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An Interview with Aquaman

Coming to us this month is an environmental entrepreneur from the water industry. With over 70% of the world's surface covered by water and recognition growing of the role that it can play in addressing many of the issues facing modern society, water treatment, preservation and management, is an area that is getting a lot of attention these days. And Edward Quilty is on the leading edge with his company, Aquatic Informatics.

Aquatic Informatics develops and markets software for the water and climate information industry, an industry that may seem rather daunting at first glance. Their customers include, municipalities, engineering firms, universities and state and provincial government who use their easy to run software for a variety of tasks related to maximizing use of this natural resource in safe and conservation friendly ways.

A trained biologist, just shy of his Ph.D. and BC native, Ed started working in the environmental data monitoring industry straight out of university. He has seen massive changes in the industry as weather and climate changes have impacted a variety of aspects of daily life around the globe. The thriving clean tech industry in our part of Canada keeps Ed busy, but he took some time out to talk to us a bit about running a small company, his inspirations and guiding principles.

I found Ed's comments on hiring and managing people to be particularly inspiring. He is not a fan of micromanagement and believes in hiring the right people. All of us who manage people aspire to the same thing, but often are able to achieve it. Ed believes it comes down to hiring people who can believe in the company's core values. A great comment really resonated with me was, "It's amazing how much time and energy can be wasted wrestling the wrong people in the right direction."

I'd never really thought of it that way, but it strikes me as true. As increasingly we look for people both with expertise in a narrow body of knowledge and with the right personality and work style to fit into the corporate culture, it comes down to espousing the same core values. While it seems the pool of talent is great, finding the right fit for any organization takes time and effort.

One of the benefits of conducting these interviews each month comes from learning more and more about running my own small business. My interview with Ed turned out to be a treasure trove. He digs deep down to his philosophical core when discussing core values and how to imbibe that in a corporate culture. He believes in taking opportunities, even if they don't always seem to have a specific goal in mind - the mark of a true entrepreneur.



Who were your early role models and what were the main things you learned from them?

Nearly straight out of University I worked as a contractor for BC Environment. My boss during those few years had an amazing ability to motivate our team, somewhat passively. While other units were micromanaged and stereotypically disengaged, our unit had a real collegial spirit - we were very tight, worked exceptionally hard, and had tons of fun. It was us against the world. My boss's strategy was to hire great people and remove roadblocks for them. I've adopted this approach in my own companies and I think it's been a cornerstone for the success we are now seeing at Aquatic Informatics.

In your opinion what are the key trends affecting your industry?

The environmental data monitoring industry is undergoing radical change. The combination of climate change, growing water scarcity and rapid technological advances is prompting governments and private entities to rapidly modernize and enhance the collection, processing and timely publication of environmental data. Extended droughts in California, Australia, and China, and recent floods in Europe are all good examples of how big the problems can be and the scale and timeliness of the response needed. The industry used to move at a glacial pace whereas now it requires real-time collection of data, and fast interpretation and decision-making.


What is the greatest business advice you've ever received?

Ralph Turfus, a well known local tech entrepreneur, told me to take the time to really understand my own core values and then build a company around them. As a small company, you need to be really efficient and responsive, and therefore you need great team alignment. It's amazing how much time and energy can be wasted wrestling the wrong people in the right direction - I like to save my battles for the competition. So we have made a real push to ensure our core values are living and breathing within the company - they aren't just lip service. They are part of our hiring process and drive our team's 360 degree performance reviews within the company.


If you could redo something in your past, what would it be?

Two things. First, in university I had an opportunity to take an international co-op work term. Instead I chose to stay in BC and continue to build my local contacts and experience - it seemed more practical whereas the alternative would be more fun. In hindsight I should have gone for more fun. Also, I now look at the globe as one market and I think I would have gotten to this mindset more quickly if I had worked abroad earlier. Second, I wish I had finished my PhD before throwing myself completely into building Aquatic Informatics. I thought I could do both but really I needed every second and more for Aquatics. I do intend to complete my PhD down the road, but likely with a new focus.


What is an example of an innovative company that people have never heard of?

There is a really inventive Austrian company called S::CAN (www.s-can.at) that are making waves in sensing technology in the water industry. They have built spectrometer technology into portable and robust devices that can be deployed in situ to measure a large and growing list of water quality parameters, such as dissolved organics, nutrients, and contaminants. In the same way that we are transforming the way our industry can handle massive amounts of environmental data in real-time, S::CAN is transforming what our industry can actually measure in real-time - they are opening big doors and it's really exciting for us.


