Douglas magazine February/March 2015

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Feb/Mar 2015

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Educational leaders make their predictions

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How to manage a successful sales team

First Nations create a better future Vancouver Island’s First Nations harvest the entrepreneurial energy of their people

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John Jack, councillor, Huu-ay-aht First Nations

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European models shown for illustration purposes only. 1Performance figures tested on 435i xDrive with 8-speed Sport Automatic Transmission.*Starting from price of $46,995 based on the 2015 BMW 428i Coupe with 6-speed manual transmission with a MSRP of $44,900 and includes freight & PDI ($2,295). DOC fees ($395), Tire Levy ($20), Environmental Levies ($100), license, taxes, insurance and registration and if applicable PPSA (up to $45.48) are extra. ©2015 BMW Canada Inc. “BMW”, the BMW logo, BMW model designations and all other BMW related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and/or trademarks of BMW AG, used under licence. See BMW Victoria for complete details. DL 10135 #31009

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Contents

The Hawker 800SP (in the forefront) and the Challenger 604 are the private charter jets available through VIH Aviation Group’s VIH Execujet.

Feb/Mar 2015

The aeronautical industry has come a long way in just over 100 years — and for 60 of them, the local firm of VIH Aviation Group has been a major industry player

by Mike WIcks

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42 Top Educational Leaders Slash Dot

Make Their Predictions

The Island’s university and college presidentsReddit talk about the challenges of creating world-class institutions By shannon Moneo

Features

24 We are an

Entrepreneurial City

Douglas talks with Victoria’s new mayor Lisa Helps about her entrepreneur-inspired vision for the future of the region By David Lennam

34 First Nations at the Forefront

Vancouver Island’s First Nations are harvesting the entrepreneurial energy of their people to create a better future

By Andrew Findlay

departments 6 From the Editor 9 In the Know A Sidney company’s success in the fast lane, VI businesses conquer the Dragons, bringing science to brewing, and 10 to Watch 2015 announced

14 People in Business The who, what and where of the business scene

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From the Editor

If You’re Not Learning, You’re Not Growing

I read an article recently by international speaker and consultant Richard J. Bryan.

He wrote, “The minute you think you know it all is when you’re in trouble.”

Fortunately, I’m in no danger of that. I can’t recall having more than a few days in my entire career when I wasn’t being challenged to blast through my knowledge boundaries. As an editor, every story is a learning experience, and when I was a business owner, the need for knowledge was equally intense. Even after a decade in business, when someone asked me about my learning curve I just pointed at the ceiling. There was no curve — it was always steep.

The ongoing and mindful pursuit of knowledge is called continuous learning. By its very nature, continuous learning acknowledges that there is never a point where we can or must “know it all.” This should come as a relief to business owners and managers who feel pressured — or even insecure or guilty — that they can’t learn enough, fast enough.

One proven solution to this learning-related anxiety is to hire smart people who help fill knowledge gaps. Sadly, this is something business owners often avoid doing out of a misguided belief that owners need to know it all. When this happens, it’s an organizational red flag; it’s also a classic symptom of Founder’s Syndrome, which Peter Elkins describes (and prescribes a cure for) in his Entrepreneurship column.

Left unchecked, the impulse to know it all — and do it all — can lead to stress and burnout.

It also leads to undervalued, underused employees and a business with a knowledge deficit. As the saying goes, Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.

If you identify with this — most owners and managers can at some point — the good news is that you live in a time and place where knowledge reigns. On southern Vancouver Island, learning opportunities are available in so many delivery models, you can choose the way you learn best: reading, online, one-on-one, coaching, seminars or workshops, or in extended certificate or degree programs.

We have world-class colleges and universities that offer options for working professionals in the form of online access or day or evening programs.

We are always learning, but it’s important to consciously set aside time to make it part of your development. In fact, it’s critical, as demonstrated in a 1994 study of Canadian CEOs by Doug Snetsinger of the Institute of Market Driven Quality of the Faculty of Management at the University of Toronto. He found that regardless of the size of the business or its industry, organizations headed by learning leaders are far more likely to reach their operational goals.

“The CEO’s personal development is not personal,” said Snetsinger. “It is fundamental to sustaining and rejuvenating the health of the organization.”

A commitment to learning not only helps you achieve success, it helps you become more resilient, with knowledge to fall back on through the fascinating — and never dull — journey of entrepreneurship.

Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.

Speaking of learning, the requirement for it is seldom more intense than when a business is new — and Douglas will once again honour Vancouver Island’s brave new businesses with our 6th Annual 10 to Watch Awards. If your business is three years old or younger, I strongly encourage you to apply (see page 13). Winners will be featured in Douglas, in print and online, and join 50 previous winners, many of whom have become shining stars in our business community.

— Kerry Slavens kslavens@douglasmagazine.com 6 Douglas

One thing is certain in the financial wOrld.

www.douglasmagazine.com Volume 9 Number 2

Publishers Lise Gyorkos, Georgina Camilleri Editor-in-chief Kerry Slavens

Creative & Technical Manager Jeffrey Bosdet

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proofreader Patrick Grace

The Chartered Financial Analyst® designation is a trusted mark of integrity in today’s ever-changing financial world. With its rigorous focus on investment knowledge, analytical skill, and ethical conduct, no credential is more highly regarded in the financial industry.

contributing Designer Janice Hildybrant Contributing Writers David Alexander, Steve Bokor, Ian David Clark, Peter Elkins, Andrew Findlay, David Lennam, Shannon Moneo, Nevin Thompson, Mike Wicks

Contributing Photographers Jeffrey Bosdet, Simon DesRochers, Jo-Ann Loro

To learn more about the CFA® designation and CFA Society Victoria, visit www.cfasociety.org/victoria

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SEND PRESS RELEASES TO editor@douglasmagazine.com ©2012 CFA Institute. CFA®, CFA Institute® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks of CFA Institute in many countries around the world.

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Innovation | Design | Business | Style | People 

(In the Know ) Giant curved screens extend into the peripheral vision, making the simualtor an immersive experience — and forcing the drivers to actually turn their heads to look into the curves.

The fastest Robert Stanners has driven in a virtual car on the simulator is 425 KM per The HMCS Ottawa, hour ainRoyal a Bugatti Veyron.Navy Canadian

Halifax-class frigate, at the Esquimalt Graving Dock.

The iMotion system has a four-actuator, commercial grade D-Box Motion System intergrated in the seat, capable of producing up to two Gs of acceleration and three degress of freedom in mobility.

Simon Desrochers

“It’s a high-end, sophisticated system and it comes with a big-dollar budget, from $15,000 to $150,000.”

Robert Stanners, CEO and founder, VRX Advanced Simulators

success in the fast lane At first glance, Sidney by the Sea seems far removed from the multibillion dollar industries of Nascar and Indy 500 racing. But many of the world’s best drivers have trained on a VRX simulator, developed and built here on the South Island.

“The big advantage is track time,” says Robert Stanners, CEO and founder of VRX Advanced Simulators. “You can prepare on any track worldwide without having to

go there with the car and your crew, and having to pay for tires and fuel.

It really comes down to being able to train at your race shop or your home, prior to hitting the real life track.”

According to Stanners, the simulators give drivers the realistic experience of a course. By laser scanning the entire track, such as the Daytona International Speedway, all the track data — including bumps and unlevel spots where a car may

become unsettled — gets put into the virtual track. The driver will feel exactly what that track is doing underneath the car. Data from 360-degree cameras is also used.

“All drivers will look for certain points on the track — it might be a tree, a marker, or a grandstand — to where they actually turn in on a corner, or for braking points or things like that,” Stanners says. “All that data is also put into the virtual track.”

Along with racers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. of Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff Andretti, who use the systems to train crew and drivers, clients like Microsoft and Intel use the simulators at trade events to draw people to their booths.

Currently, VRX is developing a system that uses the Oculus virtual reality headset. Says Stanners, “It’s in the next phase of how virtual driver training will be done.”

Douglas 9

Conquering Dragons

Represented by Morgan Carey

■ The Business Creates websites, products and marketing campaigns for real estate agents ■ The Ask $2 million for 4% ■ Valuation $50 million CBC

Season nine of CBC’s Dragons’ Den saw Two businesses with Island connections shaking hands with dragons to seal an impressive deal — including the biggest deal in Dragons’ Den History. 

Real Estate Webmasters

Biggest Surprise

Velofix Represented by founders Chris Guillemet and Boris Martin, and advisor and Victoria franchise owner Simon Whitfield ■ The Business A mobile bike shop that comes to your home or office to fix your bike

Carey: How legitimate it all was — in the sense that you never know, even when you’ve been selected, what’s going to go on in the show. There are no retakes or coaching, and they don’t tell you what to say.

There’s coaching beforehand on how to put together a good pitch… but at the end of the day, your words are your own.

Next Steps Following the show, we had huge publicity. We’ve expanded again and we’re looking at

space in Victoria. I’ve pitched a television show to the CBC. I’d like to be the next Dragon. I’d like them to approve a reality television show called The Making of a Dragon. I’ll pay for it and produce it and it will show them what I’m like as a Dragon.

We’re investing in a bunch of different companies and it will show them I’m qualified as an entrepreneur. I have the ability and I have the finances to take a company and make it great.

That’s what we’re working on. Our first project is the Envirobrush guy who was also on my episode of Dragons’ Den.

■ The Deal $2 million from Jim Treliving and Michael Wekerle for 5% (the biggest deal in Dragons’ Den history)

Advice for Entrepreneurs Looking for Investors Know your numbers, know your business. It’s not enough to think you know what’s going on. If you’re going to go out for money, whether it’s private money or on TV, they’re going to challenge you and make sure you know everything about your business and you’re going to have to prove it.

■ The Ask $300K for 20% ■ Valuation $1.5 million ■ The Deal $300K from Jim Treliving for 20% Biggest Takeaway Guillemet: The impact of the show.

The amount of exposure and traction that we got for both franchise sales and people interested in booking with us was phenomenal. You expect it’s going to be busy, but we’ve probably had over 300 franchise requests come in off of the show, which blew us away.

A lot of people also watch it in the U.S., which I didn’t realize, so we had a lot of franchise requests come in out of the U.S.

CBC

Next Steps We will be launching in the U.S. in February and will continue to grow in Canada. We’re in discussion with a group in Australia, and one out of the U.K. Requests are coming in from everywhere

10 Douglas

— Shanghai, Norway, France — so we believe it’s an international product. All of our backend systems are designed so we can put this operation in different countries and move there without a tonne of infrastructure. Right now, we’ll focus on Canada and the U.S. and keep getting better at what we do. Then, absolutely, we’ll take it international after that.

Advice for Entrepreneurs Looking for Investors First and foremost, know what you are going to do with the money. When you go ask for money from someone, the first thing they are going to say is, ‘What are you going to do with the money?’

You need to have a good, detailed plan.

If you give me X dollars, we will take that money and spend it here.

Mapping B.C.’s Critical Business Data

B Douglas Reads

Aspiring to a greener office but feeling overwhelmed? You’ll love Greening Your Office: Strategies that Work by Victoria green guru Jill Doucette of Synergy Enterprises and sustainability expert Lee Johnson.

Published by Self-Counsel Press, this compact book provides an easy strategy for going green at work, from how to assess office cleaning products to how to develop a green purchasing policy. The book includes useful case studies of local businesses, including Inn at Laurel Point, Monk Office and Habit Coffee.

The $12.95 purchase price includes access to a free download kit that includes a green office assessment, waste and energy audits and web resources.

usinesses, investors and economic development pros now have an online resource at their fingertips to access critical information about British Columbia’s economic landscape.

The B.C. Economic Atlas gives British Columbians access to multiple government sources and has the ability to link with third-party, open-source data through an online resource that uses

1 Datasets are managed by data custodians in business areas

2

Data BC (LCSOG) is the data conduit

How the BC Economic Atlas Works

4

Investors access information on B.C. quickly and easily

3

Data is extracted and presented in a user-friendly viewer

geo-coordinates to connect it to B.C. locations. The data is then mapped out visually so it’s easier to interpret.

Users can access spatial information from multiple sources, allowing them to access major project inventories; identify, visualize and promote business opportunities; conduct project scoping and business case analyses; and facilitate business and investment decisions. Visit economicatlas.jtst.gov.bc.ca

“The BC Economic Atlas provides a significant resource at no cost that gives entrepreneurs choice on how they interact with government. The quality of these services makes a difference in businesses’ ability to perform, grow and succeed.”

Naomi Yamamoto, Minister of State for Tourism and Small Business

A Fresh Perspective Ingenuity is the heart and soul of your business. It keeps you a step ahead. At MNP, our team of experienced accounting, tax and business advisory professionals look at your business from all angles, so we can identify innovative strategies to help you grow your business and capitalize on new opportunities.

National in scope and local in focus, with 18 offices across B.C., MNP offers a fresh perspective and a full suite of services that go beyond traditional accounting.

