Winning is written by Jack Welch and, whether you love him or hate him, the guy has real experience in running large (huge) corporations successfully … unlike many other authors who can be somewhat academic.

Welch’s book applauds winning as being positive at many levels … causing companies and individuals to thrive and grow, creating jobs and more opportunities for everyone. The winners can give back to society through the taxes they pay, but also by supporting charities and the communities in which they live and operate.

Welch talks a lot about ethics, and the need to win fairly while maintaining high ethical standards. He has a whole section devoted to the mission and values of a company and the need for them to be embodied in corporate culture … not just words on a wall.

He also talks about winning at the personal level as well as the corporate level and how they are intertwined, for example the success of a sales person can have a direct affect on the success of a company.

The book is really about how to win and Welch has some clear ideas about what it takes. He is a straight talker and advocates that for everyone … the term he uses is candor, and the need to foster candor in the corporate environment eliminating a lot of “politics”.

Welch’s focus at GE was that every business line needed to be number 1 or 2 in its market, or have a plan to get there. The alternative was to sell or disband that unit. In terms of people he talks about three categories (1) the top 20% of performers … a group it is key to keep and motivate; (2) The middle 70% or the “lifeblood” of the company that management needs to keep engaged; and (3) the bottom 10% … who have to go!

Welch has opinions on just about every aspect of running a successful business, from Leadership to hiring & firing, from people management to crisis management. On strategy he talks about finding the “big idea”; about finding the right people; and about finding and applying best practices.

Welch has thoughts on budgeting, he talks about organic growth and mergers and acquisitions with some pitfalls to avoid. Of course he spends time talking about quality and more specifically Six Sigma, for which is a well known advocate.

Welch even has career advice and some work-life balance thoughts that most senior managers would agree with. Worth a read, if only for a glimpse inside the mind of one of the most successful CEOs of our time.

I read an interesting Time article that talked about our propensity to worry about things that we really shouldn’t worry about, and not to worry so much about things we should!

Many people worry about the risk of accident and yet of the 2.5 million people who died in the US in 2003 only 4% died from accidents. On the other hand 2.3 million of those 2.5 million died from some sort of disease … with heart disease and cancer accounting for more than half of all deaths in the US.

Drawing from those conclusions one big disconnect identified is the concern about avian flu which has killed nobody in the US … on the other hand the regular flu kills 36,000 Americans each year, and still people avoid the flu shot!

Each year the cholesterol from the fatty foods we eat contribute to heart disease that kills 700,000 Americans annually, yet the fear of mad cow disease gets all the press. Nobody has died from mad cow disease, and the fast food industry continues to thrive.

Despite the obvious conclusions about what really kills people we continue to do things that are counter intuitive. We are concerned about flying yet we will drive our cars too fast, run red lights and avoid seat belts. The statistics suggest that about 44,000 Americans are killed in car accidents as opposed to maybe 100 in plane crashes.

We human beings are interesting creatures, and often the decisions we make, the concerns we have are not really based on hard facts or even good statistics. I wrote a blog some time ago about the kind of fears that sales people have which are not based on facts. Obviously a little different slant than this article but in some ways the same, an old English saying comes to mind: “There is nowt so queer as folk!” (Rough translation “People are strange”)

When I started Eagle I spent a fair bit of time traveling, primarily between Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary (these days I still travel but now we have 10 offices). My initial thought was that it would be very easy to travel “well”, stay at the best hotels, fly in the front of the planes, eat at the best restaurants … after all I was a President & CEO now! About 30 seconds after having that thought I decided that was not a good idea, I operate in a low margin business and excess in expenses does not make sense.

So … in those days I used to fly to Calgary on Greyhound, because they had the best price and their service was just fine. I stayed at Holiday Inns, and other reasonably priced hotels. It was rare that I would eat in a high end restaurant except when entertaining a client.

I felt that by setting this example, I could with all good conscience expect everyone in the company to adopt a similar approach. Treat expenses as if you were spending your own money … don’t “live large” at the company expense.

This week I am in Toronto overnight, and when looking at hotels I had a few choices The Sheraton was about $260 plus taxes and so I’m staying at the Days Inn for $102. The room will have a bed, they have high speed internet and I’m only there to sleep. I don’t travel business class and I try to get the best fares when traveling … foregoing “reward points” that I could earn if I stayed with one airline.

I read a lot about CEO excess these days but I think that there must be a few more CEOs like me who think the shareholder’s money should not be wasted. Maybe if we spoke up we could perhaps get a little positive press for people with our title!

Much of the work we all do in today’s world revolves around email and voicemail, text messaging and instant messaging. These are all great tools and can certainly help us stay connected and improve productivity … if we don’t let them become too pervasive.

