About a week ago the Canadian Chamber of Commerce included a story about the Guaranteed Interview Program in its newsletter to 430 other chambers across Canada, the Delta, British Columbia Chamber has been the first to add the story to their website http://www.deltachamber.ca/2010/12/20/increase-access-to-qualified-job-candidates-benefit-military-veterans. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks the rest will also.
In related news, I'm currently in NYC meeting with some U.S. influencers about growing the program here. We envision the Guaranteed Interview Program symbol to be a universal one for employer support for transitioning veterans. The symbol can be used anywhere in the world where employers want to make a simple but tangible effort to give veterans a hand-up in their transition. The program has experienced quick growth with employers as large as General Electric, Canadian Pacific Railway, Goodlife Fitness, and Enterprise signing up for the program soon after hearing of it. Our goal is 6500 employers by 11 Nov. 2011.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Conversation with Kelly Perdew
Had a really great conversation and brainstorming session today with Kelly Perdew, CEO of FastPoint Games, former Airborne Ranger, and winner of "The Apprentice: - season 2. We spoke for about 25 mins about The Guaranteed Interview Program, my vision of what needed to be done for veterans, and ideas on how to advance it all. He had a fantastic idea at the end of the conversation that I think will be very advantageous to a large potential partner, he even agreed to give an endorsement of the program.
That conversation was a direct result of Shaun Francis of MedCan offering to make the connection with Kelly, whom he was in a networking group with. It has been a great help speaking to influencers in the tech. space like Kelly and Chris Fralic of First Round Capital. They are opening doors in the U.S. that would be extremely hard for me to get a foot in otherwise. As tough as developing civiside has been, this has been an unparalleled growth opportunity for me to learn how successful business people work. In my experience they do so by smarts, integrity, and generosity.
In the near future I will be meeting with some other big influencers, one of which could be key in opening a door to the U.S. Veterans Administration. I'll keep you posted.
That conversation was a direct result of Shaun Francis of MedCan offering to make the connection with Kelly, whom he was in a networking group with. It has been a great help speaking to influencers in the tech. space like Kelly and Chris Fralic of First Round Capital. They are opening doors in the U.S. that would be extremely hard for me to get a foot in otherwise. As tough as developing civiside has been, this has been an unparalleled growth opportunity for me to learn how successful business people work. In my experience they do so by smarts, integrity, and generosity.
In the near future I will be meeting with some other big influencers, one of which could be key in opening a door to the U.S. Veterans Administration. I'll keep you posted.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
What I saw in Tim Hortons today.
What would you have done at 10:57am on Remembrance Day if the location you were standing in refused to observe a moment of silence? This is the situation I faced this morning in the Tim Hortons just before the Kingston sign, ironically on the Highway of Heroes. I was on Hwy 401East to Ottawa and unable to make a Cenotaph ceremony, so I stopped at the Tim Hortons. I went in and looked around, noticing that nobody seemed to be preparing for the moment of silence, so I walked up to the counter and asked a blonde cashier if they would be turning off the radio so that we could observe the 2 minutes of silence. The response “We don’t do that here”. I immediately asked to speak to the manager; we still had two minutes to right this. The cashier went into the back room and emerged about a minute later with a message from the manager that “She is busy in a meeting with head office”. Apparently they would not be observing the moment of silence. The last minute before the moment drew down and I realized that I would be the only one in the restaurant to observe it. I became nervous, butterflies stirred in my stomach. At 11am I put my right hand over my heart, just under my poppy, and put my head down. A few moments later another person with a poppy realized the time and stopped to observe the moment, then another. I wish I could say that the movement spread like wildfire and everyone stopped, but unfortunately that is not what happened. The radio kept blaring, the people kept walking, the cashiers kept serving and the moment went by without any notice from the dozens of people in the restaurant. I’m sure that scenes like these played out across Canada today but I think Tim Hortons is worthy of being singled out, not because a single manager of a roadside stop refused to observe a moment of silence, but because the head office of a corporation that brands itself as the reflection of Canada chooses to do business instead of taking two minutes honouring our war dead and veterans. However, they are not the only ones to blame, remembrance begins in our hearts and from what I saw in that restaurant, we have forgotten.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
The Networked Job Market
Thinking about The Guaranteed Interview Program and why it is so powerful in aiding veterans disadvantaged by their military service led me to coin a new term that I think should be an alternative to the "Hidden Job Market". I was reading an interesting blog piece asking whether the "Hidden Job Market" was in fact a myth?: http://www.quintcareers.com/hidden_job_market_myth.html
The piece discussed the often cited statistics that 75%+ of jobs are unadvertised but still filled in the Hidden Job Market. The problem for this statistic is that there is no quantifiable evidence that this is the case. Many experts cite evidence that 70%+ of job seekers claim to have found their job through networking, as proof that a Hidden Job Market is where the majority of jobs reside. However, the author rightly argues that this is not conclusive proof because we don't know that those jobs weren't advertised with a winning candidate in mind. In fact, I know of many cases where the job was advertised because of company policy, with no intention of hiring someone other than who they already had in mind, the piece suggests that 30% of jobs are filled this way.
