At this time last year, we found ourselves more than 12 months into a global economic downturn, operating in a fragile business climate and questioning past best practices. Today, Canada is performing better than other G-7 nations, by key economic indicators, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasts Canada will post the strongest economic recovery of all G-7 countries over the next two years. I see the evidence of this recovery every day when I look out my window at the bustling activity within Canada’s Asia Pacific Gateway.
While our sector continues to recover, we are focused on delivering generational change across an entire industry and supply chain. In the Vancouver Gateway, we have aligned industry and government goals and developed a new business model based on collaboration and participation funding. It requires three critical elements for success:
- Collaborative strategy development is the building block, the creation of a common vision, the foundation upon which we build commitment, trust and accountability.
- Collaborative financial commitment to the joint strategy is the means by which we execute our strategic vision, solidify mutual commitment, and leverage each individual investment many times over.
- Collaboration in operational measurement and improvement defines mutual benchmarks and expectations, by which we fulfill our commitment to reciprocal accountability and maximize the operational, commercial and economic benefits of the investments that every partner has contributed.
By collaborating and aligning business objectives and outcomes, we can leverage individual investments, better mitigate risks, more dependably deliver the reliability and consistency that customers demand, and deliver the socioeconomic and environmental benefits that communities deserve.
We must realize we are interconnected across our entire spectrum of public and industry engagement. Collaboration indeed is the key to meaningful and sustainable achievement.