Meet Alberta’s best workplaces and find out what they’re doing right >
In April, Derek Burleton, a senior economist for TD Bank, made a swing through Alberta to tout TD’s latest study, entitled “The Calgary-Edmonton Corridor: Take Action Now to Ensure Tiger’s Roar Doesn’t Fade”. There is much to marvel at in this study, not the least of which is the quantity of fulsome praise that a central Canadian institution saw fit to offer our humble selves. >
When Adam Smith developed some of the fundamental ideas in support of a market economy in the 18th century, economists thought about business primarily in terms of competition. Business was thought of as a game of chess: one company wins by defeating its competitors.
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It was an anonymous letter. But a riveting one, thought Nancy People. The writer was being humiliated by co-workers. He or she was the object of unwelcome jokes and teasing. The writer was too ashamed to come forward but wanted the boss to know.
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“Is respect just an overworked buzzword? Hardly, our panellists told me. In fact, it was something they had each faced themselves in evaluating the effectiveness of their own organizations in recent times.” >
Scorched by Enron, WorldCom and other infamous notables, directors today champion corporate integrity and emphasize the value of sound governance. And their quest has a familiar ring: uphold solid business ethics, be clear on management’s responsibilities and ensure the job is done right.
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One of the great editors of Time magazine coined the term “gold collar worker” to describe the creative types he had doing neither manual nor clerical work for him.
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Happy cottagers kibitzed on the lake town’s pier on this first Saturday of the season. But at the dockside café where they’d stopped to collect their wits, Nancy People and her business partner looked as pale and deflated as air mattresses left out all winter. “Am I back to 70-hour work weeks, doing it all myself and trusting no one?” David asked Nancy, miserably.
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Financial stability, innovative practices and environmental sensitivity prove to be the three pillars upon which a respected corporation is built
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“How do you define corporate respect?”
That’s what we asked Anna Alderson, Peter Carr, Roger Gibbins, and Paul Vella, who agreed to join us in Calgary for a special panel discussion in honour of Alberta Venture’s third annual survey of the province’s Most Respected Corporations.
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Recent events have widened the corporate governance gap between Canada and the United States. Legislators in the U.S. are scrambling to be seen to be acting decisively following the Enron crisis, enacting tough legislation with detailed rules for managers, directors and auditors. >
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