The author does find some evidence that a Hidden Job Market exists by using statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor to show that the difference between the number of hires reported by employers and the number of positions advertised for was about 40% of all jobs. What this suggests is that these positions were filled by some form of direct or indirect connection to the person interviewing. This is where the disadvantage for transitioning military veterans comes in. Most transitioning military veterans usually have most of their professional connections among other veterans and therefore their access to civilian-professional connections that can help them secure interviews is much more limited than their civilian peers. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage in getting interviews through connections. To make things worse veterans also have a great deal of difficulty communicating their transferable skills because many jobs in the military have no civilian counterpart, therefore their qualifications on a resume often don't offer much for job recruiters to use in deciding whether to grant an interview to a veteran versus a civilian with clearly parallel experience.
The Guaranteed Interview Program puts transitioning veterans on equal footing with their civilian peers by ensuring that at least one veteran per job posting will get a fighting chance to earn the job they are applying for. Some people may perceive the program as discrimination against non-veterans but this is not the case. It simply gives veterans an accommodation that overcomes the disadvantages created by active duty service to country.
The piece discussed the often cited statistics that 75%+ of jobs are unadvertised but still filled in the Hidden Job Market. The problem for this statistic is that there is no quantifiable evidence that this is the case. Many experts cite evidence that 70%+ of job seekers claim to have found their job through networking, as proof that a Hidden Job Market is where the majority of jobs reside. However, the author rightly argues that this is not conclusive proof because we don't know that those jobs weren't advertised with a winning candidate in mind. In fact, I know of many cases where the job was advertised because of company policy, with no intention of hiring someone other than who they already had in mind, the piece suggests that 30% of jobs are filled this way.
The author does find some evidence that a Hidden Job Market exists by using statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor to show that the difference between the number of hires reported by employers and the number of positions advertised for was about 40% of all jobs. What this suggests is that these positions were filled by some form of direct or indirect connection to the person interviewing. This is where the disadvantage for transitioning military veterans comes in. Most transitioning military veterans usually have most of their professional connections among other veterans and therefore their access to civilian-professional connections that can help them secure interviews is much more limited than their civilian peers. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage in getting interviews through connections. To make things worse veterans also have a great deal of difficulty communicating their transferable skills because many jobs in the military have no civilian counterpart, therefore their qualifications on a resume often don't offer much for job recruiters to use in deciding whether to grant an interview to a veteran versus a civilian with clearly parallel experience.
The Guaranteed Interview Program puts transitioning veterans on equal footing with their civilian peers by ensuring that at least one veteran per job posting will get a fighting chance to earn the job they are applying for. Some people may perceive the program as discrimination against non-veterans but this is not the case. It simply gives veterans an accommodation that overcomes the disadvantages created by active duty service to country.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
250 000 Homeless Veterans
Powerful piece on how veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming homeless at a faster rate than any other generation.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6966795n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
A staggering number in this is that there are 250 000 homeless veterans in the U.S. This makes me want to extend our solution as fast as possible in order to prevent future additions to the masses of homeless veterans.
Thanks to Chris Fralic of First Round Capital for bringing this clip to my attention.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6966795n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
A staggering number in this is that there are 250 000 homeless veterans in the U.S. This makes me want to extend our solution as fast as possible in order to prevent future additions to the masses of homeless veterans.
Thanks to Chris Fralic of First Round Capital for bringing this clip to my attention.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
The Civi-Side story summarized.
I just read this AWESOME post from another startup founder and felt that I had to create a similar summary of where Civi-Side came from and is going:
http://wensing.tumblr.com/post/1215873671/bootstrapping-stormpulse
By no means have I persisted through hard times as long as these guys did, but I would, and maybe will have to still if things don't take off like I think they will. Without further ado....
Civi-Side first occurred to me sometime in mid-2005 according to my first blog post about it: http://civiside.blogspot.com/2007/12/civi-side.html. I don't actually recall when I had the idea, so I will trust my words from Dec. 2007 to be the authority on the inception. The original concept was to connect military Reservists with Reserve-Friendly employers in order to solve the problem where the Reserves were losing trained young people after they graduated from post-secondary because they were going to work for employers that did not support their military career.
March 2007: Get meeting with Sonya Bata of Bata Shoes, more relevantly, Ontario Chair of Canadian Forces Liaison Council. Sonya listens intently but doesn't seem to have a clue about what I'm talking about. Meeting goes absolutely nowhere.
Dec. 2007: Get invitation to meet with General about the concept and he displays great enthusiasm, but apparently legal kills the proposal.
Jan 2008: Honorary Lt. Col. Kevin Reed offers $15 000 in seed money to get the service up and running. I find a technical partner and pay him for 3 months to build the site. Beta is up and running in April of 2008. No adoption of service whatsoever.
