Accelerating Growth - Building a better working world - EY ... first step, as Al-Katib did – spot and exploit an opportunity. A vision for success: The five regional winners Emerging

ACCELERATINGGROWTH

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™

ACCELERATINGGROWTH

2016 Winners

S P O N S O R C O N T E N T

S P O N S O R C O N T E N T S P O N S O R C O N T E N T

2 Ey ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR 3 EY ENTREPRENEUR

OF THE YEAR

Disruption is a powerful force. It impacts every industry and organization in some way. Those who recoil from disruption risk being left behind, but those who embrace it are poised to thrive.

Entrepreneurs are the great disruptors and innovators of the economy. They’re the accel-erators who drive growth and inspire, empower and shape the world with their ambition.

Whatever your growth aspirations – whether you’re looking to go from local to global, private to public, or challenger to leader – adopt ing an entrepreneurial mindset can help you become a successful disruptor.To do so, you need to foster a culture that accepts failure as a result of taking risks, cultivates talent and empowers employees to be creative. This is no easy task, but it’s vital if you’re going to continue growing.

While it can be hard to predict what the

future will bring, it’s important to think about it. Consider this: Today’s major players may not even exist a decade from now. It’s esti-mated that by 2027, only 25 per cent of today’s S&P companies will still be in business.

Cheap access to technology has levelled the playing field across all sectors. For example, in the 1990s, mapping the human genome took 13 years and nearly $3-billion (U.S.). Now, genetics startups can quickly determine all manner of DNA data from a simple saliva sample for under $200 (U.S.).

Entrepreneurs bring a fresh perspective to the world. They don’t simply see what’s here; they think about what’s possible. They put themselves in their customers’ shoes and ask, “What would make my life better?”

It’s this entrepreneurial spirit that will con-tinue to drive disruption and innovation and grow the world’s economy. That’s why EY is

proud to be a leader in guiding, advising and celebrating entrepreneurs globally. The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards program honours people who have made a disruptive mark on the world and brought new ideas to life. Each year, we present awards to entrepre-neurs across sectors and regions, share their stories with the world and shine the spotlight on innovation.

Throughout history, seismic shifts have created great things. If you embrace them, they can do the same for your business.

François TellierCanadian Leader, Growth Markets, EYCanadian Director, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year

Seismic shifts built mountains. They can do the same for business.

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Contributors Chris Atchison, Bryan Borzykowski, David Israelson, Stephen MacGillivray, James Martin, Ben Nelms

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In building the path to sustainable success in varied fields, the founders of these five companies exemplify the very best of Canadian entrepreneurism

ACCELERATORS

WINNINGVISION

ACCELERATORS

WINNINGVISION

with a

By Bryan Borzykowski

bout 13 years ago, when Murad Al-Katib was 28, he did something that few would ever consider doing: He quit a comfortable pro-vincial government job while

his wife was six months pregnant with twins to start an agriculture business in his basement.

While he had no experience in the ag sector and had never run a company, Al-Katib saw an opportunity. Through his government work in international trade, he learned that food demand was growing exponentially and that an increasing amount of lentils and peas, which could be grown faster than other crops, were being consumed in the Middle East

AAand North Africa. Fast forward to today and Al-Katib now runs AGT Foods, a $2-billion business selling lentils, chickpeas and beans to companies around the world.

While he couldn’t have imagined how successful he would be back then, he knew that starting his own business wasn’t as big a risk as it may have seemed. “I didn’t think it would grow as quickly as it did, but I did see an opportunity,” he says. “I knew back then that there were 12 million acres that could be converted into lentils and peas, and in 2016 we planted 11 million acres.”

Al-Katib is one of five regional winners in the 2016 Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards, and while all these companies have charted

a different path to either national or global success, they have a lot in common.

For one, they’re all considered accelera-tors, says Lui Petrollini, Entrepreneur Of The Year Pacific program director, though not in the traditional startup sense. These entrepreneurs “build, overcome obstacles, speed up innovation and move all of us forward,” he says. “They accelerate all of us by bringing us new products and services and by driving our economy.”

How can other entrepreneurs also become an accelerator – a key theme of this year’s Awards? By learning from the winners. Take the first step, as Al-Katib did – spot and exploit an opportunity.

A vision for success: The five regional winners

Emerging accelerators take it to the next level

Family businesses that continue to thrive

Social entrepreneurs: Mixing profit with impact The 2016 category winners in full

REGIONAL WINNERSA MESSAGE FROM THE CANADIAN DIRECTOR, EY ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

3 EY ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

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OF THE YEAR

REGIONAL WINNERSREGIONAL WINNERS


OF THE YEAR

Dr. Allen Eaves, CEO of STEMCELL Technologies

Inc., likes to harness the creativity and

innovation of the scientists on his team.

