Stewarding Energy
Article Overview: A discussion about energy expenses
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Free Download - The Trouble With RFPs (Part 2) By The Osborne Group
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Stewarding Energy
Energy. All Canadian organizations
use energy for product production or services and/or infrastructure to
provide heat, light, air-conditioning for staff and electricity to run
equipment (computers, etc.). For many organizations, energy is the
largest single expense aside from salaries. But do we proactively
manage this resource or do we simply consume and treat it as an
uncontrollable cost of doing business? Without taking a close look at
optimizing cost and the impact to our firms we do a large disservice to
owners and our stakeholders. Historically we have not stewarded energy
well. Ontario and Canada for that matter has had low cost and plentiful
electrical energy for many years. That has all changed. The Ontario
government is now valuing electrical energy differently, presumably to
ensure consumers pay for the real cost of this commodity. If you
haven’t developed a mitigation strategy get going! If you do, not only
will you protect your operating margin but you will contribute long
term sustainability for your firm!
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Article Tags:
David Rankin,
interim executive,
interim management,
Ontatio energy,
The Osborne Group
Related Forum Posts
Re: LEADERS
- Nice post, i like the Doers and the listeners comments
from my handbook 8.5 HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LEADERSHIP?
Planning
Problem Solving
Vision
Innovation
Leadership
Emotional Intelligence
Delegation
Communication
Self-Development
Relationship Building
Commercial
Financial skills
Personal Energy
Ethics
Transparency
Even there I see that we are missing "PASSION"
Re: Will North America make carbon taxes anytime soon?
- Well I recently started to work at a solar company in Ontario, and business is booming.
The Ontario government is doing a great deal since passing the Green Energy Act.
This is where the government is buy the energy you produce. 80 cents for kwh.
A lot of people in Ontario are putting up solar panels on their roofs, and feeding back the grid green energy.
Re: Ideas For Business
- Hello Lucy,
you may consider this list for Ideas for Business: (Top 23 list)
Rank Company
1 Google
2 Genentech
3 Wegmans Food Markets
4 Container Store
5 Whole Foods Market
6 Network Appliance
7 S.C. Johnson & Son
8 Boston Consulting Grp.
9 Methodist Hospital Sys.
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Re: Offline Marketing V/S Online Marketing
- [quote="samin":1dlwh4yc]I have heard that there are multinational companies which are spending several thousand DOLLARs each month on their online promotion.
Take for example companies like expedia are spending around > $50,000/month on their Pay per click Google/Yahoo ( I just read this somewhere, although not sure).
However, I would like to know whether a travel related business can benefit more from online marketing, offline marketing, or equally from both.[/quote:1dlwh4yc]
Hi Samin,
When I was working at Direct Energy, I think a co-worker of mine told me that the company spent approx. $300,000 to have a banner on the side of the ice rink in the Air Canada Centre for a Toronto Maple Leaf playoff game a few years back. That makes $50,000/month for online marketing seem like nothing, haha.
In regards to your question, I think a travel related business will benefit most from online marketing with SEO tactics since people primarily look for cheap flights on the web. Furthermore, having good word of mouth is important as well. Speaking from personal experience, I'll tend to ask my friends and family where they've recently booked a cheap flight rather than go to the local shopping mall's flight booking centers.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company
- How about providing a white paper on Common security holes (only mention the ones that the prospect can easily and inexpensively fix themselves). Towards the end explain that there are other greater security flaws that exist and that you provide a "Free Security Consultation and Report".
They could use this report to get cheaper quotes but you are getting so much more... you get face time with the company and get to build rapport with them.
I know of a company here in Toronto that does Energy Audits on your home and provide you with a report on ways you can save energy- they also also offer to fix it for you through their suppliers.
they had a story run on them on Earth Day this year and they were bombarded with over 200 calls in one day to have these audits done. The audits are done for free.
You could write up a shocking story on Security and holes that exist within businesses today and submit this story to the newspapers business edition or to a Trade Magazine written for the industry you are trying to serve. Most journalists may pick up this article and feature it or interview you directly.
Also, I would redesign your site to be more Information-based to educate potential prospects (how to solve common security issues) rather than it being all about the company - people are more interested in solving their problem and often aren't searching the internet for a particular company by name unless it is well established. So give them juicy information freely.
note: When I first heard this idea of giving away free information about solving a problem I was hesitant to use it in my web design business. I gave it a try anyways and the amazing part was that even the easy inexpensive things I advised them they could fix in their websites they offered to pay me to do it for them - from there I was able to upsell them on greater improvements. I've since sold this company - but it was fun!
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