Financial Storyteller

I like the band Barenaked Ladies, have done for many many years. I think it was Feb 1999 I first saw them perform in London after listening to their music for many years. I went on to see them in Birmingham then at a couple of their Christmas shows, first in the UK, then in Vancouver. Despite the sad news about Steven Page, I WILL, I hope, get the chance to see them again. (The story is updated here)

The CBC story I link to above has well over 260 comments and it's really quite staggering what they contain. There are fans, fans who are now ex-fans, people calling Page names and informing us they are burning all BNL Albums. Then there is a whole debate about how the biggest problem for the singer is that this happened in the US and not in Canada (that concerns me as well!). This seems to have kicked off a whole debate about Canada, immigration, First Nations, European Nations, Muslims and Palestine. WOW!!

Some of the above I have no comment on, it has nothing to do with the story. However, some of what I have read, from alleged fans, is hugely disappointing. I don't know if the typical BNL fan is someone who comments on CBC, but I cannot believe it reflects the general fan base.

I don't know if he will be found guilty, notwithstanding that I don't know if he did what he's accused of. Whatever, it would seem Steven Page is in a bad place in his life and I really hope he is able to get himself to somewhere better. I've enjoying seeing the band, was genuinely thrilled to meet him at a gig in Vancouver, and hope at some point to see him perform again.



The man is a human being, he needs support, from friends and family for sure, and also from fans. He has mine, I hope he has yours.

I was reading some of the great coverage by the CBC of the iPhone launch and found myself raising an eyebrow. Down near the bottom of the article is a section headed "Only Italy more expensive than Canada." I've seen this in many stories where the cost of the iPhone is presented at Voice Plan + Data Plan + System Access Fee multiplied by 36 months.

The reason I raised my eyebrow was that I already have a Voice Plan, I already pay the System Access Fee, but I don't have a Data Plan. So for me the 'cost' of going to an iPhone is the incremental cost of adding the Data Plan + the handset itself.

From most of the coverage I've seen the people buying the iPhone already have a cellphone. So they are already paying something every month. I would also wager than it's highly unlikely these people will do away with a cellphone completely in the next three years.  So whilst I think the 3 year contract is appalling , I think you have to be carefull when doing the price comparison that you don't base your analysis on a false premis.

Personally, if you want to knock the whole idea of an iPhone, doing these cost comparisons is not the best approach. The cost of the handset itself is not significant, $300 is a couple of meals out, it's really the extra $30 per month plus taxes. If I was a completely new customer, i.e. not only new to the Network, but never had a cellphone before, then maybe there's some value in these cost comparisons.

I've not taken the plunge yet on buying an iPhone - I'm still doing the math. One cost which hasn't been mentioned is that many people took over 8 hours (and a horrible experience it was) to get their iPhone and get it activated. Normally the only time I wait that long is at an Airport, where I have no control over the device! Here though, if I was self employed and charged my time out at $100 per hour, getting my hands on an iPhone yesterday just cost me $800 of billable time!

I'll keep working on my math, find answers to questions like "I already pay extra for caller display on my existing plan, will that work for the iPhone?' and watch the stories which will come over the next few weeks.

You should notice today the blog looks a little different. That's because it is now hosted on Movable Type Version 4, which Zach at Cazinc helped me set up. It's also given me the opportunity to review my existing strategy/design/ approach etc.

The biggest change is that I have integrated all the content from my two previous blogs, this one and Moosehat.com into one place. I wanted a simpler life and have been thinking about having a single blog for a long time.

The design is still a work in progress but for today it is good enough to get working on. I still have a few things to do on the 'infrastructure', such as reinstall Disqus, then I'll work on the whole look and feel.

You will notice the Current Activity and Find Me Elsewhere blocks to the right. These are courtesy of Action Streams, although I did try friendfeed (the widget was not very flexible) and Zach just pointed me at Swurl, which I'll take a look at.

UPDATE: Action Streams is killing the servers in the background for this blog, so has been discontinued. Still looking at different options for this.

One request I do have of my loyal readers, is that if you subscribe through a feed please delete and resubscribe so you are picking up the updated version! Of course any comments and feedback would be welcome.

I've been on LinkedIn since early 2004, when I started using it to connect with people in Vancouver. At that time I was planning a reconnaissance trip to the city, ahead of emigrating from the UK. LinkedIn put me in touch with lots of good people and I went on to meet a bunch of them during my visit. The contacts I made were very very helpful and a number have become the closest of my Canadian Friends, since we arrived as permanent residents in the summer of 2005.

My use of LinkedIn was for the longest time unchanged. I believed that it was a numbers game and the more connections you had the more likely you were to get a few that were of value. Of course that statement 'of value' is the interesting point. What does it mean? My general approach to networking has always been to look for what I can offer my network, rather than what I can take from it. What is 'of value' changes over time and although LinkedIn was helpful in the building stages of my network, especially in Vancouver - I had for a few months been rethinking my approach.

My 'policy' so to speak was to be generous in who I connected with, i.e. I didn't really mind if I knew them or not. Some I had brief email discussions with, but generally I didn't. Apart from a mass invite activity I did in 2004/2005 I've only actually invited people recently that I'd met, so change was on the cards. As LinkedIn added to their offering I started following a feed of my network's activity. Increasingly this has become frustrating.

Most of the updates etc I was reading came from people that quite honestly, I didn't really know. Consequently they were of little interest. What would be of interest would be a feed from people I did really know. That feed I would like to read.

