Overall economic growth is anemic, corporations lack pricing power and personal debt levels are simply too high.

Europe, with its inflexible economic structures and inordinate labour demands, is facing recession. Japan is only beginning to show a faint pulse. China, the cheap provider of everything, continues to undercut production prices on a global basis.

U.S. trade account and fiscal deficits are also issues.

As Dickens so wisely put it: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …"

To counter some of the above, we should also examine the potential solutions now in place.

First, monetary policy is one of extreme ease. Interest rates are at fifty-year lows and credit is readily available.

Second, on the fiscal side of things, tax-cuts on income, dividends and capital gains in the U.S. will begin to show up through the summer. This provides a further spur for the economy.

Energy prices are easing. This is like an instant tax cut for consumers. It is our view that oil prices will gravitate to the $20 - $25 per barrel range over the rest of this year.

One should not ignore the significantly positive influence of a declining U.S. dollar on the current account trade deficit ($45 billion per month) and the overall economy.

China is indicating that it is prepared to have its currency revalued upwards. This could help hard-pressed manufacturers in America.

Adding to the significant positives noted above is the fact that most North American corporations have become very lean and efficient. This means that any real economic strength could have an explosive effect on corporate earnings.

In looking at the above balance sheet of positives and negatives, our overall forecast is positive. We have yet to see the true impact of measures now underway, but historically they have succeeded. We believe that will be the case this time around.

Tom Caldwell, Chairman, Caldwell Securities Ltd. (416-862-7755)

Director of Finance, B. Comm., CMA

This individual stands out as someone who gets results. In his most recent role as Director of Finance for a retailer/wholesaler with franchises, he transformed the Canadian finance and accounting group in a period of three years, from a recognized poor performer into the benchmark finance group for the company's worldwide operations (the company operates in 50 countries around the world). He has outstanding interpersonal attributes and is looking to join an organization that is facing some challenges.

If you are interested in this "hot candidate" please contact:
Ken Stouffer, CPC, Senior Consultant - Ken.Stouffer@fulcrumsearchscience.com

Seasoned Senior Executive

A highly effective seasoned executive with extensive experience leading complex organizations in Canada and internationally. A designated CA, he has held positions of CEO, CFO and President of $100 million to $2.6 billion dollar companies in both retail and service industries. Has proven success in growing profitable businesses and creating and leading exceptional teams to embrace change and deliver outstanding service and results. Accomplished at corporate strategy, operational and financial management.

If you are interested in this "hot candidate" please contact:
Tracy Shott, Consultant - Tracy.Shott@fulcrumsearchscience.com

Director of Finance

This outstanding CA has a strong background in planning, forecasting, and budgeting. He applies his Economics Degree to the decision making process. He has very strong interpersonal skills - outgoing, energetic and enthusiastic.

He is someone who through hard work can get to decisions in a very short time frame. Outstanding Director of Finance potential!

If you are interested in this "hot candidate" please contact:
John Maybury, Senior Consultant - John.Maybury@fulcrumsearchscience.com

Distribution Systems Manager

A very dynamic, energetic person has trained and implemented both SAP and MFG Pro Systems for major CPG companies across Ontario. Excellent diverse background in logistics but specialized in distribution, warehousing and operations planning. A key accomplishment includes successfully consolidating 12 warehouses into 6 warehouses. Highly involved in project implementation of a new RF Eagle's system. Degreed in Business Administration and a CITT.

If you are interested in this "hot candidate" please contact:
Silvio Rossi, CPC, Senior Consultant - Silvio.Rossi@fulcrumsearchscience.com

FEATURE ARTICLE
by John Sutherland, Consultant

From Idea to Market in 60 days
Lessons from companies that make innovation a way of life

Introduction

Organizations today understand the need to constantly re-invent themselves. It's everywhere.

• Loblaws, a grocery retailer, is now a successful banker with over a million customers in less than 5 years.
• Dell, not known 10 years ago, is now the leading PC manufacturer.
• Shell is the leading producer of non-oil based renewable energy. They are piloting a web-based laundry service in Florida. Shell? Yup.
• Cemex, a Mexican cement company, rose from being a niche player in Mexico to become the third largest cement producer in the world by fundamentally altering how cement was delivered in the marketplace (delivery went from days to 20 minutes).

There is hardly an industry today that is not characterized by a proliferation of competitors and near competitors. And with this increased competition comes an increased need to innovate, to stay ahead of the pack. Most executives now realize that without a strong capacity to envision and create new offerings they will:

• expose themselves to too much risk in an ever increasing competitive environment
• miss out on the many opportunities for growth that are available in our global economy.

The questions are simple, "How does an organization learn to innovate? How does it increase its capacity?" To answer these questions we first need to look at how the strategy of innovation has evolved over time.

