18 minute read
THE FUTURE OF GLOBALIZATION
THE FUTURE OF GLOBALIZATION THE FUTURE OF GLOBALIZATION WBE OUTLOOK
Women-owned businesses are a key driver of economic growth in Canada. The past two years, controlled by the global pandemic, have resulted in massive shifts in traditional women-owned enterprises, many of whom are smaller in scale and therefore have experienced greater disruptions to both their business and personal life than traditional male-owned businesses. As global disruptions caused by the pandemic resulted in border closures and supply chain interruptions, there is a growing group of Canadian women entrepreneurs who are charging ahead, finding international opportunities for their goods and services, adapting to the challenges they face, and finding success. We reached out to a few of our certified WBEs to find out how they are not just facing the challenges inherent in exporting, but growing the opportunities and creating success even during these unprecedented times.
MARGARET COONS FOUNDER, NUTS FOR CHEESE
Founded by vegan chef Margaret Coons, Nuts For Cheese is a London, Ontario based, artisan vegan dairy manufacturer specializing in artisanal, organic, dairy free vegan cheeses and butters. Since launching at a farmer’s market stand in 2015, Nuts For Cheese has enjoyed explosive growth as the Canadian category leader in artisan plant-based cheese manufacturing, with innovative flavours like Un-Brie-Lievable, Super Blue and Black Garlic. In 2021 Nuts For Cheese became Canada’s first artisan vegan cheese producer to launch into the US market with products now available at 1,000+ US stores including chains like Whole Foods, National Coop Grocers and Natural Grocers Vitamin Cottage WBE Canada: What challenges did you face as you entered the US market during the pandemic? Margaret: Launching into a foreign market in the absence of international travel, trade shows, and demos has certainly posed some hurdles, especially because sampling is key to our sales strategy. We've been both humbled and surprised by our accomplishments over Zoom and the phone. Within 1 year of launch, we've expanded into 35+ states across 9 regions, and we haven't even been to the US market!
WBE Canada: What advice do you have for other women-owned businesses trying to expand into the US?
Margaret: Do your research and prepare a solid plan for market entry - the US market is a force to be reckoned with! Seek out advice from your mentors, and don't be afraid to fail.
KIM THIARA PRESIDENT, ACETRONIC INDUSTRIAL CONTROLS INC.
Established in 1983, AceTronic Industrial Controls Inc’s vision has been to provide the utmost in customer service and to offer solutions based upon its in-house technical knowledge as they work alongside a variety of plastic related manufacturers. Their products include Industrial Controls, Hot Runner Products, Aerosols, Cleaners and Disinfectants, Mold Components and MRO. AceTronics services a wide variety of industries including automotive, construction, consumables, food packaging, medical, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and retail. WBE Canada: What challenges have you faced during the pandemic in terms of operations? Kim: My position over the past 25+ with AceTronic has been about attaining new business, essentially business development. Whether that was setting up sales calls/meetings , attending trade conferences, industry shows/events, etc. All of these activities involved face to face opportunities, where you were able to foster and develop a relationship. I enjoyed prospecting and the challenge of “converting” a prospect into a customer . The pandemic brought about an absolute HALT to any of these opportunities and with it my sense of purpose for my day to day activity. Ultimately, sales activity is needed to feed the manufacturing/production pipeline for AceTronic.
WBE Canada: What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who have a new product or service that doesn’t seem to be gaining as much interest as they would like? Kim: A few things come to mind… • Be persistent, and consistent in your messaging. Don’t expect something major to occur after you have just marketed your product or service.
THE FUTURE OF GLOBALIZATION continued...
• Think outside of the box as well as outside of your comfort zone. There is never growth when one sits in a state of comfort. I recently stepped into a complete state of discomfort by experimenting with video. What’s the worse thing that could happen….they don’t reach out to me ?
• It’s also important to remember that we are
ALL in a state of transition - moving from the old way of doing business to the Post COVID world of conducting business. Many of the folks we are trying to reach are also in a state of flux, just like us. At Acetronics, our customers are predominantly manufacturers. They are dealing with staff shortages, increased production demands, lack of a skilled workforce, exorbitant delays due to logistical issues, their own sense of safety, and a host of other issues. It is important to be cognizant and respectful of these factors when trying to “sell” Hence, being persistent and consistent with your marketing strategies is important, so that when the time comes for you to be of use to them, they will remember you.
