The sixth in an eight-part series of solutions to challenges facing Canada's foreign trade: Promoting familiarity with foreign markets.
In the age-old debate between assimilating or maintaining Old World ties, Canada's International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan offers a novel view: Keep the connections, he says. It's a good way to succeed in global business, and therefore a route to being a good Canadian.
"There's a kind of paradox among some [newcomers and their descendants]that success becomes defined as proving that you've made it on this side of the world, and not wanting to feel bound to the other side," he says. "I think those who will be most successful in business will be those who realize that simple assimilation in Canada isn't the best path. Being a good Canadian who realizes you have some competitive assets in doing business elsewhere will make you more successful."
As Canadian business faces the challenge of competing in fast-growing markets far beyond the United States, a challenge made more difficult, says Mr. Van Loan, because most of our businesses are small, we have a competitive advantage in our multicultural, multilingual population. But how to leverage that advantage?
One answer is to develop strong alumni networks that include foreign students who have returned to their home countries. Some argue Canada should undertake extraordinary efforts to recruit the best and brightest students from abroad, as one means of strengthening these networks over the long term. Others see merit in improving ties between industry and the post-secondary institutions that can offer useful, custom-designed training programs in skills helpful for businesses of any size.
First, though, business needs to commit to making greater use of the language skills, entrepreneurial savvy, cultural knowledge and personal contacts of newer Canadians, Mr. Van Loan says. And those descended from these immigrant communities, too, should think increasingly about how their skills could be useful in the global economy.
"Our real, long-term competitive advantage is our very strong people to people ties," he says. From almost every country on Earth, "we have strong expatriate populations in Canada that are very entrepreneurially oriented."
That advantage is just beginning to be felt. "While the first generation may be focused on day to day survival, getting a home, paying the mortgage, making sure the kids can go to a good school, the next generation, we're beginning to see now, is moving into positions of leadership in the financial community, the business community, the legal community."
Universities need to expand their outreach to industry, says Colin Dodds, the president of St. Mary's University in Halifax. His school has a small-business development centre that gives entrepreneurs advice such as how to write a business plan.
Because business is being forced to look for opportunities beyond the United States, "we need people who speak Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and so on. A lot of small business doesn't have those. They're looking for people to write their materials, emails, make contacts, give some cultural briefings. There's a tremendous opportunity in our business programs to develop those services for small business. Large business can do it but lots of the smaller businesses don't have the capacity."
When he was in New Delhi last month with 14 other Canadian university presidents, an Indo-Canadian university alumni network was formed. "You start to think of the Indian students that are here - many of them go back. That's the resource. Those people move up. That's your network. Business works on reputation, on brand, on relationships. That's the thing we can leverage."
Canada has not been a magnet for top talent, but MITACS Globalink seeks to change that. The program, at universities in British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick, brought in 105 top graduates in technology from India's colleges for research internships this past summer in computer science, engineering, mathematics and business.
Arvind Gupta, chief executive officer and scientific director of MITACS Inc., a national research network that links industry and universities, says that traditionally, India's top students, those with a grade point average of 9 or better out of 10, head to Stanford or Princeton; the second tier has, in recent years, been drawn by aggressive recruiting efforts to Australia, Britain, France and Germany; and the third tier (grade point average roughly 7.5 to 8) has been heading to Canada.
"These kids are not knocking on our door," says Prof. Gupta, who is also a computer science professor at the University of British Columbia. "They've got Princeton and Stanford going to recruit them. They've got options. The whole world is coming after talent."
That explains why, in the past year, Canada has joined the global chase for top minds - through 19 Canada Excellence Research Chairs, each worth $10-million over seven years, created by the Stephen Harper government; through 70 Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships, each worth $70,000 a year for two years, also created by the Harper government; through four-year, $45,000-a-year scholarships for foreign PhD created by Dalton McGuinty's Ontario government; and through five research chairs in theoretical physics announced last month by the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ont.
"You wouldn't think of building an NHL team without scouting for the world's best people," Prof. Gupta says. "I don't see why we would think of building a world-class knowledge economy without having the world's best people."
When the Globalink participants returned to India, they gave presentations aimed at enticing others to Canada. "We want to make these people ambassadors to the world. They have to make presentations to other kids, to high schools. We had 100 kids going around India talking about Canada. This whole thing is so un-Canadian. It's not in our DNA to go and market ourselves this way."
Why, he asks, do students aspire to study at The Juilliard School in New York? "You go to Juilliard because the best kids in the world go to Juilliard. What I want to do is create the same phenomenon in Canada. The best kids come to Canada because the best kids come to Canada."
With aggressive recruiting, Canada can draw top talent from abroad, he says, leveraging our diverse and inclusive society. "When you ask students where's the advantage we have, the one thing that kept coming up is that they really felt from day one like Canada is home."
Sean Fine