Douglas magazine August/September 2015

24

the man behind rifflandia Douglas talks to Nick blasko

32

Earthquake does your business have what it takes to survive?

38

Lowdown on Leadership the must-have gold standard for your company

Aug/sep 2015

special Leadershi p Issue

THE BIG RETHINK How 3D printing is revolutionizing everything from brain surgery to car design.

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Contents

Follow us

Aug/sep 2015

departments

Features

38 Leadership: Do You Have What it Takes?

Leadership is the gotta-have-it gold standard for companies big and small.

42 The Big Rethink

How 3D printing is revolutionizing everything from brain surgery to car design. by mike wicks

By Jody Paterson

32

6 From the Editor

54 Last Page

9 Douglas Social page

Red Arrow taps into the craft beer scene

10 In the Know

by ATHENA MCKENZIE

Harbour Air’s big deal, five minutes with David Foster, The Wealthy Life with Sybil Verch

INTEL [Business

16

Are you getting personal?

Intelligence]

48

People in Business

The who, what and where of the business scene

18 Take Three The “back to school” effect

Earthquake

Will your business survive?

Douglas explores what business owners need to do to protect their assets and their people, to buy the right insurance and to create safety preparedness plans. by Paul Willcocks

24 In Conversation Nick Blasko of Atomique Productions By David Lennam

28 THE BIG IDEA

sales & Marketing

by mike wicks

50 MONEY Tax-free savings accounts — they’re not just for the rich

BY Steve Bokor

52 Entrepreneurship Revenue-ready is the new black by Peter Elkins

Sendwithus goes to Silicon Valley By ADRIENNE DYER

30%

Chance of an earthquake causing significant damage in the next 50 years, according to an estimate by the B.C. branch of the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

4 Douglas

Helping our local communities thrive Architecture, engineering, & environmental services

Design with community in mind stantec.com

Saanichton / Sidney Victoria

(250) 656-7966 (250) 388-9161

Jeffrey Bosdet/Douglas Magazine

From the Editor

Your Brain in the Age of Distraction

Multitasking, the act of doing more than one activity or task at the same time, is often touted as the golden grail of business skills. Most job interviews contain the question: “How are you at multitasking?” To admit you aren’t a great multitasker, well, that can be a deal killer. Ditto for entrepreneurs. Most of the ones I know are multitasking maniacs — and proud of it.

But recent research has poured molasses on the idea that human brains are built to do so many things at once. Much of this research reveals that multitasking has a detrimental effect on everything from our decision-making skills to our ability to handle stress.

Perhaps no one has nailed the problem better than Daniel J. Levitin, professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at McGill University. In his 2015 Guardian article Why the modern world is bad for your brain, Levitin writes: “So we’re not actually keeping a lot of balls in the air like an expert juggler. We’re more like a bad amateur plate spinner, frantically switching from one task to another, ignoring the one that is not right in front of us but worried it will come crashing down any minute. Even though we think we’re getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient.”

Here’s what some of the research conducted over the past five years shows: You sacrifice your smarts University of London researchers found people who multitasked during cognitive tasks lost an average of 10 IQ points, an effect similar to smoking marijuana or staying up all night.

You lose control University of Sussex researchers found multitaskers using multiple devices had less brain density in the part of the brain responsible for empathy and cognitive and emotional control.

Your stress increases Numerous studies show multitasking causes the body to produce more cortisol, which leads to disjointed thinking and mental fogginess, and adrenaline, which prepares the body for fight or flight.

Your decision-making suffers Levitin notes that lots of multitasking requires many tiny decisions, which appear to take up as much energy as big ones. This taxes our neural resources, degrading our impulse control and increasing the likelihood of making bad decisions about things that really matter.

You get addicted The more you multitask, the more you’re caught in what Levitin calls the “dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation.”

After reading about the negative effects of multitasking (which I admit I did while multitasking), I decided to jump off the treadmill. The first thing that happened is that I went through withdrawal. I actually craved mutitasking. But I persisted, forcing myself to work on tasks for set periods without self-inflicted interruption. I feared getting less done, but in fact I got far more done.

It’s still early days for this recovering multitasker, but after one week I’m feeling less fragmented and I’ve found more time for that essential big-picture thinking. I’ll probably never again ask job seekers if they are good at multitasking. Instead, a better question might be, “How do you manage to stay focused on what’s most important?”

Research shows multitasking may actually shrink our brain’s grey matter.

— Kerry Slavens kslavens@pageonepublishing.ca

6 Douglas

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BOTOX ® • FILLERS • FRACTIONAL LASERS • LASER HAIR REMOVAL • ULTHERA • VENUS LEGACY • COOLSCULPTING

www.douglasmagazine.com Volume 9 Number 5

We believe the ultimate measure of our performance is our client's success. It has guided our approach for over 30 years.

Publishers Lise Gyorkos, Georgina Camilleri

Editor-in-chief Kerry Slavens

Creative & Technical Manager Jeffrey Bosdet

Production Manager Jennifer Kühtz

Editorial Designer Jo-Ann Loro

Associate Editor Athena McKenzie

contributing Designer Janice Hildybrant

Contributing Writers Steve Bokor, Adrienne Dyer, Peter Elkins, Susan Johnston, David Lennam, Jody Paterson, Mike Wicks, Paul Willcocks

Contributing Photographers Jeffrey Bosdet, Simon DesRochers, Joshua Lawrence, Jo-Ann Loro

Contributing Agencies Thinkstock p. 1 (cover), 4, 34, 53

Advertising Representatives Vicki Clark, Cynthia Hanischuk,

Steve Bokor, CFA 250-405-2930 | stevebokor.com

Ian Clark, CFP 250-405-2928 | iandavidclark.ca

Administrative Assistant Bev Madden-Knight

general inquiries info@douglasmagazine.com

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Advisors you Trust. Advice that Works.

Member - Canadian Investor Protection Fund

Canada’s #1 Corporate Housing Firm

Letters to the editor letters@douglasmagazine.com

To subscribe to Douglas subscriptions@ douglasmagazine.com Advertising Inquiries sales@douglasmagazine.com Online www.douglasmagazine.com Facebook DouglasMagazineVictoria Twitter twitter.com/Douglasmagazine

Published by Page one Publishing 580 Ardersier Road, Victoria, BC V8Z 1C7 T 250-595-7243 E info@pageonepublishing.ca www.pageonepublishing.ca

Printed in Canada, by Transcontinental Printing Ideas and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Page One Publishing Inc. or its affiliates; no official endorsement should be inferred. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the contents of any advertisement and any and all representations or warranties made in such advertising are those of the advertiser and not the publisher. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in all or part, in any form — printed or electronic — without the express written permission of the publisher.

The publisher cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs.

Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement #41295544 Undeliverable mail should be directed to Page One Publishing Inc. 580 Ardersier Road, Victoria, BC V8Z 1C7

Douglas magazine is a registered trademark of Page One Publishing Inc.

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Douglas is a premium magazine dedicated to innovation, leadership and business lifestyle. Established in 2006, Douglas is the first choice for business leaders and achievers.

Align your business with Douglas. For more information or to request an advertising rate card, please call us at 250.595.7243 or email us at sales@douglasmagazine.com.

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10 to watch — The event

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To read about the 10 to Watch winners, go to douglasmagazine.com

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Photos by simon desrochers

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[1] Our MC for the evening Bruce Williams of CTV and CFAX [2] Aidan Henry of Brink Events; Scott Elias and Darren Ausmus of Luxe Home Interiors [3] Trish and Chris Connor of Life Flight International; and Bill Wellbourn of Island BMW [4] Avril Matthews of Inn at Laurel Point; Paul Nursey of Tourism Victoria; and Peter Ciceri of Peter Ciceri & Associates [5] Heather Kim, Alissa Laurin and Jennifer Wong of CTV [6] Kerry Slavens of Douglas magazine and Neil Tran of Leap XD [7] Bruce Reid and Brian Gordon of TD Canada Trust [8] Georgina Camilleri of Douglas magazine; Penny Sopel of Peninsula Co-op; and Lise Gyorkos of Douglas magazine [9] Vicki Clark of Douglas magazine and Julie Lywood of BDO Canada [10] Steve Hutchinson of Treehouse Media and Cynthia Hanischuk of Douglas magazine [11] Tasha Noble and Saira Waters of Modern Real Estate [12] Michael Hadfield of Equitex Realty & Management [13] The Songhees Wellness Centre was the spectacular backdrop for the Douglas 10 to Watch Awards.

Douglas 9

Innovation | Design | Business | Style | People 

[In the Know ]

Harbour Air’s flight plan for china When China’s largest public company decided to launch a seaplane commuter service to serve the millions of people living on its coast or near major waterways, they turned to B.C.-based Harbour Air. This June, Zongshen Industrial Group acquired a 49 per cent share in Harbour Air, including 25 per cent of the voting shares, in a deal

approved by the Canada Transportation Agency.

The partnership will see Harbour Air’s airline operations model form the basis for China’s debut into commercial seaplane service.

“The Chinese military had the airspace controlled 10,000 feet and lower until recently,” says Harbour Air’s executive VP Randy Wright.

“They started to relax that

with urbanization — the opportunity is now.”

The model is ideal for China, says Wright, because floatplanes don’t need costly airport infrastructure.

Harbour Air currently has 400 employees and 50 planes. Wright says the strategic partnership to export expertise to China could lead to more local jobs here at home.

10 Douglas

Jeffrey Bosdet/Douglas Magazine

Randy Wright, Executive Vice-President, Harbour Air

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five minutes with

“My personal mantra is ‘Good is the enemy of great’ and it is something I follow diligently.”

david foster

One of the music industry’s most accomplished producers, David Foster, recently added another honour to his 16 Grammy Awards when he received the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business 2015 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year (DEYA) Award. Douglas talked to Foster about his entrepreneurial approach to music and philanthropy, the future of the music business and the truth behind those inspirational quotes.

Most people think of you as a musician and a philanthropist, so what does this business award mean to you?

It appeals to the business acumen side of me I always hoped I had.

Even though other people who have won this award are all business and arguably more successful in business than I am, I believe I have maximized what a piano player from Victoria can do in the business world.

I don’t think music and business are necessarily related, but I am always more fascinated by sitting with somebody like Jeff Mallett or Dennis Washington than I am by sitting with an extraordinary musician.

Why is that?

I look at someone like Dennis Washington [who owns The Washington Companies, which includes Seaspan, and is a recipient of the 2013 DEYA], and I think, “How

did this guy do it? How do you run 60,000 employees? How do you start with one truck and turn it into a billion-dollar business? How does that work?” It just amazes me.

What business lessons have you taken away from running the music label 143 Records?

The one thing I’ve figured out is the only thing constant is change.

Exponentially, we have got ourselves into quite a mess in the music industry. I like to say that the music business is doing great but the record business has to find a new path. Because there is no better offer than free. We’re all guilty of it. I go on YouTube just like the next person when I want to hear a song. It’s hard to beat free. But we have to find a way; otherwise songwriters aren’t going to be able to make a living.

And if the songwriters can’t make a living that means screenwriters will

not be able to make a living. Then you’re not going to have movies and you’re not going to have music. So we will find a way. I do believe it will get straightened out but it’s going to take the next decade. I think we’re adaptable and there is no doubt the music business will be a robust business again.

What major changes do you see in the near future?

Spotify is on the tip of everybody’s tongue right now, and Beats and iTunes and these music services, which are trying to be premium services for $9 or $10 a month; and they’re under-delivering right now. They’re over-promising and under-delivering. But if we can get it to a point where they actually are delivering what they promise, we will be back to a $40 billion industry.

