| |
Little
company with a big heart raises the bar
CNC
Global's charity auction raised $110,000
By Mary Teresa Bitti
Financial Post
The desks and chairs are all pushed to the perimeter of the sales
floor to make room for a makeshift stage, cheerleaders, celebrities
and games. The auctioneer steps to the mike and the bidding begins.
It's not a scene people expect to find at a corporate fundraiser,
but it is one that has played out each year for the past 11 years
at CNC Global, top level IT recruitment firm.
When it comes to giving back to the community, the Toronto based
firm pulls out all the stops. "It just gets bigger and better
each year," says Chris Drummond, CNC's vice-president of marketing.
"Our most recent charity auction raised $110,000 in just four
hours, bringing our total for the past five years to $1-million."
CNC Global is not alone. Canadians are giving like never before.
Whether it's time or money, they take their social responsibility
seriously. Since 1988, corporate giving has soared from$414-million
to $1.34-billion in 2000 or 1.03% of pretax profits….
Lawyers push new frontiers - Demand
heats up in economic areas of expansion
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
Financial Post
There was a time when the legal profession seemed, well, a bit dusty.
Certainly, a career as a lawyer, while lucrative and respectable,
was not perceived as forming part of society's cutting-edge vanguard.
But things have changed. "Pick up a newspaper. If there's a
new trend, undoubtedly, the legal profession is going to look at
it," says Curtis Cole, a legal historian, and director of the
Academic Advising & Career Centre, University of Toronto at
Scarborough. "Firms are client-driven much more than they used
to be," he says…
The new face of Canadian business - Aboriginal entrepreneurs
are growing in number and moving beyond their roots.
By Mary Teresa Bitti
Financial Post
The year 2017 has demographers, economists and big business abuzz.
That's when visible minorities will become the majority in Canada.
Consider the statistics: The aboriginal birth rate is already 1.5
times that of non-aboriginals, while 300,000 new immigrants enter
Canada each year. The population landscape is changing -- fast --
and so is the face of business. "We are at a critical point,"
says Orrin Benn, president of the newly formed Canadian Aboriginal
and Minority Supplier Council (CAMSC). "If we don't help these
entrepreneurs succeed in growing their businesses, then Canada loses."
It is no secret that small business is a key driver of the country's
economy. Small businesses – those with fewer than 50 employees
-- account for 24% of
Canada's GDP. And nearly 85% of Canadian exporters are small businesses.
Less known is the role visible minorities have played in the country's
economic well-being…
That &*?#@ Machine
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
Report on Business Magazine
It's nuts out there," says Sean Elliott, an information technology
support technician for a major Toronto corporation. "I've seen
a VP smack his computer and threaten to throw it out the window.
I saw an IT guy who was cleaning up his area just flip and hurl
hard drives, boxes full of equipment and network cards across the
room. He just went wild with rage."
In fact, Elliott regularly sees a lot of rage in his workplace-IT
rage, to use the current term. And it's widespread.
In the U.K., where most of the studies on this new condition have
been conducted, researchers at Compaq found that 4 out of 5 workers
have either witnessed or experienced IT rage. One-fifth had witnessed
colleagues bullying the IT department. Elliott concurs: "IT
people, we get dumped on for everything"…
Revenge of the Clone
By Mary Teresa Bitti and Andre Mayer
Report on [Small] Business Magazine
It was 1991 and Goran Varaklic, new to Canada and fresh out of a
job, decided to put his knowledge of computers to work. He turned
the den of his suburban Toronto apartment into his workshop and
started assembling personal computer systems that he sold at cut-rate
prices through the classifieds. Today, his company, MDG Computers
Canada Inc., is the country's largest Canadian-owned PC manufacturer.
With revenues estimated to be between $400 million and $600 million,
MDG has not only become a strong Canadian brand, it changed the
class system of the industry…
Dem Bones - Easy ways to make them strong
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
Green Living Magazine
In theory, developing and maintaining healthy bones is relatively
simple: you just need to consume enough calcium and get some exercise.
The best calcium-rich foods are dairy products, vegetables such
as broccoli, meat alternatives such as lentils and beans, canned
fish products containing bones, and some calcium-fortified soy beverages
and orange juices. You also need vitamin D, which helps the body
absorb the calcium you get from your food. The vitamin is produced
naturally when your skin is exposed to sunlight, but it is also
found in milk, liver, fish and eggs…
From Passion to Profit
By Mary Teresa Bitti
Homemakers
The summer had been a total blast and Leanne Schmidt wanted to show
her helicopter crew at Ontario Place just how much she appreciated
their hard work and friendship. So the crafty pilot knit everyone
a navy Viking hat to match their uniforms and gave them out on her
last day. The crew loved them and wore them all that day. Schmidt
had no idea that a simple gesture of thanks would launch her into
business. But it did. "So many people walking by asked where
they could buy the hats and one person even ordered one right there—it
was amazing," says Schmidt, who then started researching exactly
what she had to do to start a business.
