Canadian aerospace industry needs sales expertise

Is it our reputation as a polite people, nice people, that make sales, promotion and public relations a challenge?  These are some of the areas, according to Isabelle Dostaler, that Canada’s aerospace industry needs to develop in order to remain competitive.While our industry ranks fourth in global aerospace production and is a key sector of the Canadian economy, Isabelle Dostaler, Professor of Strategy at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University has studied how and where the industry needs improvement, and according to her findings, management and marketing expertise are some of the missing elements.

“R & D Junkies”

Commissioned by Industry Canada to investigate the future of our aviation and aerospace industry, Professor Dostaler says Canadian companies, particularly the smaller ones, have a reputation of being, “R & D junkies”;  these companies can innovate, design and create, but they can’t seem to take the next step in bringing the product or technology to market, and promoting it there.

These complimentary soft skills Isabelle Dostaler says will be very important in the future of our industry.  The federal government, in its recent budget, allocated a billion dollars to Canadian aerospace companies to assist in the stage from design to prototype.  But it might be time to pay some attention to what is involved in selling the finished product.

When asked about the recent set-backs of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft, Professor Dostaler is very positive.  She said, “It wasn’t a simple problem but it was a normal one because the 787 is the first aircraft to use such a large amount of composite material, so that’s a new fabric for the structure of the aircraft, allowing it to be much lighter.”  She said, “everything that was learned by Boeing throughout this very difficult process will be reflected everywhere in the industry.  It’s a closely knit industry with engineers travelling a lot from one company to another.  So there’s lots of what we call knowledge spillover where all the industry benefits from the learning that goes on in any given company.”