Okanagan Business Examiner by NICHE MEDIA

SPRING 2011

America’s lead sales generator

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Visit our Award Winning Show Homes Today Located in the Heart of Old Glenmore, walking distance to the lake and cultural district. Bridges at Glenview Pond is comprised of 34 single family homes with 27 of these homes backing directly onto a private park with 2 ponds and a creek. The homes are custom designed to compliment each client’s unique desires and lifestyle with the exterior architecture mimicking the heritage homes of the past.

In 2010, the Final Phase of Bridges at Glenview Pond was awarded a total of 14 prestigious Tommie Awards. 2 Gold Tommie Awards in the New Home 2000 - 2999 sq.ft. category for “Excellence in Single Family Detached Home” and for “Excellence in Master Suite Design.” 3 Silver Grand Tommies were garnered for “Residential Development of the Year,” “Single Family Home Builder of the Year” and “Home of the Year.” In addition, we were recognized with 9 Silver Finalist Tommie Awards.

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Linking Okanagan Communities to the WORLD

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Departments MOVERS & SHAKERS

Our usual list of suspects doing amazing things

THE MOST EXPENSIVE HOMES The 15 priciest builds in the Okanagan

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA Connect, Connected, Connection

P20

CELL PHONES & CANCER

The definitive study is on now: answer in 30 years

FEATURES Mac McIntosh’ Proposal

The leading words no business can afford to live without: social media, patience, persistence and testing

The Seduction that is Vampt

14 P6

FortisBC’s odd Strategy

21st Century Taboo Words

Kelowna entrepreneurs launch an agave-malt drink south of the border

Not many companies give grants so customers will use less of their product The list of words you may not put in your e-mail

P14

Columnists Dominik Dlouhy - “It feels like 2003 again,” says Dlouhy, but with a difference. This time a rapid economic boom isn’t on the horizon. Ten economic trends that will shape our future.

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 41835528 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: P.O. Box 102, 215 Louie Drive, Westbank, BC V4T 3G2

Brad Clements - Our Okanagan is an

essential tool for business in this valley, most especially for those who are NOT computer friendly.

Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

9 20

Publisher Craig Brown publisher@businessexaminer.ca associate Publisher Chytra Brown chytra@businessexaminer.ca DIRECTOR OF SALES AND CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT Roy Kunicky roy@prospermediagroup.ca MANAGING Editor Devon Brooks editor@businessexaminer.ca ADVERTISING SALES Sales Representative Don Jack Jesse Kunicky Production Buddy Cole production@prospermediagroup.ca Assistant to the publisher Joanne Clarke jclarke@prospermediagroup.ca ContributORS Dominik Dlouhy, Bobbi-Sue Menard, Stephen Joyce, Karen Luniw, Brad Clements, Rae Stewart, Greensheets, EarthTalk Subscription Rates 12 issues annually | One year: $27.00 778-755-5727 Distribution The Okanagan Business Examiner is published monthly at Kelowna, BC by Prosper Media Group Inc. Copies are distributed to businesses from Osoyoos to Greater Vernon. The views expressed in the Okanagan Business Examiner are those of the respective contributors and not necessarily those of the publisher or staff. Cover Photo by Shawn Talbot

Editor’s Take - Insurance agent oversight – when MGAs came into being did we lose responsibility in the insurance world?

Rae Stewart - Picture 10,000 dump trucks hauling garbage to the landfill. That’s not all that we’re throwing away every year, that’s just what could be recycled. We have to do better.

22 15

President Craig N. Brown

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P.O. Box 102, 215 Louie Drive, Westbank, BC V4T 3G2 T: 778.755.5727 F: 778.755.5728

INSIDE

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Mac McIntosh

Sidebar - Marketing factoids Sidebar - Marketing Trends

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Karen Luniw The Spam List Specialty Bakery Brad Clements Vampt Beverages 2010 Most Expensive Homes Rae Stewart The Cell Phone Controversy Movers & Shakers The Editor’s Take Dominik Dlouhy SHAWNEE LOVE

9 11 12 13 14 15 18 20 22 24 25 27

At a little under $6 million this house in Traders Cover is the second most expensive being built in the Okanagan

COVER

SPRING 2011

America’s lead sales generator

Mac McIntosh showing off the shirt he gives to seminar clients who come up with great ideas Always n

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Power Protection & Backup for All Industrial & Commercial Applications

We didn’t invent clean power, we merely perfected it! (250) 491-9777 ext. 451

Correction

“A Proud Okanagan Valley Employer” • Kelowna, BC

www.alwayson.com

Photo by Shawn Talbot

P12 Brenda Laresser of Specialty Baker in Kelowna basks under warm new lights installed with money from an energy saving program sponsored by FortisBC

In our ‘Special Business People of Influence’ issue we incorrectly designated Don Turri, one of the accountants with MacKay Chartered Accountants, as a CFA or chartered financial analyst. In fact, Turri is a CFP (certified financial planner) and an FCA (Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants), but not a CFA. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

Marketing Fe a t u r e

Mac McIntosh’ Marriage Proposal

A marketing guru explains how to woo clients Photos by Shawn Talbot

In late February Accelerate Okanagan, working with the B.C. Technology Industry Association, brought Mac McIntosh to Kelowna for a seminar on marketing and lead generation. Martin Yuill at Accelerate Okanagan says, “I’ve been here two years now and lots of companies can always benefit from some improvement in how they market. The founder tends to have a technology background, so often it means they aren’t aware of the marketing needs.” McIntosh, a Canadian who moved to the United States more than two decades ago, was ranked number one of the 50 most influential people in the U.S. by the Sales Lead Management Association in 2010. McIntosh runs two companies, one being Mac McIntosh Inc. where he works as consultant and education expert. His second company, AcquireB2B, is an automated sales lead generation company, which is a business service that is expected to grow strongly in the near future. McIntosh says almost everyone participates in some form of marketing and lead generation, even if only at the most basic level of personal referrals, but many don’t do it well. The most common mistake, he says, “That’s more likely to be made by the marketer who came out of the sales organization and is more focused on the short term to get sales right now.” He frequently likens the sales process to dating. “I think 6

Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

by Devon

BROOKS

it’s when they ask someone to marry them on the first date. They’re not addressing the marketing process – they’re going right for the close. The odds of being successful are rare in that situation.” McIntosh deadpans with a woman in the seminar, introducing himself and then, after explaining to her that they should marry, asks how many children they will have, and about the house he wants them to buy. Turning back to

