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Over the next five years, Canadian businesses that are not digitally intensive are projected to lose 46% in foregone annual revenue.
Data like this can be found in the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship’s newly released report, Picking up Speed: Digital Maturity in Canadian SMEs and Why Increasing it Matters, which was created with support from Xero, a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses.

Canadian SMEs still significantly lag behind larger firms in foundational technologies, such as social media use and e-commerce, and not enough small businesses are taking advantage of the internet to make sales. Building on the Board’s extensive network of business support and training programs, this report is another critical tool for Ontario’s business owners and policymakers who are not only looking to weather the pandemic but to emerge from it even stronger than before.
We recently got the chance to speak with Faye Pang, Canada Country Manager for Xero. Faye brings nearly 15 years of experience building businesses from the ground up. As a leader, Faye prioritizes growth above all else and practises authenticity, transparency, and empathy in the way she manages her team. She strongly believes that we all have a set of values that we have to live by at all times (rather than keeping our work and personal lives separate), and keeps this consideration top-of-mind when championing her team’s growth, both personally and professionally. She is passionate about creating systems that lift women up while tackling the hierarchical barriers that have disproportionately affected women in the workplace.
In this podcast, Faye discusses why SMEs need to digitize and how initiatives like the Board’s Recovery Activation Program (RAP) can help them in doing so.