Right now we’ve shrunk to around a $10 billion business.

What secrets of success did you share with the Gustavson School of Business students during your guest lecture?

Just by being in business school already, they know all the inspirational quotes, but the funny thing about these quotes is they’re all true. The coined ones that we hear all the time: “Follow your dreams.

If you’re doing something you love, it’s not like work.” I have a few too: “If you’re not working Saturday and Sunday, somebody else is.”

My personal mantra is “Good is the enemy of great,” and it is something I follow diligently. What I wanted to impress on the students is to really listen to the words and to try and have them penetrate more than just skin deep. They really are true. The opportunities for young people — on this continent especially — are endless and you really can do anything.

Business in Action Chevron Canada is retrofitting its Cowichan facility to boost supply of ethanol-blended regular unleaded fuel to the Island.

The move is part of its efforts to achieve a 10-percent reduction in the carbon intensity of its fuels in B.C. by 2020. Chevron supplies about 65 percent of the Island’s transportation fuel needs. It anticipates the

12 Douglas

fuel will be available by the end of 2015.

Royal Roads University (RRU) has been shortlisted for the 2015 Marketer of the Year award from the B.C. Chapter of the American Marketing Association (BCAMA). RRU set out to push the boundaries of post-secondary

recruitment marketing with its interactive campaign “Future You” that employed Google Glass and GoPro video cameras to livestream lectures, labs and campus tours. The award winner will be announced in the fall of 2015.

Westport Marina in Sidney has been awarded its third Clean Marine

certification for best environmental practices.

Clean Marine is a program of the Georgia Strait Alliance to safeguard the environmental integrity of the waters surrounding Vancouver Island.

Bosa Properties, in a deal with Focus Equities, plans to build a $60 million 140-unit condominium

at Bayview Place in the Songhees area. The project will include a 17-storey tower and a five-storey low rise.

Fairwinds Oceanfront Community in Nanoose has been purchased by Vancouver-based Seacliff Properties, which manages Fairwinds, Bentall Kennedy Residential Services.

What’s Your Business Priority?

Victoria firm redefines the personal assistant What keeps entrepreneurs from reaching their full productivity potential? Usually, it’s not one big thing but hundreds of small tasks that need to be done by someone. But why does it have to be you?

That question led Danielle Chambers to launch Priority One Personal Assistant Services in Victoria in 2011.

The former real estate agent identified a gap in the local market and put together a team of assistants for hire for professionals, realtors and small businesses.

Priority One takes on tasks — from admin and social media to deliveries and event organizing — that keep business people from focusing on core profitability. Services are available through monthly or annual subscription, or à la carte.

Danielle Chambers, priority one

Jo-Ann Loro/Douglas Magazine

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Chambers, whose team of personal assistants includes a licensed realtor, grew up in the hospitality industry. “I’m used to working with a lot of type A personalities and I learned to adjust quickly to new situations and needs.

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Douglas 13

B.C.’s Tech Sector

is Raising Revenues and riding high A recent B.C. government report shows that while B.C.’s high tech sector is still relatively small, it punches above its weight. The Profile of the British Columbia High Technology Sector 2014 notes B.C.’s growth in high tech GDP is generally higher than that of the overall provincial economy.

$23.3B

Revenues in B.C.’s high tech sector for 2013, an increase of 5.2%.

6.5%

The tech sector’s contribution to the provincial GDP.

16%

Percentage of B.C.’s high tech firms located in the Vancouver Island/ Coast region, second to the Mainland Southwest at 68%.

9,738

Average weekly wage by high tech employees in B.C.

4.4%

The percentage of B.C.’s workforce employed in the tech sector — more than mining, oil and gas, and forestry sectors combined.

4th

B.C. high tech sector’s ranking among the provinces in GDP, revenue, employment, average weekly earnings and business counts.

2015 Top Tech Winners This year’s winners of the 15th Annual VIATEC awards were announced on Friday, June 26.  Technology Company of the Year Latitude Geographics

 Product of the Year Red Brick Media

 Startup of the Year Llama Zoo Interactive

 Emerging Technology Company of the Year Go2Mobi

 VIATEC Member of the Year Codename Entertainment

 Executive of the Year Bobbi Leach, RevenueWire

 Employee/Team 2 winners: Jessica Allan (Unit4) for employee and RaceRocks3D for team

 Innovative Excellence Schneider Electric

 Employer of the Year MediaCore

 Strategy of the Year MetaLab

 Creative Excellence Hotel Zed

 Colin Lennox Award for Technology Champion Todd Dunlop  Education Champion Josh Elsdon, Monterey Middle School

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14 Douglas

The net number of new businesses emerging in 2013 in B.C.’s tech sector, a growth of 8.1% over the previous year.

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The number of technology businesses with employees in B.C.

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A Wealth of Information With her new program, The Wealthy Life, investment advisor Sybil Verch of Raymond James looks to help viewers make smarter financial decisions

The first episode of The Wealthy Life airs on CHEK on October 10 at 5:30 p.m.

Verch says The Wealthy Life was inspired by 21 years of hearing the same questions from different clients.

“It made me realize the average Canadian doesn’t understand the basics when it comes to their financial choices — I thought ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a television show where we can cover these basic topics that can benefit everyone,’” she says.

Each weekly half-hour show will be broken into three segments: a guest with a financial concern; a guest expert; and a viewer letter.

Verch says many of the issues apply to business owners with respect to both their business and personal finances.

“A common mistake I see business owners make is that they get too focused on their business and they don’t step back and look at the bigger, long-term plan in their life, whether it’s the work-life balance or a retirement-exit strategy, or succession planning. It’s important to take a break every quarter and spend some time working on their personal finances.”

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Mark Your Calendar ■ October 28 & 29 VIEA State of the Island Economic Summit

■ November 21 TedX Victoria

The 9th State of the Island Economic Summit sees business and community leaders gather at the Nanaimo Conference Centre to discuss and develop the economic landscape of Vancouver Island. This year tech entrepreneur Peng-Sang Cau, president and CEO of Transformix Engineering, will open the summit with a talk on the importance of manufacturing in a healthy economy.

The theme of this year’s celebration of ideas at the McPherson Playhouse is “Impact” and organizers are encouraging speakers and attendees “to look at the impact of these ideas not just on the world around them, but also on themselves.”

A secondary venue, The Active Space, will allow networking with the presenters and an opportunity to view art created for TEDxVictoria by local artists.

Tickets go on sale Oct 1, tedxvictoria.com

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Douglas 15

Innovation | Design | Business | Style | People

Accolades Peter Cowan, founder and principal consultant at Northworks IP, a Victoria-based Intellectual Property (IP) strategy advisory firm, has been listed for the second year in a row in the U.K.-based IAM Strategy 300, as one of the world’s leading IP strategists alongside the IP heads for Google, Amazon and Coca-Cola. The IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists is a peer-nominated annual listing of individuals with an established track record in developing and rolling out IP value-creation programs.

Hot. Current. loCal.

Media Moves

Stacy Ross is

IN OUR G AD SPACE NOW BOOKIN sue AND thE Holiday is t Guide special Gif

officially taking over the anchor chair for CHEK News at 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Ross has been with CHEK News for 14 years and has produced and hosted CHEK News at Noon, CHEK News at 10 and been the back up anchor for CHEK News at 5.

Mandy Leith

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is breathing new life into her digital media content marketing business Media Rising.

Leith has a background in documentary production, communications and media relations. She is founder/director of the documentary program Open Cinema and founder of Connect the Docs, a social enterprise that combines the best of live and online cinema.

ON THE MOVE Brent Hale has joined Seaspan’s senior executive team as VP, human resources.

Hale joins the company from ICBC where he served as director, strategic HR and governance. He has a Bachelor of Commerce from UBC and a Master of Industrial Relations from Queen’s University.

In 2004, he graduated from an Executive Leadership Program at Simon Fraser University. Hale succeeds Lisa Bumbaco, who is retiring after more than 12 years with Seaspan.

Sandra Doris is the new marketing coordinator at Mayfair Shopping Centre. Doris is responsible for digital marketing programs for Mayfair and Nanaimo’s Woodgrove Centre, both owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge.

Derek Lewis has been appointed regional manager,

commercial services with Coastal Community Credit Union’s (CCCU) Nanaimo Business Centre on Labieux Road. He has been with CCCU since 2010. He was previously senior commercial account manager with Prosper Credit Union.

Luisa Celis has been hired for new business development in property management

by Duttons.

Celis will assist property owners with rental guidance and expertise. She is licensed in rental property management and strata, and is a licensed realtor.

Tracy Zeisberger has been hired as director of marketing and community relations for the Wilson’s Group of Companies. Zeisberger was the founding partner of a successful event and communications management company in Edmonton.

Non-Profit News Marg Rose is the new director of philanthropy and resource development at the United Way of Greater Victoria. Rose was most recently with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, NWT & Nunavut as senior philanthropy advisor.

Cheryl Dalwood is the United Way’s new associate director of philanthropy. Dalwood has worked in major gifts and annual giving with the University of Manitoba and then with the University of Calgary.

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What is a leader?

There are some big differences in how CEOs and HR professionals rank their top 3 leadership qualities…

31%

26%

26%

Is goal-oriented

Has a high level of responsibility

Empowers his or her employees

36%

24%

HR Top 3

Take three 

ceo Top 3

48%

Empowers his or Is a role model for Is goal-oriented her employees his or her team

Recycle, Reuse, Reorganize The approach of September often sparks that drive to declutter and put your office into prime working order — let’s call it the “back to school” effect. This year, make your reorganization all about using up-cycled and reclaimed materials.

Source: Universum

File under “r”

(Roadie chest, Available at Monarch and Max Furniture, $695) Not sure where to put your performance review? With this cabinet — inspired by the rolling travel cases musicians use to transport their gear — you can file it under “Rock Star.”

Truth Bomb There’s no question leadership is big business, with countless courses, blogs and talks focused on improving leaders. In Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces And Careers One Truth At A Time, Jeffrey Pfeffer (the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford) calls “B.S.” on the myths of leadership and offers a more scientific look at improving management.

Business Lingo

Parts & Labour

Full stack startup A company that builds a complete, end-to-end product or service that bypasses incumbents and other competitors.

The Mobile  office With the right tools and tech, you’re good to go.

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(Desk tray, Ten Thousand Villages, $49) Created from repurposed, pre-consumer computer parts, this desk organizer was made by the artisans of Tara Projects, which works to change the lives of India’s “untouchables” by eliminating unfair trade practices and child labour.

Multi Tasking Use these Bluetooth headphones for those important sales calls on a noisy street — and to drown out the ambient noise in the coffee shop when you’re working on that presentation. bose.ca

Key Strokes A tablet might seem like an appealing substitute for a laptop, but logitech.com really, it’s only convenient to work on if you’ve got a keyboard.

This solar keyboard charges itself whenever there’s light and stays charged for at least three months.

Shelf talkers

Timothy Oulton Axel Bookcase (Luxe Home Interiors, pricing starts at $1,645) Your business deserves those one-of-a-kind details. The reclaimed wood on these shelves comes from decommissioned Chinese fishing junks and decades of exposure to the high seas and elements make each piece unique.

Paper Trail The bane of any employee on the road is keeping records of mileage and expenses.

The Shoeboxed App lets you instantly capture receipt images from anywhere, and to use your phone’s built-in GPS for easy, accurate mileage tracking.

