The Corporate Manifesto
For years now the governments in democratic countries have been asleep at the wheel letting those who bought and paid for them change the very fabric of their economies. Corporations have no moral compass and it's only about the almighty dollar. We've seen that recently with GM who have laid off thousands of workers despite being bailed out by the taxpayers when they were about to fail. The reaction of the market was to bump up their stock. Never mind the thousands of families who now face an uncertain future because of GM.
If we had moral politicians, which is certainly an oxymoron, decades ago, when corporations started destroying domestic jobs by shipping them to third world countries, many overseas, we would not be in the predicament we find ourselves in today. The manufacturing base has been destroyed. Good jobs are getting harder and harder to find. University grads are flipping burgers. Many people hold two or three jobs. Family structure has broken down. Violence is increasing because the primary cause of violence is poverty. Drug addiction and alcoholism are on the rise because people are searching for ways to cope with a dismal future. The one percent are getting more and more absurdly rich while the other ninety-nine percent are falling farther and farther behind. In many countries like the US the American Dream is quickly becoming the American Nightmare.
Is it too late to restore what once was? Maybe. What's needed is a viral movement premised on the old Network movie, "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!" Right thinking people need to demand that their politicians listen and stop pandering to the wishes of the corporations and the rich. It must be made clear that failure to do so will mean their demise. They must follow the basic principles contained in a new corporate manifesto; namely:
- Corporations must pay all applicable taxes in the countries they are operating in. They cannot establish fake Head Offices in countries with lower tax regulations just to avoid paying tax. "Use of tax havens results in a loss of tax revenues to countries which are not tax havens. Estimates of total amounts of taxes avoided vary, but the most credible have a range of US$100–250 billion per annum. In addition, capital held in tax havens can permanently leave the tax base (base erosion). Estimates of capital held in tax havens also vary: the most credible estimates are between $7–10 trillion (up to 10% of global assets). The harm of corporate tax havens has been particularly noted in developing nations, where the tax revenues are needed to build infrastructure". *Wikipedia.
- Corporations must carry out all manufacturing of products in the countries they sell the majority of their products in. This does not prevent corporations from seeking markets outside their primary country; however, they cannot establish out of country manufacturing until sales in a given country exceeds their domestic sales in total. Corporations can only establish out of country manufacturing based on their sales in any given country. Any violation of this mandate would impose a stiff penalty tariff of a given percentage on any products imported into the primary country. Also possibility would be to increase the tariff if the country in which products are manufactured does not have an acceptable record of human and worker rights.
- Corporations must establish product support, such as warranty, technical support and customer service based on the volume of sales in the country in which they operate. For example, assume a telecom company earns all of their revenue in a country such as Canada. That would mean that all support services must be established in Canada. Overseas call centers, something that has occurred over the last few years, destroying thousands of good paying domestic jobs, would not be allowed until the sales in a specific country are a percentage of total sales in that country. Support services can still be established in other countries when sales are made in those countries, providing support in the local language. Using the telecom company example, and Pakistan as an example country, call centers could only be established in Pakistan if and when the telecom company has sales in Pakistan.
Thousands of new jobs will be created, offering people an actual future. Manufacturing faculties, like long abandoned steel plants, will be reopened, which will also restore all the secondary industries that serve those plants. The ripple effect when people have good paying, secure, long-term jobs will enormous. People who now have good jobs will have the confidence to spend money which will have a positive effect on every business and things like the Real Estate market. Crime, drug and alcohol addiction will be reduced when people believe they have an attainable future. University grads will be able to find good paying jobs.
In addition to this new corporate manifesto life could be made even better with universal health care, pharma-care and free education, as has been proven in numerous countries around the world. Dignity and hope would be restored to citizens in every country that adopts this manifesto.
Just one man's humble opinion.