So without pretending I have some highly intellectual plan I decided to reduce my LinkedIn network to what I thought of as connections which I have some kind of connection with. LinkedIn of course is a bit clunky when it comes to removing contacts, but I've finally finished my first pass. Below are the Before/After numbers:

Measure                              Before               After     Reduction

Connections                         1,615                 362            78%

2 Degrees away               489,100            126,800          74%

3 Degrees away            8,230,600         5,150,500         37%

Total contactable         8,721,300         5,277,700         29%

It's interesting to note that the more extended the network, the less impact this has had.  Is this the right strategy going forward? Time will tell, but for now it feels better and just maybe I can start looking at my connections and taking more of interest in what they are all up to.

Note: Due to the number of connections I removed, it's entirely possible I deleted some that I meant to keep. If you are reading this and think you are one of them, let me know!

 

Today I had the pleasure of giving my 10th speech at my Toastmasters Club. This completes the Competent Communicator manual and means I have reached the first milestone in my Toastmasters career. I feel I have really progressed since November when I gave my Icebreaker speech and if the feedback is anything to go by this has been noticed by everyone in the club.

Toastmasters is a funny thing really. Public speaking is an important skill and to follow such an established process as the 10 speech projects has really been an education. One of the main reasons I started on this was because I felt that many of the leaders I had seen speak, clearly missed an opportunity by communicating poorly - even when they had a potentially strong message.

Of course, with only 10 speeches under my belt I am no expert - what I am though is far more aware of what I can do when speaking to increase the chances of achieving my desired aim. I recommend Toastmasters whole heartedly to anyone who has an interest in their own personal development and how they are peceived by others. You will learn lots about speaking, evaluating and leadership but more importantly you will learn more about yourself. Something, I feel is never a bad thing.

For the record, my speeches in order were as follows:

The Icebreaker; The Technology of being Connected; Crows - dispelling the myths; The Inspiration of Mountains; Autogeddon - the motor car; New Ventures BC Competition; Howard Schulz; Talking Sticks; The Simplest Act - walking; Ignite the Spark.

After the speech today I called my boss to tell him I had completed this milestone. He replied "It's good to know I now have 1 competent member of my team!" :-)

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.

The other day my wife and I were discussing the idea that as people become more famous/successful they have less time for the people who made them famous/successful in the first place.  A couple of days later I had reason to question this.

For years I've been reading Robert X Cringely's column. These days of course I follow the rss. When I first read it, about the same time as the Triumph of the Nerds aired in the UK, Mr. Cringely had a really nice feature. Years later, i.e. now I appreciate it more as I think of my Toastmasters speeches and storytelling more widely.

The column would start with something that his wife said/did then go off into the core topic (rumours of a takeover, new product or whatever), then at the end conclude by circling back to whatever it was his wife mentioned/did. For me, sometimes the column was not in my field of interest, but I read on anticipating the conclusion.

Being a wired world we live in I decided the other day to buzz an email off to him. As usual, with these things I did not expect a reply. To my delight 'Bob' - I feel I can call him that based on how he signed the email - reminding me that this was 1987-95 when he did that. Wow! Over 10 years ago it stopped! Bob also mentioned he didn't think it was really appropriate for his current column, which is a shame.

Bob's done some very cool things, which I've read or followed over the years and doubtless more I will discover in future. His email to me probably took less than 10 secs, nothing to him I'm sure. But this simple act sets him apart from many others and gives me another good reason to continue to reading his column.

It's also another reason I should listen to my wife a little more. In our discussion she told me I was being overly cynical and on this occasion (only!) I have to agree with her.

Powered by Qumana

It's true to say I haven't posted here recently, it would seem that most things I want to talk about are over on my Financial Storyteller blog. However, last weekend Miss604 put a note out (I think on Twitter) if anyone wanted to do a guest post about their favourite Vancouver park over on her blog.

It took me a few days but you can see the results here, part of a very interesting Metro Vancouver Park Series that she's running. There have been other guests and other parks. In preparing my post I found that it was very difficult to find much out about the history of Iona Beach Regional Park. I know it was opened in 1990, but what was there before? How and why did it get created. I know it was developed when YVR got it's second runway, but before? It's a mystery.

Still it was fun to do and I thank Miss604 for the opportunity. It also gave me the chance to show off some of Leftantler's great photos! There's more on flickr of course!

Tags: IonaBeachRegionalPark, MetroVancouver, Vancouver, Parks, Miss604

Powered by Qumana

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.      

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

If you read my previous post regarding my broken Nikon P5100 you may remember that the man at Kerrisdale Cameras told me it would be 4-6 weeks before I received it back. So imagine my surprise when I picked up a voicemail on Saturday informing me that it was ready for collection!

I went up today, which is 2 weeks and 2 days since I took it in, to collect the camera. I'm pleased to report that the man who helped me today (a different one to last time) was efficient and bordering on friendly. There was no charge and I was straight out into the sun we've enjoyed this weekend playing with my new (ok, nearly new), toy.

The zoom switch is back as good as new and having had a couple of weeks with my old Nikon P2, it's certainly a welcome return. The P2 is a reasonable camera, but without a viewfinder and image stabalisation, I found it somewhat restrictive.

I am pleased that Nikon Canada seem to have turned around, what was probably a simple repair, quickly. Kerrisdale Cameras did their bit as well and I'm back to normal just at the right time. Last week I attended an Apple World Tour about their software package called Aperture. This really rocks! So with what feels like a new camera and new software I'm back to having fun with photography! Check out my flickr page if you'd like to see the results!

Tags: nikon, kerrisdalecameras, aperture, flickr, nikonp5100, p5100, nikonp2, p2, repair, apple

Powered by Qumana