Every now and then I will post a couple of entries on the same day … and this is going to be one of those days (a) because I head out on vacation for a little more than a week, so blogging is not likely to happen and (b) because I want to get this off my chest.

I talk a lot about the importance of giving back to those less fortunate in our society … the easiest thing in the world is to give a few dollars and people still don’t do that enough. However for busy people the hardest thing to do is to devote time … I know, because I devote a lot of time, but I do it because it is the right thing to do.

One of the roles that business people have in the non-profit world is to help raise funds, that can mean canvassing friends and colleagues, it can mean organizing events, marketing or any other means to help those good causes raise the money that they need.

My beef … I hate it when I get grief from people that I canvas. I am perfectly fine with people saying no, or telling me that they support other charities … but there really is no room for abuse. Snarky comments, irritable responses and pure bad manners not only make the canvasser (who volunteered their time remember) feel bad, they run the risk of turning them off volunteering!

Yesterday a friend of mine tells me this story ….

She is organizing a large event to raise money for breast cancer. She puts in a ton of her own time, gets support from her friends and uses her organizational skills to make this thing happen every year. She even uses her contacts to get help from newspapers, that use their distribution lists to publicise the event. A huge commitment from a very busy person.

She can’t believe the number of terse replies she gets from people who don’t appreciate getting a few emails about this event and several people even responded accusing her of spamming them. One very special person was even more direct, wanting to know how he got on her email list and he was particularly rude in his comments.

So … she responds to this individual and politely explains what happened and how it works.

Having already established his credentials with his first response, he proceeds to give her inappropriate advice for her event. The title of her event is a play on the the fact it is for breast cancer (birdies for boobies) … he believes adding sexual overtones would be a great idea. What are you thinking … or more appropriately ARE you thinking?

This is a senior executive at a tech company!

Some advice for him …

1. If you get an email for charity and don’t want to respond or even read it … then press delete.
2. Don’t give volunteers grief … its just not acceptable.
3. Don’t make inappropriate suggestions to people you don’t know.
4. You are supposed to be a leader in our community … start acting like one!

This is my 30,000 foot look at events in the ICT industry for July 2009. What you see here is a précis of the monthly report I produce, which is available in more detail at the Eagle website. You will also find back issues on the website.

Three years ago in July 2006 AMD bought ATI for $5.4B, HP bought Mercury Interactive for $4.5B, EMC paid $2.1B for RSA Security and Microsoft was fined $350M by the EU for abusing its “near monopoly”. Two years ago in July 2007 HP paid $1.6B to buy Opsware, Steria paid $1B for Xansa, IBM paid $160M for BI company Datamirror (and still bought Cognos) and Google paid $625M for Postini. Last year in July 2008 the big deal was the purchase of Foundry Networks by Brocade Communications for $3B. The economy was beginning to turn for the worse, but we didn’t know it … NACCB in the US announced record IT employment and CDW suggested that 51% of businesses would increase IT budgets in the last 6 months of 2008. July 2008 also saw the official retirement of Windows XP!

So … here we are in July 2009 and the economic battle continues! Unemployment is still high, reaching 9.5% in the US and somehow a Technisource survey tells us that IT employee confidence increased. That could be a little premature given that a Computer Economics survey suggests nearly half of IT organisations are planning cuts this year! Those layoffs will be especially hard on older workers according to a Careerbuilder survey that suggests more than 70% of that demographic that were laid off have not found new jobs … as opposed to less than 30% for other demographics. Having said that, news from Europe suggests that things are worse there and they expect to recover later than most other developed nations!

At Eagle we instituted a diversity program some time ago and it appears that DELL should have done something similar. They will pay $9.1 Million to settle a class action lawsuit that accused them of sexual discrimination.