Having said that, the value of in-person contact really can’t be underestimated. It is extremely hard to build a relationship via email and voicemail, not that it can’t be done, but the richness of the communication is lost when the senses are reduced to seeing an email or hearing a voicemail.

I do understand the power of the written word, with my daughter as a great example having, over the years, established pretty solid relationships with people all over the world. At 22 years of age, she has actually met quite a few of them now … and my fervent hope is that none of them turn out to be 60 year old perverts posing as twenty-somethings!

This past Friday and Saturday, Eagle had its semi-annual staff gathering in Toronto. We fly our people in from the various offices across the country for a couple of days of training, networking and fun. As a company this is a big expense, with flights and hotel rooms, meeting facilities and dinners, entertainment and trainers … and booze! Of course there are also the intangible costs associated with people being out of the office to travel and attend such an event, plus the inevitable post-event traumas … sickness and hangovers!

Is it worth it? I guess the answer would depend where you are sitting. In pure dollars and cents it is a hard sell, the costs come directly off the bottom line so we need to sell a bunch of business to make up for that. On the other hand we all get to talk, party and negotiate with our colleagues across the country, many of whom may have only talked on the phone before.

If you want to have a corporate culture that is consistent across the country then this is one way to achieve that. The teams get to hear the messages and ask the questions together. We have an informal “ask the executive” session, accompanied by beers, and everyone is free to ask the tough questions. It is a great way for the teams to understand why we do the things we do!

As a company we try to communicate a lot. We have regular conference calls, we have regular email communication but as a CEO there is nothing quite like being able to sit and drink a few beers while chatting with everyone in the company!

The following is the monthly look at the Canadian IT job market as written by Eagle’s three Regional executives.

The Western Canadian I.T. labour market continues to be very active across a wide range of skill sets. The most notable skills in demand are typically the most difficult to find – senior ERP resources, experts in Business Intelligence, Project Managers and experienced Business Analysts. However, need is both broad and deep with many openings for people with skill sets that range from .NET to Developers (Java/Oracle/C#/PowerBuilder) to Testers to Document Management. The key component for most requirements is solid, referenceable experience for these technologies, but more and more, hiring managers are seeking people with leadership and excellent communication skills. This in itself has been a trend for several months, however it appears that the frenzy surrounding the acquisition of such subject matter experts is beginning to create its own labour challenges:

Contractors are being very selective about job opportunities. With multiple offers, they are choosing where they wish to work based on challenge, technology, company culture and team dynamics. Companies must sell themselves to candidates in ways that they have not had to before. Additionally, companies are being forced to make hiring decisions much more quickly as top talent is gobbled up at a breakneck pace and lucrative counter offers from existing employers are becoming more common. Permanent employees with experience and hard-to-find skills are contemplating the contracting lifestyle and, in an effort to keep their employees from becoming too marketable, some organizations are beginning to refuse them training and certification opportunities. This is leading to increased employee dissatisfaction and these companies are subsequently putting themselves in greater risk of alienating their employees.

Companies have been attempting to convince contractors to convert to permanent. They are finding it difficult, however, to convert a true contractor in an over-heated, highly-lucrative western labour market. In many cases it is a matter of lifestyle, technical challenges and the variety of work that keep contractors independent as much as anything and the risk of being out of work for extended periods is low. It will be interesting to see how the population of contractors that is nearing retirement might view the chance to take on permanent, more stable roles with the opportunity to provide guidance and mentorship to others.

This past month in the West there has been continued talk of off-shoring from many organizations throughout the industry. This may have an impact as we head into 2007, however for now it has been mostly talk and conjecture… a way to leverage the pricing discussion with business partners, contractors and suppliers. The net effect has been a small reduction of wholesale labour rates for those positions considered to be in broad supply or a commodity. Cross-border labour logistical/paperwork challenges, quality assuranceconcerns and contractual obligations will continue to be barriers to leveraging talent from afar – at least in any comprehensive manner.

With now over $35 Billion being pumped into the Information and Communications Technology (ITC) sector in Toronto each year, the business community is taking notice. Currently, the third-largest ITC sector in North America, Toronto has its eye on the global stage. Many initiatives have been introduced in the city over the past two year. Recently, the Toronto Board of Trade (http://www.bot.com) introduced the Technology Innovators Breakfast Series, a monthly event designed to showcase the ITC community and to create a networking opportunity to ensure the success of the overall project. All this activity is great news for existing companies and technology resources alike!

