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ECONOMIC REVIEW & FORECAST April
2004 |
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All the present overall economic data support a degree of optimism. The economy is strong and growing. Profits are building and capital spending has picked up to join buoyant consumer buying. Interest rates remain at 46-year lows, liquidity is high and fiscal stimulus, significant. A major economic concern remains the sluggishness of job creation in America. This has been grasped as an election issue, so we can expect upcoming job creation numbers to have a significant political and market impact. The good news for America is that the corporate world is now regaining a degree of pricing power. This ability to pass on costs, when coupled with strong product demand, should result in a pick-up in domestic employment over the next few months. Nothing will help financial markets more than better employment reports. Our optimistic view of overall stock prices, based upon a strong economy, still holds. Our interest rate view anticipates a pick-up in rates toward the latter part of this year.
Tom
Caldwell, Chairman, Caldwell Securities Ltd. (416-862-7755) |
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MANAGEMENT
MINUTE by Cy Charney, President, Charney & Associates Inc. |
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Career Planning
"Know thyself" Career Planning is about improving your current job or seeking the next one. It is about a work and life balance - life management. It is about relationships with your boss and your colleagues. Here is how you can enhance your career. 1.
Stay informed about new and current trends
2. Attend seminars, workshops, conferences, and trade shows. 3. Promote new ideas, so you won't be seen as someone who is afraid of change. 4. Be open to change and eager to try new ideas. Ask to sit on committees dealing with new technologies. 5. Update your resume frequently, highlighting your successes and major achievements. Be sure to include projects that added measurable value to your department or organization. Don't be afraid to blow your own horn. 6. Take every training course you can manage - they all have something new to offer. Include them on your resume, and make sure your boss is aware of your professional - development activities and their worth to the company. 7. Add to your network of business associates. Stay in touch and make them aware of your present activities and future career plans. 8. Make contact with people who know where the employment opportunities are, both inside and outside your organization. Add professional recruiters to your network. 9.
Determine your monetary value in the marketplace. If you
find you are not being paid enough, you will be motivated
to try for a raise or a position with another firm. Three
factors decide your worth:
10. Evaluate your strengths. What are you especially good at? Find out if key people agree with your analysis. 11.
Focus on skills you have, or might acquire, that are unique
in the organization. Fluency in foreign languages or knowledge
of particular computer applications are possible examples.
Cy
Charney, President of Charney & Associates. (905-886-5606,
www.askcharney.com), is
a leading Canadian management consultant focusing on organizational
performance improvement. The above is an excerpt from his book,
The Portable Mentor, published by Stoddart.
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STAR CANDIDATES |
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FINANCE
& ACCOUNTING
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Controller, CGA This
individual is controller for a business unit of a major multi-national
packaged goods company with sales in excess of $350 million per
year. Since joining this operation he has played a key role in doubling
the profit of the business. A major contribution was his introduction
of planning from the SKU level instead of from the category level.
This approach exposed many unprofitable SKUs which were then eliminated.
In addition to his exceptionally sharp technical skills he has outstanding
interpersonal attributes. If
you are interested in this "star candidate" please contact: Plant
Controller, MBA, CGA An
outstanding Manufacturing Accounting individual looking for an opportunity
as Controller/Assistant Controller depending on the size of the
organization. If
you are interested in this "star candidate" please contact: |
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SALES
& MARKETING
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Marketing
Director, B2B
If
you are interested in this "star candidate" please contact:
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TECHNICAL
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Manager of Service Delivery and Logistics
If
you are interested in this "star candidate" please contact:
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FEATURE ARTICLE by Christopher Whittier |
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Online
Meetings Increase
Market Reach for Business Executives  Tools for the Trade For
executives wishing to expand their businesses opportunities, Rather than hiring expensive rooms and amenities for seminars, instead of paying thousands of dollars in travel expenses to meet a few prospects, executives are turning to the personal computer and the Internet. They hold online meetings around the world to make initial presentations, to single out or qualify real potential customers, to provide informational seminars (sometimes called "Webinars") to many prospects at once. They do all this at a fraction of the cost of face-to-face meetings - from the comfort of the executives' PC. At its simplest, an executive takes any program or file running on his or her PC and shares it with one person or many around the world. Meeting participants hear the executives through a conference call, and see the presentation as it is made, on their PCs. It is as if they were all in the same room, watching the PC presentation. Many online meeting systems employ Web-based Video Conferencing in order to enhance the meeting. Initial online meetings permit the executives to later travel to the prospects' location with the confidence that prospects were properly qualified in advance. Alternatively, executives may first meet with prospects face-to-face and then arrange online meetings to maintain relationships. Many businesses have been able to generate significant revenue solely through the use of online meetings. The primary benefits of online meetings for executives include the following: 1.
Levelling the Playing Field Between Large and Small Firms 2.
Reduce Travel and Marketing Costs 3.
Ease of Meeting at a Moment's Notice 4.
Enhance Internal Office Productivity 5.
Increase Cash flow by Reducing Sales Cycles and the Cost of Sale 6.
Maintain a Well Informed Distributor, Agent, Clients and Prospect
Base 7.
