Financial Storyteller

Interview with Kathy Hansen on A Storied Career

This week I am thrilled to see a Q&A piece I did for Kathy Hansen run on her blog, A Storied Career.  There are five questions and answers, one of which Kathy is posting each day. Kathy's site "... explores intersections/synthesis among various forms of Applied Storytelling ..." and as part of this she has a long running series of Q&As with a wide range of storytellers. These include notable writers such as Annette Simmons and Lori Silverman, both of which I've mentioned before in my own posts. There are many other story practitioners as Kathy describes them, equally as interesting and it's great to join the list.

I don't think Kathy has interviewed herself yet which is a shame as I think her Q&A would definitely make good reading. Here's an excerpt from her bio (click here to read it in full).

Katharine (Kathy) Hansen, Ph.D., creative director of Quintessential Careers, is an author and instructor, in addition to being a career expert. Her books include Dynamic Cover Letters (more than 100,000 copies sold), Write Your Way to a Higher GPA, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills, written with Dr. Randall S. Hansen, as well as Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates (11,000+ copies sold), and A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market, published by Ten Speed Press, and Top Notch Executive Resumes: Creating Flawless Resumes for Managers, Executives, and CEOs (Career Press) and Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to get a Job and Propel Your Career (JIST Publishing, April 2009). 

There are many many forms of storytelling in many different fields. My interest is of course in business and specifically the stories told by the financials within them. Whether working as a part-time CFO for early stage companies, a senior employee in a large organisation or as a consultant to both it is clear to me that the ability to translate copious and often complicated numbers into a coherent and easily understood story is a key business skill.

The questions and answers in Kathy's interview hopefully give some insight into this. You can read the first installment here and click through to find subsequent pieces. If you would like to contribute to the discussion then I encourage you to comment over on A Storied Career, where I will join you!

 

Coming Soon: Case Study Series on Financial Storytelling

Over the coming weeks I will be posting a series of short financial storytelling case studies. The aim of these is to provide insight into what financial storytelling is and how it can be applied. Subscribe to this site to be notified when the series launches and also to stay up to date with the latest news from Stewart.

Good Companies have Stories by Raf Stevens

The below presentation was brought to my attention the other day. I think it does an excellent job of explaining why Storytelling is a Strategic Business tool.

No Story No Company

View more OpenOffice presentations from rafstevens.

I would extend Raf's metaphor that a company is like a human being. I see the financial aspects of a company as vital signs. They are, to use the traditional word, indicators of a company's health. They tell their own story. In the same way you can learn a lot about someone from their smile and how they look, you can also learn a lot from how they say they are feeling. Are they tired, fighting off a headache or living every minute with in constant pain?

If you meet someone who looks healthy, has a positive mindset, smiles a lot and is comfortable in their own space you take notice. If you were asked whether you thought they could run a 4 minute mile, you would be optimistic. You would have a degree of confidence. However if the signs are not as positive it's easy to become cautious and at worst cynical.

Raf says in his presentation that there is a problem. People hate facts. I agree, especially when facts are numbers. I also agree that Keeping It Super Simple is absolutely key with numbers. To borrow Raf's language again, numbers have no value on their own. They need the context, they need the essence of what they represent communicated effectively.

The financial story of a company is not knowing their heart-rate or sugar level at one point in time, it's about regular check-ups!. It's about knowing when it's time to take more exercise, change your diet or simply slow down. Anyone can hit a home run: that gets you some instant and short lived glory. However if you hit a home run in every game, game after game, month after month, season after season, then people take notice. As spectators they look to the coach and they start to live your story as they watch every at bat.

Financial Storytelling is about making sure you are in the game.

David Lynch delivers sublime storytelling in Interview Project

I noticed this morning a contact of mine recommending "Story" by Robert Mckee. Mckee is a screenwriting guru who recently gave his world famous 3 day seminar here in Vancouver. I was thinking about this a couple of days ago as I followed up on this article in the June 13 edition of the Globe & Mail. The article was about Director David Lynch's new project Interview Project. I first remember hearing his name in connection with Twin Peaks back in the early 1990s but of course his list of credits is immense and this was only the tip of the iceberg.

One of my wife's favourite films happens to be David Lynch's The Straight Story, where amongst other things the photography is stunning. This is of course a common theme of Lynch's work. Both photography and screenwriting come to the fore in Interview Project. It is a "32,000-kilometre, 70 day road trip" around the US which Lynch sent his crew on to interview 'normal' folk. The result is 121 three to five minute monologues which are being released one every few days online.

As I write there have been 7 interviews posted, each one is a few minutes long. The website has a little more background. Most of the people were interviewed where they were found, a lot more material was recorded than used. I have been enthralled and amazed by the combination of intensity, photography and screenwriting. Everyone has a story to tell and David Lynch has demonstrated once again his storytelling talent. For me it showed how telling a good story is made up of multiple elements. It's rare to see all of them at such a consistently high standard as Interview Project. I wouldn't be surprised to see characters like Alvin from the Straight Story show up more than once!

As much as this is a 'project,' is it actually the start of a new 'format.' Imagine the addition of a DVD to the Fortune 500 Companies issue which contained short videos of each CEO telling the story of his/her company? For new businesses, putting together a video like this could be a huge marketing asset. Of course we are not all David Lynch, but this project truly shows what is possible. Apart from providing entertainment and education it is a real inspiration.

The changing nature of purchasing decisions

Over the last few years I've started using some form of mind mapping software. In keeping with my goal to move as much to the cloud as I could I started with  bubbl.us. I like bubbl.us - it's easy to use and free. However I found I wanted a little more functionality. After lots of research with the help of Chuck Frey's excellent Mind Mapping Software Blog, I tried the beta of Webspiration. For a web application I was impressed and for the better part of a year I used it to capture lots of corporate processes and models. Recently though cracks in my cloud have started to appear and I started looking at what else was out there.

After extensive (for me!) research I am now on day two of my trial with Novamind.  Aside from basic functionality and the user experience (which other offerings also have) I chose the Aussie company for the following reasons:

• They do have a Mac version.
• They do have an active online community they participate in.
• They did let me download the version of their software I wanted for 30 days.
• They have a new version coming out which they will upgrade new users to for free.
• The CEO, Gideon King is on twitter and followed me back.

I did write a detailed piece on each of the above. However, what I think is really important about the list is what it says about how I made my decision. A purchase is no longer about a simple exchange of money for product. It is also a fee for opening up a conversation. Novamind understands this (as do Batchblue for instance and even Apple to some degree) but you would be surprised how many companies do not.

Is this specific to software? or do other products / services need to pay attention?

The quandary of television ...

A young middle aged man found himself in a bit of a quandary. Years ago he had given up his cable television subscription: disillusioned with the content on offer, he made do with streaming the odd hockey game from his computer. His youthful and good looking better half was very content with a subscription to a DVD by mail service and he also found himself enjoying this service as well. The quandary was whether or not to buy a new television set when he didn't actually watch 'television.'

