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‘forging better results through collaboration’

Recent Media

2 July 2011 - Scandals piling up in world of Canadian business

Source: Derek Abma, Postmedia News

This country has long benefited from a strong corporate reputation abroad — a "halo effect," as some call it, from being seen as a kinder, gentler version of our American neighbours. But some might question whether that's still the case, as the country gains attention, and sometimes notoriety, for everything from the oilsands pollution; to Bear Creek Mining Corp.’s loss of its mining rights in Peru; to Niko Resources Ltd.’s recent $9.5-million fine for influence peddling; and to the now re-jailed former media baron Conrad Black.

“… Christopher Wilson, a lecturer and researcher at the University of Ottawa's school of management, says some scandals involving Canadian business interests are indicative of a corporate culture that puts its emphasis on the immediate appeasement of shareholders, often at the expense of other stakeholders, such as workers, customers and affected communities.

"The orientation is to see the profits in the next quarter as opposed to the long-term health of the organization and the long-term value addition to society," he says. Wilson says English-speaking countries tend to have a business culture that emphasizes short-term needs of shareholders over other considerations. Canada, he says, is perhaps even more so this way than the United States, because the relatively small pool of significant shareholders in Canadian companies limits the diversity of opinion that goes into shaping corporate policies.

"It makes it really, really difficult for Canadian companies to make a change because everybody sort of thinks the same way," Wilson says. "Whereas in the more diverse, less closely held environment of the United States, there's so many other perspectives that come into play." (more..)
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25 May 2011 Ottawa - Christopher Wilson met with met members of Nigeria's visiting Fiscal Resonsibility Commission today to discuss ways of enhancing public sector reform in Nigeria which Transparency International has ranked 134th of 178 countries in its Corruption Perception Index. The real problem said one commissioner is the "culture of corruption" that is so widely tolerated in the country that it tends to hamper the well intended efforts of government and civil society organizations.

The meeting was part of a workshop that explored public sector governance in Canada and that paid particular attention to the Management Accountability Framework that has been adopted for use by the federal government. Commissioners also shared elements of Nigeria's recent accountability act and efforts being untaken by NGOs in Nigeria to shine light on budgetting and spending practices and hold authorities to account for discrepancies in spending and budgetting.
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24 November 2010 - Censemaking blogger, Cameron Norman, comments on Christopher’s discussion of the Technology Spectrum of Social Collaboration. “This model combines both face-to-face methods of organizing and ideation, with a social media strategy that connects people together between events.”

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