Category Archives: Miscellaneous

The Best Place to Do International Business in North America (is still Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Almost six years ago, I penned a piece that demonstrated how Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is the best place to do international business. And in my usual style, I was right, although, as always, five plus years ahead of my time. And just like I was recently vindicated in my stance on Home Country Sourcing by Buyers Meeting Point, five plus years after the fact, I have been again vindicated in my position by a recent study by The Boyd Company who state that Halifax-Dartmouth (officially known as the Halifax Regional Municipality) is the cheapest corporate headquarters location in North America with big, big savings to be had. In fact, it is 8% cheaper than the lowest head-office cost site in the U.S., the Indianapolis-Carmel-Fishers area and over 30% cheaper than New York City, the most costly North American metropolis in which to operate a corporate headquarters. This is largely, but not entirely, due to very competitive labour costs (which probably has to do with the fact that it doesn’t yet cost a Million dollars to buy a house in the city).

In fact, the study, which notes Halifax’s proximity to Europe and its position as a regional business centre that attracts top graduates, suggests that companies in Toronto and Vancouver should relocate to Halifax because of the cost savings. And based on my previous analysis, and knowledge of the region, I’d say that any multi-national that wants to straddle North America and Europe equally in a typical work day should consider relocating here. Halifax is the San Francisco of the east coast, with warmer summers and some of the most temperate winters in Canada. (Mark Twain wouldn’t be complaining about the cold had he chosen to spend his summer in Halifax!)

And it doesn’t even consider the fact that Halifax Stanfield International Airport — in the midst of a 10-year capital plan to upgrade its facilities, expand services, and enhance the overall airport experience — offers customs services 24/7/365 (with US pre-clearance), handles over 3.5 M passengers annually, and has a main runway that is 10,500 feet which allows the airport to accommodate wide-body and heavy-aircraft for passenger and cargo service, given that 10,000 feet can be considered an adequate length to land virtually any aircraft at sea level — and Halifax Airport is only 150 m above sea level. Or the fact that our port is also expanding, recently adding more Super Post-Panamax Cranes (SPPX) to support its four SPPX container berths. With the deepest container berths on the Eastern Seaboard, the Port of Halifax can simultaneously accommodate two of the largest vessels in existence simultaneously. And given that we’re at least two days faster to Europe than any other Eastern Port, Halifax Gets it There fast!

However you want to look at it, your North American headquarters should be based in Halifax. See you soon!

Not Criminal, But it Should Be!

I gotta stop reading, or I’m gonna be more of an angry dad than angry dad Homer and become the Homer Hulk. What’s making me red with rage or green with gall this time? This recent report on Packaging World that “America Trashes 40% of Food Supply”.

How can this be? Food reserves are at an all time low; almost 1 Billion people, including almost one third of children in developing countries, are malnourished and hungry; and the cost of staples is rising to the point that people are rioting in some developed countries because prices are getting to the point where many low income families can no longer afford to put the basic staples on the table. All this in a time when world agriculture produces 17% more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70% population increase. This is enough to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kCal per person per day – which is 30% more calories than the average person needs. In other words, if (North) Americans (and other people in developed countries) weren’t so damn wasteful, we could, in all likelihood, feed the world!

According to the article, which is summarizing research from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Given that getting food to our tables eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of freshwater consumed in the United States, we should not even be wasting 4% of our food supply, yet alone 40%! Not only is this costing us $165 Billion that we should be using to ship excess food to those in need, but the rotting food is emitting almost 25% of U.S. methane emissions.

According to the article, reducing losses by just 30%, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the level that the losses should be reduced by, could feed more than 50 million Americans. Given that one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables, this would almost eliminate hunger in America. Drop losses by 80%, which would get them to an almost acceptable level (assuming this was just the first step in an ambitious continuous improvement effort), and that would probably wipe out hunger in the Americas.

And, getting back to the title of the article, any producer, distributor, or retailer of food products that has waste in excess of 10% annually should be fined until waste levels are under that threshold. And then, they should be forced to reduce waste by at least 10% a year for the next five years until a maximum acceptable level of waste, which I’ll pin at 5%, is reached. We can take lean to extremes on the shop floor and virtually eliminate all waste (as everything is reduced, reused, and recycled), so there’s no reason we can’t take it to extreme in the food supply chain either.

Since feeding the world is one of the biggest contributions an organization can make to corporate social responsibility, this should be a top priority.

The Lost Art of Account Management


Rant on blogger, rant on along
Rant on buddy till the day is through
Rant on brother, sister too
Rant on momma like I asked you to do
And rant on fellow blogger, rant on (Rant On!)


Today’s guest post is from Dan Kane, a Project Analyst at Source One Management Services, LLC.

