I had the pleasure today of attending the Economic Growth Forum at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. The morning sessions were described by some as “dense” and by others as inconsistently informative and engaging. Whatever the opinion, all seemed to be in agreement with Ginny Hasselfield, Director of Leadership Giving SFU. She said the big morning take-away was the quote “Canada needs to become the Julliard of knowledge.” There’s great concern we’re loosing 50% of our PhD’s to other countries. We’re seeing a push to view knowledge as Canada’s new resource. This concept also colored the last Vancouver Board of Trade event I attended with speaker Stephen J. Toope, President of UBC.
Todd Buchholz, former White House Director of Economic Policy and bestselling author of numerous books including New Ideas from Dead Economists, delivered an entertaining and straightforward perspective of the global economic crisis. Which, given the complexity of the subject was remarkable in itself. Here are a few points I found interesting.
Todd spoke optimistically of a few things we’re doing that will steer us away from another “Great Depression.” These include the printing of money, maintaining raising tax rates, and welcoming foreigners (not doing these things became the tipping point that moved a “regular” ol’ depression into a “Great” Depression). Focus turned to the individual with emphasis on putting the passion back into our businesses and brands. Grassroots sales and business development: strategically select your customers, understand the value of their business, offer exceptional service, employ innovative thinking and act with civic leadership. What Todd thought would really help us move forward is when people finally realize everything is “on sale.” It will move us from fear and connect us with our increased buying power. That said, it’s not all that surprising he doesn’t stand by most alternative sustainable economic theories. Instead, he thinks mirroring our sustainability goals with taxes on unsustainable activities will move us toward making better decisions while holding onto positive changes we’ve enjoyed in the past 100 years. He asks, and I paraphrase, “aren’t you glad to be living past 47 without horse-drawn trollys, garbage in the streets, and outhouses?” Maybe, but I still have to wonder… at what cost?
I’d like to finish with a quote from an admired marketing expert, Alan Weiss. He speaks to how we can help our businesses thrive during the end this downturn:
We need to ask “How can we help you?”
“Ask how you can best help your target market improve during a recovery, and then demonstrate it. Typical high potential areas: hiring and rehiring; luring back past customers; rebuilding brand and image; rebuilding morale and loyalty; identifying high growth opportunities; professional development; financing; upgrading technology.” – Alan Weiss, Summit Consulting Group
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. — Kierkegaard
How can I help YOU?
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Thank you to the Vancouver Board of Trade for hosting this event and to nDevilTV for the feature image.