Small Business and Bankers – Relationships that count.

October 12, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

On re-reading my previous post regarding the economic briefing with the RBC’s Chief Economist, I realized that it pointed to an important issue for anyone who owns or manages a public relations business – or any small business for that matter. The relationship we have with our bankers.

Talking to other entrepreneurs over the years, the treatment of small businesses by banks has been one of the most frequently raised sore points. Complaints I have heard most often include: “They’re never there when I really need them. But they always want to lend me money when I don’t need it.” “They want so much security that it makes it impossible for me borrow money for growth.” And even “They don’t seem interested in my business.”

Happily for me, I have had a very different experience with my bank. I’ve had an 11 year banking relationship with RBC. Even more remarkable, RBC has assigned the same account manager, Bill Helmer, to my account for that entire time. Over the years, he has been a source of advice and support. Bill has suggested ways that the bank could help me with my growth plans (yes, the money is offered when I don’t “need” it, but isn’t the art of management all about staying out of a situation in which you “need” financing.) And from time to time, he has reined me in, counseling that my ambitions might be ahead of my reach or that I needed to focus on fundamentals in order to have a solid foundation for those plans. He has invited me to events such as the economic briefing and networking events. And he has talked positively about my business to many of his own contacts.

In a very real sense, Bill Helmer has been a valued partner in guiding Thornley Fallis to business success.

I wonder if my experience is common. Or have the entrepreneurs who’ve told me about their unhappiness with their bankers been the norm?

I’d be interested in hearing about the experiences of other entrepreneurs and small business owners. What do you think? Is my experience typical?

The only R word in Canada is "Resilient"

October 12, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Yesterday, RBC Financial Group Chief Economist Craig Wright delivered an encouraging message to an audience of Canadian business executives. Overall, Canada’s economy remains strong and is likely to sustain continued moderate growth.

Why do I care? Well, because as the CEO of a public relations firm, I know that my business will be among the first to be affected by a downturn in the economy. So, I am always trying to look over the horizon to gain as much time as possible to prepare for shifts in the economy.

But yesterday’s briefing gave me confidence that I can proceed with the growth plans my company has to take advantage of the development of social media. While there are some pockets of concern (i.e. manufacturing, particularly the auto industry in Ontario), the overall outlook is positive. And that means that I can count on my clients continuing to be open to opportunities to use social media to better connect with their customers, clients and stakeholders.

Mr. Wright offered a wealth of data and analysis, delivered at a break neck pace. Some of the points that stood out for me:

Canada will continue to experience offshoring to China. This will be manifested in short term job dislocation, but it should lead to long term productivity improvements in Canada.
Oil (something that should be near and dear to the hearts of not only Albertans, but all Canadians): As the speculative froth comes out of oil prices, oil will stay in the $58 to $60 barrel range. That means oil prices around current levels, but above what they have been in recent years.
The Canadian Dollar: Commodity prices will come off their highs as global growth moderates. This will take the pressure off the Canadian dollar. It should drift lower to U.S. .85 by the end of the year and the low .80s by next year.
Consumers in the U.S., like Canada, are sitting on strong liquidity. So, they are well positioned to deal with the housing slowdown. We’re looking at a soft landing. A housing market that is cooling, not collapsing. There is some risk for Canada, but the reslience of the Canadian economy is quite striking. Low inflation and sound fiscal policy are positive factors in Canada.
Exports will remain weak. So, growth in Canada will have to come from internal growth. And prospects are good for that.
The investment side of Canada looks strong. Corporate balance sheets in Canada are very strong. The tightening of the labour market has put the focus on investment. And investment will provide the basis for future growth.
Canada’s Banks will be meeting with the Finance Minister next week as part of the fall planning season for the next five year period. As we move forward, a lot of the fiscal surpluses have already been earmarked for spending, so we should not expect significant tax cuts.
Canada is the only G7 country paying down our debt.
Nine of the ten provinces are now in surplus (except PEI). The feds are in surplus. Going forward, Ontario may dip back into deficit. Growth prospects have been reduced. So, going forward, Ontario has some challenges.
We are probably at the peak of interest rates. The next change by the Bank will be down, probably in the second half of next year.
Consumer, investment, government all add to the growth prospects, offsetting a weakness in trade.
One problem area is skill shortages. We’re running with a 32 year low in unemployment. We’re seeing a swing in immigration patterns toward Alberta and away from Ontario.
Alberta’s economy remains strong and will continue to grow. The challenges will be Ontario’s – in manufacturing and specifically the auto sector.
Ontario growth will be 1.5% this year and 2% next year.

