2008 was been filled with extraordinary organizational and leadership challenges for many of our readers. We encourage you to join us for the Tom Peters presentation as a resource for navigating the professional challenges that 2009 will surely bring.

How do you keep your organization focused and ride out these turbulent economic times? Is a turnaround strategy necessary? Or do you simply have to manage the perceptions and fear generated by external circumstances that have little to do with your company's or your industry's reality?

Tom Peters is one of the giants of business as we know it today and he will be back for a presentation on Thursday, January 22nd at the Coast Capri Hotel. It is scheduled for 7:30am and a full breakfast will be served. The presentation will be recorded live from the satellite.

Tickets are $85 including all taxes and fees and they are available at Ticketmaster.

Tom Peters is the our-guru of management and inventor of the management guru industry according to Fortune, the Economist, the New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times. His book, In Search of Excellence, graced book stands 25 years ago and was the tipping point for change within corporate management. Since his literary debut in 1982, Peters has written over a dozen other books on management and the corporate world. Like Peters' seminars, his books offer his audiences the inspiration to take risks. Peters shares with his readers and viewers his personal key principles: keeping a limber mind, and becoming a leader of change, not a follower of the same old, tired traditions.
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The pessimist complains about the wind the optimist expects it to change the realist adjusts the sails.
--William Arthur Ward

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Mount Baldy in the south Okanagan Valley plans to celebrate its 40th anniversary with retro pricing deals. Lift tickets will be priced at rates more reminiscent of the late 1960s when VW buses chugged up to its lodge.

Plan your trip to the slope for Sundays or Fridays - the days with the ultra-cheap lift tickets. You can buy $12 lift tickets every Sunday afternoon from Jan. 11 to Mar. 29. Friday skiers and snowboarders can take advantage of the resort's Two Can Ski for $42 deal available from Jan. 9 to Mar. 27.

Borderline Ski Club launched the Mt. Baldy ski area with one T-bar back in 1968. It has expanded since then to include the Eagle Chairlift on Mt. Baldy with 1,293 vertical drop and 18 trails. The resort also grooms trails on McKinney T-bar and the Magic Carpet as well as the Sugar Lump quad, which opened last year on an adjacent hill. The new lift added access to 10 new trails and glades.

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Tourism B.C. is warning agencies that promote Victoria, Vancouver and other regions of the province to brace for possible budget cuts next year.

Rod Harris, president of the Crown corporation, has suggested in a letter to the marketing partners that they identify possible "austerity measures" in case economic conditions worsen.

He noted Tourism B.C.'s budget is tied to hotel revenues, and expected declines could force the corporation to trim its support to other agencies by up to 20 per cent next year.

Harris confirmed the letter was sent last month to a dozen destination marketing organizations including the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association.

Harris pointed to a number of positive developments that could boost tourism, such as falling oil prices, a lower Canadian dollar and the coming Olympic Games, which are expected to have an effect on tourism as early as next fall. He noted that the government has more than doubled Tourism B.C.'s budget from $25 million to $57 million in just seven years.

I’m sure this will be a brief stop in the road as the tourism operators of the Interior of B.C. (TOTA) make adjustments to their planning if is it is required. These are creative practitioners who understand the market better than most and will adapt to the changes – just watch. I have seen them make it all work for thirty years. Sure it won’t be easy, who said it ever was? But, count on them to win.

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The BIV list is out for the biggest retailers in B.C. with the Jim Pattison Group still holding first place with 410 locations selling groceries and used and new cars in the province. Safeway Canada, the second largest grocer in Western Canada has moved up to second place from third with 776 stores. Real Canadian Superstore is third, Wal-Mart fourth. Starbucks Coffee remains in fifth spot with 359 coffee houses in B.C. Sears is 6th, the Bay 7th and London Drugs dropped down to 8th from last year’s 7th place finish. Thrifty Foods, formerly owned by the Campbell family on the Island, sold out to Sobeys and is in ninth place. In 10th position is Best Buy.

Vernon’s Kal Tire has 219 stores and is in the 19th spot in the top twenty-six retailers in the province.

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Too many people see the clouds and very few see the silver lining. Recessions are always great opportunities for someone. Many people made fortunes during the Great Depression. They saw the silver lining.

There is opportunity everywhere! Finding them though can be tough for people that have become complacent. As someone said this year: “Change” is about to begin. Hopefully, it will be good to you.

Don’t forget your current customers. They are your business and reassuring them will keep you chugging along even in bad economic times.

