When you look at your two key divisions-- aircraft and transportation--where do you see the biggest opportunities?
If you look at aerospace, even with what we know about a possible recession in the States, the booking is still very strong. The thing that has changed a lot in the last few years is that where the market used to be 70% domestic [Canada and U.S.]and 30% international, it's now opposite. Today it's basically 70% international and 30% U.S. With the economy going as it is right now...we may not be as affected as much as if we depended completely on the U.S. market.
The same comment would probably apply with regard to the dollar?
Yes, especially with the new markets--Russia, China, India--that are opening up for business today, which were not very strong in the past. Also, there's a boom in the turboprop market and that's looking very good going forward, since the turboprop is a lot more fuel-efficient and the price of oil doesn't seem to be going down.
In transportation, [the outlook]continues to be stronger because of issues like the environment. Countries like India as well as a lot of big cities around the world need new transit systems because of the traffic and pollution problems they face.
What are the biggest challenges you foresee in executing and delivering on those opportunities?
We hope that the dollar will stabilize because we cannot continue to have an increase in the Canadian dollar. Even if only 20% of our aerospace business was affected by the Canadian dollar, that's almost $2 billion. The other major issue is emerging markets--you know, markets like India, China and Russia--and we need to position ourselves to play an even bigger role in those areas.
The Bombardier and Beaudoin families have been Canadian icons since the beginning, starting off with the very first snow machine. Is it strange to be running the company without those components?
Yes, but when Bombardier sold the recreational products, the family joined teams with investment banker Bain Capital to buy the group, and today we still have 35% of it. That's why, from a family point of view at least, we still have a big stake in it.
In June, your son Pierre will become CEO and you'll stay on as chairman. How will you balance your time with the business as opposed to some of the other things that might be out there?
I feel after 45 years in the business I can take a bit of time out and enjoy some other things in life. I have other personal investments and, as you are aware, when you run a business you never take [enough]care of those things. I have someone else looking after my own personal assets, but I intend to spend more time looking at them.