CONNIE STACEY FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, GROWING GREENER INNOVATIONS
Growing Greener Innovations is an award-winning Canadian clean-energy technology company whose mission is to end global energy poverty by providing world-class battery energy storage solutions for community, commercial and residential use. Growing Greener Innovation’s engineers have developed an industry-leading Smart Switch control system that monitors, optimizes and organizes grid-tie and off-grid renewable energy generation systems. Their innovations cut greenhouse gas emissions, significantly cut energy costs, and promote greater use of renewables. To date, GGI’s technology is deployed across Canada, Africa and The U.S., with upcoming work in India, the Middle East and South America. WBE Canada: What challenges have you faced during the pandemic in terms of operations? Connie: LOTS! Like everyone, the constantly changing nature of the pandemic has created lots of challenges, but also lots of new learnings and successes. Our biggest challenge came in the postponement of our first major demonstration project. This was scheduled to be a multi-million dollar demonstration that would have really showcased our technology, unfortunately the customer had to postpone due to restrictions related to the pandemic response. While the customer is still keen to move ahead sometime late 2022, this interruption was a major hit for us. Thankfully the team worked hard to generate new opportunities, which included two small contracts with the Canadian Department of Defence. The challenges have definitely been there over the last two years of pandemic pandemonium, but that gave our team the opportunity to show prospective clients the importance of backup, redundancy, and grid independence as a necessary part of the future of all businesses.
WBE Canada: Aside from extreme weather events and climate change pushing consumers to become more self-sufficient in their energy supply, what other types of communities are looking to create their own power grid structures? Connie: Again, LOTS! One of the biggest areas of interest for us is the replacement of large diesel generators in temporary work sites, refugee camps, remote communities, and more. Diesel generators are horrific polluters, but for temporary work sites it has never made sense to bring in renewables given the lengthy planning and setup for renewables. By contrast, our GRENGINE™ Power System can be up and running within hours - just ask the Department of Defence who will be getting a live demonstration in October!
VIVIENNE OJALA BROCK SOLUTIONS
Brock Solutions is a global industrial automation, engineering software, and professional services company with industry expertise in Manufacturing, Transportation, and Utilities. Our solutions empower customers to access data, transform operations, and drive performance and efficiency, while reducing costs and risk. WBE Canada: What challenges have you faced during the pandemic in terms of operations? Vivienne: Undoubtedly, the global pandemic was one of the biggest obstacles we experienced over the last couple of years. The majority of our projects require our employees to travel all over North America, and in many cases overseas as well, so there has been no shortage of obstacles and challenges navigating through this very complicated ordeal including Covid-19 testing, supply chain issues, food shortages, travel restrictions and vaccination status.
With tremendous cooperation and support from our employees, we navigated through such obstacles by having people temporarily move to some of our site locations instead of travelling back and forth, and building up teams that work extremely well together and support each other to contribute to the success of our projects with a continued focus on customers’ wants and needs.
In addition to this, we helped our customers navigate through their own financial challenges, and various operational obstacles by working with them from a financial perspective, and offering options of delayed payment terms, lowering costs wherever possible, and being patient and understanding of their own business challenges that resulted from the pandemic. WBE Canada: How has WBE certification helped in your securing international contracts, especially with government funded projects? Vivienne: We have many active government contracts in primarily US jurisdictions via other WBE Certifications. As part of our broader WBE certifications, WBE Canada certification has benefited our business by offering credibility with large private and government organizations in Canada and validating the diversity mandate that exists within these respective organizations.
These women leveraged their resources and relationships to accommodate the changing landscape commerce and breaking into the realm of globalization. Their common goal was similar: growth. WBE Canada’s Toolbox offers the tools and resources needed to help women-owned businesses scale up and grow their business with a primary focus to help WBEs understand supply chains, and helps businesses maximize certification, navigate supplier diversity events and opportunities and get their businesses ready for large contracts. Learn more about WBE Certification and how to get access to the toolbox. Our team is here to give you the answers you need, reach out to us at certification@wbecanada.ca
Strengthening our economy Strengthening our economy through supplier diversity through supplier diversity Inclusive procurement practices strengthen local economies, forge new business opportunities and create value for communities. That’s why we Inclusive procurement practices strengthen local economies, forge new developed the RBC® Supplier Diversity Program in 2004. business opportunities and create value for communities. That’s why we developed the RBC® Supplier Diversity Program in 2004. Our goal is to advance equality of opportunity for women, BIPOC, LGBT+, people with disabilities, service-disabled and veteran-owned businesses Our goal is to advance equality of opportunity for women, BIPOC, LGBT+, by promoting an inclusive supply chain and levelling the playing field for people with disabilities, service-disabled and veteran-owned businesses diverse suppliers. by promoting an inclusive supply chain and levelling the playing field for diverse suppliers.
