February 27, 2007
As insiders do...
There is a lot to be said for the increased transparency that being a public company creates. Moves which otherwise would have stayed behind closed doors now become public fodder, for the media to play with as they would see fit.
Increasingly, investors look to see how insiders are operating, (even living their lives) to make judgements on how a company's risk profile should be seen and whether or not ultimately to invest in those companies. When insiders are selling what does it mean? Or when they are buying shares in the company for which they work does it mean the diametric opposite?
One should be careful not to put too much weight on what one sees. All I can say, is that it simply puts further onus on a company to be honest, ethical and work with utmost integrity when dealing with ALL of its stakeholders, from clients to vendors to shareholders to team members.
Will the tremendous confidence that the ICP Solar executive team necessarily evidence itself through stock transations? Just watch us is my answer to that, for if you were a fly on the wall of our headquarters these days, you'd understand the meaning of the word "buzz". We know our targets and our plan is in motion.
Sass
Posted by sass at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2007
Hollywood Green...not what it used to be!
Tonight is the long awaited Academy Awards in Hollywood and with each gathering of stars, you always know there is going to be a popularity contest.
This year it seems that green no longer means the amount of "greenback" (dollars) that stars make per movie. It has morphed into meaning "how environmental can I show my lifestyle and raison-d'etre (reason for living) to be!". Everyone is tripping over themselves from the charity work they do to the kind of vehicle they drive... and frankly I THINK ITS AMAZING AND SUPPORT EVERY BIT OF IT!
Who cares why people support the environmental wave....as long as they do it in a way that helps the cause. The only exception I will make is where their actions will hurt people or break laws which are elected (see previous post about Michael Crighton's book 'State of Fear').
Al Gore will be there arriving with Orlando Bloom in a green-mobile. So will Penelope Cruz (who wouldn't want to be in THAT car ;), and so will a host of companies getting their "green products" promoted (Toyota with its hybrid, for example).
I hope many of you sit to watch and enjoy the festitivites tonight. It will be interesting to see who wins the "Green Oscar Award" for best performance in the category of green living...
Sass
POST OSCAR UPDATE: AL GORE ACCEPTS ACADEMY AWARD FOR "AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH". See this link for other celebrities making green cool... To paraphrase Mr. Gore...Whether you are RED or BLUE..you should be GREEN!
Posted by sass at 12:34 PM | Comments (3)
February 18, 2007
Cheating yourself in the end...
NASCAR's Darryl Waltrip was caught cheating in a recent race through the addition of fuel additives to his system, clearly a violation of NASCAR rules. Yet is it so uncommon that cheaters try every trick in the book in a cat and mouse game? What I've found is that really depends on yourself, the brand you are creating, and the manner in which you look yourself in the mirror.
The fact is that such cheating occurs across all walks of life. We've seen it in solar power when several brands simply don't output their real ratings to an unsuspecting public and across several other instances where manufacturers push the envelope (and often break it) in the name of showing higher capacities or ratings.
Does the radio maker tell you that the 200RMS per channel that is labelled is impossible to listen to due to the THD (total harmonic distortion)? Nope. Do you care? Nope. All you want is clean, loud music, and you use the wattage rating as a relative measure because you've never yourself measured it no matter what sound system you bought.
Same goes for solar power. Same goes for car racing. In the end however, it is those who stand out through a consistent, ethical approach to their business that will have long term brand value gains and long term loyalty from customers. At points of sale or viewership, we may not distinguish today. Yet one day, when we least expect it, someone will catch the thief..and that will be the day of the debt repayment.
Live it straight. Live it good. Your reward will come in ways you cannot predict today.
Sass
Posted by sass at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2007
The new wars...
John McCain declares "the climate change debate is over"... while Canada debates how to respect the Kyoto protocol signed by a previous government. It just doesn't get better. If you have any question mark that the renewables investment sector is the right one to be in, then I hope that these kinds of declarations will wipe out your doubts.
As CEO of a publicly traded solar company,I am thrilled that no matter the political stripes, we are all targeting the same objective. At least we all can agree on the end game, whether or not we agree on how to get there. Having a common enemy is the best way to get resources allocated. First we had the "war on drugs". Then the "war on terror". Now we are all united in the "war on climate change".
Perhaps we can achieve peace on earth by declaring enough wars on things other than other people, that all warriors will be busy with good wars rather than bad ones? Do you have an idea for a war that we could all join in which would hurt nobody and help us all?