Hiring activity over the past month within the GTA has been busy with strong demand for both contract and full-time resources. In fact, there has been a significant increase in activity for contract resources ascompared to the last few months and it is comparable to the extremely busy hiring activity from the spring. We, like most agencies, are seeing considerable interview activity on both the contract-side and for full-time resources. However, interviewing organizations in the GTA continue the slow-hiring trend, taking too long to make hiring decisions, despite the employment-rich market on the candidate side, which results in hiring managers being disappointed when their candidates are no longer available.

Candidates continue to have strong negotiating power, multiple interviews and are holding out for the perfect jobs. All of these factors have resulted in an increase in rates, as well as longer contract terms, typically 9 months with many 1 year contracts. Hot skills in the GTA on the contract side include: PMs, SAP, Testers, Ingenium Developers, PACBASE Developers and Tandem Consultants. In-demand skills on the full-time hiring side also include PMs, as well as, Java Developers and Ingenium Developers.

Eastern Canada is seeing continued, fairly brisk, activity as the fall progresses. Many companies have faced serious challenges in some projects with the pressure on rates, combined with a shrinking available candidate market. This has forced many IT executives to implement some creative sourcing strategies. The SAP market in Eastern Canada is one such market. Organisations are working very closely with staffing companies in ensuring they have market intelligence on both rates and skill-set availability as they are faced with the trifecta of challenges: the combination of a hotter market here, some SAP contractors moving into permanent positions, and finally even more migrating to an abundance of long-term and lucrative opportunities in Western Canada, Calgary in particular. Throw in some anticipated Federal Government demand in SAP and it’s not hard to predict an even hotter and even more challenging marketplace for the foreseeable future. Clients are well advised to work ever more closely with their chosen agencies in advance of anticipated requirements as the proverbial pipeline narrows. Shortened hiring cycles and longer contract terms are just two of the more immediate solutions available and now in-play.

Interestingly, we are now observing a similar scarcity of available resources scenario in some of the less high profile and perhaps less “sexy”skill sets in Eastern Canada. Where Java/J2EE resources were once considered as relatively abundant and available, we are now experiencingand predicting a similar tightening up in that market.

The Federal Government in Ottawa continues to be a bit of a head-scratcher.Talk in the market continues about tremendous pent up demand, what with government’s aging IT infrastructure and aging workforce in conjunction with some huge planned initiatives to take an enterprise-wide approach to IT services (that has been common to the private sector for some time). Observers continue to point to uncertainty in procurement as one barrier to that demand, however, it now seems after a long and protracted road to procurement reform marked by scandal and missteps, industry is reasonably confident the process will get under way in earnest in the new year and be fully in place by late spring or early summer of 2007. In the meanwhile, demand has remained relatively slow with a few smaller departmental Standing Offers and Supply Arrangements out or anticipated.

Hot Skills this month include: SAP resources particularly FI/CO, MM, SD and HR modules and particularly in Montreal. JAVA/J2EE resources with experience in Web Services and JSF, as well as Oracle DBAs and PMs with strong telco experience, VOIP backgrounds and solid experience with MS solutions.

Last evening I was honored at a gala event to celebrate the 2006 CEO of the Year. It was a first class event, well organised, great food, super service and an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and friends, some of whom I had not seen in many years. There was also the regret of not having enough time to get around and chat with everyone … I tried!

Being named CEO of the Year is a great honor and I was comfortable in accepting this award only because it is recognition, not just for me but for Eagle, the Staffing Industry and for the charities that need the support of the corporate world.

This kind of event is good news for communities like Ottawa, showcasing companies that have had some success and telling tomorrow’s leaders what the expectations are. Leaders are expected to help their organizations to succeed; they are also expected to be passionate at a higher level, perhaps promoting their industry and their region. Leaders are also expected to set the example in corporate and personal philanthropy, giving back to those in need, because we are so lucky to be where we are.

For Kevin Dee, last night was a win for the Eagle Team … it was recognition that the staffing industry plays an increasingly important role in the Canadian economy … and it was a way to showcase the GREAT work done by the Ottawa Mission and charities like the Mission that make a few dollars go a long way in support of the needy.

A great program developed by the Ottawa Business Journal (OBJ) and executed flawlessly! Thanks to the OBJ and the sponsoring organizations for making this possible!

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Kevin Dee is CEO of Eagle (a Professional Staffing Company)
Want to know where Canada’s hot jobs are?   Visit the Eagle Job Centre!
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I receive a monthly coaching tip from Michael Paquin at Paquin Training. Very often they resonate with me and this month’s is another gem.

I guess the Ottawa Business Journal write-up generated some traffic to the blog yesterday! The writer referred to my blogging “some would say recklessly” … whoa baby! I thought the idea of a blog was to express opinions, and if they are watered down and wishy-washy then what are they worth?