Be sure they know you are there for them. Find new ways to help them, new products and services, and even growth is a possibility.

Focus on what you do best!

Will we see any changes at Sun-Rype Products this year? We certainly have a lot of rumours floating around at the moment. I don’t think the changes that we have seen in 2008 are the last. The ownership of this company has changed and their thinking is unlike any we have seen over the years. It is a different time and different world. Read the labels in your grocery stores and see where the products you consume actually come from. Plus all of those that are only packaged in Canada after being manufactured somewhere else in the world. I have some thoughts on the future of the company and we’ll be discussing those in the very near future...

Very soon there will be a new A&W Restaurant in the Mission. I understand the Poppa burgers will be coming out of the spot formerly occupied by the French Bakery on the Lakeshore at KLO...

One landowner told me just before Christmas that he hasn’t sold a lot since last June. They were lined up at this Kelowna location just a year ago...

I received the Elvis CD for Christmas. Quite an idea and it put the singer on the hot country chart for the first time in ten years. His duet with Martina McBride Blue Christmas was our favorite...

Jimmy Pattison makes the top five richest Canadians list for the first time in fifth place. The B.C. billionaire came in $4.93 billion, which is up some nine per cent over last year. The billionaire list in Canada has moved up to fifty-three over the last ten years since the list has been compiled. The Thomson Family again head the list at $18.45 billion...

It was a different promotion for the festive season as the lobster industry in Nova Scotia came west to sell people on the idea of adding lobster to the Christmas dinner. It was a promotion of Sobeys the food merchant from Nova Scotia and Canada’s number two food chain in the country. I do like lobster...

I guess we will find out in February whether Oliver is going to get a new shopping centre anchored by Buy-Low Foods and Canadian Tire. This is on the property formerly the home of the Southwind Inn. We spent many times in the hotel for meetings and conferences. For years Joan Sarell was the general manager and part owner of the hotel. What a fine lady. I spent many hours working on the tourism sector with her on committees to promote the Okanagan...

They serve good food and now Ric’s Grill is getting ready for expansion into the Metro Vancouver area with six locations over the next couple of years with two planned for 2009. The chain now has fifteen steak houses in Alberta and B.C. Brothers Sal and Sunny Gupta got their start in Prince George...

The BIV list of biggest post secondary institutions in B.C. sees Okanagan College listed in twelfth place in the top twenty-five. For some reason they moved down from 11th last year...

Copywriter Susan Gunelius rounds up her list of the top 10 words to avoid in ad copy. Her strategy includes avoiding words that trigger e-mail spam filters, words that lack meaning and the word "that" which Gunelius says, "slows down time-strapped consumers." Shun meaningless words like "a lot" and "guarantee" in your copy. Susan Gunelius has more than 15 years of marketing and copy writing experience working for some of the largest companies in the world. She is also a published author and her latest book is Kick-Ass Copy writing in 10 Easy Steps...

I just received an email offering me Edisione Pennino 2006 Zinfandel made at Francis Coppola’s Rubicon Estate in the Napa Valley for $461.40 for a case delivered (six bottles per case or $74.95 a bottle). They produce 2,500 cases a year. Imagine me getting this offer when I write about Baby Duck and Mateus. Crazy world...

I couldn’t get this item in during the holidays. Pennylane Bargain Outlet in Summerland did a winter coat/jacket promo. This is the store the young people of the area operate very successfully. They gave away winter jackets/coats for a minimum $10 donation to the local Food Bank and the Fire Department's Toy Campaign. Interestingly enough they gave away a total of 349 brand new jackets/coats, of which 105 were for kids. They raised $5262.00 for those two charities in the five hour promo. At regular catalogue pricing that equates to $37,150 worth of jackets/coats that are making the recipients warmer this winter. They do such powerful work in their community...

Penticton has always been proud of identifying with Jim Treliving and his partner George Melville as being the starting place of the food empire, Boston Pizza. Last year Boston Pizza grossed $755 million in annual sales and served more than 38 million people. Boston Pizza International is the number one casual dining restaurant chain in Canada...

