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A “lighthouse firm” by the McKinsey definition is not necessarily a monopoly— it is a leader in adoption of higher productivity technologies at scale. They are world leaders in automation, AI adoption, etc. The advantage is that they create an eco-system around them that drives other firms in geographical or sector proximity forward.

Unfortunately, in NB, our only lighthouse firms are the ones everyone loves to hate. We have a culture problem in the NB business world and it permeates everything. We think big=bad. You nailed it with the observation that we romanticize small biz. It’s holding us back. We can’t treat big successful firms with suspicion. We need to learn how to leverage their success, technologies, networks and supply chains to make other big biz. Culture change needs to happen, particularly in the civil service and economic development arms of the province.

This was a good book; https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/business/dealbook/review-big-is-beautiful-questions-the-virtues-of-small-business.amp.html

~Mara Mallory

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