Vancouver Business
This evening I'm meeting with Bob Fairweather, a good friend of mine, we've known each other for longer than we want to remember. We were both in the trade commissioner service together. Bob, you've been back here in Vancouver for how many years now? About ten years, Steve. If I may, perhaps I could just rehash a little bit of what my career was like. When I graduated from university in the mid-sixties, I had a degree in international relations and joined the trade commissioner service of the federal government. In that capacity, in the first year, we travelled across Canada learning about Canadian enterprise. In those days much of Canadian industry was involved in the raw materials side of the business; we visited mines, fish plants, lumber mills, pulp factories, things of that nature. All of which were very important to the Canadian economy back in the 1960's. I remember those trips. We had a lot of fun too while we were travelling across the country.
We did, but for most of us, you know, plane travel was very new. A lot of us it was the first time we'd been on a jet plane and so we hadn't really travelled extensively. In my case, I was brought up in Ontario and so much of my life was spent in Ontario and Quebec, not knowing much about the country. So this provided a very excellent opportunity to visit the Maritime Provinces, visit the western provinces and see what a magnificent country Canada is. And that's why I'm always very proud to be Canadian. I should say that I had the same experience. First time ever in Newfoundland, first time to British Columbia. It really gives you a sense of the immensity of the country, which we forget when we live in our little neighbourhood and worry about our little worries.
No question about it. I mean the first time I saw the Rockies I was in awe of how wonderful this was all part of my country. Then I went overseas at the various embassies in a The Philippines, I served in the Caribbean and then my first time to Japan in 1972.
When you were in the Caribbean is that where you perfected your golf game at the government's expense? Well I did play a lot of golf. No, I started playing golf when I was about 13 in London, Ontario. There was a program that the municipal government had to encourage golf. It cost me ten dollars a summer and I could play at any of the four municipal courses at any time. So each day I would get up in the morning, hitchhike to the golf course and in the mornings I would either look for golf balls that I could sell or caddy for someone, and then in the afternoon when the juniors players could play I would play golf. I'd stay there until dark and then hitchhike home. My parents were always very pleased that I was doing that rather than out doing other things. So it has helped my golf game. And then I came back to Canada, having spent time in Japan, the department of industry, trade and commerce was very much involved in promoting our relationship with Japan, and became involved in something called the Canada Japan business conference.
Now at that time you already spoke Japanese?
Yes I did. I had been 2 years at the U.S. state department language school in Yokohama, Japan and then had spent a further 3 years at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo. And you know it really opened a lot of doors for me, Steve, in so far as Japan was very much new to Canadians, it had become our second most important trading partner, people were very interested in this country because it was growing very quickly and it was becoming much more important in the scheme of international affairs. So in terms of Canada, I guess our 3 most important or our four most important posts were Washington, London, Paris and perhaps Tokyo.
And you said you joined which association?
I helped out with the creation of the Canada Japan business committee, which was a committee of senior business executives in both Japan and Canada who would meet on an annual basis just to exchange ideas and try to get to know each other better. Because in the early days there was a lot of misconceptions, not only on the part of Canadians about what was going on in Japan, but also on the part of Japanese with respect to Canada as a place to invest, as a place to do business.
Now you did subsequently become the Chairman of the Board of Trade.
Yes, what happened was having spent most of my years abroad, when I came back to Vancouver in 1991 I was approached by a couple of members of the Board of Trade because they were looking for people with international experience to serve on the Board as a director. And so I joined in 1992, I became a member of the Board of Trade and spent three years as a director, and then subsequently I was asked if I would be interested in becoming the chairman of the Board of Trade. So I went on as vice-chair, senior vice-chairman and then in 1997-98 I served as the chairman of the Vancouver Board of Trade, which is a very effective organization in as much as it works very diligently on behalf of business in Vancouver to promote the interests of business.
Now, Darcy Rezak, is the, what's his title? He's the managing director, so he is there permanently, and the chairman changes every year? But in my case it was slightly different because when I was senior vice-chair the chairman at the time, Brant Louie, was very busy, and doing other things so quite often I had to fill in for him, so it was almost two-year assignment for me. And it was a wonderful time to be a chairman of the Board of Trade because APEC went on in 1997 so many of the government leaders came here to Vancouver to participate in that organization and I was fortunate to host Fidel Ramos, the President of the Philippines at the golf course. So being able to play golf helped me. And also got to meet with C.H. Tung, the Prime Minister of Singapore and several of the other leaders who were here at that time.
The Board of Trade, and of course we know some of the people there, they are also involved in this program, it's also an opportunity for people to meet people. That's really what the key element of the Board of Trade is all about. It's a chance for people to network; it's a chance for people to meet other people involved in business. There's about 4500 members and the Board of Trade puts on regular events to help support those members, be it affairs something like business After Business is something they put on a regular basis where members come and they're able to exhibit their products or their services. There's networking opportunities. When I say networking that's the chance for people to get to know each other, to exchange business cards. Peter Newman, who is a very famous Canadian writer, said that in one of his books, that " The Board of Trade may not have invented networking, but they've perfected it." At any luncheon they have, if you're sitting at a table, there's an opportunity to exchange business cards and the hope is that people will do business with those people with whom they've been able to meet over lunch. Now if we take an entirely different perspective, if you have someone who, let's say, is a recent immigrant to Canada, he's struggling to figure out the system here, get his family properly installed, he might have a professional degree or even professional experience in his home country. Now how does he start to network? How does he start working his way into this business community here? Do you have any advice?
