Thinking about this subject on the dock at the cottage this weekend, I came come up with a list of five Canadian entrepreneurs who are changing society today.
In no particular order:
* Former eBay president Jeff Skoll was an early shareholder and the first employee of the online auction giant. Not only did the Montreal-born engineer help change the way the world buys and sells, but his Jeff Skoll Foundation now seeds social-entrepreneurship projects around the world, giving low-income societies the tools and motivation to help themselves.
* Energy Savings Income Fund is probably the largest business in Canada ever founded, built and owned by a woman. Rebecca MacDonald has sweated bullets and survived infuriating government policy reversals to give consumers a new way to save money on utility costs – and provide an exciting new role model for Canadian women.
* Jimmy Pattison, the former Vancouver car dealer, runs a mammoth personal empire that’s involved in advertising and publishing, supermarkets, real estate, transportation distribution – and still owns more than a dozen auto dealerships. It’s Canada’s third largest private corporation, and he says he’s not leaving it to his children – so I suspect he may emerge as one of Canada’s largest philanthropists.
Best of all, when Vancouver’s Expo86 went off the rails more than 20 years ago, Pattison took more than a year away from his business to whip it into shape. At a crucial time, Jimmy Pattison bailed out Canada
* Mike Lazaridis combined his boyhood love of radio and computers and developed the always-on wireless email device now known as the BlackBerry. He’s had a lot of help from his co-CEO, but it was Lazaridis' vision and curiosity that created Research in Motion and changed the way business communicates.
* Moving from BlackBerries to cranberries, there's Martin Le Moine, founder of Quebec-based Fruit d'Or, North America's first large-scale organic cranberry producer. Developed out of a hobby farm intended for Le Moine’s “retirement,” Fruit d'Or supplies dried and frozen cranberries and blueberries to food processors for use in trail mixes, drinks, cereals, granola and nutrition bars. He’s leading awareness of the health benefits of cranberries, and creating jobs in rural areas that need all the employment they can get. "I wanted to do something good," he told PROFIT Magazine this spring when Fruit d’Or was named Canada’s third fastest-growing company, "not just grow cranberries for the sake of growing cranberries."
Why do entrepreneurs matter? They're building Canada’s 21st century economy, they're changing lives and doing good. And their impact has never been greater.
Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Friday, 11 August 2006
What is an Entrepreneur?
"An entrepreneur is not necessarily a risk taker, but a risk reducer. Each day at work, the entrepreneur seeks to make decisions to increase the longevity of the business and diminish the risk.
"And yet, herein lies a paradox. For an entrepreneur, lack of growth (and uncertainty) is like death. When things start becoming too predictable, the challenge ebbs away. It is then time for a new dream, a new vision."
Rajesh Jain (founder of India's first portal and its first web services company).
"An entrepreneur to me just means someone who thinks out of the box and they’re on a different beam. 1 + 1 doesn’t equal 2. 1 + 1 equals 5 to them, somehow.”
Michael Crooke, President & CEO, Patagonia, Inc.
"And yet, herein lies a paradox. For an entrepreneur, lack of growth (and uncertainty) is like death. When things start becoming too predictable, the challenge ebbs away. It is then time for a new dream, a new vision."
Rajesh Jain (founder of India's first portal and its first web services company).
"An entrepreneur to me just means someone who thinks out of the box and they’re on a different beam. 1 + 1 doesn’t equal 2. 1 + 1 equals 5 to them, somehow.”
Michael Crooke, President & CEO, Patagonia, Inc.
Wednesday, 2 August 2006
No humor please, we're business owners
I saw this piece of direct mail today from Bell promoting their Sympatico High Speed Unplugged Internet Service. It's not directly targeted at CEOs and entrepreneurs, but at travellers who will pay $45 a month (and up) to connect to the Net from offices, homes and airport lounges across the country.
Which means business owners are a big part of the target market.
In my previous post (below or here), when I advised marketers to "use humour sparingly," I wasn't thinking of animated beavers specifically. But I should have been.
To paraphrase and repeat: When marketing to CEOs, no cartoon beavers.
Monday, 31 July 2006
How to reach the CEO
I was talking recently with a prospective client who was keen to target CEOs. And while I tend to think of myself as the “entrepreneur” guy, in truth, I have been writing for CEOs for 25 years.
Not only the CEOs of entrepreneurial companies, but of big businesses as well. My education in journalism came at the Financial Times of Canada, the weekly business tabloid that aimed at top corporate decision-makers.