Nonetheless the young middle aged man saw the merit of a bigger picture and decided to run the gauntlet of the television stores. Historically he favoured a particular brand and as it happened they actually had a couple of their own stores not far from where he lived. One day he decided to browse in the lions den of fantastically bigger and bigger televisions: all bright, all loud and all thoroughly confusing. Eventually he did manage to find a small (by comparison to others) set he liked. He also found what appeared to be three different prices. What was the difference?

A smiling salesman approached and listened to the young middle aged man's questions and helpfully explained the different features. He asked what the young middle aged man liked to watch (hockey and DVDs) and described the relevant differences between the models which helped explain the different prices. The young middle aged man left the store feeling happy that he had learned something. While still wondering which of the models he should buy, he was impressed with the salesman.

A few days later he found himself in another part of town with his youthful and good looking better half. They passed by another of the television stores and decided to look together. They found their way to the lions den of fantastically bigger and bigger televisions, all bright, all loud and all thoroughly confusing. Eventually they spotted the size of television they liked. The same set the young middle aged man had seen in the other television store.

A smiling salesman pounced on them and immediately regaled them with stories of the two (not three) models they had on sale for this year. A 'deal' was immediately presented and sounded to the young middle aged man immediately like a 1980s car show room with a salesman like a Canadian version of Arthur Daley. Sadly Arthur's charm was missing. The young middle aged man then learned all about the salesman's house, how many children he had and crucially it would seem, therefore how many televisions he had. The salesman favoured the latest and most expensive model, having now changed tact from the original 'deal.'

At one point the young middle aged man saw a hockey game playing on one of the bigger televisions and asked is he could see it on the smaller TV he was interested in. This would have been very helpful. The request was immediately declined. The salesman did not seem to know the features very well and focussed on being very critical of the idea that you could have a television without 'television,' mixing metaphors along the way. The salesman then went on to share information about an offer from a completely different company, another 'deal,' not only for television, but also telephone and Internet. Confusingly he then explained why he couldn't take the offer up himself at home.

The young middle aged man was confused. He thought this was a television store and given his experience at the first store was very surprised by the contrast in styles of salesmanship. Maybe it was the youthful good looks of his better half, but it did seem the salesman thought his potential customers had been born on the previous day. The young middle aged man's better half did not enjoy the experience of the store (or the salesman) and he was doubly disappointed as it was difficult enough to convince his youthful good looking better half to enter the store in the first place!

The quandary remained but given the experiences so far, the young middle aged man is more likely to buy the cheaper television model and take the time to go back to the first television store he visited.

Then again given his experiences so far, he may just decide not to do anything about it at all!

Sustainability 2.0 in Strathcona with Keynote Majora Carter

I had the pleasure yesterday of going along to a small business Sustainability Expo put on by the Strathcona BIA. There were lots of exhibitors in the Chapel Arts Centre, including Terasen Gas, Vancity, Zipcar etc. Splendid coffee was provided by Salt Spring Island Coffee.

I went along mainly to see the Keynote by Majora Carter (which I'll come to) and also caught the panel labeled Shades of Green moderated by Anita Burke. The panel consisted of a heap of Sustainability business people from Sunrise Soya Foods, Saul Good Gift Co, Eclipse Awards, Frogfile Office Essentials as well as Eco-Industrial Solutions Ltd. I have to say though, that this was a hugely disappointing experience.

I would not consider myself to be a Sustainability convert. I do agree with the concept, but I am not at the leading edge. I've read some interesting books (here and here) around the subject and was really sitting there wanting to learn more. What I hoped for a robust discussion of some business issues and what we can do about it.

Sadly, by the time Anita had been introduced and then introduced the panel there was little time for any discussion. Sure there were a couple of questions fired one at a time to each panel member in turn, but really it was a let down, even members of the panel looked miserable or dis-interested. I found this odd as the majority of the audience were already, as far as I could tell, converted. Is this what they wanted?

This event I understand has grown substantially, which is great. Around 300 people or more stayed for the Keynote, but is Sustainability done? Can we really indulge in an hour of flattery and self congratulatory back slapping when there is, even in my uneducated mind, lots more to do?

The panelists ARE doing some interesting stuff, although I struggle by way of example, with the paradox of moving a production plant from BC to Ontario to save transport costs! What about the jobs that were lost locally? Overall the panel struck me as a wasted opportunity to let folk in the audience like me learn something. The bios I can read later myself, assuming I am interested enough by what the individuals have to say. All I really learned was who they were. There was no real discussion. Was that enough?

This rather nicely takes me on to the main event. Majora Carter was there in person, courtesy of Vancity and gave her speech which if you missed it was very similar to the one below from Ted.com.

I had heard most of this before, but it was exciting to see Majora giving this speech 10 feet away from me! She did have some updates, but more importantly she talked about what she actually did. Sustainability, changing the way people think, changing the way decisions are made and so on only happens when ACTION is taken. We can all sit around having a friendly chat about how few parks there are, but it takes action to have any kind of influence.

Majora has become very well known in the last few years and for good reason. What she achieved in New York IS an amazing story. She seems to shoulder the responsibility of this notoriety well when asked to come and speak at events like Sustainability 2.0. She did deliver on my expectations and I went away happy. As for the event, I think the Expo had value but they really need rethink what the panel is there for.

Below is Majora's speech at TED in February 2006

Atomica Creative's take on Financial Storytelling - Updated

Last week I was featured on the Network Insider by Tatsuya Nakagawa. Network Insider is the monthly newsletter of Atomica Creative and I was pleased to answer Tatsuya's questions about Financial Storytelling. I will link to the interview directly in a separate post but first I wanted to share some of Tatsuya's comments about the subject which he used to introduce me.

[UPDATE: Here is a link to the interview]

... I was intrigued by his description of himself as so often we are presented with numbers that, recently frankly are quite appalling. As we struggle to understand the meaning behind these numbers, we look to financial storytellers to interpret them for us.
 
The good ones put striking numbers in context and, beyond just helping us to interpret them, get us excited about what they mean for the future. Understanding the past is the first step, understanding what this means for the future and the opportunities it opens up for us personally and for our businesses is the next, key step.
 
As we are constantly bombarded with numbers and headlines about those numbers that can be misleading, the role of the financial storyteller becomes even more important.
 
The storyteller these days need not only be an expert at his or her craft but also at intersecting with technology in such a way that the word gets spread efficiently to the key people who need and can use it.
 
I'll give you an example of a quote in an article I saw just the other day. "Contrary to popular belief, sales of green products are not tanking in a down economy". While this opening line makes me feel good about the opportunities in the green economy, a few paragraphs later (after many readers would have lost interest) I found the following paragraph:
 
....sales of green products are up 4.1 percent, driven mostly by price increases, as unit sales in this category dropped 6.6 percent in 2008.
 