There was some brisk activity on the M&A front this month. Here in Ottawa we watched the Nortel situation closely and I’m not sure which was more discouraging, our wet Summer or the break-up of a Canadian business icon! It looks like Ericsson is the winner (barring political intervention) in this round, having offered $1.1 Billion in an auction for Nortel’s wireless carrier assets. That was not the biggest deal of the month however as EMC agreed to pay $2.4 billion for Data Domain, also Big Blue (IBM) is paying $1.2 Billion to add to its BI capability with the acquisition of SPSS. Amazon splashed out to the tune of $850 million to buy Zappos.com meanwhile Google sold its stake in AOL for $283 million, when it had paid $1 Billion for that same asset 4 years ago. Accenture, Nokia, HP, Oracle and SAP were all out with their cheque books this month making it a busy M&A month.

This week Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada announced that the recession is technically over … but of course there is still some pain to come. Here at Eagle we are seeing signs of life in the GTA and even glimmers out in the oil patch, so our largest markets are coming to life. If we can only get some sun for the rest of the Summer things might start to look really rosy!

Until next month!

That’s what caught my eye over the last month, the full edition is available by clicking here to go to the appropriate part of Eagle’s website. Hope this was useful and I’ll be back with the August 2009 news in just about a month’s time.

As a business owner I have gained some insight into the world of entrepreneurship. The thing that defines the entrepreneurial spirit to me is the willingness to make it happen no matter what!

The obstacles will inevitably be there … no matter what line of business.

There will always be easier paths in life.

Yet those entrepreneurs choose to battle the obstacles, to shun the easy path, to take risk and to chase their dream.

I talked with a friend today who is launching a new business. It’s a start-up as opposed to buying a business, it’s a consumer type business rather than a business to business entity; it’s a service business but not an hourly paid consulting business. There is demand, she has done her homework and she has that determination to get it going. She arranged financing (verbally), lined up partners, has her concept ready to roll, found and signed up for the space. NOW the bank is having second thoughts about the financing … not back before the commitments were made and not prior to her spending money. For me this is exactly what entrepreneurs face ALL the time, faceless bureaucratic paper pushers who have no idea about the impact of their decisions or non-decisions.

Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy, the people who take the risks and create companies that provide employment. They typically don’t go cap in hand to the government for “bail out packages”, for “stimulus packages” or even just to get business. It is REALLY hard to win government business … it takes a long investment of time and a good deal of knowledge, so it is very difficult for a start–up to get government business.

Over my years in business I have seen these issues personally, and could tell many personal horror stories of red tape run amok, and systems designed to stop people from running businesses. I have met lots of entrepreneurs with the same experiences.

People who start and run businesses might get some success, but there are more who fail than make it … and if they make it, they earned it!

So … hug an entrepreneur today!

I have owned my own business for almost thirteen years, and certainly this past year has been one of the toughest! The poor economy has meant less business, more competition and less room for error. Almost all clients have cut back on their spend, reduced headcount and squeezed their suppliers to the limit.

Its the kind of pressure cooker environment every business owner has been facing … reducing costs, keeping staff motivated and developing strategies that will (a) ensure survival but (b) position for improved success as the economy turns.

In this kind of environment anyone in the private sector who is lucky enough to still be working is feeling the stress … whether you are worried about your job, being asked to work harder or having your income reduced!

Even in times like this, and perhaps especially in times like this it is important to take a break from work. The constant pressure has a cumulative effect and over time it will cause issues … physical health problems in addition to reduced tolerance and a couple of the obvious ones. These in turn will affect your relationships (in and out of work) which will just add to the pressure!

So … I am heading out on vacation this week. I will be in the UK for a little more than a week, spending time with my family and enjoying (hopefully) a week without the constant worries of the office.

I thought I would do a little internet research into advice about the benefits of holidays and came up with a fairly consistent set of messages.

Perhaps one of the better articles is called 7 Great Benefits of Taking a Vacation.

There was another article called the Health Benefits of Taking a Vacation.

I even blogged about the Importance of Rest and Recuperation myself back in December 2006, when I was heading out for a mini-break!.

I know that I am fortunate to be able to travel to the UK, and not everyone can afford that but most people can afford to have some kind of a break even if it is getting away camping at a local park. We all need that separation from work sometimes, and I for one will benefit from a week away!

Don’t forget you only live once, so look after yourself. If you don’t, then who will?

