Welcome to the Chartered Institute of Management (CIM). The Institute is here to provide you with information and training vital to become a successful manager. CIM has firmly positioned itself as a forward looking professional certification body. It also provides a platform for managers to meet and network with others in their field and share ideas and thoughts on the problems which face managers in business today. CIM focuses on Action Learning approach to management training. CIM has members in Canada and throughout Asia: people just like yourself who are facing the challenges of achieving success in a rapidly changing business environment.

We hear a great deal about globalization these days. Some oppose it, but it is here to stay. The genie will not go back into the bottle. Geo-economic and geo-political realities must be dealt with constantly. In times past, your competition usually came from within your own city or state, your competitor organizations were close by and you could get to know them well. Globalization, however, has worked a radical change in this situation. Your competitors can now be in other countries, perhaps on the other side of the world, and thanks to sophisticated methods of shipment and handling, your competitor's products can be on the shelf as quickly as yours. No matter where your competitors are located, they are as real as if they were next door.

Moreover, in times past all markets were local, or national at best, but they are now international, and customers and clients all over the world demand the same levels of attention and service as of they were in your home town.

The upside of this equation is that new and burgeoning markets have become available, but the challenges of international business and of serving those markets have burgeoned as well. Cultural issues now affect marketing strategies, language barriers must be overcome, and a host of other problems require attention on a constant basis.

But whether your business is local, regional, national or international, there are fundamental issues to be addressed right in your own operations, right where you are now: effective human resource management, the management of new technology, and in particular, the management of knowledge. In its monthly articles on these WebPages, CIM will offer ideas and insights into these and many other issues, as well as information on items of current interest from Canada and elsewhere. In addition, you’ll be able to read interviews as well. Question and answer and discussion sessions with businesspeople and educators, all of them leaders in their field. So please join us and see what we have to offer.

The challenges are significant, but the rewards have never been greater.

Charles Mossop, B.A., M.A., C.Mgr., F.M.B.A
President
The Chartered Institute of Management