Cross Posting

I am stopping my cross posting at blogger (ideas Cloud) for now. This blog was originally created in preparation of Forbes starting its Bloggers Network in Jan 2008 which unfortunately hasn't materialized yet (as we are well past June 2008). If and when Forbes launches its Bloggers Network and if I am still one of the invited outside bloggers, it will be my pleasure to blog for Forbes. Until then, I don't see any point keep cross posting stuff. Oh well, such is life.

For my latest blog entries and musings, please visit my personal blog at kempton.ideasRevolution.com. Thanks for your visit here.

Chatting with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, CBC newest Dragon - Part 2

As promised, here is part 2 of my chat with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, the newest investor in Dragons’ Den.

Before I show you the videos, I would like to point out my favourite quote by Brett was this one from last posting (emphasis mine, link added),

“I had the great privilege of working under Dan Sullivan, under Jim MacDonald, under David Wilson. People who went on to become icons of the industry were my training ground. That was my learning curve … was working under people where Integrity and a handshake meant everything. And so as a model, it meant a lot.”

Incidentally, Brett's discussion of integrity and ethics has reminded me of another wonderful Calgary businessman and leader, Mr. Dick Haskayne. His book "Northern Tigers: Building Ethical Canadian Corporate Champions (a memoir and a manifesto)" is a must read and a wonderful way to learn from the former CEO, president, or board chair/member of companies like Hudson’s Bay Oil and Gas, Interhome Energy Inc., TransAlta Corporation, TransCanada Corporation, MacMillan Bloedel, Weyerhaeuser, NOVA Corporation, Fording, Manulife, CIBC.

Oops, sorry for this long “incidentally”. (big smile)

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How rich is Brett?
Brett’s views in charity

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Dragons’ Den experiences
The qualities that Brett look for in entrepreneurs or deals

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Advices to entrepreneurs

CBC vs CTV Hockey - Kodak vs Fuji

I think it was Warren Buffet (the richest man in the world) who said this -- the moment Fuji bought the rights to become the official sponsor of the Olympics, then Fuji became a legitimate equal to Kodak.

Now, CTV has bought the rights to the theme of Hockey Night in Canada, it may have pulled a "Fuji" on CBC. The 40 years of familiarity of the Hockey theme music on CBC has now been transferred to CTV.

I am a big CBC fan. Having said that, in this case, I have to send a big congratulation to the CTV business/negotiation/sports team that got the deal done and closed so efficiently. When the opportunity presented itself, and when time is of the essence, you guys get the deal done and closed in record time.

I will try to blog a bit more when the dust is settled a little more and I am finished covering the Banff World TV Festival.

National Anthem for sale? - The story of Hockey Night in Canada theme

I probably shouldn’t be blogging tonight as I am driving early tomorrow morning to Banff to attend two conferences (Future of Digital Content & Banff World TV Festival).

Anyway, I will spend a few minutes here to share my thoughts. CBC's official blog and CBC National (as the lead news item) that the deal to keep the Hockey Night in Canada theme has fallen apart. So no more Hockey Night in Canada theme. Toronto Star reports (with video) here.

Now, if you look strictly at the economics, CBC executives may be right to offer what it did and walk away from a “bad deal”. (I leave it as an exercise for the readers to calculate the present value of the estimated cash value of the theme until it runs out of its copyright protection. Hint: it is no small change.) And try to buy peace (or bribe us) by paying $100,000 as a prize for Canadians to come up with a new theme.

Because the theme has been used for closed to 40 years, it has become so well recognized and has acquired an almost national-anthem-like feeling to some Canadians. To me, the theme is a rock solid Lovemark.

In our capitalistic world, it is up to Dolores Claman (composer of the theme) and her agent to negotiate a best deal. It might be fun to apply some game theory and the PARTS strategy (the elements of a game are: Players, Added values, Rules, Tactics, and Scope) to analyze this particular business situation in a step by step manner.

