While the U.S. Congress was desperately scrambling to salvage its bailout plan, a panic-inducing chill went through the spine of the financial markets this past Monday, September 29 – as specialists and laymen alike are still struggling to come to terms with the finer points of this ongoing crisis. How exactly did the massive issuance […]

A Working Group of 18 prominent members of the business community issues a set of proposals promoting flexible governance adapted to the needs of Quebec’s small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs. At a time when small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are facing bigger and bigger challenges, their owners and managers need to be able to […]

A group of experts issues a report on corporate governance in the healthcare system and proposes concrete measures for improving the oversight of health and social services institutions in Quebec ? Improved performance within the healthcare system requires the boards of directors of healthcare institutions to have broader powers and clearer responsibilities so they can […]

[Caveat: This brief is submitted to the Competition Review Panel as a personal statement and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Institute or of its board of directors] The strength and size of the latest wave of foreign takeovers of Canadian corporations has spurred a sharp debate about their costs and benefits to […]

[ … ] The main question in most of the studies we survey is: Does disproportional ownership destroy shareholder value? We will argue that, while the literature has uncovered some robust evidence, this question has proven difficult to address empirically. A related issue is whether the widespread use of mechanisms to unbundle cash flow rights […]

Calls to eliminate the current architecture of the securities regulatory apparatus in Canada and replace it with a single, national securities commission have reached fever pitch over the last few weeks. Unsubstantiated claims that “Canada is the laughing stock of the rest of the world” are bandied around as if that were a compelling argument […]

Working Group proposes principles for the governance of Quebec universities. In order for universities to achieve good governance, their Boards of Directors must include a majority of members who are independent of internal stakeholders. Boards must also enjoy autonomy in carrying out their functions – a prerequisite for accountability. They must follow clearly-established reporting requirements, […]

Agenda of Presentation: Preliminary remarks Hedge Funds Private Equity Funds Policy Implications

On May 7, 2007, Alcoa launched a bid to take over Alcan. It is qualified as “hostile” takeover bid because no previous arrangements had been made with the Alcan board of directors in this regard. This event, which follows on the heels of several other takeovers of Canadian businesses by foreign interests in recent months, […]

The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not reflect a position of the Institute nor of its board of directors. The acquisition of CHUM Ltd by Bell Globemedia has brought the issue of control through superior voting shares back in the limelight. In an early, path-breaking move, the Toronto stock […]

Yvan Allaire has shaped and crafted the strategies of a number of large companies in Québec. At Bombardier for the last five years, he went form advice to action. Today, he leaves his job as Exective Vice President, but leaves behind solid foundations for the future.   To read the full length article, pleaser click […]

The wave of mergers and acquisitions rolls on unabated, the latest statistics putting the number of transactions worldwide at some 34,000 in 1999. Canada has been an active participant in this global phenomenon. In 2000, there were close to 1300 transactions, worth some C$234 billion, in which Canadian companies took part. Canadians were involved in […]

The 4th Conference of Montréal on globalized economies wove together three different but closely related strands of issues and challenges confronting Europe and directly or indirectly a good part of the world. What’s happening now in Europe will have momentous ramifications throughout the world, bringing forth major shifts in economic power and new alignments of […]

I come to this topic of economic models from the perspective of a business strategist and not of an economist. As Napolean said somewhere, strategy is a simple science: it’s all in the execution. With the bankruptcy of the communist/socialist economic model, there is currently a remarkable convergence worldwide of the economic policies that have […]

With all the pomp and circumstance of a D.W. Griffith movie spectacle, the ultimate business jet was unveiled in a cavernous hangar in Toronto last summer. While Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and other political heavies looked on –  an accompanied by a 45-piece orchestra and 1,000-strong choir belting out a rousing chorus – an enormous […]

The business press has recently chronicled many corporations that are experiencing momentous shifts in strategic orientation. Reference is often made to corporation’s market repositioning, acquisitions and divestitures, structural changes, etc. However, when reporting on such major strategic changes, the press has also begun  to emphasize the softer dimensions, such as values, culture, and mind-sets. Thus, […]