Contact Mike Macdonell, MBA, CPA, CA at 778.265.8883 or mike.macdonell@mnp.ca

Douglas 11

Photos: Jeffrey Bosdet/Douglas Magazine

THE NEXT GENERATION IS HERE.

In addition to the year-round offerings of a Belgium Saison and a Northwest pale ale, Category 12 plans to do six different seasonals.

Brewing It With Science The Challenge Create a Northwest craft brewery experience with an on-site taproom serving “big beers.”

In meeting the challenges of the 21st century, the next generation will need new skills. This is why every student at SMUS is encouraged to innovate, become a leader and think both locally and globally.

Students at SMUS are preparing to change the world.

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N :

www.smus.ca

D AY G R A D E S K-12 | B O A R D I N G G R A D E S 8 -12 | V I C T O R I A , B C

12 Douglas

J O B # S M U S -16 5 7 0 CL I EN T: S T M I CH A ELS U N I V ERS I T Y S CH O O L P U B L I C AT I O N : D O U G L A S M A G A Z I N E I N S E R T I O N D AT E : T B D SIZE : 4. 94" X 9. 58"

The Back Story Category 12 was founded by Michael and Karen Kuzyk and opened this past December. As head brewer, Michael has a PhD in microbiology and biochemistry from the University of Victoria and brings 22 years experience as a scientist to the business. “The skills are extremely transferable,” Michael says. “At the chemical and molecular level, I innately understand the brewing process.

You have to keep those micro-organisms happy and understand them. Sanitation is the core of microbiology and it’s the core of any good foodprocessing plant and brewery.”

The Evolution It’s been two years since the Kuzyks came up with their business plan. “The first year was market analysis and raising capital, and the last year was execution. Finding a site was tough.

We actually ordered our brew house prior to having our location set.” A site was found for the “lab” on Keating Cross Road, making it the first microbrewery on the Saanich Peninsula.

The Next Step To give a true Northwest brewery experience, Category 12 is looking to have a regular rotation of food trucks set up outside the brewery, starting with alternating Saturdays. “You see it a lot in Vancouver now, and prior to that it was all over Portland, San Diego, the Bay Area and Seattle,” says Kuzyk.

Nominations Open for 10 to Watch Awards

shining a spotlight on New Businesses

10 to Watch Awards

I know someone with the Air Transport Association.

Geoff Dickson President, CEO Victoria Airport Authority

 Monday, February 2 Visit douglasmagazine.com to access competition information and to download the nomination form.  Friday, March 6 Deadline for nominations.  Tuesday, May 26 Winners will be announced at the 6th Annual 10 to Watch Awards.

Parc Modern Interiors, Body Dynamics Headquarters (BDHQ), Cook Culture and Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre.

Nominations open on February 2 with applications available at douglasmagazine.com.

Deadline for nominations is March 6. The 10 to Watch winners will be recognized at an invitation-only special event on May 26. Winners will be showcased in the June/July edition of Douglas.

The competition is open to Vancouver Island businesses of three years or less. Winners will be chosen by an independent panel of business experts.

I’m working with the VCC to bring the 2015 SARMAC Conference.

Steve Lindsay Acting Chair, Department of Psychology, UVic

Local app innovation

Jo-Ann Loro/Douglas Magazine

It’s time for Douglas magazine’s 10 to Watch Awards, the competition that recognizes the very best of Vancouver Island’s new businesses. This year’s title sponsor is the Island-owned and operated Peninsula Co-op.

The exposure winners receive through 10 to Watch gives them well-deserved applause, builds brand recognition and shines the spotlight on the Island’s vibrant spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Just a few of the competition’s previous winners include: Indochino, SendtoNews, Rumble Energy Drink, The London Chef,

Important Dates to Watch

Victoria-based tech firm RealTalk has launched an instant-messaging mobile app for iOS and Android. The app allows consumers to instant-message businesses and get answers back fast, in real time. “Research shows that in today’s fast-paced technological environment, consumers, especially millennials, have an expectation of immediate response to their enquiries and don’t want to be left on hold…,” says RealTalk CEO Tony Bjornson. Participating businesses gain tools to communicate fast with consumers and benefit from RealTalk’s analytic insights, app integrations and the ability to improve customer service by connecting directly with consumers. realtalk.im/business

We brought our Provincial conference in ‘14 and will bring our National in ‘15.

Brenda, I’ll text you a contact.

Karen Davies Owner, Cedarwood Productions

bring it Let’s

#LetsBringIt

Paul Bruce Fire Chief, Victoria

Introduce us to someone in your network — we’ll do the rest.

Brenda Anderson Director of Sales & Marketing, VCC

Conferences bring people to our hotels, restaurants, and stores.

Contact me: BrendaA@VictoriaConference.com

Douglas 13

Innovation | Design | Business | Style | People

Reed Pope Law Corporation is pleased to announce that John McLeod has joined the firm as Associate Counsel.

John brings over 18 years of experience advising individual, corporate, and institutional clients on a range of business law matters.

Previously John worked with two leading business law firms in Vancouver and with Baker & McKenzie in London, England.

John holds an economics degree from UBC and law degrees from University of Cambridge and University of Alberta.

John is an advisor for Skoah Inc. and Our Place Society and is a member of Team Finn – Ride to Conquer Cancer.

1 Philanthropy 1. Dr. Sherman Jen, founder and chair of Maple Leaf Educational Systems and Maple Leaf International Schools, has provided Royal Roads University with a $5 million gift – the largest in the university’s history. Since opening in 1995, Maple Leaf Educational Systems has expanded to over 15,000 students studying in 39 schools throughout China. Almost half of those students are enrolled in seven high schools and two foreign national, K-to-9 schools where they study a B.C. curriculum certified through the B.C. Global Education Program. Dr. Jen’s gift will support the establishment of a centre on campus at Royal Roads to promote global understanding through education.

On the Move

Contact John at jmcleod@reedpope.ca 250-383-3838 Ext 240

Reed Pope Law Corporation is a leading Victoria business law firm that serves a wide variety of clients on corporate, commercial, real estate and litigation matters. Visit reedpope.ca

14 Douglas

After 42 years in the photography business, Rob and Cheryl Destrubé of Destrubé Photography have recently announced their successor, Melissa Welsh Photography.

Welsh is a national award-winning Accredited Professional Photographer. Rob Destrub é will continue to provide professional fine art reproduction services through Art Ink Print.

2. Professor Roy Suddaby has joined the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at UVic as the Francis G. Winspear chair. Last year, Suddaby was named to the Thomson Reuters group of academics who rank in the top one per cent of citations in their field. His previous role was with the University of Alberta, where he was a professor of strategic management

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and organization. Suddaby is the outgoing editor of the Academy of Management Review, one of North America’s most influential academic journals. He has been named among the best business teachers in the U.S.

by Business Week magazine.

Wardrobe specialists 3. Shai Thompson and Paul Chamberlain have joined the team at d.g.bremner & co, a luxury sportswear store in Sidney.

Thompson, a style and image consultant has 20 years experience in fashion, marketing, sales and public relations. Chamberlain brings a wealth of knowledge from his time with Harry Rosen.

Ryan Shaver has joined North Studio as director of operations. He brings extensive experience from his agency background, including Winnipeg/ Portland agency Think Shift and the IC Group.

Realtors 4. Scott Piercy, James LeBlanc and Shelby Donald are making the move to Engel & Völkers, an international brokerage firm. The trio, formerly of Sotheby’s International, will open a new office in downtown Victoria representing the company on Vancouver Island.

On the Board 5. Guy Crozier has been elected president of the Victoria Real Estate Board (VREB) for 2015, taking over from past-president Tim Ayres who remains a board member. Crozier is a fifth-generation Victorian and a REALTOR® with Remax/Camosun’s Preferred Homes Team. Also elected to VREB’s board of directors is president-elect Wendy Moreton, secretary treasurer Ara Balabanian,

and Kyle Kerr, Mike Nugent, Marijane Smith, Tony Wick and Cheryl Woolley.

Don Cameron of G & E Contracting has been elected chair of the 2014/15 Vancouver Island Construction Association board of directors. He is joined on the executive by past-chair Angus Macpherson of Cairnview Mechanical; vice-chair Alan Fletcher of AFC Construction; and treasurer Anthony Minniti of the Century Group.

Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen has been elected 2015 CRD board chair.

Jensen has served on the CRD board for one previous term and was first elected Oak Bay mayor in December 2011. He is former chair of both the CRD Environmental Services Committee and the Regional Water Supply Commission.

The Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE) has appointed three new members to its 2014/2015 board of directors. Peter Lockie is interim president of Camosun College. Stephen Chang is a builder and business owner in the Capital Region. Suzanne Weckend-Dill is a department head at St. George’s School in Vancouver where she teaches in the physical education department.

The British Columbia Museums Association (BCMA) has elected two new directors from Vancouver Island: Aboriginal Tourism B.C. representative Lillian Hunt of Alert Bay and University of Victoria Program Director and Cultural Resource Management Programs, Tania Muir.

M AGA Z INE ’S

JOIN THE WINNERS

TO WATCH

Submissions now being accepted for the 6th Annual 10 to Watch Awards. Build credibility for your new company by taking part in this innovative awards program!

TITLE SPONSOR:

> WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

> HOW DO I APPLY?

Your business must be a Vancouver Island based “start-up”, less than three years old (created on or after January 1, 2012). The business must not be a spin-off from a preexisting business or otherwise affiliated with any other business or company. Business principals must be at least 18 years of age and must agree to be interviewed and photographed.

Complete the application form and submit to Douglas by March 6, 2015 at 1pm.

Go to douglasmagazine.com/10toWatch for application details and contest rules.

> WHAT WILL MY COMPANY GAIN

AS A 10 TO WATCH WINNER? • Increased credibility and exposure

• A feature in the Jun/July 10 to Watch issue of Douglas magazine (30,000 copies in circulation) and on douglasmagazine.com • Recognition at an exclusive, invitation-only awards gala in front of an established business audience, and supported by social media

> HOW WILL MY APPLICATION BE

ADJUDICATED? Submissions are reviewed and selected by an independent panel of judges from the business community.

QUESTIONS? Visit douglasmagazine.com/10toWatch or call Douglas magazine at 250-595-7243.

>

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Steve Jobs, J.F.K. and Albert Einstein were just a few doodlers who brought the world some of its greatest ideas, according to Sunni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution. In this business-friendly book, Brown guides you from the basic to the formidable “infodoodle” — the integration of words, numbers, images and shapes that craft and display higher-level thinking. (Munro’s Books, $33)

Take three 

Meetings That Matter Everything in the workplace is evolving so why not change up your meetings? It’s time to move past bland and boring to creative and collaborative spaces where ideas emerge, decisions get made and enterprise is ignited.

50%

The amount of meeting time most professionals believe is wasted in meetings, according to an MCI study.

More than 90 per cent of participants admit to daydreaming in meetings, 73 percent brought other work and 39 per cent have fallen asleep.

29%

Increase in the amount of information retained by participants who doodled during meetings, according to a 2009 University of Plymouth study.

JARGON Coopetition: As marketplaces become jammed with competing businesses, those that learn to blend competition with cooperation will be further ahead than the “it’s about me/ forget you” businesses.

Mind  over meeting 16 Douglas

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Douglas 17

digital Life by David Alexander

Protect Your Online Reputation It’s more important than ever to invest in building and protecting your online reputation. Our Douglas tech expert offers you tools and strategies to look good online.

Expert Advice on

Reputation Management Deirdre Campbell, president and chief development officer of Tartan Group, offers online reputation management tips.

What are some tips for readers wanting to develop their e-reputation?

Remember to be authentic; readers will follow you because of your voice. The number of followers isn’t as important as how engaged they are. Having 5,000 interested followers who comment on and share your content is more valuable than having 10,000 silent followers. With social media, you can’t go in halfway — you need to monitor, correct when necessary and engage. It doesn’t take much time, but you will be amazed at the relationships you will build. And don’t forgot to thank people, it’s a small thing but it can have a big impact.

Is there anyone locally doing social media well?

Tourism Victoria represents their brand well online. They have an active following that they nurture with interesting content.

What’s one thing you’ve seen go wrong with an e-reputation?

If you have multiple social media accounts, keep track of which ones you are writing for.

Your friends might care about the guy you met last night; your customers probably don’t.

And never put anything down in writing if you don’t want it shared.

18 Douglas

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MonitorThis monitors 20 search engines; the results appear in an RSS feed. alp-uckan.net/free/ monitorthis

ou probably spend a fair bit of time building your reputation as an individual or a business.

You meet the right people, offer outstanding service that earns great word of mouth and steer clear of anything that would take the gleam off that stellar reputation. Do you spend the same energy on your online reputation?

Well, you should because your online presence is often the first opportunity someone has to meet you. This presence includes social media content, the photos you post on friends’ sites, comments you make on news stories, along with what others are saying about you.

