Buy Local - Not Rubber Lobsters

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"...phenomenon called the 'Briefcase Syndrome' - it is an unfounded and almost laughable belief..."

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So much has been touted about supporting local business, but it appears that this whole movement has us conditioned in thinking if we purchase a rubber lobster at a mom and pop souvenir shop that we have done our part. Or picking up a jar of strawberry jam at the local market is what all the hoopla is about. 

I do my best in my writing to keep my professional career out of my editorials, and I will do my best to keep my thoughts as generic as possible.. but I am near at the END OF MY ROPE with the hypocrisy of Provincial Governments and Large Privately owned local businesses.

Large Businesses - I don't think I need to name them, but my disappointment is focused on those multinational employers of thousands of people that have germinated from New Brunswick family enterprises into world leaders. I wont bother googling and putting links up here of endless press releases from their owners, leaders of "being proud to be a New Brunswick (or Atlantic) business", and the value they hold on being a local business. The pride of the people that helped them grow to world industrial leaders. How they tout government (and utility) grants and discounts under the flag of being a New Brunswick Company. They ask for our support and understanding as they steer local political directions. 

Provincial Government - We (as it really is our money) pay millions on retaining our local workers, grow tourism, "buy local" campaigns.. Millions and Millions of our dollars are spend annually based on the pride we have to live and work in New Brunswick.

All good right? Well, simply put, these folks standing making speeches (for both private and public enterprise) CLEARLY do not speak to the actual decision makers in their own organizations. Or, and hopefully this is not the case, have set a mandate to those decision makers inside their organizations to disregard all of their wordage and philosophy on supporting New Brunswick.

I work in a business that started with 3 entrepreneurs that ran the risk and went on their own into a very competitive market. A true success story - and now exists as a healthy Mid Sized Organization. Virtually every dollar of profit, is either spent or reinvested in New Brunswick.

I (in my line of business) count on business from these above mentioned Private and Public Clients. A New Brunswick company - offering goods and services to organizations that very loudly proclaim supporting New Brunswick Business. Seems a pretty good model. But it is a severely broken model.

NEVER would I suggest that ANY organization when selecting vendors for good and services, even consider choosing a vendor that is more expensive or in any way a lesser quality - as business is business and I cannot support that fact strong enough. I am not in the least bit irked when we are provided an opportunity to do business with the our New Brunswick customers, and for ANY reason are not the best pricing or the best quality. That is a free market and the way it should be.

HOWEVER, almost weekly I am made aware of contracts being signed, purchases being made, services being procured from the government or these Local Enterprises that we were not even invited to show our wares, provide a price, detail or offerings. And although difficult to gain access to the nature of these awards - on the occasion that I do find details, we can offer a much less expensive and higher quality product. But we were never invited to even be aware of the opportunity. I could even sleep at night if these awards were made to other New Brunswick grown companies.. But almost without exception they are awarded to US based vendors, or Central Canadian Vendors. 

HOW, HOW, HOW can these back room procurements of good and services be awarded endlessly by both Private and Public Enterprises without even making the slightest of efforts of considering a local vendor as a viable option. Again - not for a second am I suggesting favourable treatment.. I am suggesting that local companies are at the very least invited to state their offerings and costing.. If we cant compete, we cant compete - that is fair ball.. BUT PLEASE let us compete,

To listen or watch a CEO make a tear jerking presentation on how proud they and their family are to be New Brunswickers, and at that exact moment back in their corporate offices - procurements are being made from foreign suppliers, without providing any opportunity for local companies to even bid. 

I have (not to be too specific) worked for months making Public Sector Decision makers aware of lines of business that are available a 5 minute drive away from their offices.. Only to find out at a later date that they awarded a contract of the exact lines of business from a US based company without even making me aware that they were making the purchase. This is not a single occurrence -this is habitual.. and 180 degrees counter to what our elected officials are saying about supporting New Brunswick Businesses. 

THE QUESTION: Why do these purchases for goods and services get negotiated and awarded to foreign vendors. Primarily because of a phenomenon called the "Briefcase Syndrome" - it is an unfounded and almost laughable belief, that if good or services come from a bigger business hub (Toronto/New York/Japan etc) then they MUST be better. If a consultant gets off a plane, carrying his briefcase, then he is clearly more skilled and knowledgeable that a consultant that you may run across buying groceries at your local store. THUS, clearly if you want the best - then you better have the best come in from the airport. 