Nov 2008: Do massive press campaign leading up to Remembrance Day under the title "Tomorrow's Veterans Need a Supportive Employer Today". Get great press coverage coast to coast including CBC Radio interview. Unfortunately leads to no greater adoption of service by either employers or Reservists.
Jan 2009: 3/4 of a page in Business Incubator section of Globe and Mail. "Experts" assembled to critique the site give kudos for doing something good for Reservists but soundly spank our design and technology. Oh yeah, and my co-founder/technical partner quits on the same day, so I can't do anything to fix the problems.
Feb 2009: Find a developer who will work temporarily on redesigning the site so that the service can overcome some of the difficulties identified in the Globe and Mail article. Attend North America's largest HR tradeshow as a vendor and start to feel some interest in what we are doing. Lots of leads to follow up on. Unfortunately none pan out, there goes $2000 I didn't have.
March 2009: Relaunch new site...still no significant adoption...this is getting frustrating.
April 2009: Reposition and rebrand Civi-Side as a location to source professionally trained young leaders. Try this new approach for a year but no employers are willing to pay for a service that sources them trained young leaders. Doesn't help that we only have 300 Reservists in our database.
Sept 2009: Move to Ottawa to try to persuade Department of National Defence decision makers that backing Civi-Side makes financial sense. Thus begins a frustrating 6 months of fruitless meetings with no end in sight.
Nov 2009: Accepted into Lead to Win program for technology business acceleration. Cool program and great community of startups but I discover that despite the best intentions of the program, there are essentially no serious technology investors in Ottawa and that I am not going to raise any money to build the company.
Warm winter, cold part of Civi-Side history where I seriously began to doubt whether it would be possible to build this company. Start to wonder if I should just get back to furthering my own life rather than sacrificing more for a startup that seems to have not a chance in HE double hockey sticks of getting any traction.
May 2010: Get a LinkedIn message out of the blue from an ex-Air Force officer turned CEO of a tech. company in Hamilton that he was at a PwC CEO networking event and that one of the CEO's at the event brought up the idea that they as corporate citizens should be doing something for veterans and all of the CEO's agree. CEO that contacted me says that he knows someone working in this space and offers to come up with some ideas. CEO that contacted me offers to meet and we discuss a few ideas including priority hiring, and an off the cuff suggestion from him that "maybe we could guarantee and interview". I go to work researching the idea of priority hiring and come to the conclusion that would be too complex for the corporate world to adopt readily. I start thinking about the guaranteed interview idea and realize how brilliant and adoptable it is. I refine the idea and then go back to the CEO who contacted me and propose it, idea needs a bit more refining.
Program is now defined as: "Employers guarantee an interview to at least one veteran who meets the qualifications of the job posting and applies with a Civi-Side resume". The idea here is to make the program as simple and flexible as possible so that the company can adopt and apply the program without any reservations. The philosophy of the program is not that any one employer should interview all veterans but that all employers should interview at least one veteran. A small but important distinction that emphasizes that all employers should be publicly committing to corporate citizenship in giving their nation's veterans a hand-up in transitioning to the civilian workforce.
July 2010: With idea refined a bit more I contact CEO who originally suggested idea at PwC event and propose that they be the founding partner in what I have now called "The Guaranteed Interview Program" or G.I. Program for short. He loves idea but needs me to sell it to his management team, this takes another 6 weeks to get them in the same room. We meet in late Aug.
Aug 2010: We have our founding partner signed. The management team loves the idea and definitely wants to be on-board.
Sept 2010: Meet with Chris Fralic of First Round Capital about G.I. Program and ask him for help in connecting to CEO's in the U.S. who would want to be part of the program. He offers his help, we now have a toe-hold in the U.S.
This brings us up to today. I feel very confident that the service, which has morphed into a vehicle for the G.I. Program, is poised to take off. We have our 3 founding partners for the program and 7, yes 7, interns from the Mohawk College PR program who are going to help us tell Canada's media that there is a simple and tangible way for employers to support their veterans.
Everything is coming up Millhouse!
http://wensing.tumblr.com/post/1215873671/bootstrapping-stormpulse
By no means have I persisted through hard times as long as these guys did, but I would, and maybe will have to still if things don't take off like I think they will. Without further ado....
Civi-Side first occurred to me sometime in mid-2005 according to my first blog post about it: http://civiside.blogspot.com/2007/12/civi-side.html. I don't actually recall when I had the idea, so I will trust my words from Dec. 2007 to be the authority on the inception. The original concept was to connect military Reservists with Reserve-Friendly employers in order to solve the problem where the Reserves were losing trained young people after they graduated from post-secondary because they were going to work for employers that did not support their military career.
March 2007: Get meeting with Sonya Bata of Bata Shoes, more relevantly, Ontario Chair of Canadian Forces Liaison Council. Sonya listens intently but doesn't seem to have a clue about what I'm talking about. Meeting goes absolutely nowhere.
Dec. 2007: Get invitation to meet with General about the concept and he displays great enthusiasm, but apparently legal kills the proposal.
