Diagnostic tools help Canadian businesses survive and thrive

"We used the diagnostic tools designed by Louis Raymond and his team to measure our company's capacity for innovation. It helped us adjust our strategy and adapt to an increasingly competitive market."
—Christian Poudrier, CEO of Posi-Plus Technologies Inc.

In Canada, there are some 400,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Each faces daily challenges linked to the globalization of the marketplace, the increasing complexity of client needs, and the emergence of the knowledge-based economy.

Yet, even though they may have less human, financial and technological resources, small and medium-sized businesses also have unique advantages. For 20 years, Louis Raymond and his team at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières' Research Institute for SMEs have been studying the business performance of small and medium-sized companies and identified three important success factors: flexibility, reaction speed and innovation capacity.

As a result of this experience, Raymond and his team have developed a series of diagnostic tools—used by more than 600 companies in Canada and 200 in France—to help small and medium-sized businesses evaluate their competitiveness, innovation, leadership and other aspects of their corporate performance.

To survive and grow in the new economy, businesses must have the right mix of strategic, structural, technological, human and environmental factors related to performance. And this is exactly the type of economic advantage that world-renowned expert Louis Raymond and his team have provided to hundreds of Canadian businesses.