No matter what is being sold, on any given day someone who wants a product might be busy, suffering from a headache, late for a meeting or otherwise distracted. the audience he sums up the obvious: if this how most men approached a woman they would never date. It is also how most sales people approach a client and frequently enough, they get a negative response. McIntosh carries the metaphor onward, saying that after the introduction most sales people and companies expect sales to appear. According to him if you look at the entire sales process as a funnel, with the wide mouth representing all the potential clients at the onset, with firm closes at the

narrow end, many sales leak out in the middle. That’s not how it should be he says. “Most sales take one to 10 months. You have to nurture the leads; most people in most companies stop nurturing and three quarters of the leads leak out of the sales funnel because of that.” Nurturing equals relationship building and whichever sales person has the relationship, has the advantage. “I’ve closed more deals because I’ve nurtured the relationship. When I’ve been brought in at the eleventh hour, I’ve rarely closed the deal competing against someone who has a relationship already in place.” Another common mistake arises from a too short attention span. The most frequent complaint he hears is that a given marketing effort was a failure, but when he asks, McIntosh says many people will tell him the ad they placed didn’t work. Repetition is a necessity. “I’d rather market to 10 people at 100 companies than to one person at a thousand companies. I think I’ll have better results. Similarly I’d rather market to one person 10 times than to 10 people once because timing is everything.” By timing he means the customer’s time. No matter what is

Another place where companies miss is in not knowing their customers. One suggestion is to develop a persona for the typical customer. being sold, on any given day someone who wants a product might be busy, suffering from a headache, late for a meeting or otherwise distracted. Only if they have the chance to see the ad multiple times are they going to connect. Another example of wasted effort comes from poorly aligned budgets. Traditionally 95¢ of marketing dollars are spent on lead generation, 5¢ on prospect nurturing and virtually nothing goes to nurturing current customers. McIntosh says he is offended by a business that pushes out promotion after promotion to entice new customers, but never gives him a nickel for all the money he spends on a regular basis. He believes companies would do much better if they spent their marketing dollars using this formulae: 30¢ on lead generation, 60¢ on prospect nurturing and 10¢ on making current customers feel appreciated. Another place where companies miss is in not knowing their customers. One suggestion is to develop a persona for the typical customer. He says you should set up a cork board with two photos, one for a man and one for a woman, that are representative of the typical customer. Under each the marketing and sales team need to develop a list of attributes to define that person and figure out how they should impact the product and the sales message. McIntosh uses the example of print messages sent to people over 50 with information printed too small to read for people needing reading glasses. Whatever form of marketing or lead generation a company

goes with, he says the most important thing is to be sure of your goal, who you are marketing to and then, no matter how good you think the final message or delivery system is, test it. “Whatever tools you use [to market] you must track and measure the responses to get an ROI (return on investment). I’ve made it part of my DNA; I test everything I do.” In the end he says, most companies need to rethink more about what they are doing. “I’m not saying you should spend more – I’m saying you should spend differently.”

FACTS • 4.8% of revenue from the average company is spent on B2B marketing • 60% of new B2B leads come from marketing • The three biggest lead generators are: 1) e-mail; 2) phone; 3) postal/direct mail • The number of employees involved in the buying process: - 21 for 1,000+ employee-sized companies - 13.5 for 500-1,000 employee-sized companies - 6.8 for 100-500 employee-sized companies • Laser printed envelopes in direct mail campaigns always have more response than a postcard • Unless you have something they really, really want to see don’t send a message out more than three times a month, but don’t send it out less than once a month . . . continues page 8 Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

continued from page 7

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Mac McIntosh started his firm up 20 years ago, when he couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t persuade the CEO of the ad agency he worked at to invest more time and money developing the lead generation process. He has observed many trends since then. In an overall general fashion the pendulum swings back and forth between two goals and the goals vary with the strength of the economy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think what is interesting is that there have been some cycles between lead generation and branding that have come and gone a couple of times. So, when times are good â&#x20AC;&#x201C; letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say before the dot-com bubble burst â&#x20AC;&#x201C; suddenly there were all these branding agencies and a lot of money being spent on branding, and then when the economy crashed, then there was a focus on leads. Then when the economy got better again, it was back to branding.â&#x20AC;?

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did not like about a company, its offers or customer service. This is the sort of information that can be gauged through social media if the company pays attention. Another change is that people must not only pay attention to what message their company puts out, but where they are saying it.

Lead Generation

Getting leads is most effectively done, in order, through: 1) e-mail; 2) phone; 3) direct mail. While social media and online advertising are the growth sectors other methods of getting your message out like events, webinars, trade shows and newsletters, can still be effective, if done strategically. Social media is the hottest, sexiest new field in marketing, but if done badly is no better than any other medium. McIntoshâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; message, at its most basic, is that to get people coming back to hear your message online, through tweets or a newsletter, is that you must offer something of value aside from the product or service you want to sell. The more valuable the something â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;extraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is, the more often they will want to hear from you. Cross the line and you become spam and someone to be blocked. More mature mobile phone owners look on marketing through texting as the worst kind of intrusion. Younger people will tolerate it if they receive offers or information they really want. At that point they will ask for it to be sent. Knowing just how valuable your information is to the end user, of any age, in any medium is the key to marketing success.

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Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

Page 1

Department:

H i - Te c h

Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Social Media Karen LUNIW

“I don’t do it enough . . . or . . . at all. I just don’t get it”

Translated, this means, “I don’t understand, I’m afraid and I hope it will just go away.” Unfortunately, this is the mantra of far too many small business owners. Remember, this didn’t work with the Internet or e-mail. Now, unless you’re a dictator in a different country with the ability to shut down the Internet and mobile access, this is what you need to know…it’s not going away.

Karen Luniw is a Personal and Business Attraction expert, Author and Speaker who works with highly motivated individuals to up-level their life. Karen’s Law of Attraction Tips podcasts have been downloaded over 10 million times by people all over the world. Find out more at KarenLuniw.com or read more of her material at www.thehuffingtonpost.com/karen-luniw.

Lighten your business with savings Lighting installation program

Dave Willoughby, Old Towne Market, Kelowna, BC

In t his d ifferently f unctioning economy and with a growing, fully wired-in population the future of social media is assured. The future of your business is not. Is social media the endall, be-all for your business? Heck no. Or, at least probably not, but you want to stay on the leading edge, don’t you? Here’s what you need to know:

1. Customers want to connect with you

Being connected makes you more real and more accessible. People still have money, but how they spend it has changed. I know I don’t have to tell you that, but what you still might not have figured out is that they want to know that you’re still around in a week, but guess where they’ll look for you? If they like you and you have what they want – they’re likely to spend their hard-earned cash with you.

2. Small businesses now use are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Isn’t that for my kids? C’mon, I know that’s going through your mind. Right now, these are the top sites that small business owners use. Will it always be the way? Probably not, but for now, these are the ones you want to get to know more about. . . . continues page 10

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Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

Social Media continued from page 9

3. The more you get involved – the more your customer gets involved

A study done by Postling.com indicates that when small business owners posted eight times a week (really that’s only once a day and twice on Monday) online engagement increased ten times over those posting less frequently. This means you have more chances to make those all-important impressions, more often, on potential customers. This translates into dollars when you introduce the opportunity to buy from you.

4. You want to be Known, Liked and Trusted, right?

Who doesn’t? Social media gives you and your company more opportunity to create a relationship, even a friendship with potential customers. When people already feel like they know you and like you they are more likely to what? Yes, buy from you!

5. Podcasting is social media

Personally, I would not have the business I do without having created a podcast. Want to get in your customers head? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard prospective customers call me up and say, ‘I hear your voice in my head all the time.’ And yes, this is a good thing.

