Reddit reviews Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson: Rescuing Canadian Business From the Suds of Global Obscurity

The lack of a go-getter spirit and international outlook that makes it difficult for us to create internationally-recognized brands that reach outside North America.

European nations smaller than us (Sweden, The Netherlands, etc.) have recognizable global brands, while we're happy having companies like GM Canada, IBM Canada, etc. and a bunch of resource companies that no one's heard of. Our only global brands are Blackberry, Nortel (defunct), Scotiabank, and a few others. Canada punches way below its weight in global entrepreneurship.

This issue was explored in the book, "Why Mexicans don't drink Molson" [1]

[1] https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Mexicans-Don-Drink-Molson/dp/1553652258

I appreciate the nationalism (?) and it's food for thought, but companies brand themselves the way they do for all sorts of reasons, none of which should concern the average citizen.

I'm not going to stop eating at Swiss Chalet because they're not Swiss.

The bigger issue is not naming but the Canadian entrepreneurial culture. There's a book called "Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson" that goes into detail as why Canadian companies have a hard to developing global brands, and a lot of it has to do with complacency, risk aversion to developing foreign markets and lack of an ecosystem for scale-up.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Mexicans-Dont-Drink-Molson/dp/1553652258

Many older (and some younger) Canadians have this mindset that we're a country descended from "hewers of wood and drawers of water", and don't really think to venture abroad -- past the United States and Western Europe, and to emerging economies -- and take risks there. It's really a mindset thing. Fortunately one of the biggest sources of complacency disruptors are immigrants, so we'll see if the risk appetite of the Canadian population changes.

> "There is literally no industry in the world that we have an advantage in," he said. "‘Our most prolific companies, Nortel, BlackBerry, Bombardier -- we’re not good at running businesses, period, and it has to do with our culture. We’re not as aggressive and competitive and capitalistic as the folks down south."

Wow. Finally someone said it in print. And we all know it's true: What major Canadian brands are household names, outside of Canada? None. Why the hell do we (Canadians) drink so much Corona but do Mexicans drink Molson's? No.

Why does Switzerland, Sweden, or Australia, etc...all smaller countries... have much greater success at growing 'National Champion' globally-recognized businesses and brands? Why are there no more Canadian branded automobiles? (we used to have a number of Canadian auto manufacturers).

Hasan is dead on. But he doesn't need to join our national inferiority complex over it - we have a limited head start, so get out there an out-compete. Dominate the market.