Ian Ferguson
CEO Rants and Raves
CEO Perspective - Duelling Business Models
Recently I attended the IFLA conference in Quebec City. The International Federation of Libraries usually meets bi-annually and this one brought the world’s top Academic and Public libraries to Canada for Quebec’s 400 th anniversary. Having run an LMS (Library Management Software) company a few years ago and think of it as a very peculiar business I was interested to see who had survived who had thrived and how this very peculiar industry had progressed.
Ian Ferguson
CEO Rants and Raves
CEO Perspective: Business Plans - A love story
I Love my Business Plan, and you will love yours too. If you are new to this, let me de-mystify it for you. If this is old hat then add your best practices comments.
Mark MacLeod
The CFOs Corner
Is Venture Capital right for your business?
The decision to sell a portion of your business is a big one. Once you bring on outside partners, there’s no turning back. Usually, this is for the best as they bring new and important elements to your business and help it grow. When you bring venture capital into your business you are changing everything about how your run the business in order to maximize the changes of a big return.
Trina Alexson
The Management Maze
Performance Reviews - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
At this time of year I really admire my mother. A teacher for over thirty years she probably churned out more than 2,000 report cards. I remember especially those years she was a Kindergarten teacher and had a full class of morning students and afternoon students - over sixty reports were prepared twice a year with meticulous attention and hand-written in her perfect script…
Pierre Robitaille
2.0 Leaders
Wiki Up
For leaders to innovate and succeed, collaboration must become part of their playbook and lexicon. It appears that the ability to master collaborative software is a must competency in tomorrow’s world. Can you create and edit web page content without IT support? Can you use a wiki? Are you a web collaborator?
Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
As the Twig is Bent
Virgil said, “As the twig is bent so is the tree inclined”, just one of his many catchy phrases that achieved proverb status. Its essential wisdom has been the subject of everything from books to stage plays to human research, and I am borrowing it for the title of a few words on creating a company’s first board of directors…
Mark MacLeod
The CFOs Corner
The China factor - What role does China play in your business?
With the Beijing Olympics currently taking place, what better time to explore the role that China can play for today’s growth companies. If you saw the opening ceremonies - with its 15,000 perfectly choreographed performers - then you have seen just one small demonstration of what this nation of 1.5B people is capable of.
Ian Ferguson
CEO Rants and Raves
CEO Perspective: How many VP’s does a small company need?
HR professionals VC’s and search firms may have their own take on this but here is a perspective of someone who has had to live with this challenge and the consequences.
Darryl Praill
Marketing Mayhem
Spying has never been so relevant
Things have changed dramatically on the awareness and brand tracking front since I began marketing so many years ago. When I engage clients I always do a little background search to understand their challenges. To do that I simply measure their brand awareness against their competition. I can do the same thing for their industry or solution category. Once I’m engaged, I use the same tools to measure and trend the impact our efforts are making. Seems natural, yet so many people do not do it. What’s even more amazing, people will rarely understand the impact you’re making until they see the visuals. And these tools are completely visual. If you need competitive intelligence, or you need to understand who to influence and how to influence then you need to use these tools.
Trina Alexson
The Management Maze
Managing Around the World
Changes in communication and collaboration technology help us access more labor markets than ever before. Now it is becoming more common to see engineers from all around the world working together to design and deliver new products….