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Omar Yaqub

How to compete and grow: A sector guide to policy | www.mckinsey.com | Readability - 0 views

www.readability.com/...c5adhseh

work us trends

shared by Omar Yaqub on 17 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • To streamline the complex analysis governments need to undertake, MGI offers a new framework of six sector groups that share characteristics and respond to similar approaches to enhancing competitiveness. They are (1) infrastructure services; (2) local services; (3) business services; (4) research and development (R&D)-intensive manufacturing; (5) manufacturing; and (6) resource-intensive industries. In each of these groups, MGI documents how competitiveness levers vary and how policy has influenced competitiveness in each. These six categories provide a useful framework for understanding what determines competitiveness in different kinds of industries and what tangible actions governments and businesses can take to improve competitiveness
  • Omar Yaqub on 17 Mar 11
     
    To streamline the complex analysis governments need to undertake, MGI offers a new framework of six sector groups that share characteristics and respond to similar approaches to enhancing competitiveness. They are (1) infrastructure services; (2) local services; (3) business services; (4) research and development (R&D)-intensive manufacturing; (5) manufacturing; and (6) resource-intensive industries. In each of these groups, MGI documents how competitiveness levers vary and how policy has influenced competitiveness in each. These six categories provide a useful framework for understanding what determines competitiveness in different kinds of industries and what tangible actions governments and businesses can take to improve competitiveness.
Omar Yaqub

Report-on-Competitiveness-Highlights - 0 views

finance.alberta.ca/...Competitiveness-Highlights.pdf

alberta competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 06 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 06 Jan 11
     
    Report-on-Competitiveness-Highlights
Omar Yaqub

Reports || EEDC 2008 annual report - 0 views

www.edmonton.com/...Annual_Report_2008.pdf

shared by Omar Yaqub on 01 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 01 Dec 10
     
    Workforce DevelopmentThe shortage of skilled workers was unquestionably the mostimportant challenge faced by Edmonton industry in 2008. Inits third year, EEDC's Edmonton Workforce Connection (EWC)program continued in conjunction with industry and governmentto address regional labour challenges. EWC worked with industrystakeholders, immigrant-serving agencies, the City of Edmonton,educational institutions and Alberta Employment and Immigrationto launch the Edmonton Region Immigrant Employment Council.This organization was created to help address the underemploymentof skilled immigrants in the region.EWC also provided new opportunities for businesses and workersto connect. These included developing the Employers of Choicewebsite to highlight local employers, creating a link to WOWJobs that enabled companies to advertise job opportunities, andconnecting Edmonton employers to university career centresacross Canada.EWC has a new name - EEDC's Workforce Development Program- and new challenges. The focus of the program will be optimizingthe labour force to address a growing skills shortage that isdriven by an aging population, competition, innovation and newtechnologies. Alberta employers are reassessing their needs andthe future of their businesses in light of the economic slowdown.EEDC will continue to need blue and white-collar workers who areemployed to their maximum capacity to rebuild the economy. Productivity & InnovationIn 2008, EEDC made a strategic decision to be a leader inpromoting greater productivity through innovation in the Edmontonregion.In collaboration with the province and cities across Alberta, EEDChosted Innovative Manufacturing Works tours in Edmontonin October 2008. Thirty industry representatives visited threeEdmonton-area manufacturers, which are focused on continuallyrefining their processes to achieve peak efficiency. Events such asthese improve public awareness of the capability of local industryand encourage other firms to adopt be
Omar Yaqub

