Archive for the 'politics' Category

How the Toronto Transit Union Failed their Customers

Published
by
Ehren
on April 26, 2008
in Mentions, Ponderings, marketing and politics
. 4 Comments

How ironic that I would post more about the TTC today — right after my post about subway seating. I was at a friend’s place yesterday and it was pretty amusing to me when our host informed us that the TTC had just declared a strike. It wasn’t the fact that amused me, in fact it was the shock and expressions on everyone’s faces around me that indicated to me how bad of a situation the Toronto Transit Union (ATU Local 113) had put themselves into.

By Jamie (jbcurio)

Davisville Entrance at First Hour of Strike - by jbcurio

Generally speaking, the Toronto Transit Union gets somewhat of a bad reputation right off the bat and work actions/strikes will rarely ever automatically get the support of the public who is the key customer of the service they provide. That all said and done, the Toronto Transit Union (ATU Local 113) doesn’t do much to reach out to their key stakeholder — their actual customers (Torontonians) — here is their website.  (Update:  Erin Balser pointed out that there is a new website albeit limited - WeMoveToronto.ca)

Why does the website look so poorly made (i.e. from the early 90s)? Why is there no blog? And why do I never hear the Toronto Transit Union say something to me — the customer? As soon as you take a look at the website, you will realize it was not meant for the customer or the public — it was meant for union members. Did they not think that the public may want to visit their website and hear what they want to say?

I may not be keen on supporting the Toronto Transit Union or the city for that matter because I find they that they like to play political games by using the public as a pawn, but I sure think that the union is lacking some major communication skills with the public. Let’s take a look at a series of events last night (technically this morning) from my perspective around 12:15am (April 26 2008):

1. Host comes out and tells everyone that the TTC is on strike.

2. People are silent as the shock settles in.

3. Anger replaces shock as they think about getting home or the plans they made for the next few days.

4. Flick on the television and tune into CP24 which confirms that the TTC is on strike.

5. The media continues to broadcast Mayor David Miller’s unedited announcement to the press.

6. The media continues to post or blog ttc strike-related news and encourage commuters and stranded TTC users to call in and tell their story.

Where is the Toronto Transit Union at this time? Sleeping already? Why aren’t they saying anything?

Right — they are going to hold a press conference sometime today.

My point is that by the time they get around to holding a press conference; the city, the public and the media have already thoroughly communicated with one another. This means the average citizen in Toronto and TTC user will have already formulated in their head, how they perceive TTC workers and their union (or at least the latest ‘version’ so to speak). In a world where communication is now almost a constant and instantaneous between an organization and their stakeholders, why isn’t the Toronto Transit Union reaching out and informing their customers with their side of the story?

I find that while the media and the city of Toronto continue to try and simplify the issues so that it is more easily consumable content via newspapers and the internet, I still only have a vague idea as to what the TTC workers want. Inform your customers — it will only help you gain support and at the very least, not make you seem arrogant.

The Kicker

It’s a funny thing about promises and a person’s word (or word of honour). You may not say that you guarantee it — you may not say that you promise it, but if you say that you will do something — you better do it and deliver. Otherwise, don’t say it. Surprise surprise! This applies to organizations as well.

The Toronto Transit Union had originally promised a 48-hour notice before any strike action took place. Granted, the TTC did do that over the past weekend and then declared that there would not be any strike on Monday as they were making progress over some tentative agreement — but fast forward to Friday April 26 2008 — there was no 48-hour notice. In fact, the transit union decided to leave people stranded in the middle of the city at midnight when plenty of people are still out and about. Wow — good job with the public relations (hello karma!).

The Consequences

There won’t be any visible consequence. A strike may happen, the government may interfere and recall them to work, or perhaps there will be an agreement made. People will move on in their daily lives. That said, Torontonians will hold yet another grudge against the Toronto Transit Union and lose respect for TTC workers for holding them hostage yet again. Why else can’t we ever get majority of people to commit to using only public transit (yes I am simplifying — I know there are other reasons)?

Customers don’t care about how a service works — they just want it to work. That said, they will care about the people and organizations who serve them well but as always, communication is key — particularly when it comes to accountability and transparency. Is this how ATU Local 113 (Toronto Transit Union) markets themselves? Probably not.

Some may point out that there are legal issues that can’t be discussed publicly — ok. fine. So? How does that prevent them from communicating properly and being upfront to the public that they serve?

