#Trade Show Solutions design in Alberta

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Tent Rentals: Which Tent Type is Best for Your Event?

It’s crucial to choose the right tent rental for your event. If you don’t know what type of tent you want, we’ve got a few pointers for you. We’ve got you covered with Frame, Pagoda and Clear top tents.

Tents – Structured

Structured tent rentals are an excellent option for parties, weddings, and other special events. These large, versatile structures can be set up anywhere you need extra space. They can also provide protection and storage for warehousing and construction projects. Here are some reasons to choose one for your next big event:

Structure tents are also called clear span tents and are the most durable options in the industry. For added strength, they use aluminum box beam frames that are bolted to the ground. This type of tent also eliminates the need for center poles.

Frame tent

Frame tents are the most versatile type of rental tent. Frame tents are made with metal legs and skeleton-like structure, so they can be set up almost anywhere. These tents are particularly suited for outdoor events that require a large amount of space under the tent. They are also ideal for covering a deck, patio, or driveway.

Frame tent rentals are available for a wide variety of events, including wedding receptions, reunions, and birthday parties. These tents are lightweight and can hold large groups. The enclosure’s windows let natural light in through the windows. These windows are ideal for hosting events like birthday parties, festivals, or sports events.

Pagoda tents

Pagoda tent rentals are also called High Peak Tents and are a perfect solution to a variety of events. This unique and versatile tent is highly portable and easy to set up and dismantle. Pagoda tents are ideal for a variety of functions including weddings, corporate events, family gatherings, and sporting events.

Pagoda tent rentals are a great way to showcase your business to potential customers. They are commonly used at trade shows and exhibitions to attract attention to a brand or product. These tents can be used outside your retail store at promotional events or product launches.

Clear-top tents

Clear top tent rentals are ideal for outdoor events and can help your guests stay dry and enjoy the outdoors. Clear top tents are available in a variety of sizes and are designed to withstand inclement weather. These tents are ideal for festivals, corporate events, birthday parties, and other special occasions. Contact a luxury tent rental company to get started.

Large tents

You might consider renting large event tents if you’re planning on throwing a big party. The type of event tent you choose will depend on many factors such as your guest list, theme, season and number of attendees. For example, a large event tent may be required for an outdoor wedding, and a smaller tent is better suited for an indoor conference or party.

The design and materials of large event tents can vary greatly. Some tents are strong and heavy duty, while others can be portable and lightweight. Generally, these tents are 40′ wide, but they can also be smaller or larger. They come in a variety of lengths and are designed to withstand high wind loads.

If you’re planning an outdoor wedding or a big outdoor celebration, We can help you find the perfect tent for your event. We will provide you with a free estimate and can even suggest sizes that are perfect for your venue. Other event rentals include catering equipment, dance floors and audiovisual equipment. We can also provide linens and tables.

We also have professional and friendly staff and delivery team is prompt and reliable, and we accommodate last-minute orders. We offer a great selection and all of their tents are durable and incredibly sturdy.

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[swmwconstruction]

Renovation

Developed in Delaware in the early 1990s and headquartered in Connecticut, Wayback Burgers is a franchised restaurant specializing in classic comfort food: burgers, milkshakes, and old-fashioned lemonade.

The brand is renowned for its nostalgic-yet-modern aesthetic and prides itself on sustainable sourcing and a solution-oriented approach to restaurant patrons and franchisees alike.

The rapidly growing Wayback Burgers migrated to Western Canada in the late 2010s, with the first location opening in Winnipeg, Manitoba. More franchise locations have since opened throughout Manitoba alongside Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.

This project gave our team another opportunity to show how we effectively manage projects with many different chefs in the kitchen, and reinforced the importance of effective communication skills.

Getting Started

In early 2021, as coincidence would have it, the Southwest and Midwest Design & Construction team completed a retrofitting project for a commercial property owner - for the same unit that Wayback Burger would eventually move into.

Initially, a pizza establishment occupied the unit. This restaurant moved to the unit next door to facilitate renovations and prepare for Wayback’s arrival. The retrofitting renovations were significant - and on a fairly tight timeline. Our team oversaw cutting through the existing concrete slab to install new plumbing lines and ultimately ‘gutted’ the unit to bring it up to standard.

With the unit renovated and ready for occupancy, Wayback made preparations to move in and renovate the space further to comply with their restaurant standards, add an effective HVAC system, and add Wayback-specific furnishings and appliances.

The Bidding Process

Because of our previous success with the unit in question, we were recommended to the new owner of Wayback to bid on the project and subsequently awarded around September 2021.

Project Scope and Timeline

Unlike most other projects, procurement remained in the hands of the restaurant franchisee and their consulting team.

We had to regularly coordinate with the franchise for their equipment, and with transportation delays and supply chain issues, there were points of concern as far as the timeline went.

Of course, many facets of a construction job rely on certain tasks being completed before the next ones can begin. This requires effective procurement methods and coordination with different members of the team - something the team at Southwest and Midwest does with a high level of efficiency.

This unique situation required us to maintain a robust level of communication with those responsible for ordering and ensuring that work could continue progressing and be done in a timely manner. It’s a tender balance to manage these key players and maintain positive relationships, but we did it successfully.

Design and Architectural Considerations

Because we were fortunate enough to have worked extensively on the space before Wayback Burgers took possession of the unit, this gave us keen insight into the architecture and sizing of the restaurant.

We collaborated with the architectural design team to ensure the drawings accurately reflected the space and were on hand to answer any questions other team members had.

It’s also noteworthy that the general space in which our team and the franchisee’s team had to work was quite small, so properly coordinating sub-trade work was key to ensure every party had adequate space to complete their work.

Final Thoughts

While it is always ideal, whenever possible, to use a local general contracting service to fulfill all of the needs of any given project, from procurement to project management to construction - it’s not always feasible. Restaurants are unique in this regard, particularly franchises. What may take one step in a more traditional corporate space may take three within the hospitality industry, as there are naturally more dotted lines to sign.

Ultimately, it boils down to managing relationships and time as best as possible. Delays happen - this is inevitable, but once we were able to secure the equipment and furnishings that we needed to finish the job, it was all hands on deck toward completion - something that only took about a week and a half.

This attitude is what separates a successful contractor from the rest. Our strength as a team is sourced in how we deal with delays as they arrive and how we work to overcome them - all while keeping high value, reasonable cost, and on-time delivery of the project top of mind.

Contact Southwest And Midwest Design & Construction

Want to learn more about how we can help your next design and construction project? Contact the team at Southwest and Midwest Design & Construction with our convenient online quote request tool. A member of our staff will be in touch to discuss project details and the next steps.

[yegarts]

2021 Grants for Individuals & Collectives Recipients: Streams 1 and 2

Back in August of 2020, the Edmonton Arts Council announced a significant change to the way we fund artists and collectives. Focusing on fostering experimentation, supporting artists from Equity-seeking groups, and professional development and mentorship (addressing the Aims and Actions found in Connections & Exchanges: A Ten-Year Plan To Transform Arts & Heritage in Edmonton in Book 4, on page 8), we introduced Arts Grants for Individuals and Collectives. This re-vamped program is split into three streams, with different funding levels and application requirements, to help support a broader range of artistic exploration, development, and creation.

Stream 1 of the Arts Grants for Individuals and Collectives focuses on exploration and experimentation. This stream supports artists to work on current solo creation, experimentation or research activities. Grant amount were fixed at 5,000 to support subsistence while the artist takes the time to work.

We are excited to announce the 28 artists and projects that have been funded following the February deadline in the Exploration and Experimentation stream (stream 1). Congratulations!

Kyle Beal is expanding on his existing practice, experimenting with traditional mirroring techniques on glass, and working to incorporate colour into a charcoal-based drawing practice.

Stuart Beatch is developing a chamber opera based on the one-act play The 3 AM Subtext by Edmonton writer Matthew Stepanic.

Crandall Buffalo is researching and writing his first feature length script.  

Semin (Jay) Chun plans to explore creating LGBTQIA+ centered virtual circus magic shows that focuses on general accessibility.

Sylvia Douglas is writing the second draft of a feature length screenplay.

Trevor Duffy plans to research and develop a pre-school puppet screenplay to teach children how to identify and express their feelings.

Cynthia Fuhrer is creating a series of portrait paintings responding to COVID-19, experimenting with realism and abstraction while incorporating multimedia.

Hannah Gelderman will explore ways to apply her graduate research on solutions-oriented climate art to her solo art practice.

Wendy Gervais is developing a series of visual art assemblages, inspired by improvisational-based dances.

Ryan Hemphill is creating a series of music boxes with hand-built ceramic vessels and will create the musical composition for these boxes.  

Dana Holst will experiment with stone lithography.

Karen Klassen is exploring the technical challenges and the expressive possibilities of working with large-scale rock sculptures.

Jonathan Luckhurst is researching and developing ideas for participation in the Vancouver Biennale's Big Ideas and We Are Ocean projects.

Kelsey McMillan will distill written and recorded material into a collection of songs exploring vulnerability and emotional risk.

Susie Moloney plans to write a series of short stories in a new genre.

Hayley Moorhouse will write the second draft of the play Beatrice Again and Again.

Lyndal Osborne will research and create a large-scale installation inspired the occupants at Obed Lake, Alberta over 100 years ago.

Anahi Palomec is gathering traditional beadwork stories and methods under an established Albertian artist.

Christian Peres Gibaut will explore the idea of the dematerialization of mosaic.

Emily Rault is writing and refining songs for a future full-length recording.

Emily Riddle is researching a full-length historical novel examining the role of Indigenous women during the fur trade.

Sean Sedgwick plans to develop content for a future recording.

Angie Sotiropoulos is developing the interactive elements in an ongoing zine series.

Farren Timoteo will conduct the research, exploration, and experimentation of a new musical solo-play that explores the damaging impact of toxic masculinity in media entitled, Bad Boy.

Conor Wharton is investing time in songwriting and producing, as well as researching online marketing and branding.

Marlene Wurfel will experiment with joke-writing methodology to craft 500 jokes for middle-grade readers.

Laura Zhu is researching and experimenting with the dimensions of Chinese paper cutting.

Stream 2 of the Arts Grants for Individuals and Collectives focuses on skills and career development. This stream supports professional development and mentorship-based projects for artists and arts professionals. Projects may be solo or collective, and grants are available up to $10,000 based on actual or projected project expenses, including artist subsistence. In this round, eight artists were supported in this stream.  

As a professional dancer experienced in ballet, contemporary, and Ukrainian dance, Audrey Boccara is embarking on a mentorship with mentors to learn aerial dance (specifically aerial hoop, known as lyra), and how to meld aerial dance and high-level ballet.

Hemali Boorada will engage with mentors in Indian classical dance.

Fatme Elkadry is embarking on an apprenticeship to gain a deep understanding of weaving theory and practice so she can learn to weave the Kaffiyah -- a traditional scarf that is an important symbol of Palestinian identity. This project is symbolic of Fatme’s elusive journey to recognize and reclaim her Palestinian identity and will take steps towards reviving cultural textile heritage.  

Jonathan Kawchuk is engaging in mentorships with well-known sound engineers known primarily for their work in location sound, with the training carried out both online and physically distanced over the course of six months.

Wei Li will be participating in the Golden Artist Residency in New York.

Matthew O'Connor is looking to broaden his abilities as both a composer and sound designer for video games by learning Wwise software. Wwise communicates with video game engines on how to implement audio files into a game.

Cayley Thomas is pursuing a songwriting and audio engineering mentorship and self-directed residency.

Sheiny Satanove is working with mentor producer, arts leader and creative producer Owais Lightwala, for 24 sessions from May to July, 2021.

Stream 3 focuses on major artist-driven projects. Stay tuned for an announcement regarding Stream 3 recipients next week!

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Making it Work: Nevada’s Institute for Autonomous Systems Forms Drone Technology and Funding Matchmaker

The Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) has been a leader in supporting new drone technology since its inception. NIAS is more than an FAA test site: they’re an accelerator for new systems and applications.  Now, NIAS announces a new membership platform designed to bring businesses, customers, and investors together, helping to get new drone solutions to market.

As the industry hype cycle dies down globally, investors are still interested in the sector – but are making fewer, if more significant, investments.  The new platform fills a need for investors looking for good opportunities, customers looking for new solutions, and new startups with game changing technology.

The following is an NIAS press release.

NIAS launches World’s Premier B2B Trade and Investment Matchmaking Platform for Commercialization of Autonomous Systems: Nevada-Global Drone Trade Alliance

12 November 2019.  Following an immensely successful week at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas 28-30 October 2019, the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) and FAA-designated Nevada UAS Test Site announced the official launch of its world premier business-to-business (B2B) trade and investment matchmaking platform for autonomous systems: the Nevada-Global Drone Trade Alliance (NV-GDTA).  This membership-based platform focuses on delivering a series of annual marquee events to bring end-users, technology proponents and service providers, and investors together to identify the needs for novel technology solutions and the capability of autonomous systems to support commercialization, promote investment, and drive the autonomous systems industry forward.

“There is a significant gap and global need for the Nevada Global Drone Trade Alliance.  Our resilient team has been building invaluable international partnerships for the past two years and this latest ‘in demand initiative’ solidifies what we have already been doing extremely well.  The NV-GDTA brings together an international synergy of the best entrepreneurs to create and advance innovation.  When you bring in this type of synergy to the global drone marketplace, the strength of the NV-GDTA is unmatched by any other drone association and there is no better way to lead the global drone industry, ” said Dr. Chris Walach, Executive Director of the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS), FAA-designated Nevada UAS Test Site, and the NIAS Unmanned Aviation Safety Center of Excellence.

“NIAS is a unique UAS test site, in that it specializes in not only solving the problems that face operators who are looking for safe integration of UAVs into the national airspace, but they do so in a way that is commercially viable and scalable.  So, there is really no better test site to showcase true UAV commercial technology to the global marketplace,” said J.B. Bernstein, CEO of AviSight, Inc.

The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s Center for Innovation and Research in Unmanned Systems (CIRUS) is pleased to be the first official Canadian member of the Nevada-Global Drone Trade Alliance (NV-GDTA). This incredible initiative is sure to be the world’s premier B2B Trade and Investment matchmaking platform for autonomous systems, bringing industry and academia together across borders and beyond to realize commercial opportunities for our international drone partners. Through the recently announced MOU between SAIT and NIAS, we are proud to be advancing extreme weather testing and applications in key industry sectors, such as oil and gas, and mining – join us and the NV-GDTA today!” said Rick Tofani, Director of Applied Research and Innovation Services, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Following the success of its recent International Desert Drone Detection (ID3) event in August 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, NIAS will continue to pave the way for the advancement of commercial applications across broad industries.“Events like the Desert Drone Detection (D3) Challenge are invaluable opportunities to share industry capabilities and tackle the growing challenge of keeping our National Airspace safe. Liteye technology is deployed and operational at Airports around the world giving us a unique perspective to share. Our experienced professionals understand the risks and threats to the nation’s airports and are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with industry partners and the aviation community alike,” said Thomas Williamson, Program Manager of Liteye Systems, Inc.

The NV-GDTA will focus on four key marque areas to include:

Commercial UAV Seminar and Technology Demonstration;

International Investment Forum;

Federal Advocacy Fly-in (Regulatory/Legislative focused); and

Outbound Trade and Investment Attraction Mission(s) to select key international trade shows/conferences.

NV-GDTA will bring together the top industry stakeholders in March 2020 for its first commercial technology demonstration event in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada.  “The NIAS launch of NV-GDTA will provide an important vehicle to accelerate the interest of international drone/UAS technology companies in working more actively in the State. Nevada Innovation Center LLC’s (NIC) ongoing efforts to attract Israeli technology to Nevada have already resulted in important visits by Israeli companies to NIAS to explore collaboration models in the UAS space and NV-GDTA will provide the ideal partnership opportunity. NIC has also established a global collaboration between Israeli and Vegas-based companies that has resulted in sophisticated testing of UAVs for the infrastructure market here in Nevada. The demonstration event in Las Vegas/Henderson in March 2020 will serve as the perfect occasion to invite leading UAS tech companies from Israel to establish an active presence in Nevada” saidNissim Ezekiel, Co-Founder of Nevada Innovation Center LLC.

“NIAS aims to build a broad international platform. It is a great opportunity to participate in interesting projects and for transferring technology and knowledge between institutions. Our experience from joint tests of autonomous systems shows that NIAS has extensive competences to build relationships between various entities.  The new NV-GDTA initiative is a chance to create important global technological developments.  I am glad that we are part of this great project together with our NIAS partners,” said Sylvester Wyka, Director for the Center of Space Technologies, Warsaw Institute of Aviation (ILOT).

_____________________________________

About the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS): As Nevada’s designated agency to manage the FAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Test Site, the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) positions Nevada as the global leader in Autonomous Systems (AS) deployment. NIAS is the synergist, clearinghouse, and learning accelerator establishing the premier smart ecosystem for Autonomous Systems which grows the AS Industry while safely integrating AS into the daily lives of the public. Learn more at https://nias-uas.com/nevada-global-drone-trade-alliance/

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The post Making it Work: Nevada’s Institute for Autonomous Systems Forms Drone Technology and Funding Matchmaker appeared first on Drone Magazine.

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Party rental in Sherwood Park, AB

Tent Rentals – What Type of Tent is Right For Your Event?

It’s crucial to choose the right tent rental for your event. We have some tips for you if you aren’t sure what kind of tent you need. Here’s a look at Frame, Pagoda, and Clear top tents.

Tents – Structured

Structured tent rentals are an excellent option for parties, weddings, and other special events. These versatile structures are large and can be placed anywhere you require extra space. They can also provide protection and storage for warehousing and construction projects. These are just a few reasons why you should choose one for your next big event.

Structure tents are also called clear span tents and are the most durable options in the industry. For added strength, they use aluminum box beam frames that are bolted to the ground. This type of tent also eliminates the need for center poles.

Frame tents

Frame tents are the most versatile type of rental tent. These structures have metal legs and skeleton-like structures, which enable them to be set up on almost any surface. These tents are ideal for large outdoor events that require lots of space underneath. They are also ideal for covering a deck, patio, or driveway.

Frame tent rentals are available for a wide variety of events, including wedding receptions, reunions, and birthday parties. These tents are lightweight and can hold large groups. Their windows allow natural light to enter the enclosure. They are also perfect for events such as birthday parties, festivals, and sports events.

High Peak Tents

Pagoda tent rentals are also called High Peak Tents and are a perfect solution to a variety of events. This unique and versatile tent is highly portable and easy to set up and dismantle. Pagoda tents are ideal for a variety of functions including weddings, corporate events, family gatherings, and sporting events.

Renting pagoda tents is a great way for potential customers to see your business. They are commonly used at trade shows and exhibitions to attract attention to a brand or product. These tents can be used outside your retail store at promotional events or product launches.

Clear-top tents

Clear top tent rentals can be used for outdoor events. They will keep your guests dry and allow them to enjoy the outdoors. Clear top tents are available in a variety of sizes and are designed to withstand inclement weather. These tents are ideal for festivals, corporate events, birthday parties, and other special occasions. Contact a luxury tent rental company to get started.

Large tents

If you are planning to throw a big party or conference, you may want to consider renting large event tents. The type of event tent you choose will depend on many factors such as your guest list, theme, season and number of attendees. A large tent might be needed for an outdoor wedding. However, a smaller tent would work well for an indoor party or conference.

Large event tents come in many different designs and materials. Some are heavy-duty and sturdy, while others are lightweight and portable. Generally, these tents are 40′ wide, but they can also be smaller or larger. They come in a variety of lengths and are designed to withstand high wind loads.

If you’re planning an outdoor wedding or a big outdoor celebration, We can help you find the perfect tent for your event. We will provide you with a free estimate and can even suggest sizes that are perfect for your venue. Other event rentals include catering equipment, dance floors and audiovisual equipment. We also offer linens and tables.

We also have professional and friendly staff and delivery team is prompt and reliable, and we accommodate last-minute orders. They have a wide selection of tents and they are all durable and extremely sturdy.

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[mikemortgage]

Turns out, there’s more to Alberta’s economic story than pipelines

This is the first in a series of columns about the new Alberta economy.

A shoeshine in Calgary cost $10 when Tom O’Gorman, a portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Investments, arrived from Wall Street in 2010; New York prices!

Not anymore. You can get your Oxfords polished and buffed for a mere $5, a deflationary spiral triggered by the similarly large collapse in the price of oil since the autumn of 2014.

Calgary’s office towers are either 30, 40, or 50 per cent empty, depending on who you talk to. The exact vacancy rate — 25 per cent downtown in the fourth quarter, according to Avison Young Real Estate Alberta Inc. — doesn’t really matter.

'A stampede of stupid': Alberta's energy sector fighting Ottawa on three fronts

No easy solutions for Albertans facing long-term unemployment as recovery stalls

Canada's oil and gas sector to lose over 12,000 jobs this year, PetroLMI report predicts

The point is the same: Canada’s fourth largest city, which represents a fair chunk of the country’s third-biggest provincial economy, is struggling in a way that the 12 million people who have joined the Canadian population since the previous oil price shock in the early 1980s have never seen.

Way up north in Bonnyville, a town of about 6,000 that serves the oilpatch, there were 31 foreclosures in 2018 compared with four in 2015, according to Serina Parsons, executive director of the local chamber of commerce. The number of business licenses dropped 15 per cent to 633 over the same period. The community is shrinking. There are many others like it. 

Vancouver-based OK Tires Store Inc., one of North America’s biggest tire retailers, recently announced plans to invest $100 million in new and improved distribution centres across Canada over the next five years. Alberta doesn’t factor in to the company’s plans, at least for now. The first facility will be built in Quebec, which has a record low unemployment rate, a balanced budget, and a noticeable degree of confidence. Ontario, Newfoundland, and Manitoba will follow.

“It’s soft in Alberta, for sure,” Jim Caldwell, the company’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview. “It’s flat. The oilpatch is struggling. Companies are trying to extend the life of their tires, or are going down-brand.”

The province has only added about 30,000 jobs since the end of 2014, according to Statistics Canada The jobless rate was 6.9 per cent in March, compared with a national average of 5.8 per cent. The economic recovery from the recession caused by the 2015 oil shock slowed to an annual growth rate of 2.5 per cent in 2018 from 4.4 per cent in 2017, according to the Alberta government.

“I don’t think the East realizes how bad it is here,” said Glenn Street, who runs one of North America’s biggest makers of mascots in Calgary.

“I don’t see a lot of positive things happening if there isn’t an oil-and-gas industry,” he said. “What’s going to take its place?”

Maybe nothing. But there are ideas.

I spent a few days in Calgary and Edmonton last week, interviewing a dozen people, none of whom were directly involved in the oil-and-gas industry. That was by design. Nuance doesn’t travel well. The idea was to assess whether there’s more to Alberta’s economic story than pipelines, which is all most of us non-Albertans have heard about for the past couple of years. And of course, there is.

“There are a tonne of things going on and none of them have anything to do with oil and natural gas,” said Tara Kelly, chief executive of Calgary-based Splice Software, a provider of customized automated messages and one of Canada’s fast-growing companies.

We’re a capitalist society, which implies that we embrace the power of creative destruction. But the past couple of years has exposed us as weak capitalists. The trade wars, the global shift away from carbon, and digitization are fundamentally changing the economy. As Stephen Poloz, governor of the Bank of Canada, has noted, we have spent a lot of time obsessing over the destruction that those structural shifts are causing.

That suits various industry lobbies and unions, who are paid by their members to fight for the status quo. But it obscures all the creative things that are happening, as entrepreneurs — who tend to ignore headlines — create the new wave of companies that will employ thousands, improve productivity, and generate wealth. Canada can survive Donald Trump, and Alberta can escape its resource curse.

“In an economy, you often go after the low-hanging fruit,” said Brad Johns, a partner in the Calgary office of Yaletown Partners, a venture capital firm that also has outposts in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. “When the economy changes, you have to do something different. We are doing that now.”

There are some Albertans who seem to think they would be better off as their own country. Maybe, but only because the province has enjoyed the benefits of being a member of a stable, diversified economy for more than a century.

Places that are overly reliant on resources tend to be poorer; the booms never quite outweigh the busts, but the good times are so good that no one ever gets around to doing anything unrelated to harvesting that resource. Alberta has a decent social safety net, good universities, and options outside of oil and gas because its place in Canada kept the resource curse from fully taking hold.

  New fields: An employee tends to marijuana plants at the Aurora Cannabis Inc. facility in Edmonton.

Still, Alberta shows signs of affliction. “From the beginning of my career, all I heard was that all we are only about oil and gas,” said Chris Micetich, founder and chief executive of Edmonton-based Brass Dome Ventures Ltd., who made his name in pharmaceuticals. “I learned to keep the lights on with no support.”

The next generation of Alberta entrepreneurs will benefit from more attention. The duration of the current oil bust appears to be changing the province’s psychology. There still is hope for natural gas, but there is an acceptance that the glory days of oil are over. Politicians finally are taking economic diversification seriously, if only because they realize they no longer can rely on royalty payments and the largesse of oil-and-gas companies. The families that got rich off booms past are asking questions about investing in startups that specialize in artificial intelligence, health services, and other areas that have no connection to bitumen. Petrochemical engineers are retraining to become software engineers.

“I think there is a massive wave coming,” Micetich said. “That old mentality doesn’t change overnight.”

Caldwell of OK Tires reckons Alberta’s soft patch is cyclical. At Street Characters, the boss’s pessimism about the province’s prospects doesn’t apply to his own business. About people are shipping handmade mascots at a pace of about four per week at a unit price of $3,000 to $8,000, mostly to the United States. That’s as well as the company has ever done in its 32-year history. Success has management thinking about spending a little more on marketing to grow even faster.

“There is nothing further from oil and gas than what we do,” Street said. “We’re really busy.”

• Email: kcarmichael@postmedia.com | Twitter: CarmichaelKevin

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China’s Next Phase of Militarization in the South China Sea

China’s astonishing growth into the South China Sea’s 1.35 million square miles and its subsequent militarization of the location about the past quite a few decades has cultivated a intricate stability atmosphere. The first period of that developing complexity was predicated on geopolitical fascination and growth, notably in the course of U.S. President Barack Obama’s next time period in business.

While it has been argued that regional tensions may continue to be secure simply because China has ceased its land acquisition endeavors to the south, the complex regional security environment may possibly enter into a new stage of heightened pressure and complexity for the duration of 2019. This future period could arise as a result of China’s devoted press to consolidate its gains in the South China Sea (SCS) by the use of military and political powers in tandem with sharp threats as a final result of armed service patrols and a quantum leap in the deployment of surveillance aircraft, guided-missile destroyers, and a bank of armed forces products.

In spite of a momentary lull in including to its treasure trove of SCS capabilities, China’s actions in the SCS exemplifies the intention of achieving regional dominance. Even so, Beijing has nonetheless to realize the amount of handle it seeks about the strategically essential waterway. In a area in which five other events – Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan – have created territorial claims, China’s placement remains underneath strain and its territorial assets less than continued danger.

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Certainly, Beijing’s outcry around what it sees as provocative U.S. incursions, which China has dealt with as naked army aggression, serves as a solid sign that China’s belongings in the SCS and the country’s passions in the region continue to be vulnerable. So prolonged as external threats persist, acquisition and buildup can be anticipated to go ahead.

With China’s first island-setting up marketing campaign almost 10 many years outdated, the next phase of China’s SCS expansion is the consolidation and military fortification of its territorial belongings – garrisoning the quite a few little islets at the time considered uninhabitable, such as the strategic Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Dao), lying just 140 miles west of the large Philippine island of Luzon and at this time beneath development. The institution of army bases has culminated in the generation of China’s “strategic triangle.” Even with the building of aircraft bases, detection devices, and weapon shipping systems, the impact of China’s methodical efforts in the SCS have failed to generate appreciable alter in the status quo of power relations.

Around the past many decades, China has expanded existing reefs and atolls by thousands of acres, but its military existence and preparedness continue to fall shorter of a level suitable for professing handle over the complete SCS. The method is probable to be a considerably lengthier 1 than envisioned. Islet acquisition and progress has not mitigated existing territorial statements by other states sharing the sea, nor are people statements – supported by distant partners and allies – probably to disappear in the in the vicinity of or distant future.

A blend of a few aspects exponentially raises the potential for even further militarization in the SCS: China’s previous growth and continuing consolidation, which clash with persistent claims by states located adjacent to the SCS Washington’s declaration that the liberty of navigation (FON) principle of customary global regulation should be preserved and Beijing’s departure from previous promises not to further create its SCS belongings.

Civilian and rescue functions have been the principal justification for the ongoing design of navy installations and the placement of weapons and weapon systems, which include innovative fight plane, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), anti-ship (ballistic) missiles, and jamming engineering, in spite of President Xi Jinping’s assure that China’s territorial belongings would not be militarized. Beijing has indicated that upcoming United Nation’s (UN) peacekeeping missions involving the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would necessitate added bases. These methods are essential to strengthening China’s anti-accessibility/place-denial (A2/Advert) potential.

In mild of China’s incapability to match all aspects of U.S. armed service ability – at least in qualitative phrases, while numerically-talking, China possesses incredible navy toughness – in the short term, a armed service presence over and above China’s rapid borders is a logical and required rung if China hopes to project its power to a amount that goes outside of parity in the SCS. China’s military expense carries on to boost and the country, while struggling with a cluster of opposition off its eastern shores, has only a one front on which to aim. These kinds of incidents as the arrest of Huawei’s chief monetary officers, Meng Wanzhou and China’s persistent trade dispute with the United States have created sizeable focus, giving helpful foliage for Chinese actions in the SCS. As a outcome, China’s passions in the SCS have become fairly peripheral in the media.

Distracting problems also give China valuable time to set up a stronger armed service presence on its existing holdings in the SCS relatively than looking for to develop and go after further reclamation assignments. China has turned to other solutions for rolling out its declare to the south in the latest earlier, with Brunei deepening its economic reliance on China by way of economic and buying and selling arrangements. At the wave of a political wand, China not only secured a piece of its individual interests, but individuals of Brunei as perfectly, whilst attaining a substantially-desired ally in the SCS location that can both continue being silent or sway in a direction that fits Beijing’s strategic interests.

The Philippines has cozied up to China just after remaining properly seduced by the guarantee of China’s Belt and Road. The grandiose improvement approach is as a great deal a political instrument as it is an financial initiative and just one with which Beijing can raise its political affect over the coverage trajectories of SCS states in the context of SCS promises and territory.

Vietnam, having said that, stays comparably defiant and stalwart in its approach to the SCS, with a history of challenging China and systematic endeavours to turn the SCS into a “lake” of its individual. Vietnam’s endeavours to proscribe Chinese ventures in the SCS, notably the development of even further synthetic islands, an inflow of warships, and the opportunity establishment of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ), show the limitations of Beijing’s pleasant tension on other folks to quietly take out their flags from disputed places.

China has shown that other avenues exist for inching its way ahead in the SCS and growing its de facto management. Dragging out official talks and buying off its neighbors are just two possible ways. Four yrs after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Moscow has and continues to utilize related practices to tighten its hold on and more and more fortify the Black Sea peninsula. Similarly, the strategy that China will maintain its existence on many characteristics in the SCS and maximize its military services presence in a clearly show of handle simply cannot quickly be gainsaid, particularly as the culmination of China’s initiatives to date have significantly augmented China’s military existence in the SCS and substantially upgraded Beijing’s peacetime and wartime place.

Dr. Scott N. Romaniuk is a Postdoctoral Investigate Fellow in Stability Scientific tests at the China Institute, College of Alberta. His research focuses on China’s world-wide safety and armed forces roles, China’s political, financial, and (cyber)security policies as well as the rise of safety architectures in Asia, robotic systems in international protection, and technological know-how and the long term of warfare.

Tobias Burgers is a doctoral applicant at the Otto-Suhr-Institute (Free University of Berlin) where by he researches the increase and use of cyber and robotic programs in stability relations, and the upcoming of navy conflict.

The post China’s Next Phase of Militarization in the South China Sea appeared first on Defence Online.

from WordPress https://defenceonline.com/2019/03/21/chinas-next-phase-of-militarization-in-the-south-china-sea/

[bountyofbeads]

Trump’s immigration policy has foreign tech talent looking north of the border

https://wapo.st/2FsvuLL

Donald Trump is a brain drain on our country and our economy!!! Enough already😭😵😡😠🤢

Trump’s immigration policy has foreign tech talent looking north of the border

By Emily Rauhala | January 11 at 8:18 AM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 11, 2019 |

SAN FRANCISCO — Over dinner at a noodle bar, a Canadian entrepreneur pitched a table of U.S. tech executives: Your foreign workers should trade sunny California for snowy Calgary, he told them. And they listened.

Highly skilled foreign workers and the American firms that employ them are in a bit of a visa panic. President Trump has vowed to crack down on the H-1B visa program, which allows 85,000 foreigners per year to work in “specialty occupations” in the United States. But there are no new rules yet, creating a climate of uncertainty and fear, particularly in Silicon Valley.

Canadian businesses sense an opportunity. The Canadian tech scene has sought for years to compete with Silicon Valley, trying to lure talent north. In the early days of the Trump administration, “moving to Canada” talk surged among Americans, but most foreign workers waited.

Now some are making the move.

Though it is hard to track how many foreign nationals have moved from the United States — the Canadian government tracks newcomers by country of citizenship, not residence — immigration lawyers and recruiters on both sides of the border say the number of inquiries from nervous H-1B holders has skyrocketed since 2017.

Some Canadian entrepreneurs are dropping into Silicon Valley to persuade companies that rely on foreign tech workers to move them across the border.

Irfhan Rawji, the Canadian entrepreneur trying to sell U.S. tech executives on Canada over dinner, last year founded a company called MobSquad that helps tech companies move software engineers and other highly skilled workers to Canada. He travels regularly to Silicon Valley to promote his Canadian “solution.”

“Our turnaround to bring a foreign worker to Canada is under four weeks,” he said. “It’s typically longer for them to pack up their stuff.”

For Akshaya Murali, an Indian national who spent nearly a decade in the United States working for companies such as Microsoft and Expedia, moving to Toronto meant an end to living visa to visa.

She and her family applied for permanent residence in Canada and were approved.

Her employer, Remitly, then worked with MobSquad to move her job north. MobSquad signed a contract with Remitly and then hired her to do the same job — senior product manager — for Remitly from Toronto.

MobSquad’s cut is the difference between her total compensation in pricey San Francisco and the cost of the same work in Toronto, which is lower.

Remitly’s chief product officer, Karim Meghji, said the process went so smoothly that he will probably do it again. “My next step is thinking through, ‘What else can I do in Canada?’ ” he said.

Murali landed in Toronto in October and is settling in. “It’s a nice place to bring up our son, really family-friendly,” she said. “The only thing is the weather.”

On Friday morning, Trump addressed concerns about H-1B visa holders in a tweet in which he suggested a policy allowing a potential path to U.S. citizenship for the foreign workers. “H1-B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship,” Trump tweeted. “We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the U.S.”

Seeking stability

Silicon Valley’s visa anxiety did not start with Trump, but his policy moves and anti-immigrant rhetoric have compounded the problem, according to tech executives, immigration lawyers and people who have moved.

Months into his presidency, Trump issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order that instructed the Department of Homeland Security to review the H-1B visa program with the intention of more closely vetting applicants.

In the wake of the order, there were reports of an uptick in visa denials and requests by immigration officials for additional information, turning the issue into a topic of conversation for big U.S. companies and immigrant communities alike.