Evolution of Innovation

Over the last 40 years the pervasiveness and frequency with which companies innovate has steadily grown. What used to be a one shot activity, often entrepreneurial, has evolved to the state where some companies have made innovation a cultural norm (where virtually everyone in the organization has the responsibility to innovate.)

Logically this only makes sense. As the need to innovate grows, spurred on by increased opportunity and increased competition it is only natural that companies respond by applying more resources (people and time).

"That's all well and good you say. More people spending more time in dreaming up new ideas to grow the business. In the meantime who runs the business?"

Therein lies the innovation paradox.

On the one hand constantly rising customer expectations coupled with increased competition means you need to spend more time focused on the existing business to protect your base. On the other hand, when a company doesn't devote sufficient resources to innovating it can easily fall victim to competition and/or leave enormous opportunities on the table. So how do the companies who have achieved innovation as a cultural norm embrace this paradox?

Innovation Insights

When you look at the leading innovative companies you see some trends emerging.

Insight 1 - Manage Innovation as a Process

Shell with their "GameChanger" program, 3M, the Virgin Companies and others recognize that innovation does not need to only happen as a Eureka phenomenon. They've discovered that you can systemize the whole process of dreaming up new ideas and developing them into businesses. This process view enables them to increase the number of people who are involved. You find they use reward and recognition, performance reviews, etc. to create significant incentives for their bright and energetic employees to bring ideas forward.

Insight 2 - Employ a Flexible Business Definition

Shell is not just an oil company, they are in the energy business. Loblaws provides for everyday needs. 3M is all about flat surfaces. By employing a flexible business definition these companies provide a wide platform for their employees to innovate that transcends industry constraints and orthodoxies, while keeping them true to their core purpose. This capacity is a critical component to generating those (seemingly) unorthodox ideas that have the potential for big wins. While at the time it seemed unorthodox when Dell sold PCs direct, it doesn't seem unorthodox now. That's the fascinating part about innovation. Before an idea hits the marketplace it seems crazy, wacky, absurd. After it succeeds these same ideas seem obvious.

Insight 3 - Fail Early and Fail Often

Many organizations spend considerable time planning and then go on to invest more time and resources in running pilots. Or even worse, go straight to business. (Remember convergence?) By comparison, leading innovators substantially reduce their risk by moving quickly and running low cost experiments to weed out unviable concepts before they become over-invested in time and psychic capital.

Insight 4 - Establish an internal marketplace for ideas

By establishing an internal marketplace, complete with buyers and sellers, they formalize a set of rules for the criteria used to evaluate potential new business ideas. With rigourous criteria and standards they ensure that only those sellers (employees) who are passionate about their ideas will invest the time needed to bring them to the marketplace. Secondly, it places in the hands of those in authority (the buyers) the control of how resources (time and $) are allocated against the competing ideas brought to the marketplace. Through its rigour this formalized marketplace reduces risk substantially, with the added benefit of greatly increasing the probability of success. It's all based on an agreed upon set of criteria at each stage of the process. (Which in the early going has nothing to do with 5 year cash flow projections.)

Insight 5 - Manage Innovation as a Portfolio

These companies recognize that it is impossible to accurately predict early on which ideas will soar and which will fail. So they apply rigourous and ever increasing criteria throughout the process of bringing an idea to market to separate out the winners from the also-rans. They compensate by managing a portfolio of ideas. In addition, they move at light speed. Ideas are frequently tested within 60 days. Pilots within 6-9 months. The attitude is simple. Adopt a venture capitalist approach. Learn and learn fast.

Insight 6 - Executives are Committed

Probably the most important is the degree of commitment at senior levels to innovation. Compensation, reward and recognition, measures and metrics, and management processes have all been modified to make them innovation friendly. Only when senior executives are appropriately compensated do they make the resource allocation trade-offs needed to bring ideas to market. These companies walk the talk.

Summary

Globalization, consumer choice, ever increasing competition are all facts of life. Leading companies are responding to these challenges by significantly increasing their capacity to innovate. They recognize that there are more opportunities, and more threats, than ever before and that the best solution to ensure their prosperity is the creative tension caused by establishing innovation as a way of life.

John Sutherland is an innovation consultant with over 15 years experience in developing new businesses and consulting with companies on how create new markets for their firm. John has facilitated market creation/differentiation workshops for Senior Management in grocery/retail, furniture, manufacturing, telecommunications, publishing, financial services, travel, office-equipment, property management, health care, IT, energy, and pharmaceuticals industries. He can be reached at 905.294.3334 or john@ennova.ca.

Canadian Business Faces Countdown to Privacy Law Compliance

With only a few provinces preparing to enact their own private-sector privacy protection laws before the New Year’s Day 2004 deadline, many Canadian companies outside Québec now have just months to address the complex task of complying with the existing federal law. Here are some suggestions on how to start.

Before this time next year, almost every organization in Canada will have to comply with either federal or provincial legislation protecting the privacy of personal information. The first question is which legislation? The second question is how?

