| Where Values and Profits Meet
Emily Bradshaw |
2009-06-04 09:07:46 Miscellaneous |
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My experience in business school was largely a very positive one and the knowledge I gained during that time has proved invaluable to my career. I have to admit however, that I was a little unprepared for the unilateral way in which business students are taught to make decisions and quickly became frustrated with what seemed to be THE mantra of the corporate world: "maximize shareholder profits". If I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase, I would be a rich woman! Maximize revenues; minimize costs, cut redundancies, etc, etc. I was taught that every business decision must have the singular goal of maximizing shareholder wealth at the expense of nearly all other considerations. This never felt quite right to me and I often wondered whether I was really cut out for the world of business…
What about creating value for other stakeholders? And I don't just mean customers. We all know the importance of maximizing customer value.... But how do business decisions affect employees and their families, communities, the environment, society as a whole? How often is the goal of maximizing shareholder profits detrimental to other stakeholders? How often do business leaders have to make decisions that contradict their personal values all in the name of profits? Looking at the state of today's economy and the number of companies in trouble, is it possible that the cumulative results of all those decisions might not have been the best ones? Could today’s economic crisis really be the result of a business world in search of meaning? That is the theme of an interesting conference/panel discussion happening on Tuesday, June 9th at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal. The conference, hosted by Esse Leadership, in collaboration with IDE conseil will be animated by Remi Tremblay, President of Esse Leadership, who asks the question, how can business leaders reconcile their personal values and ethics with sound business decisions? He argues that there is no crisis of leadership, but rather leaders in crisis... and asks the question do sound business practices and personal ethics necessarily have to be mutually exclusive? The panel will feature keynote speaker Dom Hugues Minguet, a Benedictine Monk who specializes in teaching business leaders to be more present in their decisions. It will also include some of Montreal and Quebec City's top business leaders who will address how today's business leaders can adapt and make decisions that will better fit with their own values and how they can find meaning in those decisions. I believe this will be a very interesting conference for anyone looking to create meaning in their own careers and comes at just the right time in our collective corporate history. Hopefully it is only the beginning of discussions about how to be successful in business while creating value for ALL stakeholders. Anyone interested? info@esseleadership.ca. |
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| Que Montréal s’illumine !
Johanna Raynaud |
2009-02-25 09:51:32 Divers |
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 Pour souligner son 10e anniversaire, le volet gastronomique du Festival Montréal en Lumière met le paquet en invitant dans ses restaurants des chefs de la ville lumière, Paris.
En ce moment et jusqu’au 1er mars, les fines bouches comme les amateurs sont invités à découvrir à travers la ville de Montréal des soirées spéciales où chefs montréalais et chefs français font la paire aux fourneaux. Pour moi, ce festival est le plus important de l‘hiver puisqu’il souligne avec honneur la culture et la gastronomie. Les plus grands chefs français vont vous concocter de petits plats à des tarifs montréalais. C’est une merveilleuse occasion de découvrir les plaisirs de la bouche. J’aime aussi cet événement parce qu’il met en valeur des artisans, des passionnés qui investissent temps et argent (souvent au détriment d’une vie sociale) pour réaliser leur passion. Et derrière tout cela ? Il se cache une équipe qui accomplit des miracles avec de petits moyens, des professionnels des communications et des relations publiques qui s’investissent dans cet événement unique (voulez-vous des noms ?). Une équipe chevronnée pour un événement d’envergure à ne pas rater. Le magique est là, la lumière apparaît, les projecteurs sont tournés vers la ville, notre ville lumière pour l’espace de quelques semaines. Que les animations commencent, que l’appétit grandisse car nous sommes prêts à utiliser nos fourchettes ! Montrealenlumiere.com |
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| The one hundred and six million dollar men….with a ten cent brain and a half penny conscience….
