Maybe it is because it is getting close to tax season, but seeing people WASTE money is really getting on my nerves. Case in point (again): hiring a PR firm to send out generic pitches on your behalf. I don’t care if you’re a startup, an entrepreneur, a professional in the professional services area or small business owner or whatever! STOP doing this.

Names have been removed to protect the senders…and the text has been edited down to reduce the cringe-factor of reading the full text of the desperately-seeking-media-attention pitches. Have a read, a chuckle (in all likelihood, a painful one), and yes, I’ll provide you with a far better solution to connect your startup or business smarts to journalists, bloggers and writers.

Monday afternoon, during an interview with students from the School of Visual Arts, I was asked what developments in technology or innovation generally excites me. What immediately popped into my mind wasn’t the latest subscription service or productivity app or (supposed) Facebook killing social network, it’s the fact we’re taking a harder look at innovation (what it means, where it is headed, at what cost to us) — and vocalizing our angst and concerns.

This post is not what you think it is about. Nope. Not about the time or effort it takes to build a network or show-up to three events in one evening. It’s about the brand called you.

What value can you provide to benefit someone else?

I have a #BYDN challenge for you: Instead of wondering how to go about “networking” give some consideration to how you can be of service.

Internship is a topic-du-jour in the tech industry and beyond with leaders like Google and Facebook boasting robust internship programs that attract tens of thousands of applicants every year. Even Hollywood is in on the trend with films like The Intern featuring Robert DeNiro and The Internship with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson at the box office over the past few years.

In 2017, there is no shortage of companies who gather competitive intelligence. Organizations are spending more money and time digging in to the factors, both internal and external that have the power to affect their success and longevity. What may surprise you though, is the reality that many companies don’t use this information systematically to influence their decision-making. In reality, most organizations base their most important decisions on internal operational factors like budget, execution capacity and deadlines, ignoring the potential activities of their competitors.

Most organizations aspire to be known as an industry leader. After all, being known as the leading authority on your marketplace implies a certain level of quality and builds trust with your audience and peers. Many organizations will say that they lead and don’t follow but how do they know if this is true?

The value of competitive intelligence is often overlooked for many businesses however; CI should have a significant focus in business strategy to drive decision-making. That said, while there may be a shortage of companies using CI in their business strategy, companies gather competitive intelligence at higher rates than ever.

In the anthology of business stories, there is no shortage of Davids who rose above the Goliaths victorious. We are all too familiar with the Davids-turned-Goliaths like Apple, Google and Amazon. We study them at length while millions of startups look to emulate them on their path to success. We don't however; spend a much time trying to understand the fall of the once-upon-a-time-Goliaths. Buzzkill? Maybe. But their stories are packed with valuable intel, lessons and mistakes that can teach all of us how to run better organizations.

The aging population and the inability to attract enough new Canadians is posing serious problems to businesses.  All levels of government are ramping up the focus and efforts to address this problem, and increasingly a variety of economic development stakeholders are joining in the effort.  International students are becoming an interesting and crucial option - they bring tremendous social, economic and cultural benefits to Canada and attracting and retaining greater numbers of immigrants, and leveraging that potential maybe the answer to addressing our growing talent gap.