CEOs paid in Canada

“Prepared by economist Hugh Mackenzie, the report finds the top 100 chief executive officers of publicly traded corporations averaged more than $10 million in pay apiece in 2007, the most recent full year for which figures are available. … The top earner, according to the report, was Michael Lazaridis, head of Waterloo-based BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., who pocketed more than $51 million.”

Not too surprising I suppose

Link to this article: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/560634

I Also found a YouTube video online on this matter.

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

An Interview with Michael E. Porter, Professor, Harvard University. Porter’s five competitive forces is the basis for much of modern business strategy. Understand the framework and how to put it into practice.

Focus Asia Business Leaders video series promo

I was packing for my rafting trip this week while I was watching BBC. They were showing an interview with Viveca Chan, Founder of WE Worldwide Partners which is a marketing and branding company in China. The show is called Focus Asia Business Leaders. This is one of the interviews from the entire video series presented by Asia Case Research Centre (ACRC) of the University of Hong Kong. I’ve been interested in business management, leadership, and entrepreneurship since my family have proved by their successes.

The FocusAsia Business Leaders Case Study and Video Series profiles leading Asian enterprises and their senior executives. From property development and manufacturing to biotechnology and off-shoring, this series features some of the most successful companies in Asia – from China to Singapore, Japan to India.

The entire video series has 11 interviews. Each video costs US$295 and total costs US$2,595. I went to the ACRC website and found this ~5min promo video.

Marketing research presentation

My marketing research presentation was a success! (except the fact that I totally forgot to state my problem statement which I considered as a *minor* mistake )

I was nervous at first while I was doing my business plan idea two weeks ago. I prepared and practiced many many times. While I was presenting, I was not sure if my audiences were interested in the topic, and if I was getting the message across. I was pressured mid-way through the presentation and I thought “Man, I suck at presentation!”

One day I talked to Brian and he told me that he’s been going to the UofT Engineering Toastmaster Chapter since last September. He found that helped him in terms of presentation and public speaking. So I took his word and went to the Toastmaster meeting with him on last Thursday. After listening to couple presentations (Brian talked about his interview experience and he did an excellent job!), I found that everyone was passionated about what they talked about. Even though they probably do not really like the topic that much, they made me feel like they actually do.

While I was riding the subway home that night, I thought “If I am passionated about my business plan idea, I actually have nothing to nervous about!” The same mentality got me through the marketing presentation last night. During the presentation, I showed my confident and talked with minimum “ah-”. I also added in couple lines for transitions, like

“Imagine that $370 thousands dollars is your pocket, you can buy yourself a pretty nice condo around the Toronto area”

“My technology can save my customer 2.4 weeks of design time. TWO POINT FOUR WEEKS! Isn’t that amazing?”

Well, people laughed and it seemed to work

So, really, lesson I learned is that, it doesn’t really matter what you are presenting, as long as you are passionated about the topic and make your audience feel your passion. That’s successful presentation.