My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post was: Top 3 Business Lessons from Jenny Craig.

Today we’re going to look at how a man went from living on welfare to becoming the first African American to make it onto the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in the world. By the time he died he was worth an estimated $600 million.

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"When I see a barrier, I cry and I curse, and then I get a ladder and climb over it... Failure is a word I don't accept." - John Johnson

John Harold Johnson (January 19, 1918 – August 8, 2005) was an American businessman and publisher. He was the founder of the Johnson Publishing Company, and in 1982, the first African-American to appear on the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in the world.

From an early age, Johnson learned what it was to overcome obstacles in life. When he was just eight years old, his father, Leroy Johnson, was killed in a sawmill accident. His mother moved them from Arkansas to Chicago in the middle of the Great Depression and they were forced to rely on welfare for two years. They were determined not to stay on welfare and worked towards building a better life for themselves.

At the age of 18, Johnson met Harry H. Pace, the president of Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Co., the largest black-owned business in the North at the time. When Pace heard about Johnson’s desire to attend university but his inability to do so because of the high cost of tuition, Pace hired Johnson part-time. Working at Supreme give Johnson the idea and the confidence to start his own business.

In 1942 he went to the bank to ask for a $500 loan to start his business and was laughed out of the office after they told him that they "don't make loans to colored people." Johnson went to one of the few banks that did. Using his mother’s new furniture as a collateral for the loan, Citizens Loan Corporation agreed to give Johnson the $500 he needed to start his business. He created Johnson Publishing Co. and set out to launch his first magazine. Today, with magazines like Ebony, Johnson Publishing Co. is one of the world’s largest minority-owned businesses as well as the largest black-owned publishing firm. When he died in 2005, Johnson had a net worth of $600 million.

Action Item #1: Don't Get Mad, Get Even

Until you prove yourself as an entrepreneur you're going to have a lot of people doubt your ability to succeed. They'll tell you to "play it safe" and get a job. They might also tell you that your product or service idea has been done before or is too crazy to do well. Part of your entrepreneurial journey will be using criticism as a counsellor but not as a jailor - listen to what can help you and don't let harsh words prevent you from moving forward on your dreams.

All his life, Johnson had been told that he would not amount to much. He was a victim of the racism that was so prevalent in the U.S. at the time. Time after time, Johnson was discouraged from thinking he could one day be great and was blocked every time he tried. In addition to being denied bank loans because he was black, Johnson found it impossible to even purchase an office for his new company once he had obtained the money. When Johnson went to purchase a building in Chicago’s downtown area to be his company’s headquarters, he couldn’t make the deal - he was refused the purchase because he was black.

But, like at so many other times in his life, Johnson refused to give up. He wasn’t going to let a racist property manager stand in the way of his success. His advice: “It's better to get smart than to get mad... Long shots do come in and hard work, dedication and perseverance will overcome almost any prejudice and open almost any door.”

Action Item #2: Master the Art of the Sale

No matter what type of business you run, you're going to have to learn how to sell to achieve the success you're after. Selling is not only to customers but you have to sell your partners, investors, employees, suppliers, media, and other stakeholders on why your company is going to be great.

In his best-selling autobiography, Succeeding Against the Odds, Johnson wrote a chapter entitled, “How to Sell Anybody Anything in Five Minutes or Less.” Johnson’s elementary rule to making a sale was that your pitch “be based not on your self-interest but on their self-interest... When I go in to see I never say, ‘Help me because I am black’ or ‘Help me because I am a minority.’ I always talk about what we can do for them.”

Johnson had three rules for successful selling. First, he would grab the client’s attention in the first few seconds of a meeting with an emotional statement that “hits him where he lives or does business.” Second, Johnson would try to find his client’s vulnerable spot. He felt that “everybody has something that will make him or her move or says yes.” Johnson’s final step was to find a similarity with his client. According to Johnson: “Successful selling is a matter of finding common ground, no matter how narrow it might be, on which you and your client can stand together... Whether I had five or thirty-five minutes, I always based my presentation on these three tried-and-tested rules.”

Action Item #3: Communicate Success

If you're going to build a business beyond yourself you're also going to have to work on your communication skills so your staff understand where you're trying to take the company and how they can help you get there.

Johnson believed that if he couldn’t communicate effectively with his staff, it didn’t matter how good his product was, his company was not going to prosper. Developing this talent was something that Johnson took great pride in and he ensured his senior staff was equally trained in the art.

Here's Johnson's advice: “I was born in poverty and spent two years on the welfare rolls, and I learned early that I had to communicate or die. And so I talked my way out of poverty – I communicated my way to the top... I'm a hands-on, hands-in, hands-wrapped-around manager, and I believe it's impossible to separate good management from good communication. For the best manager is the best communicator."

True Story

When Johnson realized that the black models he hired for his photo shoots couldn't buy makeup that was tailored to their skin tones he approached Estee Lauder and Revlon to launch a new line. They turned him down so he created his own company, Fashion Fair Cosmetics. Today, Fashion Fair is a leader in the cosmetics industry with products in almost 1,000 stores around the world.

Have you had to overcome criticism to launch your business? How have you learned to communicate your message to your staff? What part of John Johnson's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of John Johnson articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.