I caught a business special on CTV this past week on the old K-Tel International company from Winnipeg and all over the world at one time. It was doing $180 million a year in business when the U.S. division got into financial trouble. We all had something from K-Tel in our homes whether it was a musical album of the twenty greatest hits of somebody or “Hooked on Classics.” Maybe it was the Veg-o-matic, Dial-o-matic or the Feather-Touch Knife. Their biggest selling product was the Miracle Brush, selling 28 million in the late sixties. We still have the patty maker plus a number of albums. I think that Veg-o-matic cost us $5. I remember Phil Kives the founder of the company as a pitchman working a crowd in Eaton’s stores across the country selling the teflon frying pan and when you stepped up and bought one you got a free pancake maker. He was the man who invented the infomercial on TV when he realized he could work in front of a few people in the store or appeal to thousands of buyers through the five-minute TV commercial. Just one final note on K-Tel. Their biggest selling album of all time was “Hooked on Classics” selling over ten million copies...

This month, eMarketer noted e-commerce activity in Canada from US sources soared more than 40% in 2007 in comparison to 2005, according to Statistics Canada.

"A weakening US dollar caused a surge in Canadian spending on US Websites during 2007's holiday season," notes eMarketer.

The spread between the US dollar and Canadian dollar (Loonie) was close to 25% over the holiday shopping period this year, but in 2007, the exchange rate was nearly at par. That most likely affected Canadians spending habits online, at least in measuring that activity against cross-border retailers.

Top Forecaster Says: The Recession Over By Mid-2009!

The head of Naroff Economic Advisors in Pennsylvania predicts the recession, while steep, could be over fairly quickly, perhaps by mid-2009. Among the encouraging signs he mentioned: lower interest rates, government bailout funds to stabilize the financial sector, a massive stimulus program coming when Barack Obama assumes office and lower energy prices.

Naroff, who was named the top forecaster of 2007 by the National Association of Business Economists, also hinted things feel worse than they actually are. "A large part of what we're going through is psychological," he said. All this has led businesses and consumers to respond more vigorously to the downturn than might be justified. This "compactment of the adjustment process" has shown up in a larger number of layoffs over a relatively short period, he said. But Naroff said layoffs won't persist for long at such a heavy pace, and when the worst is over, he expects the economy to start to recover.

Bloomberg Business News, USA Today and ASU have honored Naroff, for being especially accurate. Kind of nice to see in this environment: someone who is optimistic!

I believe we will see some economic rebounds in 2009. Canadians will be affected by this recession pending on three factors a job, a house and savings. That storm cloud we have all feared is right over us now and we are really in for some changes in our lives and if we have a job, life will get a little more stable. For most of us this is the most important and Canada does have a rather stable employment forecast. I also believe that the Americans will lead the way and things will begin to happen down there for the better. It will take a year to sixteen months.

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A local business person, a friend of mine for many years, has just returned from a business trip to Beijing. He has asked me not to use his name. His company hopes to make a deal for its wood products in China, realizing right away it would not be an easy negotiation, but would be worth it in the end.

He was shocked at how goods were being sold. The street merchants set up early in the morning on street corners in shops no bigger than a couple of old phone booths. Within minutes they would be selling compact discs, computer games, watches, scarves and handbags with Gucci and Louis Vuitton labels. They were all fake imitations and very inexpensive.

He was told by one of his contacts in China that he must condition himself to deal with the copycats. I question how someone learns to do that. It is not just about all the company’s latest products. It could very well be its manufacturing process, it’s advertising or even its company name if it is not registered in both English and French. Entire plants in China are making counterfeit products.

That brought back memories to me because I had such a situation and with a little luck was able to complete the registration of some local brands for a major company many years ago in the early 80’s. It wasn’t easy and it cost a couple of bucks.

Good advice to local companies even thinking of China in the future would be to copyright everything. Chinese patents are awarded to the first company to file, rather than the first company to invent a product or process. That means registering everything critical to your business immediately.

My friend was told to keep control by owning and managing his China business instead of forming a partnership. This helps protect trade secrets, although we could talk about another large company in this Valley that would not totally agree after being burned itself. His wife said to me, “I have go to go back. I only covered a few of the stalls on the streets. It was an amazing experience.”

It was a good Christmas holiday because we were with family. It was different for sure with all that snow and everything that happens in the Fraser Valley when something like this happens to their weather. The first thing you learn is they don’t have a lot of shovels because they really don’t move a lot of snow each winter. The snow came down for two days, December 24 and 25 and when it was all over 41 centimeters were on the ground and we trapped in inside. The side streets were not for travel because of the snow. There weren’t even ruts yet so wherever the driver wanted to go in some cases that was impossible.

There were lots of cars stuck in driveways and lots of neighbors pushing then out. Cleaning the driveway wasn’t easy and our daughter Brenda and her son Taylor wouldn’t let Grandma and Grandpa near the wet snow. We had made the right choice by traveling this year on Greyhound - no fuss, no muss, drove through everything. But more of that later. We finally dug out on Boxing Day. It is the big shopping day isn’t it? So, there was no stopping the shovels!