In today’s information age, businesses are gaining unparalleled access to data from their suppliers. However, this new focus on a customer’s ability to access account information on their own has had an unexpectedly negative effect on the quality of supplier account management, and the ability for customers to get assistance from their account management team. This issue is especially prevalent in the technology, and financial industries, where complex issues can require multiple points of contact, and significant end-user involvement before they can be resolved. In part, this can be attributed to increasingly complex products; however a large part of the blame rests with the organizations themselves, and a new-found reliance on automation, and customer self-service. While it is understandable that not every supplier representative is versed in every aspect of these specific solutions, it is imperative to the management of a customer relationship that businesses are provided a single point of contact with whom issues can be addressed.

Problem resolution can often take the form of education, by making sure that customers have the knowledge required to access information on their own, and understand the products and processes involved with their partners. This method has yet to be widely adopted, and account managers tend to refer questions to complicated service guides, or online portals, without the instructions on how to interpret these complex, customer-facing tools.

Some functional separation is fine, and many suppliers are attempting to provide account representatives who can completely manage services provided to national organizations, however it is important to note that a single “contact” should not be SINGLE PERSON on whom organizations are completely reliant on, Situations out of the individual’s control, such as sickness, can arise and leave an organization with no recourse to solving their problem.

Few things are more frustrating to businesses than calling for support, spending 10 minutes on hold waiting to get connected, finally reaching an operator who refers them to a single person for help, and happens to be out of the office.

The necessity of accessible information should not be a reason to diminish the functionality of account managers. Even if the information that a customer wants is available to them, the purpose of management is to identify solutions to problems, and assist customers with the tools that they may or may not know are at their disposal. It is counter-productive to decrease the level of live, human support in exchange for automation, and the self-serve environment that many organizations are migrating to.

What ever happened to the delicate, human touch, and a little thing called customer service?

Thanks, Dan!

Frack the Fines! Make the Frackers do the Time!

I know it was only a month ago that I was advocating the No-Maximum Mega Fines, but I’m now of the opinion that it’s not enough. First of all, in most circumstances, the fines are not anywhere close to keeping pace with the magnitude of the ill-gotten gains the corporate fat cats are often making when they choose to break the law. And, secondly, since the dastardly are often convinced that they probably won’t get caught, and, if they do, it will be so far down the line that they will already have made, and covered up, a fortune and the losses won’t come close to equaling the gains, they’re not going to stop unless things change significantly.

So what really grinds my gears this time? Why do I want to go all Stewie on their backsides? And throw psycho kitty into the boardroom? (Warning: Links Probably NSFW) This recent article in the Economist on an unsettling settlement where Standard Chartered agreed to a rapid settlement of the case brought against it by the New York State Department of Financial Services that alleged Standard Chartered had illicitly processed at least $250 Billion in transactions with Iran between 2001 and 2007, in (flagrant) violation of American sanctions against Iran.

In other words, if you cough up a big enough chunk of change, and agree to the installation of a monitor in its New York branch to evaluate its money-laundering controls, you can get away with pretty much anything.

Now, it might be the case that not all of the 250 Billion in transactions were illicit, as there may have been some transactions with similar characteristics that got caught in the initial sieve, but state departments are not likely to claim more than they think they can prove, and collect on. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were 200 Billion in illicit payments, and that the bank made around 4 Billion (or more) on these transfers, given usual currency conversion and wire fees, and that the 340 Million represented, at most, 10% of the illicit gains.

But it’s not the fact that the agreement didn’t wipe out all the illicit gains that is making me mad, but the fact that this is clearly a situation where someone repeatedly did something they knew they should not be doing (and thus settled quickly to avoid trouble). Now, it’s one thing if someone does something wrong and doesn’t know it, which is getting more likely by the day in a global multi-national when new laws are coming into effect all the time and it’s almost impossible to keep on top of everything, but it’s not going to be long before someone in legal or risk or compliance notices the infraction and brings it to the organization’s intention. At that point, the infractions should end, or the individual who continues to commit the infractions should be criminally prosecuted. Until the day comes when the worst that will happen to you from knowingly breaking the law behind the corporate veil is a small fine to your company is replaced with automatic criminal prosecution for your crime, nothing is going to change.

In summary, all I have to say is that Skid Row got it right when they said to tear down the rat racial slime and that Halestorm was right to echo their belief and the need to tear this thorn from our side. These rat bastards, who fly in the face of all that is good and just, need to be to be taken down a peg or two and do some hard time. If they knowingly violate contraband laws, embargoes, or laws meant to enhance national security, they should be convicted of treason and sent to maximum security. Because, until that happens, they’re going to keep flaunting the law for the almighty dollar.