________________________________________________________________
Kevin Dee is CEO of Eagle (a Professional Staffing Company)
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I have been blogging since January 2006 … I expect that if I had named my blog something to do with CEO Blogging then I might have gained a little more interest! Perhaps one of the lessons I would suggest for new bloggers is to name the blog appropriately, I sometimes get hits from people looking for information about eagles! The blog has been an interesting tool for me, I have perhaps 760 entries now and cover a range of subjects. I am able to pull up many entries about management, sales, the staffing industry, time management and general personal development. Overall the feedback has been positive and it has become one of our company’s marketing tools. If people are interested in starting a blog I tell them that they need to understand it is a long term commitment and then determine if the ROI is worth it. I have written blog entries about my rationale for blogging … maybe that will help anyone considering joining the huge community of bloggers.

I wrote my first blog about social networks a little more than two years ago, in April 2007. That entry was based upon my initial impressions of Facebook, which I had not long joined. I must say that my impressions have not changed a whole lot since then … it is a site that I view as a more personal way to connect to people, than a business tool and I have had some good experiences using Facebook. I was able to organize a family get together in Europe, communicating long distance primarily through this tool; I am much more connected to my family in the UK, get to see recent pictures much faster and share my own pictures relatively quickly. I get to enjoy the humour of friends and family as they comment about everyday life … and generally I am happy to be there. Perhaps my only reservations come in that “grey zone” of people who ask to be connected but are really not close friends, more business acquaintances. I am a little discerning about who I accept as a Facebook friend, but I don’t think that has cost me any relationships yet!

In July 2008 I wrote a blog entry about LinkedIn … and again, I don’t think my current impressions have changed much since that review. There have certainly been lots of articles recently about the power of Linkedin as a recruiting tool, although I have not used it for that purpose. I have found it to be a great way to stay/get connected to business people … whether it is industry colleagues, clients, past acquaintances or just people with similar interests. I have been instrumental in the setup of a few “Groups” … including an alumni group for Eagle which is an interesting way to keep in touch with ex-employees; plus an industry association group for ACSESS (staffing industry association Canada). Groups are a great way to share news that is of common interest. So the group feature and the ability to connect with like minded business people is powerful … so apparently is its recruiting capability.

April this year I blogged about Twitter … and still consider myself a relative “neophyte” to this phenomena. Again, not a whole lot has changed in my viewpoint but I will make the point that I am still a fan. In my opinion … which does not seem to be unanimous, there are different strategies for (1) posting tweats AND (2) for who to follow. Some (many) schools of thought suggest that you should follow everyone who follows you. I really don’t want to follow every small business that chooses to follow me … their “tweats” fill up my days and I really only want tweats that are of interest to me. Having identified some interesting people, and sources, I do enjoy the updates that come throughout the day and they are manageable enough that I don’t need to spend a ton of time on it. Twitter has also proven to be a good way to raise profile for my blog … as I have seen an increase in traffic since I have tweated.

The web 2.0 world is definitely here to stay, and changes the way business is done, the way we gather information and the way that we share it. Communication happens in nanoseconds and staying current, or keeping people up to date with your world becomes relatively easy.

There are obvious drawbacks and I think probably top of the list for me is the possibility that you could spend a LOT of time on social network sites, so it is important to understand what the value is for you … and to make the effort commensurate with the return.

Most of my Facebook time is done at home in off hours. I will get on LinkedIn perhaps every other day to check or contribute to the “groups” and perhaps once every few weeks I will give some consideration to who else I might connect with. On Twitter I will check it maybe 3 or 4 times a day, taking perhaps 5 minutes each time and I will also post an entry every time I blog and I blog most business days.

There are times when I find myself spending a little more time on the social network activities than I should, but generally I exercise pretty good time management. If you can do that, then these tools can be very useful!

I decided to go to Wikipedia and see how the term honeymoon period is described.

The honeymoon period is the phase early in a long-term relationship with a person, place or thing that is characterized by greater than typical joy and lesser than typical friction. Usually during this time there is much more physical contact between the two partners in the relationship. In a political context, it is the early period in a political term during which constituents are less demanding and more forgiving of their representative. This is also true early on in marriage – spouses seem to be more forgiving and loving than they would be later on in the relationship.