We arrived at the mall in the morning and it wasn’t that busy until about noon when the young shoppers started to show up. Prices were excellent. It was certainly sale time no matter what you wanted to buy. The following day it started to rain and it was time for the homeowners to get the drains open in front of their homes for the water to have an outlet. Snow, rain and water running make for quite a contrast from just the two days before. They of course don’t get a plow down the street. We looked at the weather forecast and the Mrs. decided it would be better to travel on a good weather day or at least one that was forecast as a good weather day. It worked out fine and we were on an Express run with no stops and had a good trip home. I couldn’t read and so I watched out the window and saw things from that bus seat you could never see when you’re driving a car.

It’s the end of the year and this time out 81 homes were resold in the Kelowna market in the million dollar plus price tag. There were 344 listed for 2008...

Sixty thousand people went through YVR on the day before Christmas...

What kind of thinking goes into a situation like at Toronto’s airport when three thousand people had to sleep over anywhere they could because there were no planes taking off? Then they closed all the facilities that sold drinks and food? Who would make a decision like that?...

I received so many emails for my Christmas message and I appreciate that very much. No one upset about me saying Merry Christmas. Those controlling this politically correct Christmas are really the government and the schools. People from other nationalities don’t have a problem with our celebration of the birth of Christ. They have their own special times they celebrate. If you watched the people shopping everyone was happy with the prices brought on by the Christmas season...

Our young grandson played in a midget tournament, got the MVP award and then after Christmas did his second most favorite thing - referee a Bantam A tournament. When asked whether his grandparents could come and watch he quickly replied to his mother “I’m working.” We did not see any of the games...

I didn’t realize that we had more young men on baseball scholarships across the line than there are with hockey scholarships. There is a total of 750 in baseball in US Colleges and Universities and only 500 playing hockey...

The Vancouver media were really tough on Air Canada because of the many cancellations prior to Christmas day. WestJet was canceling also because they had to but just didn’t get the same coverage. It seems to be a difficult thing for these airlines to put reps on the waiting room floor that can answer questions and give people some assurance of what the future is all about for their flights. It seems to be a problem for every holiday when everyone knows it is going to be busy and that weather could be a factor. While I was in the grocery store one person came up to me with a story of her sister and her husband waiting for hours in an aircraft in Prince George and then Air Canada canceling the flight. They then went over to WestJet and were booked to leave on the next flight...

It has been a fine year for local business success Andre Blanleil and his Andre’s AudioTronics chain of stores in Kamloops, Penticton, Vernon and Kelowna. All his stores have had a successful year and the retailer has made his mark in the crowded electronics marketplace against the odds of the big national chains slashing and crashing prices.

Continuing its long tradition of giving back to the community, Valley First and its 450 employees once again dug deep to help others enjoy the festive season.

With donations totaling nearly $25,000 - three-quarters of it contributed by employees - Valley First will support families, food banks, animal shelters, the United Way, seniors centres and many more community organizations.

"Our employees care deeply about the communities they live in and serve," said Valley First president and chief executive officer Harley Biddlecombe. "The personal contributions they make and the extra time they take to ensure families in need enjoy the food, gifts and other things many of us take for granted during the holiday season are truly inspiring."

Among Valley First's seasonal initiatives this year:

Every payday Friday, employees make small donations for the privilege of dressing casually. In December, each Valley First location donates its collected funds to an organization of its choice. This year, Valley First's branches will donate more than $10,000 to community organizations.

Valley First's branches and head office provided gifts and food for traditional Christmas dinners to families selected by the South Okanagan Women in Need Society, the Kelowna Women's Shelter and other community organizations. Valley First employees, who also wrapped and delivered the items in mid-December, donated most of the more than $8,000 used to buy the gifts.

Employees raise an additional $1,000 for community organizations through draws and activities at the annual Valley First Christmas party.

Corporately, Valley First will continue its tradition of donating the money it would normally spend on greeting cards to food banks in every community across its service area - a total of nearly $5,000 this year.

Valley First is one of British Columbia's 10 largest credit unions with 15 branches in B.C.'s Similkameen, Okanagan and Thompson regions, $1.7 billion in assets under administration, 45,000 members and 450 employees. Valley First's subsidiaries include Valley First Insurance Services Ltd. and Valley First Financial Services Ltd.