3

TwIlert alerts you to any mentions on Twitter. twilert.com

4

Technorati monitors the blogosphere for search terms. technorati.com

Together, this makes up the “online you.” Not looking after that reputation essentially offers someone else the opportunity to frame your digital presence. This could lead to lost revenue, lost prospects or lost clients. The good news is, it’s simple to keep yourself ship-shape online.

Carve Out Your Niche The first step to protecting your reputation is having one. If you don’t have a domain name, then reserve one or maybe a couple. They’re cheap and you don’t want someone grabbing a similar URL and pulling in your customers.

If you don’t have a social media presence, it’s time to set one up and start creating content.

Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and

LinkedIn are good places to begin. That bit about content, that’s important. An online presence is an empty shell if you don’t have serious content your audience wants to engage with.

Do be smart with your content and really think through your messaging. There have been some epic fails when it comes to maintaining an online reputation; just ask Kenneth Cole who, while trying to promote his footwear, made a crass reference to the Syrian War when he tweeted: “‘Boots on the ground’ or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear.” Then there was AT&T, who was forced to remove their tweet message commemorating the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks after Twitter users attacked the company for capitalizing on the tragedy to promote its products.

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Be Vigilant You’ve invested energy in an online presence but that’s only the beginning. Others are likely — hopefully — talking about you, so set up Google alerts so you know when someone mentions you online. It’s also simple to do an Internet search on your name. Add this task to your calendar and do it regularly.

If someone is talking about you, respond to both the good and the bad. Praise the former and convince the latter. There are shades of bad on the Internet, so use your judgment.

If you have a customer complaining, it’s often easy to turn that frown upside down by offering to resolve the issue or simply thanking them and vowing to make improvements.

However, if you have a nut-bar troll yelling, turn the other cheek — some people just like attention. And if someone really makes you angry online, step away and take a deep breath.

Those angry online retorts sometimes become the stuff of legend, in a bad way. As well, if someone posts an unflattering photo of you or says something inflammatory on Twitter, it is your right to ask them to remove it.

The Boy Scout Way It takes mental energy, but do have a crisis plan in place, even if it’s just in your head. As a business, this is essential, especially if you have online sales and customer banking information is involved. Think through what you would do if someone hacks your brand: how will you communicate with customers, what is your messaging, how will you regain trust.

Responsibility for your online reputation falls with you. It isn’t a huge time commitment but it does require regular maintenance. It’s not rocket science: be secure, provide decent content, monitor and reply. And it takes far less time to do this than it does to respond to a threat to your reputation. ■

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Douglas 19

Sales & Marketing by Mike Wicks

Perils and Promise of the New Sales Manager Whether you’re hiring a sales manager, taking on the role or hoping to be promoted, there are proven methods for mentoring your team.

I

spent the first 21 years of my career in front-line sales. At 19, I became a sales representative for a book publisher, and over the years I worked for many sales managers — some good, some bad, a few downright weird. One was a largerthan-life Italian who held sales meetings in some of London’s finest Italian restaurants, one was an ex-WWII fighter pilot, another was a complete fool who got run over by one of his salesmen. And then there was the sales director who gave me some of the best advice I ever received.

Despite — or because — of all this, I worked my way up from trainee sales rep (i.e. dogsbody), to sales manager, sales director and finally, managing director. Along the way, I saw that sales management, good and bad, can make or break a sales force.

It’s Not Laying Down the Law Recently, I read that today’s police officers do less law enforcement and more social work than ever before. I think the same is true of sales managers; this role has changed over the years, from wielding a carrot and stick, to coaching and mentoring. In today’s business environment sales managers need to understand people more and sales charts less.

Although selling has always been about people, it used to be hire-fire, hire-fire — repeat until someone makes the grade.

20 Douglas

➊

➊

Over-manages and under-leads by relying too much on metrics and deadlines to drive performance.

Works alongside team and motivates and rewards them in a social format to inspire and bring out everyone’s best.

➋

Hires and fires until the right candidate is chanced upon.

➌

Provides inconsistent and intermittent review opportunities.

➍

➋

Old & New  Sales Manager 

Waits too long to commend team on successes and to celebrate wins, and ignores the small successes.

Brian, one of my early managers, gave me a fistful of index cards containing client information, on my first day as part of his team. He pointed to his door and said, “North is 200 miles that way.” He, by the way, was the one who got run over by my predecessor!

Whether you are a sales manager, or a salesperson working toward this goal, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned over the years, both as a salesperson and as a sales manager.

Don’t Try to Fix It Until You Know What’s Broken The first rule for a new sales manager is this: have no plan. The “new broom sweeps clean” mentality doesn’t work with sales teams. Sales teams are delicate eco-systems and rarely will you find one so damaged it can’t be brought back to life. I know I’m in danger of mixing metaphors here, but my mother used to say, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Meet with your entire sales team and let them know you are there to help, not to change everything. Remember, most people are afraid of change so take steps to alleviate their initial fears immediately. Tell them you’re there to work with them to improve their sales AND their potential income.

Hires the best.

Looks for individuals whose goals are aligned with the organizational goals.

➌

Follows regular standards and schedules, giving constant feedback.

➍

Uses celebration to create motivation and give everyone a little boost.

Ask each of them to tell you a little about themselves and how they see the “current situation.” Do encourage them to tell you what they think might help improve sales, but let them interpret “the current situation” in any way they like. Let everyone have his or her say and then ask for a description of the current sales process. Encourage each of them to describe how they see it, and note whether you are dealing with one sales process, many, or an unstructured mess. This information will help you formulate and build a cohesive sales process using the best practices of each team member.

Soon after this exercise, set up one-on-one interviews with each member of your team.

Again, your role in this exercise is to listen, not to expound upon your plans. In this private setting, ask them what they feel is working and what’s not with regard to selling the company’s products or services. What would help them make more sales?

These sessions will provide a clear idea of the current situation and the combined wisdom of your team to help create your vision, goals and objectives. Once you have a clear idea of the way forward, you‘ll be able to genuinely present your sales strategy based on their input.

Managing by Personality Traits I’ve been a member of more than a dozen sales teams and I’ve learned that when it comes down to it, it’s all about behavioural styles and personalities, and not just of the individual team members.

Never try to create salespeople in your own image — everyone is unique. The best thing you can do as a new sales manager is to figure out early which social and behavioral traits Joe or Jenny display: analytical, driver, expressive or amiable. Treat them accordingly; for example:

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Analytical  If you’re trying to motivate an analytical salesperson, talk about sales figures, targets and percentages. Keep to the numbers and facts and give them a deadline for improvement.

Driver  A driver, however, will respond to being shown comparable results, how they rank against others in their team or industry. They are competitive by nature and want to win and win quickly, so talk targets and rewards.

Expressive  Someone displaying expressive tendencies — those humorous, ambitious, competitive, centre-stage types — are likely to respond to a friendly, collegial approach.

They like to be liked and they love applause, so congratulate them on a job well done whenever possible.

Amiable  The amiable salesperson in your group is a team player and has a strong desire to do well. You need to show a lot of support, help them develop a plan and be there to provide support. It’s not in their nature to stand out from the crowd, but rather help others succeed, even if it hinders their own success.

Encourage their individuality.

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Don’t let your own style dictate how you approach each individual. You will relate well to those close to your own style and consider the rest a little weird, but by understanding and relating to all styles, you will develop a stronger, more cohesive team. Remember, harmony comes from different voices coming together and complementing each other.

Diplomacy Goes a Long Way So, what was the advice I got from my sales director? He said, “Mike, you have to know when to be brutally honest, when to keep your mouth shut and when to approach the issue in a more diplomatic way.” I travelled 200 miles to head office to hear this advice and for him to break the news that I’d not been promoted to sales manager. He saw it as an important mentorship moment and we discussed my “attitude” issue for quite some time. And yes, he was most diplomatic. A few years later, thanks to his great management skill, my move into management was highly successful. ■

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Douglas 21

Entrepreneurialism by peter elkins

Founderitis There is a Cure The diagnosis and treatment of Founderitis, also known as Founder’s Syndrome, can cure stalled business growth.

T

he other day, a friend told me about a 10-year-old business and, more specifically, about its entrepreneurial founder who was unable to grow his company beyond a micro business. After listening for a few minutes, I blurted out, “This person you’re describing is suffering from an extreme case of Founderitis.”

The entrepreneurial founder my friend described is brilliant — a real craftsperson who had designed some world-class software solutions and hardware products — but the company just hasn’t taken off. It’s not because of a lack of IQ (intelligence quotient), poor products or a poorly performing team — it’s because the leader’s lack of emotional intelligence is hindering his ability to manage growth and change.

Lack of emotional intelligence is the hallmark of Founderitis, a condition where a founder holds an organization back from reaching its potential due to spontaneous emotions that trigger self-interest, fear, stress and denial. Luckily, Founderitis isn’t terminal.

Once diagnosed, it can usually be eradicated.

To diagnose yourself or someone you work with, ask yourself the following questions. If you get more yeses than noes, chances are you are dealing with a case of Founderitis or someone suffering from it: › Do you have the constant urge to do everything by yourself and fear delegation? › Do you make all decisions yourself without a formal process or input from others? › Do you need to be included in every decision and feel angry when you aren’t? › Do you sometimes feel like everything is slipping out of your control? › Do you hire experts only to ignore their counsel?

22 Douglas

Do you neglect instituting new systems, even though your board or management has formally requested them?

How important are planning activities, staff meetings and administrative policies?

Do you give them short shrift?

How do you view staff that challenge the status quo? Are they perceived as hostile and disloyal?

› Does your staff frequently offer to “take things off your hands” or suggest they would like greater autonomy? › Do you feel you have to have an answer for everything (even things you can’t possibly know)? › Do you ignore or undermine planning, procedures, processes and controls set up by others? › Do you feel threatened when someone on your team disagrees with you or questions you?

If you have a lump in your stomach after answering the above questions, the great news is that you have now recognized the issue.

That recognition is an important starting point in curing the condition. Once you realize your approach is not getting results and may, in fact, be jeopardizing your company, this creates an opportunity to explore self-improvement.

Curing Founderitis Self-improvement begins with a founder swallowing his or her pride enough to ask for and accept help from trusted advisors. It also requires a genuine willingness to move forward, starting with making amends to the impacted parties and taking concrete steps to repair problems.

The best defense against Founderitis is

developing emotional intelligence, a set of competencies that defines how people manage feelings and interact and communicate with each other. Emotional intelligence has been well defined by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence and Working with Emotional Intelligence. Let’s explore some of the key competencies of emotional intelligence and how to develop them.

1

Self-Awareness is a great skill to

begin with. Goleman says self-awareness contains three competencies: emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence. It’s important for leaders to develop this competency in themselves and hone the ability to identify it in others. To build self-awareness, think about people you admire and ask: what is it about this person that’s different? Once you’re confident you’ve found good role models, ask them about their journeys regarding emotional awareness, self-assessment and self-confidence. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how this simple exercise will improve your own competencies.

2

Self-Management refers to

managing your internal states, impulses and resources. Goleman describes the six competencies of self-management as: emotional self-control, integrity, adaptability, initiative, optimism and achievement.

When self-management skills are absent, you may find that you lower your standards (and later regret it) or let your impulses (even the simplest ones) get the best of you. To develop this skill, look to people who are great at selfmanagement. Keep in mind that few people can bat a thousand on self-management in all six competencies all of the time. You may need to find several role models to create benchmarks to start with. For example, you may know someone who has consistently displayed integrity by acting congruently with his or her values, giving you a great transparency benchmark. Or you may meet someone who maintains a steady state of realistic optimism throughout a tough situation, giving you an optimism benchmark.

3

Social Awareness has three parts: empathy, organizational awareness and service orientation. Basically, this is how we handle relationships and our awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns. This is a big one for leaders who need to take an active interest in everyone’s concerns and read the emotional currents and power relationships, all while anticipating, recognizing and meeting the needs of employees and customers.

4

Relationship Management is

the final piece of Goleman’s research on emotional intelligence. It’s the skill of developing others, leading through inspiration, acting as a change catalyst, influencing others and managing conflict. My greatest sense of achievement comes from relationship management: developing others and serving teams through inspiration, supporting change, sharing my influence and resolving conflicts. As a community-minded entrepreneur, I’ve been practicing this daily throughout my life and feel fortunate to have such an opportunity.

Getting Control of Founderitis Ultimately, developing self-motivation, selfcontrol, self-awareness and the ability to manage relationships in the face of frustration, along with the ability to control impulses and delay gratification, will enhance your leadership abilities and help you run a more effective, engaged organization. A heightened sense of emotional intelligence will help to regulate your moods and keep distress from swamping empathy and hope.

So, if you think you may have Founderitis, start working through Goleman’s competencies and make a conscious effort to develop them.

Seek help from others and look to mentors and role models who can help you find more productive and effective ways to move your company forward.

Finally, as my friend Leif says, remind yourself of these simple two words: “Pay attention.” It’s amazing how well you can lead when you do that. ■

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Douglas 23

‘‘

I don’t tolerate an us-versus-them attitude from the City.