Jan 2008: Honorary Lt. Col. Kevin Reed offers $15 000 in seed money to get the service up and running. I find a technical partner and pay him for 3 months to build the site. Beta is up and running in April of 2008. No adoption of service whatsoever.
Nov 2008: Do massive press campaign leading up to Remembrance Day under the title "Tomorrow's Veterans Need a Supportive Employer Today". Get great press coverage coast to coast including CBC Radio interview. Unfortunately leads to no greater adoption of service by either employers or Reservists.
Jan 2009: 3/4 of a page in Business Incubator section of Globe and Mail. "Experts" assembled to critique the site give kudos for doing something good for Reservists but soundly spank our design and technology. Oh yeah, and my co-founder/technical partner quits on the same day, so I can't do anything to fix the problems.
Feb 2009: Find a developer who will work temporarily on redesigning the site so that the service can overcome some of the difficulties identified in the Globe and Mail article. Attend North America's largest HR tradeshow as a vendor and start to feel some interest in what we are doing. Lots of leads to follow up on. Unfortunately none pan out, there goes $2000 I didn't have.
March 2009: Relaunch new site...still no significant adoption...this is getting frustrating.
April 2009: Reposition and rebrand Civi-Side as a location to source professionally trained young leaders. Try this new approach for a year but no employers are willing to pay for a service that sources them trained young leaders. Doesn't help that we only have 300 Reservists in our database.
Sept 2009: Move to Ottawa to try to persuade Department of National Defence decision makers that backing Civi-Side makes financial sense. Thus begins a frustrating 6 months of fruitless meetings with no end in sight.
Nov 2009: Accepted into Lead to Win program for technology business acceleration. Cool program and great community of startups but I discover that despite the best intentions of the program, there are essentially no serious technology investors in Ottawa and that I am not going to raise any money to build the company.
Warm winter, cold part of Civi-Side history where I seriously began to doubt whether it would be possible to build this company. Start to wonder if I should just get back to furthering my own life rather than sacrificing more for a startup that seems to have not a chance in HE double hockey sticks of getting any traction.
May 2010: Get a LinkedIn message out of the blue from an ex-Air Force officer turned CEO of a tech. company in Hamilton that he was at a PwC CEO networking event and that one of the CEO's at the event brought up the idea that they as corporate citizens should be doing something for veterans and all of the CEO's agree. CEO that contacted me says that he knows someone working in this space and offers to come up with some ideas. CEO that contacted me offers to meet and we discuss a few ideas including priority hiring, and an off the cuff suggestion from him that "maybe we could guarantee and interview". I go to work researching the idea of priority hiring and come to the conclusion that would be too complex for the corporate world to adopt readily. I start thinking about the guaranteed interview idea and realize how brilliant and adoptable it is. I refine the idea and then go back to the CEO who contacted me and propose it, idea needs a bit more refining.
Program is now defined as: "Employers guarantee an interview to at least one veteran who meets the qualifications of the job posting and applies with a Civi-Side resume". The idea here is to make the program as simple and flexible as possible so that the company can adopt and apply the program without any reservations. The philosophy of the program is not that any one employer should interview all veterans but that all employers should interview at least one veteran. A small but important distinction that emphasizes that all employers should be publicly committing to corporate citizenship in giving their nation's veterans a hand-up in transitioning to the civilian workforce.
July 2010: With idea refined a bit more I contact CEO who originally suggested idea at PwC event and propose that they be the founding partner in what I have now called "The Guaranteed Interview Program" or G.I. Program for short. He loves idea but needs me to sell it to his management team, this takes another 6 weeks to get them in the same room. We meet in late Aug.
Aug 2010: We have our founding partner signed. The management team loves the idea and definitely wants to be on-board.
Sept 2010: Meet with Chris Fralic of First Round Capital about G.I. Program and ask him for help in connecting to CEO's in the U.S. who would want to be part of the program. He offers his help, we now have a toe-hold in the U.S.
This brings us up to today. I feel very confident that the service, which has morphed into a vehicle for the G.I. Program, is poised to take off. We have our 3 founding partners for the program and 7, yes 7, interns from the Mohawk College PR program who are going to help us tell Canada's media that there is a simple and tangible way for employers to support their veterans.
Everything is coming up Millhouse!
Monday, September 6, 2010
FedEx not an overnight success.
Just came across this link on Twitter and followed it to a thread on Quora: http://economist.com/node/16892040. I had heard this story before but had not heard this quote from Changing How The World Does Business -- a book about the history of FedEx, by Roger Frock. Frock was one of the founding executives at the company.
On page 101 of the book, Frock says:
By mid-July our funds were so meager that on Friday we were down to about $5,000 in the checking account, while we needed $24,000 for the jet fuel payment... When I arrived back in Memphis on Monday morning, much to my surprise, the bank balance stood at nearly $32,000. I asked Fred where the funds had come from, and he responded, "The meeting with the General Dynamics board was a bust and I knew we needed money for Monday, so I took a plane to Las Vegas and won $27,000." I said, "You mean you took our last $5,000-- how could you do that?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn't have flown anyway." Fred's luck held again. It was not much, but it came at a critical time and kept us in business for another week."