Kidding aside, this latest "war on carbon" is just marvelous. As per my last post, whether or not we are really having a huge effect on the climate is not even the point. The fact that we are all pointing in the same direction is what is relevant...
Sass
Posted by sass at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2007
State of Fear
Those of you who know me well, understand that I rarely read novels. Aside from A Clear Eye for Branding by Tom Asaker, the last time I read a novel was probably back in university.
So imagine everyone's surprise when I started reading State of Fear by Michael Crighton, recommended to me by a friend who just knew it was the topic-du-jour that had my interest.
This book turns climate change on its head and challenges everything that we are hearing today about climate change, global warming, greenhouse gases, etc... I found the book to be a great read and completed it in about two weeks. Last night I went searching for some commentary and found the author's own page which I have pasted below as an interesting insight from someone who researched the state of our climate change intensely. Read below, I think it would be very interesting to hear counterpoints to what he writes:
Author's Message from State of Fear:
A novel such as State of Fear, in which so many divergent views are expressed, may lead the reader to wonder where, exactly, the author stands on these issues. I have bee reading environmental texts for three years, in itself a hazardous undertaking. But I have had an opportunity to look at a lot of data, and to consider many points of view. I conclude:
* We know astonishingly little about every aspect of the environment, from its past history, to its present state, to how to conserve and protect it. In every debate, all sides overstate the extent of existing knowledge and its degree of certainty.
* Atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing, and human activity is the probable cause.
* We are also in the midst of a natural warming trend that began about 1850, as we emerged from a four-hundred-year old cold spell known as the "Little Ice Age."
* Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon.
* Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be man-made.
* Nobody knows how much warming will occur in the next century. The computer models vary by 400 percent, de facto proof that nobody knows. But if I had to guess --- the only thing anyone is doing, really --- I would guess the increase will be 0.812436 degrees C. There is no evidence that my guess about the state of the world one hundred years from now is any better or worse than anyone else's. (We can't "assess" the future, nor can we "predict" it. These are euphemisms. We can only guess. And informed guess is just a guess.)
* I suspect that part of the observed surface warming will ultimately be attributable to human activity. I suspect that the principal human effect will come from land use, and that the atmospheric component will be minor.
* Before making expensive policy decisions on the basis of climate models, I think it is reasonable to require that those models predict future temperatures accurately for a period of ten years. Twenty would be better.
* I think for anyone to believe in impending resource scarcity, after two hundred years of such false alarms, is kind of weird. I don't know whether such a belief today is best ascribed to ignorance of history, sclerotic dogmatism, unhealthy love of Malthus, or simple pigheadedness, but it is evidently a hardly perennial in human calculation.
* There are many reasons to shift away from fossil fuels, and we will do so in the next century without legislation, financial incentives, carbon-conservation programs, or the interminable yammering of fearmongers. So far as I know, nobody had to ban horse transportation in the early twentieth century.
* I suspect the people of 2100 will be much richer than we are, consume more energy, have a smaller global population, and enjoy more wilderness than we have today. I don't think we have to worry about them.
* The current near-hysterical preoccupation with safety is at best a waste of resources and a crimp on the human spirit, and at worst an invitation to totalitarianism. Public education is desperately needed.
* I conclude that most environmental "principles" (such as sustainable development or the precautionary principle) have the effect of preserving the economic advantages of the West and thus constitute modern imperialism toward the developing world. It is a nice way of saying, "We got ours and we don't want you to get yours, because you'll cause too much pollution."
* I believe people are will intentioned. But I have great respect for the corrosive influence of bias, systematic distortions of thought, the power of rationalization, the guises of self-interest, and the inevitability of unintended consequences.
* I have more respect for people who change their views after acquiring new information than for those who cling to views they held thirty years ago. The world changes, Ideologues and zealots don't.
* In the thirty-five-odd years since the environmental movement came into existence, science has undergone a major revolution. This revolution has brought new understanding of nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, chaos theory, catastrophe theory. It has transformed the way we think about evolution and ecology. Yet these no-longer-new ideas have hardly penetrated the thinking of environmental activists, which seems oddly fixed in the concepts and rhetoric of the 1970's.
