Managing in the competitive environment of the 1990s

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 84, No. 947, 1991

M.J. Daniel, Compensation Research Centre, The Conference Board of Canada

In numerous meetings, conferences and discussions over the past year, the Conference Board of Canada has been impressed with the efforts of Canadian organizations to improve their competitive position. The attempt should be made to try to pull together and synthesize what has been heard. The topic of this paper, however, is even more daunting. The task is not only to analyze and discuss what is happening now, but also to look into the future—to the year 2000. The future seems to have an endless capacity for surprises, often unpleasant. This is one of the lessons learned in the twentieth century, particularly over the last 15 or so years. This paper covers three areas of managing in a changing competitive environment: (I) the major global and domestic trends that will influence the ways in which Canadian organizations are managed (2) how Canadian companies are responding or will need to respond to these trends; and (3) the implications of the preceding for human resource management and human resource profes-sionals.