Landing Pad If your company has several mobile employees, consider installing a few private work stations, like the Brody WorkLounge, for when they need a few hours in the office. graphicoffice.com

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The Bay centre Curating Entrepreneurs and Ideas for 25 years

A

s The Bay Centre shopping centre celebrates 25 years in the Downtown Victoria community, they reflect on and celebrate their successes as an incubator for local entrepreneurs and ideas.

Currently one third of the Centre’s mix are locally owned and operated businesses. In 1999, Gerri and Mauro Schelini relocated The Tuscan Kitchen from Cordova Bay to The Bay Centre and they are still going strong today.

In 2004, Mei Lee opened Orchard on View, a soup and sandwich shop which has thrived, celebrating 11 years in operation in March.

In 2010, local designer Sara Patterson opened what was then called Lotus as a popup shop for the holiday season. The concept was a bricks and mortar Etsy shop, housing distinct urban items designed by local artisans based out of Victoria and Vancouver, BC. After two profitable holiday seasons, Lotus re-branded as Migration and is now open year-round at the Centre. Five years later, Migration is one of the Centre’s top traffic driving locally owned stores.

The Bay Centre’s role as a curator of entrepreneurs and ideas has also extended to 20 Douglas

The Bay Centre believes in building lasting community relationships and enhancing the lives of the people in our community.

the Centre’s commitment to downtown arts, culture and community social programs. In 1999, the Centre developed the Spirit of Giving campaign, raising over $2.1 million from 1999 to 2008. In 2009, the Mustard Seed took the campaign in-house, expanding it to a city-wide initiative. The Spirit of Giving initiative is an integral part of the Centre’s holiday campaign. As a founding partner, the Centre has, over the years, assisted in raising over $3.2 million for the food bank. In 2014 alone, the Centre hosted over 50 events, including four local art shows, a live wedding, and a 10-day festival as part of the Victoria International Buskers Festival.

After 25 years, The Bay Centre’s commitment to entrepreneurship and local

initiatives has remained the same.

“It is rewarding to work in the heart of the business district where I am part of a diverse community of local stakeholders who contribute together to build a stronger downtown,“ says Darlene Hollstein, General Manager of The Bay Centre, who has been in the shopping centre industry for over 20 years.

“Our job locally is to work with entrepreneurs, providing them with an opportunity to test and grow their concepts into thriving businesses that present offerings that capture the public’s imagination.”

1150 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC V8W 3M9 250 952-5690 www.thebaycentre.ca

camacc systems technology that delivers a clear picture of the world

T

hat surveillance system watching you gas up at the Petro-Canada station was designed, built and installed by Victoria’s CAMACC Systems. In fact, all the systems at all the Petro-Canada stations.

Same for the camera above the checkout till at Thrifty Foods. And at London Drugs, Best Buy, and Money Mart locations. In 17 years, CAMACC has installed more than 200,000 cameras and 8,000 digital video recorders for the bigger national and regional petroleum, retail, grocery and gaming companies across Canada and the US. “CAMACC has always acted like an innovative, start-up tech company,” says Ho Kim, President and CEO. “But now we’ve created ONYX – a start-up within our startup – to reach a completely new target for us: small- and medium-sized businesses.” ONYX is aimed at helping small companies that need advanced video surveillance, but don’t have the big budgets of national corporations.

ONYX is already shaking up the security and safety sectors across North America.

Still based in Victoria, ONYX offers three

“Affordable, highdefinition video security – for as low as $7.95 per month. Welcome to the ONYX Nation.”

– Ho Kim, President and CEO, CAMACC Systems

professional-grade cameras at a surprising price point: zero. “Our new ONYX line is a subscription-based service,” says Ho Kim. “You just pay a low monthly fee, sort of like a Netflix subscription.” How low? Low-low: $7.95 – $14.95 per month, depending on the camera model.

The three ONYX cameras come with various features for different business needs – inside, outside, daytime, nighttime – and all record up to a month of video “on board,” meaning no DVR is necessary. ONYX cameras are easily mounted, and connect to a router with a single (included) cable that both powers the camera and transfers data. Video images can be

viewed and searched on a desktop PC, or via a powerful smartphone app – from anywhere in the world.

No capital investment is required for getting advanced, megapixel surveillance into a small business, just the low monthly subscription fee, which includes free shipping and a lifetime warranty. “We’ve created a new model for small businesses to significantly improve their safety and security,” says David Sovka, ONYX Marketing Czar. A new business model aimed at helping more than one million small businesses across the nation: the ONYX Nation.

www.onyxcam.com Douglas 21

JC Scott eco Design Associates Inc. & WestCoast eco Home Eco Design Enhances Every Aspect of West Coast Life

D

esigner JC Scott has been designing award-winning projects from his Chinatown studios for three decades, with an eye to eco solutions and a focus on beauty and timeless quality. Scott is an advocate of 100 Mile Design, used in the creation of the home show display pictured here.

Health Eco design, says Scott, means bringing local and sustainable principles to your project, whatever style or budget. This approach to design takes into account client needs and health, local materials and local suppliers, timeless quality, functionality, lifecycle costing and durability. sustainability In his designs, Scott first considers sustainably sourced wood, Vancouver Island quarried marble and slate, natural light, energy efficient appliances and fixtures.

Important to our health, no toxins are present in the materials and finishes selected for design projects or sold from the firm’s WestCoast eco Home store in Fan Tan Alley.

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“This simple fact is important if you care about the quality of living you can enjoy in your home,” says Scott.

Scott’s work includes some of Vancouver’s Island’s most stunning — and sustainable — residential and commercial projects: homes like The Point, restaurants like North 48, pubs like Yates Street Taphouse and resorts like Painters Lodge. These showcase what can be achieved when eco design principles are applied.

Clients His ideal clients are creative, they enjoy life on the West Coast, they engage in and appreciate the arts and nature, and they are open to new ways of living. Scott feels that it is a designer’s role to show people new ways of living and working in their space in both subtle and bold ways, either through renovation, redecoration or with new home or commercial designs.

For people discovering the benefits of eco design, who want to know more, JC and his team are available to consult by phone or in their studio / store showcasing the best of Westcoast eco design products and ideas.

“It is the responsibility of designers today to show people that there is a new way to live that does not involve personal sacrifice but which can in fact offer eco-luxury.”

— JC Scott

2nd Floor, 17-1/2 Fan Tan Alley, Chinatown, Victoria 250-217-7195 or 250-385-5335 www.jcscott.com www.westcoastecohome.com

Omicron A Better Way to Develop, Design and Build

W

hether you’re looking for a firm to deliver projects from concept through construction, or you just need a single service, you’ll get the benefit of the way they work at Omicron.

Omicron is one of the largest integrated development services, design and construction firms in Western Canada with 175 people merging their expertise out of their Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary offices.

Their focus is on design, construction and development projects for end users of real estate. They also create their own real estate development opportunities through leveraging their development, design and construction expertise.

“Architects walk across the room to ask engineers for input, interior designers review specs with maintenance professionals to see issues from every angle, and with everyone working side-by-side, we learn from each other and move projects forward efficiently and effectively,” says Bill Tucker, CEO. Their delivery method has a number of benefits, including a single source of

“We consider Victoria home and are excited about its future. We have a strong commitment to using all local trades and suppliers, and are thrilled to be working with them on multiple current projects including Eagle Creek Village and Coho Phase 2.”

— Bill Tucker, CEO

responsibility, increased quality, cost savings, time savings, reduced administrative burden, early knowledge of firm costs, risk management and minimized planning time and expense. This is why Omicron holds a unique place in the market. The Omicron Way is how they build success every day for their clients across Retail, Industrial, Institutional, Office, Renewals and Residential sectors.

“The philosophy of our business is to deliver a better experience for clients and for our people,” says Tucker. “We do so by living our Guiding Principles: We work to build trust and pride, to get involved, to be leaders and to find efficiencies. When we do, we make life a little better for our clients and for ourselves. Put simply, we’ve built a better way to succeed.”

Omicron opened their Victoria office in 2009 and is investing in the future of the city’s development by using all local trades and suppliers, and by building and strengthening relationships with clients, home owners and end users of real estate.

240-645 Tyee Road Victoria BC V9A 6X5 250-419-4701 plaughlin@omicronaec.com www.omicronaec.com Douglas 23

In conversation with nick Blasko, atomique productions ■ BY david lennam ■ photo by jeffrey bosdet

Rifflandia the man behind

You wouldn’t know by looking at the most Zen guy in the room but the co-founder of Atomique Productions — the manager of rock stars, and the promoter who makes Victoria famous every summer with Rock The Shores and Rifflandia — has enough going on at any moment to muddle a mere mortal.

N

ick Blasko is sitting back in his trademark uniform of basic black, a coffee in hand, appearing way too relaxed for a guy who just became a dad, manages a band you may have heard of called Tegan and Sara, runs the city’s top production company staging 150 concerts a year, is ready to raise the curtain on the eighth Rifflandia, is the go-to guy for anyone in the city interested in putting on, well, anything, and who carries around two cell phones.

His patience is legend. So is his good guy image.

“He doesn’t buy into most of the bullshit associated with being a good businessman,” says Joey MacDonald, who runs Thinklandia, the talky, cerebral sideshow of Rifflandia. “He’s a good person and that’s why he succeeds. Everyone wants him to succeed and that’s incredibly rare in this business. And he’s unwilling to respond to stress and that’s completely contagious.”

Blasko’s laid-back demeanor — perhaps a beard to disguise a no-nonsense approach to a guts and glory business, a roll-the-dice business, and, if you’re not careful, a riches-to-rags business — catches people off guard. Sometimes it bamboozles them.

I ask MacDonald, “Does he drive you nuts?”

“Yes, because he can. Because he’s good enough at what he does to drive me nuts.

You let him because he’s going to accomplish something incredible.”

Blasko, 40, founded Atomique Productions in 2000 with his childhood pal, Dimitri Demers. The pair started out as teenagers booking punk shows because other people weren’t. They kept at it, stubbornness and tenacity filling in for business acumen.

“We’ve come from a place of not being complacent,” says Demers. “And it might sound cliché, but the most important thing has been remaining committed to do what you set out to do.”

And they do a lot.

How do you manage to do as much as you do?

The key is, I don’t do it. I do a lot and it’s been a challenge for me the past two years trying to work differently and put a ton of trust into the people we hired … and just stop doing as much.

It’s not all hanging out with rock stars in limos, is it?

[Laughs] There’s no glamour. It might look like that to some people, but it’s just a ton of hard work and nerves for this uncertain result [selling concerts and festivals]. On the management side, you expose yourself to that spotlight — and that’s not to say I don’t enjoy it because it’s a total privilege and it’s awesome — but once you’ve been to one of those [rock ‘n’ roll] events you’ve been to all of them.

So what advice do you give wannabe promoters?

Unless you want to get into it for your whole life, don’t.

You want to dabble in it for a year or two? Don’t.

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zine aga as M ugl o /d det Bos rey Jeff

‹‹ He’s a good person and that’s why he succeeds.

Everyone wants him to succeed and that’s incredibly rare in this business. ››

Working with your childhood friend, Dimitri Demers — is that helpful in the biz?

I don’t think our business would’ve made it this far if we didn’t have that strong bond from the beginning. We both have our strengths that just come together. The trust is never questioned.

That’s the key.

Between your two big festivals, Rock the Shores and Rifflandia, and the rest of your concert dates, you’re looking at 75,000 ticket buyers. That’s big business for a company with seven to 10 full-time staff.

