Point Nexus Blog

“Old Age and Treachery…”

Richard — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:55:44 +0000

You'll have to watch the video to spot what I mean. It's priceless!

Richard

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The Best Little Service Station in Abbotsford

Richard — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:07:12 +0000

Hub Motor Service is in my mind the best car service station in Abbotsford. The Siemens family do great work and are more honest than just about anybody I know. You can just feel it when you walk in their door. Granted they are a bit old fashioned, I mean they run out and pump the gas for you, wash your windows and always ask you if you need your oil checked.

But what about their gas prices? I once asked owner Ross Siemens, how the manage to compete on pricing, being a little independent station. True to form, he was very honest. “We’re not always the lowest,” he explained. “We only price our gas once a week, set at the price we buy it. If during that week the gas wholesale price goes up, we leave the price the same.” So, theoretically, yours could be lower than down the street. “Yes,” his honest answer continued. “But, if the wholesale price of gas goes down, someone down the street could have it lower.” I’ve been going to Hub for years and my experience has been, it pretty much averages out.

So, if you’ve ever tried their gas service, you know they make you feel pretty good. But, you also need to try their car repair service, its really outstanding. The Siemens apply all the same principles of good, honest customer care to repairing their customer’s cars. They are quick to respond and give genuine advice and honest estimates. In fact, once they told me, I should go to another repair shop. They said they could do it, but thought another shop, which specialized in the work, would do a better job. They even called and arranged the appointment. And, they do their work on time (or sooner). And, if they can’t complete a job on time or budget, they always call to give me an update.

It’s know wonder they’ve been around for over 50 years. That’s right, I said fifty! There are now a 4th generation family business and not an inkling of the entitlement attitude that sometimes creeps into a multi-generational business culture has made it into the Siemens operation. They make it obvious how much they appreciate their customers.

Even if you don’t know exactly who the Siemens are, you’ll probably where they are, because after so many years in Abbotsford, it’s a landmark. You’ll find them in Historical Downtown Abbotsford at the corner of Essendine and Gladys – just east of the railroad tracks where you turn South to Mission. The old fashioned sign on the canopy says Hub Motor Service. If you do head on down, talk to Hub proprietor Ross Siemens. He’s just one of the many Siemens and other long-term staff you’ll find there. He just happens to be the friendly person that gets to talk with the customers.

And, while your’re there, you might even get a chance to press your nose to the windows of some of the oldest, best kept antique cars in town; beautifully restored vintages of all brands and ages. Why? Because their proud owners will tell you, Siemens is the best in town, the only business they trust with their polished pieces of history. Though, I’ve often wondered, after 50 years, if it’s simply because the same Hub mechanic has been tinkering with them since they were new.

Hub Motor Service

33839 Essendine Avenue

Abbotsford, BC V2S 2H2

604) 853-2352

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Business Idea Reality Check

Richard — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:53:34 +0000

By Tony Wanless, BC Business Magazine

When was the last time you took a step back, removed the rose-coloured glasses, and seriously looked at your business idea? Chances are, it’s not as impressive as you thought.

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Soil Erosion Far Worse Than Reported In American Farmlands

Richard — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:37:26 +0000

		Soil Erosion Far Worse Than Reported In American Farmlands
	If the American classic song is right and Ã¢ÂÂthis land was made for you and me,Ã¢ÂÂ then why are we paying to have it destroyed?…

This highlights the importance of manure management systems.

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Protecting yourself from “Project Funding” Scams

Richard — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:13:53 +0000

As a business advisor, my reputation depends making sure the people and organizations I am connecting my clients with are just as reputable. Early in my career that reputation got a black eye. By not checking out a vendor, prior to engaging him with a client—-and, the client got stung. Since then, by always doing a little pre-engagment due-diligence, I’ve been able to save myself a repeat performance. But, my lesson learned is, always be wary… business services fraud is much more prevelent than you think.

Funding is one of the most critical parts of any entrepreneurial pursuit. Getting a project to that “next level” involves finding the organizations and people who can fund it. But, before spending a lot of valuable time talking, emailing, sending documents to potential business advisors connected to funders, understand such relationships are fraught with peril.