Jumping at the chance

In 2008, Toronto’s Steven Hudson, a former accountant, was thinking about his next busi-ness opportunity. He rose to prominence in the late 1990s after building Newcourt Credit Group, an equipment-leasing company, into a massive business that he eventually sold for about $2.4-billion. He then purchased Hair Club for Men for $25-million, selling it two years later for $210-million. When the reces-sion hit, he noticed that financial institutions were reining in their lending and realized it was time to get back into the leasing game.

He had kept in touch with many of his old Newcourt friends and they had talked about starting another leasing company, but only if an opportunity presented itself. When it did he moved quickly. He had business plans in place, copious amounts of data at his disposal and a financial partner that was willing to help. He and his old colleagues then went out to dinner, had a bottle of wine and steak, and Element Financial was born. Over the last 12 months, it’s generated about $1-billion in revenues.

The key to success is being ready to act fast when that opportunity arises, says Hudson, this year’s Ontario regional winner. Do the homework beforehand, such as gathering data and thinking about who can help, and when the time is right – some event may occur or you may just have a gut feeling to act – get to work. “What an entrepreneur does well is take an opportunity and align it with proven resources,” says Hudson. “That’s their entire career.”

One of the reasons why Hudson was selected by the independent judging panel, and why the other four business owners won their respective regions, is that they were able to disrupt their industry and themselves, says Paula Smith, Entrepreneur Of The Year Ontario program co-director.

“That ability to disrupt is one key trait all finalists in this program share,” she says. “It’s not just about disrupting an existing industry and turning it on its head, like some of our young or emerging entrepreneurs have done. Disruption also can be applied to your own company. Some of our finalists have been in business for decades, and that’s because they’ve been able to evolve and innovate and stay relevant for their customers.”

Grassroots leadership

Of course, a lot more goes into running a company than simply seizing on an oppor-tunity. Another reason why all of these com-panies have been able to accelerate growth is that their founders have taken a hands-on approach to management.

For instance, David Ford and Andrew

Steeves, co-founders of BioScript Pharmacy Ltd., operate specialty pharmacies that admin-ister complex drugs for chronic diseases. It started when a friend of Ford’s, who worked at a drug company, needed someone to help him complete a clinical trial after the hospital that was doing it backed out. As he was adminis-tering medications for the trial, he discovered that hospitals, which tend to focus more on treating patients with short-term issues than dealing with chronic care, did not want to provide the kinds of injections and infusions that patients with longer-term issues required.

Over time he and Steeves, who joined Ford two years after interning at his regular pharmacy, built up these specialty locations where patients can buy and receive drugs for treatments, such as Crohn’s disease, some cancers and hepatitis C, that hospitals don’t regularly provide.

One reason for the company’s 250-per-cent year-over-year revenue growth is that Ford and Steeves take a hands-on approach to their business. They’re involved in everything, including hiring – they have 500 employees – developing new divisions, and walking the walk when it comes to getting their hands dirty.

That kind of involvement is key, says Ford, because it shows their staff that if the founders are that committed to the company, then everyone else should be, too. That dedication helps accelerate growth, he says. “We go there and build things out so later, everyone knows that we put in the same sweat that they did to get that operation going.”

Freedom to innovate

That down-to-earth approach has served these entrepreneurs well. All five make an effort to communicate directly with staff as much as they can, even Hudson, who has 3,200 employees. Success, though, isn’t just knowing the staff ’s names; it’s about creating and instilling company culture to push and motivate people.

Knowing that the boss cares about the staff does foster a certain type of culture – it can help with openness, for instance – but more goes into developing culture than just having meetings. Dr. Allen Eaves, CEO and founder of of STEMCELL Technologies – a Vancouver-based firm that develops cell-cul-ture material used in life sciences research – wants his company to be as entrepreneurial as possible. So he hires scientists – 150 of his 850 employees have PhDs, another 150 have an MSc degree and the others either have a BSc or are engineers – who are given a lot of leeway into the research they conduct and the products that they can pitch.

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OF THE YEAR

REGIONAL WINNERS

Researchers are generally an entrepre-neurial breed, he says. When Eaves was the director of the Terry Fox Laboratory for Hematology and Oncology Research from 1981 to 2006, he was in charge of a team of people who used money from governments and grants, rather than company profits, to study and develop innovative cancer therapies. Running a business that generates $150-million in sales isn’t much different. “I run my company like a graduate training program,” he says. “Scientists have a lot of freedom in deciding what they can work on and that inspires them to be creative and think clever thoughts.”

