Vintage Filings Business Blog

Just in case you thought that US companies were the only ones needing a government bailout, think again.  Canada’s biotechnology CEOs are calling for an economic stimulus package that includes targeted measures designed to protect $1.7 billion of annual spending and preserve high-value “21^st century” jobs in Canada in the face of a severe economic times. These measures include a one-time cash refund on tax losses, an exemption from capital gains tax on the next two years’ of investment, and changes to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) credit program to support the sector during the economic downturn.

“We are asking for immediate targeted measures in order to protect Canadian world class technologies from competitors in the US, the UK and other countries, where governments are making significant commitments to protect their biotechnology industries in recognition of their social and economic value,” said Rainer Engelhardt, Chair of the Board of Directors of BIOTECanada and CEO of Eulytica Biologics Inc., Ottawa. “Ultimately, our goal is to get through this downturn and have the high value jobs inherent to this industry stay in Canada.”

BIOTECanada’s proposed economic stimulus package includes three key measures. A one-time redemption for unused tax losses would be available to SMEs with revenues less than R&D expenses and be limited to the lesser of $20 million or twice a company’s annual R&D expenditure. An exemption from capital gains tax is proposed for investors making new direct investments in 2009 and 2010. Both measures require companies to reinvest in Canada. Changes to the SR&ED program to process refunds quarterly rather yearly and an expansion of program eligibility to all firms engaged in research and development in Canada will create a competitive stimulus to support more domestic jobs and investment.

“With limited sources of financing available for the industry, many Canadian biotech companies are wondering where their next six months of operating cash are going to come from and need the Canadian government to take immediate action,” said Andy Sheldon, President and CEO of Medicago Inc., Québec City. “For the industry to survive, we need a commitment from our government to facilitate investment and provide short term relief.”

Without an immediate cash infusion and tax support, $1.7 billion in annual R and D spending, thousands of Canadian jobs and even Canada’s long term economic prosperity are at risk according to Canada’s national biotechnology trade association, BIOTECanada.

“Canadian governments have done the right thing in supporting major investments in post-secondary education and basic research because that research ultimately saves lives. As Canadians and as entrepreneurs we want to see that investment bear fruit,” said Gordon McCauley, President and CEO of Allon Therapeutics Inc., Vancouver. “Our recommendations are targeted measures aimed at protecting these investments, in order to spur Canada’s economic recovery, and get these advances in the hands of physicians and patients.”

Finding job applicants can be a very long and tiring process.  Meeting with job seekers takes time and money, not to mention it forces you to always maintain a sizable human resources division simply for sorting through potential employees.  One company is looking to streamline this service while also helping to protect the environment. “Companies have been trying to get online videoconferencing to really work for people for quite a while now. We think this is both the technology and the application to make it happen,” said Greg Rokos, president of FutureResume.com. Rokos was announcing the addition of GreenJobInterview.com to the arsenal of video-based capabilities available to job seekers and hiring companies on the new online job board, FutureResume.com. GreenJobInterview.com is literally a “point-and-click” online videoconferencing solution with no software required, and no up-front costs, allowing anyone to access browser-based GreenJobInterview.com and conduct a videoconference. Only a webcam is required. GreenJobInterview.com will supply a webcam to client companies at no charge if needed and if their chosen candidate is without a webcam, it’s a simple request to GreenJobInterview.com that one be sent out.

GreenJobInterview.com appears as a button on the FutureResume.com site where job seekers post their resumes as well as one-minute video resume introductions that allow them to put their personality and professionalism on display and stand out from the crowd. When a hiring company is interested in a job seeker (whom they have seen in a one-minute video resume introduction on the site), they simply click the button to schedule a GreenJobInterview videoconference with the seeker at a convenient time. No traveling or significant expense is required.

“We believe companies will give more candidates the opportunity for an interview,” stated Greg Rokos, “when it doesn’t require hours or days of travel and all the personnel time associated with it. A GreenJobInterview takes moments to set up and costs as little as $49.95 for a half hour. It’s a win/win for both job seekers and hiring companies — and for the environment, too.”

According to Theo Rokos, co-founder and board member of FutureResume.com, “FutureResume.com is literally a new hiring process. Hiring managers get to see and interact with job seekers from day one in their video resume introductions and then in a GreenJobInterview. Seekers get to see the hiring company in its video profile on FutureResume.com. This process shortens the time to hire, improves the quality of hiring and significantly reduces costs and impact on the environment.”

Working for a publicly traded company forces you to focus on constantly increasing revenues, and one of the best methods for accomplishing this is to have a strong foundational knowledge of your consumer.  So I was very intrigued when I discovered that BzzAgent, a word-of-mouth (WOM) media network, and Attensity, a company that provides text analytics software for First Person Intelligence, partnered to create an alliance designed to provide marketers with insights into the conversations consumers are having about their brands. BzzAgent is integrating Attensity’s “Voice of the Customer” (VoC) software into its WOM platform. This will enable BzzAgent to analyze the millions of real-world, word-of-mouth dialogues submitted by its network of 450,000 volunteer “Agents,” and supply clients with actionable information related to behavioral and conversational patterns.

According to BzzAgent Founder and CEO, Dave Balter,

“Our relationship with Attensity promises to prove the correlation between words and wallets, empowering our clients to harness the power of word of mouth for much more than product awareness and trial. We’ve been sitting on a proverbial gold mine filled with more than a million reported conversations. Attensity’s solution will allow our clients to reap the fullest benefits of marketing’s most precious resource: consumer opinions.”

Added Craig Norris, Attensity’s CEO,

“We’re very happy to be working with BzzAgent in an effort to increase the value of their already successful WOM initiatives. In many ways, this is the perfect relationship to create unmatched marketing intelligence for ambitious companies looking to connect with end consumers in a way that their competitors cannot. BzzAgent is at the crest of the word-of-mouth wave, while Attensity has the leading analytics technology to mine the resulting unstructured feedback in a way that presents the facts necessary for meeting end-consumer needs and desires.”

Attensity’s text analytics technology will analyze unstructured data contained in the nearly 100,000 WOM reports submitted by BzzAgent’s volunteers each month, as well as the millions of reports received over the past five years. The software will mine and analyze Agent-authored narratives, allowing the company to provide real-time performance updates and offer strategic recommendations rooted in consumer attitudes, opinions and recommendations. For example, the Attensity-powered system will be able to inform BzzAgent’s clients about which words correlate positively — and negatively — to product trial and purchase intent.

Attensity’s Voice of the Customer solution employs the company’s patented Exhaustive Extraction technology to automatically identify facts, sentiment, opinions, requests, trends, and trouble spots from the unstructured text in survey responses, email messages, website forums, blog entries and other consumer communications. Unlike programs that require manual tagging, sorting, classifying or other upfront effort, Attensity automatically extracts valuable data from written feedback to provide deeper insights into consumer satisfaction, sentiment, and loyalty. Attensity can also reveal specific product and service issues, reactions to marketing and selling efforts, and even buying signals.