1. Be true to yourself - the only person you really ever have to answer to is you. Are you living the life you want? If yes move on to number two. If not, consider building a personal compass by identifying your core values and for one month rate yourself daily to see if you are on course. Click on the link for a list of Core Values and rating info.http://www.salesfertilizer.com/documents/corevalues.pdf

2. Leave no regrets - one of my favourite quotes (which is on my e-mail signature) is from Nelson Mandela, "There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." Commit deeply to what you love (i.e. passion), dream big and follow through.

3. Become Love - initially this may sound a little corny. To be clear we are talking about the big L Love - i.e. Love thy neighbour. Bitterness and anger, guilt and jealousy are emotional destroyers that take their toll. If you are resenting someone, the reality is you're punishing yourself more than you are punishing them.

4. Live in the moment - Buddhists call this Presence - the art of fully being in the now vs. getting caught up in useless past and future mind chatter. Whatever you are doing, do it fully and completely and find joy in the moment.

5. Give more than you take - Imagine how the earth (and all of her inhabitants) would benefit if we all had this mind set. Find other's with a similar mentality, work together and watch miracles unfold.

While resolutions and goals are good without getting to the core of what matters most to you, achieving those goals is likely to feel like a hollow victory. Why not make this your year and live your life accordingly each and every day.

Best wishes for a joyous 2012,
Shelley McQuade

This week I had the fortune of attending the Golden Horseshoe Manufacturing Network Breakfast session where Steve Meldrum of Eco Waste Solutions shared his perspective on innovation and reverse engineered their project success. A real deal CEO, it became increasingly apparent as he spoke that his leadership played an intricate part in their overnight success (which in reality was made up of many, many nights) and helped his team tackle the task at hand with aplomb . They were awarded a significant contract from NATO to design a remote waste management solution. Sounds pretty simple at first blush for a company that specializes in waste solutions. Ah ah ah, not so fast, there were significant constraints. Like the “must be able to withstand the elements and operate in snow blizzards, sand storms and the rainforest” or the “must be shipped in a 20 foot shipping container”.

Steve shared nuggets of innovation wisdom. I’ve taken the liberty of synopsising them add putting my spin on it.

New ways are much harder than old ways: You design a better mouse track, heck you even create new processes that are going to make it way easier to build. Everyone is going to be excited, jump on board and make it happen ASAP. Or folks could struggle with the idea of doing things differently, want to stay in their comfort zone and it could take a little (ok a lot) longer than anticipated. The salient point – be prepared for resistance (often unconscious or at the very least unexpressed resistance) when introducing new things to your team. Find your change agents, engage them early on and identify and help the resisters get on board.

“Easy changes” take forever: Little things mean a lot. Little things can really stack up. If you estimate it is going to take a week – double or triple the time and the cost. Enough said. Underestimating “easy changes” can kill your project and prevent you from focusing on the “high return” components.

It seemed like a REALLY good idea: You’ve gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em. It’s 10 PM, the teams been at it for hours, your all pumped with caffeine – and you find the latest, greatest solution – until the next morning when you realize what seemed really hot is not. Failing is a part of innovation – failing fast is smart innovation. Know when to let an idea go to make room for a better solution.

They say hind sight is 20/20. However there is something else about hind sight. When you have lived and breathed an experience day in and day out it becomes hard coded in your brain and you have a deep sense of knowing next time around. According to Steve, his organization learned much from overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds. Success breeds success and having done it before, gives you the confidence to do it again, so innovation is deep seated in your organization's DNA. A competitive advantage to be sure.

Shelley McQuade

1. Culture Counts – One of Porter’s biggest successes and an on-going challenge is building and maintaining a strong corporate culture. Engaged employees spawn loyal customers. Loyal customers improve profitability – enough said.