As a final note, let’s take a very brief look at the media coverage thus far on the current strike.

Media Comparison

Globe and Mail - Public comments / Encouraging people to submit videos or photos / Live blogging / Video

The Toronto Star - TTC Strike Watch Blog / Back-to-work legislation / TTC Strike Survival Guide / Video

National Post - TTC Strike Edition / More news about negotiations (with more from Transit Union)

Local Online Media - Transit Toronto / BlogTO

Toronto Transit Commission - Just a website but with an update.

ATU Local 113 - Oh…just this website no updates.  WeMoveToronto.ca has a few updates.

*****

At least the TTC and the city are going public with announcements, but really the Toronto Transit Union should be doing more to communicate as well. All three organizations are part of a larger picture. As I think I’m saying way too often these days — we must keep thinking about our role. A blog just might help … it’d be a good start.

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Drawing Direction from We the Robots

Published
by
Ehren
on March 16, 2008
in Ponderings, fun, philosophy and politics
. 0 Comments

I thought I’d share this little strip from an excellent comic — We the Robots — that I ran across during my occasional visit to the Animation Show website.  I’ve been eager to check out Animation Show 3 (still in progress…)!

Art is a funny thing and from art we draw expression, inspiration, emotion, and ideas.  Has there ever been such a thing as art that was wrong or right?

Similarly do we all have a right or wrong way to learn?  I think we’re still stuck in a hole when it comes to education.  Still stuck on grades.  Still stuck on how things we think should be done rather than how things can be done.  The common argument that grades are the only effective method of measuring success is overused and out of date.

The amount of information and knowledge out there continues to increase at an insanely exponential rate yet we insist that children follow a rigid method of learning that is based off of the major section of a bell curve whom receive the excellent marks.  The smaller sections outside of majority manage to keep up somewhat but are they able to utilize their potential?  We are not helping generation after generation of kids by defining them through IQ, EQ or whatever measurement we like to apply on to a person.  You may refer to my belief as too holistic but I think in order to really determine the potential of a person, don’t we have to really get to know them?

Chris Harding the creator of We the Robots had posted this on a recent blog post that I wanted to share.  I’d recommend reading the introduction to We the Robots for more fun!

By Chris Harding

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Organizational Happyness - It’s in the Marketing

Published
by
Ehren
on February 20, 2008
in Aspirations, Unthinkables, marketing, policy and politics
. 0 Comments
“It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?” — Christopher Gardner

It’s funny … when I watched Pursuit of Happyness, the most powerful moment in the movie was the point where Chris Gardner was offered the job and he walks into the street and joins the crowds of happy people. It was the most powerful moment for me because I felt similarly when I was offered my first full time position.

Why do I bring up the movie/book? Because it is interesting how Chris Gardner’s quote puts everything in context. We are all striving for our own form of happiness in some sense. Whether this may be in relationships or work or in our daily life, it all ties in together. After reading Seth Godin’s post on Marketing HR which actually talks about recruiting talent, I thought I’d work through some of my thoughts on that issue.

We work because we have to (duh…), but even more so, we work because it provides us with a sense of purpose. There are those who are more driven than others while there are those who carry a powerful sense of purpose with them wherever they go. Why is it that management fails to spot those with purpose? Why is it that management fails to keep talent around?

Simple. Talent is similar to the sense of purpose — it wants to grow and move on or else it will get bored and unhappy. Any owner or manager of a business has the responsibility to ensure that their staff are pursuing whatever makes them happy. It only makes sense doesn’t it? I’m not suggesting that everyone drop everything they don’t like — but rather there should be growth and movement towards a point of happiness.

Business owners and managers believe that they can easily replace skill. Sure of course skill is replaceable but the person isn’t. Every time someone leaves a company — the hit on staff morale is probably ten fold. I’m speculating of course.

Michael Lopp, author of Managing Humans (and blogger Rands in Repose) had a brilliant brief for holding on to talent or rather identifying your employee’s skill and will quadrant:

  • High Skill, Low Will: Boredom is imminent — needs a change of scenery and responsibilit. Stat.
  • High Will, Low Skill: Needs training, needs mentorship. Needs management. The good news is they really, really want it. Savor this because as soon as the skill kicks in, they’re going to start wanting your job. This rules.
  • Low Will, Low Skill: Boy, did you screw up. It takes a fairly concerted effort to ignore the needs of your employee so long that (a) they no longer have the skills necessary to do their job, and (b) they don’t want to do it. Roll those sleeves up, pal. You’ve got work to do.
  • High Skill, High Will: Great job, ummmmm, guess what? No one stays here long.