Collaboration Is the New Competitive Advantage: Canada's Large "C-11" Cities Launch New... - 0 views

ipo.einnews.com/...-foreign-investment-and-trade-

competitiveness government

shared by Omar Yaqub on 18 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • ConsiderCanada.com and CanadaEnTete.com, two new Web sites that provide comprehensive information for global companies considering expansion into North America.
  • According to the World Economic Forum, Canada has benefited from the soundest banking system in the world for the last three years running. For the eighth consecutive time, KPMG's Competitive Alternatives study finds Canada leading the G7 with the lowest business costs. The C.D. Howe Institute, which studies social and economic policy, also stated that Canada's international reputation as a destination for capital and investment is better than it has been for a generation
  • Economic development professionals from Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Québec City, Winnipeg, the Waterloo Region, and Saskatoon work together every day to guide international companies to the Canadian city or cities that offer the most strategic fit," says Michael Darch, Executive Director of OCRI's Ottawa Global Marketing team. "ConsiderCanada.com and CanadaEnTete.com are the latest tools at our disposal to bring new opportunities home.
Omar Yaqub

Cities of Migration » Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada's Global Comp... - 0 views

citiesofmigration.ca/...en

immigrants innovation canada

shared by Omar Yaqub on 02 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 02 Feb 11
     
    Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada's Global Competitiveness / Michelle Downie.  Toronto: Conference Board of Canada, 2010. The report is designed to help Canadian government officials and business leaders, as well as cities and communities, recognize the potential value of immigration to innovation performance. The report also provides Canadian leaders with insight into how they can better foster and capitalize on the innovative 1potential of new Canadians.
Omar Yaqub

Alberta Competitiveness Initiative - Home Page - 0 views

www.finance.alberta.ca/...competitiveness

competitiveness alberta economics

shared by Omar Yaqub on 29 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 29 Nov 10
     
    he council will look at ways to improve Alberta's overall economic position and build on work already underway by government and industry. It will also look at the various factors that impact the province's economic growth such as regulation and fiscal policy, the availability of skilled workers, transportation and infrastructure, and productivity and innovation.
Omar Yaqub

Institute releases Report on Canada 2011, Canada's innovation imperative - Institute fo... - 0 views

www.competeprosper.ca/..._canadas_innovation_imperative

competitiveness productivity

shared by Omar Yaqub on 01 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Productivity in Canada’s cities lags city regions globally
  • The Institute reports that Canada’s GDP per capita – a measure of the value created by workers and firms in Canada from the human, physical, and natural resources in the country – trailed the US by $9,500 or 17 percent in 2010
  • Canada’s lower productivity as the key challenge in closing this prosperity gap. “Canadians are among the leaders in developed economies in work effort, hours worked per person, but we are laggards in creating economic value per hour worked
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  • recommends that governments improve their innovation policies by shifting their efforts from new-to-the-world inventions to relevant-to-the-market innovations
Omar Yaqub

Is Canada's Innovation Performance Really So Bad? - Joshua Gans - The Conversation - Ha... - 0 views

blogs.hbr.org/...nadas_innovation_performa.html

canada competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 07 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Canada lags behind in R&D spending and also possibly in patents secured by businesses. But in my research on this topic, I had long regarded Canada as a solid performer, especially compared with Australia. My research was based on an econometric methodology (initially design by Michael Porter and Scott Stern, but refined by myself and Richard Hayes) designed to forecast a country's innovative capacity — that is, not what innovation is taking place but instead what innovation is likely to occur in the future.
  • Rather than focus on a specific result, such as patent performance, this research derives an index from broader fundamentals. When the experience of many nations is pooled, it becomes clear that certain factors play a robust and persistent role in innovation. These include inputs into R&D (including capital and labor) and, more surprisingly, the public share of education in gross domestic product expenditure (rather than overall education), the level of intellectual property protection (stronger is better), R&D funded by industry (as opposed to government) but performed within universities, and the degree of specialization.
  • Indeed, compared to other OECD countries, Canada's innovation index puts it at the very top of second tier innovators and at number seven in the world. (The top ten comprises the U.S., Finland, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Iceland, and Norway.) While this does not suggest that Canada should be complacent, it does suggest that the gap emphasized in Canada's Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity report is not as worrying as it might appear. Canada has innovation challenges but they are not at the level faced by Australia.
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  • If I had to speculate — I have not yet examined the underlying numbers for Canada — I would posit that the gap is related to trade and to Canada's proximity to the U.S.. Canadian businesses, especially innovative ones, focus on the U.S. market; further, it is likely that the best innovations get snapped up by U.S. firms. To be sure, this is a perfectly legitimate commercialization strategy — selling out to established firms — but it is the sort of thing that shows up poorly in aggregate statistics. If that is the case, the issue may not be Canada's encouraging more innovation but ensuring that Canadian policies are consistent with facilitating export in ideas as much as export in physical products.
Omar Yaqub

