Financial Storyteller

Making time for fans

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.

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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