Page 67 - Canadian Industry Online

CMEthat we will see things continue to improve in terms of consumer spend- ing and industrial growth. Our busi- nesses looking at growth potential need to consider economic growth beyond what’s happening in the US; they should be monitoring the perfor- mance of multinational supply chains, who they are competing against for a shrinking share of the global market. If their customers are US, European or Asian companies that are selling raw materials around the world, then these companies are going to be affected bywhat’s going on in China and Asia.There certainly is not a lot of pric- ing leverage and competition is fierce. This is all the more reason for Cana- dian companies to be holding cash, lowering costs and making sure they are coming up with innovative, cus- tomized products. This is the only way to compete in an intensively competi- tive marketplace — by doing some- thing different that nobody else can do. That’s where services come in and your ability to protect yourself against all of these risks is really important.67