6. Social media changes countries

We’ve just seen a government dictator overthrown because of social media. This means if you don’t treat your customers and 1 11-03-02 PM staff right PMG_5583_MARCH_11.pdf – people are going to hear about 2:20 it, whether you’re using social media or not. Don’t get overthrown by bad behaviour.

CMY

Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

7. It can make you money

You’re in business to make money and getting involved with social media must have a bottom line impact, which it does, directly and indirectly.

8. If done wrong, it can damage your business

Kenneth Cole recently made a major faux pas with an insensitive tweet during the uprising in Egypt to appropriately promote his spring line. I recently got an e-mail through LinkedIn where the writer from an insurance company sent a cryptic, poorly spelled warning that was meant to get me thinking that I should check my coverage before my partner or I die. Nice…not. In both these examples, no relationship building was going on – quite the opposite.

9. Watch what the big cats do

Don’t spend all your time trying to figure out social media. Watch what the big players are doing and follow their lead. There are also some really good people for hire and people who teach courses – get informed and get going. I say, ‘Start small and play along.’

10. There are easy ways to do this so it doesn’t suck your time

Here’s the thing that stops business people in their tracks – the thought of having to spend more of their precious time on the computer. Great news! Social Media Aggregators – sites like Socialoomph.com and Postling.com are just a few of many that will allow you to create your tweets, schedule them and then post them on ALL your social media sites! How cool is that?

H i - Te c h

Words you Dare not Write Just about everyone gets caught in the anti-spam crossfire. If you are sending messages or publications like e-newsletters to your clients, chances are some of those messages are not reaching their intended targets because systems are designed to curtail the amount of electronic junk mail (spam) that reach people each day. $$$ Ad Affordable Amazing stuff Apply now Auto email removal Billion Cash bonus Cheap Collect child support Compare rates Compete for your business Credit Credit bureaus Dig up dirt on friends Double your income Earn $ Earn extra cash Eliminate debt Email marketing Explode your business Extra income Fast cash Financial freedom Financially independent 100% free Free Free Free gift Free grant money Free info Free installation Free investment Free leads Free membership Free offer

The two most common barriers to your legitimate message reaching your target audience are the Internet service providers (ISPs) and the spam filters built into all e-mail programs. Spam filters are software programs that search for words and phrases commonly used by spammers. If your e-mail has too many of these Free preview Guarantee ‘Hidden’ assets Home based Homebased business Income from home Increase sales Increase traffic Increase your sales Incredible deal Info you requested Information you requested Internet market Leave Limited time offer Make $ Mortgage Rates Multi level marketing No investment Obligation Online marketing Opportunity Order Now Prices Promise you Refinance Remove Reverses aging Save $ Search engine listings Serious cash Stock disclaimer statement Stop snoring Thousands Unsubscribe Web traffic Weight loss

words and phrases, it receives a high score, and may be blocked. Avoiding these words will increase the number of e-mails that make it through to their intended destination. A further warning: if you inadvertently break the rules too much or too frequently your IP address can be marked as a problem source and banned. Stephen Joyce is the Executive Director of Local Search Heroes. You can reach him at 250-496-5758 or find him online at www.localsearchheroes.com.

CHBA-CO.com Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

H i - Te c h

Fortis Flips Out

by Bobby-Sue

MENARD

It is a rare program that not only pays for a business upgrade . . . . . . but pays for upgrades that will save the business money on an ongoing basis. FortisBC has partnered with LiveSmartBC to create the FortisBC/LiveSmartBC Lighting Installation Program (FLIP). The program has a $5.1 million fund ($4 million from the province of B.C. and $1 million from FortisBC) to distribute grants of up to $5,500 per qualified small or medium business. The grant process is straightforward and the return on investment should contribute positively to the balance sheet for years. A business can contact FortisBC directly either by phone, through the FortisBC website, or e-mail flip@fortisbc.com.

FortisBC estimates the program will reduce the electricity the average business uses for lighting by 50 to 75% and overall electric use by up to 40%. Such a business would save about 8,000 kilowatt hours per year, which, at current rates, amounts to a savings of $800 annually. Brenda and Chris Laresser own Specialty Bakery in Kelowna. The company had been considering a lighting upgrade, but the initial cost delayed the decision. Specialty Bakery operates two locations, a retail store in Rutland and a café, retail, and small commercial baking centre on Highway 97 at Finns Road. The process to access the grant was very simple says Brenda, who responded to a letter from FortisBC about the program. “They came and did the assessment of our lighting and laid out all of the recommendations,” says Brenda. “It has been amazing. It has taken about an hour of my time and not one negative associated with the program. Everything including hiring the contractors is taken care of through Fortis. In the next few months a contractor will come and replace the lights.” For Specialty Bakery the grant will cover all the expenses with the changeover to new lighting, plus it will deliver results for the long term. If Specialty Bakery follows all the recommended measures, they will fare much better than the average business, saving an estimated 25,677 kilowatt hours per year. That’s equivalent to $2,360 in annual electricity savings. The numbers are so good that even if Specialty Bakery paid for the upgrades themselves, the investment would pay for itself within two years. The FLIP program was launched February 4, 2011, and has been a smashing success. The six business days following the launch saw $410,000 worth of grants applied for, 8% of the total available funding. The program will run until either the funding is exhausted or March 2013, whichever comes first. The goal was to install new lighting upgrades in 1,000 small businesses. Once that goal is met, the program will collectively reduce electricity use by nine gigawatt hours, enough electricity to power 450 small businesses annually. It will also save the small businesses that participate an aggregate total of more than $800,000 in utility costs each year. “This program is an enormous opportunity for small businesses to get started with saving energy at no cost. It will improve the lighting in their business and help them to reduce cost over the long term. There really is no down side,” says Nicole Bogdanovic, FortisBC spokesperson. Brenda and Chris Laresser of Specialty Bakery look at the lighting system that is expected to save them more than $2,000 annually in electricity costs

Columnist:

H i - Te c h

Our Okanagan Connects

with Business and Consumers by Brad

CLEMENTS

Why a local online business directory is essential

If you walk down main street of any Okanagan town, you will see a variety of wonderful local products and services that are available to us. We are fortunate to have such a diverse offering right here in our own valley. Despite that local abundance, in the twenty-first century more and more we look for products and services from our kitchens and living rooms. We do not walk down the street to see what is available, instead we ask Google to find it for us. In their latest survey BIA/Kelsey Research found that 97% go online when researching products or services, even when it is for something they expect to find locally. “The Internet has indeed become an integral part of consumers’ local commercial activity,” says Steve Marshall, director of research at BIA/Kelsey. “The data suggests we’re at an inflection point where the balance of power in local shopping is shifting to online.” Our drive to shop online is fueled by busy schedules and the desire for instant gratification. It is considerably easier, and faster, to sit at home and type a few words into one of many gadgets we have, than to explore our own streets. Using these gadgets we have a myriad of possibilities presented to us, in seconds. When Google searches the world for the most relevant solution, it very often bypasses local options. Then simple click or tap, provides solutions that are packaged up and shipped to your doorstep from the U.S., Mexico or China. Unfortunately these types of transactions provide no local economic benefit other than a small contribution to the delivery person who drops off the order. Here in the Okanagan this problem is real and it impacts all of us. Over the last few years all of our towns have seen business close and employees lose their jobs. Yes, there was a recession, and yes, we were still purchasing products and services, but all too often it was through the click of a mouse, bypassing all local benefit. Competition is a good thing, and sometimes there are products that aren’t available here, but that’s the rare case. Mostly bypassing local is a drain of money to other economies. This is no one’s fault, but it is still a problem. One of the causes of that problem, perhaps the biggest one is that people searching online often do not even know that the services or products they want are available right here. Someone in the Okanagan either produces or sells many of these things. When too many of these opportunities go elsewhere it leads to empty buildings, an unemployment rate 4% higher than the national average and increased pressures on our social assistance system.