As expected, it’s a pretty good description of this “period” but doesn’t really get to the heart of what is really a very human issue … our expectations.

I guess the original term probably stems from marriage, suggesting that the honeymoon period might well be that time when a couple are at their happiest. A time before they find out that they each have flaws and that they really can get on each other’s nerves! Oops, sorry if I burst any bubbles here.

Of course the newly weds know intellectually that this is in fact the case and that in order to have a lasting relationship it requires effort, patience and perhaps a willingness to compromise.

This can be applied to almost any situation … a new job, a new employee, a new house, a new car, a new gym etc. As you get to know it better the flaws become more pronounced, and if those flaws exceed your expectation then you tend to react. How you react will determine the success of this new relationship … whether it is with an inanimate object like a car or with another human being.

This is where a pragmatic approach is required … what is your minimum expectation and can it be achieved? If not, then probably the up-front “courtship” (to keep the metaphor going) didn’t do its job!

However, assuming that this is a relationship that CAN work, then it needs to have a plan, good communication and a commitment to make it work.

Sounds like effort … of course it is!

One of life’s lessons … There are NO free lunches, everything has a price.

To further expand that lesson … anything worth having is worth working for!

OK … you can apply all of the above to any situation you feel to be pertinent. The situation I want to talk about today is President Obama.

The latest polls suggest that Obama’s popularity is taking a dive. The fall matches the decline in the US economy and his inability to effect “enough” change on important issues in his 8 months in office. Now that is probably a pretty long honeymoon.

However, 8 months in the middle of the worst economy of our time, while tackling the issues in Iraq and Afghanistan, facing off against North Korea’s nuclear threat and trying to tackle a huge healthcare problem at the same time.

It is a definite classic case of honeymoon period. Maybe we should redefine honeymoon period as that period of time when people look at their world through rose-coloured glasses!

This is a President who was set up with such huge expectations from the beginning … despite his attempts at bringing some reality into the equation … that this was inevitable.

I am going to watch and learn from Barack Obama over the coming months. How he tackles this “post honeymoon period” will be a great lesson to all leaders. It will also be a lesson to anyone interested in human nature. I expect that he will reconnect with the American public, will probably be a little more visible than he has of late and will keep them apprised of his plans.

He will have a plan for this situation, he will communicate a lot (and he is a great communicator) and he will demonstrate commitment to making this work.

I bet he has a good marriage too!

I think I prefer that title as it is more accurate than Time Management … of course no-one can manage time, we can just maximize the time that we have at our disposal.

Over the course of the last three years I have written on this subject (sometimes calling it time management I must confess) many times. I consider this to be one of THE key areas in which a person can really (a) differentiate themselves from their peers and (b) have a true impact on their life, by spending time on the important things … rather than being ineffective.

Today I was directed to an article about Multi-Tasking (called Why Multi-Tasking Doesn’t Work) that was both interesting and informative. The gist of the article is that multi-tasking makes us far less productive and even cites a study that suggests a driver using a mobile phone performs about the same as a drunk driver! There is something to think about … I wonder what affect doing lipstick and driving has!

So this article reminded me that it has been some time since I addressed this subject. Here are some resources you might want to check out.

My blog entry … 10 Time Management Tips from June 2009.
My blog entry … Getting Control of Your Time from February 2009.
My blog entry … Goals The Way to Take Charge of Your Life from July 2006.
The CEO Blog – time leadership by Jim Estill
Getting Things Done by David Allen … a whole philosophy on the subject!

I really believe that this is an area that bears constant attention. We can all get more productive, learn new techniques, try different ways of doing things to maximize time. The result can be dramatic … and as an old sales guy I can’t stress enough the value of good “time management” habits.

As I have often said the result may mean more time available for “family time” or it may mean exceeding targets, but whatever your goal making better use of your time can only be a good thing!

You really can’t afford to be complacent in anything that you do … although human nature is such that when we get “comfortable” we tend to “coast’ a little and perhaps pay a little less attention to those important details!