Increase Market Reach without the Need for Additional Brick and
Mortar Offices
8.
Enhance Response Time with Existing and Potential Clients What to Look for in an Online Meeting System An organization will make the best use of online meeting tools when they shape them to fit their unique corporate culture. The learning curve for the actual technology is very small: an executive can learn the basic usage of the system in fewer than 10 minutes. The key is to tailor the solution, the form and content of the online meeting, in the way that best complements the firm's business model. The technology used for online meetings should be measured on key criteria that includes:
How to Measure Return on Investment With the proper online meeting technology and strategies deployed, the return on investment should appear within the first month of usage. Consider a subscription cost of $500 USD per month. If the system saves at least three members of an organization from making one business trip each month (the average cost of a trip being $1500 between flight, hotel, lodgings etc.), it has saved the firm $54,000 USD in a year for an outlay of only $6,000 USD. Increases to sales revenue, new market reach, and internal productivity are additional bonuses from the system. Why Online Meetings? Why Now? Executives that acquire online meetings systems within the next 18 months will have an advantage over competitors as well as first access to the revenue and productivity gains available from this Internet based medium of communication. In the next two years, like e-mail, online meetings will be a corporate necessity. Christopher Whittier is a manager of Corporate Solutions for Results International, a management consulting firm with head offices in Markam, Ontario Canada that provides comprehensive online meeting tools and deployment strategies for the business community. He
can be reached at 416-918-1263 or at: Christopher@myonlinemeetings.com
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LEGAL
CORNER by Ken Krupat |
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Sloppy Dismissal May Not Be Bad Faith Domonic Gismondi worked for the City of Toronto for 20 years. Then came amalgamation. The City would be cutting back on the number of managers. Under the new rules, job competitions would be held for all of the managerial jobs. For Gismondi, this meant having to apply to keep a job with his long time employer. He was quite upset by this process but tried to make the best of it. The City interviewed Gismondi for three different jobs but decided not to offer him any of them. Instead, after 20 years, he was downsized. Gismondi was offered a severance package of 80 weeks pay. He refused the offer and sued, claiming that he had been treated unfairly. Since the 1997 landmark decision of the Supreme Court in Wallace v. United Grain Growers, dismissed employees across Canada have been awarded increased severance packages for "bad faith" treatment. Grismondi argued that his case met this standard and an Ontario Superior Court agreed. In February, 2002, Grismondi was awarded more than two years' pay, almost nine months more than the City's original offer. Justice Gans held that the City harmed Gismondi by treating him "differently" from other candidates and by trying to be "diplomatic." The City appealed and the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision on April 29, 2003. The decision was bad news for Gismondi, whose severance package was reduced back down to the eighty weeks that the City had originally offered. The Court of Appeal ruled that there was no reason why Gismondi should get more than eighty week's pay. Even though the City had been "sloppy" and had not properly followed its own procedure, this was not enough to convince the Court of Appeal to give Gismondi an extended notice period. There was no evidence of intent, malice or blatant disregard for Gismondi that is required in a bad faith case. In its decision, the Court of Appeal set out a shopping list of conduct that can really land an employer in hot water. Here are some examples:
All of these acts can cause humiliation, embarrassment and damage to the self- esteem of a dismissed employee. The appellate Court confirmed that employees should be compensated for these misdeeds even if the employer's conduct did not affect their ability to find other work. The City had not done anything like this to Gismondi. For most dismissed employees, the Gismondi decision is not really bad news. It reinforces the importance of treating employees fairly and honestly at the time of dismissal. Employers should provide a reference letter and a reasonable severance package in most cases. They should only allege just cause if they have a really strong case of misconduct and they should deal with dismissed employees fairly during the litigation process. This means that the severance package offered should take into account the person's age, length of service, position, level of responsibility and expected difficulty faced in trying to find other similar work. An employer that designs a severance package with these factors in mind is not usually going to face an accusation of bad faith. If employers do not meet these standards at the time of firing, dismissed employees can sue for an extended notice period. Extended damages have been awarded by courts across Canada for bad faith conduct. In one case an employee received extended damages when the employer falsely alleged forgery. In another case, the company refused to provide a Record of Employment and held back on commissions owing. Extended damages were also ordered when an employee was purposely fired just before his wedding. He was asked to accept a lowball offer and told that could not work elsewhere while receiving the payments. None of this means that the average downsized employee is likely to get a better package these days, although there has been an upward trend since the Wallace decision was released in 1997. But employers are certainly more likely to exercise caution when letting staff go. If the employee has really been involved in serious misconduct, a just cause defence can still work, even though it is usually an uphill battle for employers to win. Otherwise, the Wallace decision can still be used by good counsel to get mistreated employees better settlements. Ken Krupat practices employment law in Toronto. He represents employees and employers in a wide range of workplace issues. Email him at: kkrupat@joblaw.ca Reprinted
by permission. (c) Kenneth Krupat, Barrister; www.joblaw.ca
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Cathy
Cheng |
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For More Information Visit - www.fulcrumsearchscience.com Thank
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