Calling all [[Michigan (Ross)]] 2008 applicants...

But only if you take into consideration income equality... There are other interesting items to think about: Russia has been developing rather fast since 1998, oil price is very high and it pulls up industries connected with oil production and consumer market. Consumer market pulls in some industries for having local production - such as automotive, for example. Canada, and you can correct me, as I do not have pretty close relationships with anyone living there, has been stagnating in terms of economy and doesn't show any boom in any case. Income inequality could be caused mostly by the historical factors and previous growth.
At the same time, Russia tends to have more authoritarian political system with significant influence of certain economic groups who are now trying to re-distribute profitable and strategically interesting companies into their favour. Canada has more democratic system and this causes greater stability of incomes

RED, I don't think Canada's economy is stagnating. It is not experiencing a boom as in the case of India or China, but the economy has been growing steadily. The outlook for 2008 is that domestic spending will be robust with growth estimated to be 3.4%. The growth will also be spurred by expensive oil (Canada has one of the largest reserves, albiet difficult to extract), the strong Canadian dollar, and sales tax cuts that were introduced this year. These factors should make for a strong domestic economy. Exports to the US however will be hit due to the high Canadian dollar. All in all the outlook for 2008 is optimistic.

It's better to say - doesn't experience significant growth. That is comparing to SW Asia, Russia, some Latin American countries looks like a bit boring... BTW, what are the main industries (domestic production, export) in Canada and in which industries concentrates the main economic life? From this side of the globe Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand seem to be safe places to take rest after challenges in India, Brazil, China, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia. Just want to learn more from people who are inside or have strong understanding of what's happening in these countries.

RED, the main industry is services accounting for about 33% of the economy. Canada's exports are mainly in the following industries: Machinery and equipment, automotive products, metals and plastics, forestry products, agricultural and fishing products, energy products. The last one, has seen significant growth on account of the rising price of oil. Canada is also traditionally very focused on nuclear power and has been taking initiatives for the generation of clean power.
Canada is also an awesome country to live, work, and retire. I moved here from India when I was 19 and have absolutely no regrets. I was welcomed and given every opportunity to settle in and then contribute. I can honestly say that I am proud to be Canadian!

RED, when you come down to Michigan, you can visit!! It's only about 4 hours to Toronto.

And about 30 mins to Windsor?

Yup, but I am from Toronto!! Also, there's more to do in Toronto.

Sounds interesting. What are the most famous Canadian companies? Do the companies mostly produce same products with minor changes in design or there is a constant rate of innovations, what is the competitive edge of Canadian companies in machinery, automotive, plastics? Actually I can hardly recall any product connected with Canada except winter feather coats. Suppose, it could be the same situation like in Russia when we produce mostly for domestic market due to high costs incurred by energy price, cold weather and processes inefficiency. Summed up with local mentality resulting in inconsistency of mass production, this causes less recognition of Russian products outside our country.
I like Canada and UK - in both countries are combined US approach to business and European culture that cause to a very pleasurable environment I with pleasure go for a trip to Canada once in AA.

Tons of cars are made in Canada, a lot of companies especially American car companies have factories and produce tons of cars up there. They also have huge natural gas reserves, gold, diamonds...pretty much if there is something valuable under the ground they have it up there. Americans would recognize far more products that come from Canada than Russia, I think its where you live that you dont realize what they have in the great white north.

Why US companies place manufacturing to Canada? Natural resources, metal, low-price energy? Do Canadian companies develop products on their own or they mostly operate as OEM for US? If we take a look for directions of interest for manufacturing in automotive and electronics, they are: Mexica - cheap labour, China - cheap labour, Taiwan - higher quality than China and also inexpensive + engineers, India - takes the lead from China as the latter is raising wages + engineers. But from those I do not know any Mexican car, nor any great electronics brand, China does perfect job protecting its market and growing up own companies in both sectors - Chery, Great Wall; Lenovo, Taiwan has famous electronics brands - Asus, Acer, Advantech, iEi, India has Tata. And what is the overall country strategy/overview of possible strategies for Canada?

Hi guys .... interestng discusion going on here it looks like we are going to be such a great class of 2010

I just had my interview ... it went kind of ok.... my level of concentration droped a little bit just when he asked the 'why Ross' question so I started rumbling a little bit on that important question

anyways... how do you guys find out the correct spelling of you interviewer to send them a thank you letter? do you call admissions office?

Not 100% sure but I bet until recently it had the advantage of a stronger dollar. However, the unions are the real problem with the US auto makers, they keep wages far higher than competition like Toyota and Honda, and the healthcare and retirement benefits are insane. I am not sure what the union situation is like in Canada but it has to be better than it is here.

That said the real problem is the fact no one wants to buy US cars anymore because they have the stigma of being ugly, gas guzzling, and unreliable…these are much harder to overcome than fixing the retirement benefits for union members.

As far as we are in Michigan thread, we try to keep it as close to automotive as possible

Congrats for having an interview! I sent an e-mail after having done a search in Internet with the name of my interviewer. On the first page of google results I found out the correct spelling.

not working for meeee ((

For Michigan, you guys got an email saying that your app has been complete and the adcom is looking forward to reviewing it??


2nd rd. apps..

Unions is a problem for German auto-makers too .

Regarding US auto-makers my friend from India who worked for Ford told that many people spend a lot of time playing Solitaire while at Toyota they would have to work far more efficiently. Found also an article about SQC (Statistical Quality Control) and life of Deming. Deming implemented most of his approaches in Japan that led to TPS (Toyota Production System) and the basis of the system is well known - workers participate in production process, consistently improving it. When the same system was brought into US, it was taken as a "zero defect" and perfect quality but neglected this touchstone with participation. But to grow up this type of participation are needed other elements of Japanese management that are rather difficult to implement in US.

And the greatest comparison that influenced me a lot - when you come to Detroit you see huge towers of steel and metal of famous US auto-makers. Looks solid and expensive. And somewhere in between cities, with a forest near-by there is a hill which covers 2-3 storey building of Toyota engineering center. Toyota doesn't want to show up anything, it wants to produce effectively. And this extends outside US too... In my city to repair Ford car you have to wait at least 3-4 weeks for parts (I had to place my order three times, because for some weird reasons first two times guys at service reception didn't put my order into the system) while Toyota or Peugeot can deliver most in one week or less.

Yes, I had this e-mail that was followed by interview invitation in a week.