Right action

Being entrepreneurial, though, means taking informed risks. Gilbert Rozon, founder and president of Montreal’s Just for Laughs, and this year’s Quebec regional winner, has spent 33 years building his company from a single comedy event to a multinational

the nextlevel

How to take it to

By David Israelson

They’ve made it past the startup level — and now these dynamic young game changers are innovating their way to high growth

EMERGING Accelerators

Michael Katchen’s Wealthsimple

has disrupted the online models of

traditional financial companies.


OF THE YEAR

atlantic

David ford and andrew steevesBioScript Pharmacy Ltd. Specialty pharmacy that sells and administers complex drugs for chronic diseases.

Founded: 2001

Number of employees: 500

QUEBEC

GILBERT ROZONJust For Laughs Entertainment company that runs live events, television shows, concerts and more.

Founded: 1983


ONTARIO

STEVEn k. HUDSONElement Financial Corporation Vehicle and equipment leasing and financing company.

Founded: 2011

Number of employees: 3,200

PRAiRIES

MURAD AL-KATIBAGT Food and Ingredients Inc. Processor and exporter of seeds and pulse crops, such as lentils and chickpeas.

Founded: 2001


EY entrepreneur of the year regional winners 2016

PACIFIC

DR. ALLEN EAVESSTEMCELL Technologies Inc. Medical company that develops technology for use in life sciences research.

Founded: 1993


entertainment conglomerate. His company produces television shows, festivals, concerts, plays and more. He admits that the business couldn’t have grown without his people, who are always encouraged to pitch new ideas.

However, global expansion – he has oper-ations in France and Australia, among other places – has to be well thought out. When an employee has an idea, that person has to come to the table with a detailed action plan. “It needs to be realistic,” he says. “It’s with the action plan where people usually fail.”

Whether it’s an employee or an entrepre-neur, anyone building a business needs to ask themselves how they’re going to get from point A to point B, what kind of resources they’ll need and what will happen if the idea fails. “These are simple questions,” he says. “I want to know, ‘Can you deliver it?’ Execution is a key thing.”

There’s much that goes into developing a business – including finding the right global partners, hiring the right people, finding financing. But when it comes down to it, for someone to create an accelerator that can

grow rapidly and contribute to the Canadian economy, they have to love building things.

Eaves wants to build a large research group to help eradicate cancer; Hudson wants to build a global financial firm; Al-Katib wants to build an industry that can help feed the world; Steeves and Ford want to build places where people can get life-sav-ing treatments; and Rozon wants to build an entertainment franchise that everyone can enjoy around the world. “Entrepreneurs love to build,” says Rozon. “I build my own house, I like to renovate, I like to create new shows. The key is to build something that makes sense. I want something that has a real concept behind it.”

There’s something else that all five entre-preneurs have in common: they all say that they’ll never retire. “You can create something that has great numbers and sell it, but that’s not my type of business,” says Rozon. “I love working and I love going to my job.”

Adds Eaves: “People get greedy and need an exit strategy in three to five years. I tell my people that my exit strategy is death.”

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OF THE YEAR

o be a successful accelerator busi-ness involves a lot more than just stepping on the gas. That’s just one key insight from many of the final-ists and category winners of this

year’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards. Many entrepreneurs in this year’s group

of winners might be referred to as emerging accelerators: They have already succeeded beyond the startup phase and are disrupting the market with innovation and creativity.

Emerging accelerators share some common characteristics. They’re young but dynamic companies, with two to five years in business – high-growth game changers who have already made it past the startup stage.

“We’ve found that the organizations that accelerate and deliver far more sustainable growth do so by focusing on a broad set of capabilities,” says Elena Doucette, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Ontario program co-director.

“They think beyond the traditional, narrow focus. They understand that every aspect of their business must hold up to scrutiny and be constantly improved to stay ahead of the pack.”

Luc Charbonneau, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Quebec program co-director, adds that accelerators have “a strategic approach to risk management.” They’re good at choosing staff and harnessing digital technology, and they’re careful about how they manage funds, he says.

The best observations come from the accel-erators themselves. Here’s some advice from some of this year’s category winners:

Focus on the customer. “Getting the work is usually the easy part. It’s producing the work that’s the hard part,” says Dan Sly, president of Right Choice Camps & Catering Ltd. His Edmonton-based company operates across Western Canada, setting up and oper-ating modular remote work camp accommo-dations for crews of up to 500.

“I know it sounds like rhetoric, but you need to have people on your staff who are committed to the goals of the company and who care about the clients, the people in the field. We’re 100 per cent focused on the end user – the worker who’s out in the camp.”

EMERGING AcceleratorsEMERGING Accelerators

It helps to have a new or novel idea, Sly adds. In the case of Right Choice, he says he identified a need to provide work accom-modations for smaller crews, rather than megaprojects.

