Here at inmedia, we regularly have the pleasure, challenge and reward of working with some phenomenal Ottawa companies where our assignment is generating the kind of media and analyst coverage that will move their business yardsticks in the global markets into which they sell.

At the same time, we all too regularly come across a deep-seated inferiority complex about the real ability of companies in this town to compete on the world stage.

This city is where inmedia was born and, notwithstanding that much of our business now comes from outside Ottawa, it’s where most of us live and it’s where we have the deepest community roots. We’re passionate about Ottawa and we care deeply that the technology sector in this city succeeds globally. So it is with the same trepidation that a parent feels about correcting a wayward child that I broach today’s difficult subject, around which I have developed a theorem. The theorem states:

“The likelihood that an Ottawa company will hire an Ottawa service provider to help it tackle its global markets is inversely proportional to the confidence it has in its own ability to actually tackle those markets.”

And there’s a corollary to my theorem:

“The likelihood that a prospective client will be sceptical about our ability to engage with global media and analysts declines exponentially the farther I travel from Ottawa.”

Maybe it’s not just an Ottawa thing, maybe it’s a Canadian thing. But it’s a worrisome thing. And here’s why.

An Ottawa technology company must export or whither on the vine. Such companies are turning to global markets and saying to their prospects, “I’d like you to put the wellbeing of your business in the hands of my small Ottawa company.” Then they turn to me and say, “There’s no way I’m putting the wellbeing of my business in the hands of your small Ottawa company.”

Talk about choking on your own dogfood.

Why does this happen?

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