Ambition without borders

Canada's economy is on a "burning platform," because of our high dollar and dependence on trade with the United States, says former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna. Yet Canadians have not often shown the ambition to reach beyond their struggling neighbour to vibrant markets on other continents.

The international approach is growing stronger at Canadian business schools. At McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management, roughly 85 per cent of professors and more than half of the students are foreign, according to Omar Toulan, associate dean of master's programs. There are exchange programs with 30 schools abroad, of which only two are in the United States; about 40 per cent of students go on an exchange, and nearly all of them do so outside the United States. Prof. Toulan teaches a case-oriented class, and while a half-dozen of the cases involve Canadian or U.S. companies, 14 others involve Germany, or Japan, or Argentina, or Australia, or other countries. Prof. Toulan estimates roughly one-quarter of graduates, of whom slightly less than half are Canadian, will go on to permanent jobs abroad.

Intensive study trips to China, India and Argentina, offered by many business schools across Canada, "open people's eyes to the potential in different markets," says Prof. Toulan. "If you don't know the potential out there, you may not go seek it out." The immersion in a foreign market helps overcome fear of risk, he explains. "What we need to do is make people more comfortable with different environments."

Read full article: The Globe and Mail, December 2, 2010