Saturday, October 21, 2006

The Revolution will be Podcast

Listen up! Bank of Montreal has jumped into podcasting.

In conjunction with host Ian Portsmouth, editor of PROFIT Magazine, BMO this week released a half-hour audio program you can download or listen to on your PC.

“The Business Coach Podcast” features two guests. The first is BMO chief economist Rick Egleton, speaking about some of the core economic indicators that business owners should pay attention to, and offering a few predictions. On a lighter note, the second segment features Lara Dodo, vice-president of Robert Half International, speaking on the shrinking labour pool and key hiring and compensation trends.

On the economic front, Egleton sees economic growth slowing. But he expects few problems, partly because says he believes business and consumer balance sheets are in good shape. Still, he says it’s not a time to stand still.

“One of the key challenges in a globalized economic environment is you have to be internationally competitive - and the scale of firm that needs to be internationally competitive is shrinking all the time... It’s imperative that firms in an open economy like Canada continue to strive to be as competitive as possible.”

The good news: "Now is a good time to make [capital] investments. One of the benefits of the Canadian dollar being so strong is that much of the capital equipment that we buy and invest in in Canada is produced abroad, so the high Canadian dollar has significantly lowered the cost of capital spending relative to what it was three or four years ago.”

BMO's podcast is a good first try, and Ian did a great job of keeping the guests focussed on angles that interest small business. Although I confess I found 16 minutes on the economy just a bit thick.

But if ever you find yourself getting restless, you can drag the little button on the screen to fast-forward. Now if only Lloyd Robertson came with a button like that...

You can join the podcasting revolution by clicking here.

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