In August, chief executives from top U.S. firms including Apple, Cisco and IBM sent a letter to DHS expressing concern about the changes. “Inconsistent immigration policies are unfair and discourage talented and highly skilled individuals from pursuing career options in the United States,” it said.

Asked to comment on these reported changes, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Michael Bars said, “Increasing our confidence in who receives benefits is a hallmark of this administration.”

Bars said proposed changes now under review would make the H-1B process more efficient and ensure that the best applicants get visas.

Many have found the uncertainty over the changes to the H-1B program confusing and costly.

S. “Sundi” Sundaresh, chief executive of Cinarra Systems, a start-up that provides location analytics based on mobile data to businesses, said getting U.S. work visas is a significant challenge.

His company employs 55 people worldwide, including 15 in the United States. He has three people on H-1Bs but would hire more if the process were easier.

Recently, an employee who was working remotely and waiting on a U.S. visa quit in frustration. When a second worker reached the same point, he started looking for options and is now talking to MobSquad about Canada. “We can’t lose a second one,” Sundaresh said.

Michael Tippet, a Canadian entrepreneur who founded a company that helps U.S. firms set up satellite offices in Vancouver as a buffer against uncertainty in the United States, said highly skilled, foreign-born workers feel anxious and frustrated.

“From the company’s perspective, the primary motivation is that they can continue to attract top talent,” he said. “To have those people work for you, you have to show you’ve got their back.”

If not, they may leave.

Amogh Phadke, an Indian citizen with a master’s degree in computer science, an MBA and work experience at FedEx and Fannie Mae, wanted to build his life in the United States.

“I was struggling for 10 years with my immigration status,” he said. His breaking point was the Trump administration’s as-yet-unrealized threat to stop granting work visas for spouses of H-1B holders.

His wife, an Indian national who was studying in Canada, no longer wanted to join him stateside. “She said, ‘It’s here, or we are going back to India.’ ”

He decamped to Edmonton, the chilly capital of Alberta, last year.

The pitch for Canada

While the debate over immigration roils the United States, Canada’s major political parties are broadly supportive of increasing the number of immigrants, as long as they are skilled.

In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government launched the Global Talent Stream, a program designed to fast-track work authorization for those with job offers in high-demand realms of science and tech.

Successful applicants can get a work permit in a matter of weeks. Spouses and children are eligible for work or study permits.

More than 2,000 companies have applied to hire Talent Stream workers, the department for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in an emailed statement.

With the door wide open, the Canadian government’s biggest challenge may be actually making the case for Canada.

Recent arrivals said the country is not really on the radar. When Phadke told Americans he was moving to Edmonton, they were shocked. “My colleagues were like, ‘Oh, my God, nobody lives in the middle of Canada. Are there going to be roads there?’ ”

When people heard how quickly he could move, he was met with more skepticism. “They asked, ‘Is it a scam?’ ”

“Canada is really bad at marketing itself,” said Vikram Rangnekar, a former software developer for LinkedIn who recently moved from the Bay Area to Toronto.

When he landed, he was so impressed with the city that he started writing about it. He later started Mov North, a site for people thinking about moving.

The site includes information on dressing for the cold — “The adage ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes’ is entirely true” — and information about benefits such as paid maternity leave. It also tries to connect software engineers with Canadian companies.

Hugo O’Doherty, an editor at Moving2Canada.com, a website catering to would-be immigrants and new arrivals, said Canada often cannot compete with Silicon Valley salaries but that tech types make good money relative to the cost of living.

They also gain peace of mind. Noncitizens in the United States “don’t know if they will be able to stay, if their spouse will be able to work, if their kids will have a pathway to citizenship,” he said. In his experience, Canada appeals to people who want stability.

For MobSquad’s Rawji, it is all about seeking out the best and brightest and putting them on a path to citizenship. “Our social mission is to change the Canadian economy,” he said.

[lindyhunt]

How to Build an Email List from Scratch: 10 Incredibly Effective Strategies

Did you know it costs five times more to attract a new customer, than to keep an existing one?

Focusing on customer retention is a valuable long-term solution for increased revenue and sustainable growth, but it’s not always easy to cultivate that kind of loyalty.

When I think about the brands I like best, like J. Crew, Spotify, and SoulCycle, I know I’m not a loyal brand advocate because of their products alone. I can get cheaper clothes, music, and groceries from plenty of other places. Ultimately, I’m a brand advocate because I believe in what they promote and I feel invested in their stories, like SoulCycle’s: “We aspire to inspire. We inhale intention and exhale expectation.” I relate to their brand messaging.

One of the ways J. Crew, Spotify, and SoulCycle cultivate customer loyalty is through valuable content. While there are many ways to do this, email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to reach your target audience -- if done correctly.

I subscribe to J. Crew’s email list to get their “Flash Sale: Midnight” offers. I subscribe to Spotify’s newsletter to receive special promotions. And I subscribe to SoulCycle’s emails to hear about unique classes happening near me.

In short, I subscribe to their emails to get value.

If you’re starting from zero, building an impressive email list can feel like an impossible feat. Here, we'll cover some high-quality strategies to build an email list from scratch. Best of all, these strategies are designed to cultivate a loyal email subscriber base, so you can use your emails to attract better long-term customers.

How to Build an Email List From Scratch

1. Create a personalized CTA (call-to-action) for each blog or landing page.

HubSpot has found personalized calls-to-action have a 42% higher view-to-submission rate than calls-to-action that are the same for all visitors -- that’s almost double your potential email subscribers.

It makes sense: the people who visit your blog post or web page are looking for something specific, so your CTA needs to meet those unique needs. For instance, if you’ve got a ton of traffic visiting your “List-Building Strategy” blog article, why not entice those people to subscribe to your email list by including a simple CTA like this: “Click here to download a free list-building toolkit.”

Of course, personalized CTAs only work if you have the resources to create that quality content in the first place, but that process doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. Instead of a toolkit, you could also offer an e-book, a fun quiz, or an exclusive article from your CEO on list-building strategies.

If you offer content directly related to your visitor’s needs, your email newsletter won’t feel like a gimmicky advertisement. Instead, it will feel helpful and valuable -- key principles for a long-term customer retention plan.

2. Create a pop-up or slide-in for each page of your site.

A pop-up might sound initially bothersome, but I’m not talking about those early 2000 pop-up’s that promised you’d “Become a Model NOW”.

Instead, I’m talking about timed pop-up ads, or onsite retargeting. After a user spends a certain amount of time on your page, she can receive a pop-up relevant to the content on that page, or to her behavior. Examples include exit pop-ups, which appear when a user tries to leave the page, or scroll pop-ups, which appear after the user scrolls a certain percentage down the page.

Digital Marketer conducted a case study to determine the value of onsite retargeting. For one experiment in particular, Digital Marketer introduced a pop-up ad to returning visitors only, which appeared after a visitor spent 15 seconds on their site:

Digital Marketer ensured this pop-up didn’t show up if someone came to the page from the newsletter (in which case, they were already signed up), and also didn’t pop-up on a sales page (which could interrupt someone’s purchasing decision).

As you can see, Digital Marketer also took the time to offer meaningful content, a digital marketing toolbox, in their pop-up ad. With an impressive offer, your pop-up is no longer obtrusive or interruptive -- it’s simply helpful.

Ultimately, their campaign generated 2,689 leads in two weeks, and increased their average time on page by 54%. Pop-ups aren’t always gimmicky, and if done right, you’re able to appeal to your visitor with quality content when and where they need it.

3. Create a timed pop-up survey.

Most people don’t visit a new website and think, “Huh, so where’s the email sign-up form?” Often times, you need your viewers to feel invested in your content before you present them with a request for their emails.

To build your email list, you might want to reach out to visitors on specific pages with surveys related to that content. I’m more willing to answer an “A or B” survey question if I’m already invested in the content -- it feels like a fairer trade-off.

For instance, University of Alberta’s email subscriber list grew almost 500% in one year alone, thanks to a timed pop-up survey they implemented:

The University of Alberta’s pop-up survey only appears after a visitor remains on a news’ page for 10 seconds. At that point, the viewers’ seen some value from the content, so ideally they’re more inclined to sign up for emails from the source.

The University of Alberta’s survey pop-up is also one of the easiest forms I’ve ever seen. You enter your email and you’re done. People are often deterred from signing up when the form is too long and they don’t have the time, so a simple yes or no question might be your best bet for growing your email list.

4. Use humor or sarcasm in your CTA’s “no, thanks” copy.

We’re so infiltrated with “Yes or No” web offers on a daily basis, we barely see them anymore. To increase your email lists, you might want to try injecting some personality into your CTA copy.

I always pause and laugh when I see a CTA with a small, “No thanks, I don’t want to lose weight,” button underneath a prominent “Yes, sign me up!” link. It reminds me there’s a person behind the button, and, while it’s meant to be a joke, it also incentivizes me to hesitate before clicking “no, thanks”. It’s easy to click “no” when the CTA is “sign up for more emails!”, but it’s a little harder to say no to losing weight or getting richer.

I was reading an Optimonk blog post recently, and this CTA popped up:

I was all set to click “No” without another thought, when I read the “my business isn’t important” part. It gave me pause, made me laugh, and, most importantly, made me reconsider my almost immediate decision to exit the offer.

5. Describe value in your CTA.

We’ve talked a lot about different formatting you might use in your CTA’s (including pop-up ads or personalized offers embedded in blog posts), but what about the language in the CTA itself? You can rely on more than humor and sarcasm to get clicks.

To optimize sign-ups, ironically, you don’t want to use the words “sign up.” Who wants to “sign up” or “subscribe” to more junk emails? Instead, you want to outline the value you can offer upfront, using language like, “Download,” “Featured”, “Exclusive,” “Access.”

For instance, you might write, “Download our exclusive e-book now,” and include an email subscription form, or, you might say, “Access all our exclusive offers.” Both of these CTAs make clear the value you’ll gain from providing your email address.

Your web viewers need to hear how your emails can offer unique and exclusive content that isn’t already available on your website. They want to believe your company is offering something special via email, or what’s the point?

6. Pitch your email newsletter on your social media accounts and email signature.

You might not have a long list of email subscribers, but that doesn’t mean you don't have a network. If you have a following on Twitter, a fan base on Facebook, or businesses you communicate with via email, why not use those firm and loyal connections to build an email list?

You might try pitching an email newsletter on your business’s Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts. The people who follow you on those sites already know they like you, but they aren’t necessarily the same people who receive your newsletter. Give them the option.

If you’re uncomfortable pitching your email newsletter on social media, or if you don’t have a large following on any of your accounts, you could also include a link in your email signature -- that link could go directly to your email newsletter, or it could be a link to a blog post or landing page with email subscription CTA’s.

You communicate daily with a diverse group of people via email, and when they get value from your personal emails, they might want the option to click a link and explore your company in more depth.

7. Create more landing pages.

HubSpot conducted research and found companies see a 55% increase in leads when you increase the number of landing pages from 10 to 15.

It makes sense: individual and personalized landing pages allow you to appeal to a wider demographic. Every person who visits your site needs something different, so the more landing pages you can create to answer each person’s individual concerns, the more sign-ups you’ll gain.

It’s like a restaurant menu. The more you can offer to cater for specific demographics, the more customers you’ll bring in. Someone could be looking for the best gluten-free pizza, while someone else might just want some good sushi.

8. Encourage everyone to sign up immediately.

You want to strategically place personalized CTAs where it counts -- on landing pages and blog posts. But what about the rare, but real, visitors who want to sign up immediately?

If your newsletter primarily centers around one or two topics, it’s relatively easy to create a personalized CTA -- simply write a CTA that mirrors your newsletter’s purpose, such as, “Want free SEO hacks? Sign up for our newsletter!”

9. Include a CTA on your About Us page.

Your About Us page is one of the most potent pages in terms of conversion potential. Think about it -- how often do you visit About Us pages for businesses you don’t care about?

Ideally, your About Us page will prime visitors to want more from your business, but it might not be enough to convince them to purchase. A CTA that encourages them to sign up for a newsletter is easier to concede to than a “buy now” plea.

10. Try a scroll box.

Timing is everything. Your call-to-action works best if you catch visitors when they are, in fact, ready to take action.

Figuring out when your visitor is ready to convert depends on your website viewers’ behavior, so you’ll want to conduct A/B testing to determine where you need to place your CTA. Does it work best towards the bottom of a blog page, when it slides out to the right, or does it get higher conversions at the beginning of the page, sliding out from the left?

Ultimately, it will vary depending on your page’s content and your viewers, but a scroll box is a subtle and useful option to help you catch your viewers when they’re most ready to convert.

[lesliepump]

Should Law Blogs Allow Comments?

But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas—that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Comment Problems

Trolls

You might not be able to win an argument on the internet, but does that mean we shouldn’t even have the discussion? Back when Popular Science online content director Suzanne LaBarre (@suzannelabarre) announced that PopularScience.com would no longer accept comments on new articles, the free trade of ideas took a hit.

LaBarre provided the following reasoning for hitting the “off” switch:

A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to “debate” on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.

Her argument that comments that call into question scientifically-validated topics are influencing people’s perceptions for the worse, doesn’t seem to me to outweigh the value of the exchange of ideas. Because people make stuff up and lie, and some people buy it, there should be no conversation at all? I feel like I’ve heard this before.

It seems to me that there’s another option: comment moderation.

While supporting PopSci‘s move, The Washington Post‘s Alexandra Petri wrote:

The few places where the comments sections are the home of a vibrant, riveting, polite discussion are the ones where the host site has made a vigorous effort to create community.

Exactly. Unfortunately, Petri also concluded that major news sites just aren’t the place to have good discussions:

And even if you are a regular on news stories (hi, folks!), the nature of big news or breaking science is that if it’s big and controversial enough for people to flood in to read about it, that small regular community gets overrun. It is hard to maintain community in the middle of a stampede. You only use the correct forks when you aren’t fighting through throngs of people to tear hunks off the new carcass.

For what it’s worth, at the time of writing, both The Washington Post and The New York Times, as well as, several other major online newspapers, have some form of commenting turned on.

There’s little question that discussion moderation requires vigorous effort. Even tiny sites may have to deal with hundreds, if not, thousands of comments on a regular basis. And the overwhelming majority of those are likely to be bots, trolls or spam. But is the solution to end the discussion altogether?

Of course, there is also room for publications that don’t allow comments. And maybe a scientific research site isn’t a great candidate for debate in a public forum. And of course, PopSci is free to define its identity. However, their message, as Marie-Claire Shanahan, Research Chair in Science Education and Public Engagement at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada puts it:

Well we didn’t really mean for people to be engaged, we just want you to listen to us more.

I tend to agree with GigaOm‘s Mathew Ingram who wrote in response:

both wrong and sad MT @jaredbkeller: Popular Science is doing away with comments: "Comments can be bad for science." http://t.co/fsPaD5kAqp

— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) September 24, 2013

I also still agree with Slate‘s Will Oremus in that moderated comments have value:

Writing on Slate, I’ve encountered plenty of both varieties over the years, and on balance I far prefer a mix of useful and useless comments to no comments at all. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been alerted to new developments, factual oversights, dissenting opinions, and fresh story ideas by readers using the comments section below my stories and blog posts. Commenters also help authors understand where they’ve explained a point in a misleading way, and what readers are taking away from their posts. Our commenting system is far from perfect, and yet I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Gizmodo’s Matt Novak neatly encapsulated the alternative: Writing on a site without comments, he said, felt like “whispering to myself in the wilderness.”

I wish Popular Science had taken a page from YouTube and come up with ways to make their comment system better.

Likewise, I don’t believe trolls, ignorance, and bots are sufficient justification to end the conversation on legal websites and blogs.

If your concerns stem from the resources required for moderation, there are a variety of ways you may limit those costs. For example, tools like Disqus can be configured to drastically reduce bots. You can also require users to register before commenting or use whitelists.

If you’re looking for examples of busy legal bloggers who are pulling it off, I direct you to Popehat and its comment policy.

Ghost Town

Another argument I regularly hear levied against comments goes something like this:

Blogs that have open commenting, but receive no comments, look sad.

To this I reply, “Boo-hoo.”

What’s more sad is that you decided to remove the ability for your audience to leave comments because of feelz or marketing. Instead, why not try to publish something that spurs discussion? Pro tip: this is actually much more effective for marketing.

The Case for Comments

Back at The Post, Petri observed that:

The more obscure and bizarre the niche group, the friendlier the comments. By and large the comments on your Erotic Lincoln Vampire Fanfiction are much kinder and better spelled than the comments on a major news story about, say, wiretapping and surveillance, which mainly consist of erratically capitalized screeds against the president and observations that would not be out of place in a toilet stall.

Which raises the question, do law blogs in general have the kind of niche audience that makes comments better than usual?

While generally not as inflammatory as the stuff found at PopSci, the legal blogosphere is hardly immune from, “shrill, boorish, specimens of the lower internet phyla.”

Furthermore, as some veteran curmudgeons are quick to point out, some of the comments may actually be eroding well-established principles of the practice of law. Should the legal blogosphere also “hit the off switch” on comments too?

Unfortunately, it seems the trolls are winning. Above the Law said farewell to comments in 2016:

Today the comments are not what they once were. Although occasionally insightful or funny, ATL comments nowadays are generally fewer in number, not very substantive (often just inside jokes among the commentariat), yet still often offensive. They also represent a very small percentage of our total traffic (as we can tell because of the click required to access them).

To me, it seems they had it closer to right back in 2009:

Here at ATL, we reserve the right to moderate comments as we see fit. We delete comments for reasons including (but not limited to) offensiveness, abusiveness, excessive profanity, irrelevance, or rank stupidity. Above the Law is a privately owned website; we have no obligation to provide our bandwidth to any particular user. Because we are not governmental actors, we are not subject to the equal-access rules of the First Amendment; when we moderate comments, it is not “censorship.”

