There are many different sports that test our various abilities, but none can match golf as a test of every aspect of our being.  What backs up such an unqualified statement? Why, the facts of course.

Name another sport to which the following all apply:

-It requires  a full athletic movement. A proper tee shot with a driver, going for distance, requires the strength, coordination and timing of a serve in tennis, or a pitcher throwing a fastball in baseball.

-Within minutes of this full athletic movement, it asks for precise use of the fine muscles of the body and total breath control in the form of a downhill five foot putt that breaks anywhere from three to ten inches, depending on how softly you make contact

-It can be played at the very highest level among the best in the world, at ages ranging from early teens to late fifties – witness Tom Watson’s  playoff loss in the biggest tournament in the world a few years ago at age 59 (The Open Championship, also known as the British Open) and then witness last week’s US Open, in which a 14 year old qualified for the tournament and a 17 year old was in contention until the final day

-It can be a perfect reflection of one’s natural athletic instincts, combined with dogged trial and error practice (totally self -taught in other words) with results that match those who have taken thousands of hours of lessons. Bubba Watson is the best known recent example of this, having won the Masters this spring and never having had a lesson. Canadian golfers will of course remember the totally individualistic Moe Norman, who Tiger Woods included with Ben Hogan as the only two golfers who really “owned” their golf swings.

So next time you hear someone who has never seriously tried this most perfect of ‘ball and stick’ games refer to it as something less than a true sport, straighten them out. Speaking of ‘straight’ they say that the hardest shot in golf is to hit the ball straight. But you probably knew that already. Play within yourself and play well!

Bob Cooke

A few weeks ago I wrote an article on the real cost of fighter jets. However, before you can figure out the cost of a solution, you need to figure out what your solution options are.  And the way to figure out your options is to define your needs.

As I write these blogs, I am always struck by how much they apply generally life as well as in making business decisions – this process works if you are looking for a new computer or phone, buying a house or shopping for a new outfit to wear to the party Saturday night.

So first, what are your needs? There are, of course, entire books on how to do this for computer systems, so I am just going to offer a couple of thoughts:

1. Focus on outcomes, not on process.  Remember what you are tying to accomplish - a fulfilled order or a completed product or a comfortable outfit that goes with my blue Louboutin pumps.
2. Think creatively when identifying needs. Don’t worry so much about the current processes you follow today. Current processes are derived from system and business constraints and old habits.  Take the opportunity to rethink how you do things and look for new approaches, practices and outcomes that may be enabled by new technology.
3. Set priorities for your needs.  Here is where you must be realistic. Know which features you will give up on if you have to pick, and which ones are must-haves.
4. Don’t get caught up in sales patter and jazzy presentations.  Keep an open mind, but keep focus on what you are trying to achieve and what you need to get there. Don’t let flashy demos distract you from what you need and are looking for.

 The second piece is to identify possible solutions that meet your needs.

1. Scan the marketplace – go to trade shows, search the internet, talk to your business partners, leverage your personal alliances to find out what’s out there.  Consider your existing relationships with vendors that you might want to extend. 
2. Look for vendors who want your business – so that you are just as important to them as they are to you.
3. Consider (even for only a few minutes) all possible options. If you are looking at a software solution, consider in-house builds as well as commercial products, if only to reinforce the logic of your selection process.
4. Follow the Pareto principle – 80% of the value comes from 20% of the input. Look for a solution that meets 80% of your needs (including the critical ones) and the remaining 20% can be figured out later.

Christy DeMont

With my new iPad in hand, I signed up for some workshops at the Apple Store to get familiar with the powerful gizmo.  The first session was great and opened up some new capabilities. 

The second focussed on making presentations with the Keynote product.  I marvelled at the knowledge and straightforward teaching style of our young instructor – so adept at manoeuvring around both the hardware and the software.  He was able to work with 4 people at once and each of us had different levels of experience with presentation software.  At the end of the hour, we said our thank you’s and were on our way. 

As I was leaving the young man said in a quiet voice, “How did I do? It was my first time doing that session.”  From his expertise, comfortable style and confidence fielding a host of questions, one would never had known it was his first time!  However, the big Aha(!) for me was that even as we are wowed by the techno talents of the millenials, human nature hasn’t changed.  He wanted informal feedback on his “performance”.