In six years I went from temporary summer replacement to managing editor (the guy who runs the newsroom). The reason? With a lot of patient coaching from terrific editors such as David Tafler, Paul Nowack, T
erry Corcoran and Ron Blunn, I figured out what it takes to engage the CEO.
Here’s what I had pounded into my head every week about catching the attention of CEOs:
* Offer them an advantage. Call it a benefit if you must, but these are competitive people. They prefer solutions that do more than just help them – they want products, services and information that put them ahead of the other guys.
* Keep it relevant. You have to be as focused as they are. As soon as you appear to wander or go off track, CEOs will turn the page, change the channel, or start looking at their watch.
* Be timely. When they need you, they need you now. If you get to them a day late, you've lost the sale.
* Be specific. Don’t just say your solution can boost the bottom line. Explain quickly and exactly what your product or service does and how it will help them.
* Use clear and simple examples. Don’t expect them to connect the dots for you or reach the conclusion you want. Spell it out.
* Use humour sparingly. If they don't find it funny, they’ll think you're wasting their time. And there’s no worse sin than that.
(Click here for my tribute to Ron Blunn, one of my editors at the Times, who passed away in June at the age of 56.)
Not only the CEOs of entrepreneurial companies, but of big businesses as well. My education in journalism came at the Financial Times of Canada, the weekly business tabloid that aimed at top corporate decision-makers.
In six years I went from temporary summer replacement to managing editor (the guy who runs the newsroom). The reason? With a lot of patient coaching from terrific editors such as David Tafler, Paul Nowack, T
erry Corcoran and Ron Blunn, I figured out what it takes to engage the CEO.Here’s what I had pounded into my head every week about catching the attention of CEOs:
* Offer them an advantage. Call it a benefit if you must, but these are competitive people. They prefer solutions that do more than just help them – they want products, services and information that put them ahead of the other guys.
* Keep it relevant. You have to be as focused as they are. As soon as you appear to wander or go off track, CEOs will turn the page, change the channel, or start looking at their watch.
* Be timely. When they need you, they need you now. If you get to them a day late, you've lost the sale.
* Be specific. Don’t just say your solution can boost the bottom line. Explain quickly and exactly what your product or service does and how it will help them.
* Use clear and simple examples. Don’t expect them to connect the dots for you or reach the conclusion you want. Spell it out.
* Use humour sparingly. If they don't find it funny, they’ll think you're wasting their time. And there’s no worse sin than that.
(Click here for my tribute to Ron Blunn, one of my editors at the Times, who passed away in June at the age of 56.)
Tuesday, 27 June 2006
Direct Mail that almost worked
Direct mail is a lost art. As consumers, we’ve come to recognize time-wasting ad material even when it comes in a sealed envelope, and we automatically file it where it can do the least harm.
But then there’s this DM package that arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago from Bell Canada. It begged to be opened. When you looked at the transparent back of the envelope, you could see this 5x7" "Open for Business" sign, just like you might find at a quality stationery store.
You tear the envelope open and it’s exactly what you thought – a very cool “Open for Business” sign on heavy, glossy stock. High quality and tough enough to put on your office door or in the front window of your store.
The back of the card offers this pitch: “Visit www.bell.ca/open to log in with your enclosed Preferred Business I.D. now!”
That’s not exactly a strong benefit statement. But the “Open” card is so cool that you're ready to give Bell the benefit of the doubt. So you actually look at the color brochure that came with the sign. Although the headline is vague (“We’re Open for Your Business 24/7!”), the thematic link to the sign is so strong that I went ahead and opened the four-page brochure.
Alas, this is where it all breaks down. You get a two-page spread about – well, something. It has product demos that have something to do with a BlackBerry, it offers opinion polls from Canadian business people, a Solution Generator (“for a customized wireless recommendation”), and BizNews articles that offer “the expert opinion and newsworthy information you want to know.”
So, I guess it’s some sort of website. Does it have a name? A brand? Apparently not.
The marketing bumph calls it, variously, www.bell.ca/open (which strikes me as an address, not a name); “one valuable resource for everything you need” regarding wireless solutions; “one convenient and easily accessible place”; “access to instant information for all aspects of your business”; and, “the site.”
The d-m guys got the concept right. They created a must-open package that arrests the attention of business owners. But boy did the product copywriters let them down.
Still, everyone who got the package also received their very own “Preferred Business I.D.” password that provides “open access” to the site. There’s nothing entrepreneurs like better than feeling like a VIP, so maybe some of them went to the site just to see what preferred benefits were on offer.
