A few months back I had mentioned in an interview that New Brunswick (read: Atlantic Canada) is uniquely situated to take advantage of the European market.
“New Brunswick’s history and its location on the east coast of Canada make us able to bridge the gap between Europe and the Americas, serving the needs of both,” states Harold Jarche, of Jarche Consulting. Indeed, New Brunswick is a cultural melting pot of French, English, First Nations (similar to Native American cultures), and other ethnic contributions that combine to create a rich cultural soil. Without doubt, the province seems to exude one very distinct message: We are diverse, but we are one, and we are open for business.
There is some focus on the European market but this is miniscule compared to our single-minded fixation with that marketplace to our South. I’m not saying that we should avoid US markets, but that we are not taking advantage of our “middle power” position. Dave Pollard has recently presented some statistics that reinforce my belief that we should be putting more emphasis on developing solid business relationships in Europe. Dave shows how Canadian employment rates are far surpassing US rates and:
Secondly, courtesy Yahoo, are updated charts showing the continued weakness of the US dollar against both the Euro and the Canadian dollar. Against almost every other currency the picture is the same. The declines reflect the fundamental weakness of the US economy, and especially international concerns over the crushing US debt load and continued dependence both on willingness of foreign creditors to advance more credit to the US and on cheap energy costs.
Our reliance on a cheap Canadian dollar relative to the Greenback is coming to a close, and it would be a good business strategy to look across the pond for some new business opportunities.
Further to what Dave Pollard has said, an article on Jeremy Rifkin’s book The European Dream, was recently published by Knowledge@Wharton (requires free subscription). Discussing Rifkin’s book, the author states;
Europe has become the “New World.” The European Union, with its embrace of former Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe, is now a continent-wide system. Even more revolutionary is its internal organization. The EU is on track to becoming a unified realm where national borders are little more than vestigial remains of the bad old days of nationalism. Economic fault lines and conflicting religious and social ideologies are disappearing too. A sense of unity and identity is rising, especially among the young, not seen since the spread of Christendom throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.
There are many indicators that this is fertile ground for business relationships:
Rifkin highlights a recent development in the Information Revolution to illustrate this cooperative mindset in action. He cites the example of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which linked its 2,700 desktop PCs together using a computer grid to give the firm the capacity of a supercomputer without having to buy one. Grid technology is being embraced throughout Europe, which has seized a commanding lead over the United States in its implementation.