We’re all us and we’re all in this together.”

24 Douglas

We are an

In conversation with Lisa helps ■ BY David Lennam photo by jeffrey bosdet

L

isa Helps walks into Habit on Pandora and immediately greets a couple of young hipsters sitting by the window.

“How was band practice last night?” she asks.

They answer and laugh, and I hear one of them say, “Well, you’re the mayor now.”

She introduces them to me. Both are members of Team Helps, the young, hip, media-savvy cadre of volunteers who managed her hair’sbreadth, 89-vote victory in November over incumbent Dean Fortin.

Her campaign rode a wave across the region that swept into office more young candidates and more young women. And it borrowed the script of Calgary’s Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who was also 38 when he was first elected in 2010. Helps’ successful run was data-driven, shied away from mudslinging, and relied on a demographic shift that has seen an influx of politically engaged 25 to 34-year-olds with a desire for representation.

If you listened to the water cooler talk, though, the one-term city councillor was too young, too female, too far left.

A 38-year-old who lives in Fernwood and raises her own chickens, Helps doesn’t project too much of any one stripe. Her solid acumen has been weaned editing UVic’s student newspaper, The Martlet, rebuilding the Cornerstone and Park Place as vice-chair of the Fernwood NRG, and creating Community Micro Lending. Along the way she’s been pursuing a PhD in the history of housing, homelessness and poverty in Victoria.

“I’ve been called a political entrepreneur,” Helps reveals. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak and I’ve put it to use toward social good.

You could say the governance of the City of Victoria is like a giant social enterprise.”

It was hard work, good planning and building a strong team, she says, that won her the election and that’s how she wants to run the city.

Are you a visionary?

I don’t know. That seems a bit much. It’s not quite the thing one says about oneself. But I’m historically good at gathering together the thoughts and desires of people, forming a vision, and actually getting things done.

Well then, what about a Lisa Helps overarching vision for Victoria?

I want to make sure Victoria is a place where there’s an opportunity for everyone to prosper. I have three steps to get there. First, to make sure it’s an affordable community, and that means more than just building homes for people who are homeless. Second, supporting our small businesses, giving them a better relationship

with City Hall and the Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA). So City Hall becomes a platform for innovation and creativity. So when someone walks in with an idea, instead of being handed 17 forms and told “best of luck when you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed the t’s,” we’ll create an economic development office and have the City be a better partner.

Third, we need to do a better job of spending on projects so we’re truly accountable.

Obviously, the Johnson Street Bridge is part of that discussion, but is it also about being above the board and transparent?

Part of creating prosperity is getting a handle on how we

spend tax dollars, yes. We’ve got a very educated public. We’ve got a very knowledgeable public.

We should draw on that through public participation. Plus, we need to make decisions in context of all other decisions and ask the public for input. There are huge, huge projects on the horizon like sewage, the fire hall, Crystal Pool and the Bay Street Bridge.

Business owners say taxes are too high (almost three-and-ahalf times the tax homeowners pay) and that nullifies their ability to thrive. How do we encourage them to set up here or to stay?

Are you thinking of relocating?

Victoria’s a great place to do that.

I want to get on a plane and go to Calgary or Vancouver or Seattle and tell people that, but I can’t until we fix the processes at City Hall. City Hall has a role to play in creating local prosperity and generating wealth by, at the very least, getting out of the way and, at the very best, being a better partner for the private sector. Our small businesses in Victoria play a fundamental role. I don’t tolerate an us-versus-them attitude from the City. We’re all us and we’re all in this together.

What have you heard from those wanting to do business here?

I hear them saying, “I want to invest in the city, make it easy for me.” Whether it’s a coffee shop or someone bringing a big technology company here, we need to set them up with a culture that’s less regulatory and more enabling — and that’s a culture shift that needs to happen at City Hall.

You want to start an economic development task force. Who will be involved with that?

I’d like to see it made up of

people from tourism, from tech, from social enterprise, from the development industry and downtown retail. The task force has a six-month mandate to give mayor and council an idea of what a robust and meaningful economic development function would look like and what the deliverables for that function would be.

What do we need to do to be a more entrepreneurial city?

This is really what gets me. We are an entrepreneurial city. One of the blocks, though, has been City Hall. It’s not our staff’s fault; it’s the Byzantine forms we use. If we get input from our frontline staff and the people using our services, that will certainly help me direct staff to create a culture at City Hall that fosters the entrepreneur and small business — and to measure how many new business startups and how many vacancies there are, and how many young people are starting businesses and are staying here. My dream is someone telling me, “Oh, I can’t wait to walk into City Hall, because they’re not only going to let me open my business, they’re going to help me open my business.”

Do local entrepreneurs and members of our business community take enough risks?

No. I think not. In some ways, as much as we tout ourselves as being so progressive, we’re a conservative city when it comes to risk taking.

We’re a town averse to change and averse to trying new things.

What about social entrepreneurship? The idea of using a business model to solve social problems is sweeping North America. Is it relevant?

Absolutely. It’s one of the ways we can be a real leader. You’ve got places like The Dock, and businesses like Sitka, that are

Entrepreneurial city Douglas 25

running a business with a social purpose. It’s a real niche we can carve out for ourselves, a way for us to shine. There was a recent survey that asked Millennials what the purpose of business was and overwhelmingly they responded, “To build good.”

Do you feel that individual councillors might have a different set of priorities than you?

I don’t expect harmony. I expect deliberative and open dialogue. I’m not expecting that everyone is going to agree with me all the time. I listen, I gather information, and when I make a proposal or write a motion I will have to find at least four other voices to get something done. When I put forward an idea it’s no longer my idea alone.

There will be no bulldozing and saying, “This is what I’m going to do.”

I feel like the challenge — and I relish this opportunity — is to come up with a concrete, focused strategic plan over the next four years.

I’m going to bring much more rigour to our strategic plan.

Are we a city of grumblers and complainers?

We’re becoming a city of less grumbling and complaining and more doing. And I could have run my campaign on that mantra. As (developer) Robert Jawl told me, “You don’t innovate by waiting your turn.” I think one of the problems is we don’t try small-scale pilot projects and that’s where we need to push more as local government.

There are 54 salaries of more than $100,000 (not including police) being paid out by the City. Is there any way to bring the cost of staffing down to reasonably reflect the size of Victoria?

The really important question everyone should be asking is what value are we getting for the tax dollars we give to the city? We are reviewing the exempt compensation bylaw structure to tie into CUPE and have raises based on performance and not a bylaw. We need to take a systematic approach.

It takes a lot of different people and organizations to build a truly great city.

What do we need to do to make that happen here?

I’m tired of hearing people say that Victoria has potential. I think what we have to do is unleash Victoria’s potential. We need to get out of our silos. Most people I’ve talked to feel like they’re working in isolation. That’s starting to change with Tourism Victoria and the Conference Centre working together. My job is to invite people to the table who are at odds or who hadn’t thought of collaborating. Do I see myself as a visionary?

No. Do I see myself as a connector? Yes. We all need to say, within Victoria and across the region, how can we pull ourselves together to achieve greatness for all of us? ■ 26 Douglas

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Engel & Völkers is an international brokerage focused on luxury residential sales and property management, commercial real estate and yacht brokerage. Scott Piercy, James LeBlanc and Shelby Donald will open a new office in downtown Victoria, representing the company on Vancouver Island.

“Engel & Völkers is a good fit for the caliber of real estate we have been focused on throughout our careers in Victoria,” said Piercy. “We were attracted to a firm that offers local ownership with the kind of premium level service we know our clients appreciate.”

Founded in 1977 in Hamburg, Engel & Völkers has grown to more than 540 offices around the world, with more than 5,000 employees. Other Canadian locations include two offices in the Greater Toronto Area, an office in Calgary, and a second Vancouver Island location in Nanaimo, where realtors Brian Danyliw and Wendy Langelo will represent clients from the Cowichan Valley through Qualicum Beach. Located in downtown Nanaimo, the new office will open in April 2015.

Piercy, LeBlanc and Donald have each

had long real estate careers in Victoria.

Donald is a partner and the managing broker at Engel & Völkers’ Victoria office.

She was most recently the owner and managing broker of Sovi Properties, and in the past held managing broker roles at Victoria’s Sotheby’s International Realty office and Equitex Realty.

“It is a thrill to be joining a firm that has such a high-level of international experience in premium real estate,” said Donald. “Although we have many highend listings, we are also a neighbourhood realtor; many of the properties we sell are family homes at a variety of price points throughout the city.”

Piercy has worked around the world, including in Australia and Costa Rica.

He developed his reputation in Victoria working for Sotheby’s, working with clients locally and internationally. LeBlanc has a 20-year career as a licensed realtor.

In 2012, Piercy and LeBlanc co-founded the Canadian branch of The Luxury Network, a consortium of luxury brands that cross promote one another.

“About 35 per cent of our buyers are from out of town, anywhere from Dubai to Luxembourg to China,” said LeBlanc, who was attracted to Engel & Völkers for their worldwide connections and outstanding

professionalism. “Engel & Völkers has the level of sophistication and expertise these types of clients are looking for, making it easy for us to do our job.”

James LeBlanc 1.250.812.7212 james.leblanc@evcanada.com

Shelby Donald 1.250.812.0599 shelby.donald@evcanada.com

Scott Piercy 1.250.686.7789 scott.piercy@evcanada.com

1.778.433.8885

Flight Plans

Flying has fascinated us ever since the Wright Brothers took that first flight in 1903. Today, we have airliners capable of carrying 300-plus passengers more than 7,000 miles at speeds approaching 1,000 miles an hour. The aeronautical industry has come a long way in just over 100 years, and for 60 of those years, the local firm VIH Aviation Group has been a major industry player.

T

by Mike Wicks photos by Simon DesRochers

he most interesting aviation stories feature individuals who have blazed their own trail across the skies, people like Frank Norie and his son Ken, owners of VIH Aviation Group, a local firm celebrating its 60th anniversary in April.

Headquartered in North Saanich, the company has offices in St. Johns, Newfoundland and Goffs, Nova Scotia. It has five operating companies under its banner, which collectively employ about 400 people — and it operates aircraft across Canada and in some of the world’s most inhospitable regions.

VIH Helicopters, the oldest of the five companies, started out in 1955 as Vancouver Island Helicopters. Today, it’s the oldest privately owned helicopter company in Canada. It all started with Ted Hensen, a Victoria automotive mechanic, who wanted to fly helicopters to provide services to the Island. He raised financing and approached the Seattle Bell Helicopter dealership, owned by Bill Boeing Jr., to purchase a Bell 47 helicopter.

Boeing saw potential and offered to take shares in return for defraying part of the cost of the aircraft. Unfortunately, their relationship was shortlived; while flying for the BC Power Corporation carrying out site surveys for a dam in western B.C. (one of their first major contracts) Hensen went missing. Neither he nor his helicopter were ever found.

Hensen’s wife, Lynn, who handled the company’s administrative affairs, carried on and in the early 60s brought in Alf Stringer, one of the founders of Okanagan Helicopters, whom she later married, to run the company.

A Company Takes Off Several years later, Frank Norie and his brother entered the picture.

They were in the conventional logging business using traditional ground equipment and flying fixed-wing aircraft.

“A friend of my father’s was also a logger and had bought a Bell 47,” Ken Norie recalls. “He convinced my dad it was far more appropriate than [flying] fixed wing for timber cruising, getting in and out of remote logging camps when the weather wasn’t so good. So my dad ended up buying one.

This was 1969 and he learned to fly it at VIH … [who] helped him buy it and carried out the required regular maintenance.”

28 Douglas

Jen Norie, general manager of VIH Helicopters, with a Bell 47G2 helicopter in a hangar at the company’s headquarters in Victoria. VIH started in 1955 with a single Bell 47G2 helicopter and today operates a fleet of over 50 helicopters of many varieties.

Douglas 29

So began a business relationship between Frank Norie and VIH. “At the time he bought the helicopter,” Ken recalls, “I was 14 or 15 … he taught me to fly it because it had dual controls.” Ken then took his official training at VIH, got a private licence at 17, a commercial licence at 18, and went to work for VIH a few days later. The year was 1973 and Ken became the youngest person in Canada at that time to get his helicopter licence.

Within two years, Boeing sold his shares to Frank Norie and in the mid-80s Frank made further investments. Then, during the early 90s, Ken began buying shares in his father’s company. By 2000, he was in a position to buy out his father and take 100 per cent ownership.

Driving Growth During the last 14 years in an ever-changing industry, during tough economic times, the company has become increasingly successful.

Didier Moinier, the company’s senior VP of global development, says, “Overall, there have been big changes in the past 10 years since the new generation of helicopters came out … the big driver these days, money-wise and activitywise, is offshore oil and gas exploration.”

He notes that since 2005, when the first Sikorsky S-92 was delivered, the industry has grown more sophisticated and features more

airline-type operations than “adventure, jump in the cockpit and go flying.”