“We always said, if we fail it’s because we created it wrong,” he says.

Know your market. Detailed knowl-edge about your sector is key if you want to succeed and grow, says Adrian Schauer, CEO of AlayaCare, which provides software and cloud-based computer services for home health-care providers to schedule and keep patient records.

“This isn’t my first rodeo.” says Schauer. “We have a proven entrepreneurial team with a shared vision, and we have worked together before. We read a shift in the market early. Home care is a growing market and is being disrupted.”

Schauer says he and his team noted how wearable technology has made patient infor-mation more easily accessible to health-care providers, and how the Affordable Care Act in the United States has opened export opportu-nities because it offers the potential for more technology-based payment and record keeping.

“We listen to our customers and to the market and iterate quickly with our product and proposition,” he says.

Expect the unexpected. Sometimes startups are surprised by the competitive landscape they face and the unexpected curve balls they encounter in the marketplace, says Michael Katchen, CEO of Wealthsimple, a Toronto-based online and mobile-based robo-adviser investment platform.

“I don’t think we anticipated just how antiquated the systems being used by the investment industry are, and that they would end up impeding the experience we wanted to deliver to clients,” he says.

That led to Wealthsimple acquiring its own

Make sure you’ve

already achieved

the right product

and market fit

before you focus

on growth.”

Michael Katchen CEO, Wealthsimple

adrian schauerQuebec Category winner, Emerging Entrepreneur

AlayaCare Provides software and cloud-based computing solutions for home health-care market.

Founded: 2014


cody greenPacific Category Winner, Fintech

Canada DrivesProvides online auto financing.

Founded: 2010


dan slyPrairies Category Winner, Emerging Entrepreneur

Right Choice Camps & Catering Ltd.Provides modular open camp/remote workforce accommodations.

Founded: 2013

Number of employees: up to 200

Founded: 2013


Founded: 2014


discount brokerage – a conventional low-tech base that the company could use to develop its financial technology (fintech) product. This gave Wealthsimple better information about the marketplace and potential custom-ers’ needs.

“If your product isn’t good enough or your market not big enough, it will be hard to step on the accelerator. Make sure you’ve already achieved the right product and market fit before you focus on growth,” Katchen says.

Identify the opportunity. “Vision comes down to identifying a real problem and finding solutions for it,” says Cody Green, founder and co-CEO of Canada Drives, a Vancouver-based fintech company that lets consumers secure auto financing online before their vehicle purchase at a dealership.

“There was a demand for the service and we kind of grew alongside it. I came from the auto industry. I watched how the traditional way of buying and financing a vehicle wasn’t servicing a large part of Canada,” he explains.

“If you had great credit or cash, you were

fine. But many Canadians would spend four hours at a dealership, pick a vehicle they liked and then would find out that either the payments didn’t match their budgets or they weren’t approved for credit.”

Canada Drives lets consumers determine their ability to finance a vehicle online before they step into a dealership. “We’re keyed to the marketplace, but we also look at what the customers are asking for,” Green says.

Start small, think big. “We started with an $800 loan and we have no outside investors or partners,” says Alex MacLean, founder of East Coast Lifestyle, a clothing company whose products sport a distinctive logo featur-ing an anchor. “Our biggest struggle now is to gain global recognition. We’ve had to spend a lot to protect our logo. People try to knock us off by stealing it.”

MacLean says the big lesson he learned, successfully, was to be prepared for the rough-and-tumble of global competition.

“We have a great trademark lawyer who has managed to shut down these knockoffs all over the world. Because we have this all in order, no one can interfere with us or infringe,” he says.

“No one taught us about this in univer-sity. I had to go online and figure out how to protect what we built,” says MacLean, who started his business while he was still a student at Acadia University.

MacLean says he never thought too much about competition when he started a business that, in its first two years, sold more than 300,000 caps, shirts and hoodies from its Halifax flagship store and online.

“I just figured [that] people are proud of where they’re from,” he says.

East Coast Lifestyle’s next big challenge is to discover how to crack the giant U.S. market. “It’s a whole different ball game down there. Our strategy is to be conservative and not spend out cash flow before we get a chance to break into the market there. We want to come in there hot with one initial push.”

Meanwhile, MacLean’s firm is also branch-ing out with a West Coast Lifestyle version of its clothing. “We’re not planning on Toronto Lifestyle, though,” he adds.

alex macleanAtlantic Category Winner, Business-to-Consumer Products and Services

East Coast Lifestyle Designs unique clothing with distinctive anchor logo that showcases Atlantic Canadian pride.

Michael KatchenOntario Category Winner, Emerging Entrepreneur

WealthsimpleOnline and mobile-based “robo-adviser” on investment management.