Tonight I will be at a gala here in Ottawa where I will be named CEO of the Year, hence the OBJ article. It is interesting to get such an award, particularly when there are so many capable CEOs out there. Apparently my reaction was similar to most … “You have to be joking!” However, they were serious and really the impetus for the award comes from a company’s success and involvement in the community. After a lot of introspection I got my head around this award as something that is a good thing for Eagle and for the staffing industry in general.

So … hopefully I won’t make an “ass” of myself at the gala, and people won’t take the OBJ write-up too seriously. I wasn’t really a “nasty little b******”, but I did have an inner city kid’s attitude that portrayed that image when it was needed. There really was no switch that happened, and I was not always a motivated person. I can probably point to numerous points along my career that were “defining moments”, the journey has been fun and I have learned and grown, (sometimes very slowly!), over a 35 year career.

The other thing about winning this award that I was concerned about is that it would be seen as the “crowning moment” in a career. I don’t have any retirement plans, and I have lots of life left in this body. In the words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive (and Al Jolson) “You Aint Seen Nothing Yet!”

I have talked to few business owners and executives lately who have asked about my blog-writing experiences and wondered whether it would be a good thing for them.

I have been posting blog entries since January and it has certainly been an interesting experience. I am constantly surprised by the number of people I meet who actually read the blog, and mostly I have received fairly positive comments.

I know that most of the Eagle staff like to read it at least every now and then and partly because sometimes it may give them an indication of my current “hot buttons”, partly to see if there is something of interest. So the blog is actually a pretty good way to communicate a common message out to a distributed group of people, although that was not really its intention.

The purpose of the blog was more for marketing purposes, to get the Eagle name out but associated with positive messages, rather than a hard sell. Eventually we will host the blog at our own website and that will help drive traffic to the website.

I don’t think blogging is for everyone, I am pretty open and honest about my thoughts on a wide range of topics. This does have the potential to upset some people, and I guess that is a risk you take when you are “a blogger”. I don’t think there would be much value in my writing sanitized messages about what a great company Eagle is, or some other sales messages. Not all executives like to be so frank about their feelings, so I’m not sure how blogging would work in their situation.

I like to provide help when I’m asked and I also like to think that I can give reasonable advice. After 35 years in the workforce, a varied background and experience leading up to owning and running a company I have opinions that may help others. If someone picks up a tip from a blog entry then I think that is a good thing. So that is a side benefit I get personally from writing the blog.

The only real drawback I see is the commitment needed to keep writing entries, even when it seems like there is no time, and occasionally I am not sure what I should write about. Generally speaking I am not known to be short of a word or two … so writer’s block isn’t a common problem.

So my advice to would-be bloggers is to be sure you want to make the commitment, blog regularly, write about “stuff” that people might find interesting and be honest! Happy blogging!

In 2004 David Callaghan wrote a book called The Cheating Culture, which purportedly provides many examples of why in America there is more “bending of the rules” today than in previous generations. Many of his examples are focused on cheating for economic gain or advancement. The simple example is the widespread practice of cheating on school assignments through plagiarism of assignments, but the overriding theme appears to be a growing willingness to break the rules. There were recent references to his book in CSO Online and I also found an article at Santa Clara University.

The growth of music sharing sites such as Napster were another example of our society’s willingness to break rules by sharing illegal downloads. By effectively shutting them down the recording industry were cast as villains, when in reality it is their rights that were violated but they are left in a no-win situation.

How does this apply to each of us in our day to day environments? I would suggest that one of the few things you have that no-one can take away, whether you are a corporation or an individual, is your integrity. You can however give it away … and we see that every day, often in small ways but they do have the ability to lead to large transgressions. I’ll bet the people who cheated at Enron and the other large corporate scandals did not start with “the big stuff”.

It starts small … a few extra dollars on the expense report; sneaking off early from work with no intention of making it up; perhaps taking some stationery from the office for the kids; perhaps it is using company resources for personal use … photocopying large documents in colour, surfing the internet etc. These are small things that many people today just think nothing about, and yet they are wrong.

What comes next? Maybe it is a trip at company expense? Maybe it is a computer finding its way home and not coming back? Maybe it is fudging the commission statements to get more pay or playing with stock option numbers. How far are we now from the Enron or Worldcom scandals? Will you add something fictitious to your resume? Will you “buy” a degree or certification over the internet?

I consider myself to be a fairly pragmatic person, and I do understand that rules get bent … the question has to be just where are the boundaries. Do we all have our own definition of integrity or should it be obvious and standard?

Integrity and honesty is something that we are all born with, that is easy to lose and not so easy to keep and yet it should be a priceless commodity that we protect. At the end of the day if you are not trusted then just what do you have?