Ken Norie’s daughter Jen, general manager of VIH Helicopters, agrees with Didier. “It’s more regulated and there’s been a lot more cooperation between companies, government and customers to form best practices. Now there are safety standards you have to conform

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to [that were] never in place before ...”

New technology allows Jen to check the exact location of any aircraft, day or night, on her cell phone, or on a big screen in VIH’s operations room. “Pilot’s have iPads in their helicopters,” she says.

“They have all their maps on them … they take pictures of their flight tickets and

In addition to its diverse fleet of helicopters, VIH operates a major helicopter repair and overhaul centre, as well as a fixed-wing corporate jet charter business and a full service corporate aircraft terminal at the Victoria International Airport. Their corporate jets are chartered by everyone from rock stars to business leaders.

email them to us so we can bill customers.”

If any aircraft drops below 100 feet, or if a pilot presses a panic button, it triggers an alarm back in Victoria. The system was tested recently when a Peruvian VIP accidentally hit the button with his leg while on a site survey.

Asked what has made the company so successful, Didier credits Ken for making smart decisions. One of them was VIH’s decision to purchase the Kamov helicopter from Russia. A heavy lift helicopter, the Kamov has two rotors that counter-rotate so there’s no tail rotor. All the power goes to the main rotors.

In many ways, this decision to purchase the Kamov instead of another helicopter demonstrates why VIH is an industry leader.

Management has an innate ability to identify and act upon opportunities. They attend industry conferences where they meet with logistics and navigation experts from oil companies to discuss future needs and direction. It’s about knowing what clients need.

No other operator in North America has managed to purchase and fly a Kamov. Asked why, Didier says it’s probably, in part, to do with an inherent cynicism toward Russian technology (perhaps left over from the Cold War years), along with the difficulty of penetrating the Russian system. VIH has built a special relationship with Kamov and has two Russianspeaking employees working in Russia. The Russian company uses VIH as their flagship for promoting its aircraft to western markets.

“We’re always looking for that next opportunity,” says Ken, “something to be ahead of everybody else.”

Purchasing the Kamov, originally designed as a ship-borne submarine killer, and to use it for fighting wildfires, logging and construction projects, must have seemed out of left field to others in the industry. Many undoubtedly thought of Russian cars and expected the helicopter to be of lower quality. Graham Lavery, pilot and writer at Vertical magazine,

said in his article on the Kamov, “These preconceived notions … led me to believe the Ka32 would be rough, clumsy, and perhaps even slightly unwieldy ...” But Lavery admitted he couldn’t have been more wrong — and in 1998 VIH made Canadian aviation history by getting Transport Canada certification for the Kamov.

Today, VIH has four of these highly profitable Kamovs. They have seen service in Canada and in northwest China, Taiwan, Sudan, Cameroon, and during the aftermath of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Kashmir in 2005.

Currently, one Kamov is constructing a camp and moving oil rigs in the Amazon Basin of

Peru on a two-year contract; another two are in Saskatchewan helping build a power line. “ … these longer contracts are relatively unheard of in this business,” says Jen. “It’s usually a case of helicopters jumping all over the place from job to job for two months at the most ...”

VIH has managed to secure longer-term contracts not only because its fleet of Kamovs is well suited to the niche it operates in, but also due to the capabilities of its pilots and maintenance crews which allow aircraft to spend more time in the air. And more air time equals more money.

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Smart Expansion Another major turning point for the company was the purchase of Northern Mountain Helicopters in 2002 and Cougar Helicopters in 2003. The latter retained its name and operates Sikorsky S-92 and S-76 helicopters out of several locations on Canada’s East Coast. The company provides passenger transport to the offshore oil industry.

“Not only do they take passengers back and forth to the rigs,” says Jen, “but also we operate a private search and rescue terminal with roundthe-clock staff. It’s like a fire hall concept; we can launch a helicopter in under 20 minutes and be out there searching for people.”

The

5 Faces VIH Aerospace has a state-of-the-art facility equipped to repair every component of a helicopter, including increasingly sophisticated communication and navigation systems, for the company’s own aircraft and external clients.

of VIH Aviation Group

YYJ FBO Services is a full-service, fixed-base operation located at Victoria International Airport, providing corporate aircraft storage, fuelling services and an executive lounge.

surviving the downtURn — And Thriving VIH, like most other companies, was hit by the 2008-09 economic downturn, but unlike many companies, they saw the downturn as an opportunity. They decided to sell many of their aircraft and refocus the business.

“At one point VIH had about 95 helicopters,” says Jen. “It was huge; now the group, including Cougar, has 15 helicopters. We contracted them to a former competitor and they took over the contracts, with crew and management. So, it wasn’t a crisis — it went smoothly.”

“In the last three years we refocused on just heavy helicopters,” says Didier, “because it’s

32 Douglas

Cougar Helicopters transports people to and from oil rigs and handles search and rescue duties.

VIH Helicopters operates globally in the heavy-lift, seismic, mining, wildfire operations and forestry markets.

VIH Execujet, the fixed-wing division, offers private jet charters using a Challenger 604 and a Hawker 800XP.

such a niche market ... Throughout the last 20 years the heavy helicopters have always been profitable.”

The parent company doesn’t fly all the aircraft it owns. “VIH Aviation Group carries out dry leasing of large heavy helicopters,” Ken explains, “so right now we own five Sikorsky S-92s with two more coming in the next while, which we dry lease out to other operators. A dry lease is like financing — we buy helicopters and make them available, normally for a 10-year term, with our clients crewing them.”

One project where VIH Aviation Group leads the way is in building long-range fuel tanks for the Sikorsky S-92. VIH manufacturers them in Victoria and sells them to other operators through Sikorsky.

Management consensus is that the Visual Flight Rules (VFR) sector (i.e. mining, oil and gas, hydro, construction, fire suppression and forestry) will be front and centre in the coming years, with possibly eight more aircraft in the air by 2020. “The Arctic is going to be big in the next few years,” says Didier.

The Jet Set Another growth area, says Jen, is chartering executive jets, with growing local demand coming from business people, the construction industry, developers and international celebrities. “The Challenger 604 was in China a couple of weeks ago — it’s non-stop. It kind of blows my mind that a small but luxurious private jet company from Victoria is flying movie stars internationally,” says Jen. VIH Execujet also operates a Hawker 800SP jet which is available for charters to destinations throughout North America.

Initially VIH purchased the Hawker 800 to allow their team to travel quickly back and forth to their East Coast businesses. Once they had the aircraft (based at Victoria Airport), pilots, maintenance crews and flight attendants, they discovered a market for it in Victoria/ Vancouver. A few years ago, the Hawker was contracted to a company in Greenland for crew changes, so VIH decided to buy a larger jet — the Challenger 604. Since then, both jets are chartered consistently.

A Lasting Legacy The ambition and passion of the Wright brothers lives on in Ken Norie and his team at this innovative and progressive North Saanich company. And especially in Jen Norie, who started working for VIH when she was 12 years old, doing photocopying for $5 per week. Her professionalism, commitment to the industry, and her enthusiasm and excitement bode well for the future of VIH Aviation Group. As she says, “I understand why people are so attracted to aviation. How can you not be?” ■ Douglas 33

Looking at the world through a 100-year lens rather than just in terms of quarterly shareholder reports, Vancouver Island’s First Nations are harvesting the entrepreneurial energy of their people to create a better future — one that belongs to them.

by Andrew Findlay

34 Douglas

First

Nations

Carpenter and carver Johnathon Ryce ­— who worked with his uncle Rick Underwood, the foreman on the installation of the T’Sou-ke Nation’s solar panel project — walks among the banks of solar panels on top of a building on the reserve in Sooke.

Douglas 35

Jeffrey Bosdet/Douglas Magazine

at the Forefront

T

he T’Sou-ke Nation is small but it has big ideas. At only 250 members, mostly living on 67 hectares of reserve land around the Sooke Basin, you could fold it into any neighborhood in a large metropolis and it would barely make a demographic or economic dent.

But this ambitious band is making a dent in quashing stereotypes of First Nations by investing in a future based on food sustainability and alternative energy. With its Pacific Coast Wasabi operation, the band maintains three large greenhouses with 15,000 wasabi seedlings. Profits from this operation will be used to expand an existing 70-hectare organic community garden. And there’s more: thanks to a $1.5-million capital outlay in 2009, the nation’s administration building now runs entirely on a 75 kilowatt solar power system. Furthermore, in 2013 the T’Sou-ke partnered with Timberwest Forest Corp. and EDP Renewables Canada Ltd. to explore opportunities to develop, build and operate a massive $750-million, 300 MW wind

energy project on southern Vancouver Island.

“This approach comes from our ancestors.

Food security was always important to our people,” Chief Gordon Planes told Douglas while commuting back from Vancouver where he was meeting with other chiefs and Premier Christy Clark.

Setting a New Course Put simply, the T’Sou-ke Nation sees the Island’s isolation as a potential business advantage. As conventional fossil fuel energy becomes more expensive, the cost of importing food will also become increasingly prohibitive, says Planes. That’s why he hopes his band’s focus on food and green energy will place them on the leading edge of a local sustainability push that one day may become a necessity, not a choice.

The T’Sou-ke are exhibiting the kind of entrepreneurial thinking that distinguishes an increasing number of Aboriginal communities as they attempt to free themselves from the

business-killing shackles of the Indian Act and reservation system, which renders them as perpetual tenants on federally owned land, and has burdened them with the crippling multigenerational social issues that resulted from the residential school system.

It’s a nasty legacy that the Huu-ay-aht First Nation is also working hard to overcome. As a member of the Maa-nulth Treaty Society, this band joined four partner nations to become the first on the Island to sign a modern day treaty, which came into effect April 1, 2011. It gave the Huu-ay-aht self-government and jurisdiction over 8,200 hectares near its main community of Anacla at the mouth of Alberni Inlet.

The Huu-ay-aht now own the Pachena Bay Campground, a forestry firm with 13 employees that also hires as many as 50 contractors, a shake and shingle operation, a gravel pit, a dry land log sort, as well as a market and cafe in Bamfield plus 21 commercial fishing licences.

Last July, in the band’s most high-profile venture to date, Huu-ay-aht chief councillor

Honouring the Past Exploring the Future

Jeffrey Bosdet/Douglas Magazine

John Jack admits that mentioning First Nations in a room full of business executives might conjure up anti-business obstructionism stereotypes. But these are old, increasingly inaccurate perceptions, says the 33-year-old elected Huu-ay-aht councillor, part of a vanguard of young Aboriginal leaders working hard to show that First Nations can stay true to cultural roots while being progressive in business.

Along with his role as a councillor, he also holds the Port Albernibased nation’s economic, policy and law development portfolios, and represents the band on the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District board.

“The opportunities are ever expanding for First Nations willing to communicate and engage with business partners and neighbouring communities,” says Jack, who is the Huu-ayaht’s lead voice on economic issues including the potential development of a $30 billion LNG plant at Sarita Bay in partnership with Vancouver’s Steelhead LNG. Jack’s involvement in Huu-ayaht politics and administration came about more by accident than design. In 2005 and 2006, while Jack was enrolled at Vancouver Island University, Huuay-aht leaders were developing a community constitution, a 36 Douglas

requirement of the Maa-nulth treaty, which came into effect in 2011. As a band member, he received a survey to fill out. He took a red pen and marked up what he considered to be a poorly worded survey full of leading and misleading questions. Band administrators took notice and asked him to join the process.

That offer led him into law, policy and economic development and ultimately into politics.

Jack’s accidental career choice has been the Huu-ay-aht’s gain.

He has represented the band on trade missions to Asia, and last year gave a keynote address at the Northeast B.C. Natural Gas Summit in Vancouver. Now, midway through a second term as councillor, Jack believes the Huu-ay-aht’s treaty will be the cornerstone of its future success.

“It gives us legal rights to home and traditional territories,

and transparent and accountable governance structures that keeps business and politics at arm’s length from each other,” Jack says. “We have a guaranteed seat at the table with anyone proposing major projects in Huuay-aht territories.”

Bands without treaties may resort to confrontational direct action to assert their rights, a strategy that may be necessary in the short term but, says Jack, doesn’t bode well for future economic opportunities.

Jack describes the Huu-ay-aht’s approach as “positive soft power,” using some of the jargon he acquired from his Global Studies degree.

As for the band’s decision to further explore the proposal for a LNG plant, an industry not without controversy, Jack says it’s the result of careful consideration and a realization that the Huuay-aht need a substantial project to form the bedrock of a local economy. In November, the Huuay-aht voted 61 per cent in favour of moving onto the feasibility study stage of this joint venture proposal.

“Eighty per cent of our members live off-reserve,” Jack says, “And we need to give them a reason to move back.”

Jeff Cook signed an “opportunity development agreement” with Vancouver-based Steelhead LNG to explore the possibility of building a liquid natural gas plant on Huu-ay-aht land with access to deepwater in outer Alberni Inlet. The 25-year, $30-billion proposal is still speculative, but the agreement signals that this 750-member nation is on the lookout for opportunities — and the business world is taking them seriously.

