By Leo Valiquette
I don’t have an MBA and I haven’t partaken of any executive leadership programs. Whatever insights I offer on this blog about group dynamics and management arise from what you might call qualitative participant observation.
In other words, I take note of what helps, and what hinders, when it comes to getting __________ done by a given deadline, to whatever standard or benchmarks meet with the general approval of the stakeholders involved.
What do I consider to be one of the most important tools for getting _________ done?
The all-hands meeting.
Yes, I can hear the groans out there. There is no shortage of literature that talks about how meetings kill productivity, in hand with ample advice on how to make meetings more organized and productive.
What I want to focus on here is the value of having a meeting in the first place.
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By Daylin Mantyka
Last month’s contents were newsworthy and informative. Leading the pack was Maurice Smith’s post on the ultimate marketing challenge followed by Leo Valiquette’s piece on phone etiquette. As always, we had some great contributions from our guest bloggers on presentation skills, measuring Facebook contest ROI, the neurobiology of marketing, and filing patent applications, among others.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
October 9: The ultimate marketing challenge: Final Fling helps plan your own death, by Maurice Smith
October 29: Don’t let your phone skills atrophy, by Leo Valiquette
October 23: When a good presentation isn’t good enough, by Anil Dilawri
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By Daylin Mantyka 
It’s Friday — which means that it’s time for the weekly roundup. This week. we have informative content from velocity, Founder Dating, memeburn, The Buzz Bin and Duct Tape Marketing.
7 critical elements of a great content brief
Doug Kessler says that home-run content doesn’t happen by accident and that it always starts with a great plan. Since marketers aren’t often the ones producing the content, it’s incredibly important to communicate clearly in content briefs. Besides the usual stuff nascent to all, Doug goes a step further and identifies seven elements to turn good into great.
Am I an entrepreneur?
A serial entrepreneur based out of Silicon Valley, Rick Marini hears from many young startup enthusiasts and how they want to build a multibillion-dollar company. But before jumping in, he urges you to consider whether or not you actually are an entrepreneur or just someone after a piece of the limelight. In this post, Rick outlines key attributes of a successful entrepreneur and whether or not you have what it takes to make it down this tough road.
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By Francis Moran
A little over five years ago, my attention was grabbed by an online news article that talked about a new incubation program being launched at the University of Waterloo for student-founded companies. Dubbed the “dormcubator,” a name that thankfully never really caught on, the program would see the university convert an existing student residence into an incubator for new companies, with company teams applying for residence and receiving a host of support and mentoring services.
I thought it was a brilliant idea and immediately reached out to then-program coordinator Sean Van Koughnett and offered whatever help I could from 550 kilometres away. My PR agency became an early sponsor of the program, and I travelled down to what was eventually called the Velocity residence a few times that next year to put on PR and marketing workshops and help mentor some of that first year’s teams. That level of involvement proved difficult to sustain over long distance but I never lost my enthusiasm for what Velocity was doing, and have kept a close eye on the program ever since as it has grown far beyond that original residence-based program.
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By Nick Steeves
You know how to measure the ROI of a PPC ad campaign: You can see the real revenue outcome from each ad and each click.
You’re not going to see direct sales from a Facebook contest, but it’s one of the most cost-effective ways to use social media to generate leads for your business. And by targeting your contest effectively, you’ll be able to make sure that every lead is actually interested in your business. I’ll explain how shortly.
In this article I’ll show you the different returns on investment to expect from running a Facebook contest and how to achieve them.
1. Sales leads
The most powerful return on investment that a Facebook contest provides for a business is new leads. Every person who enters your Facebook contest gives you their email and contact details, making them a new lead to sell to. To maximize new emails and leads, you need to maximize entries. You can do this by making the barrier to entry as low as possible. Do this by asking only for name and email in order to enter. Minimizing your entry form to just one field will make it as fast and easy as possible to enter, maximizing your entry rate.
How do you make sure every lead is actually interested in your business?
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Don’t let your phone skills atrophy
October 29, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
I got a call last week from my incumbent Canadian telecom services provider eager to justify its existence to me. We all get these calls from time to time. One of those “how can we serve you better” calls […]
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How long, really, do you have to file a patent application?
October 28, 2013 by David French
“Don’t disclose your invention or you’ll lose your patent rights!” This is the type of advice that you will typically get in a coffee shop, or over a beer around 5:30pm in the evening before you head home. Is this true? […]
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Great articles roundup: Startups, funding, storytelling, PR and feature-market fit
October 25, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
Every Friday we summarize the top articles we read over the week. This week, we loved articles that were published on Entrepreneur, Gigaom, Fast Company, Spin Sucks and memeburn […]
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TiE holds first-ever Canadian conference, in Ottawa
October 24, 2013 by Francis Moran
TiE, one of the largest networks of entrepreneurs and business people in the world, is bringing its legendary networking conference, TiECon, to Canada for the first time ever next week […]
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When a good presentation isn’t good enough
October 23, 2013 by Anil Dilawri
I deal with lots of executives who are good presenters — in some cases, really good presenters. But, they choose to work with a presentation coach because they want to become remarkable presenters […]
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Kobo has proven big brands can seldom afford to beg forgiveness
October 22, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
While Canadians lament the shaky future of BlackBerry, I wonder how many have been following the PR nightmare that’s been faced by another Canadian brand, Kobo […]
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Canada’s focus needs to be on tech products, not research
October 21, 2013 by Denzil Doyle
Canada’s current Prime Minister seems to have a better understanding of the impact of technology on the country’s economy than most of his predecessors […]
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Great articles roundup: Copywriting, crowdfunding, lean startups, marketing and Canadian technology
October 18, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
It’s Friday again, which means that we’ve compiled a short list of the top articles we read and love this week […]
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