News & Updates

Belinda Stronach isn’t the first Canadian business scion who has had trouble escaping her father’s shadow. When Frank Stronach, the 86-year-old founder of auto-parts giant Magna International Inc., filed suit against his daughter in October 2018, alleging that she mismanaged his fortune, he made a point of letting her know that in his eyes, she would never measure up. Painting himself as a “corporate visionary,” Mr. Stronach characterized his eldest child as “disrespectful” in court filings. And worse: The lawsuit accuses her of being “entirely unwilling or incapable” of running the Stronach Group on a “fair, proper, sensible and business-like basis” [...]

Business owners unable to afford wage increases are now taking on more work shifts themselves to keep their businesses operating.  A combination of mandatory minimum wage increases in B.C., Alberta, and Ontario and increasing lease rates for space are hampering the ability of smaller businesses to grow to the next stage.Instead of planning and building for the future, business owners are back on the floor serving customers. Unable to cover the increased cost of wages, small retail store owners have cut hiring and are working more shifts themselves. Click for more...

What will the jobs of the future look like? What skills are needed? And how does Canada compete in the digital world? Ensuring the country can successfully answer these questions will preserve Canada’s future businesses, future jobs, and economic prosperity. To prepare for this technology-driven future, Canada’s universities and colleges are encouraging student entrepreneurs across the country. In an October 12 Globe and Mail article, researchers Alejandro Adem and Victoria Lennox identified a host of entrepreneurial programs occurring outside university and college classrooms. As students learn technological skills, these additional programs give them an introduction into turning technological mastery into market-friendly [...]

How many times did you eat your lunch alone this week? According to a recent survey, while 68 per cent of working Canadians enjoy eating lunch with their colleagues, two-thirds of us eat lunch alone at least three times during the workweek. Even worse, almost half (42 per cent) of working Canadians eat lunch alone every workday. But it wasn’t always this way. Eating alone is not a natural human behaviour, but a learned one that seems to become more prevalent once we enter the work force. When overwhelmed with work, lunch with colleagues can seem like a luxury, but eating [...]

A Nanaimo accounting firm that purchased a Lantzville business filed a civil suit in the Supreme Court of B.C., alleging that the sellers breached a non-competition agreement. The suit also alleges the sellers did not provide the documentation and intellectual property required as part of the sale. The accounting business, Barber and Haime Inc., was sold to B. Rushton Inc. for $727,000 in August 2017. Sale terms included a six-year non-competition and non-solicitation agreement. According to the court documents, Colin and Denise Haime were to retire: instead they opened an online accounting service yet the sale agreements prohibited them from carrying on [...]

The B.C. government is launching a task force aimed at helping small businesses. They want to hear from entrepreneurs so they are holding consultations throughout the province for all types of businesses. It applies to rural and remote communities as well and especially First Nations. Innovation, the emerging economy, youth employment, succession planning, risk aversion, businesses costs and more will be discussed at the task force starting in June. An online portal is also being set up for people to join and give input. For more and a list of dates and places see --task force

The need for cyberresilience is becoming more important among organizations which are under increased risk from cyberattacks, cyberbreaches and cybercrime. Public and private sector leaders need to give greater attention to safeguarding customer trust to provide increasingly personalized products and services in addition to flexible, interconnected supply chains. The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has identified three priorities for building cyberresilience for a stronger organization. To read more, see Cyberresilience.