Well, our staffing scales up and down with the festival season. In the beginning we made money incrementally doing many small to medium-sized concerts around town. But we wouldn’t be where we are right now if we didn’t get into the festival game. Now, we make our money selling tickets and booze at festivals. And those festivals are just as challenging and difficult as they’ve ever been.

Every year it’s a frightening prospect because we are a small business.

You’ve been described as endlessly patient.

That’s not how rock promoters and managers are played in the movies.

Patience is huge, especially in this business. You have to be a good listener before you’re a good talker. On the concert side of my life, it’s easy to deal with patience issues. It’s pretty well the same thing every time out. It’s funny, but when you manage an artist, impatience is actually what drives an artist’s growth. So you want that. An artist that worries about what’s happening today, that’s the energy that drives growth.

Douglas 25

Victorians who grew up with Atomique and Rifflandia have pride and ownership in the brand. How important has branding been?

There is pride in the brand right now, more than we’ve ever seen. But we’ve had the same company logo since the day we started. The brand is meaningless if you remove the incredible talent we attach to the brand.

do. Most business people run the numbers themselves and know we’re selling thousands of tickets at hundreds of dollars a head. We’re adding to the quality of life here. People make the decision to move here based on these types of things. If we do our job right, we can contribute to the overall viability of the region.

Has Victoria’s small size been help or hindrance to Atomique?

I think we face the same challenges as any sized city. It’s more expensive to operate here. I’m always having to explain to bands why their production costs more here, but at the end of the day you feel you’ve got kind of a moat around your market here, a captive audience.

In 2002, Atomique was one of the first Canadian promoters to sell tickets online. How much of your business is now done over the web?

Over 50 per cent of our tickets sell online and a huge section of that is mobile [devices].

Ever thought of moving to Vancouver?

No. Never. That wouldn’t make sense. So much of this business is generational. You find your audience and stay with them a long time. We understand how it works here and we’d be giving up the quality of life we have here.

What’s been your biggest challenge?

You have to accept that no one gets it right all the time.

You miss the mark. You see the mark. No one has a crystal ball into the market to know how many tickets you’re going to sell at an event. That’s key to what we do.

We’re always taking a chance.

How has the business community accepted a couple of rock and roll promoters?

I think people don’t understand our business. But they see the big amounts of people we can gather and what we can

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Do you have a vision for Rifflandia?

Our goal has been to get it to 25,000 people over four days and have every hotel room in the city sold out. It’s a major economic driver for the region.

How can Atomique compete against Live Nation and AEG who combine to own more than 70 per cent of the concert box office?

We don’t really compete head to head with them as much as people think we do. Our strategy has been to find parts of the market they’re not paying attention to, artists they’re not paying attention to. But we have to stand our ground with artists we’ve worked with for years when Live Nation tries to take them from us.

[Artists] stick with us because we don’t screw it up.

What do concert-goers want these days?

A premium experience like the one we created this year for Rock The Shores. We went all out and got some of the biggest names in rock and offered this really manageable experience where you can see every band.

That’s ultimately where the festival audience is going to go, to more smaller, manageable, curated events.

How much of your business is relationship building?

A ton of it — and these are not relationships that are built quickly, but over many, many years. It took us five years to book bands like The Flaming Lips and Death Cab for Cutie. It was about building up the trust. And there are not only relationships with all your bands, but all over town with all your suppliers.

The business of managing artists, which you’ve done since 2002 with partner Piers Henwood through Amelia Artists (Tegan and Sara, Buck 65) is a different kind of job, right?

It’s a personal relationship working with an artist. You think around their career, looking after literally everything in that career. It’s a lot of responsibility and a demanding relationship.

How much work do you, as a manager, put into the careers of stars like Tegan and Sara? In 13 years, they’ve moved from folkies to superstars.

Originally it was Piers and I managing every last detail. Now we have a full-time staff.

Artists don’t exist on record sales anymore. How has that changed the concert and promotions industry?

Touring is huge unless you’re one of the rare few that can exist on songwriting. Otherwise it’s

This July, Rock the Shores — which draws thousands of festival goers to Colwood — celebrated its fourth year. In the highly competitive space of promoters looking to book bands, Atomique has managed to attract bigger names like 2015’s featured artists, The Black Keys and Jane’s Addiction.

Jane’s Addiction

all merchandise and touring. That’s why you see these artists out there year after year.

You have a new component to Rifflandia this year: BreakOut West and the Western Canadian Music Awards. Does that change the way the festival runs?

Not much. We’ve got more artists playing.

We’re inheriting all of the BreakOut West artists; we’ll add five or six more venues ...

How did you get BreakOut West and the WCMAs? It grew out of the Juno [Awards] bid we put

together [for Victoria] that didn’t go anywhere ...

We said we’ll set our sights on this. So now let’s get this set up and take a run at the Juno’s again.

What do you say to people who might not recognize the bands in the Rifflandia lineup, but still want to participate because it’s the coolest thing in town?

If you like music I guarantee there’ll be something you not only will like, but love.

People have told me coming to our festivals changed the whole way they look at music. ■

Douglas 27

the big idea BY adrienne dyer photos by joshua Lawrence

Goes to Silicon Valley A Victoria tech startup decided to test drive its big idea by temporarily moving its team to Silicon Valley last year. The risk paid off. Sendwithus returned to Victoria with the talent, the funding and the business acumen to start working on their next goal: to grow into Victoria’s largest tech company.

A

t Spacestation, Fort Street’s purpose-built, shared workspace, a company called Sendwithus is moving at rocket speed to realize their very big idea. With founders Brad Van Vugt and Matt Harris at the helm, the Sendwithus team handles over 10 million marketing emails daily for web giants including Donorschoose.org, 8tracks.com and Teespring.com. The rapidly growing company, which also operates a permanent office in San Francisco, provides a direct link between Victoria and the world’s technological hotbed.

Incorporated in 2013, Sendwithus is the first company to optimize business-to-customer transactional emails — automated, personalized emails such as password requests, purchase invoices or welcome emails for new clients who sign up on a website.

As the first B.C. founded company to incubate in the Silicon Valley’s prestigious Y Combinator tech startup accelerator program, Sendwithus emerged from the world’s biggest tech hub last spring with over $2 million in seed funding. Some of their notable investors include Baseline Ventures, Y Combinator, SV Angel; and local investors Rasool Rayani, Andrew Wilkinson and Dave Arnsdorf.

With 24 employees between their two offices, and a growth rate of 30 per cent month over month, Harris and Van Vugt plan to expand as far and fast as the market will take them.

The Big Idea Started with a Big Problem As contract developers building mobile apps for Victoria startups, Van Vugt and Harris stumbled across a very big problem facing companies of

 “Outside

the area, Victoria is still unheard of as a tech hub. We want to change that.”

— Sendwithus co-founder Brad Van Vugt

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and Comes Back Better than Ever

every size: there were currently no tools in place for managing transactional emails. Frustrated by having to build apps over and over, the pair turned to friends at Dropbox and Amazon. They asked: How do you manage marketing emails effectively without having to involve developers and designers every time you want to update content? How do you ensure your email content engages your customers creatively and effectively so that email does what it’s supposed to do: generate revenue?

As it turned out, nobody was managing email well.

“Amazon had a team working on this problem, and

they didn’t want to be working on it,” says Harris.

“None of the companies we talked to were happy with their current system.”

The duo realized that they could build a service that would solve a problem faced by companies of all sizes, all around the world.

 The Sendwithus work culture encourages collaboration, creativity and plenty of fun. The “team of hackers and hustlers” participate in daily 10-minute “standup” meetings — and “heavy metal Fridays.”

Silicon Valley Bound Armed with an untapped market, the support of local angel investors and some big, prospective clients, Harris and Van Vugt’s next move was to hone their business model and build the product. Where was the Douglas 29

Executives, business owners, entrepreneurs: >

What is the most important challenge you are facing?

>

What are you doing about it?

>

Have you considered coaching to assist you with your challenges?

Van Vugt and Harris channel their success back into the ecosystem by mentoring startups and students.

Call me to discuss how coaching may help you with your business or career.

PAUL ABRA

BA, BEd, MEd Certified Executive Coach

motivatedcoaching.ca

250.216.2599

paul@motivatedcoaching.ca

Inspiring and motivating individuals to fulfill their dreams in their businesses, in their careers and in themselves.

$27

= A lifetime of membership benefits That’s all it costs! And it pays to join: your one-time investment of only $27 means rebates for you on all grocery, petroleum, home heating and Cardlock purchases, plus you receive bonuses for referrals.

Not a member-owner yet? Sign up online with our new payment feature and instantly receive your membership number. Last year we gave back $5.7 million to our member-owners.

Mill Bay Gas Centre

How will you spend your cash-back?

best place to do that? The mecca of everything tech: Silicon Valley.

“We both had small networks in the Valley when we started,” says Van Vugt. “We knew Y Combinator was an option, but hadn’t planned on applying or getting in (less than two per cent of applicants are accepted). If we hadn’t been accepted, we’d have continued building the business as planned.”

But they did get in. In January 2014 they rented a house in Sunnyvale and took themselves and their six-person team to California to take part in three intense months of networking and product development, mentored by a YC partner. At the end was Demo Day, where Sendwithus had two and a half minutes to pitch their business to 1,000 top investors; among them celebrities like Ashton Kutcher.

Was it intimidating?

“There was a bit of imposter syndrome at first,” says Harris, who adds that being surrounded by the smartest minds in the tech world was definitely daunting, but also energizing. “YC is an unstructured program; sink or swim is the general idea. We knew it was a big opportunity, and we made the most of it.”

With $2.3 million in seed funding after the YC program, Sendwithus got to work in their San Francisco office and here in Victoria. With “heavy metal Fridays” and daily 10-minute “standup” meetings, Van Vugt and Harris have fostered the kind of team work culture that encourages collaboration, creativity and plenty of fun.

Why Email Still Rules Visit www.peninsulaco-op.com to learn about the many benefits of being a Peninsula Co-op member.

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“Email is the lifeblood of how people communicate with companies,” says Harris, adding that it’s also an important legal record.

Transactional email is worth doing right because it can, and should, generate sales.

The Sendwithus service is packed with builtin analytical tools like A/B testing so that companies can track exactly which emails are opened and whether emails route customers back to the website and generate sales.

Sendwithus also offers easy-to-use templates so clients can update emails whenever they want.

“A core part of our value proposition for larger companies is our knowledge of how email can impact the customer experience,” says Van Vugt, who says everyone on the Sendwithus team is an industry expert in modern email communication.

“When used properly, email should be an extension of your product and can delight your users the same way your website or app does.”

They created resources like the Pirate’s Guide to Email (or How to Send Email Like a Startup) to help industry leaders create effective marketing strategies. Van Vugt notes the team is now sought after to speak at product design and marketing events throughout North America.”

The Way Forward

Gustavson

See things differently.

School of Business

“There’s a big opportunity to grow a large, Canadian company,” says Waterloo graduate Van Vugt, who wants to see Sendwithus expand to 100 to 200 employees, with built-in employee initiatives to ensure the company always has a positive impact on the local environment.

The founders also constantly feed their experience and success back into the tech ecosystem by mentoring new startups and doing educational outreach with computer engineering/science students at UVIC, from which Harris is an alumnus.

Too often, Harris says, computer science classes become stale. “We want to show students what tech looks like in the real world, so that they’ll get excited about their future.”

“Boosting the whole ecosystem together is part of our big idea,” says Van Vugt, who adds that he and Harris are very approachable.

“We’re happy to grab a coffee with anyone who wants to build something new or just bounce ideas off us.”

