Monday May 12, 2008
REPORT ON BUSINESS FRONT PAGE 
Trio joins together to seed new ideas for the BlackBerry
Three of Canada's biggest companies have joined forces to make the BlackBerry a greater business threat to the laptop computer, with Research In Motion Ltd., Thomson Reuters Corp. and Royal Bank of Canada teaming up to launch a $150-million (U.S.) fund that will back software development for the ubiquitous handheld device.
EnCana's plan: Divide, then conquer
EnCana Corp., Canada's biggest energy company, is going back to its roots: as two smaller companies.Seeking to unlock the value of its enormous asset base, the $65-billion company plans to split into separate oil and natural gas firms, a move that underscores the massive need for capital in an oil patch where development costs are escalating rapidly.
It's time to kill corn subsidies and go Brazilian
New in the ROB, feature columnist Eric Reguly will write in this space every Monday.Your doctor will tell you not all cholesterol is created equal. The dangerous version can kill you, the good can make you healthier. Brazil uses the same line with ethanol. The corn-based stuff pumped out by the Americans and Canadians is bad, bad, bad. But our sugarcane ethanol is cheap and plentiful and environmentally friendly.
INSIDE
BUILDING CALGARY'S BOW ENCANA'S NEW FOUNDATIONAs it revealed plans to split up, the foundation for EnCana's new headquarters was being poured. Story, Page 5
Cue the takeover music
Randy Eresman just put the needs of EnCana Corp. shareholders ahead of what's best for the management team at Canada's biggest energy company.After years of defending the fact that EnCana straddled two very different worlds with its mix of oil sands and natural gas, Mr. Eresman is busting up his company. He's providing a high-octane boost to the stock price. The market likes pure plays, and loves takeover targets. And that's where management wakes up this morning facing a whole new set of challenges.
COLUMNISTS
Picking up on all the right Points
Consumers love their loyalty points but investors don't like Points International, or at least not as much as they used to. The stock is down more than 50 per cent from its peak.
Keeping it all in the family
The Olands have been brewing beer in the Maritimes for 140 years - as long as the country of Canada has existed. This remarkable run will be continuing, now that the sixth generation, in the form of Andrew Oland, has taken over the president's job at family-owned Moosehead Breweries Ltd. of Saint John. A month into his new job, Mr. Oland, a 40-year-old Harvard MBA graduate, talks about being a relatively small brewer in an industry of giants.
Poor choices in education can make you a statistic
''There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.''Many attribute this quote to British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in 1894, but its origin is now widely disputed, which seems fittingly ironic. Likewise, the recent Statistics Canada report, Earnings and Incomes of Canadians over the Past Quarter-Century, has led to varying interpretations of the data. One of the most strident appeared recently in a newspaper with a headline screaming: ''Rich get richer, poor get poorer.''
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Vacuum cleaner king's got a brand new bag
Sir James Dyson, king of vacuum cleaners, made his fortune selling the machines at three times the price of conventional models.Now the smooth-talking British engineer who flogs his Dyson vacuum cleaners on television has moved to another mundane category: the hand dryer. Just as his vacuum cleaner is the Porsche of floor maintenance, so his Airblade dryer - at $1,600 a pop - is at the top end of hand hygiene. It costs up to eight times more than existing dryers.
CANADIAN BUSINESS
EnCana starts Calgary tower
The road to building the largest building in Western Canada has been paved.Calgary's downtown core - usually sleepy on the weekend - was transformed into a buzzing hive of activity Saturday as workers laid the concrete foundations for The Bow, the $1-billion-plus skyscraper being built as the new headquarters for EnCana Corp.
Big Banks want Carney to have more power
Canada's Big Banks are leaning on Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to hurry up with legislative changes that would empower the Bank of Canada to better deal with the credit crisis.
Hot gas prices prompt EnCana split
A few years ago, EnCana Corp.'s decision to focus on North American natural gas production was seen as a maverick strategy. Now, the company is hoping to capitalize on the buzz around natural gas for the benefit of its shareholders.
Online recruiter looks to cast wider Web
Back in 1998, the year that two university students started up Google in their garage, the search capabilities of the Internet were lacklustre at best. That was the same year that Don Givelos, the managing partner of Toronto-based recruiting firm DGA Careers, launched his job search website, InsuranceWorks.ca. He believed then as he believes now that the Web will continue to change the way companies manage their hiring.
Eight ways to improve executive compensation
Except for those absent from our planet for the past couple of decades, infamous examples of the wildly excessive senior executive compensation that has become commonplace in the United States, though not limited to there, are so widely known that they've become urban legends. But unlike most urban legends, they're not myths but unfortunate reality.
GENERAL BUSINESS
Saving consumers from ... ahem ... themselves
We are witnessing a strange paradox today: We overconsume food to our detriment in the developed world while many barely have food to sustain themselves in the developing world. Sadly, this paradox is becoming more apparent and more poignant given double-digit price increases in some staples like wheat and rice in the past year.
Harvey Schachter's guide on how to handle everything from overflowing e-mail to meeting overload
Talk of leadership -- particularly when focused on ideal traits for the nation's top spot -- usually focuses on noble attributes. But management guru Tom Peters, in Executive Excellence, says leadership has another, less majestic, side. He has found the best leaders are:Manipulative
MEETINGS THIS WEEK
MONDAYBoralex Inc.Mont Royal Centre, 2200 Mansfield St., Montreal, 11 a.m.Calfrac Well Services Ltd.Petroleum Club, 319 - 5th Ave. SW., Calgary, 3:30 p.m.Ceramic Protection Corp.
THIS WEEK: YOUR TIP SHEET TO WHAT'S AHEAD
Monday, May 12Housing sector updateStatistics Canada posts the new housing price index for March. An increase of 0.2 per cent is expected.Tuesday, May 13Rona and Wal-Mart report
GLOBE INVESTOR
Picking up on all the right Points
Consumers love their loyalty points but investors don't like Points International, or at least not as much as they used to. The stock is down more than 50 per cent from its peak.
Red flags hold back investors
The price of oil is on fire and commodity prices are at lofty levels, but red flags such as problems facing the financial sector and a weak U.S. consumer are holding investors back.