Last month, Telus talked to business customers at events celebrating Small Business Month, and held a contest in which participants were offered the opportunity to have some of their biggest business challenges addressed by leading business consultants. Today they've asked me to respond to a question from Bernard Magnan, an entrepreneur in Edmonton, Alberta, who asked "How do I manage my business growth?"

Great question! Here’s a three-step answer.

Step One: Take a sheet of paper and draw what you want your business to look like in three years. In case you paused on the word draw, I literally mean draw it. Draw a picture showing size, scope, geographic locations, services, product, time you spend in it, etc. When you visualize what you are working towards, it makes managing business growth much easier. You’ll make better decisions and you will know when you are “off-picture.” Put it on the wall where you can look at it every day.

Step Two: Identify what you like best:

1. Working on the business.
2. Working in the business.
3. Managing the business.

Many times we are so busy working in the business, we don’t take time to see where the business is headed and if we want to go there. During time of explosive growth, we are so busy doing, we might be missing opportunities or worse, don’t see things that need to be fixed in order to scale for the next level of growth. Michael Gerber, who wrote the legendary book, E-Myth states, that anyone starting or building a business needs to be:

• One part entrepreneur (working on the business)
• One part technician (working in the business)
• One part manager (managing the business).

If one of those personality traits is stronger than another, then managing growth in your business becomes a risk. If you are more the “ideas and vision” person, then growth will depend on strong managers and technicians to deliver the business.

Make sure you clearly understand how this will get delivered. Poor execution, for example, means lots of customers buy this year but not many next year if they were frustrated with your lack of delivery. If you are currently wearing all three hats in your business, your time must be divided across all three disciplines in order to grow your business. If you are more one trait than another, you need to recognize this quickly and find the right resources to fill in the gaps.

Step Three: Document how your business works.

Creating process in your business is essential to managing and scaling a business. If you are the technician in your business (doer) and executing the work comes naturally to you, lack of process means you will never be able to bring anyone else into the business. When a small little hamburger stand started out in the 1960’s called McDonald’s, their vision was not to sell hamburgers. Their vision was to automate the process of selling hamburgers so that it wasn’t a custom job every time. By automating the process they could grow and manage the business. If you look after dogs for a living, document what happens on a daily basis to do that. List the rules and regulations you abide by. This will allow you to take on more staff that can follow the rules and allows you to deliver a consistent experience every time. Without a process, you will be trapped in managing the business and then growth and delivery become difficult.

Today’s business owner has it tough. Competition is fierce and instantaneous. The internet has made it possible for customers to find anything they want, when they want it. Your business growth depends on this tried and true three step process.

Marie Wiese of Marketing CoPilot can be found online at www.marketingcopilot.com, @mariewiese or www.linkedin.com/in/managedmarketingservices. Marketing CoPilot builds integrated marketing processes tied to strategic business goals and measured in their contribution to business results. Marie is a 20 year veteran of the B2B marketing world and is currently the Chair of the Board of the York Technology Alliance in the greater Toronto region where she gets to interact with small and medium sized businesses every day.

Leave a comment and share your tricks of the trade or best advice on managing growth.

Tim Lorman is the Director of Strategic Space and Alternative Work for the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF). One of the largest financial services companies in the United States, TIAA-CREF helps those in the academic, medical, cultural and research fields plan for and live in retirement. In 2008 the company executed its first telecommuting pilot and today is enjoying cost savings of $19 million per year.

TELUS Talks Business spoke with Mr. Lorman about his company’s Alternative Workplace Solutions (AWS). Today is the second of a three-part series.

If you had to go through implementation again, what would you put forward as the two things you did exactly right the first time?

Tim: I think we were so successful because we accomplished a real sense of community with the group. From the beginning, we were looking for folks with a pioneer spirit.

We told them, ‘We are going to make mistakes with this program. We might make you fill out the same form five different times…there will be frustrations, but we’re all learning.”

We ended up with this really great group of people who really understood that they were contributing to the benefit of the program and our company. We never pretended it was a finished product, but when someone raised their hand with a problem we dropped whatever we were doing to fix it.

We also just smothered people with communication. I would answer phone calls all the time, and I would call half a dozen teleworkers a day just to check in on them and see how they were doing. We deployed proactive communication within the community. We also held frequent open conference calls to check in on everyone, and set up a buddy program.

Most importantly, we never scaled beyond our capacity to support our teams.

The two things you would do differently?

I honestly don’t know that we could have done much differently. It was a lot of trial and error, and flexible work isn’t a cookie cutter idea that can be dropped in to any organization. I believe we did our very best, and I believe that we had a very successful implementation.

What kind of resistance existed from senior levels, if any, and how was it overcome? What business units needed to be involved in initial discussions?

Tim:  Our senior executives didn’t have an explicit lack of support- they just had to be convinced. To be honest though, we’ve taken the executives out of the mix. They understand it is going on, but we recently eliminated a high level of approval for people to enter the program.

What kind of resistance existed from those assigned telework status and how was it overcome?

Tim:  We certainly saw some resistance. We had one department who thought we were trying to get rid of them – “out of sight, out of mind,” as they say. But when a couple of them signed up to try the program, and then a couple of more…they ended up being our most interested department.