Business Idea - The Snuffit
To give you some background, many years ago, in fact, almost two decades ago now, I was putting in a computer network for a company, Banush and Skelly Sales, who distributed a wide range of products to retail chains, such as the Bay, Sears, Wal-Mart and so on. At the time my sister, who owned a plumbing and heating store in BC, and was also a smoker, also had the habit of sharing her cigarette with her husband. They were forever trying to figure out a way to temporarily put out the cigarette, then relight it when they wanted.
Realizing that oxygen kept the cigarette going, she came up with cutting a small piece of copper pipe about an inch long, which she then rounded out the edges on so it would stand upright in an ashtray and hold the cigarette. Because the diameter of the pipe was only slightly larger than the cigarette, once the cigarette was placed in what we called a “butt-out” at the time, it went out instantly. Relighting it was also not a problem and there was no bitter taster either.
Back then I believed we had a fantastic product because I saw numerous applications for this device, from using it in an ash tray, to places like airplanes and buses and trains and anywhere people, at the time, smoked. Being a smoker myself I was forever leaving the house and wondering if I had put my smoke out, so my slogan was “The Butt-out. Now you know it’s out.” I put a proposal together for Banush and Skelly, who were very enthused about the concept. They happened to be heading to a meeting in New York with a company who marketed various products, similar to a K-Tel at the time. When they showed the product to them they went rummaging around in a closet and brought out a molded ashtray with what was a similar piece in the middle to snuff the cigarette. It was a product patented by Ronco, but they said they never really did anything with marketing or developing the idea.
Remember that this is back in the days when smoking was pretty well allowed everywhere and cigarettes were cheap. Now the whole world has changed, of course, and smoking is banned everywhere, plus the cost of cigarettes has sky-rocketed. People are forced outside to seize every opportunity to grab a few quick puffs anywhere they can, usually outside of buildings or restaurants or bus stops and so on. Because there is no easy way to snuff a lit cigarette I have seen the better part of full cigarettes lying on the ground – a very expensive thing. Not to mention that butts are everywhere you look, and they will be there for a very long time if no one cleans them up. Because you are dealing with a lit cigarette people are hesitant to throw them into the garbage for fear of setting it on fire, so the butts end up on the ground.
So, first we have the litter problem, which affects everyone and, secondly, for the smoker, we have the need to be able to have a smoke and either snuff it for later or dispose of it safely.
The SnuffIt looks like the old fountain pens, but it contains a copper sleeve that serves to instantly starve the oxygen and safely extinguish the cigarette. The smoker can then relight it later, saving a fortune, or safely dispose of it in the trash and soon as it has been extinguished. Problems solved.
There are numerous options on how to market the product. It could be sold to municipalities to give away when they introduce heavy fines for littering cigarette butts, in a Keep London Butt Free campaign, for example. It could include an ad sleeve and be used as a giveaway as part of advertising campaigns by the cigarette companies, who have had their advertising opportunities severely limited. It could be distributed by targeted companies most affected by butt litter, such as people like Greyhound, local bus lines and Via Rail. Possibly upscale versions, similar to expensive fountain pens, could be sold retail.
No smoker wants to draw attention to the fact that they still smoke; however, we also don’t want to be seen as imposing on other people who choose not to smoke. Every time a smoker throws down a butt or steps on it to put it out, they look around nervously to see who’s watching. It is also a pretty well-known fact that butts are not biodegradable and those butts will be there for decades to come if no one cleans them up.
The time is right for a product like this. Even though smoking is on the decline, the thousands of cigarette butts you see everywhere clearly shows that a lot of people still enjoy a smoke.
I approached a couple of companies to market the product, but got nowhere, even with companies who marketed environmental products, which I thought would be a perfect fit. Someday, someone will make a bazillion dollars off this idea.
My "Idea File"
For most of my life I maintained a file called, simply, "Ideas", where I put drawings and writings and anything else related to an idea I had for a business venture. Before long the file became bulky with lots of ideas over the decades. When, at the last minute, I had to pair down everything I owned to fly to Panama instead of drive as I had intended, the file had to go. Naturally today, as I struggle to survive, I think of that file and wish it were still with me. For much of my life I have been criticized for being "ahead of my time", so many of those ideas in that file might be more workable now.