List a few of your favourite business sites.

www.bctia.org
www.acetech.org
www.gazelles.com

-------------------



Edward Quilty - Founder, President & CEO

Edward Quilty is the founder of Aquatic Informatics. Ed has worked in the water industry since 1992 and has specialized in automated monitoring, data management and assessment, and environmental impact assessments. Prior to founding Aquatics in 2003, Ed was principal of QA Environmental Consulting, a regional firm focused on designing and managing hydrometric networks. Mr. Quilty is a registered professional biologist with the British Columbia College of Applied Biology, is a Director of the Canadian Water Resource Association, is a member of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and the American Water and Wastewater Association. Ed is also an active member of ACETECH and BCTIA, technology associations focused on rapidly growing British Columbia companies.

The Soul of the Entrepreneur

Despite the plethora of degrees, honors and accolades, this month's guest is a down-to-earth guy. Andrew Csinger, Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of British Columbia, is an engineer at heart and a man with a wide variety of interests, some of which he shared with us in this month's interview.

His keen ability to look into the impact of technology on society marks him as not your typical computer science Ph.D. As such, he has a wide-range of projects in the works as diverse as his new book, Talent and Treasure, a look at the soul of an entrepreneur and expounding on the cross currents of miniaturization and mobilization.

It was this last that caught my eye. As cell phones become ubiquitous, nearing 100% in most developed and many developing nations, the opportunities for business as well as, personal use lag behind. We've only just begun to explore the mobile platform. As our guest notes:"... the impressive technology-based business advances of the last two decades (will) seem like antique slow motion."

Much of what will drive this trend is "miniaturization". This is, of course a trend that we should realize will drive growth in cell phone capability, as it has driven technological advances in everything form early radios to computers. Every new technology in this and the previous century has morphed from a room-sized apparatus to fit into your hand, each ever more rapidly.

Where does this take us with cell phone technology? It has taken 10 years or so to get from suitcase-sized "bag phones" to credit card sized "cell phones". Much of the focus has been on developing applications and... training users how to take advantage of all this new technology. Will it take a Mac type breakthrough to get us over that barrier in mobile technology, as the easy to use Apple interface revolutionized the PC in 1984? Only then, perhaps, miniaturization can take over and drive further growth.

We need only look back into Dr. Csinger's list of role models to see that he expects an big thinker to lead the way in this quest. His list is an eclectic group of inventors, businessmen and philosophers. He references Albert Camus (I’m not the weirdest person on the planet) as well as, Buckminster Fuller (If it can be imagined, it can be designed; if it can be designed, it can be built)

It is in this last statement that we find the kernel of an idea, one that is yet to manifest itself, except in laboratories and universities across the globe, as well as, in garages and increasingly in the new home of the entrepreneur - Starbucks.

This soul of the entrepreneur, which Andrew Csinger certainly has, makes his comments an interesting read. I'm sure you'll enjoy them as much as I did.


Q: Who were your early role models and what were the main things you learned from them?

A: Buckminster Fuller: if it can be imagined, it can be designed; if it can be designed, it can be built. Bertrand Russell: there must be a logical explanation. Albert Einstein: things are not what they seem. Bill Gates: it helps to be in the right place at the right time. Steve Jobs: It's not JUST about the money. Albert Camus: I'm not the weirdest person on the planet. Warren Buffet: Quality Counts. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Quality Counts All The Time. A mentor at IBM Labs during my early University days: "Winning isn't everything. It's Everything." One of my academic supervisors on the occasion of a conference trip: "Don't drink the water and bring plenty of toilet paper." Often repeated by great men over the centuries in all walks of life: "Stand on the shoulders of giants." This is how you learn. This is how you build great buildings, great people, great companies.


Q: What key trends do we need to be aware of?

A: Miniaturization has found its match in mobilization. The intersection of these trends will make the impressive technology-based business advances of the last two decades seem like antique slow motion. Huge personal empowerment is coming to a mobile platform near you, if we don’t screw it all up with trade embargoes and war, and that sort of thing.


Q: What inspired you to create Talent and Treasure?

A: The public is mystified by the entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur, working with entrepreneurs every day. Although I'm also still mystified, I'm in a good position to shed some informal but credible light on what makes them tick. There's lots you can read about the Entrepreneur, lots of academic theories and biographies, but nothing in the middle, nothing that speaks to the soul of the entrepreneur. This book tries to capture, mostly through portrait photography and short interviews, that which defines the entrepreneur. We all want to know. And in this tumultuous global economical roller coaster, we all need to know...