* We haven't the foggiest notion how to preserve what we term "wilderness," and we had better study it in the field and learn how to do so. I see no evidence that we are conducting such research in a humble, rational and systematic way. I therefore hold little hope for wilderness management in the twenty-first century. I blame environmental organizations every bit as much as developers and strip miners. There is no difference in outcomes between greed and incompetence.
* We need a new environmental movement, with new goals and new organizations. We need more people working in the field, in the actual environment, and fewer people behind computer screens. We need more scientists and many fewer lawyers.
* We cannot hope to manage a complex system such as the environment through litigation. We can only change its state temporarily --- usually by preventing something --- with eventual results that we cannot predict and ultimately cannot control.
* Nothing is more inherently political than our shared physical environment, and nothing is more ill served by allegiance to a single political party. Precisely because the environment is shared it cannot be managed by one faction according to its own economic or aesthetic preferences. Sooner or later, the opposing faction will take power, and previous policies will be reversed. Stable management of the environment requires recognition that all preferences have their place: snowmobilers and fly fisherman, dirt bikers and hikers, developers and preservationists. These preferences are at odds, and their incompatibility cannot be avoided. But resolving incompatible goals is a true function of politics.
* We desperately need a nonpartisan, blinded funding mechanism to conduct research to determine appropriate policy. Scientists are only too aware whom they are working for. Those who fund research --- whether a drug company, a government agency, or an environmental organization --- always have a particular outcome in mind. Research funding is almost never open-ended or open-minded. Scientists know that continued funding depends on delivering the results the funders desire. As a result, environmental organization "studies" are every bit as biased and suspect as industry "studies." Government "studies" are similarly biased according to who is running the department or administration at the time. No faction should be given a free pass.
* I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.
* I personally experience a profound pleasure being in nature. My happiest days each year are those I spend in wilderness. I wish natural environments to be preserved for future generations. I am not satisfied they will be preserved in sufficient quantities, or with sufficient skill. I conclude that the "exploiters of the environment" include environmental organizations, government organizations, and big business. All have equally dismal track records.
* Everybody has an agenda. Except me.
There is no doubt in my mind that we are affecting our world, in some ways well, in others not so well. I do not mean to bring into question that fact, I just think the control of information that we all receive is far from transparent.
Sass
Posted by sass at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)
February 12, 2007
Solar on the Seas...
If you read today's announcement by ICP Solar about our partnership with West Marine for their solar charger program then you will note that we're really on a great path of partnership with some of the biggest names in their particular industry.
It is a critical part of ICP Solar's strategy to partner with leading companies such as Wal-Mart, Costco, VW, Winnebago, West Marine, Sears, Conrad, Dick Smiths, Carrefour, Leroy Merlin and others who are leaders in their sectors. Leaders always demand honest, ethics and integrity not only from their partners but also from their own teams. Its what makes dealing with such companies a pleasure, albeit a demanding one!
While they will be some of the toughest negotiating partners you'll ever meet, the fact is that they understand a company's need to bring return to its stakeholders and that only through profits can a partner invest in the innovation required to continue to drive their businesses forward.
Solar power on the seas has never been better than with our Sunsei program, now available at West Marine. New products will hit their shelves shortly that will change the paradigm of a market which continues to look to ICP Solar for innovation. With investments in new technologies and through Merger and Acquisitions, ICP Solar has gained a lot of knowledge in the past few months which will translate into better solar power products for our partners.
We have rarely been in as strong a position to attack the market as we are now. Its a completely different feeling that we have when we walk into our HQ office today vs a year ago, and much credit goes to a team that never quit. Now with resources behind us, we are gaining market share and going after markets lost with a vengeance. I won't foretell the future here, yet I'll tell you that I am very enthused by what I see inside.
Sass
Posted by sass at 02:47 PM | Comments (1)
February 10, 2007
The Blind Chase of Fortune...
With Anna Nicole Smith dying this past week, suddenly three men all want to be the father of her baby.
Just imagine the talk in a few years, the "lucky" one will have with their child:
Question:
"So why did you want to be my dad? Because you loved me and knew I was yours?"
Answer:
"Not really kid. Your mom was a pain to live with yet you stood to inherit millions because of her legal pursuit of the estate of her former dead rich old husband".
I challenge all three candidates to renounce their rights to the fortune. As Solomon found out who the real mother of a child was by offering to kill the child, so too would we (and the child) find out who the REAL father is, as defined by the person who cares about taking care of his offspring, not about the money. Could be interesting to see who drops out if the judge DOES order a DNA paternity test.