They said they were surprised that they were just smothered with attention, and that they had never felt more a part of the community until they actually left the building.

The important thing to remember is that we approached this in a very special way: we didn’t push people to do it, and if they decided to do it, they were on what we called a ’30-day trial. If they didn’t like working from home, they could come back to the office. Further on, if they have a change in their personal circumstances and want to come back – we can discuss that at any time.

We also implemented a survey in 2009.

The first question was, “Do you feel that you were forced to participate, in order to keep your job?” The second question was, “If you did feel forced, do you want to go back and work in the office?”

The results were interesting: 22 per cent felt that they were forced to participate, but only one person wanted to go back to the office. We brought that person back to the office immediately, and overall, we considered the results an incredible testament to our success.

Once implemented, were there tangible, immediate benefits to the company or did it take time?

Tim:   When we started this program we literally didn’t have any budget for it; we built this completely on what I like to call ‘sweat equity.’ The immediate benefits were obvious; a greater sense of community, higher customer and employee satisfaction, and we could see the future cost-savings on the horizon.

Join us tomorrow to hear how TIAA-CREF measures ROI on its flexible work program, as well as Tim’s advice on those looking to get started. If you have questions on what you’ve heard here today, post it here.

Right Sleeve Marketing is an online promotional design company in Toronto that develops swag for corporate and retail clients. When he founded Right Sleeve in 2000, president Mark Graham was determined to use technology and web tools rather than conventional industry methods such as catalogues. Today the company has 15 employees and revenues approaching $2-million. In 2009, it won the Dell Small Business Excellence Award for its innovative use of technology.

What should small businesses do for a strong start?

Mark: Get to know your product inside and out. Get out there and meet with customers and actually learn how to sell your product. If you can't get people to buy it, it's probably not as good as you think. For me, that was going out and meeting with my vendors, traipsing through warehouses in the GTA, learning the difference between silkscreen and embroidery, picking up orders, and talking to people on production lines.

How did you conquer your market?

Mark: I targeted a narrowly defined niche – camp and school – where I had contacts and understood what they needed. Camps love their branded sweatshirts! It was a small, interconnected market where, once we got introduced, we could build that business quickly.

I knew there would be an opportunity to tap into the corporate space, namely the ad agencies where young people were graduating and moving, where budgets are bigger and more stable. The key is that the original values of the company never changed as I moved from the niche to the larger market… into companies like Expedia and Virgin Mobile.

What was your strategy to stand out from the competition?

Mark: I wanted to differentiate on three things – technology, style, and design. All products on rightsleeve.com have been curated by our team that specifically cater to the kind of customer we’re looking for, which is a brand-conscious, image-conscious, fashion-forward corporation. We’ve got a big graphic-design side of the business that can help people develop their brand identities and put those onto products.

The technology side manifests itself in two ways. The ability to order online, to brainstorm, to quick wish list, to check accounts, as opposed to a ‘here’s a catalogue’ that you look through and decide what you want. Another side of the technology platform runs a private intranet for big companies that want to have a streamlined product catalogue with merchandise collections. It’s password protected.

Early on, how did you make the most of your advertising dollars?

Mark: It was very, very slim! I went to trade shows. We spent a lot of time on the web creating a dynamic website that would showcase what we were doing. Now we have a huge emphasis on community building and social media. That drives traffic to our phone number and email. We get orders via Twitter. That doesn’t cost a lot. In terms of advertising budget we’re pretty lean.

What do you consider when building a team?

Mark: There’s no question we look for skill [but] the alignment with our culture in values is the priority. That may sound like a cliché. When we’re interviewing we send out a culture and value questionnaire that asks: What are your favourite websites? What are your favourite business books? What are the best blogs you read? What’s your iPod Top Ten playlist? The wrong person will say “I’m not going to fill this out” but the ones that are right for us take a lot of time. It expresses their value system or philosophy about customer service and marketing.

What kind of leader are you?

Mark: Inspirational. I like to paint a big exciting picture of the future. Right Sleeve would love to be the Amazon of the promotional products world.

Amber Nasrulla is an ex-pat Canadian writer based in L.A. who specializes in profiles from business leaders and scientists to Hollywood celebrities. Her work has appeared in North American and British publications including L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Magazine, ELLE Canada, Chatelaine and London Weekly Times.

Join the conversation by leaving a comment below.

In October, TELUS talked to business customers from across the country at a series of events celebrating Small Business Month. We held a contest in which participants were asked to identify their biggest business challenges and we offered the winners a chance to have their questions answered by leading business consultants.

Today’s winning question comes from Ray Barrier who owns a landscaping business in Edmonton and asked, “As a business owner, where do I start and what do I need to do to ‘go green’ in 2011?”

TELUS' commitment to the environment is engrained in its culture as a leading corporate citizen in responsibility and sustainability. Cellphone recycling programs, TELUS Green Teams, environmental volunteerism and environmentally sustainable buildings across Canada highlight our efforts to walk to the green talk. To answer Ray’s question, we connected with Dom Repta, our own leading environmental consultant.

When TELUS first started ‘going green’ how did they decide what areas of the business could be targeted for environmental rehabilitation?

Dom: TELUS’ first environmental report was developed in 1992, so we’ve been looking towards tracking our environmental as well as social impact for quite some time now.  Customers, consumers as a whole are more aware of environmental and social responsibilities and it’s now more of  a factor in their buying decisions.  Given this, there’s a need to ensure that you’re open and transparent about your company’s green commitments.

As a starting point to ‘going green’ in your business, begin by listing the various impacts that not going green would have to your business and play the “what if” scenarios.  For example, if your tools and equipment are not environmentally- friendly, what impact would this have on your public reputation or perception?  What about the products you use – are they environmentally sustainable?  From a social responsibility perspective, what communities or non-profit companies do you support? Asking yourself these types of questions will help you decide where to begin the process of going green.

How do we balance the cost of going green vs the rewards of going green?

Dom: It’s not always necessarily about the bottom line. For instance, at TELUS we are currently in the midst of switching all of our procurement of office paper to 100% post recycled paper, providing a positive impact on the environment.  It’s a bit more costly than conventional paper; however, we felt it was important to make the change.  And our employees did to. We are also focusing on paper consumption reduction and foresee savings resulting from the reduced consumption offsetting the incremental cost increase of more responsible paper.

Chances are, where some green activities may cost a bit more in the short term, they often provide greater efficiency in your business, so there is a long term  pay off both financially and environmentally.

Isn’t ‘green’ a route for bigger companies instead of smaller ones?

Dom: Everyone has a part to play in environmental sustainability, regardless of company size or position in the company.  Even companies with one or two employees can get them involved and make a significant difference in driving change. Employees are more conscious these days about the businesses they work for and their commitment to environmental and social responsibility.  Providing them with the ability to bring forth ideas and suggestions that you may have never thought of before can help to improve employee engagement by working for the greater good.

At TELUS, we developed a Green Team program, a group of volunteers located at numerous offices (now over 200 members) who champion Green initiatives within each location.  Having the regional teams allows us to be better aware of areas of improvement to be more sustainable, more efficient and helps us build better connections – it’s been a tremendous success.

What are the two simplest things any business, regardless of size, can do to take a step towards green/sustainability?

Dom: Talk to your team and customers and find out what is important to them.   Do some research on how other landscaping companies or nurseries are going green and see what you can do to model them. These two things will give you great ideas. Then decide which ones you have the resources to address and try and identify how addressing these will positively impact your business and triple bottom line.

Also think about how you could give back to the community - identifying an organization that needs your help where you will work pro-bono tending the grounds or building a garden like the food back, a women’s shelter or seniors home will not only make you and your team feel good, but will demonstrate that you are willing to give back to your community.

Dom Repta is an environmental consultant at TELUS.

For more information about TELUS’ Corporate Social Responsibility report, go to: www.telus.com/csr

What are some of the “green initiatives” you’ve put in place for your company?  How are you seeing a difference in your business or community?  Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

I just attended this year’s Entrepreneurfest in Kitchener, hosted by Communitech. You can check out the details of the event and the speakers at www.entrepreneurweek.ca. Or you could have followed #eweek on your Tweet deck and gotten a play-by-play. The Tweets were flying off the wall.

Over 150 people attended the event to celebrate Global Entrepreneur Week, which officially starts today.  The event was a series of lightening fast discussions that culminated in a closing keynote by Silicon Valley’s Dave McClure, tech geek turned marketer turned venture capitalist.

Great advice, great content but most importantly great questions were asked. Here are some highlights from the day:

Session: On Partnership as a Start-Up Strategy:

• There is a difference between partners and friends – figure out which is which early on
  
• Today’s business needs to have an ecosystem not just a “market” to get your business off the ground. This means that entrepreneurs need to identify a community of people and businesses they can access to help them evolve the business. Boards of Trade and Communitech are examples, as is the organization I Chair, the York Technology Alliance.
  
• Most important risk for a start-up is protecting intellectual property
  

Great Advice:

• If you are going to partner with companies to grow your business, set expectations clearly up front
  
• Find an internal champion in the partnering company with whom to establish the relationship – especially true if you are a small company partnering with big one. Someone needs to be thinking about you everyday
  
• Identify quickly what you need versus just ‘nice to have’ so you pick the right partners and don’t waste time
  
• Co-opitition is a new idea meaning sometimes you need to partner with your competition. Work with your competitors to stay ahead of the game.
  

Session: Why Founders Fail:

• We do not have a culture of commercialization in Canada. We build cool stuff but don’t know how to commercialize it
  
• Lots of good ideas out there with no sales
  
• Companies lack customer knowledge. Yes you have to understand the market, but you have to talk to customers. Even investors did not understand the space. Many are former bankers but have never done the operations
  
• Founders fail because they are very enamored with technology but did not understand how to sell it or why a customer needs it.  There isn’t a compelling problem being solved
  

Great Advice:

• Founders need a strong management team
  
• If no one is buying, you need to question your business model not throw more money at it. If your technology is cool but no one is willing to allocate budget and buy it, you do not have a business
  
• Having a clear vision and culture that you never waver from is all about knowing what you want to accomplish and sticking to that vision
  
• There is nothing wrong with bootstrapping because you only grow the business if people are buying it
  
• You need to have differentiating value
  

Session: On Start-Up Marketing:

• Use social media to start the dialogue and see what people care about. Problems are public and there is no reason to not start talking about it
  
• You can’t build a relationship with someone if you are trying to sell them something at that moment. You need to start the dialogue first and build the relationship before you talk to them about your product or service
  

Great Advice:

• Look at marketing as an ecosystem and not just a series of tactics
  
• Early adopters are weird and will play with stuff that no one else will touch and with something that they know is broken. Middle adopters want proof that what they are going to use is tested and proven and other people are using it. Don’t confuse the two when taking customer feedback and building your marketing strategy
  

Session: Dave McClure, 500 Start-Up, a new type of Venture Fund:

• The future is not about technology. It’s about leveraging platforms like Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, mobile, etc. The platforms exist with over 100 million users on each. Create reach and then monetize it
  
• People need online strategies for their business no matter who they are. Nike needs to learn how to sell online. If you can't do that, you need to buy someone who can
  
• You can do more experiments cheaper and faster with more ideas on the web. Don’t wait for the big launch. Ship it and then gather the data. Test and then add on. The days of the monster build are over
  
• Distribution and monetization are what matters, not features and functions
  

Great Advice:

• Sharing is important - you learn more from each other than you do by yourself and the platforms that exist are perfect for sharing
  
• You want people to have an emotional reaction to your business: like it or hate but don’t be mediocre
  
• You need to matter meaningfully to some subset of users or customers and see if you can scale from there. You can no longer afford to be all things to all people
  
• Focus on a customer problem rather than a technical solution
  
• Focus on product market fit
  

Marie Wiese of Marketing CoPilot can be found online at www.marketingcopilot.com, @mariewiese or www.linkedin.com/in/managedmarketing services. Marketing CoPilot builds integrated marketing processes tied to strategic business goals and measured in their contribution to business results. Marie is a 20 year veteran of the B2B marketing world and is currently the Chair of the Board of the York Technology Alliance in the greater Toronto region where she gets to interact with small and medium sized businesses every day.

Are you attending an event online or in person for Global entrepreneurweek?  Login using a name and email address and join the conversation.

I’m intrigued by the results of the third annual study of Canadian IT security practices from the Rotman School of Management and TELUS.

Let’s talk about the results as they pertain to social networking. They may have you, your boss or your employee thinking twice about allowing it in the workplace.

This year’s results uncover a misconception:  One in four Canadian organizations are blocking access to social networking sites, citing security as the primary reason. Today, 66 per cent of employees in the government sector have access to social networking in the workplace, as do close to 80 per cent of private and public sector employees.  In both cases, organizations that block access to these sites actually bring productivity and security issues upon themselves as employees spend valuable time trying to circumvent the block or surf the sites through their mobile devices.

What does this say? As trends and technology continues to develop in this ever-changing environment, from the popular engagement with social networking to the proliferation of smartphone usage, there needs to be an increased focus on education and awareness across IT, development and employees to ensure security risks and responsibilities are understood by all.

Mobile phones

In keeping with the theme of security to the endpoint, we also asked respondents to share their thoughts, potentially concerns – with the proliferation of the mobile phone in the corporate space.

In our 2009 survey, we noted that mobile-related breaches - to specify, any corporate data that was shared as a result of mobile devices and laptops falling into the wrong hands or unauthorized people accessing files from employees working remotely -  were the second largest breach category.

At the same time, we noticed a growing interest in these technologies.  The main concern that has come out of this year’s data and is representative of government, private and public feedback, is the loss of a mobile device with corporate data.

But with this year’s data, we believe that the adoption of this technology does not expose companies to more breaches.  The technology is in place to ensure a secure experience, but only as long as users are educated on best practices on how to keep their devices secure.

Budgets

Another interesting finding from this year’s results is the budget variances between years.

Budgets are still well below 2008 levels, in effect, carrying over the severe measures implemented in 2009 that resulted in average budget cuts of 10 per cent.

In 2010, it was reported that security budgets were on average slightly above 6.5 per cent of IT budgets, similar to the nearly 7 per cent IT budget touted in 2009.

It is especially important to recognize the need for investment in security budgets, as the proliferation of mobile devices and social networking drive the need for new, more secure technology, governance and education. While the investment in up-to-date technology does represent a large part of the security budget, it’s necessary to allocate adequate funding to the staff and resources as well.

• Findings indicate that many security professionals have broader roles with specialization in teams diminishing. It is crucial that organizations are staffed with enough experienced leadership, backed by strong executive support to ensure the best security strategy possible.
  

• In 2009, the majority of respondents indicated that the financial crisis had not forced them to cut staffing levels; however, contractors were impacted by austerity measures.  This year, respondents note that internal staffing levels decreased.
  

• 50 per cent of organizations are more likely to report to teams of 1-5 full-time employees and only 12 per cent reported that they report to teams of 6-10.
  

• A potential explanation is that while these employees were employed in 2009 to oversee     contractors, in 2010 when their contracts expired, the full time employees overseeing the work were also no longer needed.
  

This week, TELUS and the Rotman School of Management released their third annual study on Canadian IT security (TELUS.com/securitystudy)

Dr. Walid Hejazi is a professor of business economics at Rotman School of Management.

