to a local entrepreneur is quite different from loaning it to a multinational corporation—the two things have different consequences. So my work became focused on understanding how we can make our individual and collective financial decisions more aligned with our personal and national values.

PohlmannWhat keeps you up at night?

Vrooman: We’re becoming passive and run the risk of taking for granted the many things that have made Canada the tolerant, open, diverse, and welcoming society that we’re privileged to live in. Our greatness didn’t happen by accident. If we don’t work at it enough, we are at risk of diminishing and losing it. Then what kind of country will we leave for our children and our grandchildren?

We have a tradition of working together, talking about things, and being tolerant of different opinions. But we don’t see a lot of that anymore. Debates are becoming polarized and institutional rather than engaged and personal. There aren’t opportunities for individual voices to be cultivated and nourished. I worry that in our race to get things right, to be competitive, to be efficient, we’re making decisions that are not inclusive, are short-term, and don’t benefit from the perspectives of many. It may feel like we are making a decision and getting on with things, but ultimately, we will regret not including the many voices, because we won’t have made the best decisions. In the end, then, this approach will slow us down and will cost us money, time, social capital, and natural capital. We need to go back to our tradition of engaging, consulting, debating, listening, and reflecting.

I am concerned about the economy. Just as we know that healthy workplaces and healthy ecosystems are diverse, a healthy economy needs diversity as well. I don’t see enough focus on contributing to economic value by embracing different ways of thinking and operating. We’re not encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation like we need to.

PohlmannWhat energizes you about Canada?

Vrooman: Relatively speaking, we’re a very diverse nation and society. That contributes tremendously to our strength and our ability to see things differently and create a different future. In Vancouver, 75% of young people 17 and under have a parent who’s not from this country. That brings a tremendous sense of renewal, energy, tolerance, and creativity for what’s possible.

I’m energized by the fact that we’re starting to have a long overdue conversation of reconciliation with indigenous and aboriginal people. Non-indigenous people are only beginning to understand what a gift it is to share a country with indigenous people, who have lots to teach us. The wisdom of indigenous people is a tremendous part of our history as well as our future. I’m just so impressed with how the reconciliation effort is being taken up across the country.

PohlmannWhat are important lessons from the past that you think we should be reflecting on as we move ahead?

Vrooman: It’s hard to judge the actions of others who operated in a different context, but in retrospect, when things have not gone well, it is because we failed to listen to, understand, and collaborate with others. The residential schools are an example. Aside from the obvious racism and personal suffering for which we’re responsible, we missed out on a whole generation of opportunity to learn and grow together. It was a huge loss of human capital, of human potential.

PohlmannWhat do you aspire to contribute through your work?

Vrooman: It’s hard to have political democracy and engagement if we don’t have economic democracy and engagement. The work I do is about making sure that people have access to information and support so they can make informed decisions. We’re also looking for ways to include more people in the economy and in the finance system—people who may not have access to bank accounts and things that you or I would take for granted. We’re increasingly hearing about income inequality. To think that economic democracy and income inequality are unrelated would be like saying that the right to vote and use of universal suffrage were unrelated. Of course they’re related.

— This article was originally published by the initiative.

 

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