List of Vendors attending

Acco Canadian Company
Avery Dennison
Bic
Deflecto Corporation
Dixon Ticonderoga Pencil Inc.
Durable
Dymo
Global Express
Hilroy Limited
Holiday Luggage
HP
Ideal MBM Corporation
Kensington Computer
Konica Business Technologies
Sanford Corporation
Staedtler Mars Limited
Star Quality Office Furniture
Toshiba of Canada Inc.
Watchguard
Zebra Pen
Canon Canada
Coast Paper
Crestar Limited
Davis Group of Companies
Dominion Blueline
DSI-OFGO
Esselte Canada
Exponent Microport
Links Furniture
Newell Rubbermaid
Office Furniture Group
R3 Distribution/ Bunzl Canada
Redi-Medic First Aid
Samsung Electronics Canada
Sharp
Stanley Bostitch
TCI Stamp Inc.
Victor Technology
Winnable Enterprise

For the world of online at least, I have really started to rely on my reader. Google Reader. There are others out there but I really haven’t had time to try each and every one to evaluate their specific features and benefits. Nor, is this an evaluation of web based news readers.

How I got to this point.

Back in the day (approximately 12 months ago), I would spend hours bookmarking good websites and blogs, then try to remember to check back from time to time to see if there were any updates. If there were, I would review to see if they were interesting or relevant. Then I would read them.  That was a time consuming/wasting endeavor. I quit. I hit information overload and it was a time waster. Ok, so I didn’t exactly quit. I stopped the time wasting part. I chose a new way to view the fantastic unedited online content that is so valuable and provides great insight into business and life in general.

Readers give you what you want.

Once you have downloaded your reader you will need to add content. Hopefully, if you were like me, the sites you would visit have an RSS link. Once you have added subscriptions to your reader you no longer need to seek out content, it will be delivered directly to your desktop in a summarized format. You choose what you want to read. You can quickly scan the headings and if of interest, plow right in. Gone are the days of methodically checking sites looking for updates. In addition, my reader will push new feeds to me based on my content consumption and based on overall popularity of the material being published. It makes it incredibly easy to stay up to date. I have a cousin who has been writing a blog for years but until I added it to my reader I had never looked at it. Not to my surprise, it’s a great read – entertaining, interesting, everything that she is – why didn’t I read it sooner? It was lost in the great pile of internet information overload.

This has some big ramifications!

What does this mean to content providers and businesses? The web is changing. In fact I have read numerous blogs about the death of the internet. What does a business need to do in light of this new and dramatically different way of sourcing information? How do you position your corporate site and does it really matter what your “Google ranking” is? One thing is for sure, you’d better have a social presence, a blog feed and hopefully an app moving forward.  Experts are forecasting a massive shift to this type of information sourcing over the next 2-5 years. According to recent IDC statistics in Q4 2010, more smartphones were sold than PC’s. That’s blogworthy!

By providing training your employees will feel a stronger emotional commitment to the organization and achieve a sense of well-being as the desire to self-actualize is being met. This in turn leads to engaged workers that will go above and beyond to satisfy others as they “pay it forward”.

Go to the beginning of this blog series: Drive Your Business Through Employee Engagement >>

Ultimately it’s about team building.  Take time to recognize the efforts of people inside your organization.  In one of my most challenging roles I spent most of my time simply taking the time to find ways to recognize staff for their efforts and to create a culture of mutual respect.  A great way to do this is to task all managers to frequently spend time together with their staff outside of the office.  The best managers will find ways to make this happen naturally and will be more active in the decision making process regarding recruitment, retention or exit strategies.  Remember that management has its’ own unique required set of skills.  Too often advancement strategies focus on advancement of the highest achieving person in the subordinate role, not necessarily focusing on the different skill set or “fit” requirements to be a manager of people.  An easy strategy is to give managers a budget to be used toward team building activities, not ask too many questions and ensure it is being used.

Continue to next in series: Education – It’s All About Development And Training >>

Because it does!  And they do!

Continue to next in series: Always Take Time To Recognize Accomplishments >>

Diversity is a good thing!  Think about diversity of thought, background and experience, not the classic HR definition of diversity.  If you continually hire like-minded individuals you will begin to experience “groupthink”.  All employees must have the skills required for the position but once this prerequisite is satisfied think about how this potential employee will interact within the organization.  What does this person bring to enhance the dynamics?  There is no perfect personality.  This is a fluid idea and every individual brings something truly unique to the table. Embrace this diversity and use it to build on.

I focus on hiring the best person available to me, the one with the required skills and the best “fit” for the organization.  The idea of budgets or pay scales does not apply in this decision.  I don’t believe there is ever a valid argument in saving a little and giving something up.  When recruiting for positions I always try to understand the full skill set of the potential employee and how as an organization we can harness and benefit from this unique set of skills.

Continue to next in series: Organizational Clarity >>

Why are the results of businesses so dramatically different?

I believe engaged employees are passionate about their jobs and the work they do.  As well they are emotional stakeholders of the organizations they are part of.  Engaged employees will go above and beyond expectations and will take every opportunity to surprise and delight their customer. Companies that engage both the hearts and minds of their employees have a more intense strategic focus, enhanced productivity and better organizational efficiency.  By focusing on creating an environment that promotes diversity, recognize effort and promote education you can become an organization with an engaged workforce.

Over the next few blogs I will reveal my top four activity drivers that will have you and your organization on your way to creating an engaged workforce and the creation of the ultimate competitive advantage.

Continue to next in series: Focus On Employee “Fit” In Your Organization >>

Keep the vivid picture happening – a beautiful new building, centrally located just off Central Ave, (on MacDonell Street) where you will find all products and services amalgamated under one roof; where you can browse at your leisure, or shop specific. Either way you will talk to locals who can tell you about the product, talk about copying or printing and designing, but might also just fill you in on what’s happening locally at the waterfront, or a road closure to avoid, perhaps even share their knowledge of the local band that’s coming to Thunder Bay area, or maybe share in what happened at City Council last night. Lowerys is about us accomplishing all our goals – and it’s going to be such a great fun place to hang out. C’mon – get the scoop about what’s happening!