Learn about our Supplier Diversity Program at
rbc.com/sourcing/supplierdiversity
Learn about our Supplier Diversity Program at
rbc.com/sourcing/supplierdiversity
® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. VPS108119 126028 (04/2021)
THE TRADE COMMISSIONER SERVICE: Helping Canadian Companies Succeed Abroad for 127 Years and Counting
Authored by Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) / Global Affairs Canada (GAC)
The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) is a Government of Canada organization that helps Canadian companies grow and sell their products and services abroad. It does so by connecting them with its funding and support programs, international opportunities, and its network of over 1,000 Trade Commissioners in more than 160 cities across Canada and worldwide. The TCS provides services and support to small, medium and large-sized exporters, while at the same time supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in trade through a number of initiatives. Since Canada’s first Trade Commissioner was posted to Australia in 1895, the TCS has grown significantly and gained 127 years of experience helping Canadian companies do business abroad and succeed in international markets. Today, the TCS has access to an extensive network of international contacts with privileged access to foreign governments, business leaders and decision makers. It currently works with over 10,000 Canadian businesses every fiscal year, mainly through the work of individual employees in Canadian trade and diplomatic offices around the world who provide those businesses with tailored services, information, advice and funding. In terms of results, compared to non-clients, Canadian companies that use TCS services:
• export to 24.8% more markets; • export 11.2% more product varieties; and • earn 19.8% more value.
The TCS network:
Trade Commissioners in the TCS’s regional offices across Canada can provide advice to help sharpen your export plan and begin your international expansion. This could include working with your company to decide on a target market, collecting market and industry information and improving your international business strategy. Each regional office in Canada has dedicated Inclusive Trade Champions, who are available to provide specific support and services to women-owned and led businesses, including introductions to business women’s associations within Canada and advising on upcoming events and initiatives for women entrepreneurs.
Trade Commissioners around the world provide advice and industry contacts to help with your market entry. They offer up-to-date information on foreign markets. They can inform Canadian companies about barriers and regulations associated with entering a specific region; provide an overview of the competitive landscape and practical advice on such areas as navigating business and cultural practices; share knowledge about upcoming opportunities or emerging trends; and identify upcoming events such as trade fairs, conferences, partnering seminars or trade missions.
THE TRADE COMMISSIONER SERVICE continued...
TCS program and services:
The TCS also offers funding and support programs to help Canadian businesses and organizations pursue new business opportunities abroad, connect with foreign partners, and attract foreign investment into Canadian communities.
These include:
• CanExport programs that provide funding for small and medium-sized enterprises, innovators, associations and communities.
Regional Office Champions are available to provide additional support and advice to women-owned and led companies who wish to complete a CanExport funding application.
Additionally, CanExport has recently begun accepting annual supplier diversity certification costs (including through WBE Canada) as an eligible funding expense. • Canadian Technology Accelerators (CTAs) that help Canadian companies that have an existing technology or product find opportunities and expand into key foreign technology hubs.
Programs tailored specifically for womenowned and led companies are offered with varying deadlines throughout the year.
Companies are advised to consult the CTA website for a comprehensive list of upcoming programs. • Canadian International Innovation Program, which helps Canadian companies pursue international research and development projects with a foreign partner. • Trade Missions and events that are advertised online, including initiatives specific to womenowned and led companies. A number of initiatives and resources are also promoted in the TCS’s official magazine, CanadExport, which you can subscribe to today to get the latest trade related insights, events, stories, and opportunities that can help you make better business decisions delivered right to your inbox.
The TCS also recently launched a free new service for Canadian businesses looking to quickly resolve urgent export problems. Exporter Solutions offers both direct, on-the-ground assistance from TCS offices around the world, as well as troubleshooting and proactive support for a wide range of export and international-business related topics. The goal is to help Canadian exporters manage risk, save time and reduce costs, maintain relationships with clients, and get their business back up and running in no time. You’re ready to grow. We’re ready to help. Visit the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service for more information, and find additional resources for women-owned companies on the TCS’s Business Women in International Trade webpage.
The Trade Commissioner Service helps Canadian businesses grow by connecting them with its funding and support programs, international opportunities, and its network of Trade Commissioners in more than 160 cities across Canada and worldwide. Visit tradecommissioner. gc.ca to get started today, and feel free to contact a Trade Commissioner with any questions.