2. Resilience Matters -The business plan was written, the real estate (aka Toronto Island Airport) secured, the plan for the bridge to transport people over was designed – and then it was turned down. Some would have thought – no bridge, no business. Instead Mr.Deluce picked himself up, dusted himself off reworked the business plan, dug deep to find more capital and made sure he had the best and brightest senior executive team to get the job done. Roadblocks are a fact of life; overcoming them is critical.

3.Little Things Add up to a Lot – Free beverages (and not just any beverage – wine and beer), pleasant snacks, more leg room, leather seats, a lounge with great seats, wifi and the crème de la crème friendly people! Customers like to feel special. Porter’s customers feel cared for. So much so that their customer satisfaction rating was 83% - a higher number than Ipsos Reid had ever seen in the airline industry. Crafting a good customer experience and aligning all of your touch points provides a solid pay back.

4. KISS – Keep it simple s_ _ _ _ _ _ ! Speed, convenience, service – those are Porter’s foundational pillars. Whether you create a guiding principle like the Four Season’s (do unto others as you would have done unto you) or foundational pillars like Porters; a simple, succinct message that helps your employees understand what matters most makes sure your unique competitive advantage gets walked and talked every day.

5.Cost Controls are King – Sure it’s great that you can provide a superior customer experience but if you can’t do it efficiently you’ve got a hobby not a business. Porter’s breakeven load factor hovers around 50% in comparison to other industry giants – low cost carriers come in at 73% while legacy carriers are at a whopping 83%. Figure out how you can give more than your competition and keep your costs lower and you’ve got a recipe for success.

So next time you’re sitting around the board room table lamenting that it can’t be done. Look at someone like Porter who has done it and do a bit of brainstorming as to how you can apply the same principles in your business.

Shelley McQuade

Well I’m glad you asked - according to Webster’s, it’s the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere; a period of stagnation or inactivity.

It won’t be long before the kids are back in school, vacations are a distant memory, and you are back in the groove.

Which begs the question, how well is your groove working for you?

I often hear people lament – specifically on the work front – that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. Well the hours in a day are finite, how we use those hours is a choice.
How does one in essence create more time?

Rule # 1 – Multi-tasking is a myth. While we may be able to do a couple of rote tasks at the same time doing two or more things at once and/or switching tasks consistently – reading the report, checking e-mail, talking on the phone, back to the report – means our brain literally has to shift gears as different tasks use different parts of the brain. This mental gymnastics takes time – both the switching and the refocusing. Commit to a task and stick with it to get more done in less time.

Rule # 2 – Energy = Productivity. You can have the best of intentions; be sitting in front of your computer, and even typing words however, if you are not in a peak state (i.e. high energy) you are accomplishing less. When we are in “flow”; that state where time flies by and what we are doing feels effortless, we achieve our personal best. We need to be accessing all of our brain to be in flow. Physical activity helps, drinking lots of water, and getting plenty of rest to name a few.

Rule # 3 – Prioritize. Business guru Peter Drucker said it best “Do first things first and second things not at all”. As human beings we are social creatures and research has shown “feeling in on things” is a prime motivator for employees. So much so that I believe people attend meetings they don’t have to, throw their hat in the ring to be part of a project when their expertise could be better utilized elsewhere. Make a list of everything you are currently working on. Prioritize what you feel will yield the highest return based on your organization’s goals. Do you have the time you need to work on this? If not, what could you drop to free up time? If you lack objectivity bring a trusted colleague into the scenario to help and offer to do the same for them.

Time really is on your side, it’s up to you to make sure it stays that way.

Shelley McQuade

Ahh back to reality... (and now that summer is here not too harsh of a reality). Yesterday I was at the Royal Botanical Garden -a beautiful venue - where I was practising what I preach; networking after a networking workshop I did for the Burlington Chamber. While sipping on wine we got to talking about wineries. Living a half hour drive from Niagara wine country we lamented how good the wine tastes when you are at a winery and the winemaker is passionately telling you about the grapes he selected, why he selected them and his entire process from vine to bottle. Top that off with tasting tips on how to best enjoy it in the glass (letting it breath, swirling before smelling and tasting – you get the idea). One of my fellow networkers Rick lamented “and then you buy three cases but it just doesn’t taste the same at home”.