What is the ROI? That’s pretty easy — loyal staff, more innovative and creative staff, and overall better people and dynamics in the office.

Think about it — we spend all that money and time marketing to consumers about how great our products or services are — yet we don’t pay enough attention internally. This is important for businesses of all sizes because as a business, you want to grow — growth is not just key to the business but to the people who work within the business as well. Not providing and addressing what your employees need and want will ultimately hinder your business inwardly.

Silly isn’t it? Short-term vision that focuses on primarily the balance sheet and numbers can often hurt the long-term potential for greatness. So what do you want to do as a business — be great or merely stay afloat? Greatness requires us to rethink and redefine ourselves on a consistent basis.

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One Brilliant Marketing Campaign

Published
by
Ehren
on November 30, 2007
in Aspirations, Interests, Mentions, fun, marketing, politics, video and web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Today my friend passed along a website called CheatNeutral. I have no idea if many other people in the world have heard and seen this but I had no idea what it was. I definitely encourage you to visit their website and view the video clip.

Their idea strikes hard at the viewer and with some pretty zany humour which really brings home the story behind the whole concept of Carbon Neutrality and Carbon offset credits that many webhosting service providers like Netfirms and Dreamhost have been buying up in order to have the ability to market themselves as “Green friendly”, especially as being green is becoming trendy in the eyes of many consumers who are increasingly environmentally conscious. A prime example is the banner I have on the left hand side of my blog declaring that I am green — which I will remove over this weekend.

The point is … I’m guilty … just as almost all of us are guilty of looking for an easy way to deal with our environmental issues. Thank you Alex and Christian … and Beth ? … for helping people realize what the Carbon offset industry is doing and how ridiculous it really is.

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Back to School-ing

Published
by
Ehren
on September 3, 2007
in Aspirations, Interests, Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables, fun, marketing, philosophy, policy, politics, travel and work
. 0 Comments

I just got back from Philly yesterday night after dropping by Buzzy’s on the way home.  Buzzy’s is THE best place for buffalo wings and pizza if you are passing through Niagara Falls, NY.  It’s a small family-owned restaurant that isn’t exactly the most smoothly-run restaurant in the world, but the food makes it all worthwhile!  I wish I had a photograph for you but definitely recommend a slice of their chocolate peanut butter smoothie.  Among all the desserts that my sweet tooth aches for, that ranks number one on my chart.

Top Five Favourite Desserts

1.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie (Buzzy’s)

2.  Fried Ice Cream (ranks slightly higher than pretty much any other ice cream related item)
3.  Sweet Potato Pie

4.  Soft-baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Farmer’s Market)

5.  Pecan Pie (ranks slightly higher than the rest of the other pies and all other desserts which I find amazing regardless)

What does this have to do with schooling?  Well, nothing but I thought I’d start off sweet and then throw out the hard stuff.  I think funniest things about desserts and school is what I remember as a kid.  What I would do for some chocolate or something to soothe that sweet tooth.

Now what am I taking a school-ing for?  Because I love learning (sans the exams of course).  Of course this will mean that I am ultimately very busy for the next few months but hopefully it will all be for the best and I will come out with some newfound skills and abilities.

While I was travelling through Pennsylvania and its many beautiful cities and small towns, we often stopped for a bite to eat at diners, fastfood chains and the odd tourist attraction.  I admired the number of small businesses that were able to thrive in small town USA, many of which would not be able to in Canada.  These towns were only a mere one or two hours apart but the landscape was different as were the people.

Small towns in Canada should not need to depend on resources that larger cities demand.  One thing that I definitely noticed was the fact that people from all over Pennsylvania would travel through smaller towns, something that does not happen frequently in Ontario.  It’s the unfortunate consequence of our geography when a massive majority of our population lives within the core areas of southwestern Ontario.  There are major implications for Canadians and Ontarians in general when majority of employment is located in southwestern Ontario and people must live near where they work.  I look forward to the time when employers promote and consider telecommuting seriously.  Just commuting alone to downtown Toronto, I lose four hours a day.  That’s four hours I could do whatever else I wanted to keep me being happy me.