This information, of course, leads one to the exact opposite conclusion, hence the need for not only storytellers, but trusted ones. And as we are all increasingly wired, we look to storytellers who can not only tell our story, but also have the social media savvy to disperse that information across the web using the most effective social media tools to reach our target audience.
 
As business owners, we all struggle to get our message across in a way that is effective and interesting. Creating interest leads to increased understanding and demand, whether for our product or to invest in our companies.
 
Using the multitude of new tools available on the web from Flickr and YouTube to Slideshare and Twitter we look to financial storytellers to help us get the message across to our stakeholders in an a way that is interesting, creative and above all trustworthy.

I agree with Tatsuya on this, trust is a very important element of telling financial stories. For some the fact that I a Certified Management Accountant in Canada and a Chartered Management Accountant in the UK helps to build trust. For others it is the recommendations and endorsements of others that makes the difference. Yet others make up their own mind based on a face to face meeting or series of meetings - my preferred method and one that is mandatory at the end of the day.

So if you would like to get together and talk more about Financial Storytelling and how it relates to your business or organisation, feel free to drop me a line.

Raw Canvas for Farmstead wines and Benton Brothers cheeses!

Following on from my previous post I am happy to report on an event which delivers three excellent business stories. Friday night, Leftantler and I attended a Wine & Cheese Tasting put on by Farmstead Wines and the Benton Brothers. The former is fairly obvious and the latter is the business who provided the cheese! Six wines and seven cheeses. The third part of this story was the location. This was a place called Raw Canvas in Yaletown which combines a cafe with a public art studio, but more on that later.

Let's start with Farmstead Wines. On this occasion it was Jeff Bashford who presented the wines. Farmstead are special as they only carry wines where they have a personal relationship with the Vinaroon. Vinaroon? Ahh yes, this is an old English word which means both wine grower or farmer AND someone who produces the wine. The French equivalent is vigneron.  The wines are all naturally farmed and have been personally inspected by Farmstead.

The Benton Brothers have been around for about five years and specialise in providing a range of the very best cheeses from all over the world. Each of these cheeses has it's very own story and paired with a fine Farmstead wine made for a simply delicious experience. Andrew and Jonah presented some of their 'favourites' and like me it would seem it's impossible to have one or two favourite cheeses - you have to have dozens if not hundreds!

The setting was a cafe, soon to be bar I suspect, space in Yaletown called Raw Canvas. The idea here is that you come in, buy a blank canvas and then paint! They provide all the paints, smocks and space to let your inner artist free! The chap who runs it said that a while ago he was in Japan and loved the public art studios they have where you could simply drop by, hang out, paint, drink coffee (maybe tea in Japan?) and enjoy the experience of being an artist.Their website is one of the nicest I've seen for a while as well!

He knew this would work in Vancouver so came back and promptly purchased a yoga studio! However, late last year the cafe opened and I have to say it has a really good feel about it. The seating reminds me of Alice in Wonderland where chairs and sofas have impossibly high backs to them and set next to the studio space it works really well. I'm looking forward to going back and exploring a enticing list of beverages!

But back to the Wine and Cheese! All of the wines were simply exquisite on their own, but paired with the cheeses ... my vocabulary fails me. If you have never experienced how a wine and cheese combine to enhance the flavours and enjoyment of both you are missing something. I will mention only one of each here but if you'd like to know the full list leave a comment below!

For me Marc Tempe's Altenbourg Pinot Noir 2004 was amazing. Do not be confused by the Alsace shaped bottle (Marc's statement about where this is from), the wine was at once surprising, familiar and clearly a step above most of the Pinot you will find available in BC. A nice connection between this vinaroon and Raw Canvas is Japan. Apparently Tempe is a Rockstar there, although I've been unable to confirm if this is for real or purely metaphorically!

My favourite cheese of the night was Piave Vecchio, from Italy which had been aged a minimum of 12 months. I better stop now, as talking about wine and cheese could easily keep me writing for thousands more words. I'll wrap up with what may be my obvious recommendations:

In the wine store look for wines with the Farmstead seal, you won't be disappointed. For Cheese take a trip to Kerrisdale and the Benton Brothers. Outside of that, visit Raw Canvas where very soon you will be able to enjoy both!

Food and Wine Storytellers: James Sherrett and Anthony Nicalo

I am really pleased to be able to share two food and wine videos that really demonstrate storytelling. What's even more exciting about these videos is that I've met both of the presenters. James Sherrett I've known for a couple of years, and must find an excuse to have him cook something for my better half and I (though not buffalo!). I love the line from his presentation below:

"Local Food is important because it is one of the two things we put inside our body that become part of us, the other I would argue is stories."

In my post Northern Voice 2009 - reflections I mentioned the other speaker, Anthony Nicalo of Farmstead Wines. The video below is 25 mins or so long and rich with stories and information and a great introduction to Anthony and his own story. I was looking for a quote, but picking one is tough. So I encourage you instead to consider the following:

1. watch the video in full;
2. checkout Farmstead Wines and Farmfed;
3. Say out loud the word Vinaroon (Vin-a-roon). Vinaroon wine is produced by the same farmer who grows the grapes, such as Martin Arndorfer

.



James Sherrett @ Interesting Vancouver 2008 from Brett Macfarlane on Vimeo.

making Farming Sexy - Wine, farming and vinaroons by Anthony Nicalo

Value from back office trauma with QCDocs.

One of the challenges all new businesses have as they grow is how they deal with all the back office stuff. I'm talking about the book-keeping, customer orders, proposals, expense tracking etc as well as a multitude of other documentation that seems to mushroom exponentially before you realise it! Keeping on top of all this is difficult, especially when you would rather spend the time getting the business in the first place!

Enter Sean Hodgins of QCDocs, who I met this week. Sean's little company takes this pain away. It targets the small business sector and provides a great tool which not only makes the back office easier but also harnesses the information that is buried there. It helps the small business leader not only keep on top of all aspects of his/her business, but have ALL the information he needs at his fingertips.

Sean is building a growing customer base for the business which validates it's value. He is very modest, a good thing as respecting confidentiality is a big deal at QCDocs as it is in all small businesses. That said I do happen to know that if you take a look at the recent Ready to Rocket list, you will find at least half a dozen QCDocs customers. Impressive stuff and I believe there's more to come.

In these troubled times Sean's business seems very well placed. I'm looking forward to learning more about it and I encourage you to check it out.

CaseIT 2009 Winners - The National University of Singapore

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of being a Judge at the 2009 CaseIT Competition. This is an international undergraduate business case competition. The format was pretty much the same as last year and as I described here on this blog last year.