OF THE YEAR

family business

Taking good advice

When they arrived in Montreal from Sicily in the early 1950s, the Saputos were able to tap their cheese-making skills to put food on the family dinner table. Hard work and a com-mitment to quality would soon deliver success beyond their wildest dreams.

But as growth soared in the decades that followed, the Saputos recognized that turning their namesake brand into an international powerhouse (it’s now the 10th largest dairy processor in the world) would require the assistance of professionals to help steer the company’s growth strategy and manage its expanding operations.

When Saputo’s father, Lino Sr., was CEO of the family business prior to the company going public, he was sure to surround himself with experienced managers whose diverse business backgrounds could fill gaps in his own expertise.

“The executives that supported my father in those days were very professional and provided him with good guidance,” Lino Jr. recalls. “Since we’ve been public we’ve had good corporate governance structures, practices and policies, and we heed the advice of all members of our board without losing the family entrepreneurial spirit that got us to where we are today.”

A structure for continued growth

Don Wheaton and his seven siblings faced a predicament in recent years as their company began the transition to a third generation of 34 grandchildren: how to make the family business attractive to their younger successors, while ensuring sound management to main-tain the company’s growth.

“We’ve been working to set up a workable governance model and corporate structure that will work to get us into the third gen-eration,” explains Wheaton, the president of Wheaton Automotive Group. The company’s many business lines include auto dealerships, a thriving financial services business with a bank and an insurance division, as well as an aviation unit.

The Wheaton siblings recognized early on that managing a business of 2,000 employees wouldn’t work with 34 people around the boardroom table. To keep the firm private, they set up a corporate governance structure that prevents shares from leaving the family. If one member chooses to exit the business, their shares are sold back to the family.

To limit the number of decision-makers, each one of the eight second-generation siblings established their own holding com-panies to represent their financial interest. In the event that one of those siblings dies, their family will appoint a representative to the board who will take over full voting

power, but still keep the total number of decision-makers at the table to a maximum of eight family members.

In addition, each sibling’s family can now own business units directly, instead of all assets falling under the parent company’s ownership umbrella, as was the case up until two years ago.

The purpose of the moves was to keep decision-making centred within the family, attract and retain the third generation of talented Wheatons, and to help maintain the company’s focus on innovation as it continues to grow important units such as its financial services division.

Keeping peace across generations was another major consideration.

“It’s so critically important to us to maintain harmony in the family,” Wheaton stresses. “We’re allowing each sibling to create opportunities for private ownership for their own families, but we’ll still have our parent company for things we need to do together, particularly in the financial services area where there’s a sizeable demand for capital. We need each other at that level.”

A focus on trust

When Robyn Eddy’s great-grandfather founded the George Eddy Company in the late 1800s, he surely wouldn’t have predicted that the wheelwright business would even-tually grow to become one of the Maritimes’ most enduring and successful companies, sup-plying building materials across the Atlantic region and Quebec.

“I’ve worked in other businesses, but the huge factor in the success of a family business is trust between family members, customers, management and our team,” says Eddy, group president. “I’ve found when anyone is talking to me, whether I’m recruiting, speaking to a supplier or talking to a peer company across Canada, they pay more attention to me because they know I have more skin in the game. It’s made a large difference in the relationships we’ve been able to build.”

So too has an open-door management policy. Every one of the Eddy Group’s 140 employees can contact the president directly to express opinions, offer ideas or raise concerns.

She feels that her close connection to employees and protection of the company culture have been integral in maintaining strong customer service and helped fend off competition from larger competitor as the distribution business continues to consolidate.

“We’ve seen businesses get acquired and their entire culture is destroyed in short order, and we get their customers,” Eddy notes. “Being a family business, I never have to second-guess the advice I’m getting and I never think I’ve got all the answers, or that our family has all the answers.”

Grand traditions of

Maintaining and

building a company

over several

generations is a

challenging task.

These three family

firms are shining

examples of how

to do it

growth

family business

t’s long been said that family-owned busi-nesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. They account for about 60 per cent of Canada’s GDP and employ more

than half of all workers across the country. Through their hard work and dedication,

families have come to define much of the Canadian work experience. The most prosper-ous family-run businesses have even managed to bridge that success into second, third and, in rare cases, fourth generations.

The Family Firm Institute Inc. – a Boston-based family-enterprise think tank – estimates that while more than 30 per cent of family-owned businesses will pass the reins to a second generation, a mere 3 per cent will make it to a fourth.

Three of Canada’s multigenerational entrepreneurial families – the Saputos of Montreal, the Eddys of Saint John, and the Wheatons of Edmonton – have managed to transfer ownership of the family business across multiple generations. They are all being honoured with an EY Family Business Award of Excellence at this year’s Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards.

