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Call it crazy, but the TOP 101 for me is like September Vogue. It’s kind of an institution! Okay, so we’re only 200 pages, not 754, but September Progress also has heaps of must-read content and it reveals trends and issues that can inform your thinking for the next year. From the literacy trap to the hydrogen economy to living the entrepreneurial dream, there’s something here for you.
The 2006 survey reveals in even more detail what’s keeping the region’s most successful business leaders up at night. The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council added a line of questioning that reveals the TOP 101’s biggest competitive challenges, what strategies are being employed, and priorities for action. APEC’s concerns: regional competitiveness and future prosperity are being hampered by weak innovation and low productivity. There is lots here for business to think about, but there is also much that governments can do to improve the region’s environment. Policy-makers should heed the findings, analyzed by David Chaundy and starting on page 128.
In the competition-beaters department, how about a bold move to seize a niche market, exemplified by Francis McGuire’s fearless efforts at the helm of Moncton’s Major Drilling. It’s a strategy that has resulted in increased shareholder value, as Alec Bruce reports on page 82. Or how about taking a chance on a company-wide sustainability initiative because you’re betting it’s a corporate value that future employees are going to hold dear. That’s what Jacques Whitford is doing, and you can meet the global engineering giant’s first VP of sustainability on page 93. It’s about your future workforce, after all. As it gets tougher to find good employees, businesses are going to have to get smarter about hanging on to them. Our special report on page 101
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looks at how some TOP 101 companies are dealing with labour shortages. Hint: hire when you don’t need to and train like crazy.
Speaking of employees, this summer we hired a new senior editor; his name is Andy Pedersen. Before he even started I gained some fresh insight just by hearing his newcomer’s take on the magazine. His key observation: Progress’s competitive strength is that it is focused on the art of the possible, about taking chances, about doing things differently. With his help, we will keep striving to ensure that no matter what your stake in this region—business, politics, culture, community—you will be able to take away new ideas to make your own progress.
To back up a little, we’ve been making some people changes here on many fronts. At the beginning of the year, my colleague Graeme Gunn assumed the editor role of Halifax magazine. Its readers will observe an extensive redesign under his watchful eye and that the issues are getting bulkier. Associate editor Corrie Fletcher-Naylor became a new mother this August, and will be taking some time to get to know her son Duke’s likes and dislikes. While she’s on mat leave, Heather MacLean will be helping us with the assigning, editing, and checking of the surprising amount of facts and figures that each issue contains.
And yes, we slip up from time to time. Eagle-eyed reader Jonathan Poirier caught the prize-winning typo in our July/August edition. In the finance article “Deal Flow” on page 22 it read that under the CPC program investors can “contribute $200,000 to $1.9 billion in a shell company.” Obviously that should have read $1.9 million and we should not have let that get past us. Thanks, Jonathan. |