Note 1 to self:  Intergenerational learning is powerful—take advantage in both directions.

Note 2 to self:  Go beyond “thank you” and include specific feedback – if nothing else it’s a good conversation starter.

Teri Brown

Contemporary models of non-profit policy governance are all clear on one issue - the Executive Director is the only employee who is hired by and answers to the Board of Directors. Ensuring that an organization has the right Executive Director – someone who is competent to run the day to day operations, can engage effectively with the Board in their strategy and governance work, and move the organization forward in accordance with its mission and values – can present a Board with a real recruiting challenge at the best of times. Now consider the difficulty when the talent pool shrinks dramatically over the next 10 years as the Baby Boomers retire. Most sectors have not even begun to think through the implications of that massive retirement and the majority of organizations have no idea where their next ED will come from. It’s time for the Boards of Directors to step up to the task of ensuring that their organizations are contributing to the development of the next generation of Executive Directors – if not for themselves, then to replenish the pool. 

Jane Rounthwaite

In a recent article, a blue chip consulting organization posited a vision of marketing as being “the customer-engagement engine that orchestrates the delivery of the end-to-end customer experience.”

There are many notions floating around of what marketing actually does, but to me this presents a pretty good summary.

The customer experience is arguably as important as most financial measures – perhaps more so.  If the customer experience is positive, it’s why someone buys your product or service and why they might recommend your company or brand to their friends and associates.  If negative, the impact can be devastating.  We all know how it feels to be disappointed or even angry in product or service delivery because we’ve all felt it.  The stakes are high, so someone has to be in charge of defining and delivering that customer experience.

In the corner store, it’s the person on the counter – a simple touch point.  This person is the CMO of the enterprise – and probably also the President, the HR manager, the accountant, etc.

In a business with more complexity, there will be numerous “touch points” – from the traditional advertising message, to the telephone customer service representative to the Facebook page.  All of these contacts must be executed (and orchestrated) to deliver the desired customer experience.

And usually the part of the company which is responsible and accountable for delivering the customer experience is marketing.

Before marketing gets a swelled head, it’s important to note that those who do the “touching” may not actually report to marketing.  But the job – and accountability – of defining what the desired customer experience should be, usually rests with marketing.

So think about your business. Think about the customer experience from end to end –from when your customer first becomes aware of your product, to when they compare features versus your competition on the Internet, to when they make enquires of your online or call centre CSRs, to when they have the product shipped, to when there’s a follow-up to see whether they are happy with the purchase. 

Has the desired customer experience been defined in your organization and who is in charge of orchestrating the experience? 

To my mind, this is marketing’s critical role.

Ian Glen

More often than not, small companies and/or start-ups cannot afford to have a CFO on their team.  But they still need the expertise. One alternative is a Part-Time CFO.  The value of a Part Time CFO is the access to an experienced resource for a fraction of the cost. 

There are a number of situations when this support can be extremely valuable – when preparing a business plan or budget, arranging financing or credit are the obvious ones that come to mind.  It can also be very helpful to simply have a financially focused strategic thinker at the table.  In such an example the Part Time CFO can help to ensure that your growth plans actually make financial sense.  It can be a reality check to the CEO’s strategies.  Adding bench strength to support and supplement the accounting and finance team is often critical with smaller organizations where short term absences, or unexpected departures or even peaks in the workload can cause some serious financial management issues in a hurry.

So while not for everyone, a Part Time CFO can be an integral part of the management team in many cases.  They can provide the comfort of knowing that a professional is overseeing, protecting and constantly improving the financial side of the business.

Ken Goodwin

Consider these side-by-side…..Canada’s loss of mid-sized companies (527 gone between 2007 and 2010); the phenomenon of “reshoring” in which major manufacturers are bringing their business back from the likes of Japan to Georgia and Kansas; and the debate regarding financial support to Ford to re-tool its Oakville plant for new vehicle production in 2014 (and add in the angst over the impending line shutdown at GM Oshawa and loss of jobs).

The BDC can study this to death as per their views in Saturday’s Globe & Mail. By the time they announce a conclusion and any government level responds, the possible gains from the” reshoring” decade will be safely found in Indiana, Tennessee and Georgia.

