A friend of mine is idly looking at new job opportunities, and drew my attention to a posting which included a requirement I haven’t seen before: when asking for references, it specified that one reference must be from a current manager or supervisor. There are two major flaws in this requirement, and both of them [...]
Continue reading about Quick HR alert – don’t ask job candidates for a current employer reference
Having read a great deal of information about the HST, I have come to the conclusion that it is not a good idea, period-full-stop. Here are my primary reasons: 1) Lying to the populace is not acceptable for a government. The Liberals said in their election campaign that they were not going to bring in [...]
Just making a quick blog post from Comox, where I am staying with my in-laws. Last night I gave my “DIY Strategic Planning” presentation to the Comox Valley Web Posse, a vibrant group of web and online marketing professionals. It was a sold-out crowd for the presentation, which is really nice to see! They opened [...]
Things have been slow around here since the end of the government fiscal, so what better time to step back and do some of that “working ON the business?”
You’ve heard it before: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing. The four stages of team development, right? This old chestnut is rolled out by teachers and facilitators everywhere (myself included) to help teams understand the changing dynamics as they get used to working together. On anything from a group class project for college to a change management [...]
In the April 2010 Business Examiner newspaper (Vancouver Island edition), there is a feature on the Courtenay/Comox/Cumberland success in attracting visitors and building a legacy to outlast the Olympics. In a nutshell, Comox Valley put themselves out there as a training destination for National Olympic Committees, and the NOCs responded. Comox Valley invested in infrastructure [...]
Continue reading about “If you build it, they will come” – wrong.
Well, even though I didn’t complete my 30 Days of Marketing Effort, putting my intentions out there for business development seems to have had a positive effect. I find myself right now with as much work as I can feasibly handle for the next month at least, and probably through until February if I count [...]

Pros and Cons of the BC HST
When the HST initially was announced, I practically hit the roof. I thought “what worse time could there possibly be to introduce greater costs for the consumer?” Coming on top of recently announced funding cutbacks to non-profit organizations, I sunk into quite a bitter, blue funk about the cruelty and apparent idiocy of our provincial [...]
Continue reading about Pros and Cons of the BC HST