For the past six years it seemed all it took to sell a house was to stick a "For Sale" sign on the lawn and wait for the bidding war to begin. In just months, however, the rules of the game have changed. Bidding wars are over, open houses don't attract the same crowds and homes are languishing for much longer on the market. In short, the deals aren't getting done.

I spent a few minutes with Frances Braam the owner of Royal LePage Realty discussing the situation in the industry as we see it today.

“There is more low end product available and it is good quality. That is one of the opportunities right now. If you’re moving from the lower end to the middle your opportunities to buy a home may never be better than they are today because the gap in Rutland and Glenrosa for instance hasn’t shrunk as much as the houses in the middle part of the market. So move-up buyers today have a tremendous opportunity. That is probably the best part of what is happening out there right now. The buyer opportunity is great. The selection and most people that have bought in the last eight years had to buy and they made economic decisions, not emotional decisions. They were in the market and they had to buy.

Right now in the market there are 292 unfinished homes in different stages of finishing. That really is nothing. Don’t forget we have been building fifteen hundred homes a year and yet it may take eight months to clean up that inventory. In reality it means no new houses will be built until that inventory is sold and the market will be profitable again. Ask anyone if they think the population here will be higher next year and the year after and the year after that in Kelowna and the answer will be yes.

The other thing that is interesting is that if I am somewhere like Toronto and the market has gone south, there's lots of pessimism in the air, am I going to wait four or five years to see this cycle turn again? I’m fifty-seven years old. I am not going to wait two or three more years - I am going to make that move. I want to enjoy what's left of my life in the Okanagan. So they lose a couple of hundred on the house in Toronto".

Mt. Baldy is inviting the public to help celebrate the B.C. ski area's 40th anniversary this winter. In 1968, the Borderline Ski Club opened Mt. Baldy with the McKinney T-bar. To celebrate this historic event, all season long Mt. Baldy will be offering drastically reduced pricing not seen for forty years.

“We kick off the celebration on Saturday, December 13th with $12 lift tickets, $12 rentals and $12 lessons and once the lifts stop turning, the party moves inside with community pot luck, Birthday Cake and dancing to Baldy’s own band, Long John Baldy,” said Brett Sweezy, President, Mt. Baldy Ski Corporation. The celebration continues every Sunday from January 11th to March 29th with $12 afternoon lift tickets.

Mt. Baldy is also offering Two Can Ski for $42 every Friday from January 9th to March 27th. The special is also available during the last two weekends of the 2008-09 ski season.

Mt. Baldy has seen a lot of changes since its humble beginnings forty years ago, including last year’s Sugarlump expansion - Mt. Baldy’s first Quad chair accessing ten new trails and glades.

To preserve and promote Mt. Baldy’s relaxed and friendly culture, the resort is sponsoring a 40th Anniversary Competition. Three season passes will be awarded to the best story, photo or video that best represents Mt. Baldy over the past forty years.

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I received this e-mail from a reader and thought you might have some ideas as well.

John, the environmental movement and almost all levels of government are promoting the use of full electric, or hybrid electric vehicles. Sounds like a great idea, but if it catches on and there are eventually hundreds of thousands of these vehicles on B.C. roads, where is all the "recharge" power going to come from? We are already a net importer of electricity, and these environmentalists that are promoting it are the same ones that are continually opposing more Electrical Generation in BC. Surely B.C. Hydro must have an opinion about this?

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Valley Pool and Spa of Kelowna received a coveted "International Gold Award" at the industry's annual conference in Las Vegas. Sponsored by the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals (APSP), the association recognizes achievement in the area of pool and spa design excellence. The international competition includes entries from as far away as Australia. With four different levels of recognition, the Gold award is the highest level to be awarded by the association.

Gene Brown of Valley Pools built this award-winning pool on a hillside overlooking Lake Okanagan. "It's loaded with everything you could ask for in a backyard pool," said Brown. "It has a beach entry with natural boulders and natural stone tile throughout. It has grotto waterfall, a long underwater bench, LED lights and built-in umbrella stand. And of course, the vanishing edge gives the illusion of the water flowing right into the Okanagan." The award from APSP specifically acknowledges Brown's achievement with the vanishing edge.

This project was Brown's first entry into the international awards competition. And his first win. "We would have been happy with bronze or silver. But it certainly was nice to come out of the chute winning gold."

Valley Pool and Spa can be reached at (250) 860-2266. More info on Valley Pools at www.valleypoolandspa.com.