One of the business people that I admire a great deal is Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin brand. He is an entrepreneur with style, courage and the ability to develop a global brand that is instantly recognizable.

I live in Canada and my Mom and siblings are in the UK, so this time of year I try to find ways to send something a little different. My Mom and sisters will be gathering for a few days in Scotland so I thought it might be a good idea to send a case of wine for them to enjoy while they are together. So on December 13th I ordered the wine from Virgin Wines (based largely on brand recognition) … and today December 23rd I get an email to say they won’t be delivering it before Christmas, but “rest assured we will have them delivered next week” Not good enough Virgin!

I have blogged before about woes I have had when internet shopping, in that case it was Hamper.com that disappointed. Both of these sites are “award winning” and reputedly good at what they do … but I am left with a decidedly negative impression based upon my limited experiences with them.

I am left two days before Xmas without options, Virgin’s site suggests that they strive to deliver orders within two days, that they deliver 99% of orders with 7 days. Here I am ten days later as a “one-percenter” and my Xmas has been damaged.

If internet shopping is to be successful then the customer needs to have good experiences. I have had some success internet shopping, but for “critical” situations I am fast becoming a non-believer.

I still view Richard Branson as a hero, but he really should be careful with his brand. The kind of damage done by one product line can certainly color the consumer against the whole brand. Merry Xmas Richard, I hope your family get their presents on time!

All of us have talents, some of which we are born with and some that we develop. I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about getting better, about investing in ourselves and about improving those talents. However, it is equally important for us to celebrate the people that we are, to be proud of our talents and to have confidence in our abilities.

Take a few minutes and look at all of the positives in your life, enjoy the talents that you have and be thankful for all that is good in your life. Also take a minute to think about those less fortunate than you … if you can reach out and help a little, then go for it.

I will be on vacation for a week and so my blogging may be a little sporadic but I will definitely be back in the New Year!

So … getting down from my soap box for once, to all of you who read this blog every now and then, have a wonderful holiday season and may 2007 bring you all that is important to you.

PS. For clarification … having a Wicked 2007 is one of those positive British messages.

For much of my working life I was told of the importance of goals, and yet it took me many years before I began the process of setting myself goals. I think about the reasons I did not do it and I’m sure they are the same for most people …
- it seems academic;
- if you have never done it before, where do you start;
- how do you set realistic goals;
- it feel like work, maybe I’ll do it tomorrow!

I’m sure you have heard all of the good reasons why you should have goals …
- If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there;
- Goals help to focus your efforts;
- Goals are like a roadmap for life, they guide you in your decisions.

This is a great time of year for goal setting. Those people who set goals last year can develop a score card, and understand what they achieved and where they fell short. This will feed into their goals for 2007.

All good stuff … but goals are for other people, right?

Wrong … if you really want to take charge of your life then goals are for you! Why should you do it now, when you have procrastinated every year until now? Because I am going to make it easy for you … and if you try it you will see results!

There are a ton of good resources for this on the net, this one has “7 easy steps”; and here is another site offering help with personal goal setting.

The following are the steps I took to get started …

Step 1. I developed categories that worked for me …

- Health and Fitness
- Vacation
- Career
- Family
- Training/Education

Step 2. I set at least one goal for each category, several goals in some categories. Here are some examples …

Under health and fitness you might want to lose 5lb by March 2007; you might want to add weights into your workout routine at least twice a week; you might plan to reduce coffee consumption to 2 per day. Etc.

Under Vacation you should really give some thought about where you would like to go this year. It could be to enjoy the cottage at least 12 weekends, or plan a weekend getaway without the kids; or take a 2 week vacation somewhere exotic etc.

Under Career you might set a goal of mastering certain aspects of your current role by the Fall; having a career planning meeting with your boss or HR; or developing a training plan to advance your career.

The goals that you pick need to be achievable and within your control. This way you will see progress and as you do progress you can always add more goals or increase the “intensity”.

Step 3. Plan into your calendar a monthly review. At that review you will check your progress against each goal and will create action items to address them … which will go onto your “to do” list (of course you have a “to do” list!).

This is a very basic, easily managed approach to goal setting. You can obviously get much more complicated and sophisticated but this works and the most important thing is to start somewhere.

Try it … this time next year you can be sitting and reviewing how you did in all of those categories and planning for 2008! Good luck!

A close friend of mine lost his father last night, and today I went to a funeral and was reminded about what is really important in this life.