In summary, we’re looking at some external challenges. Coming off the best four years on record, it’s reasonable to expect some slow down. However, the Canadian economy is resilient. Last year, growth was 2.9%, this year it will be around 2.8%, next year projected for 2.7%.

Not a bad environment overall as we move forward. And a good foundation to plan for continuing growth in the social media and PR business.

We're recruiting

October 11, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Thornley Fallis, is currently recruiting highly-motivated and experienced communications/public relations practitioners for our Ottawa office at the level of Senior Consultant and Consultant.

We are looking for people with at least 3 years experience, a consulting/agency/journalism background, and/or communications experience in the public or private sector or with a national association.

You will manage projects, deliver a range of public/media relations and marketing communications advice, products and services, and provide outstanding client service.

You will also participate in new business development and proposal writing as we continue to build our practice.

Strategic communications planning and exceptional writing skills are a must. Bilingualism is an asset.

If you are ready to join a dynamic, growing team at one of Ottawa’s leading communications firms, send your CV to ottawa[at]thornleyfallis.com.

CaseCamp is coming to Ottawa

October 10, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Hot on the heels of successful CaseCamps in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the first CaseCamp in Ottawa has been scheduled for November 6.

CaseCamp brings the marketing community together to explore best practices and exchange tips with one another.

The formal program centers on the presentation of case studies.A case is presented in a maximum of 8 slides over 15 minutes. Following presentation of the case, the floor is open to the other participants to ask questions and offer comments and suggestions regarding the approach taken in the project under discussion.

CaseCamp Toronoto3 CaseCamp is the brainchild of Eli Singer. The driving force behind the Ottawa CaseCamp is Peter Childs.

The rules of CaseCamp are based on those of BarCamp. The spirit is one of generous sharing. I attended CaseCamp3 in Toronto and found it to be a great experience. I’m very much looking forward to the first Ottawa session.

Go to the CaseCamp Wiki to sign up for CaseCamp Ottawa. I hope to see you there.

A case study of a viral post

October 10, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

HP’s Eric Kintz has posted a case study blogging viral marketing effects that is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding social media.

Eric based his case study on an earlier post regarding the importance of posting frequency. Eric’s post on his belief that blog posting frequency doesn’t matter anymore was referenced on other blogs close to 150 times (make this more than 150 times) and continues to be linked to more than four months later. (Darn, I’ve just done it again!)

Eric points to other factors that contribute to viral success, including strong content that was relevant to the blogging community, early links from level one influencers, tie-ins to blogging micro-communities, pick-up by mainstream media and newsletters, and localization/translation into other languages.

In an earlier post on the dynamics of viral marketing, Eric stated that, “Viral marketing does not spread well. In epidemics, high connectors are very critical nodes of the network and allow the virus to spread. In recommendations networks, a few very large cascades exist but most recommendation chains terminate after just a few steps.”

He finds support for this in the case study of his own post. “In this specific case, the post did not get linked to by more than 3-4 blogs in specific communities. This reinforces the well known rule to reach early on level 1 influencers, i.e. bloggers with more than 1000 links according to my blogging friend David.”

But it’s not just all A listers/Level 1 bloggers. Kintz was surprised to see his post picked up in an unexpected place. “Connectors are absolutely essential to spreading word of mouth, but they should not necessarily be confused with so called “A-listers”. The rapid scaling of the blogosphere with a doubling in size every 6 months (see my post on this growth) has triggered the development of micro communities around very specialized topics. Word of mouth can spread by connecting to the connectors in those micro communities. My biggest surprise has been to see this post spread through word of mouth among Christian church bloggers and Washington political blogs.”

Eric’s post is well worth tagging and sharing.