Canadians have to be prepared to work for lower wages in the private sector, unionized or not, and government instead of just reducing headcount in the public sector, has to reduce real compensation so that we don’t end up with a two tier society (we already have it in pensions between the two sectors). We still have an educated workforce, space and structure to support these “reshoring” projects. It’s a sense of the real world that exists in a global market for manufacturing that’s needed. There’s a need to have a short, open debate about the aforementioned hollowing out of our business sector and the consequent reduced economic capability to supply a standard of living the starting point. Candid business, union (public sector and private) and political leadership will be absolutely necessary if a new consensus is to be constructed. All the protesting in the world (see Greece and Spain) doesn’t change problems of high unemployment. The state governments in the USA have taken a view that jobs are necessary and they and their citizens are embracing the manufacturing jobs that are re-appearing. Let the market set the wages. Forget the posturing. It’s what has to be done now to recreate the more prosperous future we want for our children and their children. 

John Bielby

For the past several years work has taken me regularly to the pretty town of Hawkesbury, about an hour east of Ottawa. I have met wonderful people in Hawkesbury, have made some friends, and contributed a little bit to the economy. 

Two weeks ago Hawkesbury earned the dubious distinction of being yet another Ontario town where seniors have died unnecessarily in retirement home fires.  Since 1980, 46 seniors have died in this manner, many of whom (maybe all) could have been saved had the homes they were living in been equipped with automatic sprinklers. 

Imagine being wakened at night by the sound of a smoke detector, or by the smell of smoke or the sight of flames.  Now imagine that you can’t easily get to your wheelchair, or reach your cane, or get out of bed by yourself.  Maybe a sense of confusion impairs your ability to respond to the danger. All you can do is hope that the firefighters get to you quickly. 

This is not a new issue in Ontario.  For years now there have been calls for sprinklers to be installed in all retirement homes.  Fire chiefs and firefighters have been among the most vocal advocates.  After all, what could possibly be more heartbreaking than carrying frail, confused seniors out of a burning building? Maybe knowing that you can’t get to them all. 

Would this be expensive?  No doubt it would. Is extinguishing a burning building that, by the way, is full of vulnerable seniors, expensive? I’m sure it is.  But cost concerns can surely be the only reason that instead of action, the province is undertaking a technical study.

Shame on successive governments for leaving some of our most vulnerable citizens at risk. Shame on us all for not being more vocal. Our seniors deserve better. 

The recent 2011 Census tells us there are nearly 5 million seniors in Canada and that near seniors (people aged 60 – 64) grew faster than any other group and will continue to do so.  So that means many of us will be residing in these retirement homes in the not too distant future.  I want my retirement home to have a sprinkler system.  I want all seniors in retirement homes to be better protected.  Surely we owe it to our seniors to keep them safe in their last years. 

Melodie Zarzeczny

How does a small business owner utilize the provincial government incentives to conserve, time shift and perhaps even generate energy in the Province of Ontario?  Well apparently it’s all here for you! Wind, solar, and even small hydro opportunities are all out there for consumers to consider to offset their electrical demand. Or so that’s how the Ontario Government (Ontario Power Authority) has presented the options to small and medium sized industrial users. I think we all understand however that it’s not exactly that straight forward and one really needs to start with the fundamentals and assess their demand in the context of their individual business operations. But what questions do we need to ask before we consider implementing changes? For one you need to know your demand profile - is my electrical demand continuous and not interruptible? Is there an energy conservation plan that can be applied to offset my peak high cost periods? Are there energy conversion options (multi fuel) to reduce the type of energy consumption at different periods? Can I load shift to change the pattern of use and save money? Understanding your business energy demand picture is the very first step towards improving costs and taking advantage of the incentives offered by your local utility.   

Here in Ontario the Ontario Power Authority does do a few things right. The Authority website is a great resource to users to investigate savings opportunities. Start with its home page and scroll through all the different programs available for consumers. Next check out the Hydro One website and review their programs. Some of the programs include:

• FiT and Micro FiT
• ICI OPA Industrial Accelerator Program for grid connected Users   
• Ontario Clean Energy Benefit offered by Hydro One-One
• OPA/Hydro One Audit program incentives

Many owners think electrical demand costs cannot be optimized and that these programs really don’t fit their needs. Not only is that incorrect but many businesses, maybe some of your competitors, have taken advantage of the incentives to improve their energy demand and costs. Now that’s something we need to pay attention to!

David Rankin