At this time of year we have the holiday season madness. The shops go crazy. People max out their credit cards. Masses of people get stressed out about the preparations for a couple of days of celebration which has shifted from a holiday focused on religious significance to become a consumers paradise.

When someone close to you dies you tend to think about the material things a little differently. Yes, it is always nice to be able to afford “nice stuff”, to be able to eat well, dress well and “have a comfortable life” … but is that what is really important?

I think that in times of hardship or loss we realise just how important family and friends are. You can have all the money in the world, but without friends and family you are poor.

I never knew Jack, but I got a glimpse into his life today and if he was anything like his son he was a great man! Rest in peace Jack … you lived a full life with your share of hardships and successes, but above all you had friends and family that loved you and that is really all any of us need.

I read an article in the National Post on the weekend (also in the Ottawa Citizen) about charitable giving. There were some interesting statistics in the article …

- The average Canadian gives $400 to charity each year.
- Albertans give the most, on average $500 a year and Quebecers give least at $176, which is possibly a reflection of the difference in tax rates.
- The average US citizen gives $900US per year.
- 10% of Canadian donors account for 62% of all donations.
- Research seems to suggest that those who give are healthier, happier, more successful and earn more money.

This is a time of year when those who are struggling will feel it most. It is a time when people could really use a lift, a little bit of a helping hand. There will be a big demand on many charities at this time of year. Places like the food bank, snowsuit funds or any one of the many good charities will be stretched to the limit.

This is also a great time of year for people to give a little … it really does feel good to help others. Whether it is some money, some time, some food, some clothes or some other meaningful donation it will be appreciated.

My suggestion is to try to give just a little bit MORE … if you don’t currently give anything to charity then give a little bit. If you do give, then try to increase that giving maybe even 5% and it will make a huge difference if everyone did this.

There was another article that talked about how to give smarter and feel better, which had good advice for those wondering how to go about it in a meaningful way.

Why not try Kevin’s theory that the more you give the more you get! You don’t have to bet big on this … sometimes the positive feeling from helping out can be worth the $50 or $100 you give!

This is Eagle’s monthly look at the IT job market across Canada, as written by Eagle’s Regional executives:

IT talent from Eastern and Central Canada are still finding good opportunity in the Western provinces. IT Professionals are traveling West more often – as the economy in the West proves itself to be the “real deal”, candidates are showing much less reluctance to relocate. Wage rates have been steadily inching higher. This is evidenced by a number of long term (10 months+) contractors taking contract extensions and successfully renegotiating modest wage increases. As long as labour continues to relocate to the West satisfying the growing demand, wage rates are expected to continue to grow in a manageable manner.

The Oil & Gas sector remains hot. There has been noticeable bipolar tendencies within the Energy sector with some companies recognizing their requirements to be “long-term” with an interest in investing in full-time employees; while some companies have decided to leverage contract staffing to hedge against the potential risk of an industry turn-down, these companies do not wish to overextend themselves by increasing their IT permanent hires. This has resulted in an increase in both permanent and contract hiring activity in November. On the West Coast, government hiring activity is on the rise while in Edmonton private enterprise is out-stripping the typically strong government sector.

Across the West, we have seen several examples of hiring organizations getting out-bid for skilled candidates. Candidates have received multiple offers, counter offers and even post-close offers. For the hiring company this can be quite disappointing, frustrating and time consuming as the candidate search must begin all over again. It is not necessarily suggested that organizations “up” their rates as a bidding war is not in their best interest; however, there are other things that can be considered to help manage this phenomenon. Examples include: reducing decision making time; asking for quick and firm commitments from qualified candidates; and identifying a primary and a backup choice whenever possible. Contractors have an opportunity at this time to demonstrate their professionalism through open communication and by candidly setting realistic expectations with respect to their availability and interest in the proffered position. Handled badly, a negative reputation can be developed that can and will follow a contractor throughout their career.

The hot skills for Western Canada include: .NET, Project Managers and Testers across all provinces. Specifically, British Columbia is in need of Java resources; Alberta has requirements for people with Oracle, SAP, Agile, Biztalk, MCMS and SharePoint skills; and in Saskatchewan/Manitoba there is demand for Business Analysts. Depth of experience and strong communication capabilities are still very highly regarded, however, many companies interested in hiring relatively inexperienced technicians with the hope that they might train, develop and retain them as long-term employees.

