His “lessons learned” include:

- Instead of trumpeting your own horn, spend the time to address future disruptive forces.

- Cutting costs does not equal innovation.

- Constant re-organizations and re-structuring does not mask deeper problems; it just diverts time from consumer focus.

- The old companies are still stuck in an old mindset.

What have you done to address the disruptive technologies that may impact your company?

One thing that did strike a chord with me was that 41% of people check their email because they believe staying up-to-date with email will ease the workload once the holiday is over. I can certainly understand the driving factor behind that – there’s nothing worse than coming back to work after some time off to find an out-of-control inbox.

Why would you want to have a mentor?

• Especially when you are starting out your own business, it will give you someone to turn to for advice, a second opinion, or as a sounding board.
• The mentor has dealt with some of the same situations that you have, and you can learn from their mistakes and successes.
• Your network will grow larger, through the introduction of your mentor.

Why would you want to be a mentor?

• It can help your skills as a consultant or teacher grow.
• You can give back to your community.
• You will learn from the person you are mentoring through their different ideas and perspectives.

How can you find a mentor or someone to mentor?

Oftentimes, there are programs provided either through the government or through local business organizations (ie – Chambers of Commerce) that set people up with mentors or with a person to mentor. If you have someone in mind that you would already like to work with – someone you have worked with previously, or who you know socially – you can ask this person directly about whether they’d be interested in a mentoring relationship.

First of all, the federal government has decided to end the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board. Currently, the Canadian Wheat Board does all of the marketing for exporting of Western Canada’s wheat, durum and barley. The government states that this could be a very good change for business, as it would allow farmers to sell their grain to anyone they want to. According to Stephen Vandervalk, the president of the Grain Growers of Canada, this will present the opportunity for grain processors to sign contracts directly with farmers in order to ensure they will be able to get the supplies they need to, where they weren’t able to do that with the Canadian Wheat Board.

Second point of interest for today is that one of Canada’s largest food processors, Maple Leaf Foods, has announced that it’s going to be closing plants in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, Moncton, WInnipeg and North Battleford (Saskatchewan). Due to building a new meat plant in Hamilton and upgrading plants in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Brampton (Ontario), all in all there will be a net loss of 1550 jobs at Maple Leaf. The plant closings will be completed by the end of 2014.