But we also offer this recommendation to people who are offended by the comments: DON’T READ THEM. Toward that end, we want to make it easier for you to avoid the comments if you want to. Over the next 24 hours, we’ll be changing our site design so that comments will default to “hidden.” If you want to see the comments, you must affirmatively opt-in, by clicking a button to reveal them (either the “show them anyway” button within the post, or the “comments” button / counter on the front page).

At the risk of pummeling horse carcass, legal bloggers can use their judgment in deciding which comments see daylight. But I would suggest, that even those comments that go against everything veteran lawyers have learned from eons of practice have some value.

First, when attached to real identities, they help readers weigh the credibility of the person leaving the comment, as well as, the response. Second, they tease out “the work” of demonstrating why the comment is wrong.

To me, comments (even the dumb ones) are fundamental to the very nature of blogging. As noted at Wikipedia:

A majority are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via GUI widgets on the blogs, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking. Indeed, bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but also build social relations with their readers and other bloggers. There are high-readership blogs which do not allow comments, such as Daring Fireball.

Sure, there are plenty of great one-way blogs. But there’s something special about a blog that can result in a robust community in the comments.

Social Media as Comment Substitute

It has also been suggested by some that social media platforms are effectively replacing comments. This was part of the reason driving MarketingLand‘s and SearchEngineLand‘s decision to remove comments:

2.) We see much more commentary about our articles on social media.

We get a report every month showing all of the social activity surrounding both websites, and it’s not uncommon for each article and column we publish to get hundreds of engagements across social channels; our more popular articles often go over a thousand engagements. In most cases, this may just be a tweet or Facebook share of the headline and link, but very often there are comments and questions included in those social posts — certainly far more often than the few times our articles ever received on-page comments.

When I write an article for one of our sites, I regularly get engaged in conversation with readers on Twitter. And I see many of our staff writers and contributors doing the same. That’s anecdotal, but the overall evidence is unmistakable: Social media is where the commentary is taking place.

Here’s the problem:

Since your site decided to remove comments: I am left to discuss them on social media; Not much discussion this way either. ;(

— Bill Slawski ? (@bill_slawski) October 30, 2017

  When people arrive at a post or page, their attention is on the subject matter. Relying solely on social media for these conversations creates unnecessary barriers to the conversation. Most won’t bother to click through to Facebook pages to spark conversations. And those that do, face fractured conversations and platform limitations.

Social media is simply not a replacement for comments.

Comments and Legal Ethics

Of course, in considering whether to allow comments, lawyers must consider potential legal ethics issues. Especially those issues that relate to risks to clients and potential clients. Much of this risk can be diminished by holding comments for moderation before publishing. In other words, protecting clients and people with legal issues from posting something stupid that might put them in jeopardy. At a minimum, you should not allow any comments that reveal details about the commenter’s particular legal problem.

It’s also useful to provide visitors some information about your policy on comments. You might refer to The New York Times for some guidance. Or use something like this:

When you post a comment, you grant us the right to modify or delete your comment, but we have no duty to do so. If you want us to post your comment, make it coherent, relevant, and respectful.

Also, posting information about your legal problem on a public website is a bad idea. Any such comments will be deleted.

Mind Your Comment Settings

No matter which platform you choose, you should hold comments for moderation. If you’re a WordPress user (and you probably should be), get familiar with the comment settings in the Discussion panel:

I recommend checking the boxes for:

Comment author must fill out name and e-mail

Enable threaded (nested) comments at least 3 levels deep

An administrator must always approve the comment

For repeat comment policy violators, you can use the Comment Blacklist:

When a comment contains any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP, it will be marked as spam. One word or IP per line. It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress”. This text box acts the same as “When a comment conatins any of these words…” except comments which match these words will be deleted without warning. You may want to use this as a last resort, as genuine comments can end up deleted (WordPress 1.5 and later)

You might also consider requiring comment registration. However, Kevin O’Keefe provides a bunch of reasons why that’s lame. It really depends on the nature and purpose of your blog. But I agree with Kevin in that it’s likely to discourage people from commenting.

If you’re not satisfied with the WordPress comment system, there plenty of comment tools that can assist with moderation, like Disqus, Livefyre, and Facebook comments.

In addition to providing more advanced commenting options, third-party comment platforms can attract new readers. For example, if you embed Facebook comments, your commenters’ Facebook friends can see those comments, which may make them more likely to discover your blog. Remember, if you do use a third-party comment platform, configure them for moderation before posting.

What About Anonymous Comments?

One of the most effective ways to police unruly comments is to ban anonymous comments. As Jimmy Soni Managing Editor, the Huffington Post puts it defending HuffPo’s decision to end comment anonymity (citing Harper Lee):

We are capable of doing far worse things to one another when we do not have to own up to the things we do. The mob grants its members the gift of anonymity, but after Scout outs Mr. Cunningham, there ceases to be a “mob” in any real sense; there is just Mr. Cunningham, and associates. And when some kind of identity is attached to their group, the plans of that group carry a good deal more weight.

Of course, there are very compelling reasons against a total ban on anonymous comments.

It seems to me that we might want to nudge people to attach their identities to their comments, but at the same time, provide an avenue for anonymous comments. Again, this will largely be a judgment call for comment moderators.

My advice is to ask commenters to reveal their true identities, be liberal in deleting anonymous comments and allow readers to weigh the relative value of anonymous comments that meet “light of day muster.”

Should I Respond to Comments?

Responding to comments presents an additional layer of legal ethics issues. For example, can a lawyer respond to comments on their blog without creating an attorney client relationship? Sure they can. But they can also easily mistakenly cause someone to believe that the lawyer’s response was legal advice, thereby leading them to believe that such relationship exists.

So, should you respond? Sure, but don’t be stupid. Also, not every comment that’s worth publishing is worth responding to. Also, use disclaimers. Look, disclaimers are not magic Kevlar that will insulate you against every issue that arises. But they’re a good CYA practice.

If you largely ignore comments, you shouldn’t be surprised when people stop commenting, and perhaps, stop reading.

Law bloggers should also become familiar with how Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code (47 USC § 230) might apply to them, and more specifically, to comments on their blogs:

Your readers’ comments, entries written by guest bloggers, tips sent by email, and information provided to you through an RSS feed would all likely be considered information provided by another content provider. This would mean that you would not be held liable for defamatory statements contained in it. However, if you selected the third-party information yourself, no court has ruled whether this information would be considered “provided” to you. One court has limited Section 230 immunity to situations in which the originator “furnished it to the provider or user under circumstances in which a reasonable person…would conclude that the information was provided for publication on the Internet….”

Obviously, while Section 230 might provide protection from civil actions, lawyers are held to a different standard and really need to focus on the interplay of blogging, comments and their state’s rules of professional conduct.

Should Lawyers Turn on Comments in the First Place?

It might seem that comments are more trouble than they’re worth. If you’re feeling that way, you might re-examine why you’re even blogging in the first place.

To me, there are plenty of reasons to allow moderated comments. Comments extend the conversation beyond the substance of the post. They provide valuable feedback to the author. They can inspire future posts. They’re the symbiotic connective tissue between author and reader.

How Does it Make Me Look?

Some of you might still be worrying that allowing comments, but not having any, makes it look like nobody is reading your site. Well is anyone reading your site? If you mean to encourage comments and they are not coming, you should consider whether what you’re writing is “comment-worthy.” The lack of comments can be an indication that what you are publishing is not very interesting.

Do Comments Help My Pages Appear in Search Results?

Maybe. If your blog regularly motivates authentic comments, and you have properly implemented your commenting system to make it easy for search engines to index comments, then there’s little doubt that comments provide valuable feedback that search engines use.

However, if you don’t moderate your comments, leaving your posts riddled with spam comments, you might actually be hurting your posts’ chances of appearing in results. Furthermore, depending on your comment system configuration, you may be limiting your comments’ indexation. While Google has been indexing some sites’ Facebook Comments, it’s not clear that this has been completely resolved. Over at Blind Five Year Old, AJ Kohn breaks down some of the search issues presented by Facebook Comments. If you do use Facebook Comments, you should still extract them and display them inline for search engines.

As search engines continue to evolve, who comments on your site is likely to play a larger role in how your pages appear in search results. Yes, fix the technical issues preventing your comments from getting indexed. But more importantly, focus on publishing stuff that real people actually want to read and comment on.

Hopefully, it’s pretty clear how I feel about comments. What do you think?

This was originally published in 2013. It was updated and revised on 2018-02-13.

Should Law Blogs Allow Comments? was originally published on Lawyerist.com.

from Law and Politics https://lawyerist.com/should-allow-comments-law-blog/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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Making it Work: Nevada’s Institute for Autonomous Systems Forms Drone Technology and Funding Matchmaker

The Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) has been a leader in supporting new drone technology since its inception. NIAS is more than an FAA test site: they’re an accelerator for new systems and applications.  Now, NIAS announces a new membership platform designed to bring businesses, customers, and investors together, helping to get new drone solutions to market.

As the industry hype cycle dies down globally, investors are still interested in the sector – but are making fewer, if more significant, investments.  The new platform fills a need for investors looking for good opportunities, customers looking for new solutions, and new startups with game changing technology.

The following is an NIAS press release.

NIAS launches World’s Premier B2B Trade and Investment Matchmaking Platform for Commercialization of Autonomous Systems: Nevada-Global Drone Trade Alliance

12 November 2019.  Following an immensely successful week at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas 28-30 October 2019, the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) and FAA-designated Nevada UAS Test Site announced the official launch of its world premier business-to-business (B2B) trade and investment matchmaking platform for autonomous systems: the Nevada-Global Drone Trade Alliance (NV-GDTA).  This membership-based platform focuses on delivering a series of annual marquee events to bring end-users, technology proponents and service providers, and investors together to identify the needs for novel technology solutions and the capability of autonomous systems to support commercialization, promote investment, and drive the autonomous systems industry forward.

“There is a significant gap and global need for the Nevada Global Drone Trade Alliance.  Our resilient team has been building invaluable international partnerships for the past two years and this latest ‘in demand initiative’ solidifies what we have already been doing extremely well.  The NV-GDTA brings together an international synergy of the best entrepreneurs to create and advance innovation.  When you bring in this type of synergy to the global drone marketplace, the strength of the NV-GDTA is unmatched by any other drone association and there is no better way to lead the global drone industry, ” said Dr. Chris Walach, Executive Director of the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS), FAA-designated Nevada UAS Test Site, and the NIAS Unmanned Aviation Safety Center of Excellence.

“NIAS is a unique UAS test site, in that it specializes in not only solving the problems that face operators who are looking for safe integration of UAVs into the national airspace, but they do so in a way that is commercially viable and scalable.  So, there is really no better test site to showcase true UAV commercial technology to the global marketplace,” said J.B. Bernstein, CEO of AviSight, Inc.

The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s Center for Innovation and Research in Unmanned Systems (CIRUS) is pleased to be the first official Canadian member of the Nevada-Global Drone Trade Alliance (NV-GDTA). This incredible initiative is sure to be the world’s premier B2B Trade and Investment matchmaking platform for autonomous systems, bringing industry and academia together across borders and beyond to realize commercial opportunities for our international drone partners. Through the recently announced MOU between SAIT and NIAS, we are proud to be advancing extreme weather testing and applications in key industry sectors, such as oil and gas, and mining – join us and the NV-GDTA today!” said Rick Tofani, Director of Applied Research and Innovation Services, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Following the success of its recent International Desert Drone Detection (ID3) event in August 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, NIAS will continue to pave the way for the advancement of commercial applications across broad industries.“Events like the Desert Drone Detection (D3) Challenge are invaluable opportunities to share industry capabilities and tackle the growing challenge of keeping our National Airspace safe. Liteye technology is deployed and operational at Airports around the world giving us a unique perspective to share. Our experienced professionals understand the risks and threats to the nation’s airports and are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with industry partners and the aviation community alike,” said Thomas Williamson, Program Manager of Liteye Systems, Inc.

The NV-GDTA will focus on four key marque areas to include:

Commercial UAV Seminar and Technology Demonstration;

International Investment Forum;

Federal Advocacy Fly-in (Regulatory/Legislative focused); and

Outbound Trade and Investment Attraction Mission(s) to select key international trade shows/conferences.

NV-GDTA will bring together the top industry stakeholders in March 2020 for its first commercial technology demonstration event in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada.  “The NIAS launch of NV-GDTA will provide an important vehicle to accelerate the interest of international drone/UAS technology companies in working more actively in the State. Nevada Innovation Center LLC’s (NIC) ongoing efforts to attract Israeli technology to Nevada have already resulted in important visits by Israeli companies to NIAS to explore collaboration models in the UAS space and NV-GDTA will provide the ideal partnership opportunity. NIC has also established a global collaboration between Israeli and Vegas-based companies that has resulted in sophisticated testing of UAVs for the infrastructure market here in Nevada. The demonstration event in Las Vegas/Henderson in March 2020 will serve as the perfect occasion to invite leading UAS tech companies from Israel to establish an active presence in Nevada” saidNissim Ezekiel, Co-Founder of Nevada Innovation Center LLC.

“NIAS aims to build a broad international platform. It is a great opportunity to participate in interesting projects and for transferring technology and knowledge between institutions. Our experience from joint tests of autonomous systems shows that NIAS has extensive competences to build relationships between various entities.  The new NV-GDTA initiative is a chance to create important global technological developments.  I am glad that we are part of this great project together with our NIAS partners,” said Sylvester Wyka, Director for the Center of Space Technologies, Warsaw Institute of Aviation (ILOT).

_____________________________________

About the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS): As Nevada’s designated agency to manage the FAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Test Site, the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) positions Nevada as the global leader in Autonomous Systems (AS) deployment. NIAS is the synergist, clearinghouse, and learning accelerator establishing the premier smart ecosystem for Autonomous Systems which grows the AS Industry while safely integrating AS into the daily lives of the public. Learn more at https://nias-uas.com/nevada-global-drone-trade-alliance/

