BUSINESS & THE ECONOMY

 

International

 Published Research

Doing business with Japan was published in the Journal of Small Business, Volume 1, Number 2; in the Fall, 1983. The paper debunks the myth of a bland, robot-like Japan Inc., which survives intact in Western minds, despite the fact the Japanese are highly competitive and anything but placid. Their secret is they know when to co-operate and when to compete, both among themselves and with their trading partners. Another Japanese secret is that they are superb managers who delegate effectively and who keep their eyes fixed firmly on long-term horizons.

Journalism

I wrote six “country reports” which each entailed three-week visits to the country, where I had interviews with up to 50 people in business, government, politics, labour unions and the education system.

They include:

I will add and New Zealand (1983) when it is transcribed.

Other articles on international issues include:

Clusters (creating dynamic, innovative regions)

 Published Research

The Kitchener-Waterloo cluster describes the institutions, businesses and associations that work together effectively to make the Waterloo region in Ontario a highly successful centre of entrepreneurship and innovation. Study commissioned by Small Business Policy Branch, Industry Canada.

Corporate governance

Journalism

The dominance of big business by the 1960s created the first stirrings of a campaign to impose Corporate social responsibility on big business. This was my take in 1973.

In the European Community (as it then was), the European Commission moved mountains to align corporate legislation in the member states through a process called Corporate harmonization in the EC 1976. A major part of this program was the push to give unions a significant role in corporate governance: Putting workers on EC boards of directors.

Leadership and Management

Journalism

After initiating the Management Page in The Post, I wrote numerous articles on the subject. The following four won second place in the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for Best Series on Professional Development in 1974:

Later, in the Globe & Mail: Employee-care

I also did a number of profiles of business leaders, including:

Labour

Journalism

The 1970s saw an explosion in strife between employers and their unions. I covered the main issues at stake in the articles below (the first one won the 1973 Kenneth R. Wilson Award for the Best short article and the following four won second place in the 1974 Royal Bank Award for the series on labor:

The most extreme example of poor labor relations occurred in Quebec where construction unions rioted on the site where the James Bay hydro-electric plant was being built. The government appointed Robert Cliche to head a commission to investigate the situation and the Cliche Commission Report did not disappoint when it delivered a devastating overview of the corruption in the province’s union movement. This article won honorable mention in the 1975 Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for best short article.

The growth of union power peaked in 1976 with Labor’s pitch for political power (an initiative by the Canadian Labor Congress for a role in economic decision-making on a par with business and government. It never flew and the long process of decline into relative irrelevance started not too long afterwards.