CSI Blog & Newsroom

“Feminism has gotten a bad rap lately.

While most women and men say they believe in equality between the sexes, a significant proportion of those polled in recent years say they don’t identify themselves as feminists, considering the term dated and freighted with negative connotations.

A perfect example of such thinking surfaced late last year when Time Magazine included the word “feminist” in a list of terms that should be banished in 2015, in what I can only hope was an item written by a misguided intern who was promptly dismissed. The magazine later apologized,” writes Leah Eichler for the Globe and Mail on March 6, 2015.  

Eichler continued, “My own brand of feminism often centres on giving women equal opportunities in business and access to capital. I’ve often called this business feminism, but others have called it executive feminism orfinancial feminism. In other words, we’re talking about women and money.

You might not realize it, but women and money are a hot topic. At last month’s Oscar ceremonies, Patricia Arquette took the opportunity during her acceptance speech for best supporting actress to demand equal pay for women. Compare that with Amy Pascal, the former co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, who admitted in an interview with Tina Brown in February that she paid women less because they settled for less and she was running a business.”

Read the full article here.

Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS

“Stephen Poloz sits in a boardroom at his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario, on a snowy afternoon in late February.  The Governor of the Bank of Canada has just given his first public speech since shocking the financial markets with a completely unexpected interest rate cut in January. His address has thrown another curve ball, by pouring cold water on the market’s widespread assumption that he’s about to cut rates again at the bank’s next policy decision, just eight days hence,” writes David Parkinson and Barrie McKenna for the Globe and Mail on February 6th, 2014..

Parkinson and McKenna continued, “In an interview, Mr. Poloz is calmly explaining – again – why he’s not the reason the Canadian dollar is mired near six-year lows against its U.S. counterpart. But his frustration is seeping through.  “The exchange rate depends on everything. The idea of actually choosing to put it somewhere is beyond concept. It’s completely contrary to how we think about how the economy behaves, and how monetary policy is best framed.  “If people can’t buy that, and say, ‘Well, you’re just doing it to move the currency,’ I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s just economics.”  As the words echo the room, a staffer checks what the Canadian dollar actually did since his speech less than two hours earlier. It’s up nearly a cent.”

Read the full article here.

Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS

“Leadership matters. So does continuity of leadership. One principal responsibility of a leader – whatever the institution – is to prepare his or her successor. Beyond that, leaders need to be sure that there are willing and worthy successors ready for all major – and minor – positions within their empire. Perhaps the definitive model of developing a leadership pipeline in the corporate world has been GE, which has not only carefully prepared its own chief executive officer and senior leaders with remarkable effectiveness, but also groomed many who have gone off to use their talents in other companies,” writes Harvey Schachter for the Globe and Mail.

Schachter continues, “Noel Tichy, a professor at the University of Michigan and long-time researcher on succession, played a key role in that leadership process when he accepted former CEO Jack Welch’s 1985 request to head the firm’s management development institute at Crotonville, N.Y.In his new book Succession, Prof. Tichy suggests that the poster boy for how not to handle succession might be Hewlett-Packard, which kept reaching outside for CEOs who seemed glowing but proved flawed, most famously when they recruited and then fired Carly Fiorina. HP lurched for Leo Apotheker, who had been tossed out of SAP for high-handed and erratic behaviour, without most of the 12 board members even interviewing him.”

Read the full article here.

Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS

“Next to being head of a country, being CEO of a multinational is one of the hardest jobs in the world. CEOs are under constant scrutiny from all sides, and it takes a specific type of personality to rise to the occasion,” writes Karen Berg for the Globe and Mail’s special series Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab. 

Berg continues,”One of the greatest pitfalls a leader can encounter is to confuse managing with leading, thereby leaving their company grasping for direction. Here are some of the more common traits that lead CEOs to stumble:

Indecisive

New CEOs and other top executives spin their wheels for two or more years trying to suss out what’s working and what’s not. Why? The longer a CEO waits to make substantive decisions, the easier it becomes for people inside the company to dig a foxhole and hide or, worse, send incomplete and inaccurate information up the chain of command. Everyone is afraid including the CEO, and if the CEO shows fear, he/she will be eaten alive. The board is watching the CEO, the investment sector is watching the CEO, the competitors, customers – everyone is applying their own kind of pressure.”

Read the full article here.

Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS