Book Review

Blue Ocean Strategy is a must read for any entrepreneur. It is thought provoking, and even more importantly, mind altering. I have read it several times over the past year and see its effects on my business thinking everyday. The only shortcoming from my perspective is that it is designed to appeal to exactly the people who are unable to make the creative leaps necessary to create Blue Oceans. The book is designed to be accessed by analysis driven thinkers in big corporations. The problem with trying to impress these kind of thinkers is that the reason they became decision makers in big corporations is that they demonstrated early on; their proclivity toward middle-of-the-road thinking. Big corporations don't promote boat shakers into decision making positions because they are risky. Therefore, while these thinkers may find the concepts contained in the book interesting, they will continue to thrash it out in the Red Ocean because they are predisposed to perpetuating the status quo.

I realize that this is a generalization about big corporations and analysis-driven decision makers, but on the whole it is an accurate one.

To read an excerpt of Blue Ocean Strategy visit: http://tiny.cc/cIvDp

The more things change....

This morning I looked at the document that I created almost four years ago describing the problem that civiside.com was designed to solve; and realized that I haven't veered from the problem at all and my solution isn't all that different. Sure I haven't accomplished my goal yet, but on the other hand, it is clear to me that the problem still needs to be solved and no one but me has stepped up to solve it. If anyone is going to do it, it looks like it will have to be lonesome old me.

With that said, I have a big meeting with the decision makers at DND early in Jan. I think that they understand the problem that I have been working on for the past two years, I just hope that they have decided that it is time to plug that leak. Wish me luck.

News

Big week for civiside.com. After the article on Wed. a fire lit under me and I reached out to make a connection with a Canadian Forces decision maker. My new hero, Scott Taylor of Esprit de Corp Magazine, connected me with one email to the Chief of Reserves. If there was one person that I would want a connection to it was him, so it was a tremendously big deal. General Tabbenor agreed to meet with me in early Jan. so that I could present what it is I am doing. I am ready to knock his socks off!

Other news, another connection introduced me to the President of CADSI, the defence industry association. I will be meeting him over the next couple of weeks also. This could open the door to thousands of defence industry job postings.

I may have one more big piece of news to announce next week. Still to be determined, but I have a good feeling that it will come through. Until then, have a great weekend!

Fiscal Adjustment means different things to the troops that lose their jobs.

Like a gift from above, this article came out today in the Star group of newspapers:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Military+cash+crunch+hits+training+maintenance/2345179/story.html

This proves the need for civiside in Canada. I can help these Reservists find work with employers who want to hire military. Some doors in the defence industry have just opened up to me and I have opportunity to immediately help. I am mobilizing all my resources and contacts presently to meet the need. Next step, endorsement from the Canadian Forces.

Pitching OCRI and Tenacity

Yesterday I pitched to the Commercialization Panel of the Ontario Center for Research and Innovation . It went ok, but not as well as most of my recent pitches. It's funny how that goes. I adjusted my presentation slightly to pare down a few slides and make it shorter, but somewhere in that paring some critical information must have been lost because there seemed to be alot more confusion on what it was I was pitching. I figured the people in uniform on the first slide and the bold lettered "Workopolis for Junior Officers" would have been sufficient explanation, but it seems not. There was also alot of push from the panelists to drop the civiside.com and get the military.ca domain so that I could be a "franchisee" of the popular U.S. site military.com. I know this is well intentioned advice...but really? You think it's just that easy? In addition, the name of the domain is almost irrelevant compared to the quality of the employers on the site, and that is why I expressed my need for marketing and sales help from the beginning. Frankly, I don't know what kind of help I may get from these people. I'll report back when I hear, in the meantime I'll just keep pushing forward in any way I can.

On a related note, I came across this post on qualities essential in an entrepreneur and see tenacity as being my greatest strength. I should have given this up a year ago at least. Any sane person would have, but my passion for seeing this through miraculously keeps me sustained despite almost no encouragement from outside sources. On a positive note, despite all the ups and downs I have learned a diverse set of skills that I simply could not have learned in any other way. Overall a plus experience.

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/12/15/what-makes-an-entrepreneur-111-tenacity/?awesm=grp.vc_AXg&utm_medium=grp.vc-twitter&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=site-basic#comment-25859689

Lead to Win: Phase 3

I received the results from my Lead to Win presentation. Successful and moving into the supported commercialization phase. The program was an awesome gift from the City of Ottawa, a gift that keeps on giving. With the continued support of LTW and OCRI I see civiside.com taking off now with great focus and effect to benefit both employers and military members.

I am looking for a sales and marketing partner to build the sales team. the person that I am seeking will have experience in sales team management and development, as well, ideally a military background. I have spoken to one candidate but if anyone knows additional candidates feel free to point them in my direction. I can be reached at ken.seville@civiside.com. If they come on board with a significant time commitment they will be rewarded with equity options and a share of all revenue generated.