“I think it means everything to our success,” Lino Saputo Jr., the third generation to lead the publicly traded multinational dairy firm Saputo Inc., says of the family influence on his company’s growth and longevity.

“If you go back to when my father and grandfather started the business in 1954, really all they had was a desire to start a company

that would employ the family members,” says Saputo Inc’s CEO. “They made sure that cul-turally the business was an extension of their values, principles and beliefs. If we’re able to distinguish ourselves in our industry today, it has everything to do with that heritage.”

The Saputo, Eddy and Wheaton dynasties demonstrate a set of characteristics common to most successful businesses – namely, the ability to adapt to change in the face of recessions, shifting market trends and regional economic upheavals. But combined with their deep-seated family values and the culture of trust within their organiza-tions, the families have gained a competitive advantage that’s helped them achieve impres-sive growth over decades.

“These three family businesses share many of the traits that we’ve found make family businesses successful around the world,” explains David Fabian, EY’s National Co-Leader of Private Mid-Market practice.

According to EY’s global survey of the world’s largest family businesses, successful family businesses are those that have a firm handle on succession, welcome a diverse array of experience into leadership, maintain family cohesion and unity, manage conflict in a healthy way that serves to bind the family closer together, and prioritize long-term growth.

“Perhaps most importantly,” adds Fabian, “these family businesses have remained entre-preneurial and committed to innovation, even into their second generation and beyond.”

By Chris Atchison

Robyn Eddy is now at the helm of

the business founded by her great-

grandfather in the late 1800s.

EY Family Business Award of Excellence Special Citation Recipients

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saputo inc. montreal

Producer of dairy products

Founded: 1954


Lina Saputo, Lino Saputo Jr.

Wheaton Automotive Group Edmonton

Auto dealerships and related businesses

Founded: 1963


Don Wheaton Jr.

eddy group ltd. saint john

Construction-industry supplies

Founded: Late 1800s


Robin Eddy



OF THE YEAR

Purpose and profit is a good description of Hope Blooms, a Halifax social enterprise founded by dietitian Jessie Jollymore, and the Atlantic region winner of the Special Citation for Social Entrepreneurship. As Jollymore sees it, “You can build a successful business while building successful lives.”

Eight years ago, Jollymore was working in Halifax’s lower-income inner-city North End. She witnessed many negative deter-minants of health, food insecurity, isolation, low incomes, lack of education, a sense of not belonging in a place that was also “very rich in culture and community.” She took a chance on planting a community garden in an abandoned plot in Warrington Park. Her shovel had hardly hit the dirt when curious local boys gathered around.

That plot has since grown into 370 square metres of food gardens, plus a 140-square-metre off-the-grid green-house. Fifty-three Halifax youths from the neighbourhood tend to half the garden; 27 families, including 20 recently arrived Syrian refugee families, work the other half – but under the mentorship of the kids.

“The youth do everything,” explains Jollymore. Beginning at age 6, the kids learn how to grow organic food, eventually working toward an organic master gardener certificate from Gaia College. When they turn 10, they start leadership training on the business side, working with mentors from the National Research Council, Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University, Mount Saint Vincent University and Nova Scotia Community College. They learn how to make Hope Blooms’ signature fresh herb salad dressing, how to design its packaging and, in a recent coup de grace, how to negotiate with Loblaws to sell the salad dressing in four Atlantic Superstores. “The youth feel ownership over it all,” says Jollymore, “and I think that’s a key to long-lasting engagement.”

“This is the era of blurring lines between profit and non-profit,” says Marina Glogovac, presi-dent and CEO of CanadaHelps.org, this year’s third winner of the citation. CanadaHelps creates low-cost technology for small Canadian charities that would otherwise not be able to afford digital fundraising.

Glogovac says charities are under increasing pressure to “become more sustainable,” which often means starting some income-generating enterprise. But startups are costly; with 80 per cent of Canada’s 85,000 registered charities reporting overall annual revenues of less

than $500,000, the necessary technology and support is often out of reach.

“We want to level the playing field, so we offer this technology at a very low cost,” she says. “That’s where the fact that we’re a charity comes in. We’re legally a charity, but we operate as a social enterprise because we have a revenue model. We take 2 per cent of all the money that we process through all of our platforms. But because we don’t have to generate a profit, if we make a surplus we reinvest that into the tech-nology and in building more tools and services that serve our mission.”

Each year, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards program convenes a panel of independent judges who assess criteria such as innovation, sustainability and, crucially, direct social impact. “The very core business of social enterprises is dedicated to creating a positive impact on society,” says Gina Kinsman, The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program direc-tor for the Atlantic region, in which Hope Blooms competed. “This year’s special citation award winners join a group of forward-think-ing Canadians who are making a big impact in their communities, in our larger Canadian community, and beyond.”

