Your Interview

Why is it important to attach a "Canadian" moniker to a company in terms of hoping they compete well globally? With the continued march toward a borderless corporate culture shouldn't we consider large companies that happen to operate here temporary at best and if so, focus on placing the country in the best position possible rather than focusing on helping (at least for the time being) Canadian firms specifically?

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

You don't necessarily have to proclaim from the rooftops that you're Canadian. What I think is important is that you do have some kind of value-added brand, and brands come in many different forms and formulations.

A company that produces something like methanol, which is essentially a commodity, can still create a brand through the value it offers through customer service, through having distribution and transportation services that it offers its client.

What I'm saying is when you're selling a commodity product, you're getting the least amount of return for your effort. People who make the real money are the retailers on the end. If you're digging diamonds out of the ground, what you make just to dig the diamonds is very small compared to the guys at the other end of the pipeline who are selling those diamonds in stores.

A brand, according to what they say on the stock market, adds 30 per cent to the stock market valuation of a company. You want to be able to maximize your return for what you're doing.

You don't necessarily have to brand it as Canadian, but you need a brand.

Canada is seen as 'non-exciting' culturally. Do you think this lacluster and boring reputation has anything to do with our business performance on the global scale?

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

As somebody says in my book, we are in danger of boring the world to death.

Frankly, I've been to Sweden and I don't find it a shaking place. Everybody's incredibly homogeneous there.

It's a certain assertiveness, a certain moxie that's missing from Canadians. On the other hand, we have a lot of things that the world loves. They find us very trustworthy, very reliable. There's an amazing amount of good will, and frankly, in global markets, trust and good will is something that's a very rare commodity and very highly valued.

But the problem is we don't back it up with that assertiveness, that belief that we can do it and go after it. We tend to sit back like wallflowers, waiting for somebody else to make the first move rather than us.

Fundamentally, what do you see as the bigger problem: The failure of Canadian firms to breed standalone brands that translate well internationally, or the failure of Canada as a country to carve out a sufficiently compelling 'nation brand' to underpin them? Or is the issue more one of industry structure -- our brands are fine, but we lack the economic clout to take them global?

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

I don't think that's the issue at all. If you look at our banks, for example, there's absolutely no reason why any our banks couldn't have been as big as HSBC today. Thirty years ago, Royal Bank was significantly larger than HSBC, but HSBC made the decision to go international.

There is an issue of national brand. When you're national identity remains a rather blurry concept, you spend a lot of time defending it in a negative way. So much energy, I think, is spent and wasted in being anti-American, and a lot of the regulations we have in a place right now in terms of protecting our industry really is about keeping Americans out.

I think that has hindered our ability to create a certain national brand. At the same time, to create a national brand you need to have companies out there that help you form that, because you can't just form it out of nothing. Who are your companies? And what are they doing out there? You see your own reflection in the mirror and that helps you formulate what that brand encapsulates.

I appreciate you are using beer as an example of our short comings in the international marketplace. But, let's stick with the example and ask is there anything we can learn from the Autralians who sucessfully market Fosters world-wide (with the help of Paul Hogan).

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

I think we have a lot to learn from Australia and in my book I actually make the comparison very strongly, because Australia is probably a better example than Sweden or Ireland because it's so similar to Canada. It has the same history and it has more or less the same population makeup, same commodity base, many of the same attitudes.

About 15 years ago, it was really at a crossroads, much the same way that I would say Canada is today, and they made some decisions. They dismantled a lot of the industrial policies that were so damaging to their country, and they've gone on to become world leaders in many areas, for example, butter, milk and cheese.

Canada back in the 1960s and 70s was one of the world leaders in milk production, and now we're not even in the top 20, whereas New Zealand and Australia have become world leaders. You go to China and their product is everywhere and it's very well brand. Pure New Zealand cheese or pure Australian butter. They've done a fabulous job.

The difference is they are very assertive, they're very entrepreneurial, and when you meet an Australian, there's a very strong sense of identity there. They brand their products as Australian, whether it's in their wines or their Outback restaurants. For some reason, there's a cachet attached to being Australian.

I can't understand why a kangaroo would be cooler than a polar bear. It's all in the attitude.

Hello Andrea,

I'm a teacher in a small rural high school, and I'm trying to encourage my students to think about entrepreneurship and global opportunities. Many of the youth that I teach have no desire to move away, but each month brings news of another Maritime plant closing putting hundreds more out of work. Here are my questions:

1) Is it possible for a startup rural business to "go global" right away, or is it still important to start with the domestic market first?

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

I think there's no question. A lot of the start-ups that you see today are companies that are global from the day they are born. And that's the great thing about globalization and about technology. When they talk about a flat world, you can reach China wherever you want through the internet. It's much easier. It doesn't really matter where you are.

Seattle is a couple hundred kilometres south of Vancouver. Seattle a few decades ago was a very small outport, very peripheral to the United States, and it's now home to two of the largest multinationals in the world: Starbucks and Microsoft. So, location, I don't think, has anything to do with your ability to go global.

Another good example for the Maritimes would be Iceland. They have the most dynamic fishery in the world. They're investing in China. They've created amazing technology, flash-freezing fish on trawlers. Things that there's no question Atlantic Canada could have done, but because it chose a very destructive industrial policy which was more about protecting and supporting, I would say, losers in many cases, and not really believing in their ability to go global, that's the result.

2) How do you suggest I start my students "thinking globally" when many of them have never travelled 200km from home?

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

I have to say that teachers and the education system is absolutely where Canada has to start, because what I find really amazing is meeting high school graduates, for examples, who have no concept of the world outside of Canada and, at most, the United States. So, I think it's incumbent on teachers and the education system to open up Canadian kids' minds to the possibilities.

I think it's a long time in coming that the curriculum in Canada be changed, that we start to introduce things like international business and trade in high school, and even elementary. We definitely need to bring our education system into the 21st century.

Could the problem lay with our business schools? They seem to breed managers and analysts rather than entrepreneurs.

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

I wouldn't say the problem is with the business schools because, if anything, there aren't enough business schools in Canada because just doing business in Canada is not something that's celebrated.

The reason why an inordinate number of Canadian companies are managed and run by Americans, in particular, is because we aren't as educated as they are when it comes to managing companies.

I'm not saying that getting an MBA is going to make you entrepreneurial, but I think from the get-go Canadians eschew entrepreneurialism. It's not something that's celebrated in the culture.

I've had people ask me, "Well, maybe we're just better in culture or the arts," and I think that's a big cop-out. I think we've tended away from it thinking either we're not very good at it or, I would say, there's something in Canadian culture that does not encourage it.