Hiring activity over the past month continues to be busy within the GTA particularly with a high demand for full-time resources, as well as, steady government RFP activity. With the number of RFPs being issued, an increase in government hiring activity is expected over the next couple of months. There has also been a noticeable increase in activity both in the Telco and Utility sectors. On the contrary, the hiring activity within the Financial sector is experiencing a definite slow-down as new budgets are finalized. An increase in hiring activity within this sector is expected come in the New Year.

The competition for top-talent remains steady both on the contract and full-time side. Interviewing organizations within the GTA continue the slow-hiring trend and continue to be surprised when candidates are no longer available or turn down their offers. There is a definite disconnect between the two markets though it is interesting that the average length of contracts and extensions has increased in an effort to retain top-talent. A more recent trend, that is perhaps also an effort to speed up the process, is that hiring organizations are conducting telephone interviews prior to face-to-face interviews.

Candidates continue to enjoy the opportunities for choice in the current market with those high in-demand, sitting with two to four offers at any given time. They continue to hold out for better offers. Pay rates also continue to be on the rise, though only slightly higher. Not only has the trend been for longer term contracts but extensions to existing contracts are also longer in duration. In the past, extensions have been month-to-month or up to three months. In today’s market, organizations are locking in contractors for up to a year, a significant change!

Hot skills in the GTA on the contract side include: PMs, SAP, BAs, QAs and Technical Writers. In-demand skills on the full-time hiring side continue to include PMs, as well as, Java Developers.

As the calendar year winds down, we have seen a very active month of November in Eastern Canada both on the contract and now full-time hiring side with a number of organizations looking for resources to help deliver long-term projects through final stages. The challenge has been integrating the market’s recent increase in many rates into fixed price legacy projects or contracts that have been merely extended without benefit of a “refresh” in price. The SAP market is one such market and a number of organizations have opted to attempt to attract SAP candidates into full-time positions but with the abundance of diverse projects and the increased demand for SAP contractors right across the country, few are receptive to full-time positions. In contrast, however, there has been in other perhaps less heated areas, a flux of contractors moving into full-time positions as a number of companies over the past year have opted to hire their contract resources on full-time. A middle ground solution still yet sees other companies offering longer term contracts wherever possible to mitigate contract jumping without committing to net new hires.

Healthcare technology, which has long been predicted to be a huge growth area in technology, seems to be coming to fruition. Both the Federal and Provincial governments in Ontario and Quebec along with several health agencies are ramping up now with RFPs that will lay the groundwork for some massive technology projects that will prevail over the next several years. With upwards of 250 deaths a year in North America due to technical errors, the initial focus will be on healthcare record management systems that have wireless mobile technology at their heart. There has also been a number of Security and Cyber protection based RFPs in Ottawa of late and we will no doubt continue to see increased attention in this field throughout the new year.

Skills in demand in Eastern Canada include SAP-HR and Financial modules, Oracle Financials, JAVA/J2EE programmers, as well as, Siebel resources.

A little while ago I wrote a series of blog entries about the need to stay healthy if you are to be successful in business. I had subsequent entries about diet, exercise and sleep all of which are critical to keeping yourself as sharp as possible in this hyper-competitive world in which we all operate.

Tomorrow I head out for a couple of days vacation, tagged onto a weekend to give a nice mini-break. I think that perhaps one piece that was missing from the previous series of blog entries was the need to get away periodically and “recharge the batteries”.

I am probably not a good role model, and I need to try harder! I will have my blackberry and will probably check email for some time each day, but to actually take a long weekend at this time of year is new for me … so it is progress! I also subscribe to the theory that you can’t change bad habits over night, it takes time and a plan to move towards a new model, coupled with a commitment to get there.

Maybe I’m mellowing (OK, anyone who knows me understands that isn’t happening!) or perhaps I am beginning to learn from life. Whatever, I am happy to be heading out and this may even mean no blog entries for a day or two … unless there is easy access to a computer in Nassau!

I do recognize the importance of reducing the stress levels for a few days, and letting the brain rest from the constant decision making and problem wrestling. I will likely get some answers just by not thinking about them for a couple of days!

Athletes promote the need to rest muscles to allow them to repair and I have to believe that the same is true for the brain … I’ll let you know if it works!

If you are an excellent salesperson, delivering consistently on your numbers, then management should give you “elbow room” on the “minor” aspects of your job … right?

If you regularly deliver your projects on time and under budget then the company shouldn’t worry about small policy items … right?

If you are a top recruiter, regularly finding candidates for your clients then who cares if you miss some paperwork here and there … right?