“We want to tell people that we’re open for business,” Cook says. “Our treaty is economically driven and it’s given us the ability and authority to look at large projects without having to deal with the Indian Act.” The Songhees and Esquimalt nations, whose modern reserves border each other and are sandwiched between Victoria, View Royal and Esquimalt, are also demonstrating an openfor-business approach. They are trying hard to transition from being bystanders to participants in the economy surrounding Victoria Harbour.

In October, the two nations hired Curtis Grad, former CEO of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (GVHA), to head up the Skwin’ang’eth Se’las Development Company, a joint venture between the Songhees, Esquimalt and GVHA that aims to generate business opportunities and jobs for band members. In a news release, Esquimalt chief Andy Thomas called the development company a “vehicle that will enable our young people to return to the harbour to create livelihoods.”

Creating Livelihoods Creating livelihoods is a goal the K’ómoks First Nation (KFN) is having considerable success in reaching. With a small reserve on the shores of Comox Harbour wedged between Courtenay and Comox, and a total on- and off-reserve population of 320, this nation’s economic development arm has been busy while band politicians inch toward a modern day treaty.

In 2012, band-owned Pentlatch Seafoods Ltd., which markets its product under the brand Komo Gway, bought Aquatec, a well-established Comox-based seafood processing company. With over 20 full-time staff, Pentlatch harvests two million oysters annually with sales to Taiwan, China, the U.S. and Canada. Last year the band opened Salish Sea Foods, a retail outlet selling Oysters Rockefeller, Cajun salmon skewers and other value-added seafood products.

The band also owns I-Hos Gallery, the Puntledge RV Campground at the confluence of the Tsolum and Puntledge rivers, and has several MOUs with companies like Upland Excavating Ltd., giving the band economic opportunities for projects on its traditional territory. The KFN is also negotiating with BC Hydro for opportunities in the $1-billion-plus John Hart Dam upgrade on the Campbell River.

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Knox, CEO of K’ómoks Economic Development Corp. “We have a criteria to vet business inquiries. Are they successful, do they have a good environmental record and do they fit within the KFN’s vision? We work on a 100-year vision and always ask the question, ‘What will we be leaving our children?’”

Further north, the Namgis First Nation is attempting to shift salmon aquaculture to a more environmentally sustainable paradigm with a land-based Atlantic salmon fish farm, built three years ago south of Port McNeill with more than $7 million in investment from government and conservation foundations.

In October, the fish farm, 100-per-cent owned by the Namgis, received the highest ranking possible from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program for its Atlantic salmon, marketed and sold through Vancouver wholesaler Albion Fisheries.

Poised for Prosperity Little happens in B.C. these days in terms of large economic projects without some First Nations involvement. Despite the challenges bands face in generating jobs and wealth, there’s no doubt B.C.’s indigenous people are in a greater position of influence than any other time in their modern history.

Dust off archives of legal case history and you’ll find some compelling reasons why. For example, the 1997 Delgamuukw versus British Columbia case opened the door a crack for making a constitutional argument for Aboriginal title over land. Then in 2004, the Haida Nation versus British Columbia decision enshrined the duty for project proponents to consult First Nations prior to exploiting lands to which

The I-Hos Gallery is located on the site of the original K’ómoks Village. The gallery features traditional and contemporary Northwest Coast artwork

by First Nations artists, including Andy Everson’s “Majestic.”

they have a claim. Most recently, last July, the Supreme Court of Canada gave the Tsilhqot’in people sweeping veto powers over projects on land to which they have both proven and unproven rights and title. This decision has the potential to change the landscape of economic development in B.C. for good, and also de-rail some projects that might have been slam-dunks before.

One thing is clear: the investors behind large projects can no longer pay lip service to the notion of consulting First Nations. Nigel Kuzemko, president and CEO of Steelhead LNG, has decades of experience in the global natural gas sector. He says that in B.C., working with First Nations is fundamental to his company’s philosophy. “We can’t look at it any other way. Partnering with First Nations is integral to this project moving forward,” Kuzemko says, regarding the agreement signed with the Huu-ay-aht to explore LNG opportunities. “...in 100 years, the nation will still be there but the project won’t be.”

The Reality However, optimism about the economic prospects for First Nations is tempered by some hard realities. The Island is home to 53 nations — 20 per cent of all nations in B.C. They belong to three distinct tribal regions: Coast Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakiutl. According to a decade-old B.C. census, First Nations number 43,420, nearly seven per cent of the Island’s population. But though there are bright spots, First Nations still have some of Canada’s highest rates of incarceration and unemployment.

Many bands, like the Ahousaht and Ditidaht, are geographically isolated, making mainstream

economic success challenging and opportunities for their youth difficult to come by. Many bands are also small and have limited financial and human resources.

“First Nations are still the most disadvantaged in the whole country. Everyone can see it,” says the T’Sou-ke Nation’s Chief Gordon Planes. “And a lot of small tribes like ours don’t have a lot of money and that makes economic development hard.”

Melinda Knox of the KFN agrees. She says band resources are often overwhelmed by treaty negotiation and legal wrangling, leaving little left over in the way of human and financial capital for harnessing business opportunities.

In spite of the precedent-setting court cases that have laid the foundation for a new relationship, a reality for B.C.’s Aboriginal leaders is spending time in court facing off government lawyers. The tiny Hupacasath First Nation, based in Port Alberni, got out of the gate early and jumped into the Independent Power Producing goldrush that resulted when BC Hydro first put out a call for IPPs. In 2003, the Hupacasath forged a joint venture with Vancouver-based Synex Energy and formed Upnit Power Corporation to develop the 6.5 MW run-of-river hydro project on China Creek, which began producing power in 2005. The band retains a 72.5 per cent majority ownership in Upnit Power.

Today, the Hupacasath are also leading the fight against Canada’s newly minted Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with China that the federal government signed into law this

fall. Critics, the Hupacasath among them, say the deal enables China to circumvent the duty to consult First Nations on major economic projects on land over which they have claims or title.

“Our nation is rich in forest resources, salmon and fresh water,” says Judith Sayers, former chief councillor of the Hupacasath, who launched the Supreme Court challenge of FIPA. “We want to be in the position as a sovereign First Nation to protect our resources.”

The fact that resource-poor nations are being dragged into court battles to repeatedly defend rights and title, adding a further drain to their resources, is a sore point for Sophie Pierre, chief commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission and the former longtime chief of the St. Mary’s Indian Band near Cranbrook.

As a nod to the increasing economic importance and influence of First Nations, the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA) invited Pierre to be the keynote speaker at the 2014 Vancouver Island Economic Summit. Then, as it still is, the treaty process was under pressure. Pierre is sharp and energetic, and bristles with both enthusiasm for the future of indigenous people in the province and also with frustration over the roadblocks and prejudices that still stand in the way.

Since the treaty commission was launched in 1992, just the Maa-Nulth Treaty Society and Tsawwassen nation have implemented treaties (the 1996 Nisga’a treaty was negotiated outside of the treaty commission process,) even though more than half of B.C.’s bands are engaged in the process.

Take the time to understand the unique governance and leadership paradigm, which often involves a blend of traditional hereditary and elected leadership, that make First Nations unique.

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Consultants and lawyers are doing well, but not many treaties are getting signed.

Bureaucratic inertia is partly to blame, according to Pierre. For example, the Sliammon First Nation treaty has bounced around Ottawa for three years waiting for royal assent. Last summer’s seminal Tsilqhot’in decision has prompted some bands, like the T’Sou-ke Nation, to hit the pause button and ask whether treaty is the best away to achieve Aboriginal rights and title aspirations, further undermining the already faltering treaty process. Yet Pierre believes firmly that treaty is still the best way for a nation to position itself for future selfsufficiency and prosperity.

“There’s always the expectation that things will happen quicker than they do after treaty but capacity building takes time,” Pierre says.

“Imagine if you’re wanting to do a run-of-river project, for example. You need to have rules and regulations; you can’t have nothing, no structures in place.”

That’s Pierre’s message for First Nations wavering on the treaty process. For the nonAboriginal community wanting to engage with the First Nations in a business relationship, she has another message. Take the time to understand the unique governance and leadership paradigm, which often involves a blend of traditional hereditary and elected leadership, that make First Nations unique.

Pierre also urges people not to fall into stereotypical prejudicial views. She brings up the case of Kwikwetlem First Nation chief Ron Giesbrecht, who was recently accused of pocketing an $800,000 bonus for economic development projects, and whose band has been fingered by critics as an example of another unaccountable First Nation government that’s a breeding ground for corruption. In late October, news surfaced about two Squamish Nation members and employees who were fired for inappropriately disbursing more than $1 million in band funds. Still, Pierre is in a fighting mood, and says too often media and the general public focus on the negative rather than the positive steps First Nations are taking.

“Why isn’t every white mayor tarred with a Rob Ford comparison?” she asks.

8 There’s no doubt, Pierre is an able champion for First Nations in B.C. Her people have come a long way since the dark days of no hope, but they still have much ground to gain. As for the largely 8 non-Aboriginal corporate world, it will have to become accustomed to a new mode of doing business, of looking at projects through a 100-year lens that factors in the economic and cultural interests of Aboriginals and not just the interests of quarterly shareholder reports.

“In my mind, we’re not there yet in terms of economic development but we want to be players in the economy,” says Huu-ay-aht chief councillor Jeff Cook, “and we will be players.” ■

Special Educational feature

Career and professional development Exploring The Many Facets of Advanced Education and Professional Development on Vancouver Island

top

Educational Leaders Make Their Predictions

Higher Learning

Does it Lead to Increased Opportunity?

Top

Educational leaders

Peter Lockie

INTERIM PRESIDENT, CAMOSUN COLLEGE

make their predictions Government cuts, tuition caps and the B.C. Skills for Jobs Blueprint’s mandate to meet a growing trades demand — the Island’s university and college presidents talk about how they deal with these and other challenges and still manage to create world-class institutions whose graduates are prepared for the future. by Shannon Moneo

 Peter Lockie

 Allan Cahoon

As government funding is eroding, how will you operate and attract top educators?

Government funding won’t increase so that poses a challenge.

We’ll have to find non-government monies. We’ll probably diversify [through] more international students and contract training to deliver services to corporations, not-for-profits and government.

I’m not sure if it’s crucial, but corporate money will assist us, particularly in capital projects — capital re-investment. We’re also building a trades building at our Interurban campus. We’ll be looking for corporate partnerships with trades and construction companies, groups like the Vancouver Island Construction Association.

Royal Roads is a different [kind of] university. We operate only in applied and professional programs, so we try to complement other institutions. We were funded for 1,980 full-time students in 2009.

That’s frozen. We have over 2,500 FT students today. We have higher fees than other institutions to cover our costs. It’s part of our business model. Our international students pay a tuition differential of $6,000 to $8,000. What drives our tuition cost is the business case for each program ... Each time a program is proposed, we look at what it costs to deliver it and the margin to continue. The issue is facilities. Do we have the capacity to offer the program?

Is there still room for purely academic institutions or do schools have to reinvent themselves?

Camosun is a comprehensive college. We offer upgrading, university transfer, vocational school, trades. Is there room for academics? Yes. We’re next to UVic and it could be seen that we overlap. But our classes are smaller. There’s a big push from government for job-ready graduates, with LNG, the energy sector. With predictions of over one million new jobs by 2022, a significant proportion will require college education. Our ability to meet the need is challenged by our resources. The government talks about targeting in-demand occupations but it’s not just welders. We’ll need nurses, caregivers.

In Northern Alberta, there’s a shortage of child-care educators.

Job-ready graduates are key to what we do. We have strategic partnerships with Camosun, so students there can ladder into our programs. It’s complementing rather than duplicating ... When the government says, “We want LNG training,” Royal Roads goes to the north. We meet with UNBC and discuss how we can collaborate with UNBC and northern colleges to deliver local programs. We develop the template, focused on getting required skills. Get a few of these certificates, stack them, bundle them and we’ll give you a degree. For a First Nations community that wants to supply the LNG industry, we could craft programs appropriate for them.

What are your tuition cost predictions and does this affect who attends your schools?

If the [tuition] cap remains, it will be two per cent for existing programs. Staff tell us that increasing fees causes access problems for students. But we’re pretty full. Tuition here is not as high as in other places. Student debt? Education is a wise investment.

Society in general is crushed by debt. It fascinates me, the number of students who drive and pay for parking [when] they all get bus passes.

We are capped but our business model says we must cover our operating costs. One desire for our 75th anniversary in 2015, is to raise funds to assist students with their education. We want to support First Nations students, sons and daughters of military [personnel] and emergency workers killed in action, single parents, children of single parents. We want a cross-section of Canadian culture. Of the 35 students in our social sciences doctoral program, we found financial support from federal and provincial governments for eight First Nations students.

What does your university or college of the future look like to you?

Camosun listens to our community. They’re our employers. Our intent is to stay a college, stay comprehensive, meet various needs.

