Author Archives: John Kay
Dear Non-profit Board Member: Are You Harnessing or Hindering Innovation?
Dear Non-profit Board Member, Let me start this letter by thanking you sincerely for agreeing to serve on a non-profit. It’s incredibly important work. You’ve chosen to sacrifice time with friends and family. You may even have given up an opportunity to make money — possibly a lot of money. Instead, you’ve chosen to volunteerContinue reading “Dear Non-profit Board Member: Are You Harnessing or Hindering Innovation?”
Here’s Our Talent Culture and Performance Strategy. What’s Yours?
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Peter Drucker At Realize, we spend a lot of time thinking about people and culture. We firmly believe that people are the foundation and heart of all organizations regardless of size or sector – they’re the ones running, building, innovating, giving loyalty, and bringing in money for your company. PeopleContinue reading “Here’s Our Talent Culture and Performance Strategy. What’s Yours?”
School Reopening Delayed: 5 Ways To Support Working Parents
It’s a tough and confusing time for everyone right now, especially working parents. When the B.C. Ministry of Education announced a full return to school for all K-12 students, parents and teachers alike responded with a wave of concern. A recent survey showed 49 percent of parents across the province are not comfortable sending theirContinue reading “School Reopening Delayed: 5 Ways To Support Working Parents”
Leadership Succession Planning: Securing the Future
“A person who does not worry about the future will shortly have worries about the present.” Ancient Chinese proverb Here is a sobering thought: over 50% of non-profit and private sector boards do not have a formal CEO succession plan in place. The obvious question is: Why? Put simply, many boards find leadership succession planningContinue reading “Leadership Succession Planning: Securing the Future”
Realize and COVID-19: An Open Letter From Our CEO
It is currently a challenging and nebulous time for both the world and Canada, and we want to update everyone to maintain transparency and clarity with our Realize Strategies community. Our entire Realize team is committed to doing our part to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The health and safety of our staff, clients,Continue reading “Realize and COVID-19: An Open Letter From Our CEO”
7 Options for Socially Conscious Procurement in Greater Vancouver
Here at Realize, we’re incredibly passionate about using our procurement practices to support local, socially conscious organizations. Before we work with a new supplier, we go through a vetting process to make sure their values and practices align with ours. To share the love, we thought we’d share our list of qualified social suppliers: MillsContinue reading “7 Options for Socially Conscious Procurement in Greater Vancouver”
A Partial History Of The “Social Enterprise”
WAY BACK WHEN… in 1945, Chicago Businessman Walter Paepcke, had a grand vision – he was going to create the new intellectual hub to serve as a moral foundation for the American business community. Walter’s bold vision would famously become an epicenter for a new post-war-wave of consciously aware business folk. And the place heContinue reading “A Partial History Of The “Social Enterprise””
Social Purchasing Lessons from The Buy Social Canada Summit
Realize CEO John Kay shares his takeaway from the 2017 Buy Social Canada Summit. Every day Canadians make thousands of purchases. Coffee. Paper. Clothing. But how often do we stop to think about the impact of our purchases? Who made those clothes? Who benefits from the purchase of a morning latte? The December holidays seemContinue reading “Social Purchasing Lessons from The Buy Social Canada Summit”
Is There a Cookie Cutter Template For Good Leadership?
We’ve all read the articles: “Top 10 Traits of a Great Leader” or “5 Qualities All Successful Leaders Share”. These articles invariably sing the praises of leaders with intuition, confidence, creativity, honesty and focus to spare and I think we can all agree that these traits are definitely on display by leaders we admire. IfContinue reading “Is There a Cookie Cutter Template For Good Leadership?”
BC Budget 2017: Investing in people to build a prosperous BC
Realize Strategies was honoured to participate in BC Budget lock-up on September 11, 2017. We’re pleased that the Province took steps yesterday to make BC’s communities more sustainable, inclusive and prosperous for everyone. Yesterday’s budget advances many of the issues that we know are important to our co-op members and organizational colleagues, including $200 millionContinue reading “BC Budget 2017: Investing in people to build a prosperous BC”
Workplace Wellness – A Win for Both Employee and Organizational Health!
Implementing a workplace wellness program is in the best interests of both employers and employees. A workplace wellness program reflects of an organization’s commitment to helping their employees make healthy lifestyle choices and improve their health. This can include providing tools and information about health-related topics, as well as establishing company policies that encourage andContinue reading “Workplace Wellness – A Win for Both Employee and Organizational Health!”
ANNOUNCEMENT: We’ve just gained certification as a B Corporation!
For those who don’t know what a B Corporation is, they are organizations certified by the non-profit organization B Lab, to meet rigorous standards of accountability, transparency, and social and environmental performance. It’s a corporate standard – think Fairtrade coffee or LEED construction. At the root of B Corp philosophy, is the triple bottom lineContinue reading “ANNOUNCEMENT: We’ve just gained certification as a B Corporation!”
7 Signs of A Healthy Organization
In our many years of working with purpose-driven organizations of all sizes and across multiple sectors, we’ve learned that some organizations tend to be stronger than others. These organizations all have 7 traits in common and their programs, employees, clients, and bank accounts are healthier because of it. In general, there are 7 elements thatContinue reading “7 Signs of A Healthy Organization”