We are sensory beings ruled by emotion vs. logic (although we like to think the contrary). We respond to stories, are stimulated by sight and sound. It’s how we’re wired or hard wired according to Evolutionary Psychology which tells us our brains haven’t changed all that much since we roamed the Savannah. It is indeed the emotion we feel from experiences that shape our lives.

As a business we have an opportunity to create a mediocre or spectacular experience. So what kind of an experience are you giving your customers? Is it happen-stance or have you carefully crafted it to meet their needs. Is it consistent and memorable or easily forgettable? Back in my advertising days, one of my key messages to clients was “I can get them in the door, what are you going to do keep them”. Before you discard the concept, thinking your business is different, you don’t sell wine or food, think again – a transformational experience is possible in any business, it simply needs to be gift wrapped uniquely for your customer. And the bonus – companies that provide exceptional experiences are rewarded with loyal customers that happily pay a premium. Perhaps it’s time for your company to move into brand prominence.

Shelley McQuade

Recently I heard Brian Williams speak at the Entrepreneur of the Year award and he talked about “the winds of change” he witnessed firsthand at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Brian noted the changes he began to see before the games and an interview with skier Jennifer Heil, a gold medalist 4 years earlier in Turin. She said “for Canadians it’s not just enough to show up anymore, we’re better than that”.

We live in a country filled with natural beauty and numerous resources. We are a diverse mix of people with multiple skills and talents. It’s time to rise to the occasion and bring our passion to the forefront. We can do it as individuals and while that is a part of it, the real magic comes in collectively pulling together. It’s time to stop waiting in the background for the government to do something, or the economy to get better. It’s time to find ways to make a difference and then quietly or not so quietly go about doing just that.

So I’m putting my money where my mouth is and sharing with you my vision (that I am actively working towards each day). My vision is through collaboration, every workplace in Canada (hek North America and the world) will be a place where people:

• Can be their personal best
• Align to a shared purpose
• Find solutions where none previously existed
• Strive to achieve organizational greatness.

An ambitious goal and vision to be sure, but a worthy cause I believe. I encourage you to formulate your vision, blue sky it, then write it down and develop a plan of action. BTW, I’m actively recruiting advocates to help spread the word and make my vision a reality. I’m doing it in my work with clients, my volunteer efforts, and doing my best to get it “viral”. So feel free to join in.

The words of Nelson Mandela sum it up “There is no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

Shelley McQuade

We had a fabulous tour guide that knew Italy inside out. And that was just the beginning. An avid history buff on a good day, our tour guide would forget more about ancient history than I could ever hope to remember. Passionate and enthusiastic, he shared his knowledge with us at every opportune moment. On day three of the trip, my travel companion turned to me and said “enough” – I’ve got to unplug – literally (we had been given headsets so in a crowd we wouldn’t miss a thing).

They say “there is no such thing as a coincidence” and strangely enough I was mid way through the Heath Brother’s book “Ideas that Stick” and it got me to thinking I’m guilty at times of “feeding my clients with a fire hose” so to speak.

The Heath Brothers refer to this as the “Curse of Knowledge”. Once we have a “deep knowing”, we forget what it was like not to know and assume others (and we all know what they say about assuming) need to know everything we know and in a fraction of the time it took us to hone our craft.

Combine this with neuroscience’s finding that it takes up to 25% more energy to take in new information (due to the use of our executive frontal cortex vs. subconscious part of our brain) and you’ve got a case for information overload.

Next time you find yourself sharing knowledge or information deploy the KISS method and whittle your information down to the core – identify what matters most and deliver that nugget. Those on the receiving end will thank you – and as a bonus, retain the information.