Q: What did you learn in the process of putting together this book?

A: That executing on a concept like this is an entrepreneurial undertaking. That I'm still an entrepreneur :-)


Q: List a few of your business sites.

www.mobioidentity.com
www.minesense.com
www.sparkintegration.com
www.crowdfanatic.com
www.plantiga.com


Andrew Csinger has held a variety of executive management roles and advises senior management on technology transfer, market and corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions in the high technology arena. He holds several patents.

Dr. Csinger is Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of British Columbia, and Adjunct Professor in the Cognitive Systems Group, where he divides his attention between fostering a culture of entrepreneurialism and lecturing on the subject of Digital Trust. He is advisor or director to a number of local startups including Cryptolex Trust Systems (www.cryptolex.com), Scalable Analytics (http://www.scalableanalytics.com), CrowdFanatic (www.crowdfanatic.com) and Spark Integration Technologies (www.sparkintegration.com). Andrew was recently EVP of Product Strategy and Development at Dategrity Corp., a spin-out from the Votehere Corporation, where strong privacy technology is being developed to meet rapidly emerging compliance needs and enablement opportunities.

Andrew was Senior VP and CIO of Group Telecom from 1998 to 2002. GT's successful initial public offering took place in March 1999. During this period, GT became Canada's most successful Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, with 400,000 kilometers of fibre, 1500 employees in offices from coast to coast, a quarter billion revenue run rate and over a billion dollars in financing.

In 1998, he developed and operated the first PKI Certification Authority and Repository to be licensed under Washington State Digital Signature legislation. This seminal work influenced the later adoption of federal U.S. law (the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000, or "E-Sign Act"), and was an early model for the adoption by other states of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).

In 1996, he founded Xcert Software Inc., a technology leader in the emerging business of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Xcert was acquired by RSA Technologies Inc.

Andrew received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Computer Science from UBC and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University. A Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Post-Doctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University, and a visiting scholar at the German Center for Artificial Intelligence in Saarbrucken, his work on artificial intelligence techniques has appeared in journals and conferences around the world. His research focused on user-modeling by computer in intelligent multimedia interfaces.

Dr. Csinger is regularly invited to speak at conferences and events, about technology and its effects on society and business.

Moving at the speed of molasses - Interview with Mike St. John

By Peter Roosen

Freight trains and toilet paper have a lot in common when looking from a marketing perspective. They are examples of products that have been around long before we were born that will still be around long after we are gone. They are among the 95% of the things we see and use that are considered established products and services from traditional industries. You won't see them featured in media because they are simply part of the landscape.

Marketers can easily lose sight of everyday products and the marketing opportunities related to them. This is especially the case for stove-pipe industries that produce the many industrial goods and services that form the backbone of our modern industrial economy. The highly popularized electronic gadgets that entertain and keep us in contact do not exist in a vacuum. Most of them are brought to market on the backs of those freight trains that trudge back and forth across the landscape virtually unnoticed. And let's face it, the only time anybody notices toilet paper is when there isn't any.

This month's newsletter takes a look at a great marketing and innovation example from the very traditional lumber industry. Marketers be warned. Making a big splash in a traditional industry isn't an easy thing to do. Last week, we traveled to Boise, Idaho to interview someone who has done just that - in spades - and who continues to do so. Former navy seal Mike St. John was the marketing man behind the shift to engineered structural residential building products from the basic sawn timber that has been used for centuries to hold our floors and roofs together.

Mike has over 32 years selling and producing these structural building products that involve efficiently using the whole tree rather than just the pieces sawn out from the middle to make our buildings. Introducing Trus Joist products was the highlight of his career. These products now have approximately 50% market share and are still growing. At the start, 1976 sales were less than $1 million, and today sales of over $2 billion are made annually. Mike is currently a board member for the APA (American Plywood Association) and he is chair of the EWS (Engineered Wood Systems) committee. He is also a director for Pacific Woodtech Corp. www.pacificwoodtech.com where he also serves as vice president of sales and marketing. Mike teaches courses on marketing and innovation to engineers while remaining keenly interested in these areas.

The road to successfully transforming an industry is not an easy one but Mike is someone who has traveled this road and is happy to share his insights for those of us who are undertaking a similar journey. You'll gather from our interview that there are some key ingredients that can be used to help transform any industry where a good idea's time has come.


Interview with Mike St. John.

