Tag: KPMG

Networking over breakfast

Jonathan Kallner, event speaker and managing partner, KPMG, talks with Eli Joseph, senior account manager, business and personal, RBC Royal Bank, at Schara Tzedeck’s LinkYid networking event June 3. (photo by Baila Lazarus)

There is a theory that you are the average of the five people you hang around with the most. Thus, creating and interacting with a successful network of businesspeople should, over time, increase your own level of success.

With this in mind, Jonathan Kallner, managing partner, KPMG Vancouver, opened LinkYid’s first complimentary career networking breakfast with the topic, How to Unleash the Power of Your Network.

LinkYid is a Congregation Schara Tzedeck program that connects immigrants, professionals and entrepreneurs with mentors, employment and business opportunities that match their potential. They held their first event at KPMG on June 3.

“This topic ties into a core pillar in our strategy [at KPMG], which is community,” said Kallner. “We believe in building networks and helping networks succeed.”

Talking about his own experiences in school, in his job and the industry, Kallner admitted that, when he needed to make major decisions, he turned to his contacts.

“If you nurture the networks, they become your supporters,” he said. But, he added, “I didn’t appreciate how important that was until later in my career. I never realized what a difference there could have been in my life.”

Using Blockbuster as an example of failed relationship-building, Kallner pointed out how successful the video rental company had been, with an outlet in every neighborhood and relationships with everyone in the local community.

“If you wanted to watch a movie, you went to Blockbuster and, in four years, they destroyed it,” said Kallner. “Because they did not maintain the relationships with their customers, they allowed someone else to come in and own that relationship.

“It’s no different in our everyday lives,” he said. “The world can change around you but your relationships can stay constant.”

Kallner outlined four key points in building networks and relationships:

1. Know your goals. Each person needs to establish their own personal plan for their business, looking forward one, two and five years. Focus on the skills you have that you can capitalize on and what you need to develop. Use your networking connections to seek advice and consider it.

“When you’re looking at strengths and weaknesses, be very honest,” said Kallner. People looking to hire want to know that candidates have a good understanding of this, he said.

2. Consider getting a coach or mentor. Many of those who have gone before you in the industry will be willing to share their experiences with you, said Kallner. “They can challenge you to think differently and push your boundaries. They can act as a connector, help you develop your personal goals and work with you to define the next steps in your career.” Mentors will also be candid with you to encourage your business and personal growth.

“I still seek the guidance of mentors,” said Kallner, adding that the mentor or coach will also get value out of the relationship.

3. Build and work your network. Any search for business groups on Meetup will yield dozens of groups you can connect with in the Lower Mainland in any given week, but there are more and less effective ways of working your networks. Talk to new people at each event, said Kallner.

Respect their time and don’t be a salesperson, he added, as the key to networking is building relationships. “Don’t overlook how networks build naturally and don’t rush it,” he advised.

4. Take advantage of social media. While online presence is essential, especially when building your digital networks, there are things to look out for, said Kallner. Select the right platform. LinkedIn is considered the best platform for business operators. Others can be beneficial but you have to manage your brand closely, keep active on the site on a regular basis and make sure your profile is professional.

“Facebook can kill a brand if you’re not careful to be professional with your posts,” he said.

The LinkYid networking session drew students, entrepreneurs and professionals seeking work, looking for new hires or simply to start their relationship-building.

Erez Iancu Ben Haim, an MBA student at Sauder School of Business, was there to start building his connections and discuss his goals with people in the room. Eli Joseph, a senior account manager with RBC Royal Bank, wanted to meet some new people and find new businesses that might be looking for government loans.

“Being in the business world, people come to me if they’re looking for connections, as well,” said Joseph.

In closing his talk, Kallner reminded people of two key takeaways:

  • Follow up after meeting with someone at an event with a personalized invitation to connect.
  • Networking doesn’t only happen at events. It can happen anywhere.

