Asia's growth offers new opportunities to Canadian companies, but they are also faced with mounting challenges and competition. Leading the Way provides an analysis of fifteen Canadian companies whose business strategies in Asia are innovative and competitive. The strategies of the fifteen companies in the study present possible templates for success that other Canadian firms could follow.

Introduction:

Canada has long enjoyed a mutually beneficial trading relationship with most Asian countries. It has been a supplier of the industrial raw materials and foodstuffs that helped underpin Asia’s economic modernization. But today Canada is losing economic relevance in Asia. Its share of the overall Asian market is less than 1%, down from 1.72% in 1995 and 2.51% in 1984. Asia is booming and new markets are growing rapidly while Canada remains fixed in a pattern of trading relationships that has changed little in decades. At the same time it is forecast that China will soon overtake Canada as the top source of imports to the US, perhaps within five years. Clearly, there are many implications and consequences both at home and abroad of Asia’s economic growth for Canadian business.

Asia’s growth offers new opportunities to Canadian companies, but they are also faced with mounting challenges and competition. Yet few have developed strategies that account for both changes in the international and North American economies. Many Canadian firms have insufficient resources or expertise to develop appropriate global strategies, yet they must find ways to overcome these strategic challenges and constraints in order to survive. A small but growing number of Canadian firms are actively developing and implementing new approaches that include a focus on Asia within global strategies. Their visions present possible templates for success that other Canadian firms could follow. This brief report, based on a series of case studies, illustrates the ways in which some Canadian companies have developed successful Asian strategies.

Visit Leading the Way Official Website

You can download the full case studies.

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada prepared this report with generous funding support from Western Economic Diversification Canada.

The Foundation is grateful to the project Steering Committee members, who devoted considerable time and energy in providing direction, ideas and critical feedback throughout this project. The Foundation would especially like to acknowledge the work of Eleanor Gill, who managed this project and compiled the information contained in this report.

About APF Canada

The Asia Pacific Foundation is Canada's leading independent resource on contemporary Asia and Canada-Asia relations. As a national not-for-profit organization established by an Act of the Federal Parliament in 1984, the Foundation brings together people and knowledge to provide the most current and comprehensive research, analysis and information on Asia and on Canada's transpacific relations. It promotes dialogue on economic, security, political and social issues, helping to inform public policy, the Canadian Public and Canada’s Asia practitioners. The Foundation is funded principally through an endowment from the Government of Canada and a grant from the Province of British Columbia.

About WD

Western Economic Diversification Canada is a department of the Government of Canada that works in partnership with the provinces, industry associations and communities to encourage diversification of the western economy, as well as to represent the interests of the West in national decision-making.

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