Thanks to KD Paine for pointing to Eric’s post.

Blue Dot: Better than del.icio.us?

October 9, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Blue Dot is a new social bookmarking site

I’m a regular user of del.icio.us. I use it to bookmark postings for later reference and to share these with others.

At first glance, Blue Dot seems to offer a useful improvement over del.icio.us.

Users can add a note to an item that they save. This small enhancement would be most useful to researchers and team workers, enabling them to add information regarding their thoughts about the item, to place it in a larger context, or even to draw attention to specific content in an article.

My Blue Dot home page

One area in which Blue Dot could be improved is sharing. Blue Dot enables users to share their items selectively – making items available only to themselves, to everyone, or only to the people who the user designates as “friends.” However, most people have different circles of friends who cluster around different interests (e.g. work friends, family, baseball league). Blue Dot would be even more useful if it recognized this and enabled a user to designate different subgroups of friends who would share in different Dots reflecting the focus of their “friendship circle.”

UPDATE: Oops. After playing around with Blue Dot some more and adding some friends, I discovered that I can indeed create different lists of Friends that can either be private – seen only by me and the members – of public. There’s a lot more to this service. I plan to use it alongside del.icio.us for the next while to compare the two sites.

Thanks to Robert Scoble for having pointed to Blue Dot.

Thanksgiving

October 6, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

It’s the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada. Watch out you turkeys!

I’ll be offline for the next couple of days.

Best wishes for a safe, peaceful and happy long weekend.

Mark Evans leaves the Post, joins b5media

October 5, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Blogger and National Post Technology reporter Mark Evans is now former National Post Technology reporter Mark Evans.

Today, Mark announced that he has left the Post to join b5media as Vice President Operations. Now I understand why Jeremy Wright was at the inaugual Third Tuesday when Mark interviewed Shel Israel!

Congratulations Mark. We’ll want to get you to speak on your own at one of our Third Tuesdays. I’m sure you’ll have lots of interesting things to share as you embark on this great new adventure.

Thanks to Alec Saunders for being the first to point to this news.

Canadian Forces publishes blogging policy: Clear it first

September 29, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

cbc.ca CBC News Online reports that Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier, has issued a general order restricting publication of information and images to the Internet by members of Canada’s Armed Forces.

The order notes the risks of posting information or images that might provide insight into the deployment and capabilities of Canadian Forces and that such insight might put those forces at risk. The order requires CF personnel to obtain approval before publishing any military information or images to the Internet.

army.ca discussion forum The complete text of the order is published on a military discussion forum. I am reproducing it in full below because I believe that it is an important reference document for those interested in the development of blogging policies:

R 011318Z SEP 06
FM NDHQ CDS OTTAWA
TO CANFORGEN
BT
UNCLAS CANFORGEN 136/06 CDS 050/06
SIC SAK
BILINGUAL MESSAGE/MESSAGE BILINGUE
SUBJ: GUIDANCE ON BLOGS AND OTHER INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS – CF OPERATIONS AND ACTIVITIES

REFS: A.QR AND O 19.36, 19.37, AND 19.375
B.DAOD 2008-1, 2008-4, AND 2008-6
C.NDSP CHAPTER 30

1. RECENTLY THERE HAS BEEN CONSIDERABLE INFORMATION POSTED TO THE INTERNET DESCRIBING THE EXPERIENCES OF CF MEMBERS, PARTICULARLY THOSE DEPLOYED ON OPERATIONS. THESE POSTINGS HAVE INCLUDED COMMENTARIES ON PERSONAL WEBSITES, WEB-LOGS (BLOGS) AND E-MAILS, AND UPLOADED STILL AND VIDEO IMAGERY. THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN POSTED BY CF MEMBERS DEPLOYED ON OPERATIONS OR IN GARRISON, FAMILIES AND ACQUAINTANCES OF CF MEMBERS, EMBEDDED JOURNALISTS AND OTHER MEDIA, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC

