CPRS 08 - Lazy Canadian business
Halifax - There were two reactions to Andrea Mandel-Campbell’s presentation this morning: depression and elation. I’d say most of the room thought her remarks were overly gloomy on the general laziness of Canadian business and its reputation for underachieving on the global stage. A few of us, however, thought they were refreshing.
Canada has plenty of natural advantages - clean air, plentiful resources, a highly educated populace, a close proximity to the U.S. - yet we trail other jurisdictions when it comes to competing internationally and building great businesses.
I plan to pick up her book: Why Mexicans don’t drink Molson. One question I have for her though: if she’s advocating for Canadians to do a better job of promoting themselves, why couldn’t I buy her book here at the conference?
So far, the CPRS national conference here in Halifax has been very thought-provoking. The organizers have done a good job.
July 26th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I’m going to have to buy that book too. She’s on to something and Canadians need to ‘get over themselves. As with everything, there are outstanding enterpreneurs and corporate eexecutives in Canada. But the majority have an inbred suspicion of anyone or anything that they
don’t perceive to be prequalified by some sort of invisible club membership.
In addition, there’s a suspicion and slowness to accept at the organizational level too.
I think the CRTC and major wireless carriers in Canada have been doing a huge
disservice to the upstarts in the industry by keeping 3G services too expensive for
people to want to use. What’s up with that?
You can’t be so slow to react to major worldwide trends and opportunities. This
is just one example but one that has me scratching my head about this country
everyday…