Sometimes the chase of money blinds us from all else, and isn't it a shame that it should be so when a life hangs in the balance. As for the lawyers, well they are guaranteed to get their share of money in this case one way or the other.
Sass
Posted by sass at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)
February 08, 2007
Solarlicious...
A few years ago, our ICP Solar marketing team came up with the "Flexgirl" concept to market a range of flexible panels. We had a beautiful young woman wrapped ONLY in a flexible panel with the slogan "I'm flexible".
Needless to say it was a huge hit in Europe, where dealers were clamouring to get posters just like the one we would show at the trade fairs, yet in the USA, while men admired the poster at the fairs, they said it would simply not "work" in their neck of the woods. Just goes to show that when in Rome...
So now comes the term "Fergalicious" from the female lead singer out of the Black Eyed Peas band (if you don't know who they are, ask a teenager who is available to you!) and suddenly, a couple of days ago, my guru director of marketing (We call him "Captain Lafite"!) comes up with "Solarlicious", which is what reminded me of our famous flexgirl (Hmm... I wonder if Fergie would like to be wrapped in our new flex solar panels?)
Well, we certainly could have a good time with that phrase, yet I asked myself (being so fixated on solar).."is there a product out there which I would describe as solarlicious?" I thought long and hard about many of the cool products that ICP Solar makes, yet I could not quite get that relation between this word and our great solar power products. I was thinking more of something which may not be quite functional yet looks just right. Whereas our panels look great and work great, I think the word is more appropriate for something really out of the box, and doesn't really relate to performance.
Well, I've determined that none other than the SOLIO, made by my good buddy Chris Hornor, deserves that label. At this time, its eggshape is something clearly out of the box which has litle relation to practicality, and all to do with "lovemarks" as defined by Kevin Roberts, CEO of master branders Saatchi & Saatchi in the UK.
The Solio is the epitomy of a superbly crafted product which has that 'sex appeal', even though I'm not convinced I'd use it for much more than a paperweight because for my own travels, I need to have as little "extra machinery" as possible, as I really like to travel "super light". The product is at the other end of the solar spectrum where we have superbly made industrial panels that have the sex appeal of a...well you can imagine yourself what I mean.
So kudos to you Chris, you get the first official "Solarlicious" nomination from me. If I spot other such items in my travels through the solar power world, I'll make sure to point them out as well...
Sass
Posted by sass at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2007
China's Climate Concerns
News today that unseasonably warm temperature in China, in the middle of winter, has caused concern about the fact that China's huge industrial machine may be contributing to global warming.
Seems like the output of news is accelerating and with it will the political movement of changes to legislation and initiatives. All good for solar power, all good for ICP Solar, yet unfortunately I hope its not overkill and that the media is not just paying attention to every story on earth regarding this sector before looking for some new cause celebre...
Sass
PS. ADDITIONAL NOTE
Notice what I wrote above on Feb 6th, now in italics, vs the quote below from a writer-to-editor comment posted in the National Post, Toronto, yesterday. Is it becoming overkill in the media?
"Global warming...next subject, please"
RE; NUMEROUS STORIES IN THE POST ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING.
Now that it is -25C in Toronto, I am even less convinced of the threat to humanity of global warming. What ever happened to acid rain? What happened to all those crack babies? Puh-lease, find something else to write about. This is getting really boring.
Posted by sass at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2007
Carbon Quota Conundrums
I've decided to add a new category today named CLIMATE CHANGE and this is the first posting, after several which I fit into other categories from Community to Events.
Today's deals with the carbon caps proposed to one of the leading countries in solar power in the world..Germany. The EU has proposed carbon caps shy of what Germany had hoped.
Because what happens in Germany will affect what happens to the rest of the EU (Europe) and what happens there WILL affect what happens in the rest of the world. You see whether the countries are attached to the Kyoto Protocol, or like Canada and the USA are proposing their own carbon cap mechanisms (those who dared OPT out even though previous governments had agreed), the basic message is simple...its going to get very expensive for countries that don't follow the rules and move towards more environmentally friendly power generation or power savings technologies, whether you are powering a manufacturing plant, a home or a moving vehicle.