Q. Who would you hold out as an inspirational leader?

A. Harold Thomas and Dick Hansen are two who spring to mind immediately. Harold is still alive while both were highly influential from our beginnings in the 1970s. I'll focus on Harold who is a salesman who started a company. He always believed and still believes that if you give salesmen an opportunity to make money, they will perform. The good ones will sort themselves from the rest. When I was vice president of sales, there were more than 300 salesmen of which 250 made more money than executives and managers. We celebrated that. We truly had an organization that the head of was a salesman's champion.

Trus Joist would not be alive today had it not been for the sales guys. The products were very expensive compared to traditional methods.

Q. How were you able to get such expensive products into the market?

A. I had an important accomplishment back in the early days. It was in Colorado at a time when there were fancy ski resorts being built that needed very large roof trusses that if made using conventional materials and methods were too big and difficult to truck through the highway tunnels. At the time, we were just making floor joists. I figured that since we could make these engineered pieces in any length, they could make great trusses while being relatively easy to transport. It worked.

Q. What drove you and your team?

A. We were and still are on a mission to build better homes.

Q. What do you see as the success drivers for successful innovation in a traditional industry such as yours?

A. You need to be truly committed to the idea. Beyond that, execution is important. In my experience, the long term follow up gets bound up in financial performance numbers. So many underestimate the time and cost of doing the execution - even in a traditional lumber business which is like watching molasses flow. It took 30 years to get 50% market share. Sometimes great ideas take that long. A $2 billion market is all it is in our case. Initially we were 5 people going after this market.

In some industries some great ideas, no matter how great, have very slow traditional speed. This is unlike ipods, cell phones and other tech products that move at the speed of light. The backbone of all commerce in the world are still ugly traditional products like sheet rock, timber, steel, petroleum and rubber. These are traditional businesses or products that just don't move as fast.

I've always been envious of the computer and software guys who build extinction into their model. If you buy a computer today, it will be gone in a couple years. If you buy an I-joist today, it will still be around and you'll be able to buy one 25 years later just like the one 25 years before. I've had three Blackberries in two years because they keep advancing. Take the two by fours in my house. I could have bought the same ones in the mid 1800s.

The big lessons are having great patience, deep pockets and making sure the traditional products and industries evolve so that we don't lose our planet. Today we plant 23% more trees worldwide than we take. But not all countries are on side. Hardwood from southeast jungles are an exception as they are stripped for cash - as our northern lands not so long ago. The lumber business can outgrow demand but we have to do it right. Switzerland, Finland and New Zealand have been doing a good job and are able to grow more than they demand. The lumber business takes a huge amount of carbon out of the atmosphere.

The innovation gets down to using every bit of the wood fiber from the tree. Today, in North America, we don't waste a single ounce of wood fiber. The forest products group as a whole has really figured out how to preserve itself through sustainable practices.

The Network Insider: Dialogue with a Dragon - W. Brett Wilson

Our newsletter this month focuses on an industry that more often than not, gives investors a wild ride. W. Brett Wilson, one of the founding partners of Calgary's FirstEnergy Capital Corp takes us on that journey (while he journeys in Africa) and shares some insights with us.

Brett has been a leader in the energy investing and well known in Calgary circles as both an astute businessman and a philanthropist and has holdings well beyond energy in fields as diverse as entertainment, sports and agriculture.

Brett is perhaps best known for his role on the popular venture capital raising show, Dragons Den.

A successful entrepreneur by anyone's standards, Brett has another side, that of philanthropist. Brett talks to us a bit about how he changed his priorities after becoming wildly successful. This has included his jumping wholeheartedly into a number of charitable concerns, including kids with cancer and organ donation.

The drive that propelled him to the top in investment banking shows in his dedication to the causes he supports.

While some of our other guests, when asked about business mistakes have focused on financial and marketing mistakes, Brett takes us to the world of people. This is a particularly timely topic as people issues are on the forefront of many managers' minds as we weather the worst recession in several generations.

Recruiting and retaining good people looms large as a task in good times. In tough times managers have two tasks. One is to handle potential layoffs, furloughs and other bad news well. The second is to set the stage for an economic upturn, where a reputation for heartlessness could make hiring good people difficult.

Innovative companies, especially those just starting out, must be innovative with their people as well as their products. We talk a lot in our book about managing innovation across functions and that means managing the people who staff these areas effectively. While it's tempting to be product focused, people make up the core of the company and the heart of the company culture.