Making it possible.
Every day, Magna works to make the impossible possible – on the roads and in our communities. We are dedicated to supporting programs and organizations that make a difference in people’s lives and the world around us.
We are proud to sponsor WBE Canada dedicated to creating networking, training and promotional opportunities for Canadian women-owned businesses, buyers and leaders from large corporate and government organizations.
Together we can make it possible.
At ventureLAB, we value diversity, inclusion, and respect. Diverse experience, perspectives, and backgrounds bring great ideas and create stronger teams — we embrace it, because we know that by including everyone, we all thrive.
L e a r n a b o u t h o w w e ' r e b u i l d i n g a n e q u i t a b l e t e c h s e c t o r .
ENGINEERED FOR
DRIVEN BY DIVERSITY
Toyota’s diverse suppliers — and their inclusive perspectives and progressive capabilities — are essential to our story of creating Mobility for All.
Diversifying Supply Chains Takes Commitment and Continued Learning
By Melanie Travers, Director of Sourcing and Supplier Management at Export Development Canada
The decision to establish a supplier diversity program at Export Development Canada (EDC) was an easy one. Getting it off the ground, on the other hand, has brought along challenges and learnings. Still, we’ve never once questioned whether it was the right thing to do.
The concept of a supplier diversity program dovetails perfectly with our mandate and 10-year corporate strategy: to improve Canada’s international trade performance, with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles at the core of all we do. Moreover, there’s the potential to help address economic inequality in Canada and to lower our operating costs and supply chain risk, while increasing innovation and getting a better return on investment. It’s a win-win, for EDC and for our suppliers. In 2021, EDC’s Learning & Development team worked diligently to find the right supplier to provide the welcome kits we send to new hires. They ultimately selected “Ethical Swag”, a WBE certified- and B-corp Certified, Nova Scotia-based, woman-owned and operated business, which uses eco-friendly packaging, audits their suppliers on social compliance, environmental impact, product safety, supply chain security and product quality. From Ethical Swag’s perspective, the experience has also been a win.
“We’re growing our company and impact as a result of working with organizations like EDC,” said founder and CEO Tara Milburn. “The welcome kits were assembled by residents of an organization that supports individuals of varying abilities, helping the residents gain vital skills and connection to the community. We are able to impact lives through meaningful work by harnessing the buying power of EDC.”
The goal of a supplier diversity program is clear: foster greater participation of diverse suppliers (companies majority owned, operated and controlled by those from equity-seeking groups such as women, LGBTQ2+, Indigenous, persons with disabilities, minority, and veteran-owned businesses) in our procurement processes by ensuring fair and equitable access for all, and in doing so, sign new contracts with diverse suppliers that help to build their capacity, experience, and ability to scale. To get there, we first had to establish the foundations of the program, by becoming corporate members of five advocacy organizations that certify companies as “diverse” (including WBE Canada), learning from the experiences of organizations with established programs, and identifying a supplier diversity champion in our Procurement team.
Next, we updated our Supplier Registration Form to identify which of our new suppliers are diverse, leveraged the events organized by certifying councils to meet with diverse suppliers, and leveraged our corporate memberships to obtain coaching with the development of our program. Along the way, we learned that we needed time to familiarize ourselves with the service offerings of diverse suppliers and make connections between suppliers and our internal buyers, and to examine our procurement processes to identify and remove potential barriers. Thinking of this endeavour as more of a strategy than a program has helped myself and my team understand this is not something we’re going to finish in one year. Since announcing our intention to create more opportunities for equity-seeking businesses through our supply chain in 2020, we’ve created a registry of diverse suppliers (existing and new), confirmed an executive champion for the program, and signed a number of new contracts with diverse suppliers.
This year, some of our objectives include updating our Procurement Policy to include requirements related to supplier diversity, organizing a matchmaking event between diverse suppliers and our internal buyers, continuing to build our database of diverse suppliers, and identifying supplier diversity champions within EDC’s lines of business.
Ensuring our procurement processes foster a higher participation rate among diverse suppliers is a longterm commitment and learning experience. But that shouldn’t scare off any organizations that haven’t yet started work in this space. There are countless supports and partners to help guide us through this, and the sooner you start, the sooner you begin to make incremental change and create impact.
Melanie Travers is the Director of Sourcing and Supplier Management at EDC, responsible for EDC’s procurement and vendor management functions. A Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) with over 21 years’ experience in financial management and management consulting, her areas of expertise are target operating model design and business process improvement.