Well, of course he has to be able to speak some English to enable him to communicate.
More than some English he has to speak good English.
Good English to communicate. And that's very important. Being able to gain entrA©e into the business community. Certainly the Board of Trade would be one element of that because it's easy to join, in fact there's programs that encourage people who are new to Vancouver to become members because they can use the Board of Trade as a stepping stone to get to know who is doing what, what businesses are here. And whether there's an ability to, if someone is looking for a job, certainly it's a place to start. Now, if we even step back from that, a person who maybe doesn't even have a job, what do you think are the key things to think about when you a) prepare you resume, b)when you go for a job interview. How should a person present himself or herself?
Steve, I've interviewed many people for jobs during the period I've been here and many of the people who come in to apply for a particular position within the company I'm in, come in not knowing much about the company, not speaking English very well. But more importantly their resume I don't think is prepared very well. Let me deal with those three issues if I may. First of all the resume. You only get one chance to make a first impression and so you've got to be very strong on your resume. Time and time again I've seen people who are well qualified, I get the resume, I read it, there's lots of mistakes. Spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes. And I'm saying I've got to present an image to the public. Can I afford to hire someone who, for such an important document as their resume, does not have the ability to write it correctly? So I would ensure that anybody who is preparing a resume, get it looked at by several people to ensure that the English is correct. Because it makes a very big impression when people see a well-written resume.
Secondly, when people come, they should be presentable. I think if people even can't communicate exceedingly well in English, as long as their written English is good. So, they should emphasize that as well. And I think this is an excellent opportunity by listening to these tapes to gain comfort in being able to understand colloquial English.
But even with good written English, I mean I know in my experience. First of all, I totally agree with you. Very often, nowadays if you're interviewing people, you have lots of applicants. So you're looking for a reason to disqualify someone. If you see a mistake, he's out, you're happy, you've reduced the pile, now you haven't got twenty to look at, you've got nineteen. So one has to be so careful. And I agree with you on appearance. Like, if a fellow comes in with an earring, he's out. I'm sorry. You really have to appeal to the broadest possible
Well, I look at several things; I look at whether somebody's shoes are shined. Because if somebody's shoes are shined, it means that they've taken care of their appearance, eh. So they're probably going to take care of their business affairs in the same way. They're going to be neat; you know appearances mean a lot, so they're going to ensure that things are done in a proper way. I think though that the spoken, we still come back to the spoken English. The person has to be able to create a favourable impression in the interview. Now what sorts of things should that person in the interview-what does he want to project to the potential employer?
Well, he has to convince that employer that he is the best person or she is the best person for the job. And so one way to do that is to have a good command of English. Another way is to be sure of your facts. But more importantly, what I find time and time again, I get people applying for jobs who come in to see me and don't know anything about my company. And yet we have a website, you know there's ability to find out about what we do; we have brochures you could ask for. You know all of these things that would prepare someone so when they come in they show that they have a genuine interest in what we do and because of that genuine interest, they're interested in working for us. I mean, that's also a very important point. I've seen this too. The person looking for a job comes to the potential employer. If I'm the person looking for a job, I want something from you: I want a job. But if I project the idea that I want something from you, I'm not going to get the job. What I have to project is: I'm going to give you something. I'm here to do something for you. And only if you project that do you have a chance of getting the job. But so often, it seems the other way around that the person applying almost is saying what can you do for me?
Yes, how much do you pay? The worst thing is when people come in and all of a sudden they're asking about how many weeks vacation they get? What's the salary and what are the benefits. I have lots of people who do that - those are the first questions they ask. What is their motivation for working here?
Mind you, to be very honest, it will depend on the job market, if we have a very tight job market where people are bidding for people, that's one thing. But that's not the job market that we're in today: it's a very tough job market. What kinds of job opportunities are out there? What professions? Where do you think the biggest need is?
Well, here in Vancouver we've seen a very big change in the economy of the province. Where mining and forestry were the drivers of the economy in years past, that's quickly changing and Vancouver's becoming noted for its high technology, for its film industry and for its tourism. All of which can be good paying jobs. Certainly the high tech sector where many people coming in with advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science would find lots of opportunities here in those sectors.
But the high tech has taken a bit of a hit recently? Or is it still doing fairly well here in Vancouver?
The start-up companies have taken a hit because they didn't have the cash, the monetary reserves in which to sustain themselves through a down period. Those that were well established have done well and continue to do well. The tourism industry has been hit by the global recession, particularly in the last quarter of this past year. And we've seen tourism off to a large extent from places like Japan and elsewhere. But I think we're seeing on the reverse side, many Americans who were thinking of going to Europe and to Asia, have now decided that it's safer to come to a place like Canada and with our lower dollar, they can enjoy a very attractive vacation here at low cost. The other area is the film industries and that involves so much in terms of companies who work in the high tech sector utilizing the latest technology to develop film, to produce films. There's one company here in Vancouver called Rainmaker where if somebody wants to have a bird on their shoulder, they can take the film and computerize it so that this bird flies in and lands on somebody's shoulder. You know all the things you see in some of the more fantasy movies like Jurassic Park.
Well, certainly the times have changed since you and I started our career as Trade Commissioners, back in the 60's and I think these are exciting times, even though we are in a bit of a difficult period. But certainly, I want to thank you very much.
My pleasure!
We'll see you again on the golf course. Thank you very much Steve.