Solar power obviously fits into this picture very well and many would look at what ICP Solar is doing and perhaps consider its effects on climate change as minuscule because we are selling smaller sized panels across hundreds of thousands of users per year. While it may be true that the total wattage we put into the global community is small when compared to some giants, the fact is that we also seed the market which then graduates to learn about solar power with little investment and then may move on to buy larger systems...hence our purchase of Discover Power, one of the founding distributors in the solar market in the USA.
If we all continue to take steps towards zero net emissions, whether energy conservation or any renewable energy initiative, we are doing it for our children. They are the first generation which will have benefited from the initiatives started today, since it will take a while before we see net improvements in emissions. Let there be conundrums about carbon emissions any day, I say. Its the fact that we are spending so much time on this subject that brings a smile to my face, and my heart.
Sass
Posted by sass at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2007
President GW Sunbeam?
Sorry, yet I simply could not resist using the same headline as this LA Times article.
Giant mirrors pointing the sunlight back at the atmosphere to control the earth's temperature is one of the solutions proposed by Dick Cheney. Why not giant fans with heaters to evaporate the ocean's rising level? Or how about giant snow machines to reduce the polar ice cap reductions?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to pick only on the USA's current administration. I think the rampant and uncontrolled development in countries like India and China which are racing to improve their population's income level is going to catch up very very soon if you look at the carbon emissions now generated by those giants.
The world is in dire need of strong leadership that not only takes the climate change threat seriously, yet rather takes it as a challenge and invites and incents business to help come up with solutions. We have apparently created the problem and I'm not suggesting we need some type of socialist agenda to resolve it. Usually, as the japanese have shown, a combination of government vision and business focus makes for the best initiatives...as exemplified when the Japanese government decades ago, created incentives for solar power installations. Today they have virtually little incentives, yet the industry is quite dominant in the world.
Sass
Posted by sass at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2007
Polution Police with Punch...
Some news today that France has proposed a worldwide environmental watchdog agency to look over and possibly penalize countries which surpass their allotted polution limits. It would seem that scientists and government officials are beginning to read from the same book.
So it seems that recent reports that the world is heating up DUE to manmade events would seem to have made climate change, the environment and renewable energy sources "a la mode". If this all leads to more legislation supporting solar power, yours truly can only say "its about time!".
The fact that the "temperature" has risen on this topic, especially at Davos, is good news for our industry. Investment in this sector surpassed $1billion in that past quarter in Silicon Valley and is likely to continue. We are seeing the solar cell become the microchip of the last century. I know I've used the analogy before yet I truly believe it will become even more obvious as the races form between the different technologies which are surfacing.
We've had little fall out in our industry to date and its just very possible that despite the huge build-up of capacity, that any surplus will be shortlived due to new initiatives put into place by governments worldwide. Whereas they tended to reduce incentives in those countries that had them before, perhaps this new wave will soften those landings and maybe even reverse the trend in Germany and Japan to reduce subsidies and also increase the pace of subsidy in the "new markets" of Spain, France, Italy, USA, and China.
Bottom line..solar power is only one answer to the climate change, yet its a powerful one that can be implemented in the same manner as a multi-server IT environment, totally independant at first and then linked to serve a global community.
Sass
Posted by sass at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2007
When business goes green...
Seems like the business world has discovered the color GREEN. When an insurance executive can urge western governments to pass on green technologies to countries like India and China, it means they recognize the need to get environmental?
Sorry, I don't buy it. What is important to these companies is MONEY. And that's perfectly fine. If its fashionable to be green, blue, violet or mauve, they will be whatever it is that makes them and their stakeholders....money! So long as they are supporting the environment, I don't care WHY they do it.
As for governments, I am very happy that they are understanding the need to get green. I just came back from Shanghai and I returned with breathing problems. Many of the inhabitants of that city drive and walk around with masks on their faces to cover up the polution which is rampant. You can't see the beautiful skyscrapers because the air is so thick and the smog so prevalent, its a matter of a few hundred feet rather than miles through which you can't view the skyline.
While there are people dedicated with all honesty and sincerity to the greening of the earth, what we need to focus on is the positive that can come from convincing business and government to adopt green policies which are win-win. Those governments which support green industries are in fact supporting industry and knowledge-building in an area which will growingly dominate economies more and more in the future. So while they would have a self-interest in the long term which serves health of their societies, the short term benefits can be jobs and taxes in the areas of environmental technologies.
Business has always been about making more green...I guess the prophecy now becomes self-fulfilling.
Posted by sass at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)