Safety & Security, Self-Mastery, UnconditionalRelationship, Worldly, Financial Freedom, Holistic Fitness
Joshua Tiong
Our Six Pillars for Purposeful Living

This has been frequently requested of me ever since my earlier post about ‘The Six Month Conversation’ resonated with so many people. This follow up is about the framework Alexis and I devised with hopes of guiding our life journey together independently and as a couple. I know this post is arriving several years late, after tons of requests, so thanks everybody for your patience!

Our Six Pillars for Purposeful Living

Career

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Achieving Growth and Impact: A Look Back on My Time with BDC's Mid-Market Client Team

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Achieving Growth and Impact: A Look Back on My Time with BDC's Mid-Market Client Team

Hey, here's a fun fact for you: did you know that just a tiny fraction of Canadian companies are responsible for creating most of the new jobs in the country? Specifically, only 1.8% of businesses generated a whopping 63% of all new jobs between 2000 and 2015!

While Canada has over 1.2 million businesses, only a small number of them are considered "medium-sized" or “mid-market,” meaning they have 100 to 499 employees. However, these businesses are the real powerhouses when it comes to creating jobs and driving economic growth. They play a critical role in diversifying local economies, integrating innovations internally and bringing new ones to market, engaging with their local communities, and creating shared prosperity for their stakeholders. All in all, medium-sized businesses are a vital part of raising the standard of living for people all across Canada. This is why I have been so enthusiastic about, and committed to, the work of providing the highest level of assist these businesses to reach their potential.

The primary focus of my work, study, teaching, and advocacy since 2017 has been around the Canadian mid-market growth problem space (though I had much to learn), and especially so during the recent years of 2020-2023. My decision to join BDC in 2018 was driven by a strong desire to contribute to the betterment of my country through improved economic prospects of my fellow Canadians. My work would all be happen at the intersection of three activities I deeply enjoy: building businesses, exposure to innovation and expertise, and helping people who help themselves…

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Making Informed Decisions: The Role of Advisory Services

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When it comes to running a business or managing your personal finances, sometimes you need a little extra help. That's where advisory services come in. But what exactly are advisory services, and how can they benefit you? Let's break it down in simple terms.

Advisory services are professional services provided by experts in a particular field. They offer guidance and advice to help individuals or businesses achieve their goals and make informed decisions. These services can cover a wide range of areas, from financial management and investment advice to marketing and communication strategies.

Here are some common types of advisory services and how they can help you:

  • Financial Advisory: Financial advisors provide guidance on investment management, wealth management, retirement planning, tax planning, and estate planning.

  • Management Advisory: Management advisors provide guidance on business strategy, organizational design, operational improvement, and change management.

  • Risk Advisory: Risk advisors provide guidance on risk management, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and crisis management.

  • Technology Advisory: Technology advisors provide guidance on IT strategy, digital transformation, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data analytics.

  • Human Resources Advisory: Human resources advisors provide guidance on talent management, recruitment and retention, employee engagement, and compensation and benefits.

  • Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Advisory: ESG advisors provide guidance on sustainability, social responsibility, and corporate governance.

  • Legal Advisory: Legal advisors provide guidance on legal matters such as contracts, intellectual property, and regulatory compliance.

  • Marketing and Communications Advisory: Marketing and communications advisors provide guidance on brand strategy, advertising, public relations, and digital marketing.

These are just a few examples of the many types of advisory services available. The specific type of advisory services needed will depend on your unique needs and objectives.

As the saying goes, "trust your gut." But when it comes to making important decisions, it's not always that simple. That's where the guidance of an advisor comes in. By working with an advisor, you can trust your instincts while gaining a valuable outside perspective.

Your advisor can help you ask the right questions, challenge your assumptions, and weigh the pros and cons of different options. Together, you can make informed decisions that are based on both your intuition and expert advice. So don't be afraid to trust your gut – just make sure to partner with an advisor to gain the added perspective you need to succeed.

A Reflection on Teaching

A Reflection on Teaching

I recently had the honor of working with the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University on the re-design and delivery of the capstone course for their Business Minor students, which is the culminating and integrative experience of this educational program. I write this post as a summary and personal reflection on the experience across both phases of design and delivery for this course, to which I was brought in to lend emphasis from an industry perspective.

Titled “Developing Organizational Opportunities”, this course covers the wide berth of topics around identifying, examining, and addressing the internal and external environment that an organization operates in. Concepts include critical thinking, strategy, internal…

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Sep 2020 - Learning: recommendations and personal interests

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The best investment you can make is in yourself.

Many folks know me as a person who’s driven by a broad curiosity and who’s keen to explore possibilities. As a result, people often ask me for recommendations on credible resources to learn from based on their knowledge level.

Below I’ve shared my response to recent inquiries as well as some areas I’ve been personally interested in.

