INTRODUCTION to Canadian International Business Management

All Business is International Business

The reason we say that "All Business" is "Int'l Business" is that we mean all business, even domestic companies that do not directly exporting or import, are effected by international circumstances which can positively and negatively effect their business performance.
 
 

All  Business  is International Business

. We can find many examples of "All Business" is "Int'l Business"  but for the sake of humour & hunger, we will use the example of Harvey's Hamburgers - a Canadian hamburger chain that was founded the same year as when the professor of this course was born. Harveys is part of a corporate group that is owned by Cara Operations Ltd. Cara also owns Swiss Chalet, Second Cup, Kelsey's, Montana's, Milestones and Outback Steakhouses When Cara held its AGM July 24th, 2003 it noted that profit dropped 50%. One of Cara's biggest business is supplying the in-flight meals of Air Canada. The airline industry, worldwide, has been very bad since Sept 11 and was also effected by SARS in mid-2003. Add to this the American ban on Canadian beef because of the "one case" of mad cow disease in Alberta, and these factors all have effected Cara's seven restaurant chains.

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All  Business  is International Business

As reported in The Toronto Star "sales at Harvey's fared badly as the fast-food burger concept coped with the mad cow scare and increased  competitive pressures. System sales fell 4.2 per cent to $62 million, while same restaurant sales fell 3.4 per cent. Six  restaurants closed in the quarter. The company ended the quarter with 339 Harvey's."   . What can you do to help this great Canadian company? - before coming to class, go to Harveys - or, better yet, bring Harveys to class and share ;-). WTGR .

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An important part of a course on international business management is looking at "what is" international business for Canadians

Canada's major international export products/commodities
   o forest products
            o dimension lumber (2x4, 2x6 etc.)
            o wood pulp for making newsprint and cardboard
            o paper in giant rolls for cutting and processing
            o processed wood, like plywood, fiberboard, mouldings, shingles, etc.
   o grains and oilseeds (wheat, canola)
   o marine products (frozen fish, roe, crustaceans)
   o mining and minerals
            o ore and ore concentrates
            o coal (metallurgical and thermal)
            o processed metal products (sheets of aluminium, steel. copper)
            o precious metals such as gold and silver
   o agricultural products (cheese, beef, maple syrup, etc.)
   o automobiles, automotive parts (GM and Ford cars from Oshawa and Oakville to the U.S.)

Canada's major international import products/commodities
   o consumer products (VCR's, computers, cell phones)
   o processed food products
   o automobiles, automotive parts
   o clothing
            o Canada used to have a strong garment industry in Quebec
                   but competition from Asia shut that down in the late 1990's

Now that we know have a bit of a short intro to "what is" international business, let us keep in mind the title of this course, it is "International Business Management" - meaning understanding management (or, being the boss of other people) in the context of international business.

International Business Management requires us to not only have a grounding in what the key sectors are, but we must also know some of the players.

So, Who is big business in Canada? - Do you really know the company names?
If you wanted to get a good job in "international business" in Canada, do you know the playaz ?

Most student will know the American company names of the big players in international business because you have been living in North America. The purpose in having you look through lists on Top 500 websites is to see the names of some of the big European and Asian companies - they are important players too and also influence your business, or may even be your employer .

What can we infer from knowing the number of Cdn companies on the Fortune Global 500?

You can see the position changes of some of the well known company names - might help you deciding which ones to send your resume to when you finish 4th year - or it may indicate which sectors are hot and which are fading. For example Walmart, a service company, has moved ahead of Exxon and GM, manufacturing companies (from 2000 - 2002), but then in 2003 fell behind Exxon.
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Who made the Fortune Global 500 from Canada in 2000 ?  130 - Nortel Networks 322 - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 327 - Royal Bank of Canada 337 - George Weston (Loblaws) 344 - Seagram (alcohol) 387 - Toronto-Dominion Bank 410 - Bank of Montreal 466 - Power Corp. of Canada 482 - Canadian Pacific 491-  Magna International

Who made the Fortune Global 500 from Canada in 2002 ?  263 - Nortel Networks 299 - Royal Bank of Canada 318 - George Weston (Loblaws) 339 - BCE - Bell Canada Entreprises 360 - Bombardier 361 - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 366 - Bank of Nova Scotia 370 - Toronto-Dominion Bank 408 - Alcan 432 - Power Corporation 435 - TransCanada Pipelines 449 - Bank of Montreal 456 -  Magna International 465 - Sun Life Financial Services 483 - Manulife Financial Corporation not in the 500 for 2002 - Canadian Pacific

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Who made the Fortune Global 500 from Canada in 2003 ?  240 - George Weston (Loblaws) 303 - Royal Bank of Canada 310 - Bombardier 328 -  Magna International 337 - Sun Life Financial Services 388 - BCE - Bell Canada Entreprises 404 - Alcan 458 - Manulife Financial Corporation 459 - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 487 - Power Corporation 500 - Toronto-Dominion Bank (couldn't find Nortel on the list, I must have made a mistake)

Who makes the Fortune Global 500 from Canada in 2007 ?

