14 GREEN SKY LABS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
in a variety of medical products and creams before application, including food like chocolate bars, as opposed to smoked. That means medicinal companies and end users can be assured of consistent, accurate, stable levels of active health enhancing ingredients, as opposed to a veritable mixed bag of effective residuals obtained by smoking marijuana, for instance. “There is a perception that this industry is filled with cowboys, criminals and a bunch of hippies,” says Chief Financial Officer Derrold Norgaard, FCA. “The team we’re building includes lawyers, doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs, business professionals and experts. The Company’s CEO, Rehan Huda, is a former Chief Economist for the federal government, and the company’s Chief Operating Officer is both an MBA and Chemical Engineer. Many of the executive team have never touched cannabis except in a laboratory setting. We want to change this business and peoples’ lives with a sound product, from plant to patient.” Norgaard and the company’s team of executives plan to make parts of Green Sky Labs into public companies by this fall. A fellow of the B.C. Institute of Chartered Accountants and former Operating Managing Partner of KPMG in Victoria, he has been involved in taking almost
OFF THE COVER “We have come up with an organicmethod of extraction without chemicals, which is a safer, better, purer way.” DR. JAN BURIAN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
two dozen companies public, he is now Principal of Norgaard Kratofil Professional Group. Huda has been involved in the capital markets for many years and has led a similar number of companies through the public market stage. Green Sky Labs has raised over $20 million in an initial private offering to facilitate expansion and growth, and new investors are coming on board. Company co-founder Michael Graw came up with the idea for the company eight years ago, after his best friend’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. Cannabis noticeably helped her cope with the immense pain, although she eventually did succumb to the disease. Cannabis eliminated the possibility of reliance on traditional opiod medicines, which often can become addictive, with long-term negative consequences. “From there, a group of friends got together and wanted to make a difference, by trying to find better quality products to the cannabis growing industry reliably, instead of in backyards and garages,”
Graw says. Green Sky Labs currently has 35 full-time and another 10 parttime employees. Partner institutions include the University of Victoria, the University of Ottawa, the University of British Columbia and McGill University. “What makes us good is our science and our team,” says Norgaard. Ja y Va n d e V l u g t , S e n i o r Bio-Chemist, and Dr. Jan Burian, Chief Technology Officer, joined as they recognized the health benefits and believed the cannabis plant’s medicinal properties could be extracted more efficiently and accurately. “We wanted to bridge the gap between how the public perceives cannabis in the 21st century of medicine, and how it affects the body in a meaningful way to improve the quality of care and quality of life,” says Van de Vlugt, who left medical studies after obtaining his degree from UVic to join Green Sky Labs. Burian’s focus is on scaling up technology and production to meet the expected demands of the market. They now have processes in-house that can produce “tens of kilograms” of THC per day, and it is his goal is to move that to industrial scale. “We have come up with an organic method of extraction without chemicals, which is a safer, better, purer way,” he says. Green Sky Labs is in the processing of securing licenses and building a refining facility in
MAY 2017
Washington state. Paul Carpanini is Director of U.S. , and his responsibility is not just the U.S., but Europe and other international business development aspects of the company. Green Sky Labs is currently in negotiations with entities in Germany, California, Nevada and several of the 26 U.S. states that allow marijuana grow operations. 12 states have decriminalized recreational marijuana. Green Sky Labs plans to access medicinally grown marijuana (or hemp for its CBD component) from the top existing growers in the state, as their business relationships will allow them access to specialty growers, in the state. Green Sky will then refine the pure CBD and THC (and other selected molecules) from plant material. There is no shortage of cannabis on the market, but the Green Sky team believes that at the end of the day, there will be artisan and large-scale growing operations. “ O u r p ro c e s s c o u l d w o rk with either; it doesn’t matter,” Norgaard says. “What we want is the pure product, the isolated molecules from which can be utilized in creams, compounds, pills or other formulations accurately. We’re all about producing real medicine for real people to help with real illnesses.” Norgaard says in Canada, they recently signed a contract to build an operation that will be based either on Vancouver Island, or in Alberta. Canadian headquarters are in