I think that this may be the essence of entrepreneurship, absolute belief in ones business, ones self, and an extraordinary dose of luck. All three were present in the founding of FedEx. Despite having blown through $84M in capital it was the last $5 000 and an unwillingness to fail that made the company and gave us overnight delivery.
On page 101 of the book, Frock says:
By mid-July our funds were so meager that on Friday we were down to about $5,000 in the checking account, while we needed $24,000 for the jet fuel payment... When I arrived back in Memphis on Monday morning, much to my surprise, the bank balance stood at nearly $32,000. I asked Fred where the funds had come from, and he responded, "The meeting with the General Dynamics board was a bust and I knew we needed money for Monday, so I took a plane to Las Vegas and won $27,000." I said, "You mean you took our last $5,000-- how could you do that?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn't have flown anyway." Fred's luck held again. It was not much, but it came at a critical time and kept us in business for another week."
I think that this may be the essence of entrepreneurship, absolute belief in ones business, ones self, and an extraordinary dose of luck. All three were present in the founding of FedEx. Despite having blown through $84M in capital it was the last $5 000 and an unwillingness to fail that made the company and gave us overnight delivery.
Military Service as Preparation for Entrepreneurship
A short but interesting article on how military service in Israel is good preparation for entrepreneurs: http://economist.com/node/16892040. This also seems to be the case for veterans in the U.S., veterans own nearly 3M businesses, 500 000 of which employ an average of more than 10 people. Perhaps you are military and have been thinking of starting your own business, the numbers suggest that you have the right preparation.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Facts about Veterans in Canada
"Although last week was an emotional week for veterans, the truth is that each day is an emotional day for disabled veterans. In war or peacetime, missing limbs, crushed vertebrae, damaged organs, broken spirits and overburdened minds are the same tragic legacies for Canadians who suffered them in the service of their nation. That Canada fights so hard not to properly care for the needs of veterans and their families only humiliates proud military veterans all the more."
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/some-facts-about-canadas-veterans-101362344.html
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/some-facts-about-canadas-veterans-101362344.html
Friday, August 20, 2010
A Bigger Voice for Veterans...We Hope.
With a 10-1 injured to killed ratio in Afghanistan, it is my hope that this issue doesn't die with the inevitable wane of the newscycle. It is clear from the tone of the articles and the comments from readers that taking care of veterans is the responsibility of Canada and penny pinching at their expense is not acceptable. I hope that the government does the honourable thing and changes their ways and that the loyal opposition press them on this issue until it is resolved.
http://bit.ly/aJT9vu
http://bit.ly/aJT9vu
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Penny pinching insurance industry approach to veterans.
I am very concerned that what Col. Storgran says in his indictment of the government and Veterans Affairs is accurate:
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/08/17/veterans-ombudsman-stogran.html?ref=rss
Col. Storgran's words echo a Senate report from December 2008 that slammed the government for their poor treatment of wounded Reservists. I tried to find the link but it seems to have disappeared from the Canadian Press archives where I originally posted it from.
Unfortunately the care of wounded soldiers is placed in the hands of bureaucrats whose favourite interests include stonewalling and denying. It's no wonder that this is how it ends up.
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/08/17/veterans-ombudsman-stogran.html?ref=rss
Col. Storgran's words echo a Senate report from December 2008 that slammed the government for their poor treatment of wounded Reservists. I tried to find the link but it seems to have disappeared from the Canadian Press archives where I originally posted it from.
Unfortunately the care of wounded soldiers is placed in the hands of bureaucrats whose favourite interests include stonewalling and denying. It's no wonder that this is how it ends up.
Monday, August 16, 2010
What is Social Entrepreneurship pt 2
I really liked this article in the NYT about Social Entrepreneurship and its definition:
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/what-exactly-is-a-social-entrepreneur/?src=twt&twt=nytimesbusiness
One of the comments after the article that really struck me as a brilliant piece of insight was this:
"Social entrepreneur, to me, is just a way of saying this person has a motive other than profit. Since "greed is good" it has become implied that entrepreneurship is a field focused on profits, when in reality it is about returns. Using social as an adjective is there to break the association of one word with 'chasing a big pay day.'"
I have been working on civiside for more than two years without a cent of profit and a whole lot of personal and sweat equity invested. If it were purely about a profit motive I should have moved on long ago, yet I still persist. I believe that what I am working toward is an important social good that can benefit millions of transitioning military around the world, if I give up no one will do it and I cannot allow that to happen. I believe that with a little more concentrated effort civiside will develop into the service that I know it can be and will create the returns, monetary or not, that will have made the great sacrifices worth it.
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/what-exactly-is-a-social-entrepreneur/?src=twt&twt=nytimesbusiness
One of the comments after the article that really struck me as a brilliant piece of insight was this:
"Social entrepreneur, to me, is just a way of saying this person has a motive other than profit. Since "greed is good" it has become implied that entrepreneurship is a field focused on profits, when in reality it is about returns. Using social as an adjective is there to break the association of one word with 'chasing a big pay day.'"