With the Ontario government preoccupied by an election call for at least the first part of this year, it is unlikely that the province’s draft privacy legislation covering the private and healthcare sectors will be introduced in time to become law by January 1, 2004.

This means that Canada’s federal privacy legislation, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), will automatically take effect in Ontario on New Year’s Day next year. It will also become law in the majority of other provinces, which have made no move to date to enact legislation "substantially similar" to PIPEDA, as stipulated by the federal law.

As a result, private sector organizations in every province excluding Québec (which has had legislation covering the private sector since 1994) now have only about nine months to comply with PIPEDA with respect to their customers unless their provincial government enacts privacy legislation in the meantime. While it is likely Ontario will not make the January 2004 deadline, British Columbia and Alberta have indicated they are continuing to draft privacy legislation for implementation in 2004.

PIPEDA will not apply to businesses in relation to their employees unless they are federally-regulated entities (banks, transportation and telecommunication and broadcasting companies). With the prospect of provincial privacy legislation applying to employee information however, many organizations are implementing privacy compliance now in relation to both customers and employees.

Nine months isn’t a great deal of time to ensure compliance. In our work with leading Canadian organizations, we’ve found the following steps essential to ensure they’re in conformance with the Canadian Standards Association’s Model Code on the Protection of Personal Information, which is included as an appendix or "schedule" to PIPEDA.

Step 1: Appoint a compliance team.
The CSA Code’s first principle is accountability, which requires the designation of people who are accountable for compliance. The team should include marketing, human resources and legal representatives.

Step 2: Assess existing privacy policies.
This involves determining what your organization currently says about its privacy policies (e.g., on your Website) and ensuring these existing policies are in compliance with the CSA Model Code and PIPEDA. Any conflicting or misleading statements should be removed.

Step 3: Adopt a privacy code or policy.
You can adapt the CSA’s Model Code to meet your organization’s needs. Your industry association may have already developed a Privacy Code for use by its member organizations. Bear in mind that your privacy code/policy becomes your organization’s public statement about its privacy standards. Use your code to develop a privacy compliance plan.

Step 4: Conduct a personal information practices audit.
This is a demanding process, requiring you to identify, for example, what personal information is collected about employees and customers, how it is used, how long it’s kept and to whom it’s disclosed.

Step 5: Assess purposes for use and disclosure.
Section 5 of PIPEDA requires that organizations use personal information only for purposes that "a reasonable person" would consider appropriate in the circumstances. Note that recent rulings by the federal Privacy Commissioner have narrowed this definition of reasonable use.

Step 6: Assess existing information on file.
Remember that individuals will have the right to access their personal information so it’s important to take steps to ensure that information is accurate and (subject to the requirement to keep information used to make a decision about an individual) to remove unnecessary or irrelevant information.

Step 7: Identify when, where and what kind of consents are required.
This task involves identifying every process where personal information is collected about either customers or employees and where it is used. Then, vehicles for getting consent must be designed, bearing in mind the sensitivity of the personal information being collected and the form of consent required (e.g., express consent, opt-out or implied consent). Also assess whether each consent needs to describe things such as ongoing use of existing information, how long the information will be kept, indicate how consent can be withdrawn and so on.

Step 8: Assess collateral collection and uses of personal information.
If your organization wants to collect information on, say, age or telephone numbers for marketing purposes or wishes to verify customers’ identities by checking addresses or birthdates, ensure these uses are reasonable and strictly necessary to achieve the purpose. You also need to make consent for these uses optional. (CSA Model Code Principle 3.3 prohibits requiring individuals to consent to collateral collection, use or disclosure of their personal information in order to obtain goods or services.)

Step 9: Implement organizational protocols.
Formulate and communicate policies and procedures to govern ongoing accountability, requirements and approvals for all information collection, use or disclosure as well as for recording consents, security of customer and employee data, and other factors.

Step 10: Plan for regular compliance audits.
Compliance with policies and procedures can become sloppy a year after the initial implementation. Determine how your organization can ensure its practices are up to par on a regular basis.

Copyright permission granted by Patricia Wilson, The Osler Outlook, 3/24/2003.

Patricia Wilson is a partner in the Litigation Group in Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP's Ottawa office, practising in the area of public and administrative law. She has been a partner since 1990. Pat has appeared before federal administrative tribunals, the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada and has advised and represented many clients in regulatory matters involving federal and provincial levels of government in Canada.

Pat has extensive litigation and advisory experience in the access to information and privacy area, and has advised and represented corporations, government institutions and the Information Commissioner of Canada in numerous matters and proceedings under the federal and Ontario access to information and privacy legislation. She has extensive experience advising technology companies, retailers, e-commerce businesses and financial services clients on privacy codes and on compliance with Canadian privacy laws applicable to the private sector.
She can be reached by email pwilson@osler.com or by phone: (613) 787-1009 Fax. (613) 235-2867, www.osler.com

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