Impact, says Hope Blooms’ Jollymore, is the key. She can point to growing sales last year – the company sold 12,000 bottles of its salad dressing, exclusively on Saturdays at the Seaport Market, and she thinks the new Loblaws arrangement will triple those numbers. Still, she gauges success by other measures, such as 15-year-old Kolade Boboye winning the Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the green house he designed for Hope Blooms.

Another Hope Blooms youth, Mamadou Wade, joined the garden the week that his family moved to Halifax from Senegal; he is now off to study commerce at the University of Toronto on a $70,000 TD Scholarship for Community Leadership, earned on the strength of his Hope Blooms work.

“To me, that’s impact that will affect a whole generation to come,” says Jollymore. “Mamadou is the first to go to university in his family. Everyone is so proud of him. He’s inspiring the whole community about dreaming big, and we’re building the environments, with the youth, to make those dreams come true.”

Henderson too marks success in terms of impact, not sales. After 18 months of receiving care via Teleroo, many children who had been receiving traditional care for as long as eight years now no longer require therapy. “Kids and families are getting healthier, faster,” says Henderson. “It’s a classic case of better quality for less.”

“So many times I hear from charities that say, ‘If it wasn’t for CanadaHelps, we wouldn’t even be in the online world,’ ” says Glogovac. “Social entrepreneurship is key. We need to apply business principles and innovation and creativity and resources to our problems. What good will it be to continue just generating shareholder profit without generating social profit?”

SPECIAL CITATIONS FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Jessie Jollymore Hope Blooms, Halifax

Engages at-risk youth in urban-gardening community leadership.

Robyn Henderson the uncomplicated Family, Edmonton

Delivers speech-pathology and psychological and physical-therapy services to complex-needs children and their families.

Matthew Choi, marina glogovac, Ryan Little, Aaron PEREIRA CanadaHelps.org, Toronto

Provides low-cost digital fundraising-technology tools and platforms to Canadian charities.

Founded: 2008

Number of employees: 3 staff plus over 50 volunteer youth

Founded: 2006


Founded: 2001


here was a time that Edmonton speech-language pathologist Robyn Henderson would never have dreamed of heading her own company. “Not in a million years,”

she remembers with a chuckle. But 10 years ago, Henderson did some

math: Was driving a six-hour round trip to work for 90 minutes with a child in a rural community really the most efficient way to make a difference? So began The Uncomplicated Family, a tele-health initiative that uses communications technology to deliver speech, psychology and physical and occupational therapies to complex-needs children and their families. The company now delivers services across Alberta and recently began collaborations in Europe (through the EUREKA intergovernmental network), as well as Ontario and Ohio in the U.S.

The Uncomplicated Family is one of three Canadian businesses to receive Special Citations for Social Entrepreneurship at the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Since 2008, the program has been recogniz-ing outstanding individuals that identify a social problem, then employ entrepreneurial principles to make positive change. Profit, which is often reinvested in the company so it can better serve its social mission, isn’t the most important measure of success; furthering social or environmental goals, and improving people’s lives, is.

“Social entrepreneurs create and lead organizations that are, in many ways, catalyzing large-scale and systemic social change with their ideas and methodologies,” says Rob Jolley, director of EY’s Prairies program, which awarded the citation to The Uncomplicated Family. “They live and do business with a powerful sense of purpose that drives them to build better outcomes for people in Canada and beyond. That’s some-thing we’re extremely proud to celebrate.”

Robyn Henderson is thrilled by the award because it reflects a recognition of the changing face of social entrepreneurship. The Uncomplicated Family is a for-profit orga-nization guided by a strong social mission: increasing access to efficient, effective and sustainable practices to improve quality of life for kids and families. Its main revenue stream is a proprietary tele-health platform, called Teleroo, originally developed solely for internal use but now licensed to other organizations.

“A lot of people think that social entre-preneurship and not-for-profit are the same thing,” says Henderson. “They’re not. Social entrepreneurship is about that balance of combining purpose and profit to solve real-world problems.”

Profit for a

GREATER GOODThree 2016 Special Citation winners are dynamic examples of how to mix good business with social impact

by James Martin

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSSOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

Social enterprise

companies should not be

confused with not-for-

profit organizations, says

Robyn Henderson of The

Uncomplicated Family.



