Time to re-learn an important lesson on hiring that comes about when we have to let [...] read more »

Can it be true? Can there be a silver lining to this dark cloud?

I worked for an organization that had one of the greatest visionary leaders, in fact Fortune magazine in the 80's called Ken Olsen the entrepreneur of the CENTURY (Maybe a bit premature as Bill Gates made it big later in the century). Ken had so many "sayings"  that there was actually an underground pamphlet going around internally called "The Teachings of Chairman Ken".

To paraphrase him, one of his 'sayings' was that Bad times were Good for us. From memory here is how [...] read more »

Startups get into trouble in making the decision of how broad to go in their approach. I have seen more mistakes which fall into the category of ‘solving world hunger’ than being too focused but the latter appears from time to time as well.

 

It takes a cool head and a dispassionate view of business prospects to pick the right target and that is something that [...] read more »

Love them or hate them as a CEO the Pitch is something you must conquer. Last week I attended part of the Montreal Startup Camp where entrepreneurs get a chance to learn about and practice their pitch. This article is about the Do's and Don'ts of making the pitch so jump [...] read more »

 

 

Wow, is this opening a can of worms or what? There are probably too many theories of   making this move but many companies face this challenge and it is real. In this scenario you have probably found some initial customers, some are in the US and you may have tried to finesse the issue with a US mail drop, phone number or maybe even and executive office but now you need to get serious about it. You see the US market as the next big step and this is the chance to put the company on the map as it were.

 

Firstly WHY?

·     We sense that some of our potential customers want to buy from a US firm

 [...] read more »

Whether to spend the money and go in person or get on the phone. If you are like me you may have been torn at times over this decision. Sometimes it is easy to decide if a face to face meeting is best or simply a phone call if the trade off is an hour or two versus a couple of minutes. Other times it might mean a $10,000 one week trip to the other side of the world. Juggling when to be at a meeting in person can be critical to the business. Even after as much preparation as can be done in advance, like many things 1/3 of the time I think "Wow, am I glad I decided to do that in person - another [...] read more »

You may have had the chance to visiting foreign lands or at least travel across Canada and if you are like me you are curious about the differences and the similarities in culture and business practices. It is in my opinion Very important to observe and understand these differences and be prepared to respond to them lest you pay the penalty of a failed business or at least irate customers. This article could be a novel [...] read more »

I think that you would agree that there is a perception that Canadian businesses are often weaker than their American counterparts in Marketing. This may be generally true but I am sure there are important exceptions in Consumer products and other areas. My experience in hi-tech says yes we may be weaker than some and stronger than other countries but more than anything else the weakness lies in the Product Management area; again a few examples exist of excellence in Product Management even in hi-tech. When trying to hire Product Managers I find it hard to find even a few that can actually recite [...] read more »

   In my experience [...] read more »

 

Here is my own list of sins that can cost a CEO his job or worse the survival of the company.

1. Loss of trust from the board

Never get caught hiding info from the board, overselling your position or plans, setting expectations too high or letting them run the company by frequent direct contact with staff.

If you see problems on [...] read more »