His “lessons learned” include:

- Instead of trumpeting your own horn, spend the time to address future disruptive forces.

- Cutting costs does not equal innovation.

- Constant re-organizations and re-structuring does not mask deeper problems; it just diverts time from consumer focus.

- The old companies are still stuck in an old mindset.

What have you done to address the disruptive technologies that may impact your company?

How much of this erosion can we attribute to the mis-management by RIM’s co-CEO’s?  They were, afterall, the masterminds behind the failed Playbook launch.  It seems that RIM’s co-CEOs could not agree on who its PlayBook was for – RIM’s traditional enterprise customers, or for the vast retail market.

Did RIM’s co-CEOs lose focus?

“And the co-CEO’s extracurricular activities were almost too numerous to count. Balsillie was absorbed in one of his three failed attempts to bring an NHL franchise to Hamilton, and was also setting up otherwise laudable non-profit research institutes.  Lazardis, meanwhile, was mid-wife to the Perimeter Institute, a world-class facility for pure rather than applied physics research – an apt metaphor for Lazaridis’ resistance to risking the purity and security of RIM devices with seamless Internet access, video streaming and music and game playing functions.”

While there was a divide among attendees about which was better – more stimulus spending to help the economy recover, or more conservative spending and balanced budgets – all countries involved in the G20 summit have agreed to reduce their deficit by half by 2013. By the year 2016, these countries are all hoping to have stabilized their debt loads.

So what does that mean for Canadian businesses?

While nothing official has been announced as to what Canada will be doing to reduce its deficit, Canada was agreeing with the European countries that what is required to reach the goal of cutting back stimulus spending, so we can speculate that stimulus spending will be reduced. And that could mean, unfortunately, that a lot of programs small businesses get assistance from would not be able to provide as much fiscal support as we have become used to.

Of course, we don’t know what will happen for certain yet. But we will definitely be keeping an eye on what is decided about Canadian stimulus spending, and will be keeping you up-to-date with any announcements that are made that could have an effect on the way you run your business.

Surprisingly, this is not solely a result of people being laid off, as paid employment fell by 3.3%. As well, most of those who were laid off were originally working in the manufacturing industry, whereas those who are now self employed are in the services industries.

Another interesting thing to note is that those who were involved in the growth in self-employment were mostly women (58%), even though it was mostly men who were self-employed before October 2008.

In the past year, Bombardier Aerospace introduced their much anticipated line of CSeries jets.  Magellan Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney Canada invested big time in their Montreal and Winnipeg operations.

According to the AIAC (Aerospace Industries Association of Canada), based in Ottawa, the aerospace sector directly employed 82,000 Canadians in 2007.  This is a significant increase from the 79,000 employees working in the industry just a year prior.  Aerospace revenue increased by half a billion to $22.7B.

Aircraft parts, components, and planes, jets, etc. account for 55% of  the overall revenues for the aerospace sector, the majority of which is generated by exports, especially to the US and European countries. Military sales increased by $5 billion last year, a rise of 18% from 2006.

Helping to fuel the exponential growth of the aerospace sector (no pun intended) is the increase in commercial air travel. The Current Market Outlook for 2007-2008, released by Boeing, predicted that air passenger travel will increase 5% per year, and cargo travel by 5.8%. The forecast extends these numbers for the next two decades.

Quote for April 22nd, 2009:

“The modern airplane creates a new geographical dimension. A navigable ocean of air blankets the whole surface of the globe. There are no distant places any longer: the world is small, and the world is one.”
- Wendell Willkie