We regularly meet with government. Their latest Jobs Blueprint informs us. There’s a lot of reliance on data. Do we trust it? That’s the question. We eliminated the applied communications course because there wasn’t a future for those jobs. It may come back in a different form. We do a program mix review, looking at all programs ... If there’s no enrolment in a course, we won’t run it. Technology changes some programs, not English literature but courses like automotive, nursing where you need current equipment.

We consider what the market requires. Should we move to Massive Open Online Courses [if] we believe effective learning requires social interaction between students and teachers? The idea of learning tailored to the individual is also important. [We must also consider that] people are not prepared to commit four years or even two years when they don’t know what jobs will exist ... so learning has to be convenient and ongoing. The challenge is that industry determines the learning, not Professor X ... so, we have a performance-based culture with a contracted faculty.

42 Douglas

ALLAN CAHOON

RALPH NILSON

PRESIDENT, VANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY

PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA

Photos: Jeffrey Bosdet/Douglas Magazine

PRESIDENT, ROYAL ROADS UNIVERSITY

JAMIE CASSELS

 Ralph Nilson

 Jamie Cassels

We’re going to be able to attract top educators because of our quality. Corporate funding isn’t crucial yet. Our partnership with government, not-for-profits and commercial organizations, our collaboration, that will become important. Government funding, our number-one source of funding, is eroding and will continue to erode. In 2014, government funds were 43 per cent of our funding; eight years ago it was 53 per cent; 25 years ago it was 85 per cent.

We’ve had big success with international tuition fees. In 10 years, tuition will likely be our biggest funding source.

Some universities are better funded than UVic and some are not funded as well. Our job is to do the best we can. We’re internationally recognized as one of the best research institutions in Canada. Government funding provides about one-third of our revenues. We also have fantastic support from partnerships and endowments. Corporate funding is important for research. We have 1,200 partnerships with employers in our co-op programs across B.C. and the world, and it’s growing.

About nine per cent of VIU is trades. The education system we have in B.C. is quite well-balanced. We don’t want the schools to be all the same. At VIU, whether it’s a resource-extraction focus or knowledge-based focus, we respond to all, including the LNG focus. But it’s not one or the other. We’ve got a liberal arts degree where students learn critical thinking capacities. We have to be careful about polarizing academics versus trades.

UVic is a comprehensive, research-intensive university. A research culture leads to discussion, innovation. Some students register in programs like engineering, health, business, where they’re almost 100 per cent guaranteed a job. We need to be responsive to immediate needs and the long game, jobs that don’t yet exist. We don’t even know what they’ll be, what skills will be required. We learn our way into the future — lifelong learning. Analysis, critical thinking, problem solving — we want students to learn these skills.

Since 2001

more than

32,000

new student seats and seven new public university campuses have been added to the public post-secondary system in B.C. – B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education

At Canadian universities, female graduates represented

58%

of the total number of graduates in 2012.

There are no caps on tuition for international students. Yet, we’ve got programs for the best and brightest. Our school is the antithesis of wealthy students. We spend a lot of time on endowments. There are too many people who don’t have a choice in accessing post-secondary education. We’re the leading school in the province for waiving tuition for adult students who had previously been in government care. In 2013, we waived 17 tuitions.

In 2014, it was 38. We just don’t service the elite.

There will be many developments but I can’t be a prophet. LNG is being forced by the government. But in 10 years, I don’t know what the careers will be. So we don’t get caught as Luddites, we have to produce workers who are relevant, responsive and innovative.

A decade from now, there will definitely be more international students. We know that the immigration of highly skilled people is necessary. Universities as portals is key. For Aboriginals, VIU is doing a very good job of welcoming them and providing access. VIU is one of the larger employers in Nanaimo, about 1,200 FT workers. We’re key to the community, bringing social and economic contributions.

Two per cent over the last 10 years is a modest increase. I don’t see it rising faster than that over the next few years, except for courses like law or business which are more expensive to deliver ... The challenge is to balance needed revenue while maintaining accessibility. We want a diverse student body. In 2012/13, we collected $102 million in tuition revenue, and total student aid was $33.5 million, for scholarships, bursaries and fellowships. In 2013/14, tuition revenue was $110 million and we provided $36 million in student aid, which is for scholarships, bursaries and fellowships.

The future is unpredictable. There will be new areas of research, new jobs. Technology has made everything faster; the world has speeded up. Still, the heart of the university is that it’s a learning community characterized by problem-solving. And a huge part of education is about developing the person. My job is to tap into the smartness that surrounds me. But the use of technology in classroom learning will definitely impact UVic. We have to use the best technology we can. Distance learning is great, for older students, for those who have to travel, but there’s a desire among a lot of people for the experience you can only have on a campus.

– statscan

Enrolments at Canadian universities are highly concentrated in three fields of study: business, management and public administration

18.2%

humanities

15.8%

social and behavioural sciences and law

13.5% – statscan

Douglas 43

Most people visit Facebook 14 times during the day.

Will they see your business there?

Higher Learning Does it Lead to Increased Opportunity?

You’ll need business and online skills to succeed.

We supply both.

• Business and Management programs/courses LearningThat Shapes.ca/business

• Computer Based Information Systems program/courses LearningThat Shapes.ca/computing

Learning that shapes who you are.

44 Douglas

Many successful professionals are returning to the classroom to pursue advanced degrees. Some want more job opportunities, others want to boost their earning potential — and still others are seeking a future more aligned with the person they are today.

by Kerry Slavens photo by Simon DesRochers

B

y any measure, Karen Elgersma has been successful in the world of media. As the host and senior producer of Shaw-TV’s Go Island, she is one of Greater Victoria’s most recognizable and respected media professionals.

But last year, Karen began to wonder if there was more. “I was really restless for the past couple of years,” Elgersma says. “I still love what I’m doing but I felt ready for a challenge.”

Intrigued with the idea of pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University, Elgersma discussed her educational future with a friend.

What would be the outcome of going back to school? she wondered. “My friend said, ‘If you get this degree, 100 doors will open. Why do you have to know which one you’ll walk through now?’”

“There are about eight times in my life when I’ve had an ‘aha moment,’” Elgersma adds. “This was definitely one of them.”

Elgersma began her two-year degree at RRU in September 2014. The learning she has experienced has already led to new ideas for an online initiative.

After 20 years of working for the Turkish government, most recently as an auditor, ¸ Seref Efe felt ready for a change or a renewal.

In 2005, he completed his Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree at Harvard Kennedy School then decided to expand his knowledge by moving to Canada and pursuing an MBA at UVic’s Peter Gustavson School of Business.

“We see so many business cases [in the MBA program], we discuss so much in detail with many brilliant and experienced people, that we believe we can do better than anyone else,” he says. “We can take it a step further.”

Today, Efe is happy in his role as strategic information manager at Brookfield Johnson Controls, a major Canadian real estate management services company. He says it wouldn’t have been possible without his MBA from UVic.

Growing Appeal Efe and Elgersma represent a growing contingent of professionals who are enrolling in graduate school. Some want career change; others want to add new dimension to current

Karen Elgersma, host and senior producer of ShawTV’s Go Island, is working on a Master of Arts degree in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University.

Douglas 45

careers. Some talk about self-fulfilment; others a master’s degree, $60,000; for a doctoral are focused on boosting earning potential and degree, $65,000. Earnings could vary greatly job-market appeal. depending on the degree, the job market and Job-market appeal is especially relevant in the graduate.

Change everything.

Victoria, a city that Ian Robertson, associate While earning potential is a factor in getting a director of UVic’s MBA program, calls “a midgraduate degree, it shouldn’t be the prime goal, says Andrea Hoerger, a marketing professional Fulfillingcareer Careercity.” The lifestyle and beauty of the now her second term of an 18-month MBA citySkills attracts highly experienced professionals Enhanced Software Training Digital Marketing who bring their degrees with them, making the degree at Gustavson School of Business.

New Paths local job market highly competitive.

Where a “It’s hard to know the return on investment,” Scheduled to fit your busy lifestyle… bachelor’s degree was once a good precursor, she says. “For me, it’s more about expanding Part-time and full-time offerings available many jobs now call for graduate-level degrees. my knowledge and the networking component. days, evenings, weekends and online.

MS-Office Certificate Victoria is a very educated city in a country I liked marketing but didn’t want to be limited. with the world’s most highly educated This gives me opportunity to branch out with population. Fifty per cent of Canadian adults more confidence.”

Occupational Safety GIS/ArcGIS have completed Software Training some form of postCanada is the world most highly educated secondary education.

Medical Terminology Project Management country. In 2012, about 53.6% of Canadians This puts Canada in Trades aged 15 and over had trade certificates, the educational lead for countries ranked college diplomas and university degrees.

Plant Materia Medica Language Business by the Organisation for This was an increase of 20.9 percentage Economic Co-operation Prenatal points since 1990. — StatsCan and Development.

Continuing & Professional Education

Project Management

Leadership

What Matters Most

Natural Strengths

Does a graduate degree add up to higher Medical Laboratory Assistant Computers for Seniors earnings? Statistics are hard to come by, but a 2006 study by the Association of Universities Photography and Colleges of Canada shows the average camosun.ca/ce 250-370-3550 (2) Tourism Online Courses income for bachelor’s degree is $45,000; for

Register Now Work on your business

— not on your books

By choosing educational goals that complement her existing skills, Hoerger is playing to her natural strengths. That’s key when you decide to boost your education or change careers, says Anna Harvey, an associate with Ingrid

Before You Enrol …

Kerry Brown, a Victoria business coach, strategist and owner of Success Biz Coach applauds the concept of continuing education. Aside from talking to the school’s advisors and conducting informational interviews of people working in your field of choice, she recommends asking yourself the following questions:

CALL us ToDAy!

250-590-4771

#201-388 Harbour Road, Victoria, BC V9A 3S1 46 Douglas

What are your values?

“Identify them and see if there’s a match between what your values are and the values of the industry/business/career you are thinking of entering.

Often, we don’t think our values are important but then we find ourselves in an uncomfortable position; for instance, an academic moving into a commercial environment or someone who is profitdriven moving into a non-profit.

Make sure there is no values disconnect between who you are and what you want to do.”

What’s behind your desire for change?

“Many people make a big change because they want to

get away from something versus moving toward something.

That soon loses its appeal — so be clear and really challenge yourself with this question.”

How will a degree make a difference?

“Is devoting time to an advanced degree the answer or are there other things you could be doing in your current position or career that might satisfy your desire for change or advancement?”

Do you have the time and financial support to return to school?

“Take a realistic look at how much time you can devote to your studies and how you will fund tuition and your living expenses.”

What kind of work do you actually want to do?

“Identify this and think about what your ideal day would look like — the ideal parts and the less desirable tasks.”

Will you regret it if you don’t pursue your education goals?

“List the pros and cons and ask yourself the hard questions.

Remember, you don’t want to leave regrets on the table if you have the opportunity to pursue your goals.”

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“There’s a catch people get into when they go for advanced degrees and try to say ‘this is where the trend is going’ or ‘this is where the money looks to be,’” says Harvey. “The catch is that they may end up dissatisfied, which leads to stress and burnout. But when we’re playing from natural strengths or learned abilities we are naturally in a place of more success.”

Continuing Education

A Bite-sized Approach Study after study has identified continuous education as a key career and business success factor for remaining at the top of your game and being competitive in the marketplace.

The advantage of most continuing education courses is that you can learn in manageable timeframes, often only three hours a week, instead of committing to two to three years. It’s an ideal way for those working in demanding careers to keep up with emerging technologies and new management techniques, for example.

On Vancouver Island, opportunities abound.

Royal Roads University, the University of Victoria, Camosun College and Vancouver Island University all offer an impressive range of Continuing Education courses in everything from web skills development to how to run more effective meetings to the basics of crowdfunding.

School of Business

Gustavson

See things differently.

48 Douglas

While most of these are non-accredited, others may lead to certificates which are an ideal way to build skills and enhance your resume. Just some of the certificate programs available on Vancouver Island include: public relations, leadership development, human resources management and project management.

The Pros of Professional Development Aside from colleges and universities, many industry associations have mandates to help their members advance their professional training.

Certified Management Accountants (CMA) of British Columbia, for instance, offers an extensive integrated CPABC professional development program with over 700 courses. The same is true for the Human Resources Management Association (HRMA) and hundreds of other associations whose goal is to help members achieve the highest levels of their profession, whether the field is law, real estate, business analysis or financial planning.

Catherine Novak certainly played from her natural strengths when she chose to pursue a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies at Royal Roads University. As marketing and communications manager at Monk Office, Novak is happy in her position but wanted to deepen her knowledge.

“I had come to a plateau and needed something to bump me up a notch,” she says.

The interdisciplinary degree, which she is on the verge of completing, offered Novak a way to design her own program of study and cross-pollinate disciplines; in her case, communications and technology.

“It’s definitely expanded my confidence,” she says.

“It’s great being able to say ‘Yes, I did it.”

Karen Elgersma also played to her natural strengths.