This year's contest was won by the National University of Singapore. From my perspective all four teams who made the final deserve special merit. I have to remind myself that these are, in my advancing years, kids who are half of my age (I know, the term 'kids' isn't right but it does reflect how I feel!). Twenty or so years is a huge block of time and I only wish I'd been exposed to these kind of competitions twenty years ago!

I am not certain but I'm sure I saw one team whose team I saw last year - should the coach read this he will know who he is :-) If so, then I was very very impressed with the progress made in his team's preparation and execution in the last 12 months. Last year I'm not sure the team knew what had hit them, this year the team (different members of course) knew what to expect. Credit to the coach, who sadly I didn't get to speak to - I couldn't stay for the banquet this year.

Also due are congratulations to Ryerson University and our local Kwantlen Polytechnic University who placed second and third respectively. The case study this year centered around TripIt.com - "The best way to organise and share your travel plans". Unlike last year with Plenty of Fish, this is something I DO intend to try! As with last year, the presentations by the teams were very impressive, especially give the limited time they had.

The nice thing about this competition is that the Students at SFU organised the whole competition and surrounding events themselves. Credit to Steven Chia, his committee and also to Blaize Horner Reich who from the judging point of view masterfully herded the bag of screaming cats called judges into the a coherent and professional panel it was. Hopefully there's room in the bag for me next year!

Using Twitter to be part of Howard Schultz Starbucks event

For the second time this week, I followed an event on Twitter (no prizes for what I followed the first time!). However, this time I was able to interact and feel a part of the proceedings.

One of my favourite business stories is Starbucks. Almost 10 years ago I picked up a copy of Howard Schultz's book, "Pour Your Heart Into It" and have watched the story develop ever since. Back in January last year Schultz was back as CEO of the company and started to readdress connecting with his customers.

Back in December he started a series of Customer meet and greets at local Starbucks stores where he sat down with a bunch of customers and staff and had something quite revolutionary: a conversation. Tonight was another of these events, this time at the Lakewood Town Centre Store in Lakewood Washington.

Tonight I was able to join this event by following MSITour on twitter. I along with a bunch of other twitterites were able to ask questions, get updates on what Howard was saying and be a part of an 'extended' event! I realise, Starbucks, or even coffee may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I thought this was jolly interesting.

I learnt a few things along the way. Pike Place Roast is coming to Canada soon, Yay! Howard is also coming to Canada for a future event, Yay! But most important of all, I learnt that Starbucks are making an effort to connect with their customers, starting at the very top. Nothing seemed off limits and  there seemed to be a wide range of topics raised, from healthcare Benefits, to how you can give gratuities.

Personally I made a suggestion but was getting frustrated by the 140 chr limit on Twitter. I was directed in real time to the My Starbucks Idea website, where I could write in more detail. Other customers can then click a thumbs up to build interest for my idea. I'm not so much impressed by my own idea, as by the fact that Starbucks are giving me a route in to raise it.

Starbucks do need to do something to reconnect with their customers and this is one small example of their efforts. I'm hoping Howard will come to Vancouver, BC so I can attend in person next time!

Getting ideas at the Story Salon

According to Denise Withers, the organiser, to attend last Tuesday evening's Story Salon you

" ... don’t need to be a story expert - just someone who appreciates the power and value of using story for something other than art & entertainment ..."

That sounded good to me, so being as it's a New Year I thought I'd go along to something new and see what I could learn. I'm really glad I did!

I met a very erudite and engaging bunch of people. In addition to Denise, I met Nina Winham, Vivian Forssman, Simon Goland to mention just a few. Discussions were wide and varied leading to a whole bunch of recommended books to read and films to watch. I've listed the ones I remember over on the resources page of the Story Salon blog, hopefully I'll get to read/watch some of these then I can share my thoughts on this site afterwards.

I was not expecting to hear about Norse Gods and meditation, programs to help troubled children, First Nations cultural struggles, sustainability, European history and many other things all in the same evening!

I started making note not only of these referrals but also of choice little phrases that I heard over the course of the evening. "Storytelling in Social Change," "A language older than words," and my favourite; to describe a presentation when using slides as "Still Pictures, Moving Words!" The location was the Waazubee Cafe which I would describe as everything I'd expect from a cafe on Commerical Drive. The decor was eclectic, the drinks good, the service excellent. Add to that fascinating conversation it all made for a very worthwhile evening.

Congratulations to Denise for getting it going, if you are interested in storytelling outside of stand-up comics and children's stories, this is the place to come. I guarantee you will go away with at least one thing to follow-up on, a book to read, movie to watch, idea to try. See you next month!

 

Online financial storytelling on the Common Craft show

Personal Finance is not something I normally talk about, I normally leave that to say Nancy Zimmerman or Alan Yu. Tonight I'm making an exception. Over the last year or so I've been enjoying the numerous little videos by Lee LeFever explaining subjects in Plain English. Subjects such as Wikis, Social Networking and How to elect a US President and many others have all been covered in short, clear and thoroughly enjoyable videos.

The latest edition to this and a prelude I believe to a series on Financial Basics is "How to Save Money in Plain English"

Lee's business is centred around the Common Craft store where you can pay to licence these excellent tools for use in your organisation. Lee is building up a very impressive library and I can't wait to see the Financial Basics series. It is also an excellent example of great storytelling.

Going back to Nancy for a minute, I've started following a series on CBC where she is coaching a couple on how to improve their financial situation. There's also more about this on Nancy's own site of course. That also has the makings of a great story!

Storytelling, financial style, here!

Given the name of this blog I would like to start exploring what I mean by Financial Storytelling. It's a big subject but Iet me start with some basics. Whatever your purpose, in whatever type or kind of business/organisation, the building blocks you have available to you are the same:

• Numbers
• Words
• Pictures

In my view these should be used in the following order. I.e. Start with a picture, develop the story with words that you can then support with numbers. And I mean support. Numbers of themselves tell you nothing. It's only when you label, reference and put them in context with words and pictures that they can make sense. (witness the rise of the pie chart in business). Put all three of the above together and you have a Story.

There another important aspect of this Story that I will also be addressing, that is: Delivery. Be in written (e.g. reports), visual (e.g. Powerpoint!) or oral (e.g. podcasts, voicemail?). All take a specific set of skills giving me plenty to talk about.

Outside of the above there is the whole area of business intelligence or visual analytics, storytelling more broadly in business and anything else I consider worth commenting on!

Some of the above I have touched on in previous posts, some I haven't addressed at all. But that's the fun of developing content for this blog - I get to learn as I go, I'm hoping you will too!

Is it time for a different approach to the Auto Bailout?

"THIS is half-way house.

Half the world’s paychecks are auto-related,

Half the world’s resources are auto-devoted,

And half the world will be involved in an auto-accident

At some time during their life." - Autogeddon - Heathcote Williams (1991)

Seventeen years after Williams wrote the above we are in the middle of a crisis. Much of the recent discussion of the Auto bailout reminds me of the Car Industry in the UK back in the 1970s and 1980s. An example of huge government involvement with little lasting benefit.