It is said that "you need money to make money" and that is very true, most of the time. In my life the rare exception would be Canada Lift, a forklift company that my colleague, Gerry Waterhouse and I formed on a whim and a prayer without a dime to our names. We secured the national rights for distribution for a Japanese company, NYK; setup a national network of dealers who gave us orders, and got a line of credit from the Bank of Nova Scotia to buy our first trucks, almost a quarter of a million dollars, almost all of which was pre-sold on the dealer floor plan BNS had also offered. As the trucks were coming across the ocean the bank suddenly changed their minds and pulled the dealer financing program, leaving us with no way to sell our stock. We met with a very high-priced lawyer who told us we could sue the bank and we would win, but he needed a fifty thousand dollar retainer and it would take ten years. I remember to this day asking him where the justice was? He replied that in Canada it was not a case of justice, but rather how much justice you could afford. We folded up our tent that day. So much for not needing money.
Pretty well my first idea was called BASIC, which stood for "Best Accounting Service In Canada". It was a take on basic book-keeping, but it was designed for busy lifestyle types and seniors who didn't have time to pay their bills and keep track of everything. The idea was that, for a monthly fee, we would pay all their bills on time and provide them with a monthly summary. The idea was to get our foot in the door offering this service and then upgrade our clients to doing their taxes, book-keeping, financial statements and so on. I felt the seniors market was very strong because these were people who easily forgot to pay on time even though they had the funds. My longer term goal was to see accountants or bookkeepers hold franchises across the country, all paying me a small fee to be under our marketing umbrella.
Another more forward thinking idea was actually called, at the time, The Future Shoppe. I went so far as to have a logo designed for it, which was a light bulb and stylized lettering. It cost me a pretty penny way back then and I hung on to the proof of the logo for a long time, long enough to see the Future Shop come along and send them a letter claiming my original name, but, of course, I had not registered the name and they blew me off. I remember writing a story about the experience of visiting the Future Shoppe. I wish I had it today because it included several technical ideas that didn't even exist at the time. The concept of the store was basically to act as a showplace for all new products, kind of an early focus group for manufacturers to test out product ideas and to launch new products. The real Future Shop failed.
An idea that I think has even more merit today was called the Big Kids Club. It was designed along the lines of the Welcome Wagon idea, but it extended to organizing special events to bring people together, especially those new to the community. I had developed about thirty different features, just one of which was hooking up with local businesses to offer special discounts to our club members. Sort of an early Groupon idea. It was all based on the idea that religions that had been bringing people together for centuries had fallen out of favor, leaving people to find friends on their own, something a lot of people find very difficult to do.
When I first decided to go to Panama part of my research involved what was planned for where I intended to live, in Boquete, up in the mountains. Thinking like a Canadian and not realizing that things in Panama took a lot longer, I saw things like the expansion of the road between Boquete and David to four lanes; a new road from Boquete to Volcan on the other side of the volcano; the expansion of the airport in David meaning new international flights; a planned flight from Toronto to David; a new refinery port on the Pacific near David, resulting in four thousand new workers being needed, and the multi billion dollar expansion of the Panama canal, all being huge signs of growth in Panama, much of it requiring housing for workers who would be in the country for only a couple of years. There were also changes being suggested to the Pensionado program that would make it easier for people from the US and Canada to stay for longer periods like six months.
When I researched housing it appeared that there were numerous homes, but they were all of Panamanian design and had no hot water, something that North Americans expected. First I designed a system that would easily add hot water to existing houses, adding the required plumbing on the outside of the home (no freezing here) then covered them up with architectural elements. I planned to use the profits from selling the place in Westbank to acquire older homes and then flip them after renovations. That all fell apart when I lost everything on the place in Westbank, thanks to my "friend" who let the roof collapse under the weight of the snow build-up that he was supposed to remove.