Victoria and Toronto. Graw and Norgaard spoke about the company’s IBM’s Artificial Intelligence Health initiative, Ask Watson Pain. They have an active joint venture, with IBM, partially because select members of their team and advisors have worked in top positions at IBM in past years. They plan to bring a software platform, focused on alternative (non-opiod medicines) supported by an exceptional strong research focus. This will be made available for hospitals, physicians and others – initially to those using IBMs’ electronic medical records systems. “The key executives of this company are from IBM, who are opening the door and showing doctors and professionals the benefits of the cannabis-based products we’re produci ng,” Norgaard says. He believes getting the message out that these concentrated cannabis-derived products are reliable, safe alternatives to opiod-based medicinals is key to the company’s success. It doesn’t hurt that their advisory board includes U.S. General Wesley Clark, who recognized the medicinal benefits of a non-opiod solution to long-term pain and health conditions in American military veterans, in particular. “With their involvement, the good news will get out much faster than we could do on our own,” he adds. Green Sky Labs is at 245-1627 Fort Street in Victoria. www.greenskylabs.com
WINNERS HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME AS NON-WINNERS
SALES JOHN GLENNON
T
im had survived his first year in sales. Actually, Tim had done more than just survive. At the end of his first year, he was the number two salesperson in the company. Out of 26 other salespeople, that was an impressive accomplishment
Yet he was troubled. There was a secret he had not shared w it h h i s m a n a ger nor h i s fellow salespeople. In fact, he had hidden it from all of them. At the sales meetings, he went along with the yelling and cheering of quotas met and awards given. In speaking with his manager, he even told him just how helpful the daily planning calendar was, along with the weekly goal planning sessions. Yes, it certainly will help
me save lots of time, he nodded. A s the yea r went on, Tim gradually found himself caring less and less for the cheering. And he was using his daily planning calendar, solely to keep track of appointments. The weekly goal planning sessions became a chore he avoided whenever possible. What he found himself doing, more and more, was asking himself a Simple question, “Why is it clients buy from me? T here’s a lways some other salesperson somewhere who’ll sell it for less.” So, i n s te ad of wor r y i n g about saving time, Tim used time to keep a running account of why clients did buy from him. About mid-year, T i m rere ad h i s notes a nd discovered that what he had written had everything to do with how the clients used his product. How his product had solved some pain the client had. Over and over, he read the same message. At the end of first year, his manager came by and congratulated him on making the most use of his time. The
weekly goal setting and time planning had obviously paid off. How could Tim begin to tell him that worrying about making the most use of his ti me was the last th i ng to contribute to his success. The RESULT: Tim will make more money than the majority of salespeople because of his recognition that time can’t be saved or wasted, rather it just is. What is important is knowing what you want to accomplish with your clients. And then doing it. DISCUSSION: It’s good to have goals, attend sa les meeti ngs a nd ma i nta i n a n appoi ntment book. Unfortunately, many in sales feel that these are the sole management tasks necessary for a good salesperson. Un for tu nately, ma nagement tasks or office chores, are generally viewed by salespeople to be tasks best avoided whenever possible because being in front of prospects is considered the only valuable place to be. After aIl, the more time you have in front of prospects means the more
money you will earn. Right? Any right-thinking sa lesp erson wou ld rat her spend five hours with prosp e cts a nd t h re e hou rs on management tasks. And if the three hours could be cut by two hours, even better. APPROACH: Don’t throwaway your appointment book. Keep going to the sales meetings. Make sure that you have goals in place. Now sit down at least once a week, regardless of the type of business you are in, and jot down why people buy what you are selling. But here’s the catch. You can’t jot down what you think is the reason; you have to jot down their reason. And, in nine cases out of ten, you will have to contact them to find out the reason. If you are convinced you know the reason in more than two out of ten cases, you are deluding yourself. O n a mont h ly ba si s, reread all of your notations to date. If you truly have their reasons for buying, you will have accomplished three very
important goals. First, you i nti mately know you r cl ients’ needs. Second, finding out the buying needs of your prospects will become easier and easier to do. Third, finding new prospects becomes the easiest of all. Or, don’t do this. Make no attempt to find out why they bought. Play the “You raise objection - I handle objection - I go for close” dance every day until you are blind with exhaustion. Blindly looking for new prospects. THOUGHT: Salespeople earning a million dollars a year have the same number of hours in the day as those who have just spent thei r f i rst-ever day as salespeople. Not an hour more, not an hour less. John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, an authorized Sandler Training Licensee. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler. com, toll free at 1-866-645-2047 or visit www.glennon.sandler.com. Copyright 2013 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.