Here is a great video that makes it crystal clear exactly why our consumer society cannot continue the way it has been. It is powerful in its’ simplicity. Watch it and forward the link to everyone you know. The simple truths it reveals will inspire your resolve to find another way.

Watch: The Story of Stuff

Our modern ‘plastic’ economy is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we benefit from the ultra convenience of being able to pay instantly for something without having to physically carry cash, on the other hand, we lose the instant tangible feedback that good ol’ cash leaving a wallet brings.

Beyond debit, extrapolating the faux security of credit, it’s not hard to see how quickly things can get out of hand.

Perhaps you’ve played with different levels of budgeting with varying degrees of success. But unless you’re hyper-disciplined it can be difficult to maintain the fortitude to persist. Over at getrichslowly.org there’s an interesting blog on using a Per-Diem system to achieve a tangible sort’ve budget. Check it out!

As kyosei is both the name of our company and the fundamental philosophy on which all of our work is based, I thought I would use my next few posts to blog more specifically about kyosei, its meaning, origin, and the way that it can and is being used in business and life today.

With roots in (more…)

I received a link to this video on youtube this morning from a friend. It reminded me how much power we have to create our world the way we want it through simply making choices about the story we choose to tell ourselves and others. Creating a kyosei world where people are thriving on living and working together for the common good depends on more people choosing inspiration vs. cynicism. As you watch the video, pay attention to how you feel listening to each version of the “poem”. I hope this link inspires you to rescript the stories you are telling yourself and others in your life and work. One day post-inauguration of Obama, this video is a powerful reminder of our capacity to be part of leaving the doom and gloom of the past and creating a vibrant future for us all.

At this time of year, many people’s minds turn towards making a fresh start and creating positive changes in the new year. While this is a laudable idea, all too many people end up frustrated when they look back on their year (or even the first quarter) to see that many, if not all, of their New Year’s Resolutions fell by the wayside. Here are a few ideas I recently shared with my coaching clients to help them experience greater success and fulfillment in 2009. (more…)

My husband and I had a gorgeous baby boy this summer. As the first few months of parenthood are a marathon of sleep deprivation, when we discovered the secret to getting our son to sleep through the night – swaddling – it was all I could talk about for weeks.

(For those of you unfamiliar (more…)

While this story begins with talking about depression, don’t be too quick to turn the page. It is also a story of hope, inspiration and the power that living an authentic life has for building a network to support your success.

First, the bad stuff. Depression and stress disorders represent the fastest growing category of disability claims. They currently account for more than $9 billion in disability claims, or 30 percent of the estimated $30 billion that disabilities and presenteeism (the problem of employees being at work but not fully functioning) cost Canada’s economy each year (as reported by the BC Business and Economic Round table on Mental Health).

One of the most disturbing things about this increasing trend toward depression, stress and other mental-health related disabilities in the workplace is the fact that, while 80 to 90 percent of people with these disorders can be treated successfully, only one third of them actually seek help. (more…)

Recently my husband and I traveled to the heart of Silicon Valley to meet my new nephew. While for me the baby was the star attraction, my hubbie was more enthralled with the wheeling and dealing of my brother-in-law, a senior lawyer in a law firm that has assisted such tech heavy-hitters as Google and Sun Microsystems with their IPOs and acquistions.

And so, between baby coddling sessions, I managed to tear myself away from our adorable new nephew long enough to join in their candid conversations about the lessons of Silicon Valley.

Having lived in Vancouver, my brother-in-law was passionate that Vancouver has all the critical ingredients to become a booming Silicon Valley itself – yet has not developed the spark to ignite the mix. Like the San Francisco Bay area, the Lower Mainland has great universities and colleges, is a great place to live, and has a thriving economy with sophisticated investors ready to go. In spite of this, the leadership and long-term thinking have not emerged to integrate these resources sufficiently to achieve the hotbed of technological business seen in Silicon Valley.

Ultimately, the key ideas that emerged from our discussions were relevant for businesses of all sizes to thrive. Here are the top three themes:

1) Blur the Lines

In Silicon Valley, Stanford University maintains close ties with the venture capital community and encourages research and development with practical business possibilities, spawning such companies as Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Google and Yahoo!. While the mentality is changing in Canadian institutions about the many benefits (for students, businesses and society) of such collaboration, in the past these links were often discouraged due to an academic purist view that considered research tainted if it was skewed towards business spinoffs.

While scandals in the pharmaceutical industry illustrate the importance of separating research from business interests to some extent, purists often lose sight of the fact that without business-funded research, much of the life we take for granted today would not exist. Rather than advocating all-or-nothing approaches, business, government and academic leaders need to become more comfortable with diving into the gray zone and, in so doing, leverage the highest benefit for the common good.

2) Compete – Together

In a global economy, larger businesses are conscious of the economic necessity of looking beyond their borders in a literal sense. Closer to home, however, small and mid-size businesses need to stop focusing solely on developing internal skills and expertise in order to become more competitive in their industry. They must learn to adopt a wider view and identify long-term strategic alliances by asking which other organizations have a complementary mission, vision, product or service and challenging themselves to think about collaborating to maximize the strengths of all concerned.

3) Be Willing to Fail

The final thing that stood out for me about Silicon Valley was that, while there are many successes, there are even more failures. My brother-in-law had numerous stories of friends and acquaintances on their second or third attempt at startups. In fact, stemming perhaps from a ‘debugging’ mentality shared amongst truly geek entrepreneurs, business failures were considered necessary steps towards success, creating learning to be implemented in the next version - Business 3.0, perhaps?

Entrepreneurial success is not just about good ideas getting adequate funding – it requires commitment, passion and ingenuity on the part of the entrepreneurs to follow through to success. Of course there are those “lucky” ones who were in the right place at the right time, but business success still comes from a unique vision combined with the courage to persist until the dream is realized. In the end, the main source of “financing” any dream is still the currency a person holds in his or her own heart.

Andrea Jacques

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There are many different ways of gauging the price of a business for sale. Some of the more common include valuing the business based on profits, cash flow, assets or sector. But how do you ascribe a value to intangible assets such as customer goodwill, corporate culture, staff relationships, and brand, which are crucial ingredients in the lasting success of any business? (more…)

While delivering a series of leadership workshops across Canada this fall, I was surprised by the response some well-known companies’ vision statements elicited … laughter. (more…)