Until now there was not an easy way to see what products and services are available locally, and a local solution has been developed. www.ourokangan.ca was developed through a partnership with Community Futures, the Okanagan Partnership, the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development to help solve this problem. It is an easy, free way to use our gadgets to find the great things that are available right here in our valley. Best of all, it will give us the opportunity to support our fellow residents so we can all continue to live here. Brad Clements is part of a team of five people building the online directory of Okanagan businesses. If you are a local business or not for profit, be sure to register and post a profile. If you are looking for a product or service, begin your local search from the home page. Our Okanagan – Connecting our Valley, Creating Opportunity www.ourokanagan.ca. To comment on this article or for more information contact Brad by e-mail at brad@ourokanagan.ca.

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Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

Beverage Production

Seduction of the Vampt Get Vampt

by Bobby-Sue

MENARD

It’s the sexy, new and aggressive entrant into the North American adult beverage market, which is to say alcoholic market, targeted primarily at men, with a lingering appeal to women. This Kelowna owned-company is launching their agave-infused malt beverage into selected markets in the western U.S. with a trendy product looking to build buzz. The product and company is backed by the long, unsexy hard work of extensive R&D and business planning. Vampt is the brainchild of Kelowna residents Ian Toews, Roberto Rodriguez and Lyndon Siemens. The friends first came up with the idea more than three years ago while Rodriguez was mixing tequila cocktails from recipes he had learned in his native Mexico. “We talked about the idea and then got serious about it,” recalls Rodriguez. “We talked to friends in business, started building contacts and did a lot of research.” The fledgling company worked with a food scientist in Los Angeles, who was able to source ingredients and help smooth the flavour development process. Over 100 flavours were developed for the first round of pilot testing with groups in several U.S. states, British Columbia and Alberta. Every base was covered until four flavours were chosen. Two flavours, agave with citrus and agave with 14

Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

nectarine, were chosen forathe launch with two more to follow soon. Tequila has been one of the fastest moving trends in the beverage industry, and Vampt is using agave to enter a market dominated by vodka flavoured beverages. With the malt base for the U.S. market, a hint of carbonation and a strong flavour profile the company is decidedly different from traditional coolers. Vampt is less sweet than many brands on the market that target the female consumer. It was an intentionally decision to go after the male drinker in every aspect from taste and packaging through to marketing. Says Rodriguez, “There is a gap in the

market for beverages targeted at men.” They narrowed the target to 21 to 32 year old men. The ideal Vampt drinker is single, cosmopolitan, frequents bars and nightclubs and has disposable income. He responds well to the names. The nectarine blend goes under the more persuasive name of ‘Smooth Talker,’ while the citrus flavour is called ‘Midnight Warrior.’ Starting with bottle design that uses an old fashioned long neck with screw top or a 24 ounce can, Vampt is looking for a customer who enjoys making a statement. The striking logo, predominant black background and . . . continues page 26

Real Estate

Top 15 Single Family Home Permits in 2010 Ranked by Dollar Value

Ever wonder how big and expensive home building could get? Here are the most expensive homes people wanted to build in the Okanagan last year and who built them. 1. $6,000,000 KELOWNA – 10 180 Sheerwater Ct. Builder – Mission Group Creations – 250-448-8810

5. $2,014,000 LAKE COUNTRY – 17857 Commonage Rd. Applicant – Warren Irwin – Toronto

2. $5,750,000 CENTRAL OKANAGAN REGIONAL DISTRICT 71 Traders Cove Rd. Builder – Fawdry Homes Ltd – 250-862-8630

6. $2,000,000 KELOWNA – 4468 Lakeland Rd. Builder – Neil Miller Homes Ltd – 250-764-8627

3. $3,000,000 SUMMERLAND – 11815 Conway Cr. Builder – Sierra West Homes & Construction 250-767-1993 4. $2,900,000 KELOWNA – 7 180 Sheerwater Ct. Applicant – Vineyard Management Ltd – 250-878-9411

7. $2,000,000 WEST KELOWNA – 2463 Whitworth Rd. Builder – Dave Hellard – 403-899-2634 8. $2,000,000 KELOWNA – 5308 Lakeshore Rd. Builder – PCL Constructors Westcoast – 250-868-8394 9. $1,703,000 VERNON – 602 Falcon Point Way Builder – Predator Ridge Construction – 250-542-7452 10. $1,600,000 KELOWNA – 370 Braeloch Rd. Builder – Heirloom Custom Homes Ltd – 250-718-5752 11. $1,500,000 KELOWNA – 5048 Lakeshore Rd. Builder – Neil Miller Homes Ltd – 250-764-8627 12. $1,500,000 KELOWNA – 2890 Shayler Ct. Builder – Neil Miller Homes Ltd – 250-764-8627 13. $1,400,000 THOMPSON NICOLA REGIONAL DISTRICT 5560 Trans Canada Highway Builder – Todd Construction – 250-377-1648 14. $1,300,000 WEST KELOWNA – 3760 Gates Rd. Builder – Heritage Construction – 250-768-5939

photo by Devon BROOKS

Number two on the list, the $5.75 million home under construction at Traders Cove on the west side of Okanagan Lake

15. $1,250,000 NORTH OKANAGAN REGIONAL DISTRICT 6387 Dixon Dam Rd. Builder – Makasoff Construction – 250-308-9900 Data courtesy of Green Sheet Construction Data Ltd. To see other information that Green Sheets can provide visit www.greensheet.ca. Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

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Adver tor ial

Define the future

What is YOUR company’s vision? As your company’s leader, you define the vision that shapes your business. Without defining the future, leaders fall back on organizational precedents to deal with new situations.

Creating your vision

Start with the following questions: • What values do we stand for? • What skills and talents do we have? • Do these resources match the demands of the marketplace? If not, why? • What opportunities are available for us in the future? • Do we presently have the capacity to seize upon these opportunities?

Once you have found the vision for your business, keep in touch with it. Examine how your vision aligns with your current employees and customers and how they will be impacted in the future. Your vision provides a clear direction for people to follow. Articulating your vision makes it achievable and concrete.

Infuse your vision in your company’s culture. Posting your vision statement, sharing it with current and new employees and putting it on your organization’s brand map are just a few initial steps. You have to walk the talk with actions that support your values. Examine if there is a gap between the vision and the way your business actually performs. Monitoring the execution of your vision and sharing it will strengthen and unify your company.