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case study attached ….there are 6 questions analyzing the business. I have completed a working document template (includes charts to easily fill in so that written answers can be justified) along with an event chronology to make it simple ….see attached documents and let me know if there’s anything unclear MCM721_S14 Strategic Management / Case Exam FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. Instructions: – Case solutions are due June 2nd, 2014 emailed to the Instructor and TA. – Late submissions will be penalized one letter grade for each week late. – Your analysis is to have a maximum of 10 pages (including exhibits and charts). You should apportion pages based upon point worth. – Formats include; 8.5 X 11.5 inch paper, 1 inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman, one and a half spacing. – The exam must be completed individually. Your submission must be entirely your own and may not be shared with other students. – No external information is to be used. The solution is to be based entirely on material contained in the case. Assignment: FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. has decided to solicit the assistance of an MCM Strategic Management student. You are that person! Furthermore, you are to take the role of a consultant and analyze their situation and come up with a recommendation. This means your submission is a formal report to their Board of Directors. FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. is asking you to utilize the Diamond-E construct to help them with the following: 1) (20 marks) Assess the company’s Operating Performance, Organizational Health and construct the resultant Performance Matrix (tool #’s 2-4). 2) (20 marks) Evaluate the Strategy Triangle ((tool #5 which includes Goals (tool #6), Product/Market Focus (tool #7), Value Proposition (tool #8), and Core Activities (tool #9)). You may refer to pages 18 and onward in the text for the theory and then page 33 for an example using WalMart. 3) (20 marks) Conduct an Environmental analysis utilizing all the tools. Apply Porter’s Five Forces (tool #10) model to determine whether the industry is attractive. Include forces and their sub-elements (my graphical in-class hand-out) which have leverage. Also include a PEEST (tool #11) analysis. 4) (5 marks) Construct a Resource Gap analysis (tool #17) – generic responses only, no financials please. 5) (10 marks) Identify Alternatives utilizing criteria you have developed, weighting factors you have deemed appropriate, and analyzed under various plausible scenarios. Refer to Decision Matrix handout received in class. Identify actions to be undertaken in the short, medium and long term (see pages 228-229 in text) 6) (5 marks) Determine position on Crisis Curve (see page 208 in text) 7) (20 marks) Presentation: Is it a well-written report having visual appeal where case facts are supplemented with strong implications (so what?) utilizing proper grammar, spelling, links to exhibits, natural flow from analysis to implications to action plan, as well as having a correct format. Cheers and good luck! As always, we are available to help with the learning but not solutions. FRP Case – 1 FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. This case is not to be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written consent of the authors. Case material is prepared as a basis for classroom discussion only. This material is not covered under authorization from CanCopy or any reproduction rights organization. Any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal of this material is strictly prohibited without written permission from the DeGroote School of Business. Copyright © 1993 by Christopher K. Bart and Marvin G. Ryder. All rights reserved. In early 1993, Elinore Wickham-Jones, President of Fraser River Plastics Ltd., had become uneasy about the cross-currents of opinion that were developing regarding the company’s future direction. Differences of view, perhaps held for some time, surfaced in recent weeks as the merits of several projects – among them a move toward international expansion and an acquisition – were reviewed. There was, Wickham-Jones felt, more than normal agitation in the situation. Lines were hardening on the questions of how aggressively, and in what direction the company should proceed. CORPORATE HISTORY: The Early Years – 1984 to 1988 In the fall of 1984, two Vancouver, British Columbia businessmen, Herbert Rudd and Oliver Farthingham, visited Portland, Oregon on a tour sponsored by the Vancouver Board of Trade. Of the several plants they visited, one facility, Damian Plastics Inc., particularly caught their attention. This plant manufactured heavy plastic products such as utility crates, garbage cans, and packing cartons by injection moulding. Damian was remarkably advanced in the skill of minimizing the raw material weight in the large products it produced, while retaining, through unique design, the essential rigidity and toughness. Both men, and especially Farthingham, who had experience in plastics, felt there was a ready market for the products in Canada: a) in competition with comparable but more expensive plastic products; and b) in substitution for metal products. The two men returned home with a tentative licensing agreement for all of Canada which included technical assistance from Damian and access to all mould designs. The immediate problem facing Rudd and Farthingham was raising the $160,000 equity needed to build a plant and get into operation. By November, however, they put together a group of local businessmen and raised the required funds. Some of the backers, like Elinore Wickham-Jones, were associated with wholesale and industrial supply firms and could assist by providing initial markets for the new plant’s output. On December 9, 1984, the company was incorporated under the name of Fraser River Plastics Ltd. Its three major shareholders were Farthingham (20%), Wickham-Jones (18%) and Rudd (13%). Farthingham became Fraser River’s first President. Rudd was made Secretary-Treasurer and Wickham-Jones became a Vice-President. As the formative weeks passed, Rudd located a two acre site for the company’s manufacturing plant in Chilliwack, British Columbia – a small town near Vancouver. Tenders were called on the building’s construction in February, 1985 and manufacturing equipment was ordered. Through this period, the company was being run by the three officers on a part-time basis, since each had their own full-time business as well. On April 1, 1985 Gunther Heinzman, a former plant manager of a Victoria plastics firm, was hired as General Manager of Fraser River. Heinzman recalled: “Elinore took me out to the site in Chilliwack. It was just a ploughed field! A few days later we did the first public showing of our products at a trade fair in Victoria. All that I had available was two plastic garbage cans, three sizes of the packing cartons, and six pieces of Damian’s literature. One week later, the first carload of products arrived from Portland. Most of it had to be stored in a small warehouse owned by one of our shareholders since there were no storage facilities yet.” FRP Case – 2 In August, 1985, production began at Chilliwack while finishing touches were made on the plant. There was a ready and substantial demand for the products. The price, although high, was accepted and the products were suitable in substitution for conventional products. It was not long before the company operated “in the black”. Through 1986, the company’s operations expanded dramatically. A temporary office annex was erected at the Chilliwack site and the plant’s capacity was increased to accommodate demand. Substantial orders for the company’s products also came in from Alberta. To cut transportation costs and get local exposure, Fraser River purchased an empty plant in Calgary, ordered equipment, and hired a general manager to take charge there. The Calgary plant was in full operation by June, 1986. In time, Fraser River’s success became known among those familiar with plastics processing. Not surprisingly, in 1987 another group of businessmen set up a facility to produce similar injection moulding products in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Fraser River had no legal remedy since the products and processes it licensed from Damian were poorly protected by patents. In addition, the initial barriers to entry – such as the special moulds and know-how -started to crumble. Although the Prince Rupert firm marketed its products under its own name, there was little, save some cosmetic design differences, to distinguish them from the products manufactured by Fraser River. As one company executive put it: “The plant in Prince Rupert was the first time we really experienced direct competition.” Fraser River’s response was an offer to purchase the Prince Rupert competitor. This offer was accepted in November 1987 and Fraser River retained the old company’s major shareholder as general manager. The purchase was not well received, however, by the Prince Rupert company’s minority shareholders. They took their proceeds from the sale and shortly thereafter set up another injection moulding plant in Nanaimo, British Columbia. By 1988, Wickham-Jones and Farthingham became concerned about limitations of the present three-person board in light of the company’s growth and changing external circumstances. There were also signs, particularly in relation to the acquisition of the Prince Rupert company, that some of Fraser River’s minority shareholders were disturbed and would like to see a broader representation of views at the Board level. As a consequence, Fraser River’s board was increased by three members – Owen Palmer, head of a local supermarket chain, Joanna Young, a management consultant who ran the local office of a large national firm, and Michelle O’Reilly, the firm’s legal counsel. To this time, the organization of the company was loosely structured. Each of the firm’s plants in Chilliwack, Calgary and Prince Rupert had its own managers and field salesforce reporting to Gunther Heinzman, the company’s general manager. Although Wickham-Jones, Farthingham and Rudd were considered the overall management committee with responsibility for major decisions such as site selection, price, expansion and capital investments, they were also involved on an ad hoc basis in many overlapping operating functions. The First Transition: 1989 to 1992 At the suggestion of Farthingham, Joanna Young reviewed the company’s organization in early 1989 to “assess the marketing strengths and weaknesses of the company and to suggest desirable changes.” Her principal recommendation was as follows: “There is a clear need for greater continuity, consistency and detail in the top supervision of overall operations. The current dispersed nature of responsibilities among the company’s executives should be focussed in the hands of a single chief executive with time for close day-to-day contact with the organization. As chief executive officer, this person would be responsible for all company operations and for initiating and implementing policy changes with the concurrence of the Board.” Prior to submitting her report, Young reviewed its content with Farthingham and discussed the need for a full time President. Farthingham agreed with the notion, but noted that his own commitments in other companies prevented him from assuming this expanded role. It was not, in any case, his cup of tea: “I’ve always considered myself a front-man, an entrepreneur, a hustler.” As a consequence, Farthingham FRP Case – 3 suggested that he become Chairman and Wickham-Jones become President. In taking on the President’s role, Wickham-Jones agreed to reduce the time spent on her family business and to run Fraser River on a full time basis. At the time of the reorganization, Gunther Heinzman was made Manufacturing Vice- President. Although his title changed, his operating duties with respect to plant operation and supervision remained the same. Heinzman commented on the reorganization: “It was an inevitable change. As general manager, I didn’t have the time needed to run the sales organization. I didn’t like the pressure at the top. Besides, my strength is manufacturing. That’s what I know best and that’s where I’m most comfortable.” Shortly after the reorganization, Lucas Feck was hired for the position of Marketing Vice-President. Feck recounted his early days: “I suppose it was the entrepreneurial attitude and capabilities of the people at Fraser River which attracted me to the company. It was like running my own business, there was freedom to run things as I thought they should be. When I joined, Fraser River had experienced no stiff competition from new entrants yet. The company was begging for more structure and policies in its administration. For instance, at Calgary, the sales manager had no fixed sales price. Hell, there wasn’t even a price list, so no one in the marketplace – including our customers – knew what the prices of the products were from one day to the next. There was no fixed collection policy for the company, and there was a high turnover in sales personnel. During my first eighteen months, I restructured the sales organization. I set up the company’s first sales forecast and budgets for each territory and established a reporting system so that salespeople knew how they and their region were doing on a monthly basis. I even instituted an advertising budget – another first!” Throughout 1989, the company continued to grow. Demand was strong and prices were reasonable in spite of the advent of significant competition and an emerging economic recession. The year was also marked by two acquisitions: Beaver Plastics in Vancouver, British Columbia and Simcoe Plastics of Kamloops, British Columbia. Beaver Plastics was a company owned by Farthingham which manufactured plastic pipe using an extrusion moulding process. In late 1989, Farthingham expressed concern over having to wear “two hats” in promoting the products of both Fraser River and Beaver. Even customers were associating the two firms as one. Salesmen from the two companies often called on the same wholesaler/distributor accounts. In fact, some of Fraser River’s fittings were made to fit the plastic pipe produced by Beaver. At the same time, Fraser River was looking for opportunities to expand its product lines. On this reasoning, Farthingham offered, in early 1990, his company for sale to the Board of Fraser River. The sale was negotiated for cash and debt and by year’s end Wickham-Jones reported that the sales, profits and growth resulting from the acquisition were “very encouraging”. Simcoe Plastics was a family owned operation which manufactured plastic shower curtains and raincoats using a manufacturing process known as calendering. In October of 1989, Wickham-Jones heard the company was for sale. By purchasing Simcoe, Wickham-Jones believed Fraser River would achieve product diversification plus have access to producing other items such as plastic wall coverings, and backing for upholstery fabrics. Remarkably, Fraser River had completed its purchase of Simcoe by November. The most significant operational change involved experimentation with the production of plastic coated wall coverings. By doing so, the company hoped to take up the apparent slack in Simcoe’s manufacturing facilities. Despite the worsening recession, Fraser River concluded its 1990 fiscal year on a particularly strong note (Exhibit 1). The strong profit record resulting, however, did not completely mask a number of developing problems: (a) The plant manager in the Calgary manufacturing facility was fired because of a failure to reduce inefficiencies and waste in the plant. FRP Case – 4 (b) Inefficiency was also a problem at Simcoe although the waste factor had been reduced substantially since the company’s acquisition. Simcoe was experimenting with production of new plastic products. Costs there were mounting rapidly and beginning to concern Fraser River executives. Some blamed these problems on over confidence in those supervising the company. Simcoe’s plant manager had remained when the firm was acquired by Fraser River. In retrospect, he did not have the necessary qualifications to successfully oversee the plant’s experimental work. As a consequence, he was fired in May, 1990, and Heinzman was instructed to supervise more closely the operation of the plant and its product development activities. (c) Two large competitors had entered Fraser River’s traditional markets. One, Moldform Ltd., was the subsidiary of a large conglomerate organization and the other Plastech, Ltd., was a division of a company involved in other plastic processing operations. Both operated in British Columbia and Alberta. Market shares were unknown but a rough estimate gave Fraser River about 40 percent of the western market, and 15 percent each to Moldform and Plastech. The balance of 30 percent was made up by many small companies manufacturing partial lines and capitalizing on low overheads and local contacts to operate. In 1991, Fraser River witnessed the demand for its products in British Columbia soften due mostly to increased competition and local market saturation. To expand the market, the company built a manufacturing facility in Winnipeg. Sales of Fraser River’s products in Manitoba had risen during the past several years but transportation costs reduced the firm’s competitive position and profit margin. The risk of entering the region, against established competition, was accepted by company executives. The company also had encouraging internal projections covering the size and future growth of the eastern market. At a board meeting, Wickham-Jones later informed the other members that because of the decline in market growth and increasing competition, particularly in British Columbia, she and Lucas Feck were investigating numerous potential corporate acquisitions for Fraser River including a car dealership, a precision tool manufacturing operation, a hotel and a corrugated steel manufacturing operation. To date, no “deal” had been consummated. In September, 1992, Wickham-Jones hired Clayton Dunwood as Fraser River’s vice president for administration. Dunwood assumed complete responsibility for the accounting and financial affairs of the company. In particular, Wickham-Jones felt that Dunwood would help her with her investigations of future corporate acquisitions. However, Lucas Feck, the company’s marketing vice president was especially disappointed with Fraser River’s efforts in this area. He commented on Fraser River’s need for new companies: “Since 1989 I have been pushing other senior managers to find new areas for investment and growth. Fraser River’s bread and butter products have become commodity items. The industry is easy to enter. We have to have other businesses to support the overheads which have built up in the company. When I look at our markets here in British Columbia, I don’t see anywhere to go … and it looks like its going to be an uphill battle to crack the Eastern market. That’s why I firmly believe that we should be planning our growth more – with say, 20 percent coming from new acquisitions. We haven’t had a new company here in some time. It’s very frustrating when you consider the number of firms that we’ve looked at. Of course, you get people like Joanna Young and that lawyer, O’Reilly. Whenever we bring a good acquisition to the Board, they’re always harping on how there are better deals around. Yet, they can’t suggest any themselves.” Through 1992, Wickham-Jones also pursued another venture. Through various publications, she was aware of the need for the type of products produced by Fraser River in other parts of the world, particularly in the lesser-developed countries (LDC’s) in Asia. This represented an opportunity for Fraser River with its accumulated expertise in plastic products. Wickham-Jones especially looked for a partner to provide the acumen and international contacts which Fraser River lacked. Preliminary discussions were held with one such partner – a Canadian manufacturer of logging and sawmill equipment with sales offices in a number of foreign countries and a record of joint venture projects with nationals of those countries (mainly to FRP Case – 5 set up logging/sawmill operations). The proposed agreement was for the two companies to form a joint venture limited partnership supplying capital, equipment and expertise for new ventures in the manufacture of plastic products. Hopefully, Canadian based resin suppliers could be brought into the deal. Conscious of the reactions multinationals received when they “invaded the LDC’s”, the joint venture company was to keep a low profile in its international undertakings. By December, Wickham-Jones reported that she had identified several countries in Asia as possible sites for a first undertaking. The pursuit of the joint venture’s arrangements was, for the most part, being conducted by Wickham-Jones alone. She was, many felt, personally committed to the project and was devoting more and more of her time to it. Wickham-Jones commented: “Sure, I’m committed. I really believe we can turn Fraser River into a world wide organization and provide a useful service to other countries at the same time. “And, yes, this project is taking up a lot of my time. But that’s because we don’t know anything about operating on an international level. Once I know what’s involved, I’ll probably hire another vice president and put him in charge of our international operations. In addition, the universities are full of young aggressive people who can be brought on board to help “fill the gaps” created in Fraser River…We