Chapter 3 - International Competitiveness, Productivity and Quality

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 1a) Standard of Living – pg. 90 – determined by measures like Average household income and expenditures Number of doctors per person Literacy percentages Birth and death rates Ownership of durable goods like phones, computers United Nations uses Human Development Index Fraser Institute uses Index of Human Progress

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 1c) Canada’s challenges for 21 st Century Sovereignty (control of land and policy) – Possible challenges from U.S. over use of resources like water e.g. Great Lakes. – Travel through Canadian territorial waters in the Arctic (e.g. Climate Change causes melting of the Arctic ice and allows for ship travel). – Border security – North American perimeter?

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 1 c) Continued Maintain high standard of living – Aging population = higher health care costs – Fewer births = less workers, less social capital, and less tax revenue for government programs – International competition = pressure on government to reduce tax rates and services like education and health care

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 1 c) Continued Climate Change & Growth of Oil Exports – Need to reduce CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) and other gas emissions as per Kyoto Protocol – Oil production and use increases CO2 emissions – Climate change will lead to melting of glaciers, sea ice and rapid changes in Canada’s North – Flooding of coastal areas may occur

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 2a) Intellectual Capital – pg. 92 The total sum of knowledge, skills, intellectual property (e.g. ideas, music, computer code), experience and talent Intangible (can’t touch or feel it) Hard to measure and value in financial terms Also called “Human” or “Social” capital

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 2 b) Intellectual Capital and Competitiveness We live in a ‘high-tech’ information age Customers want problems solved quickly Creating new solutions from new ideas creates new products to be sold for profit – E.g. Google (search tool), YouTube (internet videos) small ‘start-ups’, now are worth billions of dollars because of the value of their ideas

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge Other examples of successful ‘start-ups’ include: – Microsoft (PCs, Windows) – Apple (Ipods, computers) – Dell (laptops and PCs) – RIM (Research in Motion) – Waterloo ON maker of the Blackberry device ( , phone, etc.)

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 3a) Business Rationalization (pg ) – Changing or adjusting what is produced or how it is produced to become more efficient, productive and competitive. E.g. Wal-Mart changing store designs, lumber companies closing mills to consolidate work – Involves many things – new products, new technology, new locations, closing factories, outsourcing work (to other countries)

S. 3.4 – Canada’s Global Challenge 3b) Rationalization / Country Competitiveness Training programs to increase worker skills Improved infrastructure – roads, bridges, city transit (subways, buses), railways Privatization – private sector supply of products like electricity, health, prisons Public Control – more border / airport security post 9-11 by the government

S 3.5 Quality Control / Improvement 1a) Kaizen (ki-zan) Japanese for continuous improvement Promotes everyone working together to improve, eliminate waste in processes and systems by examining root causes 2a) W. Edwards Deming 14 management principles adopted by Japanese after WW II (in 1950s-60s Japanese products were considered low quality). Now Japanese cars are considered to be high quality.

S 3.5 Quality Control / Improvement 3a) ISO – International Organization for Standardizatoin Voluntary quality standards run by NGO (non-governmental organization) ISO 9000 standards are worldwide and verified by auditors ISO certification is a competitive advantage