That kind of pay-it-forward outlook is integral to Silicon Valley culture, where networking is all about sharing ideas and valuable contacts so that each new company has the best chance of success. For Harris and Van Vugt, that includes giving their employees the skills to launch their own companies, too. They see giving back as the best way to create the tech community they want to see in Victoria.

“There hasn’t yet been a big, Victoria breakout company,” says Van Vugt. “Outside the area, Victoria is still unheard of as a tech hub. We want to change that.” ■

Douglas 31

E a rt h Dr. Garry Rogers, earthquake scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada’s Sidney office reviews the seismograph for a magnitude 5.8 event about 100 kilometres northwest of Anchorage, Alaska on June 25.

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quake Will Your Business

Survive?

Experts agree that Vancouver Island can expect a massive earthquake — not if, but when.

Douglas explores what business owners need to do to protect their assets and their people, how to buy the right insurance packages and how to create safety preparedness plans.

by Paul Willcocks

photo by Jeffrey Bosdet Douglas 33

Look, we know you don’t want to think about an earthquake smashing your business.

For most business people, this week’s challenges and opportunities are more pressing than preparing for an earthquake that might not happen in your lifetime.

But take it from Eric Livingstone, managing director of Livingstone Business Consultants. If you don’t have an earthquake disaster plan, you’re missing your best chance to recover from a disaster. And to avoid losing everything you’ve worked so hard to build.

Livingstone knows. He was there on February 22, 2011, when a lunchtime earthquake shattered Christchurch, New Zealand. The quake was devastating — 185 people killed, 45 per cent of buildings in the core destroyed or left too dangerous to enter, water and electrical infrastructure in ruins.

“It was chaotic and frightening,” he says. But as Livingstone started to help companies deal with the earthquake, one thing became clear: businesses with any sort of disaster plan — even a sketchy one — fared much better in the aftermath.

Victoria and preearthquake Christchurch share many similarities, including the number of old unreinforced brick buildings, says Dr. Garry Rogers, earthquake scientist.

But Christchurch is built on liquefiable material, he adds, and that resulted in much of its damage.

“Greater Victoria,” he notes, “has very few potentially liquefiable areas.” It’s important, he stresses, not to assume Victoria would face exactly the same scenario as Christchurch.

“Regardless of the cause of damage,” he adds, “there are many valuable lessons for business to be learned.”

Create your Blueprint for Survival Basic preparation is cheap, easy and makes a huge difference in determining whether your business survives or dies.

So why don’t we do it?

“A low perception of risk,” says Aaron Sutherland of the B.C. branch of the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The threat of an earthquake seems remote.

The economic impact of these two conferences will be sizeable.

Frank Bourree, CEO & Partner, Chemistry Consulting

I heard — we’re also looking forward to our 2015 SARMAC Conference.

The VCC’s hosting our 2016 International Biometric Congress.

Laura Cowen, Professor of Mathematics & Statistics, UVic

Steve Lindsay Acting Chair, Department of Psychology, UVic

I’ll check with the Helicopter Association of Canada.

Troy Macdonald, Director of Sales, Helijet

bring it Let’s

#LetsBringIt

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You can help us bring business to Victoria, too.

Let’s connect!

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But a 2013 study by the bureau estimated a 30-per-cent chance of an earthquake causing significant damage in the next 50 years. That means an earthquake is more than twice as likely as fire in your home or business. We take fire risk seriously, buying insurance and smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. Yet when it comes to earthquakes, we mostly hope for the best.

“There are very few businesses that have actually taken steps to be adequately prepared,” says City of Victoria emergency coordinator Rob Johns.

Part of the problem, says Johns, is owners and managers fear that developing a business continuation plan is complex and costly.

Simplicity is Key It doesn’t need to be. Any effort is better than burying your head in the rubble.

Robert Black of Black Shield Preparedness Solutions in Saanichton stresses simplicity. He recalls presenting a 50-page disaster preparation guide to a meeting of small business owners. “I saw the eyes rolling,” he says.

Black now suggests people start with a two-page worksheet, which identifies the main possible problems post-disaster and sets out responses and responsibilities.

If your supply chain is broken, for example, how long can you last without the materials and what backup plans can you make?

If your building is damaged, what options do you have for relocating? There is likely no bulletproof plan, but it helps to know if someone in the organization has a heated barn or where space might be rented outside the quake zone. (The Christchurch Chamber of Commerce staff of 30 people worked out of CEO Peter Townsend’s home for six months. “It would have been nice to have a better backup plan than my house,” he says.)

What would happen to your customer base if you were closed for a week, or six months?

If you’re a downtown restaurant, and the streets are off-limits, as they were in Christchurch, how long can you go without cash flow? What’s your plan to tell your clients what’s happening, and keep some revenue coming in so you don’t lose key staff?

In Christchurch, Sarah and Martin Aspinwall owned a business importing and selling gourmet cheese. After they saw their store crumble in the quake, they borrowed a van, snuck into their condemned building to salvage some stock and started selling anywhere people gathered. (And they collected email addresses from every client who showed up at the van so they could keep them informed of sale locations and — eventually — their new store.)

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ACT on your plan Don’t overthink the plan, says Johns. “It’s an exercise in asking key questions, writing down Douglas 35

the answers and sharing the plan. Most of this is actually not that hard.” The actual plan can be just a few pages.

Some measures are obvious. Backed up computer files and contact lists are useless if they’re buried in rubble. Storing information in the “cloud,” even with simple solutions like Google Drive and Dropbox, can be critical to keeping the business going. (Just because the measure is obvious, doesn’t mean businesses get around to doing it — even a large accounting firm in Christchurch lost access to its computer files for weeks when its high-rise office was off limits.)

But Livingstone says businesses who had taken that step faced unanticipated snags. Phones were overloaded, power was out and communication near impossible.

Having an ally in another community, armed with the contact information, can make it possible to communicate with customers and suppliers on recovery plans and timelines.

No plan can contemplate all the possibilities.

And the first hours after a significant earthquake would be chaotic and focused on rescues and accounting for missing employees.

But taking basic steps to prepare a plan pays big dividends, in part simply by reducing stress and freeing owners and managers to make better decisions on the first day, says Johns.

Those first, fast decisions are critical.

Everything was in short supply after the earthquake, says Livingstone, and businesses who knew what they needed and acted quickly had a great advantage.

What would happen to your customer base if you were closed for a week, or six months?

SPEED MATTERS “The big thing is to be the first to go and find the best temporary premises,” he says.

(Temporary sometimes meaning several years as the city is rebuilt.) Undamaged space was at a huge premium, and some businesses that moved more slowly simply had nowhere to function. Generators, vans for mobile business, computers — the first movers secured the necessary tools for survival.

And Robert Black notes that speed matters.

“If you’re the first to open your doors, you have a great opportunity.”

Having a plan allows business owners to think strategically, instead of worrying about finding a backup copy of the staff contact list.

Experts talk about “business continuation” strategies, but often what’s needed is total business reinvention. “All your plans for expansion have gone out the window,” says 36 Douglas

Livingstone. Managers need to rethink the business and implement new plans on the fly.

Sussie Morrish, a business professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, has spent the last four years focusing her research on the earthquake’s effects on business, especially the hospitality industry.

Speed and innovation were keys to survival, she says. Coffee shop owners snapped up vans and started serving customers anywhere people gathered. (Sometimes at no charge, building loyalty in a tough time.) Fine restaurants in the abandoned central business district reinvented themselves as daytime diners in temporary locations. Stores reopened in shipping containers. (Shipping containers are among the most useful assets after a disaster; Christchurch even had container “malls.”)

One company Livingstone worked with realized its client base in Christchurch was gone and not coming back anytime soon. Managers had to devise a strategy to reach potential clients in other cities, or the business would fail.

Morrish says businesses who had already staked a place in social media had a big advantage. When you reopen, you need a way to tell your clients where you are and what you have to offer. your network is crucial Which leads to the biggest lesson from Christchurch, one reinforced by experts here.

After an earthquake, relationships — with employees, suppliers, clients, other businesses owners — mean the difference between success and failure.

Employees are shattered, fragile and worried about their homes, their children’s schools and their futures. They need support, and businesses need to have earned loyalty and commitment or staff will flee for safer cities.

Morrish says businesses quickly realized they needed to work together. “There was a lot of competition at that time,” she says, “but after the quake there was ‘co-opetition.’” Businesses would share locations — a coffee shop by day, restaurant in the evening, bar at night, all with different owners. If one business ran out of supplies, a competitor could often be counted on to help. Working together increased the chances of survival, she says.

Townsend says the chamber of commerce championed a cooperative, united approach to business recovery. It was back in business two days after the earthquake and immediately began working with the entire business community, not just members.

“We stole the mandate,” he says. “We declared ourselves as the sole provider of immediate help.” The chamber set up a website to share information and eventually opened 30 business recovery centres.

Most critically, the chamber sounded the

alarm about the need for quick government aid. “The important thing for us was how do you ensure business survival,” he says. “The critical thing was that companies have cash flow.”

The New Zealand government stepped up with a guarantee to cover a share of employee salaries for six weeks on a “high-trust basis.”

Owners simply had to submit a request and the cash started flowing. The revenue promise meant banks were more confident lending or allowing access to lines of credit.

But — and this is a very big but — don’t count on it happening here. Even Townsend

is surprised how quickly New Zealand’s government reacted, with the bailout plan approved in three days.

Black notes that governments are overwhelmed trying to respond to a significant earthquake. “In the short term, their priority is health and safety and saving lives,” he says.

“In a lot of cases, government’s approach to business is that it’s up to you.”

There’s no time like now to ask yourself: “What will my business do?” ■ For earthquake preparedness tips and tools for Island businesses, visit douglasmagazine.com.

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Douglas 37

“I think a leader’s role is to create an environment in which everyone can truly excel… an environment where people feel comfortable with failure.

You want to inspire people to stretch themselves. “ — Eric Jordan, CEO of Codename Entertainment

38 Douglas

by Jody Paterson photo by Simon DesRochers

Do You Have What it Takes to Call Yourself a Leader?

Leadership isn’t just a buzzword for business in the 21st century. It’s the must-have, gotta-get-there gold standard for companies big and small.

The quest to become a good leader now feeds a vast industry of corporate retreats, TED talks, MBA specialties, consultancies and counselling, and keeps a vast number of worried business owners awake at night wondering if they’ve got what it takes.

So what does it take to be able to call yourself a leader — not just in that old-fashioned way that meant you were the boss, but with all the angel chorus and self-actualized glory of the word when describing someone who doesn’t just call the shots, but does it in a way that is inspiring, engaged, merciful and brilliant?

“If leadership were easy, we’d all step into those positions,” says Carolin Rekar Munro, associate professor in the Faculty of Management at Royal Roads University, where she teachers leadership in the MBA program.

“You’re constantly having to look in two directions: outside the organization, doing the environmental scan to come up with something unique and different; and at the same time, thinking about your employees

and how you will keep them as the strongest, most motivated team.”

Victoria business icon Gordy Dodd of Dodd’s Furniture and Mattress views leadership as “basic curiosity, a need to do more than is required.”

Dodd won the Leadership Victoria Rotary Community award last year for his leadership, and believes good deeds done in the public eye inspire others to do the same.

Still, much of the work of a leader takes place where nobody but staff and a few sharp competitors can see.

The proof of it might not even be visible to the world — or you — until everything goes sideways and suddenly all eyes are on the business that’s managing through the chaos.