One of the most common frauds is fee-for-service fund raising. This requires engaging for a fee individuals or organizations connected to the investment industry and providing a service of connecting you with those contacts. They find the funding for your business venture. Unfortunately, too many are incompetent and unable to follow through or outright unscrupulous liers. These engagements will waste your time, effort, and money. It’s important to avoid them, but unfortunatly, they can also be hard to detect.

Many such scammers have been industry players in the past. One time at the top of their game, they have somehow fallen from grace. And now, still addicted to the deal, they pretend, continuing to play the game. Ex-players are especially difficult to discern. Because they’ve been in the business, they know the language; they know industry names; they can cite past successes and often have what appear to be credible testimonials… they’re websites glow of success. But, in fact, they aren’t able to do what they say and they can even fool seasoned entrepreneurs. But, though determining who’s who can be difficult, it’s important to try and by performing just a few basic due diligence steps, we can help protect ourselves.

Interestingly, the internet, though an easy platform such insidious people and organizations, also has tools that helps illuminate them for who they are. Here are a few simple cyber-sleuthing techniques and tools I’ve used to help weed out the baddies. I usually will spend 30-60 minutes on this, sometimes more, depending on what emerges. Even if they turn out to be perfectly legitimate, I am much better equipped knowing more about the person I am about to deal with.

First, review their online profiles such as Linkedin. Look for signs of inconsistency. Does their full career path and history hold tegether? Do they have a number of credible recommendations? If not, its a caution flag? Do they they use their entire name? It’s amazing how many use initials or outright alias’s. Do they have links to a credible website? Are there success stories or case studies there? Do they have credible discussions on the discussion forums like Linkedin? As you read, questions may begin to emerge. This is often good discerment talking to you.

Next, do a Google search. Look for signs of positive or negative reputation. If they are reputable, they should turn up in other internet pages and should have some type of positive content to support their legitimacy. One such search I did recently, seemed positive enough, but as I read, I began to think, this sounds a little too good. It turned out my wariness was warranted, though that’s content for another post.

Finally, if you do get to the point of contact, does their initial behavior or attitudes speak to their credibility? How is the phone answered? Do they seem to have a due process for qualifying you or are they too soon ready to help, before you’ve had a chance to establish your own credibility? Do they hesitate to give you a few references who will vouch for them? Will they give you a reference for a client that didn’t work out or there was a reference to determine how it was resolved? If they do, make it a point of checking them all.

These simple steps have helped me avoid some embarrasment and trouble. I recommend you try them. But, even if you do, remember these cunning people. It’s still possible to be fooled. Here are a couple of sites that I always check. The Complaints Board and The Ripoff Report.

You might be surprised to learn who turns up, but you’ll never be sorry.

Richard

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The Gangster Next Door – Doc Zone | CBC-TV

Richard — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:56:22 +0000

You are right Doc Zone, anybody can be the neighbour next door. Unfortunately in the case of the UN Gang, we were. For four harrowing years, Clayton Roueche, leader of the UN Gang, lived next door.

Those were clearly the years he was actively solidifying his reputation and establishing his loyal network of gangsters. We witnessed constant drug pickups, all night parties, and stretched limos disgorging his tatoo uniformed troops. In the early days, they were polite and would respond to our requests for quiet, but toward the end, their behavious were becoming increasingly defiant.

Unfortunatly, many calls to the Abbotsford police did little to stem the activites at the gang’s station central. Those were the years Abbotsford Police were merely reviewing the dictionary for “definitions” of gangster, rather than tackling the growing threat.

And, though we were able to witness so much first hand, it wasn’t until years later, with Roueche and the Bacon’s safely locked away in their prison cells, we knew the true danger of our Gangster Next Door.

The Gangster Next Door

45:13 minutes

The Gangster Next Door is the harrowing story behind the headlines of the country’s bloodiest gang war – shockingly led by young men raised in the most middle-class of families. And yet they’ve stooped to new lows to win increasingly brazen gang battles, targeting previously off-limits gangster girlfriends and wives and shattering the lives of true innocents, like the four-year-old left alive in the backseat of a Cadillac, his mother shot dead at the wheel. At stake: billions in illicit drug money.