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2009-02-16 11:39:28 Miscellaneous |
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When I was a kid growing up in the 70s, there was a popular TV show called the “Six Million Dollar Man”. As per the show’s theme: “…we can rebuild him. We have the technology. Build him better, stronger, faster”. The character, Steve Austin, was an astronaut that suffered major injuries in a plane crash, but now, as the world’s first bionic man, he fights terror and anything and anyone who’s a menace to the US way of life. That was the 70s. The Cold War was at its peak. A war against the Communist threat. Fast forward 30 plus years and today they still build them bigger, better, faster and stronger. They are now called the “106 million men”. However, they do not fight communists or other enemies of the state, they play a game called Baseball. They are paid millions of dollars to swing a bat, throw and catch a ball, and are simply idolized by millions across the planet. For the past few years, these men have been put forward in a different type of spotlight. They are accused of cheating and lying. They continue to deny having used performance enhancing drugs, Human Growth Hormones or “HGH”. Not because they need it, but because they simply want to become - or even worse, maintain - that “106 million dollar man” status – translated in salary and endorsements. Alex Rodriguez, probably one of the most high-profile athletes in the world (hello Madonna!!) has been the center of the most recent attention. During an interview with none other than the fact-finding guru of TV news, Katie Couric, he stoically stood in front of her and responded, “No, I have not” when asked if he had used steroids in the past. But now A-Rod (A-Roid or A-Fraud, you can pick the one you like best) was recently busted when a Sports Illustrated report claimed that he in fact tested positive for steroids between 2001 and 2003. He has since gone public yet again, but this time he has admitted the truth and has also stated that he is now clean, and that he has been for years. I keep asking myself, “Who is advising these people to go on TV and do exclusive interviews and blatantly lie in the face of a credible reporter (or Katie Couric) and worst of all, lie to millions of fans, including the kids who dream of becoming a professional athlete?”. And it simply baffles the mind that these individuals think we believe they’re being honest when they then come out and say they’re sorry. Are they sorry they cheated or sorry they got caught? I’m glad to not be the one responsible for managing the public image of guys like this! |
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| Killer snow?
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2009-02-04 13:15:43 Miscellaneous |
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I hate to admit it, fearing revocation of my status as a good Canadian, but I’m not a huge fan of snow. I like skiing and skating, but not a big fan of speed or falling on my behind, so that renders these sports pretty much neutral for me. I don’t do especially well in the cold, despite my natural layer of insulation, which I attribute to a long ago episode of Christmas carolling that left me with frostbitten nose and toes. Après-ski I excel at, but I feel like it’s cheating if you haven’t done the first part.
Snow isn’t especially popular in my household either: my husband grew up in a warm place and approaches the liberation of our cars from snowdrifts and snowplows as a task slightly more amusing only than a visit to the dentist. Furthermore, I’ve been late two times in the past three days because I’ve been stuck behind trucks dropping off their loads of tonnes of snow, and our snow shovel has been stolen. Twice. But nothing has made me wish for the rapid disappearance of snow more than the headline that greeted me this morning: three seniors run over by snow trucks who didn’t notice them trying to cross the street. All I can say is, this horrifies me. It troubles me because the most vulnerable of our society are victim to a practice that we usually boast about. Me included: how many times have I told visitors to our city that Montreal has the best snow removal system in the world? How I gloated when I went to Boston and noted that the streets were poorly cleared and banks of snow lined the parking spots. Here, we watch as the various machines and engines sweep, scoop, push and blow the snow across our streets, leaving an almost perfect path in its wake. The only thing more perfect, ironically, is the sight of untouched snow, unsullied by human presence. Now I cannot look at the fleets that prowl our roadways without fear, however. Not only the old and perhaps slow-moving pedestrian is a target: so is the mother pulling a baby on a sled, an incident that happened a few years ago, or the person who simply doesn’t get out of the way in time, even if it is his or her right of way. I don’t blame the private contractors, who handle the majority of the snow removal in this city, as appears to be an allusion from certain media. But I do think that there is no acceptable reason, none, for this kind of accident to happen. And three in the same day – it should be impossible. Sadly, it was not. |
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| Why do we make New Year’s resolutions anyway?
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2009-01-12 11:27:17 Miscellaneous |
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Here we are, fully into the New Year, and most of us have completely forgotten those quickly fleeting (and therefore even more precious) holidays that seem to have taken place in anther lifetime. But it was only a few days ago, in reality, when we committed ourselves to that great folly and symbol of undying, if fruitless, optimism – the New Year’s Resolution. Now don’t get me wrong; PR people love New Year’s resolutions. What great media material: what they should be this year, what is the latest trend in resolutions, how to keep them, which methods are the most effective, and even, how not to feel bad when you don’t. Heaps of content, there. But many people, myself included, resist making resolutions, if only not to feel guilty when they are inevitably broken. I spoke to one colleague who said, “The thing I want to work on this year is…” when I interrupted: “You mean your ‘resolution’??” Not exactly, she vacillated. It was as though I had said, “That thing you want to try to do but fail?” In other words, the notion of “resolution”, particularly when it appears at the beginning of a new year, seems to be a comedic set-up for the thing you declare you will do and then not succeed at. If resolution is synonymous with failed attempt, then we need a new word. Or we could keep our resolutions to ourselves, so no one knows whether or not we have been successful: we will gain the respect of our peers for the resulting act itself and not for having “kept our resolution”. And that is precisely what I’m intending to do, so don’t ask. |
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