"IN a riot, or a revolution,

It’s curious that cars―

Anyone’s cars―

Are always the first to go."

A recent spoof advert doing the rounds online makes the point that nobody wants the cars being produced. Indeed when a car was produced and became popular it was quickly squashed (Who Killed the Electric Car?). Now it is not the cars themselves that are likely to be squashed, but the companies, and in particular the management.

"But of course,

If you’re conceived in a car as many are.

If you first fucked in a car as many have.

If you go to work in a car,

And if you derive most of your pleasure, food and sustenance via cars,

You’re going to defend them to the death."

I'll leave the last comment to Albert Einstein

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them"

Customer Engagement and Community with SixApart and Batchblue

I'd been meaning to write about a new online tool I've been using for a couple of months called BatchBook. The developer Batchblue Software describe it as Small Business CRM, specfically:

BatchBook is an easy-to-use, customizable CRM designed with small businesses in mind. It’s actually three products that work together:

• contact management software
• communications management software
• to-do list management software

I think I originally heard about them on A-List blogger Chris Brogan's website, if you can keep up with his prolific output it's well worth checking out as well

There is lots I could write about on the functionality that BatchBook gives me but what I actually want to talk about is the one thing which has kept me hooked. That is the online community Batchblue have created through their user forums and their willingness to engage with the customer, respond to feedback and solve problems quickly.

Batchblue Software may be a small company but they are doing lots of things right. I get really annoyed when I look at a company's website and can't find names, faces etc. With Batchblue I can. Short of making this a very long post all I will say is that if you connect with your customer, listen to your customer and respond to your customer, you are well on the way to building loyalty. Loyalty means being happy to wait for a new feature, loyalty means understanding you CAN contribute to the future development of something you use and you CAN get recognition for it from the company. Bravo Batchblue I say.

Typepad is another service I use and of all the blogging platforms seems to be the one I come back to. I've recently moved this blog to Typepad (from movable type - I'm not geeky enough for that really!) and more recently established a new blog for the Vancouver Chapter of the Society of Certified Management Accountants.

One thing I liked about Typepad was I could make changes and then hit a button to republish the site, indexes or design and see the results. In the last little while Typepad has moved to a new more 'dynamic' platform and the republish button is no longer there, or required. At least that's what I thought.

Today I made some minor changes and was distraught to see that these were not 'dynamically' reflected. I filed a support ticket (no user forum like batchblue!) and to my honest surprise got an answer. In fact I've had an ongoing exchange all day. I even tweeted whether anyone knew of a user forum. As it happens Ginevra Whalen, the Community Manager for Typepad at Sixapart picked it up and emailed me.

Ginerva answered my questions about why no forum, addressed my struggle with the new platform and offered to help solve the issue. In other words, she reached out and listened to me. As she did the support guys at Typepad went back and forth finally nailing down the problem.

At the end of the day, what started as a frustrating day with Typepad ended up as a very positive experience. Typepad is of course a lot bigger than Batchblue, but I was thrilled to see a consistent response from two key services I use.

My loyalty is assured for both products and I wonder in these difficult times, if an increased focus on customers OUTSIDE the company will help those companies with struggles inside and help ride out the financial storm we are all living through?

Reflections on tele-working and transitions

In recent months I've had the opportunity to 'work from home' rather than go into the office. Doing this comes with some obvious benefits. Firstly, I do not have to commute and consequenly I gain back a couple of hours of my day. Secondly, I can get started earlier - important when time zones dictate my customers are already approaching lunch-time when I start. There are other benefits as well which indicate that this is all good for the environment, good for my efficiency and good for my concentration, good good good.

However, what I have realised is that although the benefits I mentioned are real, there are at least a couple of things to be mindful of. The one I'm going to mention here is the blurring of distinction between work and not work. My defintion of 'work' in this context is any activity which takes me away from anything I want to do personally. I do spend a lot of personal time at the computer, but that isn't work in the same sense. So I present a scenario:

Working at home means I can wake up, turn on my laptop and start responding to email well before breakfast and frequently before I've even taken a shower. Quickly I'm into what I'm working on and time flies - if I'm lucky I might make it to the kitchen for coffee, if I'm very lucky to the bathroom for that shower. Evening comes and if I'm working on a deadline, my wife will insist (usually quite strongly) that I push the laptop aside whilst I eat (the laptop stays on though!).

The above is not, of itself, a problem. Everyone gets busy from time to time, deadlines, meetings etc are inevitable. The problem is when this happens day after day. Again, busy periods are to be expected, but in order to deliver in these periods, there has to be a balance. Much of what I'm writing here isn't, of course, new. However, I do have my own thoughts on how to contribute towards this balance - regardless of whether they are original.

Most work days in a traditional office begin with the worker commuting in from home. Sometimes this commute is stressful, especially if you drive. This commute creates a  transition from the personal world to the business world. It can last anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours, but let's say it's an hour. Of course, some people can't help working while they commute (cellphones and blackberries enable wonderful things, eh?). 

My suggestion would be whether you work at home or in the office, as human beings, we need the transition. At home, get up and walk to the Starbucks for a coffee. If you are more artistic, get up and take the dog for a walk. If you don't have a dog, create one! You're an artist after all. Create some space between waking consiousness and the focus required for work. The transition will ease the mind into gear and ensure that when you do have an important call to make, customer to help, you deliver your best.

My thinking is that life is about transitions. Between work and play, between private and social time, between being awake and being asleep. If you can do these transitions well then you are on the path to a happier, healthier and more rewarding life.

Cleantech Companies clean-up in New Ventures BC Competition

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the Awards Ceremony for this year's New Ventures BC Competition. As in previous years there was a lot of buzz around the room as the final 10 competitors, their mentors in the competition and all the other mentors and volunteers waited for the announcements.

I was very pleased to see the team I co-mentored this year made the final 10. Singular Software have an excellent product which can significantly reduce the time (and therefore the cost) of putting together multi-camera videos. I've talked about this before here and you can see a finished video using multiple angles here and here. Congratulations Bruce and Michael for a great job in the competition it's been a lot of fun working with you.

The winners this year all came from Cleantech, with Saltworks Technologies taking the lion's share of the prizes, 1st Prize and the BC Hydro Sustainability Prize. The other Prize winners were the Small Energy Group and Echoflex Solutions. Congratulations Ben, Josh, David and Shawn for coming to the top of 170+ entrants this year!

For me the competition was a great experience this year and credit should go to Bob and Angie doing a great job. The videos are the Awards Ceremony worked really well but one suggestion I would have would be to hire a trio of trumpet players to announce the awarding of the actual prizes. Strangely that part of the evening was a little bit muted. All in all though a great night and the end of this year's competition. I'm looking forward to 2009 already.