Driving the company culture across disciplines means also recognizing the personalities which tend to dominate each department; handling conflict appropriately and motivating individuals in the various ways that different personality types require. Like product innovation, people management takes creativity and compromise.
Good people management means recognizing what drives both potential customers and current employees. We'll see in our interview that Brett Wilson finds both of these important.


Q & A with W. Brett Wilson

Q. What are the key trends effecting your industry?


A. Oil and gas Industry. Investing in growth oriented start-ups (Dragons Den related)

Key trends impacting Oil and Gas is the down turn in the economy

There is a challenge in creating opportunities where none existed before.

The downturn has created an abundance of labour, materials and office space. The challenge is always cash flow - cash is king - and in this economy this is the biggest challenge.

Q. What is a biggest pitfall that impedes successful commercialization?


A. Misunderstanding your target market both as the product your delivering and the desirability in that market but that all ties to the bottom line of understanding your market.

Q. What is your biggest business mistake and what did you learn from it?

Not dealing with people issues when they are apparent and should be dealt with. Conflict avoider. People issues should be dealt with through open communication and immediate action.

Q. What do you consider your biggest personal or business achievement?


A. Reprioritizing my life after years as a workaholic to the success of FirstEnergy. The result was I was able to connect with my own children and open the door to other experiences and opportunities. My biggest most successful business is FirstEnergy - in the creation, building development of that business.

Q. What is an example of an innovative company that people have never heard of?


A. The Bolt Supply House... A company I invested in 10 yrs. Ago. They stayed thru lean times, are innovative and have done well. They are a dominant provider of fasteners in Western Canada. (www.boltsupply.com)




W. Brett Wilson


W. Brett Wilson is one of Canada's most successful businessmen and respected philanthropists. A high profile Calgarian who proudly wears the label "maverick", Brett is one of the founding partners of Calgary's FirstEnergy Capital Corp. He helped turn an intrepid start-up into the energy industry's leading investment bank, which has brokered thousands of financings and M&A deals worth over $150 billion. Brett's instincts for investing in the right people have also translated into major holdings in the energy, agriculture, real estate, sports, and entertainment industries, financed through his private investment bank, Prairie Merchant.

His personal charisma and small-town charm have gained him a national audience, a platform he uses to inspire his brand of "prairie ethics" - focused on personal integrity, a commitment to community, and work/life balance. Brett uses his own larger-than-life story to illustrate what he has learned about the real meaning of success.

A self-described "capitalist with a heart", Brett spends almost as much time giving money away as he does earning it. With an innovative approach to philanthropy, he has given - and engaged others to give - tens of millions to non-profit initiatives.

According to Alberta Venture Magazine, who named Brett Business Person of the Year in 2009, "he is single-handedly redefining the meaning of success in work-and wealth-obsessed Calgary." His commitment to excellence and innovation has not only revolutionized the business sector in which he operates, but the community in which he lives, inspiring others to see how they can leave an equally unique mark on the world.

Fight or Flight: Battling it out in the travel industry

Summer is travel season, so it makes sense for us to explore innovation in the travel industry. Hard hit by a variety of technological inventions that have transformed the way people book travel and whether they travel at all; an economy that discourages any type of expenditure and the miscellaneous impact of oil prices, terrorism and accidents, this is an industry that needs to innovate to survive.

Our guest this month, Ryan Phillips of Flight Centre Business Travel, brings not only his insights about the travel industry, but also some interesting observations about how marketing and sales have changed... and stayed the same.

Even in this low touch era where deals are as likely to close over the web as they are in person, effective sales people understand that personal contact can make all the difference in whether the deal gets signed or not. The rise of social media sites have been a boon to those companies that recognize the consumer need for personal contact and travel industry companies have been some of the first to understand their value.

JetBlue and Southwest Airlines have both harnessed the power of social networking on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites and brought a new level of transparency to the industry. They have been some of the leaders in using social media and find new ways of using these technological innovations to increase customer satisfaction every day.

As the hassle factor and the economy together strive to make leaving home an unpleasant experience, those who truly understand the nature of innovation stay one step ahead. Our guest Ryan Phillips, when asked to name an innovative company, chose Nine Inch Nails and their strategic use of free distribution and selected copyrights.

Of course, my immediate thought was, "wow what a leap from travel to music!" But in reality, it's often innovations in a field far removed from the one in which an individual works that drives creativity. The Post-it Note, famously it is said was inspired when the inventor was singing in the choir. Maybe it's something about music.