Even though my big renovation plans had collapsed when I first got to Panama I had started researching rainwater harvesting because I had heard so many stories about people running out of water. I knew that we were in the mountains, with hundreds of streams and rivers coming out of the mountain tops, plus we had over a hundred and twenty inches of rain per year, so I wondered how we could possibly have shortages? As it turned out, Panama was just about the only country left in the world that had no rainwater harvesting. I started researching systems and put together a business proposal and secured the rights for Panama for the equipment I needed. I hooked up with a local custom home builder who was willing to do the excavations for my underground tanks plus the plumbing required. I also had connected with a large developer who was putting cisterns under the patio slab and he was going to refer all his clients to me for the rainwater collection. I had made a connection with a guy back in London who was willing to be a silent partner and all he wanted to know was how much money I needed to get going. I explained that I needed a truck and some basic equipment but all I needed for the equipment was a line of credit with my suppliers. Once I designed the right systems for people they paid upfront because it was a custom system, so cash flow was not an issue. This guy made plans to come to Panama to meet with my builder friend and finalize the financing. I was off an running and thrilled to be in such a worthwhile business. I was just waiting for his flight information.
Days turned into weeks. My emails were not answered. I didn't want to appear desperate but my builder had a client coming down from South Carolina and he wanted to setup a meeting with me to design their system. Not only did they want rainwater harvesting, but also solar water heating, grey water treatment and power to keep them off the grid, which in Boquete was notoriously unreliable. I had no choice but to send him a little pushy email saying that we were going to lose everything here if we didn't respond. He sent me back a short email saying that they had discovered terminal cancer in his wife and he would obviously not be leaving her to come to Panama. The dream was gone. I did manage to consult to a guy who had been ripped off with his Poppa Paradise development. He drove me to his island near Bocas del Torro and I spent a week designing his system. I sourced the entire system and gave him the quotes, but, after I returned to Boquete, I never heard from him again. Although he put me up in a luxury cabin and fed me for a week, he never paid me for my time or contacted me again, even though he went with my recommendations.
The Big Idea, the one that would make me millions, is one I have been working on for several years now, to no avail. Over ten years ago I had put a proposal to Microsoft and at the time they had laughed at me, stating that Microsoft would NEVER allow such a thing. Today we know it as "cloud computing". The proposal I have been trying to get through to them and people like Apple, Google, Ning, My Life and anyone else who might listen, would revolutionize the way we all use the internet. I continue to try to get through to the movers and shakers in these companies and in the industry, but it's a closed system. Everyone hides behind the lawyers these days, worried about "intellectual property" concerns. There is no room for original thought anymore.
Another one that has yet to be invented or launched by anyone but me is what I call authenticated email. Back when email was first launched on the world it was pretty popular and quickly became the de facto standard for business. It wasn't long though before advertisers discovered the benefits of email and so did hackers. Soon your inbox became flooded with junk mail. Attempts to stop have mostly failed because the senders just change their IP address and keep going. Email has quickly given way to more instant messaging like text messaging, Instagram and WhatsApp, to name a few.
There are still a lot of things that you can best by email. There's also the social part of email. Not having an email address is like not having a phone number these days.
My system keeps all the good and gets rid of the bad. When someone new sends you an email you don't actually get the email. Instead you get a notice from your provider, let's say Google for Gmail, which asks you whether you want to accept it or not. Sort of like friending on Facebook. Same idea. Obviously if it's someone pushing Viagra on you you will block or not accept that sender. That puts them on a black list and you will never get another email from them. If you accept the notice Google will go back and authenticate the sender by sending them a notice that you have accepted them. It will double validate by sending them a code by text message that they must then enter to complete the process. The process now adds them to your contacts as being verified. In the same way you can block someone on Facebook you can also remove someone from your contacts and the process will start over again if they try to email you.