Just about every Canadian business executive has probably heard of Parkinson’s Law about work expanding to fill the time available or the Peter Principle about individuals rising to their level of incompetence.

Professors Parkinson and Peter have become icons and their books, best-sellers.

By contrast, who has ever heard of Claude Villars (1653 - 1734)? The name of France’s brilliant general and crafty statesman would draw a blank today, perhaps even in France itself.

Yet Villars left behind a phrase that resonates with Canadian manufacturers when they think of their biggest business challenges – “God save me from my friends. I can protect myself from my enemies.” That is to say, Canadian manufacturers see their own government as a greater problem than foreign competition.

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