Let me give a few examples …

The Salesperson. You are a salesperson and have been successful for some time now. You have a key account that generates most of your business and you look after the client well, have a great relationship and life is rosy. What could possibly go wrong?

Your key contacts could be replaced with newcomers who have different allegiances; your client could run into financial difficulty; or your company could mess up, and upset someone.

What should you be doing? Don’t have all your eggs in one basket! Nurture your next account, develop more contacts in this key account. Stay close to the various influencers … even those you don’t deal with regularly.

The Company. Your company has been having good growth, you are well established, have a good client base and good operating model. What could possibly go wrong?

The economy could tank; a key client could be acquired; a key client might choose to re-tender their business due to new players or procurement rules; a competitor might choose to disrupt your market space.

What should you be doing? Diversify your clients across different market segments – government, financial services, telco, oil & gas, utilities etc. Diversify across geographies … often when one geography is struggling another might be doing OK. Diversify offerings, but use your core competences – don’t introduce new offerings that are totally unrelated to your current business. Always be looking for that next big client.

The Cyclist. You having been cycling for many years, are very comfortable on a bike and out for a Saturday afternoon ride for exercise and fresh air. What could possibly go wrong?

You could look back to see where your spouse is and take a spectacular flyer over the handlebars land on your shoulder as the handlebars dig into your thigh. Of course you are wearing sandals and in addition to your scraped knee you also have scraped toes!

What should you be doing? Well cursing didn’t work so well, so I just completed the ride and am sporting a rather spectacular bruise on my thigh … which unfortunately is positioned such that I can’t even show it off!

The big lesson of course is that no matter what you are doing you really can’t afford to be complacent! A little bit of good news is that it was my bicycle I was on and not my 1400cc motorbike!

I had to post this one … Kit Grant is one of those irreverent, interesting and entertaining speakers who has a way of getting your attention. We have had him speak to the Eagle team and he has talked at our industry association conference.

Kit also has a newsletter to which you should subscribe … just go to his website.

The following is from Kit’s latest thought provoking email …

“A lot of people die at forty but are not buried until thirty years later.” … General George Patton.

I’ve met lots of people who are dead but haven’t left yet!

They no longer have any dreams, wouldn’t think of setting goals in case they might fail, don’t like the “rotten deal” they have somehow been dealt by circumstances beyond their control and really expect government to develop regulations and policies that can ensure their miserable existence.

They’re lots of fun to hang around (ho,ho) and have succeeded in absolving themselves of any responsibility for the results they get.

Sound like anyone you know?

The only person in charge of you is you and when you surrender that huge responsibility to outside forces or groups you will enter the world of chronic complainers and, in time, become one of them.

Watch what you say, what you do and who you hang around with. If you see or hear stuff you don’t like, have a talk with the person in the mirror and get out of your own rut!

One of the phrases often used when talking about enjoying life or ensuring you make the most of your time here, goes something like this … You do not want to be lying on your death bed “wishing” that you had done things which you could be doing now!

The underlying message of course is that we should take a little time to understand what is important to us and to actually work towards achieving those things while we still can.

Recently I came across an article on life planning in the context of financial planning … incidentally I’m much better at spending money than I am at planning how to maximise it! However the article talked about three questions that are used by The Kinder Institute (one of the first institutes in the field of Life Planning). The questions seemed to make sense in the concept of making you think about what is really important to you … so I thought I would share them.

1. Imagine that you are financially secure, that you have enough money to take care of yourself and your needs, now and in the future. How would you live your life? Would you change anything?

2. Now imagine that you visit your doctor, who tells you that you have only five to ten years to live. You won’t ever feel sick, but you will have no notice of the moment of your death. What will you do i the time you have remaining? Will you change your life – and how will you do it?

3. Finally, imagine that your doctor shocks you with the news that you only have 24 hours to live. What feelings arise as you confront your mortality? Ask yourself: What did you miss? Who did you not get to be? What did you not get to do?

I am a fan of having goals … and to have a “bucket list” is really to establish some goals for your life. These questions can help you to crystalise your thoughts and make sure that you are living the life you want … rather than the life that just happens to you.