should also be able to buy talent either from the market or other organizations…” (Although there was no official organization chart prepared, organization charts for the various companies controlled by Fraser River and for corporate headquarters are presented in Exhibits 2 and 3 respectively.) The Situation in Early 1993 In January 1993, Wickham-Jones received drafts of Fraser River’s financial statements for the 1992 fiscal year. Overall, growth in company sales was sluggish resulting from sharper competition – in particular, from some of the smaller local plastic manufacturing plants. They had contributed to the considerable market erosion experienced by Fraser River, especially in British Columbia. The company’s share in Alberta, on the other hand, had remained strong. Profits had slipped a bit due to interest payments. Unfortunately, Simcoe Plastics had not made much progress. To improve the situation, a qualified and experienced plastics engineer had been hired in late 1992 to take over the plant. The Board considered making Simcoe more independent, by hiring a general manager, but that action had been deferred for the moment. Beaver Plastics was also in trouble. The British Columbia market for extruded pipe was saturated and extremely competitive. At present, there were few growth prospects available until the international and eastern projects began to “take-off”. Yet, the eastern market had become a sore spot. Acceptance of Fraser River’s products had not been as favourable as initially thought. Wickham-Jones forecast, however, that within two years, the Manitoba plant should be self- supporting. In the meantime, two specific issues had arisen and required action. Fraser River’s potential partner in the international joint venture reported that its office in Indonesia had conducted preliminary inquiries with both government officials and local businesspeople and substantial interest had been expressed. A request had been made for Fraser River to send an investigative team to Indonesia. Wickham-Jones felt that should she delay too long on the matter, her “partner” might begin to doubt Fraser River’s good faith or abilities to proceed. In addition, Wickham-Jones had heard of another plastics company which was for sale and which, if acquired, might serve to strengthen and broaden Fraser River’s product line. The company involved was called Plasti-Weave and was located in Kelowna, British Columbia – approximately 80 kilometres away from the Chilliwack facility. Plasti-Weave was a very small operation with sales of less then one million dollars in FRP Case – 6 1992. See Exhibit 4. It had developed a significant and potentially patentable process to “weave” plastic strips into sheets. These sheets had great strength and were used as substitutes for jute in carpet backing, furniture manufacture, etc. In 1992, Plasti-Weave required a major expansion. A new plant and warehouse would have to be built in Kelowna at an approximate cost of $750,000. The owner of Plasti-Weave, Clifford Bell, who was also the inventor of the manufacturing process, did not want to commit himself to this level of debt at the age of 62, or to be responsible for managing the company. Two heart attacks in the past year resulted in his decision to sell, if the price was right, and on the condition that he be retained as a consultant to the company for at least ten years. Wickham-Jones was enthusiastic about the potential acquisition. However she was unsure what the board’s reaction would be in light of the one million dollar asking price. She was confident, nevertheless, that the board would approve the deal – if she pushed for it. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Oliver Farthingham – Chairman of the Board Oliver Farthingham began his own business on graduation from high school. He had interests in an automotive body repair business and a partnership in a Canadian distributorship for narrow-aisle fork-lift trucks. As Chairman of the Board, Farthingham’s day-to-day involvement with Fraser River was limited but this did not stop him from what he liked to do best – promote the Fraser River name. In fact he was regarded as one of the most outspoken people in the company. Farthingham commented on Fraser River and its operations: “As chairman, I’m a “positive thinker.” I’m sure not a worrier…I’m a doer and a real strategist. I also think that I have an ability to persuade people and inspire confidence. Although my job and title around here has changed, I still have the reputation for being a “high price” zealot. Fraser River’s prices have generally been the highest in the industry. Sometimes our shareholders question me on this point. I always tell them that we’re not in business to make plastic products – but rather to make profits. People respect me for that. The world is full of pessimists and timid people. That’s not my style. I’m quite innovative and have a knack for foresight. Look at our acquisitions. For instance, there’s our plant in Prince Rupert. It made us look strong in our clients’ and competitors’ eyes. Sure it’s not as strong today due to the competition but that’s because the guy we have running the show there has lost his aggressiveness. As for the purchase of Simcoe, I don’t buy the stories about our failure in developing new products there. The problem is that we’ve just been fooling around and haven’t devoted our full efforts to these experimental projects. Plastics, unfortunately, is a cyclic industry controlled by the economy, crude oil supplies and costs. This means, therefore, that we have to look for new products and new companies. We should especially be considering more exciting ventures like sports bars, cappuccino kiosks or even roller blade clubs. They’re the rage in the U.S. right now. Market demand is phenomenal – 200% annually. Competition is low. We can get in on the ground floor. And we can buy the managerial talent we need to run them for us. They are opportunities that won’t wait for us. The pessimists, however, say that we don’t have the resources to handle these deals. Well, Fraser River has been in this position in the past and we’ve survived. Look at how we originally got started. To be an entrepreneur takes guts! I’m a risk taker and I know when the odds are in our favour. We can’t afford to burden ourselves with negative thoughts. I feel I have a personal obligation to all of our shareholders to keep our reputation and profits the most attractive in the industry. After all, we still have the same number of shareholders we started out with. To keep them, we have to show them that their investment is better left in the company and to reward them with bigger dividends. We also have to provide them with some vehicle for eventually cashing out. So, I guess this means we’ll have to consider going public. I think it would enhance our image greatly too.” FRP Case – 7 Elinore Wickham-Jones – President Elinore Wickham-Jones had accomplished two of the major objectives in her life – she was financially well-off and she had built a company “from the ground up.” Wickham-Jones used most of her personal savings to invest in the formation of Fraser River. As vice-president of Fraser River, she was known for her analytical brilliance. When she became president, she committed herself to making the company grow into a national plastic manufacturing concern. “From 1985 to 1991, we managed to grow in spite of ourselves and our mistakes. To our credit, though, we moved quickly, we were flexible, and did not get bogged down in bureaucracy or paperwork. Today, not all of our operations are as strong as we’d like, but there is still potential in them. Take Beaver Plastics for instance. It was a natural combination with Fraser River. Sure, things are slow right now, but once we establish ourselves out east or in other new territories, we will do alright. Simcoe Plastics is another case in point – and there, our plant manager was not as good as we thought he was. We’ve learned a lot from our R & D work at Simcoe – even though it cost us $200,000. I’d like to see Fraser River grow on an even-keel basis through acquisitions and international expansion. Of course, we’re only interested in profitable and growing ventures. But we can’t afford to be in it just for the money. We need to maintain our profits so that we can fund other projects as opportunities present themselves. That’s why I’m particularly keen on both our Plasti-weave acquisition proposal and the joint venture. Right now, we’re heavily committed to what are essentially simple plastic products in just one market, Canada. Consequently, we have to reduce the associated risks. We haven’t begun to exploit the American market opened to us through the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and with a North American Free Trade Agreement soon to be complete, markets in Central and South America are becoming available. Unfortunately, these new programmes always seem to bring us back to the issue of financing. So, we need more capital and that probably means an equity issue. The question, however, becomes one of when and how?” Herbert Rudd – Senior Vice President Herbert Rudd completed his schooling up to Grade 10 but left because his parents could no longer afford to have him going to school instead of working on the farm. Like most farmers, Rudd became an expert in home repairs. When he left home, he worked for a small home contractor until he decided to start his own construction business. As Senior Vice-President, his primary responsibility had been to represent the company at industry and trade fairs and exhibits both in Canada and abroad. Rudd commented: “Oliver and I are the real entrepreneurs in this company. So, we make decisions primarily on gut-feel. But I do think I have good business sense and that’s what I use to guide me in my judgements. Looking back, I feel our biggest mistake has been the operation of large plants such as we have in Chilliwack and Calgary. Right now, small competitors have lower overhead and transportation costs and a more competitive price… The joint venture project is a fantastic concept with unlimited potential for our company. I can’t give any firm projections but something tells me that this is the right road to go on. Look at Mexico. There are more people earning over $50,000 per year than there are living in Canada. I expect a western hemisphere free trade agreement by the year 2000. Some people are worried about staffing international ventures. Heck, there’s a lot of talent in this company that’s just not being used. After all, a boy doesn’t become a man until he has a man’s job to do… Looking at the products we manufacture, though. I can’t honestly say if they’re better than everybody else’s. I know they do the same job. But, looking at them, there’s nothing to distinguish them from your ordinary loaf of bread. I also think that we have a problem communicating to our customers. Our salesmen could do a better job finding out what our customers want and what new products we should be producing. Another major concern of mine is that we’re just a limited product company and there’s too much risk in it. That’s why I’m in favour of diversification. And I really don’t care what sort of companies we acquire. We can always hire someone to run them for us.” FRP Case – 8 Lucas Feck – Vice-President (Marketing) Lucas Feck received his B. Comm. from a large American University. Upon graduation he joined a multi-national chemical company which operated a subsidiary in Canada. Within four years, he became its general manager. After the subsidiary was purchased by another multi-national conglomerate, Feck became disenchanted and resigned to start his own small business. Despite his own company’s success, Feck became bored and sold his interest in that business to go back to university and get his MBA. After graduating, he contacted several large executive placement firms looking for a position in a small to medium sized growth business. This led to his being hired as marketing vice-president for Fraser River Plastics. By far, Feck was the most avid promoter of expanding the company by means of acquisitions. Because of the number of acquisition investigations in which he had been actively involved – but which had failed to result in a concrete purchase – Feck now believed that one of the reasons for this lay in the company’s present structure. Feck commented on the most critical problems facing the company: “Our neck is really in the noose today because of the competition we’re up against, especially in British Columbia. So I’m pretty strong on the idea of acquisitions. They’re the key to our future. Personally, I believe we could run or manage any type of company – hotels, food processing, even steel corrugation plants. Others don’t. Take this Plasti-Weave acquisition. It’s a natural combination with our business – plastics. But, better still, it represents a real chance for Fraser River to latch onto a proprietary item. It involves a new technology. We can get the jump on the industry and at the same time start moving out of our “commodity product” line. As for the joint venture idea, I think we have some real problems because we’ve never considered: (a) who’s going to be moving from Fraser River to staff the project, and (b) who we’re going to find to fill the gaps created in Fraser River. I’ve been pushing Elinore on this point, but he keeps saying, “not to worry.” I think our biggest problem around here, however, has to be that senior management is perpetually caught up 110% with day-to-day tasks. I don’t think that we’ll ever find any new growth or good acquisitions as long as we don’t free up some of our time. Elinore Wickham-Jones has a problem divorcing herself from finance and administration. She’s also been spending a lot of her time these days on the joint venture project…That’s her style though. Oliver Farthingham’s style, however, is to `represent’ the company. He shouldn’t be doing that as Chairman of the company. He should be setting goals. After all, isn’t the Board responsible for the overall direction of the company. So what if “management” wants to do one thing. The Board can just overturn it. I do know this…I only get my kicks from challenges. Day-to-day work is a necessity, of course, but it’s not challenging to me. I’m not interested in managing a division. I just want senior management responsibility and exciting work. Otherwise, I get bored.” Gunther Heinzman – Vice-President (Production) Heinzman was in charge of the company’s six plants located in Chilliwack, Vancouver (Beaver), Prince Rupert, Calgary, Winnipeg and Kamloops (Simcoe). Each plant had its own production manager reporting directly to Heinzman. A native of Germany, Heinzman emigrated to Canada with his parents. His first job was in a small manufacturing concern, working on the production line. Since then, he has spent most of his life in production. Heinzman discussed the company: “I learned this business from the ground up. Every free moment I had during the day and at night was spent reading every trade journal I could get my hands on. But, I guess you could say that even today, I’m kept pretty busy just keeping my end under control. I’ve never been a frivolous person. I suppose it comes from my German background. That’s why I have always run a tight ship. If Elinore ever told me to cut costs, I wouldn’t know where to start because I think we’re at maximum efficiency. And I’ve tried to instill this objective into each one of my plant managers. I’ve trained every one of them, except the Simcoe manager, and I’m very proud of them. Naturally, I’m a little more liberal today but I like to do things as cheap as possible. Sometimes, Elinore has to say to me: `Don’t hold the penny so close to your eye Gunther, that you can’t see the dollar behind it. FRP Case – 9 When I look at our acquisitions, there are some real lessons to be learned. I don’t regret our purchase of the Prince Rupert plant because it has always supported itself. The manager there runs the company as if it was his own. After all, it used to be his own. Simcoe, however, should be a warning to future acquisitions. And, as for this Plasti-Weave deal, I won’t say anything about it because I don’t know anything about it. And that’s because I haven’t been involved in the discussions. I’m not opposed to acquisitions but I’m naturally afraid of things that I don’t know too much about. Elinore, of course, is more enthusiastic about acquisitions. Me, I’m a little more nervous about them only because I’m not sure how much more work I could handle. As for this joint venture project, Elinore is again playing her cards close to the vest and I don’t think it’s such a good idea. It’s a big responsibility for her to be carrying alone. Besides, I’m a nationalist. Canada has been good to me and to this company. I think we could spend our dollars much wiser here.” APPENDIX A The Plastics Processing Industry in 1993 Although the history of plastics and plastic products goes back over one hundred years, the industry was still generally regarded in North America as young and growing. In fact, it has only been since the second world war that plastics began to achieve their status as a major primary or substitute manufacturing material. In 1993, there were over 1,400 firms engaged in plastic processing in Canada with most of the companies located in Ontario and Quebec. Of these Canadian firms, the majority had sales of less than two million dollars. The bulk of company shipments constituted proprietary products. The remainder were either produced on a custom basis or as “captive operations” for a larger manufacturing entity. This breakdown, however, is difficult to confirm precisely due to the variety of business practices in which any one manufacturing concern engaged. In terms of the future, world shipments in the plastic processing industry were estimated to be moderately “favourable” given the tentative signals of economic recovery. The factors contributing to this projection were: an anticipated moderate level of economic growth; a continuing substitution of traditional materials with plastics; and the emergent growth in the manufacturing sector. Costs depended largely on the type of process used. For instance, “reinforced” plastic products such as boats or storage tanks were relatively labour intensive while “extrusion” products (e.g., pipes, films, etc.) were relatively capital intensive. In comparison with other global industries such as petrochemicals, the plastics industry was still considered a labour intensive area since the capital investment per production related employee ranged between Cdn. $5,000-$42,000 while in petrochemicals it was about Cdn. $200,000. It was anticipated that Canadian plastic manufacturing capacity would be sufficient to meet Canadian demands. In addition, Canadian resin prices, which at one time exceeded world prices by 10%, were seen as becoming more competitive with U.S. and other international prices given the recent Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The prospect, in 1993, of a potential Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement was expected to result in significant downward pressure on world prices and consolidation of the North American industry participants through mergers and bankruptcies. FRP Case – 10 EXHIBIT 1 Fraser River Plastics Ltd. Consolidated Statement of Operations (Audited, December 31, 1992) with comparative figures for 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988 (in thousands of dollars) ASSETS 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 Cash 25 30 5 565 110 Term deposits & marketable securities – 583 2 – 690 Accounts receivable 2,453 1,155 1,215 423 540 Inventories 3,827 2,625 1,923 2,163 357 Deposits 13 25 140 2 3 Total Current Assets 6,318 4,428 3,285 3,153 1,700 Property, plant & equipment, at cost less accumulated depreciation 4,453 2,935 2,743 1,940 1,468 Other assets 17 28 7 15 60 Excess of cost of subsidiaries over the net book value of acquired assets, at cost less amortization 105 145 185 105 130 Total Assets 10,893 7,536 6,220 5,213 3,358 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 Current Liabilities: Bank overdraft & loan 2,348 863 515 – – Accounts payable & accrued charges 892 1,042 338 1,063 145 Income & other taxes payable 618 738 962 1,065 260 Royalty payable – – 70 90 400 Total Current Liabilities 3,858 2,643 1,885 2,198 805 Deferred revenue 28 33 33 – – Long term debt 3,150 1,120 1,282 715 875 7,036 3,796 3,200 2,913 1,680 Shareholders’ Equity: Preferred shares – – – – 253 Common shares 205 205 205 32 32 Contributed surplus 70 70 70 70 70 Retained earnings 3,582 3,465 2,745 2,198 1,323 Total Shareholders’ Equity 3,857 3,740 3,020 2,300 1,678 Total Liabilities & Shareholders’ Equity 10,893 7,536 6,220 5,213 3,358 FRP Case – 11 EXHIBIT 1 (Continued) Fraser River Plastics Ltd. Consolidated Statement of Operations (Audited, December 31, 1992) (in thousands of dollars) 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 Net Sales 16,445 15,750 10,903 7,835 5,403 Cost of sales 11,228 10,765 7,178 3,990 3,455 Gross Profit 5,217 4,985 3,725 3,845 1,948 Selling, general & administrative expenses 3,605 2,750 1,898 838 655 Royalty expense 332 332 332 625 338 3,937 3,082 2,230 1,463 993 1,280 1,903 1,495 2,382 955 Interest & other income 128 135 40 163 80 1,408 2,038 1,535 2,545 1,035 Interest, long term debt 493 138 92 70 77 Amortization of excess cost of subsidiaries over net book value of acquired assets 40 40 35 27 – 533 178 127 97 77 Earnings Before Income Taxes 875 1,860 1,408 2,448 958 Income taxes 480 825 610 1,208 453 Net Earnings 395 1,035 798 1,240 505 Earnings Per Common Share .08 .20 .15 .24 .10 Dividends paid 278 315 251 365