Revisit your vision by asking yourself:

• • • •

How is our vision affecting our customers? For our customers who aren’t entirely happy today, will our vision make them happier? For people who don’t buy from us now, will this attract them? In a few years, will we do a better job than our competition of offering increasingly superior products and services that customers really need?

“The process either evolves with the executive team or starts when the CEO has an epiphany about the business and storms into the office looking for disciples,” says TEC Canada speaker Don Schmincke. “Leaders set the tone and the pace for change. Their compelling agenda invigorates employees and, if successful, spills over to the customers. It becomes the organization’s destiny -- something shared by everyone involved.”

If others look to you for direction and you are striving to expand your vision, TEC Canada can help you achieve success and results that exceed expectations. Join TEC on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 for Memory and Sales Strategy Toolbox: Building a Better Customer Experience and Increasing Profitability. Tickets are $65 for TEC Canada members and $99 for guests. To learn more about TEC Canada, visit www.tec-canada.com or call TEC Chair Ken MacLeod in Kelowna at (250) 545-7632 or (250) 306-5915 for more information on upcoming events.

Sharing and maintaining your vision

How do you continue to share your company’s v ision as your business evolves?

Continue to check in with how your values are shaping your company. As the leader, always keep looking to the horizon and rely on your staff to help you get there.

Ken MacLeod, TEC Canada Chair and President of The MacGroup of Companies

With files from Vistage International.

Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

Sustainability

Columnist:

Dirty Business

Be Informed, Know your Waste, Make a Plan! Every year thousands of businesses,aapartments and condo complexes in the central Okanagan send an estimated 90,000 tonnes of what they consider garbage to our landfill. Unfortunately, well over half of the material being tossed out as garbage… just isn’t. It’s completely recyclable. That means every year, approximately 45,000 thousand metric tonnes of material is being buried, needlessly. How big is that? Well, it would take 10,000 dump trucks to haul it. Placed end to end those trucks would stretch from Vernon to Penticton. And every day at the open face of the landfill, staggering proportions of plastics and plastic film, metals and appliances, cardboard and paper products, not to mention countless tonnes of concrete and drywall, yard waste, wood, and hazardous materials are dumped, then covered up with dirt. Every day. What’s mind boggling is that there is no reason for these items to be thrown in the garbage in the first place. It’s wasteful, sad, and just plain unnecessary. Keep in mind we are now down to one landfill. With the recent closure of the landfill in West Kelowna in 2010, the Glenmore landfill now services the waste requirements for the entire Central Okanagan, commercially and residentially. Dumping all this material into our landfill at this rate will fill it up 20 to 40 years before it needs to. Estimated cost of finding a new landfill site in 2030 is tens of millions of dollars. Cost for landfills vary depending on the terrain, the size and volume of a landfill, which depends on how many people are contributing but a quick Google search shows estimates varying from $70 to $700 million for medium sized cities. Expensive no matter how you look at it. Estimated cost of trucking our waste to other communities? Same answer – tens of millions of your dollars, the tax payer. The whole issue is about more than 18

Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

just the money, or even feeling good for being the right environmental thing to do. When the wrong material finds its way into the landfill, toxic hazardous waste, like leaking batteries containing particularly nasty stuff like acids, caustics and corrosives can find their way into our soil, ground and drinking water. What goes into the ground and water eventually finds it way to us and our children. It gets worse. The 6,000 odd tonnes of cardboard we’re throwing away, instead of separating out into the recycling stream, means 353 more trees will be cut down. At home, people are getting the message, but for the commercial business sector the story is much different. As to why that should be, we’ve heard every excuse under the sun from businesses for not recycling: ‘I don’t know how it works; I don’t know where to take it; it takes too long; it’s too expensive; it’s not that important, and I pay enough in taxes already! (If you think you’re paying too much in taxes now, wait until we have to finance a $50 million new dump.)

Rae STEWART One landfill, one planet, one finite set of resources.

Businesses are not the only ones targeted, but residential recycling habits have been steadily improving year to year since the curbside program’s inception in 2000. The residential curbside program boasts a 94% participation and capture rate. At the same time, residential waste accounts for only 30% of the overall waste stream, with less than 30% of what’s being tossed actually recyclable. It’s time businesses stood up and took notice. Your customers expect this from you, and your business image can only improve as a result. Of course there a cost. Absolutely. Anyone in business knows there’s no free lunch, but there are ways of keeping your costs down, and saving yourself some big surcharges for tossing the wrong things. When was the last time you had a chat with your waste hauler about your specific needs, or about revenue you can generate from the sale of your recyclables and potential cost savings to your business as a result? Canadian Tire

This garbage shouldn’t be – most everything here could have been recycled

in West Kelowna is an example of a local business that is forecasting to profit from its waste stream in 2011. That was not the case before they contacted our office, talked to their contractors, got informed and made some changes. There are always some that complain about the costs associated with waste disposal and recycling, but here are some of the real costs. Some also think that if they slip recyclables into their garbage bins they have sidestepped the cost. Except it isn’t going to work. Fines of $150 per metric tonne are going to be applied to waste haulers over and above other fees for loads at the landfill containing mandatory recyclables. Your waste hauler will have no choice but to pass these costs back to the customer, which is you and your business. There are always choices to make, in business, as in life. This program is about educating businesses about the various recycling options available, and the social, economic and environmental benefits of managing your waste responsibly. Our message is “Be informed, Know your waste, Make a plan!” And, might we add, make a difference.

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Sustainability

Cell phone links to Cancer appear Weakly Linked Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the latest research on the question of whether cell phone use causes cancer?

by William

THIGPEN by e-mail

From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine Cell phones have only been in widespread use for a couple of decades, which is far too short a time for us to know conclusively whether or not using them could cause cancer. Research thus far appears to indicate that most of us have little if anything to worry about. According to the federally funded National Cancer Institute, the low-frequency electromagnetic radiation that cell phones give off when we hold them up to our heads is “non-ionizing,” meaning it cannot cause significant human tissue heating or body temperature increases that could lead to direct damage to cellular DNA. By contrast, X-rays consist of high-frequency ionizing electromagnetic radiation and can lead to the kind

Researchers looking to get past the relatively short timing window and the recall bias issues of the Interphone study recently launched a longer term study, dubbed COSMOS (short for Cohort Study on Mobile Communications), in Europe. Some 250,000 cell phone users between the ages of 18 and 69 and located in Britain, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark will participate by allowing researchers to track their cell phone usage and health over three decades. According to an April 22, 2010, article in Reuters, the study will factor in the use of handsfree devices and how people carry their phones and will also be on the lookout for links to neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. There are some precautions you can take to minimize whatever risk may exist. The Federal Communications Commission in the United States suggests reserving the use of cell phones for shorter conversations, or for times when a conventional phone isn’t available. Also, using a handsfree device places more distance between the phone and your head, significantly reducing the amount of radiation exposure. If the fact that many states require handsfree devices for using a cell phone while driving isn’t enough to make you go out and spend the extra money on such an accessory, maybe the cancer risk, perceived or real, will.

