Oh Canada

Disclaimer: this blog post is a little negative, so read it with caution.

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I love Canada. It’s a beautiful country with some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. That’s why I’ve been living here for a decade, and I even got myself a Canadian husband.

But in full honesty I get frustrated from time to time by working in a Canadian affiliate of the global organization(s). Let me tell you why;

– Canada is a small country, population wise. What’s translated into commercial sales is a fairly minimal percentage compared with the sales revenue in the US, Japan, Europe and China (I mean who can compete with our 1.4 billion population? 👊). In the headquarters’ quarterly earnings report, I guarantee you can only see the US number and it often says NA!!!!! But people, seriously, Canada is a country on its own, it’s not a freaking State in the U.S.A. 😐

– Canada is often included into a bigger region because we are not big enough to be independent. Sometimes we are part of the NA region, sometimes we are part of the APJLA, and sometimes we are classified into the same region as the South America. All good, I guess. But the message is clear – Canada is not as golden and big as our Yukon potatoes 🥔 in the global corporate world.

– Canadians are perceived as too nice and easy going. With the cannabis being legalized, Canadians may just get even more laid back. At the global stage, we come across as conservative, considerate, cooperative, less risk taking but with the first world pay and benefits. So it’s time to really think hard about our value proposition and strategize how we can stand out.

Many times on global conference calls, we Canadians are called upon to speak at the last 5 mins, when all of American colleagues have finished their long and assertive remarks. What else can we say? So we throw out a few nice words to complement our American colleagues points. At the end of the day, we are neighbours, so we need to get along.

Oh Canada. 🙄