Tag: success

CG&A Communications Marks 25 Year Milestone

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January 7, 2019 – Today marks 25 years since Chris George and business partner Lisa Hingley (now Lisa George) opened the doors of their government and public relations firm. Today, the couple operates CG&A Communications, providing counsel and support services for advocacy campaigns, stakeholder relations, issue management and government affairs initiatives.

The firm – www.cgacommunications.com – is a full service company, offering discreet, reliable counsel and communications services to support clients’ advocacy and public relations efforts, and their government affairs objectives. Through the years, some clients included the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC), MADD Canada, and the Ottawa Transition Board (responsible for amalgamating the City of Ottawa). In the Niagara Region, it serviced West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, local Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and the Niagara Parks Commission. In the Ottawa Region, it serviced Hydro Ottawa, Commissionaires, Ottawa International Airport, and the Perley Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre. 

“We’ve had great clients, rewarding work and a lot of fun along the way,” says company president Chris George. “We never imagined back in 1994 that this business would have resulted in a lasting career. Looking back we have to express our deep gratitude to a number of terrific clients, to our network of talented consultants, and to our supportive friends and family.”

Perhaps offering a hint of their enduring success, Chris says, “Our business approach and strong work ethic has carried us through. We’re proud of our efforts, happy with our working relationships and, to this day, enjoy sitting down at our desks in the morning.”

Lisa adds, “It’s our personalized service, our attention to detail, and sweating the small stuff that separates our business from others. We have always worked hard and smart to get the results required for our clients.”  

To mark the milestone for their supporters, Chris and Lisa George have published a few lists of interesting facts:

CG&A Communications is offering a give-away of the By George Treasury (both Book I and Book 2) to those who wish to share comments on the company and its work through the years. Forward your comments to cgacomm@gmail.com with the subject line “Reflecting on CG&A Comm’s 25 years” and receive the complimentary e-book publications.

Through the month of January, CG&A Communications will be posting articles in the By George Journal celebrating the 25 year anniversary. To read more, follow this link: CG&A Comm 25 Years.

CONTACT:

Chris George – (613) 983-0801 / chrisg.george@gmail.com

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Peter Munk’s 34 Golden Rules

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In author Donald Rumball’s 1996 biography of Canadian business legend Peter Munk, “The Making of a Modern Tycoon,” Rumball enlists Peter Munk’s 34 Golden Rules about business success and a rewarding approach to life.

As we launch into implementing our Fall business plans, By George Journal offers these rules of Munk’s to not only guide you, but inspire you onward to a prosperous season.

  1. Never raise money when you need it. Raise it when financial markets are buoyant; invest it when markets are depressed.
  2. Always give away some of the upside to protect the downside.
  3. Work with people whom you respect and who have characteristics you don’t have.
  4. Time is short. If you want to achieve much, you’ve got to run.
  5. Don’t give away your destiny. Don’t put control into the hands of a body that doesn’t have interests aligned with yours. Governments are a good example.
  6. Play with the hand you’re dealt. It’s very frustrating to apply your mind to a different hand.
  7. You don’t need to know the industry you’re going into. If you apply yourself, you can always find the experts.
  8. Take your company public when its value is rising in order to raise more money on the stock market for diversification.
  9. Always leave something on the table in a public issue. If you push for the last penny, it may hurt you the next time around.
  10. If an acquisition is strategically right don’t worry about the price.
  11. Look for partners who will argue with you, because it disciplines your thinking and enables you to pick up negatives that you yourself may overlook.
  12. Life is about meeting objectives. Sometimes your objectives cross other people’s. Then you have to fight — and you fight to win. What’s the point of fighting if you don’t win?
  13. If you focus, you win.
  14. Don’t give up.
  15. Leaders should compensate for other people’s weaknesses, and draw on their strengths.
  16. People are motivated by much more than money. You just cannot be humdrum. There has to be a joy in achieving objectives, a joy in creating wealth, a joy in making properties better.
  17. If the market discounts your shares, you can’t use the market to raise capital — so buy back your shares.
  18. A successful partnership always has someone who ultimately can make a decision and take the responsibility.
  19. Be prepared for trouble when bankers are optimistic about your industry — especially when the bankers are Swiss.
  20. Never buy high, hoping it will go higher. Buy low and hope it will go higher.
  21. When you’re young or when you’re old, failure should not be an impediment to trying again.
  22. Don’t stop dreaming — and don’t stop dreaming big if you want to succeed.
  23. It’s management’s job to do what’s right, not what’s easy or convenient.
  24. Trust is the foundation. You cannot substitute for trust. Trust means you say the truth.
  25. Always deal from a strong equity base. Dilute every time you can get equity for more than book value.
  26. Be very aggressive operationally and very conservative financially.
  27. Don’t ever confuse gambling with business. You take your chances but you hedge your bets.
  28. Do deals only if they help your strategic objectives.
  29. Listen to smart people.
  30. If you want to dream big, expect big problems. Big dreams challenge the fates.
  31. Don’t expect to buy at the best price. Expect to sell at the right price.
  32. You cannot build a team without mutual confidence, mutual trust, mutual reliability. And there’s no team if you don’t have the strength. You need the strength when you go into battle. Whatever you tackle — and in business you’re always tackling things — the other party has to feel that there is total cohesiveness, there’s total awareness of the objectives, and there’s total support of each other.
  33. If you have to worry about the consultants pay, you shouldn’t retain any.
  34. Share the wealth.