To find out more about LinkYid, visit linkyid.net, email Rachael Lewinski at [email protected] or call 604-736-7607.

Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer and media trainer in Vancouver. Her consulting work can be seen at phase2coaching.com.

More accountability required – Portland Hotel Society

Last week, one of the largest and most influential social service agencies in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside became a centre of turmoil. The government moved in and fired much of the leadership of PHS (Portland Hotel Society) Community Services Society after an audit – in which the agency provided tepid cooperation – found the agency to have squandered vast sums on travel and luxuries for staff.

A routine audit by B.C. Housing late last year raised enough red flags to bring in an independent auditor. In 2013, the society received $18.7 million from the provincial government and $2.27 million from the federal government. Overall, PHS is a $28 million a year operation, which runs hundreds of provincially owned housing units in the city’s poorest area, intended to provide stable housing for individuals who had been left to the rapacious slumlords who once ruled the area.

In addition to the constellation of renovated hotels in the area, the society operates Insite, Vancouver’s (in)famous safe injection site, where people with addictions can find a safe place and sanitary equipment to use, and help in the event of an overdose. Insite is also an entry point for people to access primary care medical treatment and a range of treatment, housing and community supports.

According to the organization, during its 23 years of operating in the Downtown Eastside, deaths by drug overdose have fallen dramatically, as have HIV infection rates, while life expectance has increased by 10 years. These are extraordinary outcomes and one of the saddest results of this scandal is that the important work of this organization has been tarnished by the actions of its leadership.

The four top managers – who oversaw more than 300 staff – and all eight members of the organization’s board of directors left their positions last week. The four managers were earning between $120,000 and $160,000 a year, and received an additional 30 to 40 percent in remuneration for vacation pay and statutory holiday pay. This is not necessarily out of line – what rankles most are the expenses the audit uncovered, and which the senior staff felt no need to justify, including providing receipts to the auditors.

Mark Townsend, who, with his wife Liz Evans, was co-executive director of PHS, reportedly racked up high meal and travel expenditures. The auditors, KPMG, in a more-than-100-page report, noted: “The PHS declined to provide the associated credit card receipts … PHS also reiterated, among other things, their view that provision of these receipts was unnecessary to complete a proper review of these charges. We respectfully disagree.”

KPMG cited dozens of suspicious expenses, including a trip to New York City by Townsend and Evans, who stayed at the Plaza Hotel, accumulating a $9,266 bill. The purpose of trip, according to KPMG, was entirely summed up as: “Activities related to other PHS social initiatives.”

Another PHS senior staffer enjoyed a $5,832 Danube River cruise. Over three years, staff restaurant bills averaged $1,927 per month, to a total of about $69,000. An expense that resonated immediately was a trip to Disneyland for (now-former) PHS manager Dan Small, his (now-estranged) wife Jenny Kwan and their children. Kwan is the member of the B.C. legislature for the riding that encompasses the Downtown Eastside and, despite the potential for conflict of interest or misallocation, Kwan said in a teary news conference on the weekend that she had no idea that the Disneyland, and another, vacation were at least partly funded by PHS.

These incidents are doubly troubling, not just because the misallocations of funds have hurt the people they were intended to help, but because they have the potential to harm these individuals further by reinforcing the perception that money put into the Downtown Eastside is going down a hole without commensurate results. In fact, PHS has done and will continue to provide vital services that improve life for many of our city’s most disadvantaged. Our hope is that this sad situation will result in improved oversight and more scrupulous management not only of this important organization, but of all the agencies serving this area – and, frankly, all nonprofits, especially those receiving government funding.

We should also remind ourselves that these events do not grant us the right to wash our hands of events in that troubled neighborhood. The concept of anei ircha kodmin means it is a primary obligation of our tzedakah to do what we can to ameliorate suffering of the poorest in our local community. May this incident and the probable further investigations serve to rebuild our confidence in how public and private funds are spent in the Downtown Eastside so that these agencies will continue to make the changes needed for the people there.