Darryl Praill
Marketing Mayhem
Marketing owns the Sales funnel, right?!
As marketing executives, we spend a fair amount of time creating our marketing plan, ensuring it’s aligned with the business plan, and then executing the programs and campaigns against that plan. It’s the cycle we live. We repeat it daily, quarterly, and yearly. We get into a routine. We become creatures of habit. If you’re wondering where I’m going with this allow me to get to the point: our habit is undermining our effectiveness. How so? In what context? We apply this same learned behaviour to our customer acquisition tactics. That may have been fine a decade ago but it no longer works today. If you haven’t adjusted then you’re missing out on something pretty significant. Allow me to explain…
Mark MacLeod
The CFOs Corner
Is Web 2.0 the great VC return equalizer?
Not all venture capitalists are created equally. In the VC industry, especially in the U.S; the bulk of the returns go to the “tier 1” funds. You’ve probably heard of these players: Sequoia, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, NEA, Battery & Bessemer - these are among the elite funds, responsible for household names such as Cisco, Google and many more. Their deal flow access and connections are unparalleled, giving them an “unfair advantage” and the lion’s share of the returns.
Trina Alexson
The Management Maze
Volcanoes don’t make good bosses…
The schedule has slipped. The budget is blown. The design is wrong…
David Wexler
The Business of HR
There Is No War For Talent
Since the early 90’s, newspaper articles and books have trumpeted the pending “war for talent”, and conference sponsors have made a very lucrative return on running workshops on the supposed shortage of talent in the workplace.
David Wexler
The Business of HR
The Peril Of Acquisitions
Ever participated in an acquisition? Considering one now? The process of fixing an appropriate price and then determining how to make the transaction work, without diluting the value of the acquiring organization is an interesting one.
Trina Alexson
The Management Maze
Dinosaurs and Aha Moments
We’ve all had our “Aha! Moments” - sudden and unexpected moments of clarity…
David Wexler
The Business of HR
HR: Friend or Foe?
When I started in HR many years ago, a lot of companies still referred to the function as “Personnel”. The name did not have a good connotation. The function’s mandate back then was to act as a controller. In fact, it was often difficult to distinguish between HR and Finance at the time. Finance was perceived as the guardian of the company’s physical capital information and the place where spending and project budgeting requests went to die. HR was perceived as the place where hiring, promotions, and salary increase requests went to die.
Mark MacLeod
The CFOs Corner
Getting paid!
Every once in a while I like to move away from strategic stuff to focus on the mundane. Today’s mundane topic is getting paid.
Francis Moran
In the Media
Summer: Silly season or ripe opportunity?
When I first started out in the PR game, I worked mainly for a trio of seasoned practitioners in Halifax who used to relish the fact that business tended to slow down in the summer months. Then again, they were devoted sailors, who took every advantage of their reduced workload to drop tools, raise sails and take to the open waters…
Francis Moran
In the Media
How do you get the media to call you?
When Oracle Corp. announced earlier today that it was taking steps to help and encourage its customers to upgrade to the latest version of its database software, at least one major technology publishing house was ready for the story by having yesterday interviewed an expert from the Oracle community on why the company was taking this step. When IDG News Service reported today on the Oracle move, Canada’s own Paul Vallée, founder and president of Ottawa-based The Pythian Group, was quoted in reaction to the announcement, thanks to the media outlet yesterday seeking out Vallée for his views on the anticipated Oracle news….