CMA Designation and the foot wide business card!

Back in 1994 in the early days of having my CIMA qualification in the UK I started a new job. On the first day I asked my new Boss, whether it was 'appropriate' to have my letters on my business card ...

Today I had the pleasure of finding out that I have gained my CMA designation here in British Columbia, Canada. This will, in due course (once I have the official letter of course!) mean more letters. Shall I put them on my business card? :-)

It's taken a while but I'm thrilled to be able to say that I am a CMA. I can now lead with that as an opening line! Through the breakfast networking sessions I host each month for the Vancouver Chapter I must have met a couple of hundred different CMAs. These, together with my colleagues on the Vancouver Chapter Board and the members of the Society Office have been a huge motivator for me in seeking acceptance through the Mutual Recognition Agreement.

I've been constantly amazed by the wide variety of roles CMAs have. From Police Officers to CMAs in Charities, Tax Inspectors (boo hiss) to big corporate executives, business consultants to business development, not to mention government and not for profit roles. It's been and continues to be very inspiring. It demonstrates to me that this is a designation with huge potential. It can truly help you achieve you career and personal goals, whatever they may be!

Back to that old boss mine. "Sure. " he said. "We have these special concertina business cards that fold out from the normal size to almost a foot wide! You can put your accounting designation, your degree, your school certificate, under 15 swimming award, most beautiful baby award ...."

This was the shape of things to come and I learnt to be a lot more humble or at least modest since. Nonetheless based on the CMAs I've met to date and humbleness aside, I'm thrilled and proud to take my place among them!

From New Ventures BC to Toastmasters on film with Singular Software

It's one thing to see yourself in the bathroom mirror it's another to be filmed outside in the wild doing something public.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of chairing the second Mentor panel in this years New Ventures BC competition. I, along with half a dozen or so other mentors, saw eight of the final 30 competitors present their pitch which we then gave feedback on.

The panels are an opportunity for the competitors to practice ahead of hopefully making the final 10 in the competition and presenting to the competition Judges in September. This year one of the pieces of feedback that came out was for one competitor to have their presentation filmed. The idea being that you learn an amazing amount about how you appear to others from watching yourself on screen.

I realised that it had been at least 15 years since I had done this. As it happens the team I am co-mentoring in the competition this year, Singular Software, has a great product for use in multi-camera applications and I was keen to offer the idea of a test application. This week I gave my 11th Toastmaster speech, the first in the Advanced Communicator, Storytelling manual. Bruce Sharpe from Singular came along with two cameras and together with a sound recorder and my digital camera recorded the event.

I've only seen the raw videos as it were, but a couple of things come immediately to mind. Firstly, Bruce's software is quite simply amazing. Basically you load all the video recordings and sound recordings into something like Final Cut Pro and press go. Bruce's software then examines all the clips and synchronises the timing of them. I was able to look at the screen and see three different videos and the sound from the speech all running at the same time and all totally in sync! I was chatting to Bruce while the software did it's thing, but this seemed to take only a few seconds to do.

I'm no expert in video and/or sound recording. However I can see how even with the simplest single camera recording and a soundtrack that getting the two lined up can be a challenge. So to do this with multiple cameras and sound is very very cool. I can see this would save tons of time and as we know, time is money! Additionally of course this enables you to create more interesting videos of an event through using multiple angles. Add to this of course that your sources could be from different people at say, a sports event or a wedding and you can really have some fun.

The second thing I want to mention is that the advise from the mentor panel is spot on. I've only watched myself once but now some of the comments I received from my evaluators make far more sense! I'm really looking forward to seeing what Bruce does with the videos and I'm hoping to put it up on this blog, so stay tuned for some more posts about the experience - it's been a huge learning experience for me.

Looking in the bathroom mirror this morning I saw a different person staring back at me. Now I need to work out who that is :-)

Bootup Labs ... Vancouver ... World renowned Technology Centre

When I moved to Vancouver almost three years ago the city was described to me as a 'branch' town. What this meant then and still does today is that there are not too many big Corporate Head Offices based in Vancouver. Numbers from 2005 suggest that BC is home to a tenth of the Top 500 Canadian Companies [source]. Although I can't lay my hands on the source I was reading that office space vacancy rates are low in the City with the amount of new office space being planned in the next few years minimal. Not exactly easy for a big corporate to relocate to Vancouver, even if it wanted to. So who is here?

In 2006 a staggering 98% of all businesses in the Province of BC were classified as small businesses [source ], i.e. up to 50 employees. Of these 83% were 'micro' businesses with no more than 5 employees! BC and especially Vancouver is the land of the entrepreneur. If we turn to the technology sector, 95% of technology based businesses are small businesses. Which for me instantly raises the question of funding. Much as the big corporates are not here, neither are the big heavy weights in terms of venture funding. So how does a business grow beyond the early stage?

From my perspective I see lots of bits and pieces. Various small business support groups, government schemes, University sponsored programmes, competitions and events, but what is the small business community doing itself to help itself? (see Resources for Founders below!) I've long thought that Vancouver has some of brightest people, especially in technology but the experience or access to resources needed to help them make it big is limited. This is a generalisation of course (there have been successes), but I think the community has been crying out for some kind of leadership. Enter Bootup Labs.

This is a new venture led by Boris Mann and Danny Robinson which aims to take "founders from zero to fundable." I had the pleasure of lunch with Danny last week and shared his excitement about what Bootup is trying to do.  Reading the Bootup labs blog is already a wealth of information, for instance this post of Resources for Founders in Vancouver. What caught my eye though was the post called "Venture Capital is Broken, lets Fix It!" where Danny was responding to a post by Jevon Macdonald on the StartupNorth blog. I won't repeat here but encourage you to click through.

When you do, check out the comments to Danny's post. The post itself is well worth reading, but almost as a demonstration of both the power of blogs to create two way conversations AND a demonstration of how key people in the City are supporting what Bootup are trying to do, it's not only well worth reading, it should be MANDATORY.

As a Vancouverite I am proud of what has fast become my city. What Bootup is doing is an important part of making Vancouver into a world renowned Technology Centre, stay tuned! I'm sure there's much more to come.

Creative Accountants and Financial Storytelling

I've had some interesting responses when I introduce myself as a financial storyteller. The vast majority of these have been very favourable - I help organisations tell their story through numbers. Depending on the organisation, this can mean presenting what their business actually is to an external audience or informing Senior Management internally about what's going on.

So I was thrilled to see the latest CMA Marketing campaign which was launched last week. The new brand platform is "Creative Accountants" and I agree with David Fletcher who is the CMA Vice President, Public Affairs, when he explained "This is about people, not a criminal practice." I think the same can be said for storytelling. The full comments are contained in this article and I invite you to check them out.