 

Chris George, providing reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Investment insight from Warren Buffett

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Here is investment insight from the infamous “oracle of Omaha”, Warren Buffett.

  • Rule No. 1: never lose money; rule No. 2: don’t forget rule No. 1.
  • You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.
  • Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.” If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.
  • Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.
  • After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
  • Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.
  • When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.
  • You can sell it to Berkshire, and we’ll put it in the Metropolitan Museum; it’ll have a wing all by itself; it’ll be there forever. Or you can sell it to some porn shop operator, and he’ll take the painting and he’ll make the boobs a little bigger and he’ll stick it up in the window, and some other guy will come along in a raincoat, and he’ll buy it.
  • It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
  • The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything–you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you’re a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, ‘Swing, you bum!’
  • Long ago, Ben Graham taught me that ‘Price is what you pay; value is what you get.’ Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.
  • Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change. With Wrigley chewing gum, it’s the lack of change that appeals to me. I don’t think it is going to be hurt by the Internet. That’s the kind of business I like.
  • The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble…We want to buy them when they’re on the operating table.
  • I have pledged – to you, the rating agencies and myself – to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash. We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow’s obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits.
  • I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor.

 

Chris George, providing reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Answering That Question about What You Do

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“So what is it that you do?”

How often do you get asked that question? Do you have a rehearsed answer that gets people attention? Or do you find yourself struggling each time to find the right expressions to explain what “you do”?

When someone asks what your organization does, do you have a concise explanation? What of your colleagues? Would their description of what your organization does be similar?

The best thing an individual or organization can do for themselves is to think through and develop a script to answer the most basic of human exchanges; particularly the obvious questions about one’s identity and purpose. Here’s our suggestion: take the time and craft an “elevator chat” script.

The elevator chat will serve you (and your colleagues) as a concise description of who you are, what you do and why it matters. It can be developed to sound informal; however, a good script will be precise and capture the essence and significance of your work. Because you take the time to refine the key message(s), this script will be clear and accurate.

An effective elevator chat will be intriguing and leave your audience curious and wanting to learn more of what you do.

In order to help you craft a sound and engaging elevator chat, here are four questions to prompt your creative process and hone your core message(s).

  • 1. Answer the question “Why do I care?” Why should someone care and take notice of what you do? Talk about the significance of your work and/or organization – rather than its structure and your duties. In this way, you may establish an emotional connection between you and the person standing before you..
  • 2. Answer the question “What sets you apart?” You should highlight what makes you unique, distinctive – what sets you apart. It may be that you are the first or only one to be doing your work in the area – or perhaps you approach your work in a certain manner from others.
  • 3. Answer the basics. Include relevant details of the what? where? how? when? In order to showcase the explanation of the why? All details should accentuate the why? – the significance of your work.
  • 4. Anticipate the “So what?” question. Your chat should have a strong closing that provides the audience with a way to learn more, become involved, enter into a longer conversation. If you have made an emotional connection in the 30 – 40 seconds of your chat, there is a perfect opportunity to engage your enquirer in another level of discussion.

Have a business card to hand out; a website URL to share; a promise to follow-up in the days ahead. Be sure to follow-up with your enquirer. Take a few minutes each day to write thank you and follow-up notes.

So, the next time someone asks, “What is it that you do?” – there will be no grimacing, no fishing for the right phrase. Each elevator chat is an opportunity to share what is significant and, perhaps, to make a new connection.

(ed. – This is a repost, picked as one of our favourite three posts of 2011, taken from the earlier posts on the By George Journal.  The original post is here.)

Chris George, providing reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Quotes: motivation, success

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Here are post-Labour Day quotes to focus your thoughts on the Fall agenda.

  • The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it. – Henry Ford
  • The starting point of all achievement is desire. – Napolean Hill
  • Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. – Swami Vivekananda
  • The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. – Denis Watiley
  • We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret. – Earl Nightingale
  • You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them. – Michael Jordan
  • All progress takes place outside the comfort zone. – Michael John Bobak
  • Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. – Jim Ryun
  • Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out. – Robert Collier
  • The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same. – Colin R. Davis
  • Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill
  • A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done. – Vince Lombardi
  • People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily. – Zig Ziglar
  • If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work. – Thomas J. Watson
  • Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. – Pablo Picasso

Chris George, providing reliable PR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.