But if they did, they were proceeding on curiosity, not in search of a product or benefit. Which means that while Bell might get them to go where it wanted, these visitors are ready to bail at the first sign of a hard sell – or any evidence that they're not as special as they’ve been led to believe.
Will Bell be up to the challenge? Is Donald Trump’s hair colour real? Check out our next post for the gruesome details.
But then there’s this DM package that arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago from Bell Canada. It begged to be opened. When you looked at the transparent back of the envelope, you could see this 5x7" "Open for Business" sign, just like you might find at a quality stationery store.
You tear the envelope open and it’s exactly what you thought – a very cool “Open for Business” sign on heavy, glossy stock. High quality and tough enough to put on your office door or in the front window of your store.
The back of the card offers this pitch: “Visit www.bell.ca/open to log in with your enclosed Preferred Business I.D. now!”
That’s not exactly a strong benefit statement. But the “Open” card is so cool that you're ready to give Bell the benefit of the doubt. So you actually look at the color brochure that came with the sign. Although the headline is vague (“We’re Open for Your Business 24/7!”), the thematic link to the sign is so strong that I went ahead and opened the four-page brochure.
Alas, this is where it all breaks down. You get a two-page spread about – well, something. It has product demos that have something to do with a BlackBerry, it offers opinion polls from Canadian business people, a Solution Generator (“for a customized wireless recommendation”), and BizNews articles that offer “the expert opinion and newsworthy information you want to know.”
So, I guess it’s some sort of website. Does it have a name? A brand? Apparently not.
The marketing bumph calls it, variously, www.bell.ca/open (which strikes me as an address, not a name); “one valuable resource for everything you need” regarding wireless solutions; “one convenient and easily accessible place”; “access to instant information for all aspects of your business”; and, “the site.”
The d-m guys got the concept right. They created a must-open package that arrests the attention of business owners. But boy did the product copywriters let them down.
Still, everyone who got the package also received their very own “Preferred Business I.D.” password that provides “open access” to the site. There’s nothing entrepreneurs like better than feeling like a VIP, so maybe some of them went to the site just to see what preferred benefits were on offer.
But if they did, they were proceeding on curiosity, not in search of a product or benefit. Which means that while Bell might get them to go where it wanted, these visitors are ready to bail at the first sign of a hard sell – or any evidence that they're not as special as they’ve been led to believe.
Will Bell be up to the challenge? Is Donald Trump’s hair colour real? Check out our next post for the gruesome details.
Tuesday, 20 June 2006
Marketers' biggest mistake
What's the worst mistake big-business people make when marketing to small business?
Warrillow & Co., a Toronto-based company that researches the small business market on behalf of bigger clients, asked that question of Gary Slack, chairman & "Chief Experience Officer" of Chicago-based Slack Barshinger, an integrated marketing agency focussed on business-to-business. Slack Barshinger was BtoB magazine’s 2006 Midsize Agency of the Year, and the Business Marketing Association’s 2006 Agency of the Year.
Warrillow: "What’s the biggest mistake you see enterprise companies make when they target small businesses?"
Slack: "I think the biggest mistake we see enterprise firms make is assuming they understand the needs, challenges and mindset of their small-business customers and prospects. We still too commonly encounter marketers who try to arrive at the answers to critical questions by arguing them out around conference tables rather than doing the research required to really understand the marketplace.
"On top of that, we also see enterprise companies sometimes make the mistake of assuming that small companies are the same as their own company – for example, large, bureaucratic, territorial and slow to act. They don’t sufficiently appreciate how quickly decisions can be made at a smaller company, assuming you have reached the right person or persons with the right message.
"Last but not least, we’ve also found that enterprise firms sometimes make blanket assumptions about the SMB buying process related to their product or service... assumptions that may prove incorrect. In the chaotic world of SMB life, job descriptions cover a fraction of what an individual actually does, and research is needed to truly understand all the potential players who might be involved in a purchasing decision, what information those individuals will seek, their various pain points, and what steps they will follow in their firm’s buying cycle."
In my opinion, the trouble with researching small business habits is that they're so different. A focus group of 10 people couldn't begin to cover the broad spectrum of possible small business attitudes and behaviours. Yet quantitative research is so limited in terms of covering multiple options and open-ended behaviours and attitudes.
