Transcript
Maddie: Maureen, before we get into today’s conversation, who is this podcast for?
Maureen: This podcast is for new CEOs, CEO candidates, and experienced business leaders who are thinking deliberately about what comes next.
Maddie: And that includes employees, communities, business partners, governments and other organizations whose support can be critical to getting things done.
Maureen: Maddie, I’m going to start with a little quiz. If I asked you what Nova Scotia’s largest export to the United States is, what would you guess?
Maddie: I think most people would probably say lobster. Maybe seafood or lumber?
Maureen: Exactly. And I think most people would be surprised by the answer. In 2024, Nova Scotia exported about $1.5 billion worth of tires to the United States, making tires our largest U.S. export—ahead of fish and seafood.
Maddie: Which is remarkable, because when people think of Nova Scotia—especially people outside Canada—I don’t think tires are the first thing that comes to mind.
Maureen: Not at all. And many of our listeners may not know exactly where Nova Scotia is. We’re on Canada’s Atlantic coast, northeast of Maine, projecting into the North Atlantic. Halifax is the most easterly full-service container port in North America, with connections to more than 150 countries. So geographically, we’re remarkably well positioned between North America and Europe.
Maddie: And Michelin has a significant history here too.
Maureen: It certainly does. Michelin has manufactured more than 230 million tires in Nova Scotia since 1971 and employs nearly 4,000 people in the province today. Jason Guidry is the CEO of the Pictou County Partnership. Pictou County is home to one of Nova Scotia’s Michelin facilities, and Jason talks in our conversation about participating in the Michelin Cities Conference—bringing communities together internationally to explore collaboration, business opportunities and stronger supply chains.
Maddie: But what really struck me about this conversation is that so much of Jason’s work comes back to something you can’t necessarily see on a balance sheet.
Maureen: Yes, trust. Jason describes trust almost as a form of economic infrastructure. We tend to think of infrastructure as roads, ports, broadband and access to capital. But Jason makes the case that none of those things is enough if businesses, governments and communities don’t trust one another—or if people don’t follow through on what they promise.
Maddie: And there’s a wonderful example from Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore.
Maureen: Yes. Jason and his colleagues were developing a program for tourism businesses there. Rather than create the program first and then try to persuade people to participate, they began by listening. They reviewed earlier research, consulted with the community and invited people to help shape the program itself. By the time it launched, the people they needed weren’t simply being asked to buy in—they had helped build it.
That’s such a powerful leadership lesson.
Maddie: And there’s also a practical message here for anyone listening from New York, elsewhere in the U.S., Europe—or really anywhere outside Nova Scotia.
Maureen: There is. Entering a new market can be complicated. You need to understand the people, the business environment, government resources, supply chains, culture and relationships. Jason describes economic-development organizations almost as a white-glove concierge for business—helping companies understand an opportunity, find the right people and resources, gather intelligence and navigate the region. So if Nova Scotia has never been on your business radar, perhaps this episode will change that. And if you are considering investing here, expanding here, finding a Canadian partner or simply exploring what opportunities might exist, Jason is exactly the kind of person worth knowing.
Maddie: And with that, here’s Maureen’s conversation with Jason Guidry.
Maureen: Jason, welcome to the Get Hired Up podcast.
Jason: Thank you for having me.
Maureen: It’s my absolute pleasure to have you here. What we’re going to talk about today for the listener is building trust before building growth, why community competence matters in economic development. So, Jason, you’ve just stepped into a New chapter as a CEO of the Pictou County Partnership. Before we get started in today’s conversation, could you briefly take us through your leadership journey that brought you here so far?
Jason: Of course, as you mentioned, just started as a CEO of the Pictou County Partnership. Before that, I was with the Halifax Partnership in the role of Director of Trade and International Partnerships, supporting our business outreach, our international connections and what we would call our sister City relationships globally, and our trade and supply chain development work. Prior to that, I was with Business New Brunswick in an investment attraction and sector development role for the province, focusing on the IT industry, including gaming, animation, simulation, and film.
Maureen: And for the benefit of our listeners here today, can you describe sister cities? And what that does for economic development and direction. What that does for economic development and direct investment in the area, let’s say, of Nova Scotia.
Jason: Absolutely. So, sister city relationships take all kinds of forms. And the format that I was most interested in was what we called an economic partnership. So, a lot of sister city relationships focus on cultural ties and social events and bringing people and communities together. What I really focused on was bringing The economic development professionals together to support connections between businesses being made. So using the sister cities framework to create a conduit between our two regions to help open doors for businesses in both areas.