“You may not know you’re an effective leader until you’re required to step up,” notes Rekar Munro.

But while the final test may come with crisis, the preparation will be years in the making. Read on for advice from some of Greater Victoria’s own brilliant business minds on what true leadership is all about.

Douglas 39

1

Create a Workplace You Want to Be At

“With all the things you’re going to be dealing with, start with making the kind of place that you want to work at,” says Eric Jordan, CEO of video-gaming company Codename Entertainment. “It’s tough creating a company, but one thing you can do is choose the environment you want.”

That environment should be one “in which people can succeed and get things done,” says Deirdre Campbell of Tartan Group, a marketing communications firm. Business leaders also need to make time in their lives for thinking, recommends Jordan. He meditates, but says people can settle on whatever thing allows them space to think.

“Building a business has a pretty direct correlation with coming to work from a really grounded place, with no self-delusions,” he adds. “I recommend people find a thing that helps to remove all the mental clutter.”

2

Know and Share Your Vision

“The number one reason why CEOs fail is a lack of communication skills,” says Campbell.

“I equate communication with really good story-telling abilities — why you’re going in a particular direction, the story that will get your team on board and create a shared vision.”

With a clear, shared vision, staff know where a company is going and feel connected to the journey, says Susan Low, executive director of Leadership Victoria.

“Leadership appeals to a shared vision of success, a shared message to get people to go along with you rather than just using power, “ she adds. “If you know your values and act on them, you will attract people who share those values, and those who don’t fit won’t stay.”

Rekar Munro notes that a clear vision helps businesses not lose sight of what matters.

“The key is to be crystal clear as to what you are in business to do,” she says. “If you pride yourself on sustainability, then every person you hire needs to share that vision. Whenever there’s an opportunity to grow, always ask that question: Is this move aligned with our vision and mission? When we talk about what we’re doing to ground our business, it’s always on mission and vision.”

3

Build a Great Team

Nobody wants to feel “like a cog in the wheel,” says Rekar Munro. “Even if you ultimately can’t keep your business afloat, at least be a decent person to work for.”

Generational differences are more noticeable than ever as the independent, values-driven Generation Z enters the workforce, says Leadership Victoria’s Low. If Gen Zs (born 1981 to 2000) don’t feel the love, they move on quickly.

40 Douglas

Manager vs Leader attitude is the biggest difference between managers and leaders Leaders typically don’t see themselves as fulfilling a role but a vision, and they possess the skills to inspire others to trust that vision.

Drives employee

Coaches employee

Has a short-range view

Has a long-range perspective

Has his/her eye on the bottom line

Has his/her eye on the horizon

Does things right

Does the right thing

Knows how it’s done

Shows how it’s done

Depends on authority

Depends on goodwill

Is the Classic good soldier

is His/her own person

Focuses on structure

Focuses on people

Places blame

Fixes breakdowns

Relies on Control

Inspires trust

“Trust is such an important part of leadership. What is trust for this new world?

The younger generation is questioning a lot more,” says Low. “You want to be delivering what you say you’re going to do, and be transparent.”

Employee engagement is at a 30-year low in Canada, notes Rekar Munro. That should alarm employers.

“At the end of the day, you can have all the organizational vision and strategic vision you want, but you are not going anywhere unless you pay attention to your people,” says Rekar Munro. “If they start leaving, you lose stability.”

Absenteeism is a signal of employee disengagement, but so is ‘presenteeism,’” adds Rekar Munro. “The person is there, but not giving 100 per cent. That is leadership — to bring that person back to engagement.”

4

Share the Power

“When you’re busy, it’s so easy to just say no, I’ll do it myself,” says Campbell. “I’m really trying to be conscious of pushing my staff out to be seen instead. True leaders see the value of collaboration.”

Relinquishing power is admittedly “a bit scary,” acknowledges Low. But in reality, sharing power with your employees strengthens your business. “Business leadership shares information, and trusts people on the team to act in a way that is constructive.”

Delegating authority is “the transition that most of us go through in our own leadership,” says Ian Batey, principle of IPB Consulting

Services and a volunteer coach and mentor with the Chamber of Commerce Prodigy program.

“If you trust your staff, you aren’t looking over their shoulder or questioning their decisions. The key piece in moving from supervisor to strategic leadership is to be able to release that sense of power and authority to the people you supervise.”

5

Take Those Risks

6

Be Involved With Your Community

“You learn a lot from taking risks. But you want all the right tools in the tool box before you do it,” says Frontrunners owner Rob Reid.

“You want to have thought things through.

In retail, we can do anything, but I have an accountant who has saved me.”

Most business leaders will have to take risks sooner or later, says Rekar Munro. So be prepared.

“Build effective teams, learn change management and learn how to take people out of that resistance and fear of change,” she advises. “The character-building aspect of your leadership legacy comes during the hard times.

Embrace those times, because that’s where your skills will be built.”

Vancouver Island is such a popular lifestyle destination that local business owners routinely take risks just to be able to live here, says Deirdre Campbell. “People who love it here have had to be creative to make it work.

Creative leadership breeds innovation.”

Rob Reid was so impressed by the community-building efforts of the Ben and

Jerry’s ice cream franchise in the mid-1990s that he started Runners of Compassion, a nonprofit that now supports a variety of programs that feed hungry people, put shoes on youth, and share the joy of running in developing countries.

“You have to look at your business as the community,” he advises. “If you’re building community, it’s all going to come back to the business.”

Jordan recalls the moment when he first realized that “if I wanted my community to be different, I had to actively participate in it.

When that light went on for me, it was like a touchstone.”

Jordan feels a particular connection to homelessness as a community issue due to his own childhood memories of having to visit food banks, and has now incorporated messages about homelessness and a pay-to-play aspect benefiting the Cool Aid Society directly into one of his company’s video games.

Dodd’s support for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for homeless and impoverished people feeds more than 2,000 people a year. He also organizes social projects in his homeland of India, including a threeday medical visit for women in rural Indian communities and support for the medications or interventions they needed.

“You do something right, and people appreciate you for it,” says Dodd.

7

Share Your Knowledge and Ask Others to Share Theirs

“There are many people in this town who welcome the opportunity to help others be successful,” says Campbell. “I’ve never been turned down when I’ve invited someone for coffee.”

The exchange of ideas among mid-career students in the Royal Roads MBA program is one of the best aspects of the course, says Rekar Munro. “We can learn an awful lot about running our business when we step outside of our own industry.”

Business coach Batey sees his volunteer work as a mentor through the Chamber of Commerce Prodigy program as a “fundamental responsibility” of his generation, and one that gives back by keeping him current on how coming generations think and act.

Far from feeling like a person at war with other businesses in the community, the modern business leader understands that ‘a rising tide floats all boats,’” says Campbell.

She’s an enthusiastic supporter of B Corp certification, a movement out of the U.S. to certify businesses based on standards of social sustainability, environmental performance,

accountability and transparency.

It sums up where the world is going, where leadership is going, says Campbell. “Ultimately, we all have the same goals. Even if you’re a competitor, I want you to succeed.”

And Now You Know So yes, leadership takes work. Happily, changed thinking around ethical business strategy has laid a strong foundation, says Chris MacDonald, director of the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre at Toronto’s Ryerson University.

“I think business in 2015 is more ethical than it has been in history. We’re less sexist, less racist, less homophobic, more environmentally connected,” says MacDonald.

“Fifty years ago, you weren’t even pretending you were environmental, or that your female employees were worth as much as your male ones.”

Rekar Munro adds that leadership is the difference between “knowing the right thing to do and doing it.” And it all comes down to people and relationships.

“You always have the option of treating people good or bad, fairly or unfairly. You want to ‘win’, but win on best product, best service, best price,” advises Rekar Munro. “Explore who you are as a leader, and how to move closer toward the leader you want to be.” ■

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AND MORE. Douglas 41

the big rethink 3D printing is revolutionizing everything from brain surgery to car design.

42 Douglas

In the popular television comedy The Big Bang Theory, two of the characters use a printer to create mini-models of themselves — and a whistle — but 3D printing is fast becoming more than just a novelty.

Douglas takes a look at what’s happening in the world of 3D printing and talks to some of the industry’s pioneers here in Victoria.

by Mike Wicks photo by jeffrey bosdet

Maximum Prototyping printed this model heart, a design downloaded from thingiverse.com, for Douglas. The process took four and a half hours on an Infinity 3D printer from Revolution 3D Printers, another local company.

A

nother name for 3D printing is ‘additive manufacturing’ which speaks to the fact that three-dimensional objects are created by using a variety of methods to lay successive layers of a material down controlled by a computer.

3D printing technology is not actually new. In fact, 3D Systems Corporation commercialized the first Stereolithography (SLA) printer in 1989 and is credited with the invention of the 3D printer. In the last 25 years, there has been a proliferation of new technologies including Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM)and Selective Laser Adhesion(SLA) providing a wide variety of printing processes and materials. The technology, while interesting and complex, is not the most fascinating part of the story however — the key to the industry’s growth is nothing to do with technology, but creative ingenuity.

Technology in Momentum If you can imagine it, you can 3D print it, or at least you will be able to in the not-so-distant future. The current catalogue of 3D-printed items ranges from complete houses to fully functional weapons, clothes, food, a car (everything but the engine and tires) and even a model of your unborn child. 3D printing with a variety There is of metals is in its infancy, but it won’t be long before no doubt, printing jewellery, or sculptures and other objets d’art 3D printing is is commonplace.

The sector embracing, and benefitting, from 3D printing a disruptive the most is probably healthcare. There are 3D printers technology, a printing human tissue here in B.C., at Aspect Biosystems game changer and based at UBC. The company creates living human tissue on demand, which is used to improve the predictive as revolutionary accuracy of the pre-clinical drug discovery process. U.S. and in its own way Australian researchers recently found a way to 3D bio-print as automation capillaries; a massive step forward in the long-term goal of and robotics. being able to 3D print human organs.

Getting a 3D printed kidney, or liver may be 10 to 20 years away, but surgeons are already using the technology in a variety of ways. Tim Walzak, director of Camosun Applied Research and Innovation (CARI) says, “The really interesting thing, from my perspective, on 3D printing is its wide range of applications.” He talks about a young man who was suffering from arteriovenous malformations, basically a tangled mass of veins and arteries in the brain. Using MRI data, Boston Children’s Hospital printed a 3D model of the patient’s brain, along with the blood vessels themselves. Describing it on CBC’s Douglas 43

The National, neurosurgeon Edward Smith said, “It’s like I have x-ray vision.” As a result of being able to see exactly what they were up against, they completed a successful surgery that took two-thirds less time.

Talk to anyone involved in the industry and they’ll have a favourite 3D printing story.

Warren Strome, CEO of Revolution 3D Printers in Sidney, which makes and sells worldclass printers as well as providing a printing service, is excited he could make a 3D replica of the wrench used on the International Space Station.

“I downloaded that [the plans] off the NASA site — they offered it up to see what the 3D printing community thought of it. It actually ratchets; the beauty is this part was printed in one piece. I pulled it off the plate and just had to break it a little bit, move it around and it actually ratchets.”

Strome says printing in space is a gamechanger for NASA; items transported to the space station using containers, straps and other widgets made of a special 3D printing nylon could later be ground up on the space station and then extruded to create new items the

astronauts require. These items would in turn be ground down when no longer needed and the nylon used again. As Strome points out, “It becomes a closed-loop system, which we could do here too.”

In Victoria, John Sherrah, president of International Technology Integration, is spearheading an altruistic project through his company to revolutionize the current production process required to make prosthetics using 3D printing. He uses Strome’s print services to print prototypes.