Today's innovation, tomorrow's prosperity - Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity - 0 views

www.competeprosper.ca/...nnovation_tomorrows_prosperity

work canada demographics innovation

shared by Omar Yaqub on 29 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • As the economy slowly recovers from the recession, we need to do what is necessary to achieve a solid recovery in the short term and to begin repairing our provincial fiscal situation. But our long-term challenge remains – raising our productivity, which is synonymous with improving our innovation capabilities and performance. Robust innovation results can be achieved through more key business investments and by the right government policies and strategies for innovation. The Report concludes that businesses need to step up their investments in technology – from R&D to patents to adapting existing technology to their businesses. Equally important is the ongoing need to develop stronger management capabilities in our businesses. The Task Force also recommends that governments improve their innovation polices by shifting their efforts from new-to-the-world inventions to relevant-to-the market innovations. These are the key conclusions of the Ninth Annual Report, Today’s innovation, tomorrow’s prosperity, released today by the Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress.
  • Omar Yaqub on 29 Nov 10
     
     (PDF) 
Omar Yaqub

Western News - Ontario's prosperity opportunity - 0 views

communications.uwo.ca/...ity_opportunity_20101202447171

government competitiveness education

shared by Omar Yaqub on 07 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • However, we can do more to make our campuses more welcoming. The survey indicates improvement opportunities in helping with living accommodations, showing greater sensitivity to racial issues and concern for individuals’ academic progress, and reaching out to involve them in extra-curricular activities.
  • Financially, institutions benefit from recruiting international undergraduate students. Average tuition for international undergraduate students is about $4,000 to $5,000 more than what institutions receive from domestic students’ tuition and government operating grants.
  • However, at the graduate level, institutions receive less in tuition from international students than they do from tuition and provincial government grants for domestic students.
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  • Attracting more international students to Ontario’s universities has many benefits for our schools and our economy. However, in strict financial terms; while the institutions have the incentive to attract international undergraduate students, they do not have the incentive to attract international graduate students. If Ontario is to pursue the worthwhile objective of attracting more international students, we need to think through the financial incentives carefully.
Omar Yaqub

Manpower Inc. - Growing War for Talents Looms as U.S. Economy Continues to Recover - 0 views

www.manpower.com/...releasedetail.cfm

work us trends competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 07 Feb 11 - Cached
  • Growing War for Talents Looms as U.S. Economy Continues to Recover
  • the world has entered a new age, where employers will be awakened to the power of humans as the future drivers of economic growth as access to talent replaces access to capital as the key economic differentiator.
  • Aging workforces, the collaborative power of rapidly-evolving technologies, the need for companies to do more with less, and the problem of the skills young people are being equipped with not matching the skills businesses need are converging, making talent attraction and retention critical in order for organizations to gain a competitive edge
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  • As the economy begins to click into second gear, employers are hiring but they are doing so with extreme caution. They will only hire individuals who have the exact specificity of skills they are looking for,"
Omar Yaqub