Maureen: So can you give us an example of a sister city partnership? I know there are thousands of them, but Tell me about your the most prominent ones.
Jason: Certainly. So the relationship that I worked on the most recently was Portsmouth, UK. So working with the city of Portsmouth and my counterparts in economic development at the city of Portsmouth in the UK and helping to connect the port of Portsmouth with the port of Halifax, connecting our incubators together, connecting businesses together to explore collaboration opportunities, to compete on bigger projects together from both sides of the ocean, connecting our universities and opening doors for research collaborations. All in the interest of supporting business growth between our two regions.
Maureen: Thank you for sharing that. I think it’s fascinating relationships that you’ve built not solely in the UK, but worldwide. And I know you’re heading to a conference, I believe, in Italy shortly.
Jason: Yeah, for the Michelin Cities Conference. So Pictou County is home to one of three of Nova Scotia’s Michelin plants. And so the Pictou County region, along with the Bridgewater region and the Valley region, are heading to Italy to participate in The Michelin cities conference where Michelin cities from around the world are getting together to learn about each other and find ways to collaborate and leverage our business contacts and supply chains to help each other out. So really looking forward to understanding more of the, what the opportunities are with this particular network.
Maureen: So interesting. So just for the sake of, of the listener here, because I’m familiar with your work. Can you talk a little bit about Halifax, Canada, where we’re currently recording this interview, and what types of businesses have benefited from the sister city relationship? The types of companies are all over the map.
Jason: For example, able to connect a local fiber optics company who develops technologies and capabilities around sensors and Linking all of these technologies together over fiber optic networks and connected them to a cable lane company in the UK. And they are currently exploring an opportunity to bid on a procurement contracts together because they both complement each other’s offerings and create a stronger value proposition when collaborating together as opposed to submitting individual proposals.
Maureen: So really serving almost as a professional matchmaking, I know it’s probably understating the value, but bringing parties together with complementary interest and economic drivers to help businesses settle here.
Jason: That’s exactly what we do. So yeah, we are business matchmakers, for the lack of a better term, understanding what the needs are for businesses in both regions and then finding a partner that’s willing to have a conversation and explore the Opportunities and connecting them together directly so that they can continue that conversation. And then we get out of the way and let them explore that. But we’re always nearby in the event that they need support or we need additional partners brought to the table. Almost curating the conversation or the interactions between our businesses and businesses in the cities that we have an economic partnership with.
Maureen: I do recall, based on my research, that these partnerships with other cities around the world So across Canada, across the United States, obviously in the United Kingdom, where else do the sister cities connect or what other countries or regions will benefit from this type of partnership?
Jason: We have sister city relationships throughout the US, in China, throughout the EU, but currently we’re focusing on relationships in the UK, and the EU to help businesses diversify their supply chains and their revenue streams to help reduce the impact of tariffs and other current business constraints.
Maureen: It’s always a dynamic environment when you Business constraints. It’s always a dynamic environment when you’re working internationally anyway, so this is obviously an effort that is likely the outcome of the pandemic because of the interruption of the supply chain systems around the world, as well as the economic infrastructure that has been interrupted for a lack of a better word or term. And I know Jason, people describe you as a people first leader. This is what I heard and based on my research. And so when we think about economic infrastructure, most people tend to think about roads, ports, broadband, we’ve just talked about Broadband, utilities and access to capital, but there’s another form of infrastructure that is much less visible, but nevertheless, very foundational to the work you’re doing, that’s trust. So if businesses, communities, governments and institutions don’t trust one another, or don’t trust the process, even a very sound economic initiative can become difficult to execute and you’ve described To me in the past, trust is almost a form of economic infrastructure. What do you mean by that?
Jason: Yeah, so without trust, the relationship is, it’s hard to grow that relationship. So for example, our economic partnership with Portsmouth has really advanced to the point that it’s not because of the trust between Our organizations, between our regions, and the framework of trust that we kind of work on and through with our individual businesses that we’re working with. So, by trust, what I mean is that our partners can count on us delivering what we say we’re going to do. And that sounds straightforward enough. But when it comes to international partnerships, what I’ve found is that. There tends to be a lot of talk, and where the Process breaks down is on follow up and follow through. So by actually demonstrating and delivering on the items that we’ve agreed to do, that helps to build that trust. And the biggest thing is once that trust is built, the partnerships are keen to continue that relationship, find ways to deepen it and are always thinking of you when opportunities come about.