Certainly this line of thinking is common in some companies, but there are some minefields in that thinking … for both company and individual.

1. The minute you start to think that you are good is the minute you start to exude that message … and clients, co-workers and bosses really don’t like it.
2. To be “technically” good at your job is really just expected these days, once that is “under control” the individual needs to polish all of the other aspects of their game … the communication skills, presentation skills, their “look”, their “cache” with the company etc.
3. Situations change … the markets go soft, a client decides to move their business and all of a sudden the “star” isn’t looking so hot, not a good position if you are also labelled as having an “attitude”.
4. Good habits are developed over time and need to be maintained over time, so it is important to always work at being on top of your game, if you intend to get there and stay there!
5. If you are sloppy about “the little things” then your attention to detail will slip, and slip, and before you know it you have worked hard to develop habits … except they are bad ones!
6. Sometimes what are “the little things” to you, are not considered the same way by management.

For my part, I will take someone with a good attitude and a willingness to work at getting better over a so called “superstar” any day!

Thought for the day … Do you really know what management think of you? Are you a legend in your own mind … just waiting to take a fall?

Anyone who has ever had to live through a technology migration project will understand the huge number of associated tasks and the project management challenges that go along with that. If you are a business owner then you will also know the angst associated with worrying about the impact on productivity and the potential for disaster during such a project.

This weekend saw Eagle move its mail system off the Lotus Notes environment and into a Microsoft world. Our technology provider has been fabulous, working tirelessly to ensure that the impact on Eagle’s team was minimal and that we were all back up and running in our new environment this morning!

The Technical Action Group (TAG), ably run by my friend Joe Stoll has been planning this move for several weeks. Joe accepted responsibility for this project which affects our offices coast to coast and required work at the server, desktop and PDA level. It is comforting when someone like Joe is running a project … he projects confidence, is always even tempered (wish I could be like that) and works through even the most difficult situations in a structured and competent manner.

I will take a little credit because Joe’s company was actually born out of Eagle’s environment and we were his first customer. Joe was one of our technical support people who coupled his technical skills with an entrepreneurial drive that has created a great company. So now we have an outsourced technical capability that keeps proving its worth again and again.

Lot’s of lessons to learn in this story, here are just a few:

1. Good planning can ease any project.
2. Good communication will keep those “testy” clients at bay!
3. It is still possible to create great little companies in today’s hypercompetitive world, and differentiate based upon relationships and credibility.
4. If you need a good tech support company give Joe a call! (416.489.6312 or 877.287.7701)

Thanks to TAG for a well run project and for keeping my blood pressure relatively normal!

In any industry there are companies and individuals that take a leadership role. There are many reasons why they step up to this responsibility, ranging from personal passion or a sense of responsibility to the fact that their role demands this commitment. Industries need this type of leadership, particularly when both internal and external forces cause change or a state of flux.

The staffing industry has been a very low key, service industry for many decades. We have quietly supplied our clients with the people they need on a temporary, contract or permanent basis and for whatever reason, our services have been viewed as a necessary evil! We are viewed as a relatively low value, low margin business with little to differentiate between one supplier and another except perhaps price!

I recently blogged about the value proposition of the staffing industry and I am a huge believer that we can truly make a difference for our clients.

There are plenty of statistics about the impending demographic challenges as the baby boomer generation retires, and there has been much printed about the lack of new grads in technology. There have been well documented shortages in the healthcare profession for many years, and even truck drivers have been in serious short supply. There will be increasing shortages of trades people, and we are hearing that finance professionals are becoming a scarce commodity too. The reality is … people will be a limiting factor in our economy, and the companies that solve that problem will have a significant advantage over those that wait and hope!

Skills shortages and labour shortages are changing our world! The value of the staffing industry is increasing because we will be supplying the solutions to these issues. The staffing companies that can solve their client’s resourcing problems will become valued partners and integral to their clients’ success.

This means a few things for the staffing industry::

1. We need to be viewed as “thought leaders” on these topics.
2. We need to educate the world about the value we bring as an industry.
3. We need to price our services appropriately, and stop playing the price game! If we can’t make reasonable profits then we can’t keep investing in the technology, processes, solutions, partnerships and people that will allow us to deliver in the coming shortages!

In order to take our rightful place in tomorrow’s economy the staffing industry needs our leaders to stand up and promote the value we bring; we need them to demand an appropriate return for that value; and we need them to be focused on the positive aspects of our industry!

We have a great industry and this is our time!