P.S. In a Web 2.0 connected world, the rules, tactics and scope have been changed and redefined. Ultimately, I think missteps from either side can cause some unexpected damages rather quickly.

Chatting with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, CBC newest Dragon - Part 1

Last year, I had wonderful chats with five successful Canadian business people Arlene, Jim, Kevin, Laurence, Robert (”Dragons” to the fans of Dragons’ Den) and Dianne (host of DD).

This year, I had the great pleasure to chat with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, the newest investor in Dragons’ Den. As a bonus to me, we chatted at Brett’s beautiful home (some pictures in this post).

The following are part of my video chats with Brett. Feel free to leave a comment or feedback. Enjoy.

I will be posting the other video chats next week. Stay tune.

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Engineering & Business school,
Early investment experiences

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Early work experiences & Business School
Consumer & Buyer behaviour

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Starting his business

Links: 2008-06-02

• For the life of me - Mountaineer chronicles his Everest rescue by Calgarian Andrew Brash and defends those who left him for dead
• Quotes from Yves Saint Laurent (1936 - 2008) * "I participated in the transformation of my era. I did it with clothes, which is surely less important than music, architecture, painting ... but whatever it's worth I did it." (2002) * New York Times slideshow and obituary
• "Asset-backed insecurity" - an interesting piece about sovereign-wealth funds by The Economists
• Poor People With Checks - nicely done video "Checkmate"
• ABC Blesses Blogs, Endorses Embedding
• Owning the Clouds [via Cory

In a Dragon’s Den - Chat with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, entrepreneur extraordinaire, CBC newest Dragon

I had thought it might take me a few weeks or a month or two to arrange an interview with Calgarian Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, entrepreneur extraordinaire, and newest CBC Dragon. So I was surprised and delighted to hear from Brett this morning (a Sunday) inviting me to have a chat with him in his home (wow, my first visit to a Dragon's home, a true Dragon's Den).

And as expected, I had a nice and insightful chat with Brett. And he was as nice in person as I have heard from others and seen from his interview with Dragons' Den host Dianne Buckner.

It will take me some time to process and upload the videos. So here are a few photos for now. Stay tune for the videos and more photos.

New Transparency Project gets $2.5 million

[via Privacy Commissioner of Canada] (emphasis added)

“The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting” received $2.5 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. [...]

The New Transparency has proposed a series of lofty goals – to make “visible the identities of individuals, workings of institutions and flows of information never before seen” – using surveillance as the key to gather this data. The project intends to focus on “three vitally important questions”:

1) What factors contribute to the general expansion of surveillance as a technology of governance in late modern societies?
2) What are the underlying principles, technological infrastructures and institutional frameworks that support surveillance practice?
3) What are the social consequences of such surveillance both for institutions and for ordinary people?

Ad Links: 2008-05-29

• QUIT - Anti Smoking Charity - a really cool concept. Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London
• Covenant House - a really neat and cool idea. Agency: Taxi, Toronto
• Big Brother Bus Stop - A neat way to use Blue tooth to advertise. Agency: Marketforce, Perth, Australia
• White wins - quite neat. Agency: Grey Istanbul, Turkey
• VW Ads - very charming "interviews", very effectively gives VW an added "personality". Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Honda ASIMO Conducts Orchestra and Dances

Honda ASIMO conducts The Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Honda ASIMO Dances, Walks, and Runs at Kennedy Center

Analog Rights missing in a Digital World

In the blog entry "Canadians Stuck With Analog Rights in a Digital World", Michael Geist talks about how rights of Canadian consumers to "time shift" television programs (record a TV show for later viewing) in the digital era have been taken away.

Canadian Mars Weather Station

• MDA Solution To Look For Clues Of Water Above And Below The Surface Of Mars
• MDA working with Mars spacecraft
• Local invention to be used on Mars

A neat post about the Mars mission (with links) from an unexpected source.