I have been working on civiside for more than two years without a cent of profit and a whole lot of personal and sweat equity invested. If it were purely about a profit motive I should have moved on long ago, yet I still persist. I believe that what I am working toward is an important social good that can benefit millions of transitioning military around the world, if I give up no one will do it and I cannot allow that to happen. I believe that with a little more concentrated effort civiside will develop into the service that I know it can be and will create the returns, monetary or not, that will have made the great sacrifices worth it.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Updated G.I. Program logo
Fresh from the designer's oven, our newly updated logo.
Colin Finkle of firebrandcreative.ca, an industrial designer by trade, got in touch with us after hearing on TWiST that we needed an updated design and offered to to do it for free. This is what he came up with. I'm pretty darn happy with the update. It is much more defined and has an interesting new design element in the silver/metallic lining of the emblem. My feeling is that it has a much greater strength of identity to it now. What do you think?
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Guaranteed Interview: "Killer Idea"
Civi-Side was on This Week in Startups this past past Fri. talking about the Guaranteed Interview. The host called the G.I. a "Killer Idea" and suggested ways to improve the site and logo design so that the program would take off. This was an important appearance and a great boost in our confidence. We are seeing increased site traffic following the show and are gaining more credibility in the marketplace. To watch a 2 min. clip of the show appearance visit: http://civiside.com/resource/twist.wmv
In case you don't know, the G.I. is a free grass-roots program enabling employers to tangibly demonstrate their support for transitioning military by displaying the G.I. logo wherever they post their jobs and guaranteeing an interview to transitioners qualified for the job posting and applying with a Civi-Side resume. To learn more visit: http://civiside.com/guaranteed_interview
In case you don't know, the G.I. is a free grass-roots program enabling employers to tangibly demonstrate their support for transitioning military by displaying the G.I. logo wherever they post their jobs and guaranteeing an interview to transitioners qualified for the job posting and applying with a Civi-Side resume. To learn more visit: http://civiside.com/guaranteed_interview
Thursday, June 24, 2010
This Week in Startups
Tomorrow civiside.com will be featured on the "Ask Jason" segment of This Week in Startups. I thought that this was a cool opportunity because I really like the show but turns out it is also a huge promotional opportunity. I got in contact with another startup founder in Ottawa who has been on the show and he said that he got 5 000 hits from that one appearance. If we got anywhere near that in ours I will flip my lid.
On a related note, I have been alluding to a big initiative and new service model. Something that I have forgotten to mention is that civiside has expanded in both our service market, instead of just Reservists we now serve all transitioning military, but also in scope, we are now global in at least one respect, we believe that we have the formula for the world's first scalable ex-military job network. In order to achieve that we will probably have to bring on some investors, so we are beginning to reach out to them now.
As I said before, it's an exciting time to be civiside.com.
On a related note, I have been alluding to a big initiative and new service model. Something that I have forgotten to mention is that civiside has expanded in both our service market, instead of just Reservists we now serve all transitioning military, but also in scope, we are now global in at least one respect, we believe that we have the formula for the world's first scalable ex-military job network. In order to achieve that we will probably have to bring on some investors, so we are beginning to reach out to them now.
As I said before, it's an exciting time to be civiside.com.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
3 Week Countdown
These are exciting times to be part of civiside.com. We are poised over the next few weeks to change our corner of the world through an entirely new service model that promises to connect military personnel with exponentially more opportunities than ever before, and a unique initiative announcement that will supercharge our growth.
In related news, we are co-hosting a Support The Troops Day with the Ottawa Fat Cats Baseball Club at Ottawa Stadium on 4 July at 13:00HRS. Admission is free for military. It would be great if you are in Ottawa to have you there. Especially since that is where we will be making our game changing announcement and introducing our new service model. If you can't make it, keep your ears open anyway, this is going to be big.
In related news, we are co-hosting a Support The Troops Day with the Ottawa Fat Cats Baseball Club at Ottawa Stadium on 4 July at 13:00HRS. Admission is free for military. It would be great if you are in Ottawa to have you there. Especially since that is where we will be making our game changing announcement and introducing our new service model. If you can't make it, keep your ears open anyway, this is going to be big.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Social Media Screening: Nearly 50% of surveyed employers screened.
For those military job seekers, careful what you post on social media. Roughly 50% of employers routinely screen social media before hiring.
http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/social-media-screening/
http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/social-media-screening/
Thursday, May 13, 2010
New Recruitment and Retention Numbers
In a release from last week, recruitment and retention is up in the Regular component and down in the Reserve component of the Canadian Forces:
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/news-nouvelles/news-nouvelles-eng.asp?cat=00&id=3359
A couple of Reserve numbers caught my eye, the first one being "Paid Strength" of 24 265, this number is only 8 more uniformed members since I joined in 2005. Given that at the same time in 2009 we had 26 293 uniformed members, I am seriously questioning the retention side of the equation for the Reserves. What are we doing to lose so many members in one year? I would like to see more explanation for this. The other number that caught my eye was the dramatic reduction in the Supplementary Reserve. We went from a high of 40 000 in 2005 to only 16 138 this year. Why such a dramatic reduction? Are those numbers being redistributed elsewhere?
