Solar Energy Investments and Research Capabilities - Kingston (Ontario) is catching on

Toronto-based Everbrite Industries - an industrial and commercial electrical contractor - has chosen Kingston to install their new solar panel manufacturing plant. Interestingly enough, they licensed the technology from a European firm and will manufacture the thin-film solar modules in a highly automated and efficient process. "Rather than purchase panels in China or Taiwan or out of the U.S., we decided to purchase the technology," CEO Dave Hardy says. "We realized the advantage of manufacturing panels locally exceeded the cost effectiveness of importing panels into the country." Those factors played an important role in their decisions:

1. Ability to sell in the provincial market
2. Queens University's top program in solar cell research (Engineering Dept.)
3. Industrial readiness (available manufacturing sites with no need to rezone/service)
4. Good supply chain in aluminum manufacturing nearby

http://www.siteselection.com/features/2009/may/Great-Lakes/

New Books Out:

• Jeff Rubin - Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization
  
  Jeff Rubin has an interesting point of view on the unlimited pressure on "somewhat" finite resources like oil and its effect on globalization. "Peak Oil" does not mean the end of oil but the end of cheap oil. Almost everything we consume is linked to cheap oil so if the price of black gold goes up, a lot of stuff will become expansive (it already is!). If we agree with his assumption about the future (prediction is always hard: can you spell the Leisure Society or Liberty 55!!), a lot of things will change; and not necessarily for the worst. According to Rubin, this will lead to more dense communities, less driving, and a reliance on what we produce locally. World trade could revert back to the patterns we saw in the 1970s, when tariffs slowed the global movement of goods and trading was more regional. Indeed a lot to think about in our communities! As smart people say: hope for the best but prepare for the worst!


• Daniel Goleman - Ecological Intelligence - How knowing the hidden impact of what we buy can change everything
  
  According to Goleman, "Green" is a mirage. We are at the very beginning. Most products with the label "green" on them are not really taking into account the whole manufacturing process that goes into producing them. We tend to focus on one single dimension. To be sure, there are some helpful products in building materials and in energy but it represents a transitional stage, a dawning of awareness of ecological impact but one that lacks precision, depth of understanding, and clarity. The next stage, according to Goleman is called Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA, a method that allows us to systematically tear apart any manufactured item into its components and their subsidiary industrial processes, and measure with near- surgical precision their impacts on nature from the beginning of their production through their final disposal (for example, there are 1 959 links that goes into manufacturing a single glass jar). This method was pioneered by Coca-Cola in the 1960's to quantify the merits of glass and plastic bottles and the benefits of recycling. This method spread over other industries and now a large and growing band of companies with national or international brands deploys the method somewhere along the way to make choices in product design or manufacturing-and many governments (especially Europe) use LCAs to regulate those industries. His book gives many ideas for SMEs to participate in this new "green supply chain".

Want to know how to set a new course for your community?

Here are some new workshops I am offering:

• Best Practices in Building Great Communities (Bâtir des communautés prospères: études de cas et meilleures pratiques)
• Reinventing Yourself for Economic Change (Réinventez-vous en ces temps économiques changeants)
• Major Economic and Social Trends: What it Means for Communities (Les principales tendances économiques et sociales: implications pour les communautés)

Do you require help on some issues? Are you seeking advice on long term career goals?

• I provide coaching help for set intervals (3 months or 30-days basis depending on your needs)

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Small Town Success: 7 Lessons Learned

Last month I attended a seminar and had discussions with a great team at the Rural Economic Development Centre of the University of North Carolina School of Government. This team had just finished an interesting project on community development: they identify 50 small towns that were implementing successful or innovative approaches to community economic development. The communities profiled in "Small Towns, Big Ideas" range in size from Chimney Rock in North Carolina with 175 people to West Helena in Arkansas with 15,000. The towns stretch from Oregon to South Georgia. The economic development strategies at work in these towns include industrial development, tourism, downtown development, entrepreneurship and arts, and cluster-based development. Case studies also describe a range of strategies for building local capacity for economic development, including innovative organizational structures, partnerships, leadership development. The study was conducted in 2006-2007.

There is no recipe or one strategy but an ensemble of strategies that must fit the opportunities out there and the assets and strengths of the community. Still, these common themes have emerged as central to the success of those small towns with big ideas: Read More

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Management Lessons from GM: The Do's and Don'ts (mostly Don'ts)

Most people are surprised of the demise of GM. It's because they always listen to the same tune and can't read a balance sheet. A lot of very sensible people had predicted the bankruptcy of GM. In 1999, Peter Drucker predicted that in 2009, there would be only 5 major car companies left and GM would not be one of them. We did not want to listen. We did not want to believe it. Actually, it is exactly that mentality that killed GM.

Since the 1920s, GM assumed that the US auto market was homogenous in its value and segmented by extremely stable income groups. These assumptions about the market went hand in hand with the internal production to yield the highest profit: long runs of mass-produced cars with minimum changes in model year (to keep resale value high, according to their theory).

Indeed, for 70 years, these assumptions worked like a charm. Even in the depth of the Depression, GM was gaining market share. But in the late 1970s, the assumptions about the markets became invalid. It was not only an income issue but more and more a "lifestyle" issue. The market was fragmenting into highly volatile "lifestyle" segments. At the same time, lean manufacturing created an economics of small scale. GM knew all this but simply could not believe it (GM's union still doesn't). Instead, GM tried to patch things over and over; they invested an incredible amount of energy and money into patching things while neglecting other real growth markets (minivans, light truck, green cars, etc.).

What are your assumptions about the future? What are you comfortably convinced of?

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Monthly Quote

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."

Eric Hoffer