Elderberry.work

They say that “the best defense is a good offense”. Especially true in these unpredictable times. Many SMBs are being more proactive, and going to market even stronger by leveraging proven, cost-effective, experienced marketers. They’re steady hands who’ve seen a lot of turbulence before. For both B2B and B2C companies: Content creators, story tellers, digital and social media experts, user experience, international marketers, data analytics, and more. Dynamically complement your team with consultants, contracts, freelancers, fractional. Choose what you need and budget. Elderberry.work has a growing pipeline of age 45+ experience, and the 5 ways they create value for you. All functions, seniorities, industries. Self-serve, on-demand, one stop convenience. As easy as plug and play.

Probably 100% now? Last summer RBC found that 95% of small business owners were feeling forced by market conditions to be more proactive. That’s good news, not waiting for the context to improve, instead making it happen. But most SMEs find it challenging to access the right experience to achieve that proactivity, which they believe will make it hard to meet their targets. Elderberry.work solves that by featuring a pipeline of hard-to-find, proven business experience to complement SME staff through consults, contracts, freelancing, fractional. All functions, seniorities, industries. Relevant, cost-effective, operational and strategic business experience is available on-demand, self-serve, one stop shop. For short or longer durations. We make it as easy as plug and play. So you can tap into it more proactively, more often, and more easily. RBC report: https://lnkd.in/dkKUHhbV

Pleased to have an article about our Elderberry.work platform in Canadian SME Magazine. https://lnkd.in/ghYGc2g9

We’re drowning in data, information and misinformation, and AI not only needs interpretation guardrails, it has hallucinations. So business experience – in the form of knowledge, judgment & wisdom - which only emerges through time and situations – is more valuable than ever. You can use it to cut to the chase, be bolder and more innovative. Accelerate results, reduce risks, develop your people. When Pine and Gilmore coined “The Experience Economy” in 1998, they were talking about creating customer experiences. Our reference to The Experience Economy 2.0 is different, about harnessing work experience and insights to benefit business planning and performance. Through Elderberry.work you can access untapped, proven experience as easily as plug and play. Not as overhead, but cost effectively as consults, contracts, freelancers, fractionals. All functions, seniorities, industries. Find what you need in our growing pipeline of age 45+ experience and the 5 ways they create value.

Government unpredictability, inflation, competition. Experienced hands will help you find cost efficiencies across your business. Without adding overhead. Hard to find expertise, but Elderberry.work’s pipeline is lean and curated for fast time to shortlist. All functions, seniorities, industries. Cost-effective for your small and medium-sized business. Easy as plug and play.

I have to comment on this ageist language couched in terms used in this article titled “Why high employee retention rates could signal business risk”, which quotes a Canada Life VP at a Reuters’ insurance conference. Surprising for a company recognized as a “Top Employer for Canadians Over 40”. From my experience, innovation has far more to do with how the company is led and its culture than the age of its employees. For example, I was driving innovation at a large Canadian company, and would repeatedly hear from VPs  “That’s a good idea, but who else has done it?” The insurance sector at large has been acknowledged to be slow to respond to digital business models (hence opportunities for insurtech start-ups). OECD studies find that older workers perform at least as well as younger, and most perform better. Brain neuroplasticity research finds that we are at peak innovativeness in our age 50s and 60s. A Wharton-MIT study found that age 50 start-up founders are 2X more successful than age 30. There’s lots more fact-based research and insights supporting leveraging older workers as a strategic imperative. We are all aging differently than our parents, with longevity providing us extended years of high productivity. But societal, and obviously many businesses, perceptions have not caught up with that yet. Age 45+ have extensive experience managing change and technology adoption, and provide critical insights to guide AI adoption. That’s why Elderberry.work champions age 45+ businesspeople and the 5 ways they create value, beyond subject matter expertise to knowledge/wisdom, soft skills, multi-generational team productivity, and cost-effectiveness. We invite companies to source from our untapped, proven, often hard to find talent pipeline.

The business case for experience: The Lean business approach is massively changing its methods’ context assumption: from steady state to chaos. Which requires accelerated adaptation, led by human capital.  Aided by lean thinkers, as James Womack said at the recent Lean conference I attended. It’s about being able to respond more quickly, not bogged down by process and unavailable data, starting with defining what needs to be done and then focusing the team on it. That’s why we at Elderberry.work champion the 5 ways age 45+ experience creates value for businesses. Plug and play expertise to complement your employees, as high value variable costs. All functions, seniorities, industries. Whether you’re into Lean – and we’ve got practitioners - or not.

I really enjoyed playing for Coach Keenan on a line with Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk. They made the NHL. Two out of 3 ain’t bad. Chatted with coach recently at our University of Toronto Varsity Blues alumni gala, and got a signed copy of his new autobiography. Mike’s had enormous success, winning a Stanley Cup, 2 World Cups, etc. Of course, ups and downs. Like life and like business, especially like entrepreneurs. My key takeaways for small and medium businesses from his insights are: 1.     Be bold: Don’t accept limitations. Find a path forward. And learn from the best before you. 2.     Set clear expectations: raise the bar, and don’t accept complacency. 3.     Plug & play talent: fill gaps with strong players, even for the short term. They’ll also leave behind an improved culture. 4.     Own your mistakes: you’re going to wrankle some feathers pursuing this approach. And you’ll have some regrets. 5.     Value experience: it’s important to develop young talent with role models. Have key vets model the way. And when the pressure peaks, lean on them. Elderberry.work is assembling an impressive pipeline of business “vets” that can complement your employees with consults, contracts, freelancers, fractional. All functions, seniorities, industries. As easy as plug and play.

SMBs often struggle with technology adoption, including AI. Yet the people and financial change processes remain timeless, as McKinsey notes in its 60th Anniversary Tech Special Issue: “Take our 1965 article calling for breaking down silos and facilitating commercialization.” Those change processes can be effective and efficient when experienced hands help guide them. Elderberry.work is aggregating a pipeline of age 45+ businesspeople with impressive experience doing that. To complement your employees. Across all functions, seniorities, industries. Easy as plug and play.

Buying a business? You can cost-effectively tap into experienced businesspeople with relevant operating expertise to help your pre-purchase assessment of competitiveness and risks and your post-purchase revenue growth and productivity. Without extra overhead. Of course they can help business sellers too. Canada has a growing pool of very experienced businesspeople, with operating experience, who can readily help SMEs. Whether sales, marketing, finance, HR, operations, procurement, etc. If you could only find them. Elderberry.work is a new Canadian social enterprise that makes it easy to find and match our growing pipeline of age 45+ experience to complement SMEs’ employees. Cost-effectively inject knowledge through quick consults or longer contracts, freelancers, fractionals. All functions, seniorities, industries. We celebrate the 5 ways age 45+ experience creates value for SMEs. And we make it as easy as plug and play.