If anyone understands these numbers more intimately I would love to hear your comments.
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/news-nouvelles/news-nouvelles-eng.asp?cat=00&id=3359
A couple of Reserve numbers caught my eye, the first one being "Paid Strength" of 24 265, this number is only 8 more uniformed members since I joined in 2005. Given that at the same time in 2009 we had 26 293 uniformed members, I am seriously questioning the retention side of the equation for the Reserves. What are we doing to lose so many members in one year? I would like to see more explanation for this. The other number that caught my eye was the dramatic reduction in the Supplementary Reserve. We went from a high of 40 000 in 2005 to only 16 138 this year. Why such a dramatic reduction? Are those numbers being redistributed elsewhere?
If anyone understands these numbers more intimately I would love to hear your comments.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The letter from the Faculty of U of R
This is the letter with the demands of the faculty of U of R: http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Letter+from+University+Regina+professors+opposed+Project+Hero+scholarships/2730833/story.html
In my opinion it reads more like a letter from high schoolers than PH.D's. What's the relevance of Kevin Reed being 42? How does a scholarship for war dead open a debate on student debt and free tuition for all? Why must a public debate on the war in Afghanistan and Canadian imperialism be held in lieu of the scholarship.
At heart I am an academic and encourage all kinds of public discourse, especially on issues such as war, but choosing to take a stand on the war at the expense of children whose parent has died in service of the Canada is some kind of new low.
In my opinion it reads more like a letter from high schoolers than PH.D's. What's the relevance of Kevin Reed being 42? How does a scholarship for war dead open a debate on student debt and free tuition for all? Why must a public debate on the war in Afghanistan and Canadian imperialism be held in lieu of the scholarship.
At heart I am an academic and encourage all kinds of public discourse, especially on issues such as war, but choosing to take a stand on the war at the expense of children whose parent has died in service of the Canada is some kind of new low.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Project Hero in the news again.
Kevin Reed's Project Hero initiative is being railed by a group of professors at the University of Regina: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/criticism-of-scholarships-for-children-of-fallen-soldiers-draws-sharp-rebuke/article1512784/
It's the name that is setting off these "intellectuals". They are protesting a concept but in the process hurting real people who have already been disadvantaged. It's quite an unfortunate situation. I will reiterate that there are numerous good reasons to support this initiative and none of them are political. The beneficiaries are apolitical and do not deserve to be politicized. That was never the intention of either Gen. Hillier or Kevin Reed.
It's the name that is setting off these "intellectuals". They are protesting a concept but in the process hurting real people who have already been disadvantaged. It's quite an unfortunate situation. I will reiterate that there are numerous good reasons to support this initiative and none of them are political. The beneficiaries are apolitical and do not deserve to be politicized. That was never the intention of either Gen. Hillier or Kevin Reed.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
An additional link to Roger Martin
Radio interview with Roger Martin on his ideas about Design Thinking
http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/10/full-interview-roger-martin-on-design-thinking-in-the-workplace/
http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/10/full-interview-roger-martin-on-design-thinking-in-the-workplace/
The Design of Business
Interesting book about how business strategists need to get away the emphasis on analytical business thinking and move to design centric thinking. Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Business at U of T writes:
"Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game-changing innovation like Apple’s iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative-they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results. Why? In The Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.To innovate and win, companies need design thinking. This form of thinking is rooted in how knowledge advances from one stage to another-from mystery (something we can’t explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer)."
I was commenting a few weeks back on Blue Ocean Strategy, and how despite it being a breakthrough strategy book, it would largely be underutilized because the people who are tasked to read and implement it are too analysis driven to make the leaps of faith necessary to make great products and services that make the competition irrelevant. Roger Martin's book supports my argument. Roger is a leading strategic thinker, it will be interesting to see if his book makes any waves.
http://rogerlmartin.com/library/books/the-design-of-business/
"Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game-changing innovation like Apple’s iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative-they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results. Why? In The Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.To innovate and win, companies need design thinking. This form of thinking is rooted in how knowledge advances from one stage to another-from mystery (something we can’t explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer)."
I was commenting a few weeks back on Blue Ocean Strategy, and how despite it being a breakthrough strategy book, it would largely be underutilized because the people who are tasked to read and implement it are too analysis driven to make the leaps of faith necessary to make great products and services that make the competition irrelevant. Roger Martin's book supports my argument. Roger is a leading strategic thinker, it will be interesting to see if his book makes any waves.
http://rogerlmartin.com/library/books/the-design-of-business/
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Everyday a new article or editorial.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/the-overburdened-army/article1438502/
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Grad@Loblaw Program
I'm pleased to announce that the Grad@Loblaw Management Training Program is now advertising their positions on civiside.com. They hire 200 new grads annually to be future managers of the stores and corporate operations. I think that this is a great opportunity for Loblaw to find extraordinary candidates and for Reservists to find a great organization to grow in. I'm looking forward to the success stories.