People have asked about:

Recent/current personal interests:

If you’re interested in similar stuff I’ve shared before: Jan 2016, Jun 2018 (re: careers), Dec 2018

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Serving Mid-Market Businesses

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Serving Mid-Market Businesses

This is a summary post about what I learned from 100 conversations with owners/CEO’s of mid-size businesses.

Here’s the structure of this post:

  • Background on why I did this

  • Defining a midsize company

  • Who are the people I spoke with

  • Common challenges during transition (from small to mid size)

  • Common challenges at midsize

  • Tips to their younger selves

So let’s get started!

Why did I do this?

Around 2015, it started to become apparent to me that there is abundant resources/expertise available for large global enterprise companies and small local/hobby businesses. They are thus very well served for nearly all of their business needs by available in-house talent and professional services. But what about those companies in between? Those mid-size/mid-market companies you her about? How does one journey from being small business to becoming a global enterprise?

This question niggled at me for a long time, until finally in the spring of 2016 when I couldn’t take it anymore. Folks I’ve mentored will smirk at this next bit. Yes, I followed my own advice that I’ve given to every one of you that you’re tired of hearing: I hustled to arrange 100 deliberate conversations with people who understand this better than me and I learned from them.

Thus, I set out to learn more about the challenges of companies in this growth/transition phase. Maybe I would discover there’s already a solid solution available on the market (spoiler: there wasn’t) or gather enough insight to be able to propose a solution for this market segment.

But before we move on…

What’s a mid-size company?

Here we know there’s this glaring gap in available resources/expertise to serve the segment of mid-size / mid-market companies, but what exactly are they?

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Venture Studio - Attempt 1

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Venture Studio - Attempt 1

tl;dr: The Momenta Lab project started for the purpose of building a Venture Studio company. We underestimated the intensity of research to test our hypotheses. We were successful in coming up with a business model (strategic, financial, legal, operating) which the market has confidence in. We did not have the financial means and adequate clout which were requisite in the model. We were unsuccessful insofar as we did not launch the company. These findings and the model is something I intend to pursue one day.

Momenta Lab.

This is the name of a recent project of mine seeking to establish a Venture Studio. The objective was to create and operate profitable, right-sized technology products.

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Dec 2018 - What is Joshua reading?

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Dec 2018 - What is Joshua reading?

Having recently attended a number of events this autumn to speak with university students, young professionals, and small business owners, I’ve fielded many questions about what reading I would recommend to them.

While I’ve previously shared my thoughts on this topic, my journey has taken me down many paths and through many hoops in the three years since then. I have a few more thoughts to share.

The big one is that everybody should learn Sales. > Cue groans <

Listen, I get it: ‘selling’ is thought of as something dirty… but that’s such an outdated notion. The reality is that we are all selling, all of the time. Selling is the art and science of…

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Some Reading on Sales Operations

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Some Reading on Sales Operations

Sales Operations.

What is it? Do I need it? Where does it fit in the org? I've also heard of Sales Enablement; is it different? How do I do it right? What career paths get you to Sales Ops and where can you go from there? Is Sales Ops leadership the same as Sales leadership? So many questions. So few good answers.

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Worthwhile Pursuits

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Worthwhile Pursuits

As I've been pushing hard on pursuing new opportunities lately and working through a handful of challenging projects, I've been pondering the question, "What is truly worth striving for?" in considering how to allocate my limited resources of time and energy.

This is the list of things I keep circling back to:

  • Excellence

  • Integrity…

Observations about Compensation of Young Professionals

It is important to know one's value/worth as a worker.

A quick reality check of evaluating oneself in the broader organization is to ask the question: Do I Add, Subtract, Multiply, or Divide value to the social fabric which I am woven into? Do not be a subtracter and divider. Best is to be a multiplier (Note on multipliers: they amplify their environment, so they make sense in positive constructive environments).

Your compensation needs to be relative the value you provide for a business and you need to take ownership of negotiating the compensation you want. Nobody knows your situation as well as you do and nearly everybody is more worried about their situation than yours.

A few rules of thumb:

  • In the public sector:

    • Ones 'market value' increases by between 3k-5k per year for the majority of roles

    • Individual Contributor roles cap at 75k-110k, depending on skills requirements

    • For specialist roles, compensation is usually 70-80% of private market rate

  • In the private sector:

    • Ones 'market value' increases by between 3k-7k per year

    • For specialist skillsets, market value increases by between 8k-15k per year

    • Individual Contributor roles cap at 90k-130k, and then one is required to contribute to business development (i.e. originating sales, generating net new revenue, fundraising)

The sectors that do not subscribe to the above are those which contribute value in a scalable manner or are poorly understood (note: this is fleeting): Business Development, Management Consulting, Capital Markets, and Technological Specialists (non-operational roles).