Corporate Branding - Colours

With the revamp of my website, I decided to look into creating a website brand image, starting with the colour scheme. After a bit of research, I found that blue is not on the favourite colour amongst both males (57%) and females (35%).

http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/associations.html

On top of being associated with reliability / dependability (43%), it is associated with trust (34%), security (28%), courage / bravery (28%), high technology (23%), and high quality (20%). We have a clear winner! I can’t believe the results are so lop-sided! I guess since blue is most people’s favourite colour, they’d associate it with positive attributes!

Website re-design!

Resources - websites & reading list

Recently I received this reading list, and thought it'd be great to share...

Research Sites - The following sites provide comprehensive company, industry, and market information and business intelligence. Accessing information from these sites will allow you to quickly gain a solid understanding of key industry areas of interest, gain further insight into the career paths/roles available in different industries and the leading organizations that compete in each sector.

Vault - www.vault.com
Hoover’s - www.hoovers.com
Wet Feet - www.wetfeet.com
About.com - www.about.com/careers/
Stockhouse - www.stockhouse.ca
Careers-In-Business - www.careers-in-business.com

Business Publications – Business is a global game and staying current on issues will help you showcase yourself as a candidate who is actively engaged & interested in the world of business and who understands how business is carried out not only in North America but across the globe.

Forbes - www.forbes.com
Canadian Business Magazine - www.canadianbusiness.com
Business 2.0 - www.business2.com
Business Week - www.businessweek.com
Fortune - www.fortune.com
The Economist - www.economist.com
Institutional Investor - www.institutionalinvestor.com
Euromoney - www.euromoney.com
Investors Business Daily - www.investors.com

National/International Daily News Portals – Staying up-to-date on current business news as well as the world outside of business will further reinforce your professionalism and enhance your preparedness. Having a clear sense of the economic and political issues that are impacting and shaping business decisions will allow you to more effectively interview, network and engage with business professionals.

The National Post - www.nationalpost.com
The Globe & Mail - www.globeandmail.com
Wall Street Journal - www.wsj.com
New York Times - www.nytimes.com
PR Newswire - www.prnewswire.com
Financial Times - www.ft.com

ADDITIONAL READING MATERIAL
What Color Is Your Parachute 2005: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career by Richard Nelson Bolles, Mark Emery Bolles
48 Days To The Work You Love by Dan Miller, Dave Ramsey
Turning Points: Your Career Decision-Making Guide by Diane Elizabeth Ducat
The Job Hunter’s Catalog by Peggy Schmidt
Career X Roads by Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler
Hook Up, Get Hired! by Joyce L. Kennedy
Using the Internet in Your Job Search by Fred Jandt and Mary Nemnich
Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand & Fighting to Keep It by David F. D’Alessandro, Michele Owens, Michael Owens, David D’Alessandro
Guerilla Tactics in the New Job Market by Tom Jackson
The Electronic Job Search Revolution by Joyce Lain Kennedy and Thomas J. Morrow
Never Eat Alone, And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time (Hardcover) – Keith Ferrazzi

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC LINKS

The following sites provide specific information regarding key industries. Accessing information from these sites will allow you to learn about issues affecting your industry of focus and how business leaders in the sector are dealing with the issues at hand. Reviewing key industry publications will help you have a real-time sense of the challenges facing our core recruiters and will help you to ensure you can relate effectively with industry representatives in any setting.

CONSULTING
Industry Associations
Canadian Association of Management Consultants - www.camc.com

Industry Publications & Resources
Consultants News - www.consultingcentral.com
Top Consultant’s Consultant-News.com - www.consultant-news.com
Management Consulting News - www.managementconsultingnews.com
Consulting Magazine - www.consultingmag.com
MBA Case – www.mbacase.com
Consulting Links – www.casequestions.com/links.cfm
*NOTE: Visit individual consulting company websites for resources and to register for publications


FINANCE
Industry Associations
Securities Industry Association - www.sia.com
Canadian Securities Institute - www.csi.ca
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - www.sec.gov
Investment Dealers Association of Canada - www.ida.ca
Ontario Securities Commission - www.osc.gov.on.ca
Investment Funds Institute of Canada - www.ific.ca
CFA Institute - www.cfainstitute.org

Industry Publications & Resources
Scoopbook series on Banking – www.scoopbooks.com
The (Practical) Guide to Finding the (Right) Finance Job in Canada, (2003)
InvestorWords - www.investorwords.com
Investopedia - www.investopedia.com/dictionary
Bloomberg Research/Training - www.Bloomberg.com
Investment Banking Bootcamp (online) - www.wallstreetprep.com
Financial Modeling and Training for Finance Careers - www.ibitraining.com

MARKETING
Industry Associations
American Marketing Association - www.marketingpower.com
Canadian Marketing Association - www.the-cma.org
Canadian Produce Marketing Association - www.cpma.org
The Canadian Institute of Marketing - www.cinstmarketing.ca

Industry Publications and Resources
BrandWeek Magazine - www.brandweek.com
Marketing Magazine (Industry Leader) - www.marketingmag.ca
Sales & Marketing - www.salesandmarketing.com
InterBrand’s Brand Channel - www.brandchannel.com
Consumer Goods Technology - www.consumergoods.com
GMA Smartbrief – http://www.smartbrief.com/gma/
Retail Wire - http://www.retailwire.com/
‘How to Use Direct Marketing Techniques to get the Marketing Job you want’ by Karl G. Dentino –
http://www.the-dma.org/dmef/guideforcollegestudents1.shtml
Crossing the Chasm, Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers - by Geoffrey A. Moore

Laptop Backpack

So in preparation for my new student lifestyle, I'm looking for a laptop backpack that is:
1) Lightweight
2) Protects my laptop
3) Allows me to ride my bike to & from school without distraction
4) Fits snuggly so it doesn’t swing side to side
5) Looks good
6) (If online) Ships to Canada  which has proven to be quite problematic in my search for books online!!

