Improving Corporate Productivity and Innovation 2011

Background

The Conference Board of Canada and McGill University are pleased to co-present a conference that will bring together the key actors from private and public sector organizations, as well as the best minds who are studying productivity, competitiveness, and the role of innovation.

The conference will help organizations improve their own productivity and innovation performance by providing them with the latest in corporate best practices and effective strategies. To encourage knowledge transfer the format goes beyond the traditional conference’s imparting of information, to create an environment where ideas are adopted and the knowledge shared can help to improve everyone’s organizational performance.

It will bring together business and government leaders, decision makers and practitioners with academic experts and leading researchers. The presenters will showcase best practices, discuss policy and its impact on organizational performance, and share the most recent research outcomes on productivity and innovation.

Featured Conference Themes 

• Productivity and Innovation: Keys to Sustainable Performance 
• Productivity Gains from Smarter Workplaces and Work Processes 
• Fostering Attitudes and Behaviours for Innovation Inside the Organization 
• Government Policy as an Enabler of Productivity and Innovation

Who Should Attend? 

• Leaders and decision makers from business and the public sector who want to find tools and techniques that they can apply in their own organizations to improve innovation and productivity performance. 
• Government officials and others who are interested in the impact of government policy on innovation and productivity improvement. 
• Researchers and academics who want to learn more about the latest research findings on productivity and innovation. 
• Individuals who want to dialogue with experts and peers to explore how their own innovation and productivity challenges can be resolved.

Background—Did You Know...

Productivity lags behind the United States in Quebec, Ontario, and Canada as a whole. 

• In 2008, Quebec’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was $38,898, Ontario’s was $45,472 and Canada’s overall was $48,106—significantly lagging behind the U.S. $57,642. 
• Between 1981 and 2008, Canada’s standard of living grew by 53 per cent, while the U.S. grew by 66 per cent.¹

Gaps will continue to widen unless productivity levels in Quebec and throughout Canada are improved. Private and public sector organizations must learn to adapt innovative and more sustainable business processes and practices, in order to increase productivity, competitiveness, economic performance, and overall prosperity.

This conference will showcase best practices that participants will be able to adopt and adapt for use in their own workplaces and organizations. A major focus of the event will be on assisting private and public sector organizations to improve their productivity and innovation performance.

Interactive Breakout Group Sessions

The conference will feature two sets of interactive breakout group sessions based on the conference themes, which are intended to foster in-depth discussion as well as focus on how to adopt innovative and effective solutions.

The sessions will be 90 minutes in length. They will consist of a 45 minute presentation, followed by a 45 minute discussion period where participants will be encouraged to ask questions and engage in dialogue with the session presenter and other participants.

The solicitation of a wide spectrum of views as well as focused discussions among experts, stakeholders, and participants will guarantee effective information exchange and stimulate effective action by participants to improve productivity and innovation in their organizations.

Pre-Conference Report

A pre-conference report will be distributed to participants and presenters, in advance of the event, and will provide a common text for all attendees to focus dialogue on key issues, themes and questions. The report will combine an extensive review of existing literature, as well as successful examples of organizational strategies and practices that have helped organizations to gain advancements in productivity and innovation. It will focus on the four main conference themes.

Participants, who register for the event ahead of time, will be sent the pre-conference report by e-mail prior to the event. Copies of the report will also be distributed at the conference and will be readily available for all participants.

McGill University’s Master in Manufacturing Management (MMM) Program

Graduate students from McGill’s MMM program are committed to developing leading edge productivity and manufacturing research. Teams of students worked throughout this past school year to research and prepare the pre-conference report for participants use. In addition, the students will attend the conference sessions and will act as scribes that will help to record successful organizational strategies, best practices, challenges that organizations are facing and recommendations for potential solutions that are discussed, which will be included in the post-conference report.

The MMM program is a graduate level program, with a mission to graduate individuals with integrated skills in engineering, management and leadership, who are specialized in manufacturing, supply chain and logistics operations. A key feature of the program is industry participation and interaction with a major emphasis on improving productivity and operational effectiveness.