Eric Reguly's last column in the Globe and Mail:
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070405.wrreguly05/GIStory/
"Canadian companies will allege any reason for their lack of global success: excessive taxes and regulation, domestic merger barriers in some industries and the like. Forget it. Feckless CEOs are the main obstacle."
I wonder if it is cultural- whether never having been a coloniser, one's country and people lose the desire and ability to mustle someone down, to dominate them, to exploit them for one's betterment. The interesting thing is that it is the Canadian business-men that are displaying this lack of machismo. From what I read in the article, (and those of various business-friendly columnists) I see a desire to be mollycoddled by the government, to be subsidised in ever-increasing amounts, so that they can stand up to foreign competition, or even worse, so that they may suppress their horrible inner desires to compulsively submit to old colonisers (Britain and France) or new ones (the US).
In India the two "good" attributes that the greedy, corrupt, exploitative upper classes have displayed in their post-colonial assumption of every trapping of the white colonisers, are aggression and confidence. That allows Tata, Reliance (and some others) to want to dominate the world. They wanted to dominate their fellow Indians and they want to dominate the wider world.
So what do we want from Canadian businesspeople- evil that can or good that can't? Are the meek really going to inherit the earth or shall we replay the sins of so many colonisers?
These are only two choices- but I wonder. Should Canadians be asking for better from their businesspeople before handing out more tax-breaks?
Another point to ponder- why do Canadian mutual funds give such crappy returns?
1 comment:
Eric's final column whips the wet toilet paper over a number of sectors and services, like a schoolboy at the unrinal, dissatisfied with his grades. As a nay-sayer saying his final nay, I find it hard to accept his generalising about the upper strata of Canadian business culture. Conniving ruthlessness combined with ruthless conniving, may be suitable for some industries and some sectors, but pressing margins and increasing volume is not the sole purpose of all executives.
As for Eric, I am sure he will enjoy the macho business culture, the prattle-free trading and the efficient infrastructure of Rome. All of the people I know who have re-located to that city have returned with their minds rather wibbled.
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