This belief as ridiculous as it is, is engrained in our government, and local multinationals. How would it ever be possible that New Brunswicker have same or better skills than someone from New York? So therefore our Industrialists born and raised in New Brunswick have no other choice than not even consider a New Brunswick business to do business with, and not even inviting them to the table... but my sarcasm is wearing to read so I will stop.

So what is there to do - I think reluctantly we need to let our Government and Large Enterprises continue with their hypocrisy, and begin to personally act on this. When we in our professional roles require good or services, certainly shop the International Vendors, but source a locally owned business and provide them an opportunity to compete. They may or may not be able to  - but providing them the chance is all that is needed. I would suggest, that as a local business, with a much more limited geographical base with provide much superior commitment behind their products - and a company who appreciates your business with almost always offer the most aggressive pricing and attention to detail. Give it a try. I do.

You Have Drama in Your Workplace??

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“Nature abhors a vacuum.” - Aristotle.

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“Nature abhors a vacuum.” - Aristotle. This idiom is used to express the idea that empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural as they go against the laws of nature and physics.

We have all had to endure at times (or possibly every day) in our workplace or social life, drama. Drama in our workplace has many faces, from general gossip, to personality conflicts – all of the way to near mutinies directed at management or owners. We have grown accustomed with playing a role in this drama or being a spectator. Of all issues within an organization, this can sap productivity more significantly and drastically that if the office was on fire. Bitterness towards co-workers, entire workforces being polarized into two opposing groups, Emails secretly forwarded and instant messaging buzzing with innuendo, accusations and insults.

It is a morale draining every day occurrence. But have you ever paused to step back and observe what is happening... Distancing the fact that Charlie down in shipping is an incompetent, or all of the girls in accounting are snobby bitches. Create arms length from the discussions that the owner has no idea what he/she is doing. Step back and see the amount of time, energy and ultimately profit (keeping in mind profit is what keeps you employed with your company).

Maybe, you will also notice, that drama, is most present when business slows down a little, or has become stagnate and routine.

Several years ago I attended a seminar for CEO’s. The presenter was a very insightful speaker discussing increasing productivity within your organization. One of the topics he discussed was drama in the workplace. To give him appropriate credit for these thoughts that I am sharing in this article. I of course Googled this topic to identify his name and books. Unfortunately I was unable to locate his name, and credentials – however, I discovered thousands of article that are counter to his business solution, and I firmly believe, counter to increasing productivity. All of these Google hits were fundamentally “How to eliminate drama in the workplace”.

This speaker (damn I wish I can give him credit, and the moment I find it I will edit and include him in this article), was extremely insightful in encouraging the opposite of eliminating drama.. his (and my) firm beliefs is a manager, owner or even employees should encourage drama in the workplace.

“Nature abhors a vacuum.” - Aristotle surmised.. and I will extend on that and insist that “human nature abhors a vacuum of drama.” We need it, it is hard wired into our being. The moment that more than two people occupy any space, drama becomes a part of life. It is impossible to exist without our mind being exercised beyond our work tasks. We are social creatures, and with being social, we will create drama.

So I point out above that drama can destroy productivity, and morale. So why create it, why encourage it. The key is WHAT TYPE of drama. The secret is to create, foster, seed drama that will pull employees together. Find common issue that all employees can focus on. One can be creative to determine what this topic may be.. but it can be announcement of a large contract that your organization is bidding on, or has won, announcements of a competitor financial distress, a social event planning, a contest. Anything that is suitable within your organization that involves every staff member that has them discussing amongst themselves. This creating of drama, can be sourced from any level of employee in an organization. Of course, must be driven from the top down, so needs the nod from management. It is the managements role to “keep the fire burning” on this productive drama.

Again, to steal a theory from physics: "No two objects can occupy the same place at one time"

This seeded, productive drama, will replace the destructive, rift building drama, which will exist if your organization is left unattended.

Give it a try.

[SOPA] New Mexico: Females are strictly forbidden to appear unshaven in public.

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"...a product or service blindly thrown to the pack of wolves on the internet" 

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In California it is legal to drive the wrong way down a one-way street if you have a lantern attached to the front of your automobile, and in Glendale Arizona, cars may not be driven in reverse.

Our law books are filled with statutes that at one time or another were quite relevant and served appropriate service. We look back at these, and (as I did as I researched this blog) and can enjoy a good chuckle, and they now look ridiculous as we compare them to how the world looks in modern times. Lawmakers have no crystal ball when enacting new laws; they can only base these on what is here and now. As mechanics, technology, culture evolves, often times these laws become obsolete. As cars replaced horse drawn carriages, laws that required hitching posts in front of business, needed to be replaced with car traffic laws.