Back to school-ing.  Notice in school, we were graded by the exams we take, the projects we finish, and the assignments we hand in?  Perhaps there was a small participation mark but the large percentage of credit was given for work completed.  If school is like that, why isn’t work?  If employers and employees wanted to get the most of their work or free hours, being paid per project is the most efficient and effective manner of operating.  Add on performance measures and you’ve got an operation that will nearly ensure things get done on time or as efficiently as possible.  I wonder how long it will take for companies to start realizing that hourly and salary based work is not the best way to make use of time.

Now why the connection between desserts and school again?  Well, it means less time for me to enjoy and make the desserts that life brings to the table.  Only for the meanwhile …

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Marketing and Advertising Ethics - a Question of Face(book)

Published
by
Ehren
on August 23, 2007
in Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables, ecommerce, marketing, policy, politics and web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Earlier today I ran across a some news from both ZDNet and TechCrunch about Facebook pushing the perceived boundaries of targeted advertisement further by matching advertisers with the end user via the data collected from the user’s profile as well as from their “social graph”.  TechCrunch suggests that there could be the possibility for Facebook to predict what a user would want in the future through such data exploits.  A the same time, there is speculation that Facebook would continue it’s relatively costly advertisement model which is based on the number of impressions, as opposed to pay-per-click.  Here are my initial thoughts on these matters:

  1. If  indeed Facebook is planning to continue with such a model, I don’t believe it will work as well as people think.  Paying per one thousand impressions (CPM) is an antiquated model in my opinion and does not effectively justify any sort of ROI.  While the big box corporations will jump at Facebook, small and medium sized businesses will continue to spend their money on Google, Microsoft or Yahoo pay-per-click ads.  Sure it’s not as advanced and may not be considered to be as “relevant” to the user as the user-targetting system that Facebook utilizes, but the effectiveness from my perspective just does not justify the cost.  So far I cannot say I have clicked on any Facebook ads.
  2. I personally don’t like data mining and utilizing the acquired user behaviourial patterns and profile’s personal data to have advertisement matched according to me.  It seems a little too much in my opinion, and slightly overbearing.  In fact, if Facebook decides to thoroughly utilize my profile’s data, I think they should provide all users with a big and bold privacy notice letting them know that their personal data is being used for advertisement relevancy.
  3. While majority of people are loving Facebook, I am very hesitant to endorse the web 2.0 company and am actually some what suspicious of its objectives.  Call me paranoid, but I much prefer when I can decide for myself what businesses can see about me (on my website).  I also enjoy the fact that they can’t determine what I want based on my actions.  Businesses should figure that out based on customer feedback, not by collecting data that is considered valuable “marketing” information.  That’s what truly successful businesses do to show that they are human beings, they communicate with their customers.

I may be a big fan of internet marketing, but I believe it is very important to keep the human aspect alive, to maintain client/customer relations and to respect an individual’s right to absolute privacy, regardless of where the boundaries are being pushed today by the most recent  generation of social media savvy people.

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Toronto’s New Transit Plan for LRVs

Published
by
Ehren
on June 19, 2007
in Aspirations, Mentions, policy and politics
. 0 Comments

Public transit is a big issue in Toronto these days, especially when subways, buses and streetcars are always hindered by traffic gridlock, mechanical failures and politics.

I don’t usually promote public policy because of the politics involved but I spotted a TTC brochure promoting public feedback on new Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs).  Torontonians should definitely visit the website www.mynewstreetcar.ca

Visit the website.  Take a look at the different LRVs from around the world and let the Toronto Transit Commission what you like or dislike!

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Help End the Tiger Trade - Post a photo of yourself

Published
by
Ehren
on May 31, 2007
in Aspirations, Interests, Mentions, fun, nature, photographs, policy, politics and web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Tiger Mosaic Overview

My friend Rochelle sent this to me via email and I thought it was an awesome way to get the word out and have people get involved in helping endangered wildlife in gradually shrinking natural habitat, in this case, tigers in China which are also being speed bred in anticipation of government permitted sales of tiger-related products. I can understand the demand for these products but at the same time there has to be some way to stop the massive consumption–at the very least moderate it.

I think WWF was quite innovative here and made use of one of my favourite hobbies–photography! But really the WWF got people involved by simply sending in their own photograph to join the thousands of other people to come together and make a photo mosaic of a tiger. It is very impressive when I see all the different people around the world coming together in this act of visual activism (for lack of a better word).

Tiger Mosaic

Click here and join the mosaic!

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