Let's Reward CEOs With Guts And Vision

Munk is right to raise such questions because corporations are at the heart of Canadian life. Governments don't create jobs, firms do. Governments don't create wealth, entrepreneurs do. Productive, wealth-creating, innovative firms are at the epicentre of our economy, stimulating, in turn, service industries like advertising, public relations, and law. It is the private sector that produces the taxes that allow us to provide health, education, and superior social services. But it all starts with the economic heartbeat of the wealth-creating firm. I taught at Harvard for many years and many brilliant Canadian students would consult me about their futures. Most wished to return to Canada, but they equally wanted the opportunity to eventually become decision-makers, not decision-takers. Many eventually went on to Wall Street, or The City in London, because they felt too few Canadian companies were players in the global game. What is missing from the dry statistics of cost-benefit so beloved by macroeconomists is this sense of pride and desire for agency. If we ignore these human elements, we are shortchanging our economic future. "Guts" and "vision" in Canadian CEOs are essentials that have to be found from within. Public policy, however, can create a framework where these virtues are not penalized, and perhaps even encouraged, by the right sorts of incentives. Many countries have learned this lesson. Canada must do so. Many countries have explicit strategies for helping their companies to fend off foreign takeovers and become global players. President Vladimir Putin of Russia, for example, wrote a thesis on "Strategic planning of resources", and is now using state power to promote intense resource nationalism. The U.S. Congress Committee on Foreign Investment, having stopped foreign takeovers of American oil companies and ports, is now strengthening the American approval process. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/215546

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