Here's how to turn it into the next
must-have thing
By Mary Teresa Bitti
Chatelaine
"Finally!" says Caroline Lai. Her invention, Plug Alive,
is ready to hit the big time. "We have a family rule: no TV
during the day. So I'm always doing something to keep my mind active,"
says Lai, a stay-at-home mom in St. Albert, Alta. It took her 18
months and thousands of dollars to design and create Plug Alive.
This nifty gadget fits in your car's glove compartment and quickly
tests the block heater and its power source to ensure that the heating
element is working as it should and that your car will start…
SOCAN and Music: Making a Difference
in Communities
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
Music Means Business! – SOCAN's Customer Newsletter
Music can and does have an impact on everything, from the practical
and financial to the spiritual and emotional. It can be therapeutic,
improve learning in
children, bring people together or fill the silence of loneliness,
encourage shoppers to shop more, enliven an otherwise monotonous fitness routine and
set a
mood for every event or occasion. So it is no surprise that communities
across the country rely heavily on the use of music for so many of their activities.
"We use music in all our community and fitness centres, skating
rinks and many of our classes," says Luc Lavictoire, area manager, parks and
recreation for the
City of Ottawa…
Adding face value: Skilled pool of
workers
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
Financial Post
The days of immigrants with post-secondary education and years of
professional experience in foreign financial sectors driving taxis
or
serving fast food in Canada are numbered. And that means two things: First, that there are growing opportunities for qualified immigrants
to get management positions within the financial sector, and second,
there is a pool of qualified workers to fill jobs going wanting in the financialservices sector.
"When we talk to companies such as a bank, we say 'More than
half of your clients are immigrants, yet humbly your management team and workforce
don't represent this,' and that's an important reality that's starting
to hit home. It's not like you can ignore it," says Minto Roy,
co-host of
CISL radio show Careers Today and principal and managing director
of Vancouver-based Premier Career Management Group. "Companies are really starting to identify that they are going
to have to represent in their management structure the demographics that buy
their
products and services"…
How to Pay Less for Almost Everything
Buy what you want, when you want,
with cash to spare
By Mary Teresa Bitti
Reader's Digest
It's easy to find sales these days. But why stop there? Here are
dozens of insider tips and savvy strategies to help you get the
lowest prices on haircuts, house paint, clothes, cameras—you
name it.
"Oops" Paint
Hardware and paint-store customers who overestimate how much paint
they need return the unopened cans, which are stocked in the "mistints"
section. Cans of this "remnant" paint—perfect for
bathrooms and other small projects—sell for half price. "Everybody
makes mistakes," says Jacqueline Glass, an interior decorator
and featured expert on Citytv Toronto's home-decorating shows. "And
many times the colours are really quite nice." Best time to
go: Monday. You'll likely get a better selection as the do-it-yourselfers
make their returns over the weekend.
Go Ethnic
Whether it's distinct home-décor items or luxurious fabrics,
the best deals are always closest to the source. Ethnic communities
in Canadian cities are peppered with family-run stores offering
great finds at dirt-cheap prices. "I have found rice-paper
lanterns for $5 in Chinatown, compared to $30 elsewhere, and wrapped
sandalwood soap for less than a dollar, compared to $6 at a boutique,"
says Elaine Yong, Vancouver's Citytv consumer specialist. These
areas can also be great for groceries. You'll often get the freshest
produce for half what you'd pay at a big chain…
Baby,
Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
Today's Parent
Ah, just another quiet evening at home. I'm at the PC in my home
office, catching up on some work, while my 18-year-old daughter
is in the rec room, instant messaging with her friends, and my 11-year-old
son is in the family room clicking away at the PlayStation. Upstairs
in the master bedroom, my husband is watching golf on TV as he pays
bills over the phone. But tension is brewing; my nine-year-old daughter
has grown bored with her GameBoy and has been wandering from one
room to another, frustrated because all the tech tools she's after
are being used. Finally, she bursts into my office and blurts out,
"Everyone's hogging everything, so there's nothing for me to
do. I can't even phone a friend because Dad's on the...." That's
when she sees the cellphone on my desk. Eureka!
|
|