Productivity key to increased personal - and national - luxuries - thestar.com - 0 views

www.thestar.com/...personal-and-national-luxuries

productivity competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 28 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • What if, however, you were told most of your mortgage or all of your rent could be paid off instantly, or you could send your kids to a national daycare program? Still bored? Yet that’s exactly what could have happened if Canada didn’t have a productivity gap with the U.S., according to Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
  • Canada trails the U.S. in GDP per capita by $9,300. In 1981 that gap was only $2,600. If we got back to the 1981 gap, the average family would see their disposable, after-tax income go up by $8,800, according to the institute, which is the research arm for the task force chaired by Martin.
  • That would be like having almost all the mortgages and rental payments disappear. It would be like having enough money to pay for a national child-care program and still have enough left over for the biggest tax cut in history
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Lest you assume productivity gains are more a concern of free marketers and other pro business forces, that extra income would generate another $76 billion in tax revenue for various levels of government, according to the institute. That would be enough to pay for a national daycare program, fund the healthcare recommendations by the Romanow Commission, cover the cost of Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Accord, and pay for a $55 billion tax cut.
  • what’s behind the gap?
  • Canada’s resource boom, a lack of innovation by Canada’s businesses, and a lack of investment in new, more efficient equipment are the three biggest causes
  • resources are hard to find. . . . By becoming more focused on resources, we’ve hurt our productivity numbers
  • tar sands are particularly bad for productivity numbers because of the sheer amount of time and effort of extracting the oil,
  • lack of innovation can also partly be blamed on the size of Canada’s resource sector,
  • Because it’s easy to make big amounts of money extracting and exporting resources; businesses haven’t had to innovate. Our abundance of natural resources is actually something of a curse,
  • In business sector spending on R&D, Canada ranks a disappointing 17th among OECD countries, and when it comes to innovation, the World Economic Forum rates us 19th, far behind the United States, Germany and Japan,” Macklem told a Calgary audience. Macklem also pointed out Canadian companies don’t spend much on new, efficient equipment. That means it takes a Canadian longer to make whatever’s being produced, whether it’s clothes, widgets or iron ore. That pushes down productivity.
  • “It will take a lot more than just freeing our private sector. … None of that works. In fact, it takes a deliberate state strategy,” argued Stanford, pointing to countries such as Finland.
  • “Economists, policy makers and corporations have been too focused on the denominator, and not enough on the numerator. … People always say ‘gee, it’s too bad that auto plant closed, even though it was really efficient and made things quickly.’ Well guess what? If the price of the car gets cut to $10,000 because it’s something nobody wants to buy, that affects productivity numbers too.”
Omar Yaqub

Jobs and Structure in the Global Economy by Michael Spence and Sandile Hlatshwayo - Pro... - 0 views

www.project-syndicate.org/...English

work trends

shared by Omar Yaqub on 17 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • The US economy did not have a conspicuous unemployment problem until the crisis of 2008 because the non-tradable sector absorbed the bulk of the expanding labor force. That pace of employment growth now appears unsustainable. Government and health care alone accounted for almost 40% of the net increment in employment in the entire economy from 1990 to 2008. Fiscal weakness, a resetting of real-estate values, and lower consumption all point to the potential for long-term structural unemployment.
  • Restoring elements of manufacturing competitiveness is hard. Once skilled labor, training programs, and technical institutions in specific industries are gone, it is difficult to get them back. Long-term policy should include an evolving assessment of competitive strength and employment potential across sectors and at all levels of human capital, with the goal of encouraging market outcomes that achieve social objectives.
Omar Yaqub

Tapping Canada's immigrant capital - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2017418

Work immigrants competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 19 May 11 - Cached
  • hiring newcomers to help drive expansion into new markets
  • A new report released exclusively to The Globe and Mail shows almost one in five companies have hired a skilled immigrant to help diversify their global client base. Of those employers who hired immigrants to help them expand overseas, 93 per cent said it was effective, according to the March poll of 461 employers, conducted for the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.
  • A Conference Board of Canada report in October found that every 1-percentage-point increase in the number of immigrants to Canada can increase the value of imports into Canada by 0.21 per cent, and the value of exports by 0.11 per cent. The report urged employers to hire more immigrants as a way to drive innovation and build global competitiveness.
Omar Yaqub