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is faced with similar challenges. As I read debates on the for and agaist of SOPA, I chose not to comment on either side, but I did come to the conclusion that we are trying to enforce hitching post laws, in a world of automobiles. Piracy, Trademark, Intellectual Property, Counterfeit laws have all been designed, and written when there was no vehicle for the world population, at a click, to share information. The internet has (obviously) evolved into a world marketplace that to some, is impossible to police.

I will not cry uncle, and say that because it is difficult to eliminate the evils of market abuse we don't need to make an effort to curb illegal activities. But I do suggest that it is now time to revisit all of the laws relating to Piracy with the new world market the internet as a core to the new laws. The debate on enforcing laws that are now unenforceable, and possibly irrelevant will never cease, as long as we continue to drive a square peg (the existing laws) into a round hole (the internet).

Clean slate, new technical innovations, new methods of revenue generation for those that have rights to property need to be the primary drivers. Business and property ownership, is a self correcting market, even in the case that lawmakers chose to continue attempting to police antiquated laws, the market, after suffering a loss, will find ways (technically or otherwise) to counter this loss. This relative “short term” pain of piracy, IP theft, Copy write infringement etc will be countered, just by the pure nature of the free market system. But a helping hand of legislators, scripting laws that are current and enforceable might speed the natural market correction just a bit.

I have received a number of comments on my articles, expressing that it is hard to see my point. For what it is worth, I prefer that my readers determine their own point, and extrapolate on the oversimplification of thoughts I provide. However, in respect to these requests, my point in this is simply summarized to the fact that in order to address the issues under the SOPA efforts, is to embrace the new world of the internet, and rethink what new laws should exist, and what can the market do to protect their assets on their own. Acknowledging that a product or service blindly thrown to the pack of wolves on the internet WILL be taken without remuneration is an unfortunate fact. Maybe the market (without lawmakers) will be forced to develop a way to protect themselves.

Cant' get there from here!

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"...vague goal like “be happy” or “be rich” or wishy washy objectives."

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It seems obvious as you are assigned as navigator; map unfolded giving forewarning of upcoming exits to the driver. The map in front of you is a mess of intersecting lines, but with a keen eye on the destination, the peripheral lines, not marked with a highlighter are unimportant peripheral clutter, as you focus on the road you are travelling and which exit is next to get you nearer to your destination.

I wonder what age; a person becomes capable of reading and interpreting a map, and how to target a destination, and more importantly not to follow roads that take you in the wrong direction. But I am confident in my belief by the time we become adults; this is a natural and easy task.

What seems to be impossibly difficult at times, as adults, is managing the endless number of decisions we need to make in our personal and professional lives... so many choices, so many options, so many ramifications of our every decision. Decisions that will take us off in many different directions, decisions that affect other decisions. A daily, even hourly, exercise that every human must endure.

Let’s go back to navigating now, the map on your lap, a driver anxiously awaiting notification on what is the next exit, what highway should we be on. But, this time, you are not fortunate to have a highlighted trip marked out, and even worse.. no destination identified. Now the map is a large unfolded confusing mess of lines, colors, numbers, and pictures.

I think you see where I am going with this (even without a map)

In order to make correct decisions in our lives, we need a destination. Not a vague goal like “be happy” or “be rich” or wishy washy objectives. We need to make specific, tangible destinations. Something that every decision (EVERY), can be help up against the destination. As we reach crossroads (nice play on words there I must say), the decisions are crystal clear when we pause to say “Will this get me closer to my goal”. If not, then it is not the right decision. Major or minor work and personal decisions can be held up to destinations that you have defined for each.

Driving down the highway, and taking an exit that leads you to something interesting, may result in a meandering country side drive that takes you far away from your planned destination.. And could even possibly take you to a point that getting to your destination is impractical, so you offhandedly select a new goal, then another, then another as you drive endlessly in circles around the continent. Never reaching the well thought out and desired outcome of your trip.

These side roads are tempting, and often appealing for the short term, but can lead to failure in the big picture. Personal decisions are easy to send us off to travel in endless circles. 

Unfolding your personal or professional map, be very specific, measurable when placing a mark on it, circling it and committing to that is where you end up. Then as you encounter traffic circles, off ramps, crossroads, detours the choices are very simple and uncluttered and all of the other roads on the map are just indeed unimportant peripheral clutter.

“Will this [insert choice of decision here] bring me closer to my goal?”.. repeat, repeat, repeat.