James Coulter, founding member UN Gang

Part police action film, part in-depth analysis, all deeply-human storytelling, The Gangster Next Door introduces characters rarely willing to step out of the shadows – a founding member of a notorious and violent gang, the mother of a gangster girl-friend, and the shattered mother of an innocent victim, a woman whose all-consuming grief fuels an anti-gang crusade.

The Gangster Next Door is a must-watch documentary for anyone who wonders how Lotus Land became Gang-couver – and if it can happen in your community.

Eileen Mohan still lives across the hall from where her son was murdered

The world awoke to Vancouver’s gang problem in the winter of 2008-09 during a period of time on the streets of the lower mainland when there was a targeted hit every six days. The gunfights became increasingly audacious and public – robbing the community of its sense of safety. The collateral damage from the gang problem spreads out in waves out from every horrific incident –staining the lives of parents and grandparents, children and old friends, bystanders and the community itself. Nobody’s immune.

Vancouver Sun reporter and gang expert, Kim Bolan

Perhaps most disturbing – the baffling new profile of these greedy young gangsters who are willing to kill over drug profits: among recent gang murders or arrest warrants are the sons of a teacher, a banker, a therapist, even a policeman. The new breed of gangster is quite likely middle-class – a young man with a world of options open to him who is still somehow drawn to the dark side.

The Gangster Next Door explores this emerging social phenomenon – the deadliest gangster could be anybody’s next door neighbour.

via cbc.ca

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The Googleist Reformation

Richard — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:39:22 +0000

Just as Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses transformed Christianity, Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) simple text box is transforming marketing — from top to bottom.

Since the 1950s, great marketing theorists such as Theodore Levitt and Jerome McCarthy have developed frameworks for companies to create awareness of new needs to be met by novel products. These now-standard methods, such as the four P’s of marketing and the five M’s of advertising, are based on the assumption that the company controls its marketing message, communication channels and brand.

This is no longer true. Tom Funk’s book Web 2.0 and Beyond reports that consumers no longer believe anyone but each other. Studies cited in Funk’s book show that consumers assign the highest trustworthiness of 78 percent to recommendations from other consumers; newspapers come in second at 63 percent.

In Google We Trust

In a similar vein, a study of college students last summer reported that search engine rankings mattered much more than a website’s layout or even its content. This is consistent with Funk’s reports that the customer preference for the organic rank in Google’s search was three times more important than its rank as a sponsored listing, with only 50 percent of users even looking at the top sponsored listing.

Google’s meteoric rise as the bestower of credibility is emphasized by the 2010 Interbrand analysis that now ranks Google as the fourth most valuable brand, with a brand value of US$44 billion, behind only Coca-Coca, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). More interesting is that in one year, Google’s brand increased a whopping 36 percent, whereas the top three leaders all experienced brand value increases of less than 10 percent.

What does this mean? Recall that the Protestant Reformation shifted power from the Pope and priesthood to the lay leadership; empowered with newly available Bibles printed in local languages, members of this group no longer needed the priesthood’s interpretation of whether Catholicism met their needs.

Similarly, the Googleist Reformation represents the movement of power from advertising and marketing executives to the lowly customers, who suddenly have access to information generated by other users in the shared dialect of the 140-character Twitter feed. Thus the Google ranking, coupled with customer recommendations, represents today’s validation.

Power to the People

Even in the absence of algorithms built to game the system (and Google has recently struggled to minimize this threat), this revolution has tremendous implications. The Protestant Reformation also led to a vast array of church leadership structures, ranging from the similarly organized Anglican Church to the Quaker democracy.

Similarly, expect to see companies develop new marketing hierarchies. The power of the traditional vice president of marketing dictating the message and budget for an advertising campaign will be eroded by grass-roots campaigns (Exhibit A: The Democratic Presidential campaign of 2008).

Every customer will ultimately “vote” for a product by either participating online in recommendations or choosing to defer. We are still in the early phases of the Digital Enlightenment.

However, just as Catholicism survived (and even thrived in cultures friendly to more autocratic traditions), expect to see some companies holding on to the traditional structures. This will likely be dictated by the demographics and buying habits of the customer. On the other hand, be prepared to see an entirely new set of organizations arise from the newly enlightened Googleists.

