International Trade Committee on Oct. 4th, 2011

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to move on to a different topic. You said that you measure the satisfaction of the companies that use your services. So I would like to discuss business start-ups. After five years, a company’s success rate can be measured. It can be determined what factors led to failure, and what measures may promote success and increase the success rate.

Do you have any criteria or a grid for assessing that? You said that you support companies so that they can be ready to export. Do you have an assessment grid for determining when a company is ready to export? Do you measure the success rate of a company that has ventured out and is doing business with one or more clients in a specific market?

Using that information, do you measure how much your contribution—the services you provide—has helped in increasing a company's success rate and satisfaction level?

There are most likely failures, and that's not something we should hide. When a company tries and fails to penetrate a market, do you identify and document the reasons for that failure?

[Peter MacArthur]

The concept is that we are trying to correct market failure. So the SMEs without information on the means of going global are assisted by government. We're able to show satisfaction levels, and we can even help a company by having it decide that no, coming to this country does not make sense. It saves them time and money, and they're a satisfied client. Increasingly, we've seen from our client surveys that in order to improve and to have a lower rate of failure with our clients, the one area we want to work on is to be more consistent in the quality of our service.

We have some very good staff and some very good posts out there. We're trying to improve the consistency of our service in order to increase the success rate of our clientele. We don't have, to my knowledge, any particular system to measure individual companies failing or succeeding, except that we are measuring them. Every time they register two services, they get an automatic online survey request that asks them, how was your experience with this particular office in the world? That way we can measure how well they're doing. They also have an open-ended question and can mention whether they got a result—an MOU, a contract, or a distributorship agreement. It's evidence we can use to improve our service.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

But is it owing to a lack of means or simply because you don’t bother to measure failures or determine how successful your work is?

Surveys and levels of satisfaction do have some value, but do you think you may refine your measures and try to understand the impact of your services and your work?

[Peter McGovern]

One element we are especially interested in is success.

The successful companies often do not want to share that type of information because it is very sensitive. They do not necessarily want to specify that they received a $100-million contract. Sometimes they just tell us that they were successful and thank us for our help. A confidentiality element may be involved, in the commercial sense of the word. That’s the biggest challenge. They are perhaps worried that competitors may learn that they signed an $89-million contract and may offer $95 million.

Those elements play a part. Of course, we do have some idea. If, for instance, we are working in China with Bombardier and it receives an aircraft contract, we have been involved in the discussions and have clearly played a role.

We can make calculations, but it’s not a very exact science.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Shipley has a quick question.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a quick follow-up.

When Canada competes we do compete with very good countries, such as Australia and the United States—and we're into countries in Europe also.

I'm wondering, what are some of the attributes that we take with us? Let me give you an example. In agriculture, one of the many attributes that we have in Canada is quality, whether it's the equipment that we manufacture here--though it's not a lot that we manufacture--or whether it's livestock, in terms of breeding and genetics.

When we have a company that wants to reach out into a market in another country, or we want to reach out and become a partner with a subsidiary, what kind of a role do we have in being able to get into these countries and actually grow that type of a market for Canadians? Basically, my question is about quality. Does quality count?

[Peter McGovern]

I can answer that immediately. Yes, quality does count, and we are recognized as a high-quality centre of innovation and high technology. We also have a reputation for fair business practice, so that if you deal with Canada or Canadians generally, you are on pretty solid footing that what you agreed to is what you're going to get. That's not always the case internationally, so I think that's important and it ties into the issue of transparency.

One of the interesting dimensions of the Canadian approach you see oftentimes in Canadian investment abroad is that, unlike some of our competitors, we don't bring in full management teams. You don't have everybody moving from Toronto over to wherever. You may have a number of key managers, but we'll hire local individuals who are talented and well educated, and they become part of the process.

That is very much appreciated, and you see that in Latin America with some of the financial institutions, and some of the mining companies as well, where they have a very clear idea of an investment approach that is different from the full expat approach, as it were.

I think those are a number of things that play into that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

You can ask another if you wish.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I have one other question.

I had the opportunity to be in Kazakhstan at one time. When we were meeting with our ambassador—and this goes back to my earlier discussion—it is about knowing where to go and how to get there and how to get companies.... While some other countries that are there take huge delegations and sort of bombard the economy and businesses, our ambassador said that Canada, actually, simply needed to show up in many cases, because there was trust and all of those things.

Is that a statement you're trying to build on when reaching out to countries that sometimes we don't think of as being...? Some of them have unique markets. How do you reach out to those, or how do you know where to go when we hear those kinds of comments? What can we do to help you in those situations?

[Peter McGovern]

You've touched on a very important point. A big element of international commerce is engagement. A lot of what gets done is based on personal relationships. You have to be present. You have to show up. You have to be willing to commit and come back. That, I think, as much as anything, is the significance of how to do business in these places.

It's interesting that you mentioned Kazakhstan, because it doesn't immediately leap to top of mind as to where there's an opportunity, and yet there is. I'm struck, for instance, in my own area that Canada is the largest investor in Mongolia, after China. You wouldn't think about Mongolia, yet we're very much appreciated by the Mongolians for our presence there.

It's like anything else: you have to pay attention to the relationship. You have to nurture it, and that's a segue as well, if you will, because we haven't really talked about it very much today. But I think the whole issue of marketing education is very important for individuals and, now, of course, Canada is the number one place in the world for quality and value.

If you're living in some country abroad and you want to send your kid to get a high-grade education at a reasonable price, Canada is the place to go. From my perspective as chief trade commissioner and the person responsible for Asia, I recognize that these people will go back and become politicians or business people; but then they'll say, “You know, my time in London, Ontario, when I was at Western, what a great place it was”. And that pays.

We see time and again decisions being made in all kinds of different sectors, and it's that connection you establish when people are young and they're learning and they move on through their own systems that pays a dividend for Canada. So that was a plug for education, and for London, Ontario, an important place.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes, I noticed that as well.

Peter MacArthur had something to add, and then we'll close the meeting.

[Peter MacArthur]

Just on the Canadian brand, the fact that we're bilingual and multicultural, that we are the world, with language skills and links to the old countries, gives us a badge of being a wise country. That leveraging of our multicultural communities back into these emerging markets is quite important. And we have great cross-cultural skills from our domestic reality, which helps us in these countries, as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

That's very good.

I want to thank you for coming in and sharing what you do. It can't be overstated. The success of your department and the way we trade with international countries are really hinged to the success of our country in no small way, especially as we move into the next decade and beyond.

We wish you all success. Thank you for coming in and sharing with this committee. I'm sure we'll be calling on you again in the future. I appreciate that very much.

You couldn't be more accurate in saying that the relationships are absolutely critical when it comes to doing business. It's not unique to international trade; it's all business. You'll never do business with someone you don't trust, so our reputation is very critical in that area.

Thank you for coming in. Thank you to the committee for the questions.

The meeting is adjourned.