Today, we announced the results of our third annual study on Canadian IT Security Practices with the Rotman School of Management. The study shows that Canadian companies experienced a 29 per cent increase in security breaches from 2009 to 2010, from an average of 11.3 per year in 2009 to an average of 14.6 per year per organization in 2010.

What does it mean?

First, the increase in reported security breaches can be explained by significant industry-wide investments in detective and reporting capabilities.  It’s necessary to implement up-to-date technology and focus on governance and employee education, as security is an issue that affects all employees, not only IT executives. As businesses become more proactive with security, the visibility into breaches is letting them react faster and more efficiently, thereby lowering associated costs.

But while the investment in defensive technology is decreasing breach costs, organizations are experiencing more focused attacks. The study reveals a growing trend toward sophisticated attacks on customer and citizen data. Research from our Security Labs indicates that attackers are seeking out sensitive data that can be sold or repurposed for financial gain, rather than opportunistic control of systems.

In terms of social media, this year’s study finds one in four Canadian organizations are blocking access to social networking sites, citing security as the primary driver. However, in both the private and public sectors, organizations that block these sites experienced no improvement in security and could suffer a worsening of security as employees attempt to circumvent the block.

The Survey

I’ve been asked why we partner with the world-renowned Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto on an annual IT security study.
The answer is that we recognize that information security extends beyond the realm of IT executives. It affects the entire business, and what better way to provide an overall thought leadership perspective than to partner with a leading organization that is consistently redesigning business education to meet current industry demand?

This year’s survey analyzed data from more than 500 Canadian companies nationwide. This month at TELUS Talks Business, we’ll hear more about key insights from the study, as well as current security trends and issues from experts and customers.  Please join us.

I’ll leave you today with a snapshot of security breaches from the study. The top five types of breaches in 2010:
                1. Malware (worms, viruses, spyware, Trojans)
                2. Phishing and pharming
                3. Unauthorized access to information by employees
                4. Bots (zombies) within the organization
                5. Denial of service attacks

Technology breaches that dropped most significantly include:

1.  Abuse of wireless networks
2.  Denial of service attacks
3.  Website defacement

Access the full report at www.telus.com/securitystudy

Yogen Appalraju is the vice-president of security solutions at TELUS. 

Create a profile and join the conversation. Ask your questions about IT security and we’ll pose them to the experts for response here on TELUS Talks Business.

We just celebrated the launch of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 at a Toronto-based customer event with our partners at RIM. Rick Spence, president of Canadian Entrepreneur Communications and a business columnist for The National Post, was the keynote speaker who shared lessons and insights from Canada’s fastest growing companies.

Yesterday we shared the first half of Rick’s speech - The Secrets of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies – with the TELUS Talks Business audience. We join him here for part two as he concludes his listing of the top four strategies that lead to business success.

“Success Commitment No. 3. Do as I Love Rewards does: Put the customer first. Never stop looking for ways to serve your customer better than anyone else.

To me, the company that leads in putting customers first is M&M Meat Shops Ltd. of  Kitchener, Ont. You know the place: 482 cozy stores across Canada that boast “Hundreds of meal ideas – one aisle.” M&M Meat Shops was founded in 1980 in Kitchener, and now has more than 450 stores across Canada. M&M has survived and thrived for 30 years because they understand customer needs and made that the focus of everything they do.

M&M doesn't just sell meats or desserts - their high-quality prepared foods, flash-frozen for quality, offer convenient and affordable meal solutions for busy two-income families that don't have a lot of time to shop or cook. It’s not about the food, it’s about meeting customers’ needs. M&M’s stores are tiny –consumers are in and out fast. They also generate some of Canada’s highest sales-per-square-foot. Each store has one aisle, so you can find what you want fast. M&M also offers is lots of rotating specials, to encourage repeat visits and impulse buying.

Their stores have ample parking. The walls are lined with signs to help you find what you need. And if cranky kids are pulling at dad’s elbow, most M&M’s offer a free drink cooler and paper cups to make their wait bearable. M&M knows you have to break down the barriers that prevent people from doing business with you – and make your company a pleasure to deal with.

Best of all, they never stand still. Although customers think they know what to expect from M&M, the retailer launches two dozen new products a year. Recent menu additions included cookie dough, breakfast sandwiches, and chocolate-covered fruit.

And now M&M is now taking aim at the U.S. It has launched eight stores in two U.S. cities. If things go well, M&M hopes to expand throughout the Midwest, and eventually the entire U.S.

If you look at your market and think about ways you can add more value for your clients – through price, selection, convenience, quality, promotion – I'm sure you will realize there is much more you can do to build stronger relationships and more loyal customers.

Success strategy No. 4. Become someone worth talking about. Today, it’s not enough for businesses to provide top-notch products and services. It’s essential to have identity and purpose. You have to give people a reason to buy from you, and recommend you to others.

In today’s social media world, companies with specific identities and storylines are going to be the big winners. Social media – blogging and tweeting and facebooking – are here to stay. Customer conversations, complaints and recommendations are all part of the marketplace now. That’s why you need a constant supply of stories to tell –about the quality of your products, the benefits you create for your customers, amazing stories of employee dedication, new product development, customer experiences, interactions and testimonials. You have to become storytellers. And that will only work if your brand is actually worth telling stories about.

