Category Archives: Business

| Business

Look who’s plagiarizing from me now

Looks like I’m not the only one who thinks corporate boards are incestuous.

Peggy Curran in today’s Gazette (no link, someone was sleeping at CanWest Interactive and forgot to upload the story):

It is a truth universal (sic) acknowledged – at least by those of us who will never make the cut – that corporate boards are incestuous affairs, peopled by well-tailored movers and shakers who go to the same functions, shop at the same fromagerie and get their best gossip in the VIP lounge at the airport.

Heather Munroe-Blum’s Alcan appointment isn’t the first time a university president from this town has had questionable appointments to other boards. Concordia’s ex-rector Frederick Lowy was on the boards of Dundee Bancorp (a “wealth management” company) and Neurochem (a pharmaceutical company). In exchange Dundee’s chairman Ned Goodman had an MBA program named after him and an honorary degree. Neurochem’s Francesco Bellini single-handedly created Concordia’s genomics research facility (Conflict of interest? Nah.) and also got an honorary doctorate.

Oh the tangled web they weave…

| Business, In the news, Montreal

It ain’t easy being unbelievably rich

Need a personal assistant? BMO has a fantastic idea: deal with the company who understands what you are: your bank. This story (rewritten from this press release) talks of new “concierge services” offered to the filthy rich, such as doing laundry and groceries.

What happened to the good ol’ days of Mexican domestic workers?

In other business “news”, Domtar Inc. has changed its name to Domtar Corporation. The CBC is among many to rewrite their press release.

| Business, In the news

Mommy, where does coffee come from? (and other stories)

In today’s paper:

Kate Lunau and Vincenzo D’Alto have an interesting feature series on fair trade coffee in Nicaragua, and the economic impacts of this producer-friendly system.

Meanwhile, Roberto Rocha’s tech blog is live, renamed “TechnoCité” and with a cute mug shot.

Freelancer Christopher DeWolf has a long feature on the STM’s smart card payment system, which is supposed to go live next year.

This Financial Post story is hilarious, quoting RBC’s chief over ATM fees:

“There are areas of concern [for Canada] such as the accelerating growth in public spending, a tax structure that is biased against investment, a fragmented and expensive regulatory structure, and the deterioration in [Canada’s] competitive position,” Mr. Nixon said.

Exactly. Why focus on issues real Canadians care about? They’re small change. We need to focus on those poor investors who are only getting 6.5% annual return instead of 7%. Those are the people in crisis here.

Not to say I’m all in favour of eliminating ATM fees. After all, that’s what’s given us those white-label ATMs all over the place, which are so expensively convenient. ATMs are the future.

| Business, Media, Montreal

This hour has 26 minutes

I glanced at this ad in the West Island section of today’s Gazette. It’s for commercial real estate for rent.

Under “public transportation” it lists two things: the 210 bus from Fairview and “minutes from P.E.T. international airport”. First of all, I don’t know how appealing it is to have a rush-hour school-days only bus that’s filled to the brim with CEGEP students being your only source of public transit. Secondly, this building is more than 20 km from the airport. Google calculates the travel time as 26 minutes, which is clearly when there’s no traffic. Does that qualify as “minutes from the airport?” If so, isn’t the entire island minutes from the airport?

| Business, Technology

Welcome to the 21st Century

Some bloggers are buzzing about Bell Canada’s new unlimited plan which allows two local Bell customers (landline or cellphone) to talk as long as they want for just $10 over what they pay now.

Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that wireless number portability is only two weeks away. Starting March 14th, the big providers (Bell, Rogers, Telus) will be forced to allow customers to change providers and carry their phone number with them.

All of this is only about five years behind the rest of the developed world, which has had unlimited plans and number portability for quite a while. Now many of them offer unlimited use regardless of provider.

Now all we have to do is get rid of those ridiculous three-year contracts most of them force us to sign.