Advancing Canada's Competitive Advantage – A national forum on management

You are browsing the archives of admin.

You have attended one of the forum’s sessions and you would like to have access to a PowerPoint presentation? Be aware that the slideshows are now available online. If you cannot see the downloading link “[slideshow]” next to a speaker’s title, this means that we are not allowed to make them public.

According to Léonard Aucoin, doctors are not only responsible and accountable towards the patient, but also in a broader sense towards society. Moreover, doctors are now present at all levels of the organization: they take part in the development of the organization’s vision and strategy, in the elaboration of its structure and clinical processes. In sum, their act of sharing medical leadership with managers represents what Mr Aucoin refers to as a ‘new professionalism’. One question remains unanswered: for their part, are medical faculties adequately preparing future doctors for this new role? Watch the video excerpt.

A financial institution owned by the Government of Canada, Export Development Canada (EDC) integrates Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into its role providing financial services to Canadian companies exporting and investing abroad. Given this corporate profile, EDC encounters many CSR issues in meeting its goals and objectives. EDC’s, Jim McArdle and Yolanda Banks described their approach to the social and environmental risks that doing business abroad can pose. This approach strives to meet the high CSR expectations of the public by managing and mitigating the various risks associated with international business, from corruption to environmental impacts. View slideshow.

“Le Dr Welby est mort.” is how Fabrice Brunet put it to participants who were wanting to hear about change and innovation in health care systems and organizations. The Executive director of Hôpital Ste Justine said the workloads of nurses and doctors, patients’ needs and healthcare system issues have all changed so much in the last couple of decades that it’s only logical that the management of hospitals need to also adjust and go through a change that adapts to all the new realities. Watch the video excerpt.

Montreal has become a research powerhouse when it comes to public transit, according to Gilbert Laporte, professor and Canada Research Chair in distribution management at HEC Montréal, and Quebec would be well poised to adopt some of the conclusions that have come out of the research he and his colleagues have done. He brought up several cases of good transit planning, one of them being the Chicago subway system.

Why do we look south when studying entrepreneurs, especially considering our higher immigrant make-up? We need to draw upon our own models, said Benson Honig from McMaster University. He raised the point that new Canadians have often found social mobility by becoming entrepreneurs and that these stories from our own backyards will help in further understanding this evolving sector. Watch the video excerpt.

What is the basic moral orientation of ethical leaders that makes their behavior “ethical” and what are the stumbling blocks to ethical behavior? These are some of the questions that Professors Wesley Cragg and Michel Dion will answer during the Ethics workshop taking place today, October 2nd. In the afternoon Tracy-Ann Lugg (Adecco Canada Inc.), Hubert Bolduc (Cascades Inc.) and Professor Thierry C. Pauchant will share some examples of the application of ethics in business, drawing, notably, on the results of interviews with Canadian business leaders who have introduced innovative ethical practices and tools into their organizations.

Henry Mintzberg, the master of the bon mot, put it well at the conference: There are too many leaders and not enough managers. In his session on retrospective and prospective views in management and strategy, the professor at McGill, as well as EMBA-HEC Montréal, said too much emphasis in this country has been focussed on training leaders, when what we really need to learn is how to teach all those managers to better manage. Watch the video excerpt.

The National Forum on Management is a unique moment for reflection and exchange and we want it to last and radiate beyond the event itself. In order to do this, we are posting the complete version of some of the conferences in video format. To watch the videos click here.

The Energie and the Environment workshop taking place today, October 1st from 10:30 am to 5 pm, will be led by nine speakers — researchers and practitioners. Among them will be Sanjay Sharma, dean of the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University. Mr. Sharma is known for its outstanding scholarship and academic leadership with 16 years of senior management experience with multinational corporations on three continents. Together with Timal Bansal and Guy Holburn, they “will review the areas that they believe have received academic attention and areas that require more attention”. Visit the workshop’s page to learn more about the conferences.