So that’s where I find trust is, you’re absolutely right, almost a currency in economic development. And without it, it is really Difficult to grow the relationships or close any of the deals that you’re looking to foster.
Maureen: Because I’m assuming here that not only are we dealing in significant amounts of capital, but we’re also dealing with significant institutional decision making that transcends the actual transaction itself. And is required to produce. A tremendous sense of trust, reputational trust, institutional trust.
Jason: Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. And from a business’s perspective, exploring a new market and starting to do business in a new market can be a very costly and time-consuming effort. So by us helping them connect to another business through our relationships with cities internationally. You know, that helps to bring that level of trust up by having a business that they can speak to in that region that is known to our counterparts in economic development in the region, knowing that they are indeed a legitimate business and that they have genuine interest in talking to a business in our region about collaboration or working together in some way. So that trust kickstarts that whole conversation. It doesn’t de-risk the transaction, completely because there’s never a guarantee. There are no perfect match or perfect fit every time, but at least it starts that conversation or cracks the door open to allow that business to start that conversation with a baseline of trust start that conversation, you know, with a baseline of trust and confidence to further explore things.
Maureen: I love that. How do you build trust across cultures? Is it different? In China? Is it different in the UK? Is it different here in Canada?
Jason: It very much can be. In Canada, we tend to be fairly direct with our business negotiations. In other parts of the world, you need to actually build that trust first and build the relationship first before they even discuss business. So, going into a new market, you need to understand what those cultural norms are. The people that you’re speaking to are going to expect you to approach that conversation and that relationship and understand that. But the flip side of that is if you find the right partner, in a new market. They can help you understand that market far better and far quicker than you could do it on your own. You know, there are a lot of intricacies around doing business in a new market. And you mentioned a few of them there’s culture, there’s language, there’s colors and artwork, there’s legal considerations, there’s trademark and IP protection considerations, the logistics and shipping and You know, how do you process returns and warranties if it’s an actual physical good that you’re selling? All of those things, a good partner that you can find that you’ve built that relationship with can help you understand those things and may even be able to help you actually do some of these things on your behalf. You can do the same for them in our market. There’s a lot to consider when looking at building relationships internationally.
Maureen: So I’m curious, Jason, it sounds to me as though you’re really a catalyst for economic development. We’ve just, I guess, acknowledged that. And we also understand that trust doesn’t replace strategy, it simply creates the conditions in which the strategy can actually be executed. Can we talk about some of the sectors that you have brought together?
Jason: Absolutely, yeah. So, sectors and even regions, potentially. So, from a sector standpoint, we’ve done a lot of work with the ocean technology sector and oceans or the ocean economy as a whole, connecting them to opportunities in Portsmouth, in Germany, in China in previous years. So, really helping them understand the opportunities, or even just exploring, in the case of China, what the opportunities may be. We’ve done a lot of work with the IT sector, cybersecurity, and helped companies identify supply chain partners to diversify their supply chain, both in times of crisis like during the COVID-19 pandemic, where supply chains were disrupted heavily, so helping them find alternate sources for products and services that they were not able to access, or, you know. In individual cases where businesses were looking to just simply explore a new region and, you know, open to importing and exporting, exploring both of those components of business in a region.
Maureen: So interesting. So really impacting The gross domestic product of a region, not just here, but internationally as well.
Jason: Absolutely, and you know, creating more exports is one of the best ways to increase GDP because those are all new dollars coming into our economy.
Maureen: Yeah, absolutely, net new dollars for sure. So, what happens, Jason, when communities do not feel consulted, in or or if the trust is missing from this equation?
Jason: Yeah. So. In a more general economic development term or context, I should say, if trust isn’t part of the process. And that could show itself in things like, for example, if the economic development organization moves forward with a strategy or a concept without listening or consulting with the community, and the concept may not be necessarily aligned to the community’s desires, or it may even just be a misunderstanding of what the intended Outcomes and impacts are of that particular strategy or any kind of a communications gap. But if that happens, that’s where I see trust eroding between the economic development organizations and the communities. And then it’s really, really difficult to move projects forward. And I’ve seen multiple really Good projects fail because of that breakdown in communication, breakdown in trust, and breakdown in just that process to consult with the community, to inform the community of what’s happening, why it’s important, and where we’re going as a region.
Maureen: So, what would you say, Jason, is the role of the CEO or in CEOs in general in building legitimacy? Before advancing these Major initiatives, especially if there is, and I know you, due to confidentiality, you can’t name specific projects, but I can imagine a few that may have, there may have been some resistance in bringing a particular business into a particular sector.
