WEEKLY WAITE-O-GRAM (RELEASE 2.0)

WE BELIEVED!

With Alexandre Bilodeau's dramatic Olympic gold medal performance in the men's moguls competition Sunday night, Canada Post issued a previously unannounced "instant stamp" in celebration.  Like most things "instant", it actually took months of planning...and no small amount of faith...to get the image designed, approved, printed...and shipped out under tight embargo to key locations across the country. The risk, of course, was that Canada might somehow once again fail to win a gold on its third try on home soil...a thought too horrible (not to mention too expensive) to contemplate.

So we on the Stamp Advisory Committee lit a few candles...hung a few prayer flags...and forged ahead.

THE LONGEST WEEKEND

Privately, I thought the risk low. Indeed, I boldly predicted gold would be pocketed by Saturday...if not by mogul star Jenn Heil...then perhaps by one of our downhill skiers...or short-track skaters. However, the downhill got postponed...the skaters came up short...and poor Jenn, who really, really wanted to be the one to take the pressure off her fellow Canadians...ended up with silver.  But all's well that ends well - Bilodeau brought it home on Sunday. While I am sure it really didn't matter much to most Canadians what the gold drought-ending sport or event was... I must admit I was pleased it was Canada's Freestyle Ski Team...which Canada Post sponsors...that did the trick.

ENOUGH STAMPS TO SHIP ALL OF PEI...TO JAPAN!

The Olympic gold stamp was just a small portion of a series of stamps issued to celebrate the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler games. Canada Post issued 15 separate stamps including, for the first time, definitive stamps. Definitives, typically using images of the Queen or the flag, are the "workhorse" stamps that come in coils and that individuals and small businesses use everyday. When Stewart Bacon and I originally negotiated with VANOC several years ago, one of the challenges they identified was that awareness around the coming Olympics was fairly low outside BC...and especially low in Quebec. "Have we got a solution for you..." was our response. Ultimately 800 million Olympic stamps were produced...about 22 for every man, woman and child in Canada. That's a lot of impressions...ones that literally stick with you! Congratulation to Jim Phillips and his team in Stamp Services for a job well done (and a secret well kept)!

WHO CAN BLAME HIM?

Not long before Christmas John Furlong, the VANOC CEO came to Canada Post to thank us for our support. He sat down with the team that had worked on the various elements of our sponsorship...from stamps...to customer hosting...to employee engagement. I sat right next to him as he spoke and was struck by two things; his passion for the games and his ability to deliver a truly eloquent message from a few scribbled notes; and how utterly exhausted he looked up close. Later, upstairs in my office, I asked him how he did it...and what he expected to do after the games. He said you keep going...because you are carried along by the momentum of a great team. As for what he wants to do afterwards? "I honestly just want to go to a remote cabin somewhere... and disappear. I have zero interest in another job at this point." 

RIGHT MESSAGE, WRONG VENUE

 There of course are people looking for a new job... like Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff...who would like to be Prime Minister of Canada someday. Trust me, I have no partisan axe to grind...but I do sometimes find Mr. Ignatieff's actions puzzling. For example, last week he appeared in the pages of the New York Times Sunday Magazine...apparently explaining Canada to the good people of Manhattan, Cambridge (and presumably to the 18,000 Times subscribers in Forest Hill, Rosedale and Rockcliffe, Ontario). In the holy name of Peter Donolo, how does this article reverse the widespread impression that Ignatieff still has half a foot in Harvard Yard...and cares more about the chattering classes on the Upper East Side...and at the Granite Club...than he does about average Canadians? Say what you want about Jean Chrétien...he could provide Iggy a common-touch lesson or two.

WANT TO BE A CEO?

According to the latest Booz & Company tracking survey of CEO succession, fully 80% of corporate CEOs today are appointed from within the ranks of their own companies. This is not a new phenomenon - indeed, it is consistent with the data from the 11 previous annual surveys Booz has conducted. What has changed, especially for North American CEOs according to Booz, is that a CEO is no longer likely to be Chair; typically no longer has a COO; and faces far higher board expectations. What's a new CEO to do? You can go to the Booz web site and read the full report...or you can stay tuned...and I will go through it section by section...adding some Canadian content and commentary.

AND FINALLY...

Our grade 12 daughter, Emily, has just heard from her first school... the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In what I think is a clever innovation...the school sent her a letter last week with a big red "YES!" on the outside of the envelope. So much for the existential angst that accompanied these letters in my day - I knew people who couldn't bear to open them for a week! This early action acceptance has set up an interesting dynamic in the Waite household. As a Wisconsin alumnus...I think it is great. Karen, a U of T grad...thinks this is the end of civilization as we know it...and that Wisconsin is just one wall-to-wall party...occasionally interrupted by a football or hockey game...and that the reason the "Yes" was printed in red ink...is that the school is run by unreconstructed Communists. The good news is that there are 11 more schools to hear from...including the U of T. Still, if Emily went to UW...maybe she could get my brother Tom (another UW alum) and I football and hockey tickets...      

(The views expressed are solely those of the author, who takes full responsibility for any errors or omissions. More information on Waite + Co. can be found on the web site at www.waiteandcompany.com    No performance enhancing drugs were used in the creation of this blog...or the stamps honoring Canada's first home-soil gold.)