case study attached ….there are 6 questions analyzing the business. I have completed a working document template (includes charts to easily fill in so that written answers can be justified) along with an event chronology to make it simple ….see attached documents and let me know if there’s anything unclear MCM721_S14 Strategic Management / Case Exam FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. Instructions: – Case solutions are due June 2nd, 2014 emailed to the Instructor and TA. – Late submissions will be penalized one letter grade for each week late. – Your analysis is to have a maximum of 10 pages (including exhibits and charts). You should apportion pages based upon point worth. – Formats include; 8.5 X 11.5 inch paper, 1 inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman, one and a half spacing. – The exam must be completed individually. Your submission must be entirely your own and may not be shared with other students. – No external information is to be used. The solution is to be based entirely on material contained in the case. Assignment: FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. has decided to solicit the assistance of an MCM Strategic Management student. You are that person! Furthermore, you are to take the role of a consultant and analyze their situation and come up with a recommendation. This means your submission is a formal report to their Board of Directors. FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. is asking you to utilize the Diamond-E construct to help them with the following: 1) (20 marks) Assess the company’s Operating Performance, Organizational Health and construct the resultant Performance Matrix (tool #’s 2-4). 2) (20 marks) Evaluate the Strategy Triangle ((tool #5 which includes Goals (tool #6), Product/Market Focus (tool #7), Value Proposition (tool #8), and Core Activities (tool #9)). You may refer to pages 18 and onward in the text for the theory and then page 33 for an example using WalMart. 3) (20 marks) Conduct an Environmental analysis utilizing all the tools. Apply Porter’s Five Forces (tool #10) model to determine whether the industry is attractive. Include forces and their sub-elements (my graphical in-class hand-out) which have leverage. Also include a PEEST (tool #11) analysis. 4) (5 marks) Construct a Resource Gap analysis (tool #17) – generic responses only, no financials please. 5) (10 marks) Identify Alternatives utilizing criteria you have developed, weighting factors you have deemed appropriate, and analyzed under various plausible scenarios. Refer to Decision Matrix handout received in class. Identify actions to be undertaken in the short, medium and long term (see pages 228-229 in text) 6) (5 marks) Determine position on Crisis Curve (see page 208 in text) 7) (20 marks) Presentation: Is it a well-written report having visual appeal where case facts are supplemented with strong implications (so what?) utilizing proper grammar, spelling, links to exhibits, natural flow from analysis to implications to action plan, as well as having a correct format. Cheers and good luck! As always, we are available to help with the learning but not solutions. FRP Case – 1 FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. This case is not to be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written consent of the authors. Case material is prepared as a basis for classroom discussion only. This material is not covered under authorization from CanCopy or any reproduction rights organization. Any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal of this material is strictly prohibited without written permission from the DeGroote School of Business. Copyright © 1993 by Christopher K. Bart and Marvin G. Ryder. All rights reserved. In early 1993, Elinore Wickham-Jones, President of Fraser River Plastics Ltd., had become uneasy about the cross-currents of opinion that were developing regarding the company’s future direction. Differences of view, perhaps held for some time, surfaced in recent weeks as the merits of several projects – among them a move toward international expansion and an acquisition – were reviewed. There was, Wickham-Jones felt, more than normal agitation in the situation. Lines were hardening on the questions of how aggressively, and in what direction the company should proceed. CORPORATE HISTORY: The Early Years – 1984 to 1988 In the fall of 1984, two Vancouver, British Columbia businessmen, Herbert Rudd and Oliver Farthingham, visited Portland, Oregon on a tour sponsored by the Vancouver Board of Trade. Of the several plants they visited, one facility, Damian Plastics Inc., particularly caught their attention. This plant manufactured heavy plastic products such as utility crates, garbage cans, and packing cartons by injection moulding. Damian was remarkably advanced in the skill of minimizing the raw material weight in the large products it produced, while retaining, through unique design, the essential rigidity and toughness. Both men, and especially Farthingham, who had experience in plastics, felt there was a ready market for the products in Canada: a) in competition with comparable but more expensive plastic products; and b) in substitution for metal products. The two men returned home with a tentative licensing agreement for all of Canada which included technical assistance from Damian and access to all mould designs. The immediate problem facing Rudd and Farthingham was raising the $160,000 equity needed to build a plant and get into operation. By November, however, they put together a group of local businessmen and raised the required funds. Some of the backers, like Elinore Wickham-Jones, were associated with wholesale and industrial supply firms and could assist by providing initial markets for the new plant’s output. On December 9, 1984, the company was incorporated under the name of Fraser River Plastics Ltd. Its three major shareholders were Farthingham (20%), Wickham-Jones (18%) and Rudd (13%). Farthingham became Fraser River’s first President. Rudd was made Secretary-Treasurer and Wickham-Jones became a Vice-President. As the formative weeks passed, Rudd located a two acre site for the company’s manufacturing plant in Chilliwack, British Columbia – a small town near Vancouver. Tenders were called on the building’s construction in February, 1985 and manufacturing equipment was ordered. Through this period, the company was being run by the three officers on a part-time basis, since each had their own full-time business as well. On April 1, 1985 Gunther Heinzman, a former plant manager of a Victoria plastics firm, was hired as General Manager of Fraser River. Heinzman recalled: “Elinore took me out to the site in Chilliwack. It was just a ploughed field! A few days later we did the first public showing of our products at a trade fair in Victoria. All that I had available was two plastic garbage cans, three sizes of the packing cartons, and six pieces of Damian’s literature. One week later, the first carload of products arrived from Portland. Most of it had to be stored in a small warehouse owned by one of our shareholders since there were no storage facilities yet.” FRP Case – 2 In August, 1985, production began at Chilliwack while finishing touches were made on the plant. There was a ready and substantial demand for the products. The price, although high, was accepted and the products were suitable in substitution for conventional products. It was not long before the company operated “in the black”. Through 1986, the company’s operations expanded dramatically. A temporary office annex was erected at the Chilliwack site and the plant’s capacity was increased to accommodate demand. Substantial orders for the company’s products also came in from Alberta. To cut transportation costs and get local exposure, Fraser River purchased an empty plant in Calgary, ordered equipment, and hired a general manager to take charge there. The Calgary plant was in full operation by June, 1986. In time, Fraser River’s success became known among those familiar with plastics processing. Not surprisingly, in 1987 another group of businessmen set up a facility to produce similar injection moulding products in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Fraser River had no legal remedy since the products and processes it licensed from Damian were poorly protected by patents. In addition, the initial barriers to entry – such as the special moulds and know-how -started to crumble. Although the Prince Rupert firm marketed its products under its own name, there was little, save some cosmetic design differences, to distinguish them from the products manufactured by Fraser River. As one company executive put it: “The plant in Prince Rupert was the first time we really experienced direct competition.” Fraser River’s response was an offer to purchase the Prince Rupert competitor. This offer was accepted in November 1987 and Fraser River retained the old company’s major shareholder as general manager. The purchase was not well received, however, by the Prince Rupert company’s minority shareholders. They took their proceeds from the sale and shortly thereafter set up another injection moulding plant in Nanaimo, British Columbia. By 1988, Wickham-Jones and Farthingham became concerned about limitations of the present three-person board in light of the company’s growth and changing external circumstances. There were also signs, particularly in relation to the acquisition of the Prince Rupert company, that some of Fraser River’s minority shareholders were disturbed and would like to see a broader representation of views at the Board level. As a consequence, Fraser River’s board was increased by three members – Owen Palmer, head of a local supermarket chain, Joanna Young, a management consultant who ran the local office of a large national firm, and Michelle O’Reilly, the firm’s legal counsel. To this time, the organization of the company was loosely structured. Each of the firm’s plants in Chilliwack, Calgary and Prince Rupert had its own managers and field salesforce reporting to Gunther Heinzman, the company’s general manager. Although Wickham-Jones, Farthingham and Rudd were considered the overall management committee with responsibility for major decisions such as site selection, price, expansion and capital investments, they were also involved on an ad hoc basis in many overlapping operating functions. The First Transition: 1989 to 1992 At the suggestion of Farthingham, Joanna Young reviewed the company’s organization in early 1989 to “assess the marketing strengths and weaknesses of the company and to suggest desirable changes.” Her principal recommendation was as follows: “There is a clear need for greater continuity, consistency and detail in the top supervision of overall operations. The current dispersed nature of responsibilities among the company’s executives should be focussed in the hands of a single chief executive with time for close day-to-day contact with the organization. As chief executive officer, this person would be responsible for all company operations and for initiating and implementing policy changes with the concurrence of the Board.” Prior to submitting her report, Young reviewed its content with Farthingham and discussed the need for a full time President. Farthingham agreed with the notion, but noted that his own commitments in other companies prevented him from assuming this expanded role. It was not, in any case, his cup of tea: “I’ve always considered myself a front-man, an entrepreneur, a hustler.” As a consequence, Farthingham FRP Case – 3 suggested that he become Chairman and Wickham-Jones become President. In taking on the President’s role, Wickham-Jones agreed to reduce the time spent on her family business and to run Fraser River on a full time basis. At the time of the reorganization, Gunther Heinzman was made Manufacturing Vice- President. Although his title changed, his operating duties with respect to plant operation and supervision remained the same. Heinzman commented on the reorganization: “It was an inevitable change. As general manager, I didn’t have the time needed to run the sales organization. I didn’t like the pressure at the top. Besides, my strength is manufacturing. That’s what I know best and that’s where I’m most comfortable.” Shortly after the reorganization, Lucas Feck was hired for the position of Marketing Vice-President. Feck recounted his early days: “I suppose it was the entrepreneurial attitude and capabilities of the people at Fraser River which attracted me to the company. It was like running my own business, there was freedom to run things as I thought they should be. When I joined, Fraser River had experienced no stiff competition from new entrants yet. The company was begging for more structure and policies in its administration. For instance, at Calgary, the sales manager had no fixed sales price. Hell, there wasn’t even a price list, so no one in the marketplace – including our customers – knew what the prices of the products were from one day to the next. There was no fixed collection policy for the company, and there was a high turnover in sales personnel. During my first eighteen months, I restructured the sales organization. I set up the company’s first sales forecast and budgets for each territory and established a reporting system so that salespeople knew how they and their region were doing on a monthly basis. I even instituted an advertising budget – another first!” Throughout 1989, the company continued to grow. Demand was strong and prices were reasonable in spite of the advent of significant competition and an emerging economic recession. The year was also marked by two acquisitions: Beaver Plastics in Vancouver, British Columbia and Simcoe Plastics of Kamloops, British Columbia. Beaver Plastics was a company owned by Farthingham which manufactured plastic pipe using an extrusion moulding process. In late 1989, Farthingham expressed concern over having to wear “two hats” in promoting the products of both Fraser River and Beaver. Even customers were associating the two firms as one. Salesmen from the two companies often called on the same wholesaler/distributor accounts. In fact, some of Fraser River’s fittings were made to fit the plastic pipe produced by Beaver. At the same time, Fraser River was looking for opportunities to expand its product lines. On this reasoning, Farthingham offered, in early 1990, his company for sale to the Board of Fraser River. The sale was negotiated for cash and debt and by year’s end Wickham-Jones reported that the sales, profits and growth resulting from the acquisition were “very encouraging”. Simcoe Plastics was a family owned operation which manufactured plastic shower curtains and raincoats using a manufacturing process known as calendering. In October of 1989, Wickham-Jones heard the company was for sale. By purchasing Simcoe, Wickham-Jones believed Fraser River would achieve product diversification plus have access to producing other items such as plastic wall coverings, and backing for upholstery fabrics. Remarkably, Fraser River had completed its purchase of Simcoe by November. The most significant operational change involved experimentation with the production of plastic coated wall coverings. By doing so, the company hoped to take up the apparent slack in Simcoe’s manufacturing facilities. Despite the worsening recession, Fraser River concluded its 1990 fiscal year on a particularly strong note (Exhibit 1). The strong profit record resulting, however, did not completely mask a number of developing problems: (a) The plant manager in the Calgary manufacturing facility was fired because of a failure to reduce inefficiencies and waste in the plant. FRP Case – 4 (b) Inefficiency was also a problem at Simcoe although the waste factor had been reduced substantially since the company’s acquisition. Simcoe was experimenting with production of new plastic products. Costs there were mounting rapidly and beginning to concern Fraser River executives. Some blamed these problems on over confidence in those supervising the company. Simcoe’s plant manager had remained when the firm was acquired by Fraser River. In retrospect, he did not have the necessary qualifications to successfully oversee the plant’s experimental work. As a consequence, he was fired in May, 1990, and Heinzman was instructed to supervise more closely the operation of the plant and its product development activities. (c) Two large competitors had entered Fraser River’s traditional markets. One, Moldform Ltd., was the subsidiary of a large conglomerate organization and the other Plastech, Ltd., was a division of a company involved in other plastic processing operations. Both operated in British Columbia and Alberta. Market shares were unknown but a rough estimate gave Fraser River about 40 percent of the western market, and 15 percent each to Moldform and Plastech. The balance of 30 percent was made up by many small companies manufacturing partial lines and capitalizing on low overheads and local contacts to operate. In 1991, Fraser River witnessed the demand for its products in British Columbia soften due mostly to increased competition and local market saturation. To expand the market, the company built a manufacturing facility in Winnipeg. Sales of Fraser River’s products in Manitoba had risen during the past several years but transportation costs reduced the firm’s competitive position and profit margin. The risk of entering the region, against established competition, was accepted by company executives. The company also had encouraging internal projections covering the size and future growth of the eastern market. At a board meeting, Wickham-Jones later informed the other members that because of the decline in market growth and increasing competition, particularly in British Columbia, she and Lucas Feck were investigating numerous potential corporate acquisitions for Fraser River including a car dealership, a precision tool manufacturing operation, a hotel and a corrugated steel manufacturing operation. To date, no “deal” had been consummated. In September, 1992, Wickham-Jones hired Clayton Dunwood as Fraser River’s vice president for administration. Dunwood assumed complete responsibility for the accounting and financial affairs of the company. In particular, Wickham-Jones felt that Dunwood would help her with her investigations of future corporate acquisitions. However, Lucas Feck, the company’s marketing vice president was especially disappointed with Fraser River’s efforts in this area. He commented on Fraser River’s need for new companies: “Since 1989 I have been pushing other senior managers to find new areas for investment and growth. Fraser River’s bread and butter products have become commodity items. The industry is easy to enter. We have to have other businesses to support the overheads which have built up in the company. When I look at our markets here in British Columbia, I don’t see anywhere to go … and it looks like its going to be an uphill battle to crack the Eastern market. That’s why I firmly believe that we should be planning our growth more – with say, 20 percent coming from new acquisitions. We haven’t had a new company here in some time. It’s very frustrating when you consider the number of firms that we’ve looked at. Of course, you get people like Joanna Young and that lawyer, O’Reilly. Whenever we bring a good acquisition to the Board, they’re always harping on how there are better deals around. Yet, they can’t suggest any themselves.” Through 1992, Wickham-Jones also pursued another venture. Through various publications, she was aware of the need for the type of products produced by Fraser River in other parts of the world, particularly in the lesser-developed countries (LDC’s) in Asia. This represented an opportunity for Fraser River with its accumulated expertise in plastic products. Wickham-Jones especially looked for a partner to provide the acumen and international contacts which Fraser River lacked. Preliminary discussions were held with one such partner – a Canadian manufacturer of logging and sawmill equipment with sales offices in a number of foreign countries and a record of joint venture projects with nationals of those countries (mainly to FRP Case – 5 set up logging/sawmill operations). The proposed agreement was for the two companies to form a joint venture limited partnership supplying capital, equipment and expertise for new ventures in the manufacture of plastic products. Hopefully, Canadian based resin suppliers could be brought into the deal. Conscious of the reactions multinationals received when they “invaded the LDC’s”, the joint venture company was to keep a low profile in its international undertakings. By December, Wickham-Jones reported that she had identified several countries in Asia as possible sites for a first undertaking. The pursuit of the joint venture’s arrangements was, for the most part, being conducted by Wickham-Jones alone. She was, many felt, personally committed to the project and was devoting more and more of her time to it. Wickham-Jones commented: “Sure, I’m committed. I really believe we can turn Fraser River into a world wide organization and provide a useful service to other countries at the same time. “And, yes, this project is taking up a lot of my time. But that’s because we don’t know anything about operating on an international level. Once I know what’s involved, I’ll probably hire another vice president and put him in charge of our international operations. In addition, the universities are full of young aggressive people who can be brought on board to help “fill the gaps” created in Fraser River…We should also be able to buy talent either from the market or other organizations…” (Although there was no official organization chart prepared, organization charts for the various companies controlled by Fraser River and for corporate headquarters are presented in Exhibits 2 and 3 respectively.) The Situation in Early 1993 In January 1993, Wickham-Jones received drafts of Fraser River’s financial statements for the 1992 fiscal year. Overall, growth in company sales was sluggish resulting from sharper competition – in particular, from some of the smaller local plastic manufacturing plants. They had contributed to the considerable market erosion experienced by Fraser River, especially in British Columbia. The company’s share in Alberta, on the other hand, had remained strong. Profits had slipped a bit due to interest payments. Unfortunately, Simcoe Plastics had not made much progress. To improve the situation, a qualified and experienced plastics engineer had been hired in late 1992 to take over the plant. The Board considered making Simcoe more independent, by hiring a general manager, but that action had been deferred for the moment. Beaver Plastics was also in trouble. The British Columbia market for extruded pipe was saturated and extremely competitive. At present, there were few growth prospects available until the international and eastern projects began to “take-off”. Yet, the eastern market had become a sore spot. Acceptance of Fraser River’s products had not been as favourable as initially thought. Wickham-Jones forecast, however, that within two years, the Manitoba plant should be self- supporting. In the meantime, two specific issues had arisen and required action. Fraser River’s potential partner in the international joint venture reported that its office in Indonesia had conducted preliminary inquiries with both government officials and local businesspeople and substantial interest had been expressed. A request had been made for Fraser River to send an investigative team to Indonesia. Wickham-Jones felt that should she delay too long on the matter, her “partner” might begin to doubt Fraser River’s good faith or abilities to proceed. In addition, Wickham-Jones had heard of another plastics company which was for sale and which, if acquired, might serve to strengthen and broaden Fraser River’s product line. The company involved was called Plasti-Weave and was located in Kelowna, British Columbia – approximately 80 kilometres away from the Chilliwack facility. Plasti-Weave was a very small operation with sales of less then one million dollars in FRP Case – 6 1992. See Exhibit 4. It had developed a significant and potentially patentable process to “weave” plastic strips into sheets. These sheets had great strength and were used as substitutes for jute in carpet backing, furniture manufacture, etc. In 1992, Plasti-Weave required a major expansion. A new plant and warehouse would have to be built in Kelowna at an approximate cost of $750,000. The owner of Plasti-Weave, Clifford Bell, who was also the inventor of the manufacturing process, did not want to commit himself to this level of debt at the age of 62, or to be responsible for managing the company. Two heart attacks in the past year resulted in his decision to sell, if the price was right, and on the condition that he be retained as a consultant to the company for at least ten years. Wickham-Jones was enthusiastic about the potential acquisition. However she was unsure what the board’s reaction would be in light of the one million dollar asking price. She was confident, nevertheless, that the board would approve the deal – if she pushed for it. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Oliver Farthingham – Chairman of the Board Oliver Farthingham began his own business on graduation from high school. He had interests in an automotive body repair business and a partnership in a Canadian distributorship for narrow-aisle fork-lift trucks. As Chairman of the Board, Farthingham’s day-to-day involvement with Fraser River was limited but this did not stop him from what he liked to do best – promote the Fraser River name. In fact he was regarded as one of the most outspoken people in the company. Farthingham commented on Fraser River and its operations: “As chairman, I’m a “positive thinker.” I’m sure not a worrier…I’m a doer and a real strategist. I also think that I have an ability to persuade people and inspire confidence. Although my job and title around here has changed, I still have the reputation for being a “high price” zealot. Fraser River’s prices have generally been the highest in the industry. Sometimes our shareholders question me on this point. I always tell them that we’re not in business to make plastic products – but rather to make profits. People respect me for that. The world is full of pessimists and timid people. That’s not my style. I’m quite innovative and have a knack for foresight. Look at our acquisitions. For instance, there’s our plant in Prince Rupert. It made us look strong in our clients’ and competitors’ eyes. Sure it’s not as strong today due to the competition but that’s because the guy we have running the show there has lost his aggressiveness. As for the purchase of Simcoe, I don’t buy the stories about our failure in developing new products there. The problem is that we’ve just been fooling around and haven’t devoted our full efforts to these experimental projects. Plastics, unfortunately, is a cyclic industry controlled by the economy, crude oil supplies and costs. This means, therefore, that we have to look for new products and new companies. We should especially be considering more exciting ventures like sports bars, cappuccino kiosks or even roller blade clubs. They’re the rage in the U.S. right now. Market demand is phenomenal – 200% annually. Competition is low. We can get in on the ground floor. And we can buy the managerial talent we need to run them for us. They are opportunities that won’t wait for us. The pessimists, however, say that we don’t have the resources to handle these deals. Well, Fraser River has been in this position in the past and we’ve survived. Look at how we originally got started. To be an entrepreneur takes guts! I’m a risk taker and I know when the odds are in our favour. We can’t afford to burden ourselves with negative thoughts. I feel I have a personal obligation to all of our shareholders to keep our reputation and profits the most attractive in the industry. After all, we still have the same number of shareholders we started out with. To keep them, we have to show them that their investment is better left in the company and to reward them with bigger dividends. We also have to provide them with some vehicle for eventually cashing out. So, I guess this means we’ll have to consider going public. I think it would enhance our image greatly too.” FRP Case – 7 Elinore Wickham-Jones – President Elinore Wickham-Jones had accomplished two of the major objectives in her life – she was financially well-off and she had built a company “from the ground up.” Wickham-Jones used most of her personal savings to invest in the formation of Fraser River. As vice-president of Fraser River, she was known for her analytical brilliance. When she became president, she committed herself to making the company grow into a national plastic manufacturing concern. “From 1985 to 1991, we managed to grow in spite of ourselves and our mistakes. To our credit, though, we moved quickly, we were flexible, and did not get bogged down in bureaucracy or paperwork. Today, not all of our operations are as strong as we’d like, but there is still potential in them. Take Beaver Plastics for instance. It was a natural combination with Fraser River. Sure, things are slow right now, but once we establish ourselves out east or in other new territories, we will do alright. Simcoe Plastics is another case in point – and there, our plant manager was not as good as we thought he was. We’ve learned a lot from our R & D work at Simcoe – even though it cost us $200,000. I’d like to see Fraser River grow on an even-keel basis through acquisitions and international expansion. Of course, we’re only interested in profitable and growing ventures. But we can’t afford to be in it just for the money. We need to maintain our profits so that we can fund other projects as opportunities present themselves. That’s why I’m particularly keen on both our Plasti-weave acquisition proposal and the joint venture. Right now, we’re heavily committed to what are essentially simple plastic products in just one market, Canada. Consequently, we have to reduce the associated risks. We haven’t begun to exploit the American market opened to us through the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and with a North American Free Trade Agreement soon to be complete, markets in Central and South America are becoming available. Unfortunately, these new programmes always seem to bring us back to the issue of financing. So, we need more capital and that probably means an equity issue. The question, however, becomes one of when and how?” Herbert Rudd – Senior Vice President Herbert Rudd completed his schooling up to Grade 10 but left because his parents could no longer afford to have him going to school instead of working on the farm. Like most farmers, Rudd became an expert in home repairs. When he left home, he worked for a small home contractor until he decided to start his own construction business. As Senior Vice-President, his primary responsibility had been to represent the company at industry and trade fairs and exhibits both in Canada and abroad. Rudd commented: “Oliver and I are the real entrepreneurs in this company. So, we make decisions primarily on gut-feel. But I do think I have good business sense and that’s what I use to guide me in my judgements. Looking back, I feel our biggest mistake has been the operation of large plants such as we have in Chilliwack and Calgary. Right now, small competitors have lower overhead and transportation costs and a more competitive price… The joint venture project is a fantastic concept with unlimited potential for our company. I can’t give any firm projections but something tells me that this is the right road to go on. Look at Mexico. There are more people earning over $50,000 per year than there are living in Canada. I expect a western hemisphere free trade agreement by the year 2000. Some people are worried about staffing international ventures. Heck, there’s a lot of talent in this company that’s just not being used. After all, a boy doesn’t become a man until he has a man’s job to do… Looking at the products we manufacture, though. I can’t honestly say if they’re better than everybody else’s. I know they do the same job. But, looking at them, there’s nothing to distinguish them from your ordinary loaf of bread. I also think that we have a problem communicating to our customers. Our salesmen could do a better job finding out what our customers want and what new products we should be producing. Another major concern of mine is that we’re just a limited product company and there’s too much risk in it. That’s why I’m in favour of diversification. And I really don’t care what sort of companies we acquire. We can always hire someone to run them for us.” FRP Case – 8 Lucas Feck – Vice-President (Marketing) Lucas Feck received his B. Comm. from a large American University. Upon graduation he joined a multi-national chemical company which operated a subsidiary in Canada. Within four years, he became its general manager. After the subsidiary was purchased by another multi-national conglomerate, Feck became disenchanted and resigned to start his own small business. Despite his own company’s success, Feck became bored and sold his interest in that business to go back to university and get his MBA. After graduating, he contacted several large executive placement firms looking for a position in a small to medium sized growth business. This led to his being hired as marketing vice-president for Fraser River Plastics. By far, Feck was the most avid promoter of expanding the company by means of acquisitions. Because of the number of acquisition investigations in which he had been actively involved – but which had failed to result in a concrete purchase – Feck now believed that one of the reasons for this lay in the company’s present structure. Feck commented on the most critical problems facing the company: “Our neck is really in the noose today because of the competition we’re up against, especially in British Columbia. So I’m pretty strong on the idea of acquisitions. They’re the key to our future. Personally, I believe we could run or manage any type of company – hotels, food processing, even steel corrugation plants. Others don’t. Take this Plasti-Weave acquisition. It’s a natural combination with our business – plastics. But, better still, it represents a real chance for Fraser River to latch onto a proprietary item. It involves a new technology. We can get the jump on the industry and at the same time start moving out of our “commodity product” line. As for the joint venture idea, I think we have some real problems because we’ve never considered: (a) who’s going to be moving from Fraser River to staff the project, and (b) who we’re going to find to fill the gaps created in Fraser River. I’ve been pushing Elinore on this point, but he keeps saying, “not to worry.” I think our biggest problem around here, however, has to be that senior management is perpetually caught up 110% with day-to-day tasks. I don’t think that we’ll ever find any new growth or good acquisitions as long as we don’t free up some of our time. Elinore Wickham-Jones has a problem divorcing herself from finance and administration. She’s also been spending a lot of her time these days on the joint venture project…That’s her style though. Oliver Farthingham’s style, however, is to `represent’ the company. He shouldn’t be doing that as Chairman of the company. He should be setting goals. After all, isn’t the Board responsible for the overall direction of the company. So what if “management” wants to do one thing. The Board can just overturn it. I do know this…I only get my kicks from challenges. Day-to-day work is a necessity, of course, but it’s not challenging to me. I’m not interested in managing a division. I just want senior management responsibility and exciting work. Otherwise, I get bored.” Gunther Heinzman – Vice-President (Production) Heinzman was in charge of the company’s six plants located in Chilliwack, Vancouver (Beaver), Prince Rupert, Calgary, Winnipeg and Kamloops (Simcoe). Each plant had its own production manager reporting directly to Heinzman. A native of Germany, Heinzman emigrated to Canada with his parents. His first job was in a small manufacturing concern, working on the production line. Since then, he has spent most of his life in production. Heinzman discussed the company: “I learned this business from the ground up. Every free moment I had during the day and at night was spent reading every trade journal I could get my hands on. But, I guess you could say that even today, I’m kept pretty busy just keeping my end under control. I’ve never been a frivolous person. I suppose it comes from my German background. That’s why I have always run a tight ship. If Elinore ever told me to cut costs, I wouldn’t know where to start because I think we’re at maximum efficiency. And I’ve tried to instill this objective into each one of my plant managers. I’ve trained every one of them, except the Simcoe manager, and I’m very proud of them. Naturally, I’m a little more liberal today but I like to do things as cheap as possible. Sometimes, Elinore has to say to me: `Don’t hold the penny so close to your eye Gunther, that you can’t see the dollar behind it. FRP Case – 9 When I look at our acquisitions, there are some real lessons to be learned. I don’t regret our purchase of the Prince Rupert plant because it has always supported itself. The manager there runs the company as if it was his own. After all, it used to be his own. Simcoe, however, should be a warning to future acquisitions. And, as for this Plasti-Weave deal, I won’t say anything about it because I don’t know anything about it. And that’s because I haven’t been involved in the discussions. I’m not opposed to acquisitions but I’m naturally afraid of things that I don’t know too much about. Elinore, of course, is more enthusiastic about acquisitions. Me, I’m a little more nervous about them only because I’m not sure how much more work I could handle. As for this joint venture project, Elinore is again playing her cards close to the vest and I don’t think it’s such a good idea. It’s a big responsibility for her to be carrying alone. Besides, I’m a nationalist. Canada has been good to me and to this company. I think we could spend our dollars much wiser here.” APPENDIX A The Plastics Processing Industry in 1993 Although the history of plastics and plastic products goes back over one hundred years, the industry was still generally regarded in North America as young and growing. In fact, it has only been since the second world war that plastics began to achieve their status as a major primary or substitute manufacturing material. In 1993, there were over 1,400 firms engaged in plastic processing in Canada with most of the companies located in Ontario and Quebec. Of these Canadian firms, the majority had sales of less than two million dollars. The bulk of company shipments constituted proprietary products. The remainder were either produced on a custom basis or as “captive operations” for a larger manufacturing entity. This breakdown, however, is difficult to confirm precisely due to the variety of business practices in which any one manufacturing concern engaged. In terms of the future, world shipments in the plastic processing industry were estimated to be moderately “favourable” given the tentative signals of economic recovery. The factors contributing to this projection were: an anticipated moderate level of economic growth; a continuing substitution of traditional materials with plastics; and the emergent growth in the manufacturing sector. Costs depended largely on the type of process used. For instance, “reinforced” plastic products such as boats or storage tanks were relatively labour intensive while “extrusion” products (e.g., pipes, films, etc.) were relatively capital intensive. In comparison with other global industries such as petrochemicals, the plastics industry was still considered a labour intensive area since the capital investment per production related employee ranged between Cdn. $5,000-$42,000 while in petrochemicals it was about Cdn. $200,000. It was anticipated that Canadian plastic manufacturing capacity would be sufficient to meet Canadian demands. In addition, Canadian resin prices, which at one time exceeded world prices by 10%, were seen as becoming more competitive with U.S. and other international prices given the recent Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The prospect, in 1993, of a potential Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement was expected to result in significant downward pressure on world prices and consolidation of the North American industry participants through mergers and bankruptcies. FRP Case – 10 EXHIBIT 1 Fraser River Plastics Ltd. Consolidated Statement of Operations (Audited, December 31, 1992) with comparative figures for 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988 (in thousands of dollars) ASSETS 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 Cash 25 30 5 565 110 Term deposits & marketable securities – 583 2 – 690 Accounts receivable 2,453 1,155 1,215 423 540 Inventories 3,827 2,625 1,923 2,163 357 Deposits 13 25 140 2 3 Total Current Assets 6,318 4,428 3,285 3,153 1,700 Property, plant & equipment, at cost less accumulated depreciation 4,453 2,935 2,743 1,940 1,468 Other assets 17 28 7 15 60 Excess of cost of subsidiaries over the net book value of acquired assets, at cost less amortization 105 145 185 105 130 Total Assets 10,893 7,536 6,220 5,213 3,358 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 Current Liabilities: Bank overdraft & loan 2,348 863 515 – – Accounts payable & accrued charges 892 1,042 338 1,063 145 Income & other taxes payable 618 738 962 1,065 260 Royalty payable – – 70 90 400 Total Current Liabilities 3,858 2,643 1,885 2,198 805 Deferred revenue 28 33 33 – – Long term debt 3,150 1,120 1,282 715 875 7,036 3,796 3,200 2,913 1,680 Shareholders’ Equity: Preferred shares – – – – 253 Common shares 205 205 205 32 32 Contributed surplus 70 70 70 70 70 Retained earnings 3,582 3,465 2,745 2,198 1,323 Total Shareholders’ Equity 3,857 3,740 3,020 2,300 1,678 Total Liabilities & Shareholders’ Equity 10,893 7,536 6,220 5,213 3,358 FRP Case – 11 EXHIBIT 1 (Continued) Fraser River Plastics Ltd. Consolidated Statement of Operations (Audited, December 31, 1992) (in thousands of dollars) 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 Net Sales 16,445 15,750 10,903 7,835 5,403 Cost of sales 11,228 10,765 7,178 3,990 3,455 Gross Profit 5,217 4,985 3,725 3,845 1,948 Selling, general & administrative expenses 3,605 2,750 1,898 838 655 Royalty expense 332 332 332 625 338 3,937 3,082 2,230 1,463 993 1,280 1,903 1,495 2,382 955 Interest & other income 128 135 40 163 80 1,408 2,038 1,535 2,545 1,035 Interest, long term debt 493 138 92 70 77 Amortization of excess cost of subsidiaries over net book value of acquired assets 40 40 35 27 – 533 178 127 97 77 Earnings Before Income Taxes 875 1,860 1,408 2,448 958 Income taxes 480 825 610 1,208 453 Net Earnings 395 1,035 798 1,240 505 Earnings Per Common Share .08 .20 .15 .24 .10 Dividends paid 278 315 251 365