Shelley McQuade

When the recession hit, the leadership team of Widget, Inc quietly determined to maintain their company's profit level, and to do it without laying off any employees. "Quiet" means they didn't share these goals with any of the employees whose jobs they were fighting to preserve, along with the profits.

Against all odds, management did achieve their goal. Not only did the company maintain its pre-recession profit level without layoffs, they even managed to pay out bonuses. Not quite as big as the bonuses of previous years, but still an achievement.

Why do companies neglect to communicate their goals to their employees? Especially in hard times, the energy and time it takes to do that gets poured into efforts to hit those targets.

Without employees knowing the goals, of course, when the company succeeds, it takes a bit of air out of the announcement. Like coming in at the end of the movie to watch King George making his speech. Hard to feel anything when you don't know the back story.

But it was worse than that at Widget, Inc. There actually never was any announcement, just business as usual. No pride at sharing in success, or even relief from the tension and fears of job loss generated by the lagging economy.

What were the consequences for the leaders of this failure to pause for a moment to do a bit of backslapping? Missing the opportunity to celebrate their success left the leadership in a state of low energy and motivation--just like their staff.

The lesson is, a company can achieve goals in the short term without stopping to celebrate successes. But unless they do, both leaders and employees will run out of steam. And without it, lose the motivation to face the next set of challenges with confidence and enthusiasm.

Tom Peters said it best: "Celebrate what you want to see more of."

'Innovation and entrepreneurship have continued to be emphasized by government. At the federal level, in the last budget and the budget before, they continue to talk about innovation. But in my opinion, they have a flawed approach to innovation, i.e., "innovation is the result of scientists in labs creating new things." As a business person will tell you, innovation can be something totally unscientific or non engineering related. It can be about finding a new way to serve a customer, getting costs down by having leaner processes, finding ways to draw on information to redesign a product or service. So there’s a lot of management capability needed to improve our innovation game and I think our governments continue to put too much emphasis on engineering and science.

Now, I’m not saying don’t do any innovation in those areas, I just think we need to dial up management capabilities. That means greater investment in business schools. It’s still very difficult for our kids to get into business schools like Queens or Toronto or Western, and that’s not because of the difficulty of subject matter. It’s not like brain surgery?it's good solid subject matter. The problem is we just don’t have the spaces. The universities haven’t invested in the spaces, and that’s partially due to government funding policies and partially university choices.

There’s a big demand out there from kids for commerce and business programs, and we haven’t responded. The reason I can say that there’s more demand is that it’s more difficult to get into business school programs when you compare it to engineering or science programs. We need to up the skill level of our business people. Not just scientists and engineers, it’s everybody. We have a tendency to focus on the sexy stuff around a new molecule, or some breakthrough in gene therapy or bio tech. While all of these are tremendously important, the value you get from the improvement of a service or product or operations are innovations that drive our economy forward as well.

On the tax front, I think we’re in pretty good shape, although the investment numbers are trailing. It’s not that I am out there every single day talking to businesses, but the information we are getting indicates there’s a lag between improved tax policy and increased business investment. I applaud federal and provincial tax policy that has lowered the costs of investment. Businesses, however, are not grabbing those opportunities and making the investment in their businesses. This has been part of the federal election campaign. People are saying, “We’ve lowered the taxes and businesses aren’t investing.” To me it’s an unfair attack, but it’s there.

I think there are a lot more complicating factors that affect how much businesses invest in any given year. And it’s not exactly accurate or a good analysis to look at tax reduction and the HST here in Ontario over the course of a year to see what has happened with investment, without looking at other factors. Businesses are still a little skittish and haven’t absorbed the impact of the rise in the dollar. So much of our best businesses, or the ones that we are rooting for, are the ones that export. It’s hard for them to overlook or ignore the dollar. On one hand, they’ve had tax reductions on their investment spending. On the other hand, they’ve had the impact of the dollar, which makes it harder to compete in the U.S. It’s one of those things that you won’t really know until a few years later, unfortunately, when full analysis of all of the numbers are done.

