With the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games ongoing in Vancouver, it was timely that I came across this tremendous talk on defining ‘disabled’ by Aimee Mullins, an American athlete, actress and model, who happens to have had both her lower legs amputated as a child.
This is a pretty inspiring 20 minutes!…
The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association hosted one of the most admired leaders in the modern business world at Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel yesterday. Howard Schultz is Chairman, President and CEO of Starbucks, one of the most successful brands in recent memory, and one of the strongest business success stories of the 20th century.
In a brief but illuminating address, Schultz talked about his roots “growing up on the wrong side of the tracks” in the projects of Brooklyn. He also talked about the heartbreak of seeing his father’s despair after he was injured on the job, and could no long support his family.
Amazing, isn’t it, how great leaders seem to endure adversity before achieving the loftiest of goals?
And lofty, indeed, were Schultz’s goals: He spoke of a time when Starbucks had only 12 stores, but a vision of a world-renowned brand. Today, more than 30 years into the Starbucks story, the company operates more than 17,000 locations in more than 150 countries. And they employ over 180,000 people.
Most memorable from among Schultz’s comments, though, were his discussion of the challenges he and his leadership team have faced during the past year: Starbucks is renowned for treating its employees better than most retail brands can manage. Their extended medical plan is exceptional for a company in their industry—especially in light of its annual $300M cost. The economic downturn of 2009 presented an opportunity to reduce this expenditure, but Schultz would have noting of it:
“To cut back on our commitments to our people would be to tear the very soul out of our company.”
Victoria, British Columbia’s Inn at Laurel Point is the first BC hotel to go carbon neutral.
This is the latest in a long line of sustainability initiatives for the Inn: When a landmark Arthur Erickson-designed extension to the Inn was built 20 years ago, it included a seawater thermal heat and cooling exchange. This was “long before people were thinking about that sort of stuff,” notes the Inn’s General Manager, Ian Powell.
Other initiatives include paperless check-in, room keys made of recycled paper and printed with vegetable-dye inks, an organic herb and veggie garden, reducing waste and increasing recycling, bike racks, optional linen changes for guests and cutting back on use of lights when not needed.
The latest initiative, which the Inn is undertaking in partnership with Vancouver’s Offsetters, will initially support a general portfolio of carbon-offset projects. In the longer term, the Inn hopes to find a Vancouver Island project to support.
The Inn at Laurel Point is both a client and a service-provider to Octopus Strategies. We worked with the Inn’s executive and management team in 2008, helping to develop their ‘Stay Different…’ brand and marketing strategy. We have also hosted executive retreats there for other clients, and wholeheartedly recommend the hotel for its warmth, beauty, and exceptional service standards.
Congratulations to the Inn at Laurel Point from all of us at Octopus on being BC’s first carbon neutral hotel!
The Social Entrepreneurship Experience, a student-run conference under the Enterprize Canada umbrella, took place November 21 at the Museum of Vancouver. The organizers’ goals were to “tackle the question of what social entrepreneurship really is and how local businesses are radically changing Vancouver and communities abroad.”
I put it a slightly different way: “Traditional business is a flightless baboon,” I said. (It’s a long story!) “I’m interested in the evolutionary next step.” And I believe it’s social enterprise.
The nature of ‘social entrepreneurship’ is as diverse as the individuals who adopt the moniker. Each of us can choose how we’ll build our organizations, but what we all hold in common is a purpose beyond profit, and an open, collaborative approach to resolving issues of sustainability. Yet it is the diversity that makes this burgeoning sector so hard to pin down. And so fascinating.
I received a piece of direct mail advertising today that really missed the Olympic point.
Established to celebrate all that is good in humanity, and to find ways to unite people, nations and cultures through the power of sport, the Olympic movement is arguably one of the great achievements of international cooperation.
So I was intrigued to see a black envelope in the mail today with a large Hockey Canada logo emblazoned on the front. Unfortunately, its contents seem to contradict all the openness and the spirit of community of the Olympic ideals.
Presented by the Vancouver Board of Trade (of which I’ve been a member up until this year) and Concord Place, the brochure invites me to “enjoy an exclusive, limited-time offer” to “enjoy the 2010 Winter Olympics… in the middle of the action…. For the entire 17 days of the Olympics [I can] have [my] own reserved seating area for 8 guests. Complimentary gourmet food and beverages will be available while [I] take in all the action on screen and on the stage” in the Molson Canadian Hockey House.
And this can be mine—and I assume yours, too—in exchange for nothing more than $68,000! (Plus “applicable taxes and fees,” of course!)
It’s hard to know where to begin….
It was 7am on a dreary September morning, it was teeming with rain, and I’d been up for three hours already. The usual issues had plagued my night: Cash flow. Collaboration. Marketing. Not to mention my daughter kicking me in the head at 4am!
So there I sat, windscreen wipers slapping before my eyes, waiting for two people I’d never met to knock on my car’s window. Naturally, I was wondering what I was doing…. Then Jeremy showed up.
Backpack. Big hair. Firm handshake. Spitting image of my brother-in-law. And, like me, a bit bleary-eyed. Then came Josh: Tall. Easy to smile. Fresh into Canada from Germany. Another firm handshake.
Two strong first impressions. Two sharp minds. Two instant friends.
After picking up the bright and ambitious Annalea, we hit the road on an eight hour trip to Hollyhock, a magical place where hearts settle, souls run free, and minds are loosed to consider the great possibilities of what might be. This was the beginning of Social Venture Institute, a weekend that changed my world.
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