Business is where I have and continue to spend the better part of my life. I started out in finance and moved quickly on to marketing ("objective" to "subjective"; science to art?) and then realized that it was strategy I liked and did best with.

If it ain't broke . . . BREAK it. That kind of describes where a lot of the notions here go. The conclusions and directions the arguments take can be a bit kaleidoscopic. Open mind and fastened seatbelt are required.

If you revere commerce and free-market capitalism as the height of all civilization, this may not be the place for you to find sympathetic words. Although it's not "dirty" work unbecoming the educated and civilized as some patricians persist in believing, remember that it's just the way we pay the bills.

The Revenge of Geography (03/08) -- A white paper for Canada Post in an abridged version as published by Directions Magazine. Pondering a future for location intelligence is a speculative journey through geographic permanence and human transience that ends with proving location intelligence to be evermore crucial to businesses and governments. (1,900 words)

Reforming the Advertising Code (01/06) -- A cover feature in Ideas magazine. Advertising is a thousand year-old, sophisiticated, flourishing art form. Over the past century, it stratified into several castes. The separation has seemed right and appears to have worked. More and more, though, the distiction seems unwarranted and unproductive. Something is wrong and reformation is in the wind. (1,900 words)

21st-century Marketing: The Funnel of Love (05/05) -- Recently I framed the marketer-consumer relationship change as a move from an engagement to battle to an engagement to marry. The metaphor seems to require further explanation for how it applies to the business of marketing. (1,750 words)

From Martial to Marital Marketing (12/04) -- Marketers! You are on the cusp of wasted opportunity. Wireless technology carries with it the chance to evolve the art and science in a fundamental way: from "push" to "pull." (1,550 words)

Losing the Name Game (11/04) -- The CRM-driven quest for consumers' personal information is seeping into stages of marketing that are wrong for and do not require it. Moreover, the consumer environment has become generally less hospitable to this tactic. That's not good. (1,100 words)

A Lutheran View of Advertising Orthodoxy (08/04) -- Marketing is at the beginning of a conceptual shift unlike any since Trout/Ries brought "positioning" into the marketing lexicon. Advertising's persistent reliance on and propagation of a bankrupt framework is confusing and counter-productive. It is time to change. (1,500 words)

Structured to Fail (10/03) -- I've convinced myself that structure determines outcome to a great degree. The support is in the thinking of complexity theory. (1,100 words)

Going Faster: But Where (07/01) -- The future will unfold in response to short-term obstacles and needs. We're going blindly into the unknown very fast. (1,300 words)

Brand Canada or 'Branded' Canadian (06/01) -- Piece in Policy Options about the Canadian character as a brand and its implications on selling Canadian goods, services, and human resources. (3,200 words)

The Accession of Marketing (06/01) -- The dot-com boom and small-dip recession bust, together with demographic reality, marked the accession of the marketing mind into the executive suite. (1,400 words)

Lining Up for the Anti-Globalization Conga -- Part I (04/01) -- Anti-globalization as typified by Seattle and Quebec City are unconstructive. Economics and history conspire against it. (1,300 words)

Air Canada Can Save Us (02/01) -- We're too fat; Air Canada is mismanaged and in receivership. I think there's one solution to both problems. (750 words)

Social Aspects of Shopping (02/01) -- We are social creatures. All the conveniences and benefits of the online world are missing that key element. To permeate society fully the virtual world needs a stronger social aspect. (900 words)

Recession? That's what happens after the gold rush (26/01/01) -- Globe & Mail opinion piece on the post-dot-com recessionary climate. (800 words)

Slow down and beware the dangers of 'Internet Time' (03/01/01) -- Globe & Mail opinion piece on the pop business culture phrase "Internet Time." (800 words)

Caveat Reader (01/01) -- Business books of every sort are not panacea, as likely to cause harm as do good. Beware of what you read and who you follow. (800 words)

The Real "Best" Practice in the New Economy (01/01) -- The "best" practice for the new economy may be not to recognize any practices as empirically best, but most appropriate in the circumstances. (800 words)

Toward a New Employment Contract for the Knowledge Economy (01/01) -- Capitalist enterprise and labour need to work together to keep human intellectual capital at home in Canada. That entails providing opportunities and paying better than elsewhere. (3,300 words)

Suitably Short-Sighted (01/01) -- Short-term reporting, immediate gratification, and a gap between word and action are incompatible with the long-term human story. (800 words)

Tilting at eCommerce Windmills (11/00) -- Using eBusiness as a means to protect the domestic market will fail. Consumers will be shortchanged and business will lose to stronger foreigners. (1,000 words)
I've worked on digital identity and a number of other electronic/web-based products/services. Naturally, a fair amount of thought is directed toward issues of the postal future, electronic and otherwise. Here are a few thoughts. Perhaps they will eventually influence some of the industry's thinking, who knows. Until then, they are just food for thought.

The papers presented here are the ones I wrote. Other versions, edited and otherwise amended by colleagues at Canada Post, are available elsewhere. I let them use my work as a base. Fight them over copyright if you choose to use.

The Post Office in the Digital Trust Framework (10/03) -- In the evolving trust framework for online (commercial) activity there are few organizations that have the assets and could project the necessary trust for evolution. The world's postal administrations are one such organization. (1,000 words)

Evolution of the Online Trustmark (09/02) -- Symbols have characteristics and are a device for making decisions without direct, verifiable proof. Some marks give us confidence. Online this is essential as it's often impossible to get personal, direct verification of trustworthiness. Explores the development and future for online trust marks. (1,900 words)

There's More to Online Trust than Security and Privacy (09/02) -- Through 2001 and 2002 many people equated trust (or its absence) in the online world with security and privacy functions. This is, as made obvious by development in understanding through 2002/03, a much too narrow view of how trust can be achieved or substituted to invigorate eBusiness and eCommerce. (2,000 words)

Putting Speed Bumps on the Criminal Path (06/02) -- Identity theft/fraud are growing problems that facilitate other more heinous and destructive crimes, now exacerbated by the Internet. Post offices have dealt with it for years. Here are some insights into Canada Post's understanding of the subject and what we're doing now and for the future. From a speech delivered at the Identity Theft/Fraud Conference, Toronto, by Canada Post's VP, eBusiness. (2,800 words)