Tag Archives: Edmonton

Strength Become Weakness

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Great companies evolve. Great people evolve. Great institutions evolve. Apple Computer has evolved. James Bond has evolved. LEGO has evolved. Bill Clinton has evolved. Hell, even Earls Restaurant has evolved.

Good organizations are built on strengths, but great organizations understand that those very strengths soon become their weakness, and they need to evolve in order to get to the next stage of growth.

Are cities any different? Let’s look at Edmonton.

Strength: a humble city of entrepreneurially thinking people and quietly profitable businesses that rally around any community initiative and provide anonymous donations to capital campaigns.

And …

Weakness: a humble city of entrepreneurially thinking people and quietly profitable businesses that rally around any community initiative and provide anonymous donations to capital campaigns … that doesn’t like to bring about any overt attention to its successes, yet wants to change its external image and become a destination for new businesses, residents, tourists and investment.

Yikes!! Could Edmonton’s humility be getting in the way of achieving its next stage of success? Does Edmonton and Edmonton-based firms truly understand marketing? Are Edmontonians ready to move from introvert to extrovert?

I suggest that we collectively need to invest in marketing in order to jump to the next curve … and by collectively invest, I mean starting with a serious look at our individual marketing budgets and ask the following questions:

• Are you spending a minimum of 1% of revenues on marketing (marketing, not sales)?
• Are your events held in public places and considered remarkable (worth remarking about)?
• How many stories in the press/media do you get every year (telling your story)?
• How much, and in what, are you investing to recruit new employees (and how many)?
• How do you celebrate your philanthropy to build your brand (community marketing)?

These questions are tough to answer for many Edmonton-based organizations, and will be the topic for subsequent blogs over the next month. This is a topic that is critical to our collective success, as the Edmonton story is simply an aggregate of our individual stories … corporate, institutional, personal, community or charitable. There are many things that we can do individual level, and there are many things we can do in the collective.

But be prepared to become more extroverted. We all need you to be.

Dare to re Discover

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Eras are often defined by the visions of leaders: the Carnegie era defined the important connection between industrialist and philanthropist; the Kennedy era defined the culture of US risk-taking by charting a path to the moon; and the Jobs era defined unlimited innovation with the interdependence of technology and humanity.

Whether those leaders are local, global, political, industrial, dictatorial or libertarian, leaders with commanding visions define their eras.

On a local level, we had the Stephen Mandel era, the Cal Nichols era, the Don Lowry era, the Tony Franceschini era, the Dave Mowat era, the Indira Samarasekera era, the Shelia Weatherill era and the Ross Grieve era … all different leaders that left their mark in different ways.

What is important to note is that they all progressed their causes and left their mark. Leaders have to leave a mark … have to move their organizations forward … or they are often forgotten as part of “a lost decade” era … and that is a tragedy of leadership, especially when that leader was brought in specifically to steward a public-facing organization in a defined direction.

The University of Alberta is in need of an era … and it has the opportunity to define its next decade with the selection of a leader that heightens the vision, determination and relevance of this amazing institution. Our university has the opportunity to select a President that has the following:

– Clear vision for campus development focused on enhancing the student experience;
– Understanding of our industrial and societal needs for entrepreneurial graduates;
– Capability to engage alumni, to build pride in the community and to raise capital;
– Clarity of expectations for research & teaching excellence across core faculties; and
– Ability to align all Deans to one vision, one voice, one goal … of being the best.

If we get it right, that leader will not only define the next era for the University of Alberta, but also for the City of Edmonton and the Province of Alberta. If we dare .. strive … and take risks … it will be a defining decade for all. The combination of our K-12 System, NAIT, MacEwen, NorQuest and University of Alberta has the ability to position Edmonton as the place with “the Brightest Kids in the World” and the University of Alberta is a critical cornerstone of that reputation.

So let’s Be Bold. Dare to Discover. Be Indisputably Recognized. Be a Leader.

Our Fixed-Term Premier

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I love urgency. I love the adrenaline of deadlines … of the need to move forward … of the necessity to make change. Maybe that’s why I have a propensity to take on risk and debt. I like a little debt … debt gets you out of bed in the morning … knowing at the end of the day you gotta deliver … or else there are consequences.

I fear complacency. I fear the thought of coming into the office every morning, sitting at my desk, reading the newspaper … growing old and fat in my chair. Maybe that’s why I have a stand-up desk? Maybe there is something inside of me that fears getting lazy and losing the sense of urgency.

That was, and still is, my biggest fear when I decided to step out of the private sector and into the public sector. Would I become a lazy bureaucrat? Would I simply manage the piles on my desk? Or would I keep the adrenaline and the urgency going that is all so important for moving our great city and province forward?

Seriously, that’s what I think about.

And do you know who inspires me today? Who I look upon with a sense of admiration? Premier Dave Hancock.

Why? Because the guy has a sense of urgency and purpose … and I’m lovin’ it.

The guy gets dropped into the role … doesn’t ask for it … just gets dropped into a really crappy situation. And Dave has a choice … he can sit there all comfortable in his big Premier’s chair and ride out his five months … ever to be forgotten. Or he can step in, pull up his socks like a knapsack over his shoulder, and set out to put his own dent in the universe. That that’s exactly what he’s doing … and I think we could all learn something about leadership from him right now.

Dave is genuinely inspired … hell, he’s king for five months … he’s gotta be inspired. And his positive energy is soooooo apparent, sooooo welcomed and sooooo infectious that it is actually moving the stalled ship forward. He’s set out to tackle those piles of negative energy that have been just sitting on the desks in the bureaucracy … stifled by a lack of leadership and urgency … files like the innovation system and access to capital … files that have bounced through a desert of ineptitude at the very time when Alberta should be seizing the opportunities in front of us.

But there was no urgency. And now there is.

Why? Because Premier Dave Hancock will no longer be Premier in September and he wants to get things done WITH URGENCY before he’s booted out. And for that I compliment him sincerely.

His selfless but missionary style of leadership in a time of rudderless drift has accomplished more than what anyone could have imagined. He has shown the importance of energy, accessibility, humility and humanity to the leadership role. He has restored the confidence of many incredulous Albertans. And he has done it with grace.

And for that, I thank him.