We continue to believe that we need to push or prod businesses' investment along by raising the pressure they face. And that’s why, to me, things like trade are so important. If we conclude the deal with the EU, I think it will have some good long term effects on our businesses. What will happen is that the ones that seize the benefits of exports will have better benefits to seize and a bigger market in the EU. I hasten to add, let’s not hype our expectations, since we already have pretty low tariffs with the EU. The more we reduce the tariffs, the more they open their market up to our businesses, the better it is.

But there’s a flip side, which is also positive. Our businesses will be exposed to greater competition from European businesses. I believe it will bring out the best in our businesses. Of course, it will make it unpleasant for some. As the experience of opening Canada-U.S. free trade showed, it will put some out of business: the walking wounded as it were, the ones that aren’t that competitive. It will expose that weakness one more level.

There’s been talk about reducing our trade barriers with China, India – the BRIC countries. Again, I haven’t met a trade deal I didn’t like. Any increase in trade is positive.

In summary, on the issue of entrepreneurship in Ontario, the major contribution that governments can make is the kind of environment they create. I think they’ve done a lot on the tax front. And they’re on the right track with more trade agreements, but they just need to keep pushing those trade agreements. And they need to ensure our educational institutions are developing management capabilities for our businesses."

That was then and this is now. One is no longer the lonliest number, at least according to trend spotter Ray Kong (SVP at Ipsos and adjunct professor at York University). Some people have a knack for communicating trends in a way that "connects the dots". Ray has that ability and shares his insights.

You talk about the shift in consumer behaviour to individualism and ephemeralism. Can you explain both and the link between the two?

I believe that these two forces are driving consumer behaviour today and should be considered by every marketer as they build their product and service offerings for tomorrow. Individualism: consumers have become used to individualized product and service offerings. For example, content providers provide customized experiences on the web (think about your home page, or iphone screen) and flexible manufacturing systems and innovative design have allowed product marketers to offer products which consumers can make for themselves (check out miadidas.com or visit a fossil store to see their watch collection). Consumers now expect individualization in all facets of their lives ... a customized offering is better than an off the shelf one and all other things being equal, you can appeal to a much wider market if your offering is more individualized. At the same time, we have become more ephemeral - temporary - in our thinking. Built to last has been replaced by planned obsolescence; careers for life have been replaced by a series of three to five year stints in a role. Formal and informal communities of renters or sharers are in every category from cars (zipcar.com) to baby things (bebarang.com). How can your business adapt to the consumers' ephemeral way of thinking is a highly relevant strategic question.

Consumers are employees. And I believe that employers also need to pay attention to the individual and ephemeral thinking of today. Employees are demanding more individualism in the workplace, seeking interesting opportunities, job content, vacation structures and benefit packages which are tailored for them, rather than being content to work in a collective employment culture. We continue to talk about 'team players' but when it comes to the end of the year, individual effort is often disproportionately rewarded. And the reality of the workplace continues to be that the individual star is the one who gets promoted. When I started in the workforce, many people expected a lifetime career and it was not unusual to work for a single company for 10, 20 or 30 years. Now, many social commentators are talking about individuals having 2-3 different careers over their lifetime, and many of the younger people with whom I work get restless if they have been in a role for more than 2 years. The speed of change has many students in university or college now training for jobs that have yet to be conceived! Yet businesses need stable workforces to grow. High turnover and frequent internal rotation is inefficient as it can create lower productivity and critical loss of institutional memory, particularly in knowledge based businesses. Innovative human resource management solutions are needed to ensure that workforces get their needs for individualism satisfied and that productivity remains high in the ephemeral world.

Thanks Ray for your insights. As we've witnessed with the fall of Mubarak in Egypt the power truly is with the people and we are in the era of the citizen.

Shelley McQuade