Immigration: The low-hanging fruit across the border | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...immigration

immigrants trends competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 13 May 11 - No Cached
  • At a time when America is concerned about excess housing supply and anxious to boost its innovative capacity it is madness that so many willing immigrants, including high-skilled workers, including those educated in America, find it difficult to impossible to gain permission to work in the country on a stable, long-term basis.
  • The lump of labour fallacy is seductive, and in times of economic hardship it becomes very difficult to convince people that more competition for scarce jobs will make their lives better. Here again it is clear that weak labour markets are the enemy of liberalism, and those concerned for the future of free markets should do what they can to alleviate that weakness.
  • immigrants are people and they deserve a chance to move to maximise the return to their skills. When an immigrant moves to a rich country, that increases his or her welfare and boosts the productive potential of that country, which is good for everyone.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Historically, relatively open immigration rules have been both a sign of and a source of national strength. If America can return to a more open past, the prospects for its economy will be considerably enhanced.
Omar Yaqub

http://premier.alberta.ca/PlansInitiatives/economic/RPCES_ShapingABFuture_Report_web2.pdf - 0 views

premier.alberta.ca/...hapingABFuture_Report_web2.pdf

alberta trends work immigrants government

shared by Omar Yaqub on 09 May 11 - No Cached
    • Omar Yaqub
      Omar Yaqub on 09 May 11
       
      work with the federal government to change the immigration system - to help address critical shortages of workers at all skill levelsIt is in the interests of all Canadians that the Alberta economy remains strong. To realize the full potential of the oil sands and broaden the economic base, the province will need people from outside the country as well as migrants from other parts of Canada. The provincial government and industry must collaborate in demonstrating to the federal government the critical need to at least double the caps on the provincial immigrant nominee program. Advocate for immediate changes that allow temporary foreign workers with solid records to apply for permanent resident status while they are still in the country. Continue to work with the federal government to institute longer-term changes to better align the national immigration program with strategies for economic growth, making it more responsive to changing economic conditions and industry's workforce needs.Determine what is getting in the way of swift assessment of foreign trades and professional credentials related to these scarce skills, and remove barriers to full recognition of qualifications that meet Alberta standards. Pre-certify credentials from selected offshore institutions, and create a mechanism that allows all immigrants to determine their credential status before moving here. Expand initiatives such as the Immigrant Access Fund to help immigrants achieve credential recognition.
  • Omar Yaqub on 09 May 11
     
    Give a new alberta water authority the mandate to innovate in water stewardship, and realize the full benefit of our precious water assets Alberta needs all its citizens to develop the mindset and skills to thrive in today's world and drive economic growth - to be resilient, lifelong learners, healthy and productive, eager to achieve and perform, globally connected and informed seeking talent around the globe Like other countries with aging populations, Alberta in 2040 will be competing to attract the brightest and the best talent to the province's workforce to fill critical gaps. As early as 2030, demographers predict that domestic workforce growth in Alberta and Canada will have stalled, although higher birth rates in our Aboriginal population could indicate potential for some domestic population growth. Encouraging seniors who wish to stay in the workforce longer to do so could mitigate (but not solve) the problem. Employers could abolish their mandatory retirement age and other policies that discriminate on the basis of age.Employers in this province are already concerned about shortages of people to fill jobs at all skill levels, well aware that energy booms create huge demands for workers in service sectors as well as in construction and labour-intensive oil sands production. The very specialized skills and knowledge essential to success in broadening the economic base are in short supply in the province now because there have not historically been good opportunities in these areas. One key requirement is more people experienced in founding and growing technologybased businesses. While productivity improvements and the application of innovative business models may slow growth in the labour supply gap or change the mix of skills required over the  next three decades, we still expect to see an increasing  need to attract immigrants to the province to fill key gaps  at all skill levels.The number of immigrants to Alberta fr
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