As an alternative you can check our the new website, creativeaccountants.org. I applaud this campaign and the thinking behind it. Whether it's easier to say I am creative accountant or a financial storyteller I can't guess but either way we are on the same page.

Strategic and Holistic Leadership in the 21st Century

Tonight I attended a CMABC Lower Mainland Chapter 'Speaker's Series' Presentation intoduced by Michael Brown, CMA at the offices of Visible Strategies. Speaking on the subject above was CEO, Colin Grant a tall Scotsman who moved to Vancouver a few months before 9/11 in 2001.

Colin started off with a very entertaining 3 min summary of the rise and fall of traditional business models. As I undertstand it, the whole idea of $$$ as the goal is long gone. Business has to take a holistic approach to how it manages it's affairs. Naturally this leads into a discussion around climate change, environmental drivers and how these will dictate the way companies will have to act in future.

It used to be that it cost money to go green, one of Colin's assertions is that companies will HAVE to go green as it will cost money NOT to. Of course forward thinking companies have already worked this out. Enter Novex Couriers, a local same day courier company whose CEO Robert Safrata was next up.

Novex are very interesting, a courier company that last week won an award for ecoFreight Transportation from the Globe Foundation of Canada.  It was amazing to hear how environmentally aware this company is. In fact you can see it for yourself on their website by taking a look at how Novex is managed through see-it™; a product/service provided by Visible Strategies. 

I thought this was fascinating and a refreshingly different way to manage a business. Grant explained how when showing this to a potential new client, they can very quickly get something up into see-it™ in a couple of hours. Impressive stuff and judging by their client list something that is growing.

According to Grant the first thing to do is workout where you want your company to be, then work out how you can get there. According to Safrata, one major step in this is an Environmental Audit. Just make sure you don't end up with another glossy brochure style lump of paper that nobody reads and gets filed in a drawer! Some of the challenges of this are difficult, but according Safrata that is exciting! That is why we are managers - we have to work out how to solve these things! Personally having watched Al Gore's most recent presentation over on Ted, this stuff is critical, but we do have a great opportunity.

We can be the generation that really does save the planet, or more accurately, save the human race. The planet will continue come what may.      

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Tags: AlGore, Climate Change, Colin Grant, Public Speaking, Speaker's Series, Visible Strategies, CEO, CMA, cmabc, environment, holistic, man, portrait, presentation, see-it, strategic, strategy, Rob Safrata, Novex, Novex Couriers, Michael Brown CMA

Canadian Financing Forum West

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the closing panel of the Canadian Financing Forum West. The event was put on by Dave Thomas of Rocket Builders. Credit to Dave for what was a cracking event. As the Forum's website says:

"The Canadian Financing Forum matches North American Corporate and VC investors with serious entrepreneurs looking to build world-class technology companies."

Basically a bunch of people looking for money able to present to a bunch of people with money. I was invited through New Ventures BC and the company I co-mentored last year, Teampages was presenting. Alas I arrived too late to see the presentation, but I did catch up with Mike Tan and was pleased to hear his business continues to do very well.

The highlight of the afternoon/evening for me was the Panel who discussed Web 2.0 type questions posed to them by a sad (and sick I understand) Paul Kedrosky. Lot's of healthy stuff here which I must blog about at some point including whether Facebook was done? Reading the press today I see that my favourite application on Facebook, Scrabulous may be under threat! That leaves the status updates as the other main reason I go to the site and made me think I should maybe concentrate on Twitter instead!

The reception to round the event off allowed me the opportunity to reconnect with some faces I'd not seen for a while and meet some new folk. Amongst them folk from Contigo, Chrysalix, Eqo.

This was a good opener for me to 2008, good networking, interesting people and presentations. Next week sees the Vancouver Enterprise Forum kick off, the CMA Breakfast Networking I host for the CMA Members and then Launch Party, which Danny Robinson of Strutta mentioned today.

Vancouver is an interesting place right now and at this time of year there is no shortage of things to take our minds away from the somewhat indifferent weather. Enjoy everyone!

Rest in Peace - Tony Thompson

On this Remembrance day I was sad to receive an email from CIMA Canada President, Kanish Thevarasa which I repeat below.

Dear members and students:

We are very saddened to inform you of the passing away of Tony Thompson. Tony has been the voice of CIMA in Canada for the last 30 years and most of you would have spoken to him, exchanged emails or received mail from him during that time. Tony's commitment to CIMA has been enormous; his recent illness could not keep him away from furthering CIMA in Canada and as recently as two Monday's ago he was at a GO Transit meeting to promote the CIMA qualification. Tony was instrumental in organizing CPD events in Toronto, setting up branches for CIMA across Canada, organizing member events, conducting CIMA examinations in Toronto and so much more.

Our prayers and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tony when he came to Vancouver for a CIMA Meeting back in 2006. I also exchanged telephone calls and emails with him over the months. I can not say I knew Tony very well but I did immediately recognise his dedication to CIMA, his desire to promote the Institute and support members.

I am certain that as BC Correspondent here in Vancouver I have not managed to achieve the standards Tony obviously set back East. I can only say that maybe it's time for me to look at that again and try to contribute more effectively. I will do so in the knowledge that the world has lost a man whose passion and integrity will remain an inspiration to all.

Rest in peace, Tony.

Technorati Tags: CIMA, CIMA Canada, Tony Thompson

A conversation about blogging ... for CMAs

Tonight I had the pleasure of presenting to CMA members "A conversation about blogging." The intention was to give an overview of the subject and give some examples about why a Certified Management Accountant should even care about blogging.

My presentation is below and can be downloaded as a pdf here. When you look at the example slides, double clicking should launch your browser and take you to that page. Of course it may look slightly different as there may be new posts on the blog!

There was a good and attentive audience and my feeling is that the presentation was well received. I am not the world's most experienced presenter so I'm looking forward to receiving feedback from the people in the room.

To get things going my own impression was that the presentation was too long and that I could spend more time making some of the slides with screen shots more interesting. The balance of course if that an internet is not always available and being skilled in 'showing' websites live can be more difficult that it looks!

The presentation was followed by a very enjoyable dinner at a local restaurant. For me it was a very rewarding evening, sharing one of my passions with a new audience. If you are reading this and came to the event I would really value your comments to this post!

Technorati Tags: blogging, CMA, storytelling, technology

Shaw-ly you can't be serious ?

Here's something I really don't understand but sadly have come to expect from such things.

Yesterday I notified Shaw that I was moving, from North Van to Vancouver and I wanted everything transferred. I have the whole 9 yards with Shaw, Internet, Cable TV and Digital Phone.

The fun came when we talked about Digital Phone. For some reason, I can NOT keep my existing number I have to change it because "I am moving to a different exchange".

ummm, what ?

Let me get this straight, I use something called 'DIGITAL' phone. This is VOIP - Voice over IP - i.e. over the Internet. To my knowledge Shaw does not have telephone operators at the exchange who spend their entire life unplugging one physical cable (line) from one hole and plugging it into another hole (another line).