Jason: Yeah, I think the role of the CEO or any of the leaders involved is to ensure that there is clear, transparent communication about what is happening. I do need to consult about what is happening. You know, I do need to consult with the community and communities that are involved and affected to listen and to hear what those concerns may be, to answer the questions that the community has in a respectful and timely manner.
Maureen: And how do you do that, Jason? How is that done?
Jason: That’s a great question. It really depends on the communities. In some cases, we’ve actually held open houses or town hall sessions where the community is invited to come out and to hear about a project and listen and share their feedback and what have you. Sometimes it’s through working with partners and getting the word out through their networks. Other times, I’ve seen it done through written communications, either through newsletters or newspaper articles or Or what have you. So I don’t think there’s one silver bullet for that outreach and that community consultation. I think it really depends on the community and how that community shares and comes together and where they get their information.
Maureen: What would happen without the partnerships? Let’s just say Nova Scotia as an example. Where would we be without you, without these partnerships? Without these organizations.
Jason: So we are at a grassroots level working with businesses, and we understand the local business concerns, the ecosystem, the partners that support these organizations locally. We really help to curate those conversations and to be that clutch between other organizations and governments and the business communities. Helping businesses understand what’s out there, what can help them either resolve a problem or access the tools, the services, whatever they need to grow and expand.
Maureen: What would be an example of a tool? So, I’m a business here in Nova Scotia. I’m struggling to reach a market in region A, maybe in the EU or whatever. So, what would be some of the early stage tools that you offer that partnerships offer businesses to help them expand their footprint?
Jason: If a business is looking to expand into a new region, one of the first things they should do is take a look at the, or there’s a variety of different sources they can take a look at, but they should research the region that they’re interested in. So they can start with a Google search of that region and the business factors that are specific to that region, and then start looking at some of the partners. So Investment Nova Scotia offers a host or suite of resources to help businesses prepare everything from training, so FIT training that’s available through them in a partnership with ACOA, to help get into their first trade mission, to follow-up support, and trade market intelligence. There’s resources available through Global Affairs Canada and Trade Commissioner Services. Again, a lot of it is accessible through their website, where you can start to kind of better understanding the markets that you’re looking at any restrictions or considerations that you should be thinking about.
Maureen: So do you offer, do you like, does the partnership, like say the Pignon partnership, for example, or the Halifax partnership, do they offer, I believe you offer specific on-site services as well like going into business On-site services as well, like going into businesses and having a look at what they’re doing and what their plans are and things like that?
Jason: So, yes, absolutely. So we work with local businesses to help connect them to resources and funding, and as I mentioned previously, but we also work with businesses internationally or even across Canada that are looking to expand here locally. We act as almost like a white glove service concierge service for all of these businesses. So taking the time to understand what the opportunity is or what the concerns are and matching them to the partners or resources that can help them answer those questions. We also help with gathering business intelligence that they need to build their value proposition for their projects. So yes, we absolutely work closely with all businesses, but one of the other values that we provide here is that we tend to be a very collaborative region. We’re a small region, but we know the partners here locally and we work with them very, very closely. There aren’t many regions globally, really, that you can get all three levels of government in one room.
Maureen: You can certainly do that here in Nova Scotia, I think we have.
Jason: That. That’s right, yeah. It’s one of our strengths. So we’re able to be nimble and quick when it comes to responding to businesses’ requests like that and to provide the information that they need to be able to make good decisions.
Maureen: Yeah, so interesting. You know, when I think of community trust and social capital, they are often two ingredients, I think, that can be missing in the process of economic development. My question rounding out this Call is how can leaders communicate through ambiguity, massive change, what we’re seeing right now, Jason, geopolitically, and competing interests?
Jason: So I think the best way that CEOs and leaders can help in those times is to be as clear and concise about what they do know. They’re able to help reduce some of the uncertainty about even one aspect of doing Business, that helps, especially in an environment like we’re in right now. There are so many unknown factors affecting businesses that it becomes difficult for business owners to make those decisions with confidence. Being clear, being transparent, and helping to reduce some of the unknowns that the businesses are facing.
Maureen: Absolutely, and there’s just there’s so much of it right now we’ve had with the pandemic and now with the trade wars and the tariffs, it’s become even more complex for sure. And when I think of community engagement, I don’t think of it as a soft work. You know, we think about it’s the building blocks of economic development. Basically, what you’re saying here today is built through trust, and that trust is garnered through clear communications. We didn’t say managing expectations, but I think it’s in there. We’ve just sort of alluded to that, being able to share what we know and what we don’t know, and also coming to the table in a spirit of collaboration and mutual benefit.