Use Facebook and Twitter to solicit customer engagement and feedback. Tell more stories about your company and is adventures and values, through your website, blogs and newsletters. Make people feel proud to be part of your community.

Lots of companies and brands are doing this. Special K is all about fitness. Pepsi is all about refreshing tired communities. Apple and Google are both all about innovation and ease of use.

Here’s a company that is serving up its own storyline of social responsibility. Toronto-based Bargains Group sources inexpensive products for discount retailers, and hunts down bargains in promotional products for marketing-minded companies. But Bargains Group is probably best known for the charitable work of its energetic founder, Jody Steinhauer, who last year won the Humanitarian of the Year award from the promotional products  association of Canada.

Here’s how The Bargains Group melds social responsibility and good business. Jody Steinhauer uses her time, creativity and financial support to give back to communities across Canada. She takes a special interest in helping the homeless, or those at risk of homelessness. She also helps charitable programs across Canada maximize their limited funds by offering deeply discounted items such as clothes and toiletries that charities require to provide necessities for their clients.

Bargain Jody is the lead organizer or founder for projects that have assisted more than a million Canadians. Particularly important are Project Winter Survival , which helps the homeless on the cold streets of the GTA, or Project Water, which hands out badly needed water bottles and other protective supplies to those on the street in the hot, humid summers. Jody’s leadership in social responsibility has earned her numerous awards and resulted in tremendous PR and awareness for her business. Bargains Group is a low-cost supplier that has shifted the narrative from cost to compassion – proving the truth of her mantra, “Giving back makes good business sense.”

So these are the challenges for your business:

• How can you become the best there is at doing one thing really, really well?
• In what ways can you use technology to devise new solutions for your customers – while remaining a high-touch service company?
• How can you put your customers first – by guaranteeing their results, as I Love Rewards does, or surrounding them with different ways of adding unique value, as does M&M Meats?
• And how can your company become a business worth talking about?

These are key survival tactics that are working for lots of companies in business today – and creating tremendous success stories. What’s more, I think these strategies can be used by almost anyone who wants to stand out in the minds of their customers, their employees and their marketplaces. Success is a mindset, and I want you to know that Canadian entrepreneurs understand how to create success and are doing it every day.

Keep working on your value, your customer benefits, your solutions and your stories. In reaching out to others, you create more value for yourself, your business and your employees. Today’s growing and ever-changing business landscape offers unlimited opportunities for success, and I wish you the greatest success as you carry forward the torch for your business.”

RICK SPENCE is president of Canadian Entrepreneur Communications and an expert in entrepreneurship and business growth. He writes a national column for the weekly Entrepreneur section of the National Post and is the former editor and publisher of PROFIT, The Magazine for Canadian Entrepreneurs. He speaks widely on business trends, marketing, social media and business growth. He can be reached at rick@rickspence.ca, or through his blog, Canadian Entrepreneur.

The nature of work has changed and well over 100 million knowledge workers worldwide are undergoing a fundamental shift in how when and where they work.

Today’s knowledge-based workforce has the ability to connect with the people, information, and tools that they need from just about anywhere and at anytime. If properly managed, this shift to a more Intelligent Work model has the potential to deliver an extensive range of “triple bottom line” benefits for employers, employees and the communities where they live.

A Triple Bottom Line (3BL) is an integrative framework that extends financial accounting concepts to measure economic, environmental, and societal performance of an organization. Utilizing all three factors to gauge performance, organizations can understand and respond to all of the implications, constraints, opportunities and tradeoffs relevant to their line of business. 3BL gives organizations a full account analysis of costs and savings for operating their business, as well as the impacts on employees, stockholders, communities and regions further afield.

And as we know from every aspect of our work and life, one of the keys to improving performance is simply measuring performance. At Teletrips we help our customers focus on three primary performance indicators (Financial, Environmental and Societal) and look at the impacts across three interconnected stakeholder groups (Employers, Employees, and Communities).

FINANCIAL INDICATORS

The potential financial benefits for employers, employees and communities are impressive.

One of the key measures that continues to garner significant attention from an employer perspective is the potential for real estate cost saving. For a large national employer this metric can easily climb into the high eight figures on an annual basis.

But it is not just about cost savings - higher rates of retention, individual and team performance improvements, opening up new talent pools, lower energy consumption and lower utility bills, improved employee health and well being are also important measures with clear financial implications that being tracked by today's leading organizations.

Employees also experience a financial lift by working for an Intelligent Enterprise.

The typical employee has an opportunity to save $2,000 - $5,000 in after tax dollars. This combines lower fuel, parking, tolls and vehicle operating costs and other expenses related to daily trips into the office. In today’s uncertain economic climate, the ability to put $5,000 back in your employees’ pockets has to be viewed considerable economic stimulus package.

And it doesn’t end there. The communities where we live and work would also benefit to the tune of $1,500 - $7,500 in annual positive economic impact per knowledge worker. Given the fact that employees are spending more time in or around their local communities, there is a clear opportunity for business revitalization and to drive economic diversification.

ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS

An Intelligent Work Initiative aligns directly with the organization’s environmental, corporate social responsibility efforts, workplace sustainability and conservation efforts.