case study attached ....there are 6 questions analyzing the business. I have completed a working document template (includes charts to easily fill in so that written answers can be justified) along with an event chronology to make it simple ....see attached documents and let me know if there's anything unclear MCM721_S14 Strategic Management / Case Exam FRASER RIVER PLASTICS LTD. Instructions: -…

[sherristockman]

Malaria Vaccine Will Be an Expensive Failure Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by plasmodium parasites. When an infected Anopheles mosquito bites a person, it can spread the disease, leading to flu-like illness that can progress to life-threatening complications if left untreated. It's estimated that close to half of the global population is at risk of malaria, with 91 countries experiencing ongoing transmission. According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2015 there were 212 million cases of malaria along with 429,000 deaths, occurring primarily in children living in sub-Saharan Africa.1 WHO set a goal to eliminate malaria by 2040, with the primary mode of prevention currently being mosquito control. They recently announced, however, that a malaria vaccine will be tested on African children beginning in 2018. While being hyped as a potential breakthrough in the fight against this deadly disease, there's reason to believe the pilot program may end up being nothing more than an expensive failure. World's First Malaria Vaccine to Be Given to Infants in 2018 Starting in 2018, GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) RTS,S (brand name Mosquirix) malaria vaccine will be given to some children living in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The vaccine has completed a Phase III clinical trial via a partnership between GSK, several African research sites and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).2 The vaccine is not the only malaria vaccine in the pipeline, but it's the one that's furthest along in development and, reportedly, the only one to show a protective effect against malaria in Phase III clinical trials.3 After testing the vaccine in the real world, further reports on the vaccine's efficacy and safety profile are expected to be provided by 2020. According to GSK, during the Phase III trial, malaria cases were reduced by almost half in children aged 5 to 17 months after three doses of the vaccine, and by 27 percent in those aged 6 to 12 weeks, when used alongside other malaria prevention measures, like the use of insecticide-treated mosquito netting. After four doses of the vaccine, malaria cases were reduced by 39 percent over four years in children and by 27 percent over three years in infants. GSK, which has major incentive to get their vaccine to market, considering the global malaria vaccines market is expected to top nearly $592 million by 2024,4 further stated:5 "RTS,S aims to trigger the body's immune system to defend against the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite when it first enters the human host's bloodstream and/or when the parasite infects liver cells. It is designed to prevent the parasite from infecting, maturing and multiplying in the liver, after which time the parasite would re-enter the bloodstream and infect red blood cells, leading to disease symptoms." Doubts about the vaccine surfaced in 2016, however, when a study found it didn't actually prevent malaria infection but rather delayed it until the children were older. When three doses of GSK's malaria vaccine were given, the protection waned within four years.6 Their solution was to add a fourth shot to the schedule, but even this may not be enough. Research Casts Serious Doubt on Malaria Vaccine's Efficacy Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paints a very different picture regarding RTS,S and other malaria vaccines in development.7 The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, used DNA fingerprinting to show that the malaria parasite has wide genetic diversity. Among 600 children with malaria living in Gabon, each child's malaria was caused by a different strain of the parasite with upward of 60 varying genes. According to Bloomberg:8 "The group found that the malaria parasite swaps genes during sex to create new variants that can evade the immune system and re-infect the same people, much like influenza can. The finding of distinctly different strains in infected children — as many as 10 at once — means that even small human populations in malaria-endemic areas are constantly being infected with the parasite, said [study author Karen] Day, a professor of population science and dean of science at the University of Melbourne." She compared malaria to influenza (another disease against which vaccines have a dismal record of effectiveness) except “much more complicated,” noting there could be thousands of different strains. According to Day, the vaccine would need to be 100 percent effective against all malaria strains in order to work, otherwise "it can persist and bounce back to pre-control levels."9 Day's work also revealed that malaria may not be transmitted as easily as once thought, causing perhaps only five or six secondary infections instead of dozens. "This suggests malaria isn't as difficult a foe to control as previously thought," Bloomberg noted, which suggests efforts to find effective ways to control mosquitoes may be all the more important. Rates of Malaria Are on the Decline While malaria still causes a tragic number of deaths among young children living in certain parts of the world, its incidence is on the decline. WHO reported that malaria incidence rates bell by 21 percent between 2010 and 2015, while malaria mortality rates fell by 29 percent globally and 31 percent in the African region.10 During the same time period, the rate of malaria mortality among children under 5 years also fell by 35 percent. The use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets has been touted as the "cornerstone of malaria prevention efforts" in sub-Saharan Africa, according to WHO, and 53 percent of those at risk slept under a treated net in 2015 (compared to 30 percent in 2010). Indoor spraying of insecticides is also used in some areas, marking a sad trade-off of one set of health risks for another, as insecticides are toxic in their own right. Even the widely banned DDT is still used to control mosquitoes in some countries. Further, there is some concern that mosquitoes are developing resistance to at least one class of insecticides used in the nets and spraying. Malaria is treatable, but growing resistance to malaria drugs is a concern. WHO reported:11 "In many countries, progress in malaria control is threatened by the rapid development and spread of antimalarial drug resistance. To date, parasite resistance to artemisinin – the core compound of the best available antimalarial medicines – has been detected in 5 countries of the Greater Mekong subregion." In addition, the ability to resist diseases like malaria requires a strong immune system, and for that, you require good nutrition, clean drinking water and sanitation—three elements that are lacking for many children affected by this disease. If we want to help lower malaria rates, it would be wise to focus on these basics first. In order to eradicate infectious disease from a nation, you have to first address compromised immune systems. Safer Solutions for Combating Malaria The global fight against malaria is centered on insecticide application and distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, along with anti-malaria drugs and new malaria vaccines. But both mosquitoes and parasites are developing drug resistance, and the spraying of toxic insecticides is not a safe nor sustainable solution. It's likely, too, that malaria vaccines will prove to be lacking in effectiveness. Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Germany has called for safer, non-chemical means of targeting this disease, with significant impacts seen during a pilot program in West Africa. The program began by increasing residents' knowledge and awareness of the sources of malaria. This included sharing strategies for reducing mosquito breeding sites, as many of the villagers were unaware that potential breeding sites existed nearby in areas of food waste, refuse and standing water. Villagers were educated about how to help prevent indoor mosquito infestations via cleaning and garbage removal, as well as how to cover outdoor wells and septic tanks with lids. Fish were introduced to certain areas to help with mosquito larval control. The local health center was also educated on how to better treat malaria , leading to a significant drop in school absenteeism due to the disease, from up to 30 percent from 2009 to 2011 down to 4.6 percent in 2012.12 As PAN International noted:13 "The only effective and sustainable way to control malaria in the long term is through integrated vector management, which deploys a range of methods and emphasizes non-chemical approaches with pesticides used as a last resort to minimize the build-up of pesticide resistance." Indeed, a study published in the journal Pathogens and Global Health also found that maternal education had a significant effect on childhood malaria — even more so than a vaccine.14 In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the prevalence of malaria among children of mothers with no education was 30 percent, compared to 17 percent in in those with mothers who received primary education and 15 percent among those with mothers educated beyond the primary years. Senior author Michael Hawkes, assistant professor at the University of Alberta in Canada told Hindustan Times:15 “The World Health Organization is rolling out a new vaccine in countries across Africa that has an efficacy of about 30 percent … But children whose mothers are educated beyond the primary level have a 53 percent reduction in their malaria rates.” While the pharmaceutical industry is certainly pinning their hopes on a malaria vaccine taking off, it's important to remember that malaria once occurred in the U.S. as well, but was eliminated without the use of vaccines. How? Karl Tupper of PAN North America said in a press release:16 "It was improved sanitation, environmental management and access to health care that beat malaria in the U.S. — not DDT … Rising standards of living were also key — bringing things like screened windows to rural areas in the southern states of the U.S. where the malaria problem was the worst."