It turns out that though the laptop backpack category offers many choices, I really only found two that I liked, one of which seems like a great concept, but needs further verification…

“Bullet-proof vest” backpack
- It looks like a bullet-proof vest, so it should theoretically fit snuggly onto one’s back. And surprisingly fits at least 4 of my 6 requirements (I’m unsure about #2 & #6)…

http://www.koyono.com/BUILT-Slim-Laptop-Bag-BackPack-p/built-e-bp.htm



Belkin slim backpack
- This fits 5 of the 6 requirements (not sure about #6) and it more affordable than the bullet-proof vest.

http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=399512



Will go "store" shopping before making any decision... =)

Changes...

I haven't blogged in a LONG time... It's been a combination of factors - my work, my personal life, my non-profit, my schooling, etc. It's been keeping me quite busy!

So I haven't taken care of my online resume site & domain, and it got bought out by a company whose main objective is to re-sell to the highest bidder! That said, Bernice.ca is no longer mine, and they asked for an outrageous sum for me to get it back! …Sad…

Though I have fond memories of the patriotic ".ca", I decided that it might be time for a new domain name. So Http://www.BerniceCheung.com is born!

On top of the change in domain name, it’s time for a refresh on my resume website. It is still very much a work-in-progress, as there had been many changes since my last update. I’ll highlight the career-related changes here:

First, I was accepted to Richard Ivey School of Business for my MBA! I’m extremely excited about this as it is the best business school in Canada!! The reason I chose Ivey over other schools within Canada are three-folds:

1) Case-based method: Ivey is best known for its case-based teaching method. Though Rotman is slowly adapting its teaching method to emulate Ivey, I believe the experienced faculty and the tried-and-true curriculum would still be best from the original founder. Ivey is second in the world (after Harvard) for its case-based method, and I’m really looking forward to learning from the best!

2) Entrepreneurial focus (http://www.iveyentrepreneur.ca/): After attending an info sessions from Ivey called “To MBA or not to MBA: An entrepreneur’s dilemma”, where a panel of successful Ivey Entrepreneurs answer questions from the audience regarding their career path, I decided that Ivey was for me. One of my lifelong goals is to start and run my own business, and in the process benefit society in one way or another. I’m not sure when that day will be, but I know it’ll come!

3) Intense program: This may sound funny as I chose one of the most intense programs possible instead of a “bird course” or an online MBA. After six years working in large financial institutions, I fear I’m becoming too complacent, too comfortable that I’m no longer challenging myself to reach stretched goals. Ivey’s 24-hour and 48-hour case shed lights into real corporate “war zone” where a case / situation is given to a group, and within 24 or 48 hours, a solution has to be presented. I heard that it’s been referred as “one of the most challenging thing I had to do in my life, but also the most rewarding”. Ivey’s original MBA program was already challenging at two years, and now it’s been further compressed to a 1-year program.

So after much thought, I decided to apply to Ivey. So the intense 3-week GMAT self-study began, starting from scratch. After all, it’s been a decade since I last had to do high school math – geometry, number properties, equations, etc. For three weeks, my life was a cycle of work, GMAT, dinner, GMAT, sleep and repeat. It was a good taste for what’s to come, but I survived! I was successful in completing my GMAT in the 90th percentile, and through a successful interview with Ivey’s director of admissions, I was accepted at Ivey.

An attempt to earn more for Ivey tuition (it’s an expensive program!), was my GMAT tutoring. It’s been so successful that I had to turn students away. It was the best of both worlds, I enjoy teaching and they’re motivated to learn (http://aavg.weebly.com/)

Second major change: I changed jobs from American Express to CIBC in Apr 2008. The switch was a good one, as it:
1) Broadened my product knowledge from credit cards to lines and loans
2) Expanded my scope from New Product Development and Account Management, to Acquisition (a totally different beast)
3) Allowed me to learn the difference between Canadian-centric corporation vs. Canadian as a subsidiary of an international firm
4) Allowed me to work in downtown TO, which is 15 min from my new condo! =)

Third major change: I was promoted to VP of Special Projects in NAAAP Toronto, the non-profit that I’ve volunteered for since 2006. As VP of Special Projects, I hope to bring some of what I learnt at work – building business cases, putting together strategies & tactics to achieve certain goals, and balancing the risk-reward of all initiatives – to NAAAP.

It wasn’t until recently that I could fully comprehend the scope of NAAAP. Though I’ve always known that NAAAP had 20+ chapters across US and Canada, it wasn’t until the leadership retreat in February that opened my eyes to the people, knowledge, experience, and the scale of the organization. It was a real eye-opener to sit in a room with 60 others from all over North America. It was like a mini-UN! “Bernice Cheung from NAAAP Toronto” followed by “XXX from NAAAP Chicago”, then “YYY from NAAAP San Francisco” etc… This is definitely something I haven’t yet experienced up til then. Also, knowing our US counterparts were so involved in the government (eg/ NAAAP National President would go to the White House representing Asian Americans), as well as the breadth of their sponsors, made me realized our potential!

Enough changes for one day… looking back, it’s been a great few years & I’m really looking forward to school again after so many years!!