Reprinted with permission from EarthTalk®. Send your environmental questions to: EarthTalk, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial. AnglAis 1/4 pAge visuel lAssonDe

of cellular damage resulting in cancer. Nonetheless, some cell phone users and researchers still worry about our cell phone usage, given how much we now use them and how little we know about their potential long-term effects. The reason the issue keeps coming up is that some initial studies in Europe, where cell phone usage caught on a decade before the U.S., showed links between some forms of tumors and heavy cell phone usage. As a result, researchers teamed up to do a more definitive study, called the “Interphone” study, across 13 countries between 2000 and 2004. The results, published in May 2010 in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Epidemiology, indicated no increased risk of developing two of the most common types of brain tumors, glioma and meningioma, from typical everyday cell phone usage. Study participants who reported spending the most time on their phones showed a slightly increased risk of developing gliomas, but researchers considered this finding inconclusive due to factors such as recall bias, whereby participants with brain tumors may have simply remembered past cell phone use differently from healthy respondents.

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10:30

Pe o p l e & Events

Movers & Shakers

Fowler receives Top Marks

Last month Gord Fowler of Re/Max Vernon received that company’s second highest sales volume award when he was named to the Chairman’s Club. Fowler was recognized at the Re/Max’s 28th Annual Conference for Western Canada at the Fairmont Hotel in Victoria in front of 600 other Re/Max sales associates. Fowler is not new to the industry or the Okanagan having worked in the area since 2005 and as a Re/Max realtor since 1992.

by Devon

BROOKS

Basket Weaving 101?

The old joke about going to college to serve lattes in a coffee shop is unfortunately a joke on all of us, or that’s what the results of a study on higher education in the United States reveals. In December Richard Vedder released the results of a study of how university graduates are faring in career aspirations (http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/ the-great-college-degree-scam/28067). The study tracked graduates from 1992 to 2008 to see what percentage were working in jobs the Bureau of Labor Statistics deems to be low skilled. Low skilled being defined as jobs that could be done by people who only have high school or less under their belt. The study suggests that there was a 60% increase in students with degrees working at low skill occupations. In 1992, out of 28.9 million university graduates, 5.1 million, or 17.6% were in low skill positions. In 2008 there were 49.4 million graduates and 17.4 million, or 35.2% were in low skill jobs. The study did not reveal what percentage of those 1992 graduates stayed in low skill positions, which might be a valuable addition. Vedder draws the conclusion that it is a waste of time to push higher education, but his study doesn’t differentiate between those who never make use of their degree but for whom it took a while to start their careers. Nor does Vedder mention how the economic slow down might have skewed the 2008 figures.

Changing of the Commerce Chamber Guard

In the past few months there has been a change in management at three out of four of the largest chambers of commerce in the Okanagan. Leadership changes took place at the Westbank Chamber, the Vernon & District Chamber and the Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce. In December Karen Thompson took over at Westbank from Leah Thordarsen. Thompson says they are starting off with the basics – developing a policies and procedures manual, a new constitution and putting in place new accounting procedures and office systems. She says to expect a new member benefits package and more advocacy work. Thompson’s work background includes banking and more recently, a six year stint at the Urban Development Institute, Kelowna Chapter.

Gord Fowler

Karen Thompson

In Vernon, Deb Leroux has taken over from Val Trevis. Leroux is the owner of Harris Flowers, a former councillor in Lumby and a member of the Chamber Board. With her political and business experience Leroux says she can build on the Chamber’s already strong relationship with all three levels of government. She believes that promoting local business issues with the City of Vernon, the regional district and the province is one of the most important functions she can fulfill.

to his new position from his role as executive director of the Downtown Kelowna Association, a role now filled by Peggy Athans. Perrott’s new mandate includes: improving the local business climate, increasing local job opportunities, expanding the business tax base, enhancing the town centres and ensuring productive relations between the District, community partners and neighbouring municipalities.

Ontario Venture Capital taps local Entrepreneur

Deb Leroux

At the south end of Lake Okanagan the Penticton Chamber has appointed Erin Hanson as the new general manager, taking over from Lorraine Renyard. Hanson has relocated from Calgary where she was the Chief Operating Officer of the Alberta Women Entrepreneurs Association.

Venture Quest Capital, based out of London, Ontario, has brought Joel Young of EagleRidge Developments and the Okanagan Valley Entrepreneurs Society onboard to assist in finding worthwhile companies to invest in. Young will be the investment advisor for VQ Capital in the Okanagan region. VQ President C.J. Lemoine says in their first five months Young has already “generated tremendous business activity in this short period.”

Erin Hanson

SIFE Moves to Can Hunger

The Okanagan College’s business development program embraces three SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) teams, one on the Penticton, Vernon and Kelowna campuses that encourages students to work with real companies and find out what the business world is really like. At the same time the students are urged to think beyond their own needs and work toward the betterment of their communities. One of the projects the team worked on was a December push for ‘Lets Can Hunger,’ originated by the Campbell Soup Company. SIFE Okanagan committed to collecting 80,000 pounds of food. The group collected 11,000 pounds over Christmas, but since then the total has shot up to 61,417 pounds, of which 90% is food while $6,025 worth came in the form of cash. Two photos of students building Mall Display to attract donations

West Kelowna names Development Officer

The still young District of West Kelowna has name John Perrott as its first business development officer. After officially adopting the West Kelowna Economic Development Strategy last summer, one of the requirements was hiring a business development officer to implement the strategy. Perrott moves

Joel Young

Lake Country’s Way

The District of Lake Country has decided to invest in creating an image. Part of that was to create a new logo and slogan to assist in promoting the municipality for tourism, special events and economic development. The committee head in charge of developing the new image, Councillor Geoff Greenwell, says, “We believe it will be a great asset to the District of Lake Country, the development of Main Street, civic organizations and businesses in promoting their activities and . . . continues page 28 Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

E d i t o r ’s Ta k e

Ed itor ial:

The Insurance Oversight There is a fight brewing in the insurance industry, or rather, over how certain segments of the insurance industry in Canada are operating. The Globe and Mail made the fight public in December when it reported on the case of a 96-year-old woman, Katie Sturhahn, who was persuaded by an independent insurance agent to surrender her life $200,000 segregated fund, with guaranteed payouts, for a more lucrative investment. The idea was to provide a bigger payout for her children. Katie died shortly thereafter, but not before the company that sold her the new investment declared bankruptcy. Sturhahn’s children, who are themselves elderly and at least one, in poor health, were out the inheritance. The case is in court, but the Globe and Mail argues in the article (www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ through-canadas-insurance-loophole/article1842982/) called Through Canada’s insurance loophole, that this wasn’t an isolated incident. The problem is a new structure utilized by most players within Canada’s insurance system. A couple of decades ago insurance companies hired and trained agents who oversaw the policies that were sold and independent insurance agents were contracted to a company. The agent or the company was responsible for what they sold and advised clients, and a plethora of regulations made sure they toe the line. Today, 44% of insurance policies are being sold through MGAs or Managing General Agents. Essentially they are a middleman, dealing with many insurance companies and many independent agents like the one that sold Sturhahn on her new investment. Most big insurance companies have cut way back on the number of agents, from 22,600 in 1985 to less than 10,000 in the 2000s, while independent agents now number over 76,000. Many, perhaps most of these independents, now work through MGAs, but no one is keeping track. One estimate is that there are around 400 MGAs, some of substantial size. Any given insurance agent can deal with many MGAs, and through them many different insurance companies, for the policies the agent peddles. If an agent gives bad advice, as in Sturhahn’s case, no one is willing to stand up and take responsibility because tracking who is selling what is like following six strands of spaghetti through a plate of pasta and meatballs. Insurance companies have no direct dealing with agents and don’t train them. No legislation holds MGAs directly responsible for the agents working through them or the advice those agents pass on. 24

Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

by Devon

BROOKS

The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) was asked about the issue, but the only comment made before the story broke was that a consultation paper was in the making. That didn’t stop Frank Swedlove, president of the CLHIA, from lashing out after the article was published. “The article misleads by giving the impression that consumers are exposed when purchasing life insurance through certain channels. This is simply not the case.” Later in his rebuttal Swedlove also writes, “As part of its continual assessment of the industry and its regulation, insurance regulators are currently studying the activities of MGAs to determine if additional regulation is appropriate.” This is known as speaking out of both sides of your mouth. Swedlove cannot maintain that he knows consumers are not exposed to unnecessary risk and then write his organization is studying to make sure MGAs are appropriately regulated, presumably to avoid passing on unnecessary risk. Every financial industry in Canada works under a regulatory burden. Every industry, as industry is wont to do, seeks to minimize the cost of that burden. In this case it appears there is a pretty good loophole and an unscrupulous few will make reckless use of the loophole. The question becomes whether the industry decides plugging the loophole is worth the cost and whether governments will agree, but pretending there are no loopholes even as the industry’s association investigates simply undermines their credibility. Devon Brooks is the managing editor of the Okanagan Business Examiner. If you have comments on this article please e-mail them to editor@businessexaminer.ca.

The Economy

Columnist:

Economic Trends of the Next Decade Dominik DLOUHY The first decade of the century is over. It feels like 2003 again, with higher unemployment levels and lower market prices as the world recovers from a bubble and recession, just what was happening then. Some of the similarities are positive, with many undervalued investment opportunities available and economic growth ahead. Some differences are not so positive. Government deficits and debt levels are now a problem, and we have an asset price bubble building in bond markets, instead of housing, sub-prime mortgages and global banking. Events in progress will continue to shape our world views and investment outcomes for the next decade. The most immediate is the unwinding of the financial crash. These take a lot longer to recover from than run-of-the mill recessions, as there is serious damage to heal. Budget deficits swell as governments try to spend their way out of recession. Canada’s situation is manageable so far, but countries like the U.S., Ireland, Greece and Japan have problems developing. Government debts rise 85% on average after a financial crisis, according to excellent research by Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart in their book This Time Is Different.

The average housing market takes four years to recover from a crash. Governments with too much debt have too few options. They can raise taxes, which is always unpopular. The U.S. could fix a lot of their imbalances if they introduced an HST. Recent local experience shows this is not the voters’ first choice. The U.S. could slash its spending, but cuts are painful and the numbers don’t work unless they attack their benefits and entitlements like social security, medicare, pensions and “Obama-care”. Again, political suicide. Governments can default on their debt. One oddity of the 2000s was that so few governments did, in part because they had access to collateralised debt markets where credit quality didn’t matter. It matters now, and sovereign defaults will be back. The U.S. has another choice: inflation. Most of their debts

The first decade of the century is over are in U.S. dollars. If they could print just enough money to engineer a 7% rate of inflation for a decade, the real amount of government debt drops in half. It also pummels the currency, which helps boost exports and jobs, and maintains inflation. Inflation favours borrowers, but is hard to control once it gets going. The average housing market takes four years to recover from a crash. That would put the housing market in recovery in the U.S. and others countries beginning this year. That makes sense as the U.S. still has to deal with foreclosures on hundreds of thousands of homes. Economic recovery and growth in many countries will be slower than normal, as they deal with their own housing and banking disasters. Fortunately, Canada is not a direct member of this club. Unfortunately our growth will be slower than otherwise as world growth will be slower. Germany and China will become increasingly important to Canada and B.C. Germany seems to be growing again after two painful decades of reunification. Its economy is about one-fifth of Europe’s, so if Germany booms, it will boost Europe. China has an insatiable appetite for natural resources. Growth in world production of many commodities is limited after decades of low prices and underinvestment. Expect to see higher prices for longer than anyone thought possible for things like copper, oil, coal, iron and food. Unemployment is a lagging indicator of economic activity. Regular recessions require about 18 months past the economic trough for jobs to start coming back. Financial crises need about four years, which suggests U.S. jobs should begin to recover in 2011, and U.S. numbers are beginning to show a turnaround. But, with increasing numbers of people beginning to retire, a greater longer term problem might be a lack of people to fill jobs. That is great for skilled people looking for work, but could backfire on retirees as the tax base shrinks. There is a bond bubble developing, just like the tech bubble in 2000. Investors and savers desperate for safety have overpaid for government debt, resulting in near record low interest rates. Interest rates must rise from current levels, and when they do the market prices of medium to long term bonds will fall. Many investors that don’t hold them to maturity will sell these supposedly safe investments at a loss. Those that hold have locked in super low interest rates in an inflationary environment. I have been surprised before, but I can’t see any . . . continues page 29 Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011 25

Vampt

continued from page 14

coloured accents are all skewed ‘male’ in look and feel. The website (www.vampt.com) shows off a slick mix of video and graphics that works to create a brand consistent with their prospective customer’s lifestyle. “We are looking to create expectation as a part of the marketing strategy,” explains Rodriguez. The company is launching its product through a series of publicized events throughout the western U.S. The decision to launch in the United States was dictated by government regulations. It is markedly cheaper to deal with the U.S. regulatory structure, where there is one set of rules allowing manufacturers to deliver across the country with only minor adjustments. Here, there are a different set of rules and regulations for every province, which come with a new round of investment in each jurisdiction.

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The regulatory differences are so onerous, Rodriguez says a Canadian company with Canadian investors has perfect clarity about the right course of action. “Our investors prefer we launch this way, in the U.S. first. It is to the benefit of everyone to do it this way.” Production has also therefore been shifted to the U.S. Facilities south of the border have the capacity to work with Vampt effectively, and the distribution systems are already in place. The company has developed to this point with primarily Canadian investors, the bulk of whom reside in the Okanagan. Vampt attracted a mix of ground floor investors, some came through Trade Exchange Canada. More money will be needed to keep Vampt rolling and the next round of investments is open. Vampt, says Rodriguez, is still actively courting investors who are able to invest for a modest five figure number. The company expects to grow quickly, but, says Rodriguez, “The

Photo by Bobbi-Sue Menard Vampt cofounder Roberto Rodriguez believes the drinks will appeal to young men in the U.S. and as a takeover target for long-established companies

brand was developed for the long term, and the concept is not focused on an idea that will wear out. We’ve hired people who worked with Mike’s Hard Lemonade and want to grow bigger than Mike’s.” The adult beverage market in the U.S. is almost $9 billion a year including beer sales. Progressive adult beverage (PRB) annual sales were $1.4 billion, down slightly (4.9%) over the previous year due mostly to a drop in sales of a few individual brands including Sparks. Mike’s Hard Lemonade was up 20%. Vampt has room to grow. New products take years to reach the PRB market. Big players like Smirnoff and Bacardi can take longer than the three years the Vampt team has invested to launch a new concept. Rodriguez says there is hope that as Vampt grows the big guys will decide to buy them out, leaving happy investors in their wake. He says, “It is all about the brand. Once we see how the market reacts there is every opportunity in front of us.”

