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Bank of Canada: Monetary Policy and the Underwhelming Recovery

Some remarks from Carolyn Wilkins – Senior Deputy Governor, made September 22, 2014

We know that with a relatively smaller labour force, a nation’s capacity for growth will depend on the productivity and creativity of its workers and businesses. Trend productivity growth in advanced economies has declined over the past decade and a half – and Canada has lost ground compared with the United States and some other countries.

Read the full article here: Monetary Policy and the Underwhelming Recovery

Improving productivity does not necessarily require expensive new equipment. As Carolyn Wilkins implies, it does require new and creative thinking. Take a step back, re-examine your processes, ask your operators for their thoughts. In each step of your process ask “are my customers willing to pay for this?”. All processes can be improved. Start with ideas that are simple and easy to implement, even if the change is small.


Canada drops in global competitiveness

Image from the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum has dropped Canada a spot in global competitiveness. In a report released August 28th, Canada is ranked 15th out of 144 countries. Although Canada is doing many things right, Innovation and sophistication factors are dragging Canada’s rank down. Some examples:

  • Capacity for innovation: rank: 26
  • Production process sophistication, rank: 20

Can your company’s production and innovation be improved?