Here is a neat Google Tech Talk video about a 3D live motion video camera (blogged two years ago) that uses LIDAR. I wonder if we are talking about the same LIDAR technology as the one used in Mars?

W. Brett Wilson - The Five Million Dollar Man

I couldn't find any public record but I suspect W. Brett Wilson, the newest CBC Dragon and chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, worths considerably more than five million dollars. (big smile) Here is what Brett told Globe and Mail Report on Business in a 2007 interview,

[Reporter:] How much money do you have to work with?
[Brett:] Enough to get by. I like a model used in some private banking circles: You have three buckets of assets. The first bucket is your lifestyle assets; the second is the assets required to protect that lifestyle; and the third is your adventure assets. I have a significant adventure assets pool. I am looking at acquiring land across Western Canada, investing in the service and the power sectors, and I'm still buying into start-up oil and gas companies.

Where do your children fit in?
When you get hit by the bus in life, you've got two places to send your money—children or charity. I'm not a big fan of this practice of opening the will to determine where Dad's money went. My kids know the vast bulk of my estate will go to charity. The issue for me is giving while living, and the best way to manage that. I'll be doing a lot of philanthropic work using both my leadership skills and my money. And the kids will be fine. None of them can live on the inheritance because, frankly, there isn't one. Both my ex-wife and I hope they will develop passion in their own right.

You see, the $5 million mentioned was one of Brett's latest charitable donations, an amount donated to help create the new Southern Alberta Institute of Urology.

Sean Wise has two interesting entries here and here about Brett (with photos). Here is a link to a very well researched and written article in Avenue magazine when Brett won the Person of the Year. (highly recommended)

P.S. Brett (his plan of having "vast bulk of my estate will go to charity" and his focus on integrity and honesty) reminds me a little bit of Warren Buffett (more on Warren here).

Sun’s Art of Patent War

I am no expert in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War but I find Chapter 5 (English and Chinese versions) interesting. For example (emphasis added),

• 5. In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.
• 6. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

As Sun Microsystems‘ General Counsel, my blog friend Mike Dillon’s (here is my interview with Mike) latest blog entry “The Patent Arms Race” lays out some of Sun’s latest thinking in IP and patent strategy which I find fascinating and very sensible.

Following is an excerpt from Mike’s “The Patent Arms Race” (emphasis added),

To some degree, this topic has a very Cold War feel to it with companies growing patent stockpiles to use if attacked or as a form of “mutual deterrence”. But, at some point, a company needs to ask how many patents it really needs. And, that’s exactly what we did about three years ago. Up to that time Sun was filing well over 1,000 patent applications per year. But, in 2005, we made the decision to reduce our patent filings to the point that we had about 700 patents issued last year.

I love Mike’s and Jonathan’s frankness and desire to keep Sun as transparent as they can. I hope more companies will follow Sun’s examples.

P.S. Check out some of these links Mike provided in his article,

• IBM hopes to patent ‘dealing with chaos’
• a Live IP auction at IP Business Congress (June 25/26, 2008) - highly recommended - check out some of the 65 lots of IP assets. Wow.
• reconsidering patentability of business methods

In Memory: Sydney Pollack

I am saddened to hear the wonderful director, producer, actor Sydney Pollack has passed away yesterday at 73. Articles by Roger Ebert, IHT, and Washington Post.

Love this quote from G&M “The way he was” (emphasis added),

Asked why he interrupted his own filmmaking career to act for Stanley Kubrick ( Eyes Wide Shut) and Woody Allen ( Husbands and Wives), Pollack replied, “Because I wanted to see how they work. I was curious.

In this YouTube video, Sydney Pollack discusses his documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry” with Charlie Rose.

Here in this YouTube video (at the 1:13 and 6:25 marks), you hear Sydney talking about his love of flying jet plane (actually a Citation X, the “fastest non-military jet”) in the documentary One Six Right (named after the most popular runway at the Van Nuys Airport). Yeap, he flew jets.