For more information visit civiside.com and look under the retail industry category.
For more information visit civiside.com and look under the retail industry category.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Globe and Mail Article
There's an article in today's Globe and Mail about how Reservists are being shortchanged and how that is destroying the fabric of our organization.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/only-thing-canadas-reservists-need-cut-is-some-slack/article1435628/
As you know, I met with some key personnel in the CF last week, and frankly, I don't have high hopes for the situation getting better. The people in that room last week are the best barometer for the state of thinking about the Reserves from within the CF, and that thinking is at best detached from reality, and at worst indifferent. Some of the things that I heard were so self-serving that I was personally disappointed that they were our leaders. Not to say they were all detached, of the four people in the room, two acknowledged a problem with how we retain people in the organization, unfortunately, neither of them will carry the torch further.
Expect things to get worse before they get better.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/only-thing-canadas-reservists-need-cut-is-some-slack/article1435628/
As you know, I met with some key personnel in the CF last week, and frankly, I don't have high hopes for the situation getting better. The people in that room last week are the best barometer for the state of thinking about the Reserves from within the CF, and that thinking is at best detached from reality, and at worst indifferent. Some of the things that I heard were so self-serving that I was personally disappointed that they were our leaders. Not to say they were all detached, of the four people in the room, two acknowledged a problem with how we retain people in the organization, unfortunately, neither of them will carry the torch further.
Expect things to get worse before they get better.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Want to be a Business Owner?
Ever wanted to be your own boss but didn't know where to start? Civi-Side Inc. is looking for 1-2 additional partners to commercialize the business. We have a unique concept in connecting Junior Military Officers with Management Training Programs at large companies. Our financial projections for Canada are in the millions and our projections for the U.S. market are exponentially higher. The skills needed to drive the business further are Web Development, Sales, and CFO type aptitude. If you possess any of these skills let's talk. Just send your resume and a brief description of why you would like to be part of the civiside team. All who submit will be responded to.
If you, or someone you know, is ex/military, wants to be part of a military-space technology startup, and has the will to push beyond all obstacles, get in touch: ken.seville@civiside.com. The right partners will earn equity ownership in the business and can draw a salary as the business ramps up.
If you, or someone you know, is ex/military, wants to be part of a military-space technology startup, and has the will to push beyond all obstacles, get in touch: ken.seville@civiside.com. The right partners will earn equity ownership in the business and can draw a salary as the business ramps up.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A good idea cannot be caged forever.
Yesterday I met with the Chief of the Reserves to discuss civiside.com and how we could help them solve some pressing problems. Frankly, the meeting didn't go so well. We had a misunderstanding about the purpose of the meeting, I thought that I was briefing them on a problem they were aware of and pitching them civiside technology as a solution, they thought it was a briefing on what civiside.com was doing. The long and short of it was that there was very little movement.
With that said, after my meeting I became aware of a similar service to civiside in the U.S. In fact I learned of it from two independent people in the space of twelve hours and from two entirely different sources. It's amazing how a good idea can't be caged forever. When its time has come it will happen. My confidence in the decision makers actively engaging in either licencing the civiside technology, or building a similar service that connects Reservists with Reserve-Friendly employers is much higher. I think that it will be difficult for our military leaders to say it's not a good idea when our neighbours to the south are working so diligently on the same kind of service to benefit their troops.
The link to the CNBC article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/34823212/
With that said, after my meeting I became aware of a similar service to civiside in the U.S. In fact I learned of it from two independent people in the space of twelve hours and from two entirely different sources. It's amazing how a good idea can't be caged forever. When its time has come it will happen. My confidence in the decision makers actively engaging in either licencing the civiside technology, or building a similar service that connects Reservists with Reserve-Friendly employers is much higher. I think that it will be difficult for our military leaders to say it's not a good idea when our neighbours to the south are working so diligently on the same kind of service to benefit their troops.
The link to the CNBC article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/34823212/
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
"You are probably not wrong, but you are probably not right"
Just had a long and interesting conversation with the web developer who created civiside.com. We talked about everything under the sun, including the dangers of not protecting one's digital footprint, and the purpose of entrepreneurship. The conversation wasn't interesting because we think anything alike, in fact, it's exactly the opposite. You probably couldn't find two people who were more diametrically opposed. Yet, the conclusion that I drew from the conversation can be summed up in a short maxim that I will now carry with me everywhere "You are probably not wrong, but you are probably not right". The reason that I think that this is an important finding is that debate tends to lead to polarization and hardening of one's position, without necessarily arriving at a reasonable truth. By concluding that the other person is probably right in some respects and being open to changing your own position to integrate some of the ideas; you arrive at a much stronger final position. This finding may not be revelatory for most, but by integrating the statement into my debates I think I will come much closer to the truth.
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