Jason: Yeah, absolutely. And I think you’re right. I don’t think community engagement should be considered soft work anymore. You know, in the past, people used to see it as a checkbox, as part of the planning process or part of their approval process. But more and more, I’m seeing projects start with community consultation and building their programs, their initiatives, their projects around what they’re hearing from the community. So for example, when we were looking at developing a new program to support businesses, tourism businesses, on the eastern shore of H.R. Atmer, Halifax Regional Municipality, we started with looking at all of the other community consultations, the surveys, the reports, and everything else that had been done in the region to learn what or as much as we could. Then we did our community consultations to really truly validate first of all, what we learned from our initial research, but also to expand on what our program may be, and invited the community to help us craft what the program would ultimately look like.
And because of that, we built not only trust, but buy-in and interest in the program, which made it a very, very successful program in the end. So when it came time to recruit for The ultimate program, we didn’t have any problems because everyone we wanted involved had been involved from the very beginning. And or I should say, either from the very beginning, or they joined us along the way as we identified through the community consultations and the conversations we had, you know, identified what players or what individuals were missing from from the Players or what individuals were missing from the conversation. So by the time we actually ran the program, everybody was in the room and had a role in shaping what the program was going to look like. And therefore, not only saw the value in it, was really only saw the value, it was, you know, really valued the content that we’re able to bring together.
Maureen: So, in other words, giving people a voice. That’s right. Yeah. And I think that’s so important. Jason, before we wrap up, what’s the one thing you would encourage leaders to think differently about when it comes to building trust with the communities they serve?
Jason: I think it’s being as open and transparent as you can with the communities, but also having a clear communications plan and strategy. So helping the community understand what you’re trying to accomplish, why it’s important and how we’re going to get there after consulting with the community and understanding that this is indeed what the community wants and that you’ve got their buy-in and their trust. But making sure that that communication is clear, is consistent and happens on the right regular intervals. Like I mentioned earlier on, I’ve seen a lot of projects fail because of inconsistent or insufficient communication.
And that’s eroded trust because that lack of information or that void created an opportunity for alternate narratives to be generated. And then once those narratives are out there, it’s really difficult to bring the focus back to what’s actually happening as opposed to what people think is happening. So, yeah, absolutely. I think that clear, consistent communication is absolutely critical for any project, no matter if it’s a small project or a major mega project happening in the area.
Maureen: Yes, and I know you’ve been involved in a number of mega projects as well. I’m sure it’s no easy feat to bring a mega project to a small region like Nova Scotia. So I’m just thinking, Jason, if there’s someone sitting in a small town country A outside of Canada and they’re thinking hmm now that I know about this new market, how can they get in touch with you?
Jason: I’d be happy to speak with them. They can reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Maureen: Awesome. So, Jason, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. I know you’re very busy, but one of the things I take away from our conversation today is that economic development isn’t simply about attracting investment, creating jobs, or building infrastructure. Really, it’s about people, relationships, and creating the conditions where communities can prosper. And trust may be less tangible than roads. We had a conversation with someone a couple of episodes ago, Shirley Han. She’s a fellow Canadian from Vancouver. She was born in China. We talked a lot about trust, building trust, and it takes time, it takes effort.
Jason: And it’s absolutely an investment.
Maureen: Yes, it’s an investment. And it’s less tangible than roads, ports, and capital, but really without it, the best strategies will struggle. I have one final question, and that is what is your favorite restaurant? So, Maddie and I have been compiling a list now for several years, and it can be a restaurant anywhere that you would like to share with our listeners.
Jason: That’s a great question. I like a lot of different restaurants. A recent family favorite would be, I would say, probably the Bicycle Thief, downtown Halifax on the waterfront.
Maureen: Yes. I Can actually attest, not very often do I get to share that I’ve been to the same restaurant as a listener, or as a guest on the podcast, but I have been to the Bicycle Thief and I know, I’m pretty sure Maddy has been as well, and it’s downtown Halifax. They serve just delicious food, a beautiful environment, and it’s just a great restaurant. So we’ll make sure that the Bicycle Thief gets onto our list, which we publish every new year. I want to congratulate you, Jason, on this new chapter in your leadership journey as CEO of the Pictou County Partnership. Really appreciate you joining me on the Get Hired podcast to share your perspective with our listeners.
Jason: Thank you, Maureen. It’s been a pleasure.