He has pulled together a specialist team partnering with three prosthetists, representatives from UVic and Camosun, to locally produce better prosthetic limbs by integrating 3D scanning and printing.

Jesse Skulmoski, a consultant working with Sherrah, explains that patients currently get a mould taken of their residual limb, from which a positive is taken, and from that a clear ‘check socket’ is made. This is then placed on the patient’s residual limb and manually adjusted for fit.

3D scanning of the limb offers a far more precise fit, and the resulting data can be

updated regularly as the patient’s limb alters.

“One of the things that will happen as a patient’s limb gets older,” Sherrah adds, “is it changes all the time, so now you have to go through this process of rebuilding this thing manually. With 3D scanning and printing you just take another scan, update it, make changes overnight and all at about half the price.”

3D printing is also being used to make incredibly lifelike cosmetic silicon prostheses shrouds that look and feel like skin.

It’s a 3D Economic Revolution There is no doubt, 3D printing is a disruptive technology, and it’s as revolutionary in its own way as automation and robotics. Walzak certainly thinks so.

“The immediate prospects of 3D printing is that it brings small volume manufacturing to every single community — that’s the exciting part.”

Brian Wesley, chair and CEO of Business Victoria, agrees with Walzak. “3D printing creates the ability for entrepreneurs to start a micro-factory in their community to serve local and global needs. This is a good example of

Victoria Startup Creates Stylish 3D Solution for Prosthetic Wearers

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Alleles Design Studio’s fashion-forward prosthetic leg covers are designed to empower amputees by providing a choice in stylish self-expression.

by Susan Johnston Artificial legs are typically seen as medical devices, but Ryan Palibroda and McCauley Wanner have elevated them to a style statement with removable, 3D-printed covers sporting colors like gunmetal grey and patterns pulled from the pages of fashion magazines.

Palibroda and Wanner met while attending the University of Calgary and moved their fledgling 44 Douglas

company, Alleles Design Studio, to a 1,200-square foot industrial space in Victoria last October.

“We looked at places all over Canada, but Victoria was the most affordable and had the best weather,” Wanner says.

Alleles’s covers are among the first prosthetic products available without a doctor’s prescription.

“How much would it suck if every time you had to go running, you

had to get a prescription from the doctor to buy shoes?” Palibroda points out.

Each cover is made in Victoria and shipped to customers around the world so they can wear it over their prosthetic and snap on a different cover for, say, the gym or a night out.

“A lot of times people are just hiding [their prosthetic] or wearing pants, but we really wanted to

create this culture around fashion and make people feel like they were part of that scene,” Wanner says.

With no marketing budget, Wanner and Palibroda have built a loyal following on Facebook and Instagram, using real people and real products in stylish photo shoots instead of computer renderings. The Toronto Design Exchange named them Emerging Fashion Designers of Canada 2014.

how creative entrepreneurs and new technology can stimulate significant economic growth.”

Make no mistake, 3D printing technology is going to change manufacturing here on Vancouver Island as increasing numbers of entrepreneurs begin to see the potential. It will allow for greater personalization of products and small runs of products. This wasn’t possible in the past, but it’s now becoming quick, easy and cost effective. Almost anyone with a moderate investment will be able to manufacture just about anything.

Getting a 3D printed kidney or liver may be 10 to 20 years away, but surgeons are already using the technology in a variety of ways.

The only immediate barrier is the ability to initially design a product in Computer Aided Design (CAD). However, the Internet has an answer to that: thingiverse.com, hailed as the world’s largest 3D printing community, features more than 100,000 3D models. It is an open platform, where designers share their CAD designs under a Creative Commons License, allowing anyone to use or alter any design.

Prototyping Innovation The most obvious way businesses on southern Vancouver Island can use this technology is in making inexpensive prototypes of just about anything. Instead of tooling and machining using skilled people and expensive machinery, which takes weeks and costs large sums of money, 3D prototyping allows a designer to send a CAD file directly to the printer. In most cases, the part will be ready in a matter of hours. This reduced cost, and quick turnaround means a product can move through several iterations in mere days rather than weeks or months, all at a fraction of the cost.

Strome says 3D printing provides a way for manufacturers to come up with an idea, make a prototype, and put it in front of board members or potential customers so they can assess the look, feel and functionality for a few dollars, instead of using the longer and more costly process of injection moulding.

To illustrate this, he points to a model of a small turbine that he made for a dollar in a matter of hours, alongside a quote from a company in China to supply a prototype of the same item using traditional methods. The cost of producing the machined prototype: $1,100 with a 13-day delivery time.

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Douglas 45

Jordan Mikkers of Maximum Prototyping explains how a small local company used his 3D printing service to make prototypes of a Christmas-tree-shaped remote for Christmas lights. It was called the Treemote. “We made 20 to 30 prototypes on the printer, which took about 60 hours, but that allowed the company to go to trade shows and provide a good visual demonstration of how the product would work … they ended up getting orders at the shows and are now in Canadian Tire, Thrifty Foods and Save-on-Foods. It’s been successful in helping them through the transition phase from idea to working prototype that’s basically production ready.”

“The big revolution is rapid tooling” says, Walzak. “To be able to get quick prototypes and small-volume rapid manufacturing done locally resulting in in-house, quick turnaround time is huge. From a product development cycle, being able to produce prototypes on a quick turnaround basis allows you to do refinement and accelerate the cycle so you are quicker to market.”

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“You’ve heard of the term desktop manufacturing?” Strome asks. “This is the beginnings of that — where anybody now can take their idea, and if they can do CAD design they can take [their design file] and make their product, test it, sell a few, gain some popularity, some following … and then the right person sees them and wants ten thousand!”

“There’s such a wide range of available materials now and high quality machines are producing parts that are nearly, or absolutely indiscernible from things like injection moulded parts,” says Walzak.

Wesley sees a bright future for Canada in this industry, if we step up in time. “There are many examples in history where it is apparent that the application of new technology has the potential to create significant opportunities but we need to act. Our options are to stand on the sidelines and watch, or aggressively create new opportunities and a new future. Other countries and communities are already jumping on the bandwagon. We need to determine how to really take advantage of this new technology, to help create a new economic future for Canada. We need to establish a reputation as one of the countries to look to in terms of expertise [in 3D printing] and support local companies such as Revolution 3D Printers who are in the business of developing world-class 3D printers.”

The final irony is that many of the parts for Strome’s new machines are made by his existing machines. There’s something futuristic — and may be just a tad scary — about 3D printers printing printers. ■

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INTEL

[business intelligence ]

48 Sales and Marketing Are You Getting Personal?

50 Money

Tax Free Savings Accounts: They’re Not Just for the Rich

52 Entrepreneurship Revenue Ready is the New Black

Jeffrey Bosdet/douglas Magazine

A recent Tourism Victoria promotion in San Francisco saw key media presented with custom Converse sneakers from Baggins Shoes. Baggins has printers that allow customers to customize Converse or Vans.

Sales and Marketing by mike wicks

Are You Getting Personal?

As economies go global and the internet competes with Main Street, consumers increasingly demand to be recognized as individuals with unique needs and tastes. That’s why it’s imperative to get personal.

I

n past columns I’ve referred to millennials as the Starbuck’s Generation. What I mean is they have an almost inherent desire to have their world personalized for them. When jobhunting, for instance, it’s important that the job perfectly fits their specific criteria, just like their grande, long shot, extra hot, soy Americano Misto.

Marketing has always been about finding new tools or ways to excite people to buy what we have to sell and personalization is becoming an increasingly important tool. We’re all starting to expect an increased level of personalization with the retail world, whether online or in person.

48 Douglas

Getting Personal Online I’m an avid reader and probably buy 90 per cent of my books online. That never used to be the case. At one time, wandering around bookshops was pure joy, but these days Chapters Indigo online has dialed in to what I like to read. I regularly receive emails from them about books that seem specially selected for me. Because of this, I now buy more books than I used to, almost all online. Do I feel a little guilty about not supporting my local bookstore? Sure, but I’m a busy person and having someone ‘select’ books for me so accurately has won me over.

The thing is, the local bookstore could also do the same if it developed a marketing strategy that personalized its product and service to me.

The ability of online stores to personalize their offerings by monitoring our buying habits and encouraging us to engage with them by telling them our likes and dislikes gives them an edge — a big edge. Personalization is a powerful purchasing motivator, one that both online sellers and directto-consumer sellers would be well advised to consider as an important marketing stratagem.

None of this strays far from the basics of traditional selling. I’ve taught sales and marketing to thousands of small business owners and have always held the most effective way to sell is to only sell to people who want and need what you’re selling. The quicker we match potential buyers to products or services that accurately suit their needs, the quicker we get a sale. In today’s online, social-media-crazy environment, we can nurture leads and prospects by tuning into potential customers’ likes, dislikes, needs and

other important factors quicker than ever before.

Once we have this information, we can tailor what we sell to our customers’ every desire.

Putting a Name to It It’s not difficult to find examples of successful personalization campaigns. Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign was a big hit in 2013/2014. It was such a hit, in fact, that the campaign is back for the summer of 2015. The iconic brand will once again substitute its logo on each of its Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero bottles with over a thousand of Canada’s most popular names. For those who can’t find their names — or enough of a particular name — consumers can customize their own mini-cans during the 100-day, crossCanada Share a Coke Tour.

The idea is that people will share their Coke with people who matter most to them. It was one of the company’s most successful marketing campaigns, with 150 million personalized bottles sold. People warmed to the idea quickly and shared more than their Coke — they also shared stories, selfies and special moments. In terms of social media, the results were astounding: 998 million impressions on Twitter and 235,000 Tweets! Coca-Cola took a global brand and made it personal. That’s a powerful thing and something any company can emulate no matter if it’s a global leader or a corner store.

Personalization Services Book publishing also became more personalized with the advent of print-on-demand. The idea that you could take something you’d written and selfpublish it as a quality bound book, just like those in bookstores, was groundbreaking.

Wibbitz is a company that is capitalizing on the trend for personalization and consumers’ desire to customize their daily experience by offering text-to-video technology that creates videos out of your favourite stories in seconds.

Given the popularity of services like Feedly, which sends you reading material based on your interests, and Flipboard, a service which takes your content and turns it into a magazine, expect to see more services offering personalization.

Prospective buyers will relate to your brand in a more personal way, and at a more emotional level, if you can relate to them one on one. Think about a typical email approach. What works best?

An email with no salutation or one that opens addressed to you personally? You guessed it. The personalized one.

Of course, having software input the name of the recipient in a mass mail-out (beware of the new Canadian anti-spam laws, by the way) is not enough; you have to build a personal relationship with the prospect. I delete several dozen emails a day because they don’t relate to me. I do, however, read the ones I get from dig.com because they are personalized for me; they have stories I am interested in. I also open those emails from my online book supplier because I don’t want to miss the new John Irving novel when it’s announced!

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Emails represent the most successful personalization tactics for over

80%

of retailers surveyed for the report Personalization Comes of Age: 2014 Retail and Consumer Insights commissioned by MyBuys with the e-tailing group.

That’s up from 73% in 2013.

Beyond One Size Fits All So no matter how hard we try to make marketing one-sizefits-all, that approach is simply no longer effective for today’s sophisticated consumer.

Yes, the social media age, along with new technology, is allowing us to market en masse, but building a relationship with individuals in your potential market is vital because you need to learn what they are interested in, on an intimate level. You need to know about their preferences, what makes them tick, what gets them excited and emotionally involved.