Andrea Belz is the principal of Belz Consulting and the author of The McGraw-Hill 36 Hour Course in Product Development. Belz acts as a product catalyst, specializing in strategies that transform innovation into profits. She can be reached at andrea-at-belzconsulting-dot-com. Follow her on twitter at @andreabelz.

via ecommercetimes.com

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Dear Abbotsford Mayor and Council, please before it’s too late…

Richard — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:24:48 +0000

Pre Script Note to Readers: If you are reading this blog and agree then please do 3 things: 1st, Tweet, Like, Blog or Forward this to as many people as you know would be interested, 2nd, Add Your Comments to the form below to add your voice, and 3rd, Contact your Mayor and Councillors to let them know you are concerned. Email: Mayor and Council Office Phone: 604-864-5500

The Abbotsford/Mission Waste Water Treatment Master Plan, drafted by an outside consulting firm and published in April 2010, told Abbotsford’s city managers we must update our water treatment systems and install new piping from far away places to bring more water to the city. This all at a price tag of roughly $450,000,000. Adding full life-cycle accounting over some 40 years, will make the actual cost significantly more.

But, there are some amazing alternatives, progressive municipalities around the world are currently employing that are providing internal revenues streams that are virtually paying for most or all of the capital infrastructure to build it. Which means by using their waste resources more wisely, those cities (and their taxpayers) are saving millions upon millions of dollars.

Today, March 3, 2011, at a presentation made to Directors of the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce and a few city councillors by Sequel IRM, a reputable resource management consulting firm from BC, we discovered there are integrated ways managing waste resources, called Intergrated Resource Managment (IRM) or Integrated Resource Recovery (IRR) that, when applied, offer municipalities savings of $10’s or $100’s of millions.

Sequel offered Abbotsford city engineers and managers an opportunity to spend a little to take a more thorough look at this for Abbotsford, and our City’s managers turned them down.

So, wait, let’s get this straight. Even after the controversy of mis-managed money for Plan A and Arena-gate, Abbotsford’s brass turned down an opportunty to look at saving hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s dollars?

Elected officials, mayor and councillors, please. It’s for times like these that you were elected. We your taxpayers implore you. Please stand up to your city management staff and say stop, $450,000,000 is too much! Within the next few weeks you are responsible for making some far reaching and very expensive decisions. Now is the time to look at the alternatives, before it’s too late!

Richard Shatto

Post Script: And, you need to do it soon, because Council is making important decisions regarding this in the next couple or three weeks.

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Why can’t our city managers see the Treasury Value of our Waste?

Richard — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:06:45 +0000

The new waste management mind-set is still the same Waste = Cost and that has to change.

While I appreciate this Metro initiative to launch programs to recycle our organics, I’m dismayed there is no consideration of the “value” of the stuff we are throwing away. Indeed, our waste holds so much residual valuable that our City’s engineers and managers should be scouring the globe for integrated systems and technologies that will put our organics and other trash resources to work for us. Doing so would provide opportunities for that waste to start providing cash flows into our city treasuries not out of them. If they don’t, and we let their old mindset of “waste = cost”, then we’ll continue to pay. We’ll continue to dispose our “organic gold” into landfills, and now as this article tells, into compost heaps our latest disposal trend.

So, before you begin cheering for Metro’s revolutionary recycling initiatives, realize not much has really changed. Mere composting, while admirable, is short sighted and still far too expensive. So, what’s the better way?

An Integrated Approach to Resource Management is a much better way.

There is currently a significant study Metro commissioned to be done with the municipalities of the North Shore that looked at “best uses” of our waste “resources”. This study is now completed and the report in the private hands of Metro. If Metro decides to make it public (still not imminent), it is going to show that our waste, if treated using a truly Integrated Resource Recovery or Integrated Resource Management approach (IRR or IRM), it will provide you and me — taxpayers — $1000’s of millions of dollars. That’s correct billions of dollars in REVENUES.

Private Companies know our waste is a cash cow, why can’t our city managers?

