WHEN the Chrysler Corporation of Detroit, Michigan, experienced its first international expansion, it was a mere 11 days old: June 17, 1925, and Walter P. Chrysler couldn’t wait any longer to expand his corporate enterprise. As a result, the Chrysler Corporation of Canada Ltd. was established across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario.

Proximity and a tradition of cross-border commerce between the two cities made the expansion to Windsor a logical step. Nonetheless, Chrysler’s gambit was a bold and radical business maneuver, given the year and economic climate. The expansion established the Chrysler corporate identity early on: a world leader; a tireless, peerless innovator, a nation-builder. As well, this first, early expansion established a precedent. Nearly three quarters of a century later, the Chrysler Corporation and Chrysler Canada Ltd. expanded their corporate borders through their dynamic ground breaking merger with the German auto maker and transportation giant Daimler-Benz. For Chrysler Canada Ltd., this meant a formal change in corporate identity, as the Chrysler Corporation was no longer just a North American auto maker, it was well on its way to realizing what had been a corporate goal for many years – becoming the world’s foremost producer of transportation technology. In June 1999, Chrysler Canada Ltd. became DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc.

And with this change in corporate identity and an increased international presence came a renewed commitment to the many social and educational programs that Chrysler Canada had instituted and maintained over their first 73 years of existence. Now, DaimlerChrysler Canada is able to extend its corporate proactivity on not only a local (community-based) and national scale but on an international scale as well. And if you are planning on galvanizing the globe through transportation technology, you might as well be a global citizen. Global corporate citizenry is an integral part of DaimlerChrysler’s corporate identity for the new millennium.

Landry’s Legacy: Forging the Global Link

But global citizenry begins at home. The late G. Yves Landry who served as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Chrysler Canada Ltd. from 1990 to 1998, recognized this and incorporated it into his vision of Canadian industry working hand-in-hand with academia to create a curriculum that was more in tune with the needs of those same Canadian businesses and industries.

Perhaps Mr. Landry’s most enduring corporate legacy is his founding of the University of Windsor DaimlerChrysler Canada Automotive Research and Development Centre which was established in Windsor in 1996 with the support of all three levels of government – federal, provincial, and municipal.
 

The prestigious Synergy Award was presented to DaimlerChrysler Canada in 1998. It is presented annually by the National Council and the Conference Board of Canada to recognize the most outstanding collaborative partnerships between academia and industry.

Under this partnership, a culturally diverse group of students based in Canada’s automotive capital, are given the opportunity to increase their employability (in Canada, one in seven jobs is related to the auto industry) by learning, first hand, the technological skills that are mandatory in Canada’s multi-skilled workforce. Ranging from undergraduate to post-doctoral, the students are benefited by a facility that includes: a curriculum which allows them to work on research projects that have actual, practical applications in DaimlerChrysler products and the automotive industry at large; use of the most advanced vehicle testing equipment and facilities; and easy access to the tutelage and guidance of instructors who are the foremost automotive researchers in the world. Indeed, the University of Windsor DaimlerChrysler Canada Automotive Research and Development Centre is the only facility of its kind – anywhere.

John Mann, who is the Director of Engineering at the Research and Development Centre, points to the uniqueness of the partnership formed between DaimlerChrysler Canada and the University of Windsor, saying that it “transcends the traditional concept of industrially funded academic research” because the partnership is truly collaborative and the facility’s budget is “not intended to cover any internal manufacturing costs. There is no direct profit associated with what we do. It’s strictly research and development with an education focus. It is investment in our futures. And it is here in Canada, for Canadians most notably here in Windsor, the automotive capital of Canada.”

Strength through Diversity

Part of being a corporate industrial/educational leader is recognizing that you need to be at the front of the pack. Yves Landry recognized, at a very high level, that what was being done as far as collaboration between academia and industry in Canada was not enough.

Interestingly, it was DaimlerBenz, based in Stuttgart, Germany, and their highly successful collaborative efforts with post-secondary institutions in their community, that provided a solid model upon which the Windsor experiment was launched.

Through the recent merger and through collaborative projects throughout North America and Europe, DaimlerChrysler has achieved the employee diversity – from cultural background to educational experiences and specializations – that leads to innovative and analytical thinking of the highest order, which in turn leads to the kinds of ideas and concepts that make DaimlerChrysler an industry leader from both community and global perspectives.

Mr. Landry referred to this union of industry, academia, and government as “Forging the Link,” and his metaphor rings true five years later as what began as a local project has become an international success story. Indeed, the merger with DaimlerBenz can be seen as the ultimate “forging of the link.”

And the results have been ... stellar. National honours have been, and continue to be, bestowed. Recently the University of Windsor-Daimler Chrysler Canada Automotive Research and Development Centre was awarded The Conference Board of Canada – Royal Bank of Canada Post-Secondary Award for Excellence in Business – Educational Partnerships. And in 1998, the centre earned the prestigious NSERC and Conference Board of Canada sponsored National Synergy Award in the large industry category for the synergistic benefits that have resulted from this unique collaboration between academia and industry.

The award itself is a uniquely Canadian symbol of synergy. The bronze, hand-sculpted award depicts seven Canada geese flying in their distinctive “V” formation. “Geese,” says Mann “are the perfect, naturally occurring symbol of synergy because geese flying together can fly higher, faster, and further than they ever could fly as individuals.”

The added synergistic symbolism, given the Daimler-Chrysler merger, is hard to refute: like the flight of of the Canada geese, DaimlerChrysler’s journey towards diversification has global implications.