Essentially, you are looking for them to buy into your brand.

It’s all about identity — theirs. ■ Mike Wicks is an award-winning author, blogger, ghostwriter and publisher. He is president of Blue Beetle Creative Media.

Money by Steve Bokor

Tax-Free Savings Accounts They’re Not Just for the Rich Why are Canadians so shy about investing in Tax-Free Savings Accounts? Find out why these flexible, low-risk accounts deserve another look.

I

have written two previous articles on Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) for Douglas, but according to the latest statistics, only 48 per cent of eligible Canadians have opened one.

What are you waiting for? TFSAs should form the cornerstone of your financial plan.

In fact, the Canadian government has just increased the annual contribution limit to $10,000 for 2015. For Canadians over the age of 18 who have never opened a TFSA, the accumulated contribution room is now $41,000 or $82,000 per couple. By 2020, that sum rises to $91,000 per individual — or $182,000 per couple. And remember, all income generated inside a TFSA is completely tax free.

A Quick TFSA Refresher In 2009, the Canadian government created the Tax-Free Savings Account — a new kind of investment account for Canadians. As the name implies, the Tax-Free Savings Account is an investment/savings account with initial maximum annual contribution limits of $5,000 per year. In 2013 and 2014 contributions rose to $5,500 per year and that number increased to $10,000 in 2015. The minimum age requirement is 18 and there is no maximum.

In addition, one spouse can give the other spouse cash for investing in a TFSA and not have to worry about attribution rules from Revenue Canada. Investors who open a TFSA can make contributions (cash or securities like stocks, bonds and mutual funds) and withdraw them at any time. All withdrawals will be completely sheltered from taxation. However, if you make a withdrawal, you must wait until the next calendar year before re-contributing. Lastly, like an RRSP, if you name

Potential savings with a tfsa $59,440

50 Douglas

$43,508

Tax Savings of

$15,932

$75,000

$75,000

TFSA

Non-registered Investment Account

Investment Income Contributions

Source: Edward Jones

Top 5 Reasons to Invest in a

TFSA

1 You can put in as little as you like, or as much as $10,000 a year.

your spouse as the beneficiary, all assets inside the plan transfer to the surviving spouse upon death of the owner.

So What’s the Catch?

Well, there are a few rules to which you must adhere:

➊ Do not over-contribute to your

TFSA. Revenue Canada penalizes over-contributions at one per cent per month or 12 per cent per annum, so know your limits.

➋ If investors choose to transfer assets from a taxable investment portfolio, Revenue Canada deems it a disposition for tax purposes.

This will result in either a taxable capital gain or capital loss. Investors are required to report capital gains.

However, Revenue Canada will deny

2

3

All income generated inside a TFSA is tax free.

Contribution room can be carried forward year to year.

a capital loss. This rule mirrors RRSP contribution rules.

➌ Don’t get too successful with

your investing strategies.

Investors who actively trade their investments inside a TFSA may find that Revenue Canada might deem you to be a professional trader carrying on a business and audit your gains with a view to taxing the gains. I have only heard of a few cases of this in my career, but they do happen.

➍ Watch out for fees.

When TFSAs were first introduced, they were offered as a courtesy to investors because the maximum contribution limit was only $5,000.

Charging a fee would negate the tax benefit and investment returns,

4

5

You can Park money for something big down the road.

which in turn would have reduced the appeal by investors. However, now that contribution limits are over $41,000, only the most basic plans offer “no fee” TFSA accounts. The investment industry is dominated by the Big Six banks and, boy, do they like to charge fees. In fairness, I should point out that my firm charges fees as well, so buyer beware.

Buying into the Benefits Again, what are the benefits of a TFSA? Well, if you own financial assets like bonds or GICs, Revenue Canada requires you to pay tax on that income at your highest marginal tax rate. By opening up a TFSA and contributing those assets to the plan, all that income will be free from tax while it is in the plan.

unlike RRSPs, there is no upper age limit for contributions.

In some situations, you might want to move assets out of a TFSA. You should know that you do not need to liquidate the shares for a withdrawal. For example, if you held XYZ Corp in your TFSA and needed them to participate in a warrant offering, or gift them to an adult child, you simply withdraw assets at fair market value (not your original purchase price) and use them as you see fit. There will be no tax consequences from this action and that is the beauty of TFSAs. So What’s the Problem?

So why are some Canadians not opening and using TFSAs? That’s a difficult question, but in my opinion there are three basic reasons.

Number one, they do not have nonregistered investments. Canadians

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Douglas 51

currently carry high personal debt loads and may not have spare cash to invest. Second, I believe a number of Canadians have had less than satisfactory experiences with stocks, bonds and mutual funds and prefer to keep their financial assets locked up in GICs, term deposits and cash.

Third, I think consumers have been hit with too many fees from financial institutions so the idea of creating yet another investment account with a fee has turned them off.

Yes, TFSAs technically provide more benefits to higher-income Canadians. Our tax system penalizes the wealthier segment of the population. Tax sheltering investment income for individuals at a 40 per cent tax bracket is more beneficial than sheltering investment income for individuals at a 20 per cent tax bracket. In this instance, a TFSA may be very beneficial for future tax planning efforts.

TFSAs provide a convenient, effective investment vehicle to earn better rates of return than your typical savings account — and in just a few short years, the contribution limits will enable Canadian families to make meaningful changes to their short, medium and long term investment goals. A word of caution: not all TFSA plans are administered equally. Get a copy of all fees and charges before you make your decision. ■ Steve Bokor, CFA, is a licensed portfolio manager with PI Financial Corp, a member of CIPF.

entrepreneurship by peter Elkins

Revenue Ready is the New Black There’s a great deal of focus these days on investment startups, but sometimes the soundest way to fund a business is the old-fashioned way — get customers.

D

o you believe your startup is ready for outside private equity investment, and now you’re wondering what to do next?

My suggestion — go find a customer.

Although it may seem counterintuitive at first for the 90-plus per cent of startups that are local and/or niche, becoming revenue ready and finding a customer over an investor at this stage will ultimately serve you much better in the end. For the other 10 per cent of startups, especially those working towards intellectual property, this may not be good advice.

So what if you are starting a software as a service (SaaS) company that provides a niche offering? Yes, you could buy assorted snacks and barricade yourselves in a room until you’ve built a better, faster, cheaper mousetrap that you believe will attract swarms of investors once you’ve ‘perfected’ it. But unfortunately, along the way your partners may or may not have left you, your line of credit may or may not have maxed out and your friends and

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family may or may not have begun avoiding you for reasons that may not be clear to you today but probably will be 10 years from now.

Or you could forget about investment for the time being and create a revenue-ready company that is fuelled by what is called “customer cash” — and that’s the best investment you could ever ask for.

So why delay going to the customer when all you have to do is put down the snacks, stop debating abstract ideas, get outside the bunker, start conversations and seek out your first customer?

Trust Yourself Once you get your first customer, there’s no going back. You’ll instantly know you’re onto something, because talking to customers — even for us introverts — becomes fun when someone hands over the cash and then sends you directly and effortlessly to their friends and your next customers.

the Triple Threat startup Team Companies launched by at least three co-founders seem to work best in terms of skills balance and future potential.

Here are the core people you need for the ideal startup team.

THE GLASS

CAN BE HALF EMPTY

OR HALF FULL AS LONG AS THERE’S

WHISKY

An experienced startup builder who manages all aspects of your company’s growth, who eventually becomes your chief executive officer.

Today — in fact, right now — I suggest you consider stopping whatever it is you are building, and go out and talk to people about what you are doing. If that feels overwhelming, then think about working with a local business school to create a capstone project to meet your needs. Or follow a proven methodology such as Value Proposition Design by Strategyzer to simplify complex ideas into quickly readable illustrations to guide you through the process.

The end result? A clear value proposition. Better yet, find an extraverted co-founder to do the selling with you. investor-Ready or Revenue-Ready?

Last week my friend Christine asked me what the difference is between a revenue-ready company and an investor-ready company.

One way of looking at this would be that an investor-ready startup requires outside investment to move forward to pay for talent and customer acquisition. A revenue-ready startup is where no investment is needed because the craftspeople (talent) are already in the startup, so customer acquisition can be organic, and customer discovery is local.

Revenue-ready startups are solely about putting the right people together early on to ensure

A thought leader or an expert in the field to help identify opportunities, and who eventually becomes your evangelist and chief business developer.

A craftsperson who can build products or services that will exceed customers’ expectations, and who eventually becomes your chief technical officer.

the senior leadership team or co-founders have the right skills sets to accelerate the startup to revenue, without outside earlystage investment.

Right now, think about how many people you’ve come across throughout your career who have shown impressive business acumen, deep domain expertise and the proven ability to build exceptional products — and who are willing and able to create startups as serial entrepreneurs. Maybe there’s an opportunity there?

So before you start scheming about your next idea, why not go out and find two co-founders, test your hypothesis collectively by talking to potential customers using a proven methodology and delay looking for investment dollars until you have regional customers.

If you put the right team together, you might never need outside investment and you’ll look back later and be thankful you didn’t waste your efforts (and sell off chunks of your company’s equity) trying.

The truth is, locally focused early-stage private investors will find you when the time is right, so no need to rush anything. ■ Peter Elkins is co-founder of the Capital Investment Network and Kick Accelerator. He is passionate about driving Vancouver Island’s entrepreneurial economy.

Start Right for Startups How do you create products or services customers actually want? That’s the question most startups ask. Discovering the answer is something that Strategyzer, the company behind the Business Model Generation app, promises to do with their latest book offering Value Proposition Design.

With its stunning visual format, Value Proposition Design promises to help you understand the patterns of great value propositions, how to get closer to customers and avoid wasting time with ideas that won’t work.

Value Proposition Design and its online companion are for anyone who has been frustrated by endless brainstorms, hunches, product or service launches that didn’t go anywhere. Visit strategyzer.com

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Douglas 53

Last Page by athena Mckenzie

Red Arrow Tapping Into Craft Beer Culture

For many, an integral part of a brewery visit is the growler fill. In their first two months of business, Red Arrow sold 800 of the glass jugs.

Recognizing the need for local producers in the Cowichan Valley, the team behind Red Arrow Brewing Company is looking to share their passion for craft beer.

HOMAGE TO LOCAtion Part of the appeal of visiting Red Arrow is their location in the old Arrow Custom Motorcycle Shop.

“A lot of what we’ve done with the branding is a nod to the history of the building,” Ball says.

Another inspiration is the Cowichan Valley, and an upcoming beer — the Heritage River Hefeweizen — is an homage to the Cowichan River.

Under master brewer Chris Grees, who brings his expertise from the Craig Street Brew Pub, Red Arrow plans to focus on three core beers with different seasonal offerings.

“Duncan has a great population of people who support natural foods, wineries and agriculture, so a craft brewery seemed like a perfect fit,” Ball says.

54 Douglas

Jeffrey Bosdet/douglas Magazine

There’s no doubt we’re entering a new era in beer — one being defined by craft brewers. In British Columbia alone, sales of craft beer have doubled in just the past four years and, according to the BC Craft Brewers Guild, they continue to show impressive growth with new breweries opening across the province.

“If you go back 20 years, most beer was brewed by big corporations and you bought it in a can and never really saw anything about the company,” says Adam Ball, marketing manager at the new Red Arrow Brewing Company, which opened in Duncan this June.“ Now, people are going into where the beer is brewed and often meeting or talking to the brewmaster or people who are passionately involved with that brewery. They want that personal touch of where it’s made and who is making it.”

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