Leadership in business requires a trio of qualities: character, competence, and commitment. This is why excellent employees do not always transition to become good managers; while they may be competent and perform job duties to a high standard, their character qualities prevent them from excelling when managing or working with others. Businesses traditionally focus on…
Canada’s recently-released Fall Economic Update offers many provisions that directly support business competitiveness and make it easier to invest. Most beneficial to manufacturers is the announcement that the full cost of machinery and equipment can be written off immediately. Businesses outside of the manufacturing industry will also benefit from a similar incentive that supports writing…
Ontario agricultural producers and processors can benefit greatly by staying up-to-date with industry news. Yet for many agri-businesses, it’s difficult to find resources and publications that help inform growth strategies and improve competitiveness. While there’s no one definitive source of information for Ontario businesses, there are several sites that provide access to free, high-quality information…
The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3 billion investment contributed through the federal, provincial, and territorial governments across Canada. It is the primary mechanism used to disburse government agriculture grants and repayable funding contributions to SMEs, non-profits, and other key industry stakeholders. Canadian agri-food companies should consider tapping into Canadian government funding to offset…
Are you missing opportunities to prospect, shorten the sales cycle, increase close rates, and open doors to decision-makers? Training is essential to ensure your sales team is agile and can respond efficiently to new opportunities. Few companies provide consistent training for salespeople, which in turn reduces their ability to offer great service to clients and…
For many businesses, entering a new market is a risky, time consuming, costly, and stressful endeavor. While businesses that already export can benefit from previous experience, existing processes, and internal know-how when entering a new market, there are still many risks in export expansion. Risk is amplified for businesses entering their first export market. While…
Before connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) are deployed on Canadian roads, there must be significant improvements to how these systems work. Individual technologies must be improved, and their integration needs to be thoroughly tested to ensure driver safety. While innovators have historically had few opportunities to develop and test connected and autonomous vehicle technologies, a…
Ontario’s innovation landscape is continuing to grow and transform at a rapid pace. This creates a demand for early-stage, high-growth businesses to have access to incubation space and entrepreneurial expertise that can support the development of competitive products and services in service of both national and international markets. Serving these companies and offering resources for…
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) offers many opportunities as well as some challenges for Canadian businesses. If ratified, the new agreement-in-principle will take effect on January 1, 2020 and significantly impact supply chain management, predominantly in the dairy, poultry, and automotive sectors. While there are many businesses across Canada that are concerned about these changes,…
Ontario’s innovation ecosystem is growing exponentially. With this growth comes the need for more resources for innovators to develop globally-competitive products and services that shape today’s knowledge-based economy. Access to incubation space and entrepreneurial expertise are two areas of support often requested by young, high-growth businesses, but it’s often difficult for these firms to get…