Organizations have an opportunity to save a total of 2-5 metrics tons of green house gas emissions per employee every year. The lion’s share of the enterprise emissions reductions are due to reductions in corporate facilities (less space to power, heat, light and cool) and employee commutes (fewer commutes equals less tailpipe emissions). But there are additional environmental considerations that can and should be measured such as energy and fuel conservation, water consumption at corporate facilities, and landfill waste produced in office towers.

Communities also experience net positive impacts when you consider the bi-products associated with reducing amount of time that their citizens are spending on the road. Fewer trips and shorter commutes equals lower gasoline consumption, reduces our dependence upon oil and other fossil fuel based energy sources, lowers traffic congestion, reduces noise pollution and decreases roadway run-off (a major cause of pollution in our rivers and streams).

SOCIETAL INDICATORS

There is an extensive body of research that demonstrates a clear linkage between the shift to Intelligent Work and a set of broader, macro-level effects.  Intelligent Work creates new job opportunities for groups formerly excluded from labor markets, enhances community development and improves health / well-being.

In his recent address (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/25/statement-president-national-work-and-family-month) President Obama stressed the connection between Intelligent Work Practices and overall quality of life “…at the end of the day, attracting and retaining employees who are more productive and engaged through flexible workplace policies is not just good for business or for our economy – it’s good for our families and our future”.

And the good news doesn’t stop there. There is even evidence that having employees spend 1-2 days per week working from home as part of an Intelligent Work program can help reduce neighborhood crime and residential burglaries (according to the FBI, 62% occur between 6am and 6pm).

BOTTOM LINE ON THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

Many leading private and public sector organizations are taking a proactive role in leveraging the changing work patterns and work practices of the 21st century workforce to improve their triple bottom line performance.

Organizations like TELUS, TIAA-CREF and Scotiabank are using Intelligent Work as a viable strategy to manage the increasing demand for office space, a way to provide flexible work-life balance options with the potential to attract and retain employees, an effective business continuance strategy, as well as a viable alternative to commuting on our over strained public transportation networks. That is, they are all using Intelligent Work as a key method to drive their triple bottom line performance.

About Ian
Ian Gover is a pioneer in the field of distributed work. He has focused his career on helping organizations optimize their technology, workplace and human capital management infrastructure to provide a better match for today’s flexible workforce requirements.  As President & CEO of Teletrips, Ian works with public sector organizations and Fortune 500 companies to help them improve their triple bottom line performance - improving employee effectiveness, realizing millions in operational savings, and achieving significant improvements in environmental efficiency.  Prior to Teletrips, Ian held executive and senior management positions with Sun Microsystems and PricewaterhouseCoopers.  He holds a Master of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York.

About Teletrips
Teletrips (www.teletrips.com) is the leading provider of software as a service tools that help organizations improve their triple bottom line performance through Intelligent Workplace and Workforce Management.  The Intelligent Enterprise Software as a Service Platform is helping organizations around the world realize millions in operational savings, improve employee effectiveness and achieve significant improvements in environmental efficiency. The company’s diagnostic, design, reporting and analytical software has been used by the US EPA and Environment Canada’s Commuter Challenge, as well as other government agencies and private corporations throughout the US and Canada.

Create a profile, join the conversation and let us know what your company is doing to measure and manage its 3BL performance. For those businesses in Ontario sending representatives to Avaya Evolutions at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC), Ian Gover will be at the TELUS booth from 12-1:30 p.m.and 4:30-6 p.m. today. Location MTCC North, room 205/206. Please stop by! 

Every month is small business month at TELUS. But out in the world, October stands alone as Small Business Month and through its dedicated forums and events, we’ve had the opportunity to meet, network and listen to entrepreneurs and business owners just like you, across the country.

We were inspired by the courage and tenacity, innovation and business success of the entrepreneurs we met and we look forward to connecting with you throughout the rest of the year.

Some of the things we learned from you are:

• What keeps you up at night is finding new business, cash flow and leading the competition
  
• Business owners rely on technology to be more productive and help grow their business
  
• While few business owners are harnessing the power of social networking and social marketing, many entrepreneurs are still not sure where to start or how to optimize it
  

We had some discussions in person that we’d like to continue online.  Over the next few months, we look forward to sharing the insights we’ve learned and provide expert responses to the business challenges that you shared with us.

Let’s start today by addressing one of the challenges we heard throughout the country:

“How do I leverage social media to promote my business”?

Given that the same question has been asked of us in many forms over the course of October, we’d like to leave you with a social media resource library.  We connected with the experts on social media, including Facebook, bizlaunch.ca and Microsoft Advertising to provide you with a “how-to” guide to marketing your business with social media.

Facebook director Alfredo Tan provides the basics to getting started on promoting your business through Facebook:

You can download a full guide here:

How to Market your Business on Facebook

In this guide, Bizlaunch.ca provides practical advice to marketing your business through social media:

How to use Social Media to Market your Business

And finally, Microsoft Advertising provides an overview of marketing your business online through search advertising:

You can download a full guide here:

How to Market your Business with Microsoft Advertising

Related posts:
How to market your business on Facebook
How to market your business with Microsoft Advertising