The CEO soapbox: messages for the business community

Recently, two high-powered businessmen took to the pages of The New York Times with  messages for the corporate world. Investor Warren Buffet told government to raise taxes for the rich, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz asked corporate leaders to withhold donations to political parties until the White House gets its act together (both of which we reported on here). It was inspiring, and though you might not have America's largest newspaper as your soapbox, as Canadian business leaders you have messages for your peers.

I've asked a few CEOs what cris de ceour they'd like to share with the biz community, and will post them here over the next few days. This blog will be a platform for more thoughts, so read what your peers have to say, and send me an e-mail with your own ideas. This way, we can keep the conversation going, and outsmart The New York Times.

First up is Cybele Negris. The 42-year-old is president of Vancouver-based Webnames.ca (Canada’s original .ca registrar) and has long been an advocate for women in tech, sitting on the board of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs of British Columbia. Her call to action is something anyone with a cellphone can relate to: 

"I call a telephone company to make a change to my account and am left on hold for over 45 minutes. A big chain toy store I frequent is notorious for having no store personnel working around the store and one till open with huge line-ups. Too often I walk into a retail store and store clerks are chatting to each other behind the counter and completely ignoring the customers. Consumers have been conditioned in so many industries to accept bugs in hardware and software and to accept poor service. My own frustration about these issues led us to define our company Webnames.ca by service and quality."  

What's your message?