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Canada's Largest Corporations: FP500 for 2007
taken from  http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/fp500/charts/data1.html on Sept 5th 2007 

Ranking		Revenue		Profit
2006	2005	Company	Amount 2006 $000s	Amount 2006 $000s
1	4	Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto	36,045,000	4,728,000
2	2	Manulife Financial Corp., Toronto	34,194,000	3,970,000
3	1	General Motors of Canada Ltd., Oshawa.	33,340,112	n.a.
4	3	George Weston Ltd., Toronto	32,167,000	121,000
5	7	Power Corp. of Canada, Montreal	30,304,000	1,393,000
6	6	Magna International Inc., Aurora, Ont.	27,420,120	598,752
7	8	Alcan Inc., Montreal	26,808,894	2,029,860
8	5	Imperial Oil Ltd., Calgary	24,505,000	3,044,000
9	9	Sun Life Financial Inc., Toronto	24,287,000	2,144,000
10	14	The Bank of Nova Scotia, Halifax	22,482,000	3,579,000
11	13	The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Toronto	22,302,000	4,603,000
12	10	DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc.	20,534,000	n.a.
13	12	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce,	20,166,000	2,646,000
14	16	Petro-Canada, Calgary	18,911,000	1,740,000
15	18	Onex Corp., Toronto	18,620,000	1,002,000
16	17	EnCana Corp., Calgary	18,596,466	6,409,368
17	19	Bank of Montreal, Montreal	18,153,000	2,663,000
18	11	BCE Inc., Montreal	17,713,000	2,007,000
19	15	Bombardier Inc., Montreal	16,830,976	304,448
20	20	Shell Canada Ltd., Calgary	14,651,000	1,738,000
21	33	Suncor Energy Inc., Calgary	14,342,000	2,971,000
22	22	Wal-Mart Canada Corp.,	14,300,000	n.a.
23	21	Ford Motor Co. of Canada, Ltd.,	13,809,000	n.a.
24	25	Empire Co. Ltd., Stellarton, N.S.	13,161,100	296,800
25	26	The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc.	13,093,142	121,965
26	24	Nortel Networks Corp., Toronto	12,948,012	31,752
27	29	Husky Energy Inc., Calgary	12,664,000	2,726,000
28	23	Honda Canada Inc., Toronto	12,600,000	n.a.
29	30	Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., Laval, Que.	12,056,715	232,889
30	32	Novelis Inc., Atlanta, Ga.	11,168,766	-311,850
31	27	Hydro-Québec, Montreal	11,161,000	3,741,000
32	51	Metro Inc., Montreal	10,944,000	253,000
33	35	ACE Aviation Holdings Inc., Montreal	10,657,000	408,000
34	39	Enbridge Inc., Calgary	10,644,500	622,300
35	38	Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.,	10,398,000	2,524,000
36	34	Falconbridge Ltd., Toronto	9,867,228	1,055,992
37	31	Quebecor Inc., Montreal	9,822,100	-93,900
38	37	Mouvement des caisses Desjardins,	9,398,000	988,000
39	41	Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd., Ont.	9,049,005	n.a.
40	44	Rogers Communications Inc., Toronto	8,838,000	622,000
41	40	Telus Corp., Vancouver	8,681,000	1,122,500
42	36	Ultramar Ltd., Montreal	8,622,326	n.a.
43	105	Direct Energy Marketing Ltd., Toronto	8,553,199	369,612
44	43	Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., Toronto	8,269,100	354,600
45	42	Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary	7,931,000	2,005,000
46	46	Shoppers Drug Mart Corp., Toronto	7,786,436	422,491
47	56	Brookfield Asset Management Inc.,	7,780,374	1,326,780
48	45	Canadian National Railway Co.,	7,716,000	2,087,000
49	48	Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., Toronto	7,715,396	257,985
50	28	The Thomson Corp., Toronto	7,530,894	1,270,080

Globe & Mail's top companies in Canada by profit (2004)
 

Rank		Company and Year-End	Profit		Revenue
2004	2003		$000	% Ch’ge	$000	Rank	% Ch’ge
1	1	EnCana Corp	3,513,000	38	12,241,000	21	10
2	3	Bank of Nova Scotia	2,931,000	18	16,497,000	19	-4
3	2	Royal Bank of Canada	2,817,000	-6	25,204,000	6	2
4	11	Manulife Financial	2,564,000	66	27,265,000	3	65
5	7	Bank of Montreal	2,351,000	29	13,208,000	23	0
6	19	Toronto-Dominion Bank	2,310,000	115	16,015,000	20	2
7	5	Cdn. Imp. Bank of Commerce	2,199,000	7	16,705,000	17	-2
8	9	Imperial Oil	2,033,000	21	21,206,000	11	18
9	nr	Manufacturers Life Insurance	2,015,000	23	19,991,000	13	3
10	10	Petro-Canada	1,757,000	6	14,442,000	22	10

 

Clearly the banks and the oil companies appear to be the big players in the Canadian economy Both kinds of companies (operating in a monopolistic environment) are, in a sense, companies which make money off of other companies. The phrase "economic pimps" was used by one student and he dared me to use it on the web site.

Resources Driving Canada's growth 2006

The IMF in April 2006, stated in its "World Economic Outlook" that "In Canada, the economy continues to perform strongly, benefiting from the improvement in the terms of trade caused by high energy and other commodity prices, Peter Morton, writing in the National Post in April 2006, analysed the IMF report and makes the following comments. "Oil and other natural resources will continue to drive strong economic growth in Canada for the next several years" - if you are an int'l business student looking for a job - pick this sector, or pick companies serving this sector Morton cautions that the largest risks to the Canadian economy come if there is a slowdown in the United States, a sharp depreciation in the U.S. dollar or "a worsening of the terms of trade caused by weaker global commodity prices." - what this means to Canadians is that diversifying away from the U.S. economy would be a good contingency strategy to reduce vulnerability Morton also notes the world is not totally driven by the U.S. economy - While the United States -- with an expected growth rate of 3.4% this year and 3.3% next year -- will continue to be the main economic driver among the leading economies, there are signs that an expansion in Japan and the European Union will also contribute to global growth....China's gross domestic product is seen expanding by 9.5% this year and 9% next, helped by booming investment and export growth.