So what's a marketer to do? Cover off multiple options: one-on-one research and experience, small-group interviews, and quantitative surveys. The hard part, though, it to synthesize the information and convey the resulting intelligence and insights to everyone in your marketing, product development and executive teams who needs to understand these markets.
Fortunately, technology has come up with unique new solutions for that. Internal blogs and wikis are great ways of recording, sharing and understanding an ongoing wave of information. And you can control access to any participants you wish.
I know, I know. Something new to research. But don't worry. Blogs and wikis are easy to learn, simple to use and easy to set up, yet cost next to nothing.
And they're a great way to ensure that your hard-earned research gets understood and gets used.
For more of Warrillow's interview with Slack, click here.
Warrillow & Co., a Toronto-based company that researches the small business market on behalf of bigger clients, asked that question of Gary Slack, chairman & "Chief Experience Officer" of Chicago-based Slack Barshinger, an integrated marketing agency focussed on business-to-business. Slack Barshinger was BtoB magazine’s 2006 Midsize Agency of the Year, and the Business Marketing Association’s 2006 Agency of the Year.
Warrillow: "What’s the biggest mistake you see enterprise companies make when they target small businesses?"
Slack: "I think the biggest mistake we see enterprise firms make is assuming they understand the needs, challenges and mindset of their small-business customers and prospects. We still too commonly encounter marketers who try to arrive at the answers to critical questions by arguing them out around conference tables rather than doing the research required to really understand the marketplace.
"On top of that, we also see enterprise companies sometimes make the mistake of assuming that small companies are the same as their own company – for example, large, bureaucratic, territorial and slow to act. They don’t sufficiently appreciate how quickly decisions can be made at a smaller company, assuming you have reached the right person or persons with the right message.
"Last but not least, we’ve also found that enterprise firms sometimes make blanket assumptions about the SMB buying process related to their product or service... assumptions that may prove incorrect. In the chaotic world of SMB life, job descriptions cover a fraction of what an individual actually does, and research is needed to truly understand all the potential players who might be involved in a purchasing decision, what information those individuals will seek, their various pain points, and what steps they will follow in their firm’s buying cycle."
In my opinion, the trouble with researching small business habits is that they're so different. A focus group of 10 people couldn't begin to cover the broad spectrum of possible small business attitudes and behaviours. Yet quantitative research is so limited in terms of covering multiple options and open-ended behaviours and attitudes.
So what's a marketer to do? Cover off multiple options: one-on-one research and experience, small-group interviews, and quantitative surveys. The hard part, though, it to synthesize the information and convey the resulting intelligence and insights to everyone in your marketing, product development and executive teams who needs to understand these markets.
Fortunately, technology has come up with unique new solutions for that. Internal blogs and wikis are great ways of recording, sharing and understanding an ongoing wave of information. And you can control access to any participants you wish.
I know, I know. Something new to research. But don't worry. Blogs and wikis are easy to learn, simple to use and easy to set up, yet cost next to nothing.
And they're a great way to ensure that your hard-earned research gets understood and gets used.
For more of Warrillow's interview with Slack, click here.
Wednesday, 7 June 2006
Keep it short, Stupid!
There's a saying in marketing that long copy is better-read than short copy - if its value message is sufficently compelling.
Does this rule apply to small busines owners? Probably not.
Consider the entrepreneur I met with today. We were talking about getting phone and e-mail messages through to business prospects, and his view was this: "I never write or read long e-mails."
I was shocked. He really ignores e-mails of more than a couple of pragraphs? Yep, he said, although he admitted that missives from family and friends might get through his screen - but not business contacts.
And isn't he worried about missing something important? Hasn't this practice come back to bite him? His response to both questions: "No."
But then, he said, most of his e-mail comes from other entrepreneurs and people who are used to working with them. So they follow pretty much the same philosophy as he does.
In small business, brevity is the soul of profit. How quickly does your messgae get across?
Does this rule apply to small busines owners? Probably not.
Consider the entrepreneur I met with today. We were talking about getting phone and e-mail messages through to business prospects, and his view was this: "I never write or read long e-mails."
I was shocked. He really ignores e-mails of more than a couple of pragraphs? Yep, he said, although he admitted that missives from family and friends might get through his screen - but not business contacts.
And isn't he worried about missing something important? Hasn't this practice come back to bite him? His response to both questions: "No."
But then, he said, most of his e-mail comes from other entrepreneurs and people who are used to working with them. So they follow pretty much the same philosophy as he does.
In small business, brevity is the soul of profit. How quickly does your messgae get across?
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