What's with this 'Different Exchange' nonsense? More likely different bits of the same computer hard disk, located somewhere completely different no doubt, such as India, or China!

Add to this the idea of "Number Portability" and the fact that Rogers for instance tell me in their adverts I can take my number with me, I really don't get why I should have to lose my number.

From a business perspective this also strikes me as, what a good friend is oft minded to call 'redtarded.'

You see, what's the point of staying with Shaw? I could simply cancel my Digital Phone Service with them and sign up with Rogers or Telus  (or another). I have to change my number anyway and they all seem to offer the same kind of deal except that if I go with a new provider I would probably get some kind of introductory offer.

Shaw have made no effort to keep my business. They already have me on three of their services - I would have thought 'looking after' me would be part of their plan. Now, not only do I get to think about whether I want to cancel their Digital Phone Service, but this leads me to reconsider their Internet and Cable TV offerings as well.

It's all very sad. I have done what I think makes sense at the moment, I am transferring everything with Shaw to the new place. For now. As soon as we are settled I'll be taking a look around at all the offerings. In other words for Shaw I will be at risk of leaving them completely. It would have been so simple to prevent me even thinking about this.

As I go through my list, I notice Fido are up next - can't wait! 

 

The Starbucks Experience

I wrote a few weeks back about the new Starbucks opening in my neighbourhood.

It's now been open a little while and I wanted to report on my experience to date.

The store is a good size, with more than a dozen car parking spaces (something really important for car-centric North Van!). Everything thing is smart inside and I noticed the area behind the counter is fairly large. This means when they get busy it is possible to get more than just one person making the coffee.

What has been a surprise and a pleasant one is the customer service. Leftantler and I went in about a week ago and started looking at the coffee beans on sale. We needed some more at home. Just as we made our decision a Startbucks staff member ('Partner' I think they are called) came over and asked me if I had smelt the coffee I was buying.

Initially confused I said no. He then explained that if you shake the bag abd press the starbucks logo on the front you can 'press and sniff' as it were! I had no idea. The chap then went on to suggest that I could ask for a French press on my chosen coffee as an alternative to my normal latte. Neat idea.

Next time I went in I ordered some wierd green frappacino drink which the poor girl behind the counter had to make twice. Without prompting I was passed a card for a free drink next time due to the delay. So today I went back in and ordered my french press.

The guy behind the counter was a little surprised, but took my order and explained gravely it would take 10 mins. No problem, if I know it's going to be 10 mins to start with it's very different to waiting 10 mins when I thought it would be immediate.

The same chap who told us about the coffee sniff thing was in the store. Turns out he is a shift supervisor and responsible for 'front of house' and customer service. He remembered the coffee I purchased last time and enquired what I was trying today. Very friendly. He then came back with a cool coffee wheel (think like a colour wheel) and explained that a piece of lemon raspberry cake would go well with my particular choice of coffee. He then gave us a complimentary slice and two forks!

By the way, the coffee wheel was right! The cake was fantastic with the coffee (Ethiopean).

So, I know it's a new store, in a new neighbourhood and the staff are all fresh and highly geared towards pleasing customers, but I was still impressed. It showed an attention to detail I respect and one I suspect Howard Schulz wouldf have been pleased to see.

I will of course continue to go back to the store, but then I needed no conversion to the way of Starbucks. It did though reinforce the thought that even established brands, still have to work really hard to make a good impression and keep it. Well done Starbucks, long may it continue.

 

 

1st day of Summer CMABC Networking

Bright eyed and bushy tailed CMAs shared coffee and muffins yesterday morning. Society staff made the trip up one floor to join us. Vancouver chapter board members were on hand and much friendly discussion not to mention consumption of coffee and muffins was had.

Judging by the weather for at least part of this week, the summer has arrived as has the opportunities for networking. There will be coffee and muffins throughout the summer. Last year was this was a big topic of debate - i.e. do we stop for the summer and restart after Labour Day?

No, is the short answer. I felt then, as I do now, that despite it being a quieter time in the city, there are still lots of CMAs still around. We did run the coffee and muffins in July and August last year and far from seeing lower numbers we had the highest attendance up to that point. I think in August around 40 CMAs came out and the buzz in the room was something to remember.

So I encourage you this summer to come and join us. Maybe it's the warmer weather but last year that translated to a warmer environment to meet, share and connect with fellow members. See you there!

CMA Networking Breakfasts - Coffee & Muffins

Tomorrow morning is this month's Coffee and Muffins Networking Breakfast. This informal gathering of CMA members is an opportunity for members to meet each other, catch up with contacts and generally participate in the wider CMA community.

For my part I get to host the morning, which really involves welcoming new faces, introducing members to each other and keeping my little announcements to a minimum before people head off for the working day. Many staff members from the Society will also be in attendance, including our President Colin Bennett and Sandra Record, it's a great opportunity to meet the folks who represent and support our professional body.

I've met many facinating CMA members from a wide range of backgrounds. Many are working as CMAs in their organisation, others have moved into other fields of work which the CMA has prepared them for. CIMA members are also invited to the join the wider Management Accounting community and learn more about what the CMA is all about.

So if you haven't registered and would like to come, please let me know or register online. You can of course attend unannounced but we would like to avoid running out of coffee!

CMABC start to explore blogging

Over the last year I've had the pleasure of hosting Breakfast Networking Meetings for the Vancouver Chapter of the Certfied Management Accountants Society here in Vancouver. Over that time I've had the pleasure of getting to know many of the BC Society staff.

I've also been discussing with the Chapter President how we can have some kind of online tool/community for the Chapter Board/Members etc maybe as an extension of the informal breakfasts I already host.

I am greatly encouraged by these discussions, the latest of which I had yesterday morning over coffee. The subject was blogging. We had a friendly chat over coffee about what this 'blogging' thing is. The subject originally came up when a staff member ran a 30 day trial with Typepad - a service I use to run the BC Floorball Federation Blog. (btw, this blog uses Movable Type, and there are other solutions available, such as Drupal)

The discussion was a good one and amongst other things led me to think running an 'introduction to blogging for accountants' would be a worthy thing to pursue! In the meeting I handed over two of the best books I've read about blogging. These were Shel Israel/Robert Scoble's 'Naked Conversations' and Jeremey Wright's 'Blog Marketing'. Both of these do an excellent job of introducing the subject and have the advantage of presenting a new media subject in an old media way. The books also enable the reader to read about what can be a quite intimidating subject in a more familiar environment.

Both books of course have associated with them which are worth looking at blogs">here and here respectively.

Interestingly over in Ontario they do do a few student blogs following student through their studies. The Society here is thinking from more of a Provincial/Chapter perspective. I'm looking forward to the next meeting and will be sure to keep you posted!