What follows is a series of recommendations that could apply to any public board to: make it more focused on value creation; to strengthen real director independence, including from management; to strengthen management accountability to the board; and to strengthen board accountability to shareholders.

Last year the CEO of Canadian Pacific, Hunter Harrison, received $49.2 million in compensation. The difference between regular employees' pay and CEO compensation has grown rapidly in recent years. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in 1995 the top-paid CEOs received 85 times the earnings of average Canadians.

A recent study by Nielsen shows that advertisers, big and small, are turning to the Internet to push their brands. Though many respondents said they still plan to use online advertising for direct response, more and more are spending money on digital brand advertising to promote their company, product or service.

I've seen business owners and personal contacts tarnish their reputations with a few words or a few clicks, not fully realizing the power of the digital world we now live in. Every picture you post, every status or page you like, and every update you share is essentially announcing to the world who you are, permanently.

Last Tuesday, I was introduced to a young man who will be working for me this summer as our advertising and promotional coordinator at Just For Laughs. He was introduced as "The New Theo." When your job becomes your name, you've done something right.

Just about everyone I know has designs on or at least daydreams of starting a business, which I think is normal. And yet, while no one ever says, "I want to be a cog in a giant, multinational machine when I grow up," that's usually what happens. I can't give you advice on how to create a successful business, but I can hopefully give you the nudge you need to at least try.

The euphoria of continually going back to the well and finding it full is, in my mind, short-lived and dangerous. No matter what your business, if your dreamy current sales projections are based predominantly -- or entirely -- on what you've produced before, you are in for a rude awakening.

Many businesses face transitions, and sometimes it is hard to embody change. But as with everything else in life, change happens constantly, and when we embrace it we end up realizing that it is likely for the better. Sometimes a good spring cleaning to get rid of the old and make space for the new is just what a company needs.

Data points plotted on a graph and connected in a line tell a great story of how you got to where you are. But in no way can they tell you where you are going. Consumers don't listen to your trend line.

In this day and age of free market orthodoxy, the banks don't like to think of themselves as having any sort of "moral obligations," only obligations to shareholders. But the protection Canadian banks enjoy -- the same protection that has allowed them to prosper internationally -- means that the banks do not operate in a free market environment, and if they want to continue having their cake and eating it too they should accept they have responsibilities towards the Canadians who have little choice but to bank with them.

When Scotch Tape is used as a repair tool (or as a means of presentation or communication), what's really being said is that at best, "Things are beyond the state of repair," or at worst, "Hey, we just don't give a rat's ass any more."

There is a concept, called short-termism, which could devastate finances in the future, and has in the past devastated the millions who rely on their paycheques or pensions in the corporate world.

I am currently interviewing shareholder activists, hedge funds and private equity leaders on changes to public company boards to make them more focuse...