Whether or not music has anything to do with it, we all know that we live in an era when consumers' access to information is unparalleled, so the old rules of first mover advantage are falling by the wayside. In a matter of moments any concept, promotion, advertisement or idea can be copied and disseminated to the target audience. Which make the ongoing relationship that much more important.

Relationship is key in the low touch century. Ryan understands that and shares his ideas on how his company strives to develop strong ones with their customers.

What is your role at Flight Centre?

Business Development Manager with Flight Centre Business Travel (FCBT) which specializes in corporate executive and employee travel. Essentially I work with companies to identify ways that FCBT Travel Consultants can help streamline processes while offering a personalized service, 24 hours a day.

I frequently talk to my clients and the most common feedback regarding their experience with FCBT is how our travel consultants are very responsive, friendly and knowledgeable. I would love to take all the credit for that, but I really do owe it to the team I work with.

In your opinion what are the key trends affecting the travel industry?

The current economic climate is definitely affecting the travel industry both in terms of personal and business travel. On the leisure side, people are trying to get the most value for their travel dollar in terms of inclusions and options. In terms of corporate travel, a large majority of companies have much stricter travel policies, which is another reason we are seeing an increase in business. We have an excellent process in place which allows for simple, yet effective, ways of tracking company travel policies.

What is the greatest marketing or sales advice you've ever received?

As an extremely ambitious new young sales representative very early in my career, I can remember meeting with a client to do a sales pitch. After the pitch the client looked at me and told that he was interested and that I should call him back in two weeks. Feeling pretty proud of myself I sat back and waited and after two weeks made the call and asked him if he would like to go ahead. His response was "sorry we went with the competition." My manager asked me why they decided that way and I couldn't answer him so he asked me to call the client back and ask why. With a damaged ego I picked up the telephone and called the client and explained to him that I was new to sales and I wanted to learn what I could have done differently. The client explained to me that the competition had come in to talk to him on several occasions during the 2 week period and every time he met that person it made more sense to work with him. Approximately one year later that same client was looking to replace another piece of office equipment and I was given the opportunity to present a proposal. Recalling the conversation we had one year earlier, I followed all his rules and ended up winning him as a long standing client who still currently works with my previous employer and stays in touch with me.

If you could go back in time and change something, what would it be?

I have always been a true believer that all that has happened in my past has been a big contributing factor to my success today. Although we never want to forget our past, we never want to live in it. Live in the present with an eye on the future. The short answer to your question is nothing.

What is an example of an innovative company that people have never heard of?

This may seem like a strange answer, but Nine Inch Nails (NIN), yes the music group! Many people know of them but not many know them as an innovative company. Their marketing tactics have been a true inspiration for me in thinking outside the box. They are almost single handedly changing the music industry. Trent Reznor the mastermind and front man of NIN is paving the way for new and old bands to connect with fans. Taking tactics like this and applying it to a corporate business environment would allow us to connect with clients on a whole new level.

Who in their right mind would think that by giving away an album for free would end up leading to it being the bestselling album on Amazon in 2008 and generate $750,000usd in three days? http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/01/free-nine-inch-nails-albums-top-2008-amazon-mp3-sales-charts.ars

List a few of your favourite business sites.

Stockhouse Is a great took for looking at market trends and learning about new and upcoming business.

http://www.stockhouse.com/index.aspx

CNW Group is a good resource to find out what is happening in the Canadian business market.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/

The Flight Centre blog always provides up to date travel information and advice.

http://www.flightcentre.ca/blog/

iGoogle is an amazing tool which allows you to create your very own customized page with 100's of different widget options. It's the first place I start every morning!

http://www.igoogle.com

Linked in has always been a great place to keep a database of contacts I have connected with along the way.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryphillips

BIO:

Ryan Phillips joined Flight Centre Business Travel as a Business Development Manager after more than 10 years of working in Business Development with a range of companies from those in its infant stages to Fortune 500. His extensive experience in all ranges of companies allows him to appreciate the importance of creating long lasting relationships while developing effective strategies for increasing profitability.

Ryan attributes his success as a Business Development Manager with Flight Centre to his passion for understanding that each of his client's travel needs are different. As a frequent business and vacation traveler himself, Ryan strives to ensure that his clients are provided with the unbeatable service of Flight Centre's Corporate Travel Consultants.

Ryan is an avid supporter of the community and the people around him. Outside of work he enjoys volunteering for a local children's charity, as well as being involved in regional and community projects.

Ryan Phillips

610 Robson St.

Vancouver BC

604-374-2200