Furthermore, she took a friend’s advice: “Do not plan a career, plan a life. and especially if you are at the age where you’re thinking ‘it’s my turn.’ Plan a life you want and use that education to get you there.”

Discovering Our Best Selves Kayleigh Harrison has a Master’s degree in Music (Opera Performance) from UBC and was working hard to advance her career as a performer, but she always saw herself moving into arts administration after she finished her performance career. However, seeing her fellow artists face unfair treatment in the industry inspired her to go back to school sooner.

Harrison is halfway through the dual-degree Juris Doctor (JD)/MBA program at UVic.

76%

of those surveyed said that they could not have obtained their first selected job after graduating from business school without their MBA degree.

— Graduate Management Admissions Council Study, 2012

“My goal is to enhance and protect the rights of artists. I believe that changing our thinking to be more artist-centric can also grow profits and increase the financial stability of our incredibly valuable arts institutions.”

The MBA program has taught her to see the world differently, she says. “The program is not just an opportunity to learn the hard skills of business management, but is instead a chance to grow into a deeper, fuller version of yourself, who is ready to take on the rapidly changing world of business.”

Karen Elgersma is also discovering new aspects of herself at Royal Roads. “It’s an opportunity to reinvent who you are,” she says.

But while the experience is “intensely gratifying,” there are challenges to going back to university at mid-career, she says.

“I had been doing some form of communications for 25 years so I kind of figured I knew a lot of this, right? But there was so much new to learn ...When you are 19, you go in thinking it’s all new and you expect that, but after a 25-year career, going back to school is humbling.”

The benefits are that it opens you up to a world of possibilities, she says. “I listen to some of my professors talk about what’s possible and I think, ‘Wow, you can do that for a living!’”

Ultimately, what she is gaining pursuing her graduate degree at Royal Roads tracks back to a Winnie-the-Pooh quote, Elgersma says, laughing. “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.” ■

Douglas 49

Money by Steve Bokor and Ian david Clark

Group Insurance Are You Really Protected?

13.7%

of Canadians aged 15 and older reported being limited in their daily activities because of a disability in 2012

1 in 3

—STATSCAN

canadians will experience a period of disability lasting longer than 90 days during their working lives.

— STATSCAN

When it comes to disability insurance, many employees think they are well covered by their group benefits at work. A closer look reveals just how insufficient some of these plans really are.

R

ecently, in an interview with one of our newest clients, the question of income protection and disability insurance came up. In typical fashion, the client said “Oh yes, I have that at work.” We suggested that he bring in a copy of the benefits plan, which he did. At the next meeting, to the client’s surprise (but not ours), their group plan only covered accidental life insurance — not disability.

Generally, when new employees are hired by an organization, they receive a booklet from the company’s group insurance carrier, delivered by the human resources person.

Unfortunately, most HR managers do not go into great lengths to explain the benefits, nor are they qualified to do so. The employee is left figuring out the coverage on his or her own. In many cases, this leads to a potentially dangerous misunderstanding of the benefits.

Group Disability Misconceptions Group disability coverage is probably one of the most important benefits — and it’s the most difficult to understand. Disability insurance 50 Douglas

benefits you in the event of a total disability. is there to protect the most important asset you have: your ability to earn an income.

There are no benefits paid for a partial loss of For example, a 35-year-old employee earning pre-disability income. The coverage seldom $50,000 a year to the age of 65 can expect to includes inflation indexing while on claim. earn $2.194 million (assumes wage growth The most significant drawback is the of 2.5 per cent per annum). In general, this limitation of the benefit coverage to two years far surpasses the combined value of most under one’s “own occupation” definition, after Canadians’ cars, RRSP and houses. Statistically which the definition to qualify for benefits falls speaking, 40 per cent of all wage earners under the “any occupation” criterion; otherwise, between the ages of 35 and 65 will suffer benefits cease. a disability lasting at least 90 days prior to For example, if you were an electrician and retirement. The average duration of a disability lost the use of a hand, group disability would is 3.1 years. provide coverage for only two years. After those Some group plans do not include disability two years, if the group carrier can prove that you insurance, but if you do have group disability can work answering a telephone with a headset, coverage in your plan, the coverage on average then group disability payments would stop. is approximately 67 per cent of your gross Insurers usually interpret this to mean that income. There are several advantages to these you will receive policy benefits only if you are plans. First, you are not required to submit any unable to carry out any occupation at all. It is medical evidence of health.

Second, the premiums are quite affordable because all Consumers with questions about their life and employees of the plan share health insurance company or disability insurance the cost. But that is where the coverage can call the OmbudService for Life and advantages usually end.

Health Insurance (OLHI), a national independent Problems arise because complaint resolution and information service. group disability coverage only

Ask the experts

a high threshold to pass, since few people are so disabled that they cannot carry out any occupation at all ever again.

Boosting Your Protection Is there a solution? Yes. Individual disability insurance coverage can supplement and wrap around the group coverage to enhance or replace benefits not covered in a group plan.

This individual coverage may:

› extend the “own occupation” coverage definition beyond two years to age 65;

› add partial benefit coverage to cover partial loss of income due to accident or illness;

› add inflation indexing benefits to keep the benefit from falling below the cost of living.

A big advantage is that, while group premiums can increase, individual coverage has level cost premiums. Also, group coverage is not portable should you change occupation or employment, whereas individual coverage is portable once in force. And some individual plans allow you to receive a portion of your premiums back if you don’t make a claim.

It’s important to point out that individual coverage will cost more than group coverage.

However, if it ends up costing only a few dollars a day to protect your income, it’s a small price to pay. In addition, while the premiums paid for individual disability coverage are usually not tax deductible, the benefit payments while on claim are tax free.

Group contracts may be different. For example, under some group policies, the employer may pay a portion of the costs, in which case the disability payments become a taxable benefit. In addition, it is important to note that most group plans only cover base salaries and do not include commissions, profit sharing or bonuses, whereas an individual plan can include these. Group insurance contracts vary from organization to organization and so do the coverage benefits, so for the safety of you and your family, it is critical that you seek out a qualified insurance professional who is well versed in group and individual contracts.

The Gamble of Not Knowing When it comes to insurance, ignorance is not bliss, as evidenced by our client mentioned on the previous page — the one who thought he had disability coverage from his group plan when in fact he had none at all. Fortunately, he and his family are now fully protected and he was grateful that he spoke with us. Without a professional review you could be gambling with your most important asset — you. ■ Steve Bokor, CFA is a licensed portfolio manager and Ian David Clark is a certified financial planner with PI Financial Corp, a member of CIPF.

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travel by nevin thompson

Tokyo

DID YOU KNOW? Tokyo has the largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a total GDP of US$1.91 trillion in 2012. The city is both futuristic and traditional. Trend-setting Odaiba with the new Tokyo Skytree contrasts with the area surrounding Senso-ji Temple.

the Energetic, Entrepreneurial and Surprisingly Liveable Megacity business Tips As the managing director of B.C.’s Trade and Investment Office in Tokyo, Avi Salsberg helps B.C. businesses make connections and chart a path to success in Japan. Here are Avi’s tips for doing business in Tokyo: ■ Be on time Punctuality is valued in Japan — it’s the first step in building trust with a potential business partner.

■ Be clear about the purpose of your meeting Japanese companies like agendas, objectives and following protocol during meetings. For example, they welcome you, you thank them for hosting, they present about their company, you present your offer to address their needs.

■ Make use of existing networks Use resources such as embassies and provincial trade offices to help set up meetings and open doors. They have networks you can plug into and can help you develop your pitch.

■ Be patient and persistent You will not get a deal done in one meeting.

Instead, you will need to demonstrate that Japan is a key market for you, and that you have a plan for the next two years and beyond.

52 Douglas

While the sheer number of people who live and work in Tokyo is mind-boggling, it’s good to remember that it started as a collection of separate villages, towns and cities that gradually merged together. Tokyo has gone on to be a surprisingly walkable and clean megacity with a stunning variety of places to eat, drink, and generally enjoy the good things in life once work is done for the day.

Where to Stay Tokyo is the centre of Japan’s universe; everything in the country revolves around the capital, including the transportation system.

The rail lines you need to get from A to B are arranged in concentric the Imperial Palace is a tranquil, circles radiating out from the middle green oasis, perfect for early of Tokyo. So, make things easy morning walks before a fast-paced and stay close to key transit hubs day of meetings. by choosing a hotel near the If you have the budget, Imperial Palace. Besides both the Imperial Hotel being located adjacent Get Your and the Palace Hotel JAPAN RAIL Pass to Tokyo Station and visitors qualify for overlook the stunning major subway lines, a discount JR Rail Imperial Palace. There Pass, but these are only available are also countless before arriving business hotels nearby to in Japan. suit every budget. However,

Why Tokyo?

Home to 35 million people and with an economic output of nearly $1.2 trillion, the Greater Tokyo Area is the world’s largest urban economy. While Japan is known for its aging, shrinking population,

if you choose to try out one of Japan’s infamous “capsule hotels,” be warned: their seedy reputation means any business contacts will regard these cramped quarters as being on par with sleeping on a park bench.

Where to Go Shibuya’s Hachiko Square Hachiko Square in front of Shibuya Station is Tokyo’s meet-up spot,

each year the number of Tokyo residents continues to grow as people move to Japan’s vibrant first city. Some are attracted by an economic boom as Tokyo prepares to host the 2020 Olympics.

In the midst of all this activity, ties between B.C. and Japan have never been

Nervous about decoding a Tokyo restaurant menu?

Find something to eat in the basement “food hall” of city department stores.

Dozens of kiosks sell sushi, tempura, boxed lunches and local delicacies, often with free samples. Most restaurants in Tokyo feature plastic “fake food” menu displays. Simply point at what you want.

especially on Friday nights after a long week of work. When the traffic lights change, neon-lit Shibuya Crossing surges with massive crowds heading out with friends for dinner and a drink.

It’s an incredible sight that can best be observed from the second-floor window of the Starbucks overlooking the intersection.

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Asakusa Travel to Asakusa and the old town of Shitamachi to see how life was once lived in Tokyo. This well-preserved older neighbourhood just east of Ueno Station is home to small shops and eateries, and the famed Kappabashi, a street of specialists supplying highly realistic “fake plastic food” that restaurants use to display what’s on their menu.

Tokyu Hands This chain of giant department stores has to be experienced to be believed. Full of gadgets, household goods and quality kitsch, Tokyu Hands is the perfect place to find souvenirs to take back to Victoria.

Completed in 2012, Tokyo SkyTree is the world’s tallest tower (634 metres), and a popular tourist attraction.

Visitors can access NTT East Free WiFi Japan for up to 14 days, completely free of charge. flets.com/freewifi

better. Japanese game companies, including Namco Bandai, Capcom and Gree have all invested heavily in our province. Tepco, Tokyo Gas and other utilities in Japan are showing interest in major B.C. LNG projects.

And we’re practically neighbours: Tokyo is just a short flight from Victoria across the Pacific, making your trip easy to plan.

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Last Page

When Ideas Go Boom

by Athena McKenzie

Great Minds “We were able to develop a boom that could pick up over 30 times its weight in oil. Up to 98 per cent of the oil is fully recoverable,”

says Kleu, a former Lambrick Park Secondary student, now in her first year at the University of Victoria. “And everything is either biodegradable or reusable, so it’s completely eco-friendly.”

Building off one of Kleu’s previous projects — a fibrous pad that could clean up small spills — the two worked together to convert the invention into a fully functional boom that could counteract the current delay between the containment phase and absorption phase of dealing with oil spills — a delay that often lasts days to weeks.

Awakened Potential While the pair thought their time at the Canada-Wide Science Fair would be the end of the project, their recent presentation at TEDx Victoria has stirred a

lot of interest. “[The presentation] opened some doors,” says Sawyer, who is in his last year at Lambrick Park Secondary. “We were working out of UVic half the time and our science teacher’s classroom, so we didn’t have the space to go larger scale — which is what we want to do right now.

“We’ve had some companies that have been in contact to see how we’re doing and we’re trying to find one in Vancouver with actual testing facilities so we can make large scale oil booms.”

The student project, which Kleu and Sawyer hope to patent by this summer, has the potential to clean up and contain marine oil spills in a way even major industry players haven’t been able to develop to date.

Jeffrey Bosdet/douglas Magazine

Kleu and Sawyer invented an inexpensive absorbent boom that picks up over 32 mL of motor oil per gram of fibre. Approximately 98 per cent of the absorbed oil is recoverable and residual oil can be washed out using canola oil.

There’s no doubt that competition breeds innovation, but it’s collaboration that’s often the unsung ingredient of success. Case in point: Vicki Kleu and Austin Sawyer‘s invention of a fully biodegradable oil boom that not only contains an oil spill, but also absorbs the oil.

While Kleu and Sawyer once went head to head as competitors at local science fairs, collaboration took them to new levels and secured them several prize wins at the CanadaWide Science Fair, including a Manning Innovation Achievement Award.

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