Red Maple Leaves in the Sun by joesflickr

I just finished reading the latest report on Canada’s competitiveness (PDF) released by the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity. The report describes our current state in 2008 and the outlook to 2020, and it’s troubling to see that even though our economic performance is among the strongest nations, we are trailing the US by a whopping $8,800 in GDP per capita.

So what does this mean?
It means that we have opportunities to improve the value we add to our human, physical and natural resources, that will in turn contribute to our national prosperity and standard of living.

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Get involved: volunteer week

With the current awareness around community involvement and volunteering, especially since this week is Volunteer Week, many businesses are interested in contributing to their local community through a group volunteer experience. They look to volunteerism as an alternative to the traditional team-building exercise or charitable gift donation, where a meaningful volunteer experience helps improve motivation and teamwork skills among employees. But an employee-supported volunteer program can also help increase corporate visibility and highlight a corporate commitment to social responsibility in the community.

Volunteer Toronto has established the Employee Supported Volunteer Program (ESVP) to help bridge these business interests with the needs of non-profit agencies.

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MaRS Tenant launches anti-malarial community

Philanthropy just got easier and a lot more accessible to the public thanks to the social networking power of the Internet and a ground-breaking initiative led by our team at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC). And just in time for World Malaria Day this Friday, April 25th.

At MalariaEngage.org, people can enlist directly in the anti-malaria battle by contributing $10 or more to an initial choice of seven highly varied projects involving selected scientists in developing countries. Over time, new projects will replace those that reach their funding goal. The site features a discussion area where supporters can interact with researchers and each other, obtain news and photos of both funded and proposed projects, a running tally of money raised, and stories from the front lines in the war against the scourge of malaria.

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Autopilot by Elliot P.

As an entrepreneur with a growing business it is easy to spend your entire day focusing your time and energy toward moving the needle – whatever your measures of success might be. Along these lines it is easy to forget that in order to effectively link your strategy with execution, you must always be thinking about building a culture that will facilitate effectiveness, and not just mindlessly managing the next deliverable from your list of key initiatives.

Let’s be clear: Mindlessness is not a failing of cognition per se, but rather a failing of attention leading to a restricted flow or worse still, the capturing of misinformation. Sound familiar? It should, as this phenomenon diminishes our effectiveness as managers, parents, friends, and learners. If you think this concept is frivolous, think about the consequences of inattention during an important negotiation. Presence counts, and should be developed among managers and staff continually.

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George Bernard Shaw:
“…All progress depends on the
unreasonable man”

If you are anything like me, you loathe household duties. But they have to get done, so I try to use the time as constructively as possible by listening to podcasts (you don’t need a fancy player, just a computer with an internet connection and some speakers).

Recently, Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast interviewed John Elkington, Founder and Chief Entrepreneur of SustainAbility and author of The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World, along with Social Entrepreneurship Summit speaker and Managing Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Pamela Hartigan. The two distill their observations about what makes a highly effective social entrepreneur tick, and how other business leaders can learn a few things along the way.

During this interview, they tether out three traits of social entrepreneurs.

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Reach Out by DIP

One of the things I am really passionate about is making sure that each of us takes the time to help others in their journey. Whether this is serving as a mentor for a budding entrepreneur or helping someone think through their ideas, we all can contribute to the growth of others.

That said, there are many factors that can inhibit what could be termed as direct mentorship, but, as I have alluded to in a past post, we need to expand our purview of where such opportunities can originate. But what can an emerging leader do in the absence of a mentoring figure?

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For the “read” file

There are five sources that I read regularly; for entrepreneurs and business managers alike they provide perspectives on a range of topics from current global events to understanding the intricacies of markets, to learning more about the foundational social sciences that contribute to business like sociology, psychology and economics.

This content from the world’s leading minds comes to you free of charge.

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AXS helps users understand Glaucoma

AXS Studio specializes in the art of science communication. Recently, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) launched our latest collaboration: an animated, on-line learning tool, The Glaucoma Challenge.

Now, let’s just pause a sec – I don’t know about you, but I can look back on that last bit and ask:

“On-line animations for the blind?!”

However, armed with recent CNIB “schooling,” I can now answer: You bet!

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Insights from San Fran

I just returned from a trip to San Francisco, Menlo Park/Palo Alto, and Mountain View with fellow classmates at Harvard Business School. Our small group had a fantastic opportunity to have some personal interactions with top Venture Capitalists in the area, where we were able to ask challenging questions and gain insights on the state of the industry and VC’s investment philosophies.

As a former MaRS Venture Group Associate, I wanted to share some thoughts on common messages and personal takeaways that I gathered from the trip.

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Biosign’s UFIT solution for personal health monitoring

A Workshop on Adverse Response Monitoring (WARM) catalyzed partnerships between MaRS tenant Biosign and IBM as well as with Telus with the aim of getting Biosign’s UFIT® health monitoring system to the commercial market.

Working with the IEEE, the world’s leading professional association for the advancement of technology, Biosign brought together this world-first, multi-disciplinary panel to address patient safety. This workshop launched an international initiative to find solutions for detecting and reporting adverse responses to medications, and to help optimize their efficacy.

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