Human Resources

Columnist:

What the Best have in Common

by Shawnee LOVE

Happy employes make for profitable companies

The Top 100 workplaces in Canada list in 2010 can be viewed online at www.canadastop100.com/ national/. It was done from the perspective of judges who evaluated the applicants in eight criteria: • Physical Workplace; • Work Atmosphere & Social; • Health, Financial & Family Benefits; • Vacation & Time Off; • Employee Communications; • Performance Management; • Training & Skills Development; and, • Community Involvement. These 100 lucky organizations get to put the badge of honour on their websites and tell anyone who cares (e.g., current and future employees, customers, and suppliers) how they earned this honour. After many years of trying to create great places to work (enhancing the success of businesses along the way) and at least six years of following Canada’s Top 100, it is clear to me these organizations are linked in a number of ways.

They spend money (to make money)

As a business consultant, I like it when my for-profit clients make money. As an entrepreneur who makes a living delivering solutions for the people, systems, culture side of businesses, I know that enthusiastic, inspired employees in an adaptable, energized, collaborative, values-based and performance-focused environment will stay longer, work harder, be healthier, and give greater effort and service to the company and their customers. Great service and quality products generally mean customers buy more, which leads to bigger profits. Companies in Canada’s Top 100 are willing to spend money on the systems, culture and people to create the service/ product that customers will love so profits will follow. Of the Top 100 this year, 32 have great monetary rewards on top of wages, which includes signing bonuses, year end bonuses (tied to performance of course), project success bonuses, etc. They also offer profit sharing, and in this economy, if a

company is generating enough profits to share, something must be working!

They develop their employees

Given the judging was done in 2010 with all the intrigue of unstable economies, revenue decreases and belt tightening, it is encouraging to know that 82 of the companies in the top 100 list didn’t stop developing their employees when times got tough. They continued to provide training and education subsidies and/or have in house training initiatives designed to not only make employees better at their jobs, but also to help them prepare for their future roles within the company. This makes sense to me, because employees perceive training and development as a reward. Ongoing learning is a key driver for employees across all generations and a significant reason behind why employees join and remain with companies.

Easy to be loyal

Ninety of the companies top up maternity and parental leave in addition to what the parent receives from Employment Insurance. Additionally, 19% of the companies offer daycare, kids camps and educational support for their employees’ children. If you are thinking there are huge costs and hoops to jump in order to set up a daycare, you would be right, but if parents know their children are close at hand and safe, and they can pop in during lunch, those parents have less guilt eating away at them, they have more focus on their job and are happier. Happy people work harder and perform better than their unhappy counterparts. Scientists haven’t figured out why that is, but they know it is true. Seventy-one offer some form of retirement savings plan that builds wealth for their employees in the long term. Employee retention has been getting much attention recently from the C Suite because we are increasingly able to measure the average cost of losing an employee to the tune of 50-100% of one year’s salary if we factor in recruiting and training costs, intervening slowdowns or downtime, overtime and additional burden on remaining team members, stress, loss of knowledge and experience. They know an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Twenty-eight of the companies offer flexible work arrangements and extra time off and 35 of the companies offer additional vacation and vacation “purchase plans” or . . . continues page 29 Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011 27

continued from page 23

marketing Lake Country.” The new design includes the Lake Country name below a stylized logo in azure, blue, red, gold, and green colours representing the various natural elements that are abundant in the community. Underneath the name is the tag line: ‘Life. The Okanagan Way.’

Painting by Jayes Tazer Derriksan, Age 6

Kelowna Waldorf School

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Education from the

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Kelowna Waldorf School 429 Collett Road, Kelowna, BC V1W 1K6

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Small Business Advice

Craig Phillips BA Hons

We’d like to introduce Craig Phillips as your Small Business Advisor. With over 7 years of business banking experience, Craig understands the pressures of owning and operating a business and is committed to helping you by: • discussing your business banking needs • offering professional banking and investment solutions • delivering excellent personal service Drop by the branch to talk to your Small Business Advisor and discover how we can make your business banking easier. We look forward to seeing you soon.

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Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011

Distilled Growth

Penticton’s award-winning Cannery Brewery has purchased two 45 hectoliter tanks (each tank holds 4,500 litres or approximately 7,900 pints) to expand its brewing capacity. As a smaller brewer co-owner Patt Dyck says flexibility is important. He points to the company’s introduction of lowalcohol No Jail Pale Ale, in response to harsher penalties under the province’s liquor laws, as an example. The two new tanks allow the creation of a wide variety of brews or larger quantities as needed. For the Okanagan an added bonus is the manufacturer is also a local company, in this case Interior Stainless, which sells custom-made beer tanks across North America. Interior Stainless owner Jim Ure congratulated Cannery on its continued strong growth, saying, “It’s nice to have two local businesses work together. We’ve been working with Cannery Brewing since 2001 and we’re proud to have been alongside them as they grow.”

Economic Trends continued from page 25

happy ending here. Bad weather will continue to create havoc and headlines. Increasing global temperatures have repeatedly set records over the past decade, and things should continue to heat up. Heat leads to extreme weather. Australia’s recent bout of floods, hurricanes and wildfires could become the new normal. Climate change legislation may be enacted in jurisdictions other than B.C. and California. We can only hope. Trends continue until they break, and then something else happens. These trends, too, shall pass. Dominik Dlouhy P. Eng, MBA, CFA is a Chartered Financial Analyst and planner with Partners in Planning Financial Services Ltd. and The Fraser Financial Group LLP. You can reach Dominik at 545-5258 or dominikd@fraserfinancial.com with any questions, comments or issues you would like to see covered in this column. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Partners in Planning or The Fraser Financial Group.

Love

continued from page 27

top ups to ensure people get the time away from work they need to take care of their personal lives. Many (44) also offer beautiful work environments (not nasty grey cubicles with old carpets), and perks such as trips, tickets to activities and events, access to fitness facilities and gym memberships. What also interests me about these companies is that they are all very different, proving to me that every organization is as individual as the people that inhabit it. Off the shelf solutions don’t work and you can’t simply copy the Top 100 to ensure you get the same results. Asking your employees what they want and need to be happier at work is a great way to get started. In fact, many of the Top 100 companies do that too. By Shawnee Love of Love HR. If you want to read more about HR for the real world, visit www.lovehr.ca/blog.

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Hunger Awareness Month Hunger in British Columbia In March of 2010, 94,359 people were assisted by a food bank in BC. This is a 5% increase over 2009 - and the highest level of food bank use on record.

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Okanagan Business Examiner / SPRING 2011