The implications for our governments (and we the taxpayers) who keep raising our property taxes to pay for the host of services it offers (like garbage pickup and disposal, sewage treatment and water delivery) is enormous. A city the size of Abbotsford, applying an IRM/IRR model, has the potential to recover a billion dollars or more in revenue over the next 30 years. Alarmingly, many of our city’s municipal engineers and city managers won’t look at the IRR model in any depth. What that means to you and me is we and our children will keep paying. And, the most galling thing of all, if we continue the direction most our city planners and engineers are taking us, we continue to “pay” private companies for the opportunity to make two levels of profits from our resource. First for “tipping fees,” which is a fee for the privilege of dropping our waste at their sites. Then, once tipped, they can now use our to gain more profits from it. Is it any wonder there is a mad scramble today among waste management companies to get access to municipal waste, they know it’s a cash cow. Why can’t our city managers see the folly in this approach?

Write to your mayor and tell him to stop paying to dispose of our waste resource.

If you want your city to look for ways to not just lower the “cost” of disposing our waste, but to find ways to create revenue from it, contact your mayor and tell him it’s time to get serious about IRM/IRR. Oh, and don’t let him get away with telling you they are already doing it. Chances are his engineers have told him they are, but he’s mis-informed. Ask him how much “revenue” the city is projecting get from the waste management program’s they are looking at. Pretty good bet you won’t be satisfied with his answer to that.

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Focus on Haiti: The Road to Recovery – A Six Month Review | Partners In Health

Richard — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:40:54 +0000

Focus on Haiti: The Road to Recovery – A Six Month Review

Posted on 07/27/10

On Tuesday, July 27, 2010, Paul Farmer, Partners In Health co-founder and UN Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti, and Loune Viaud, Director of Operations and Strategic Planning of Zanmi Lasante (ZL), the Haitian sister organization of Partners In Health (PIH), testified at a Capitol Hill hearing hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, “Focus on Haiti: The Road to Recovery – A Six Month Review.”

In his testimony, Paul discussed how foreign governments and NGOs must accompany Haiti’s government throughout the rebuilding process. “This shift will not be a panacea for Haiti but could be coupled with a powerful and complementary focus on another movement of capital, this time from public to private and from wealthy to poor: a focus on job creation and on strengthening the hand of those trying to farm (and reforest) the land and also on young people, especially young women, living in poverty,” he stated in his prepared testimony. “We need a greater sense of urgency. And the most urgent task of all is the creation of jobs that will confer dignity to those in greatest need.”

Read Paul Farmer’s full prepared testimony

Throughout her testimony Loune highlighted the strides made in Haiti since January 12, while also stressing the immense challenges still facing her country. Haitians affected by the earthquake desperately need “healthcare, employment, decentralization, protection of children, women, adolescent girls, the elderly and the most vulnerable members of the population.” Loune noted that these challenges cannot be fixed with foreign donations. “Rather than charity, Haiti needs partners… Haiti needs jobs. Jobs will stabilize other parts of the country, empower the communities, and save lives.”

“We need Haitians to lead the reconstruction efforts. We need our partners to take a rights-based approach in the construction of a new Haiti,” said Loune in her testimony. “This means supporting the capacity and the leadership of both the Haitian government and Haitian communities; it means deferring to the experiences of Haitians and guaranteeing our participation in the rebuilding of our country; it means unconditionally respecting all of our human rights—including the right to food, the right to decent housing and sanitation, the right to health, the right to potable water, the right to education and the right to security.”

Read Loune Viaud’s full testimony

Congresspersons Barbara Lee and Donald Payne oversaw Tuesday’s hearing. Testimony was also given by Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development; Marie St. Fleur, Former Massachusetts State Representative; Camille Chalmers, Director, Plateforme Haitienne de Plaidoyer pour un Developpement Alternatif / Haitian Platform to Advocate for Alternative Development, Haiti; and Ira Kurzban, Chair, Board of Directors, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

via pih.org

2 weeks ago, Paul Farmer and Loune Viaud, key leaders in the International Haiti Reconstruction Effort and Clinton’s right hand man in the process, gave testimony at a Capital Hill hearing. This is the summary, taken from the home page of Partners in Health, an East Coast agency, deeply involved in the effort.

Richard

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