2. THIS CANFORGEN IS INTENDED TO ENSURE CF MEMBERS, THE CHAIN OF COMMAND, AND SPECIALIST ADVISORS AT ALL LEVELS ARE AWARE OF THE RISKS INHERENT IN MAKING SOME TYPES OF INFORMATION OR IMAGERY AVAILABLE TO THE WIDE AUDIENCE USING THE INTERNET, AND OF THE MEASURES TO BE TAKEN TO PREVENT SUCH RISKS

3. OPERATIONAL SECURITY IS PARAMOUNT. IT IS INCUMBENT UPON ALL CF MEMBERS TO CONSIDER THE POTENTIAL FOR CREATING RISK TO THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES, THEIR PEERS, AND THE MISSION BY PUBLISHING INFORMATION TO THE INTERNET. SUCH INFORMATION OR IMAGERY MAY, EITHER INDIVIDUALLY OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER INFORMATION, PROVIDE EXPERT ANALYSTS INSIGHTS INTO CF CURRENT OPERATIONS, EQUIPMENT, CAPABILITIES, TACTICS, AND INTENTIONS, OR MAY PROVIDE INFORMATION THAT PUTS PERSONNEL IN SPECIALIST ROLES OR THEIR FAMILIES AT RISK

4. CF MEMBERS ARE TO CONSULT WITH THEIR CHAIN OF COMMAND BEFORE PUBLISHING CF-RELATED INFORMATION AND IMAGERY TO THE INTERNET, REGARDLESS OF HOW INNOCUOUS THE INFORMATION MAY SEEM. THE CHAIN OF COMMAND HAS ACCESS TO EXPERT ADVISORS, SUCH AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND INTELLIGENCE STAFFS, WHO WILL ENSURE THAT SUCH PUBLISHED INFORMATION IS NOT ULTIMATELY PREJUDICIAL TO CF OPERATIONS AND PERSONNEL

5. CF MEMBERS ALSO HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT ANY INFORMATION OR IMAGERY THEY SHARE WITH A THIRD PARTY WHO MAY NOT SHARE CF OPERATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS IS NOT OF SUCH A NATURE THAT IT COULD CREATE RISKS IF PUBLISHED

6. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION OR IMAGERY BY EMBEDDED JOURNALISTS OR OTHER MEDIA IS SUBJECT TO AGREEMENTS BETWEEN SUCH MEDIA AND THE RESPONSIBLE PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF, WHO WILL ENSURE THE APPROPRIATE MANAGEMENT AND RELEASE OF INFORMATION

7. IT IS NOT THE INTENT OF THE CF TO RESTRICT THE INTERNET ACCESS PROVIDED TO CF MEMBERS AS DESCRIBED IN THE REFERENCES. WITHIN GENERALLY WELL-UNDERSTOOD LIMITS, CF MEMBERS ARE ENTITLED TO COMMUNICATE WITH FRIENDS, FAMILY AND COLLEAGUES, AS ARE ALL CANADIAN CITIZENS

8. THE CF CHAIN OF COMMAND, PARTICULARLY IN A THEATRE OF OPERATIONS, HAS THE AUTHORITY TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO THE INTERNET IF IT IS DEEMED ESSENTIAL TO MAINTAINING OPERATIONAL SECURITY

9. LEGAL ADVICE ON THIS CANFORGEN IS AVAILABLE TO THE CHAIN OF COMMAND FROM THE NATIONAL SECURITY DIRECTORATE OF THE CF LEGAL ADVISOR (CFLA)

The CBC report contains this explanation by a CF spokesman:

“This is something that the military has had to deal with since 2002,” when Canada sent troops to Afghanistan, Lieut. Adam Thomson, an Armed Forces spokesman, told CBC News Online.

He noted the policy has “been a long time in the making.

“We realized that blogs are more influential than we knew,” he said.

At least one observer feels that this policy is heavy handed and sends the signal to Canada’s Forces that “We don’t trust you. If we trusted you, we’d remind you of the security issues, make clear to you that you’ll be disciplined for violations of those security issues, and then let you govern yourself accordingly with limited supervision.”

The Torch points out that the U.S. armed services have taken a different approach. “The key elements are registration of the blog with the chain of command, accountability for any information going up on it, and periodic monitoring by the command for compliance.”