Keynote Address at the Performance Excellence Summit and
Canada Awards for Excellence

His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., the Governor General of Canada, attended the 2012 Performance Excellence Summit and 28th Canada Awards for Excellence on November 2, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario. As patron of the Canada Awards for Excellence, his Excellency delivered a luncheon keynote address followed by a presentation of the Order of Excellence trophies to this year's award recipients.

His speech:

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Thank you for inviting me to join you for this celebration of excellence—I am delighted to be here.

As patron of the Canada Awards for Excellence, I am filled with pride to see so many talented and dedicated people gathered together in this room.

These awards are a truly wonderful way to recognize and encourage organizational excellence in Canada, so let me begin by thanking all those who have worked to make this event possible. As you know, one of my main responsibilities as governor general is likewise to celebrate excellence, so I understand the significance of this day.

These awards are symbolic of our desire and our ability to work together in common cause, and they highlight our dedication to continuous improvement. The Order of Excellence is comprised of Canada’s most economically, socially and environmentally responsible organizations, each of which has demonstrated a sustained commitment to innovation, to competitiveness, and to health and wellness.

What I find striking about these characteristics of leading organizations is how they resemble the features of the Canada we seek. Indeed, the seven organizations being honoured today are making strong, tangible contributions to the building of a smarter, more caring nation.

Today’s world presents immense challenges and opportunities for individuals, for organizations, and for entire nations. Our global society is defined by integration, by speed and by dynamism, thanks largely to the transformative communications revolution heralded by the rise of the Internet. We are at a major hinge point in our history.

We also know that the 21st century is being defined by a rising consciousness of the importance of relationships; and by a deepening realization that innovation and excellence are fundamentally about people.

To illustrate this point, let me recall the story of one remarkable organization in particular: Bell Labs, the research wing of American telecommunications giant AT&T.

Many people are today unfamiliar with the story of Bell Labs, but we are all intimately familiar with its legacy: the transistor, the integrated circuit, digital communications, the communications satellite, the cell phone.

It is a remarkable record of innovation that literally changed our world. Fast forward to today. What does Bell Labs say about the future of innovation?

According to Dr. Jeong Kim, the current president of Bell Labs, the future of innovation in communications lies in finding ways to manage the flood of information our technologies have unleashed. Our challenge, he says, is “to organize information in a way that allows you to live the way you want to live, to take time off with your kids without fear you’re going to miss out on something.”

What I find interesting about Dr. Kim’s comments is how they reveal the new focus on people that I mentioned earlier, specifically with regard to the need to balance quantity of information and quality of life. I think his remarks are a sign of our growing sense of the importance of paying attention to our wellness as we strive to innovate and excel in today’s competitive world.

All of which brings me back to the Canada Awards for Excellence. I would like to congratulate this organization, as well as those we honour today, for truly seeing things whole in the quest for excellence. You understand that smart and caring are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually reinforcing, and that we can’t have one without the other.

Your recently introduced standard—the award for Excellence, Wellness and Innovation—is a wonderful case in point. The future belongs to those organizations that integrate all three aspects into their DNA. Such organizations will attract the talent, foster the creativity and deliver the products and services that people want and need.

I am delighted to present the Order of Excellence for Healthy Workplaces, for Quality and for Excellence, Wellness and Innovation to such deserving organizations. Your work is diverse, but your pathways to excellence reflect our shared values, and that is how you bring out the very best in people.

On behalf of all Canadians, I offer my congratulations on your achievements.

Thank you.