OF THE YEAR

Sean Clark and Roger Hardy Shoes.com Online footwear and apparel retailer Consumer Technology

Timothy Berman Fluxwerx Illumination Inc. Lighting manufacturer Emerging technology

Cody Green Canada Drives Online auto-financing technology Fintech

John Dehart, Ken Sim, and Cathy Thorpe

Nurse Next Door Home Care Services

Senior home-care services provider Health-care Services

Paul Dunstan Plenary Group Ltd. Investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure Infrastructure

Matias Marquez Buyatab Online Inc. Provider of advanced prepaid commerce solutions Marketing Technology

Jean-Pierre LeBlanc and Kate Ross LeBlanc

Saje Natural Business Inc. Natural wellness products retailler Retail & Hospitality

PRAIRIES

Murad Al-KatibAGT Food and Ingredients Inc.

Global suppliers of value-added pulses, staple foods and ingredients

B2B Products & Services

Vaughn Wyant Wyant Group Automotive dealerships group Automotive & Transportation

Henri Rodier Coventry Homes Residential home builder B2C Products & Services

Daniel Bulat, Ted Hart and Terence Trefiak

Envirotech, Envirosoft, and TARGET Emission Services Inc.

Environmental services and emissions management Cleantech & Environmental

Dan SlyRight Choice Camps & Catering Ltd.

Provider of modular accommodation and catering to remote workforces

Emerging Entrepreneur

Mike Miller Tundra Process Solutions Ltd. Energy industry products and services Energy

Louis StackFitter International Inc. (Fitterfirst)

Producer of active-lifestyle products and equipment Health & Wellness

Kristi CawthornStartec Compression & Process Ltd.

Engineer, design and manufacturing of oil and gas industry equipment

Manufacturing

Paul Douglas PCL Construction Group of inpendent construction companies Real Estate & Construction

James Giesbrecht, Rick Kuffel, Trevor Maguire and Rudi Wierckx

RTDS Technologies Inc.Provider of simulation services to the electrical power industry

Technology & Communications

QUEBEC

Gilbert Rozon Just for Laughs Entertainment producer and distributor worldwide Media & Entertainment

Enzo Vardaro Artitalia GroupCustom design and manufacturing for retail, hospitality and associated industries

Business Services

Sébastien Moreau Rodeo FX Visual effects provider to TV and movie industries B2B Products & Services

David Cape Groupe Marcelle Inc. Producer of cosmetic and skincare products B2C Products & Services

Adrian Schauer AlayaCare Home health-care software solutions Emerging Entrepreneur

Jonathan Goodman and Jeffrey Kadanoff

Knight Therapeutics Inc. Specialty pharmaceutical company Health Sciences

Paul Raymond Groupe Alithya inc.Consulting services in information technology and organizational management

Information Technology

Andrew RichardsonTargray Technology International

Technology and renewable energy supplier Manufacturing

Martin Thériault Eddyfi Industrial equipment-testing techologyTechnology & Communications

2016 CATEGORY AND REGIONAL WINNERSCongratulations to these accomplished entrepreneurs who won their regional categories in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™.

atlantic

David Ford and Andrew Steeves

BioScript Pharmacy Ltd.A specialty pharmacy supporting the unique biological and specialty pharmaceutical needs of patients managing complex illnesses and the physicians who treat them

Health Sciences

Paul Pynn One Wind Services IncProfessional service organization for North American wind energy market

Business Services

Thomas Soucy Groupe Westco Inc. Poultry production and services B2B Products & Services

Alex MacLean East Coast Lifestyle Clothing design B2C Products & Services

Tony NahasMezza Lebanese Restaurant Group

Restaurant chain specializing in Lebanese cuisine Hospitality/Tourism

Travis McDonough Kinduct Technologies Inc.Human performance software solutions for the professional, sports, health and public sectors

Information Technology

Paul Rigg Copernicus Studios Inc. Producer of animated content for TV, film and digital apps Media & Entertainment

ONTARIO

Steven K. HudsonElement Financial Corporation

Fleet management and equipment finance services Financial Services

Bruce Poon Tip G Adventures Adventure travel company operating globally Business & Consumer Services

Les Mandelbaum Umbra Ltd Designer of contemporary homewares Consumer Products

Chang Kevin Sun, Khang Luong, Mike Luong

Sweet Maple Candies Co. Ltd. Maker of confectionery products Food & Beverage

Bob Peacock ALMAG Aluminum Manufacturer of aluminum extruded products Manufacturing

James Schmalz and Michael Schmalz

Digital Extremes Video games developer and publisher Media & Entertainment

Jason Smith Real Matters Inc. Cloud-based real estate technology servicesReal Estate/Construction Services

Carinne ChambersDiva International Incorporated

Designs and manufactures The DivaCup, a renowned healthy, sustainable feminine hygiene product

Sustainable Products & Services

Dave Kroetsch Aeryon Labs Inc. Manufacturer of small Unmanned Aerial Systems Technology

Taylor Ablitt Diply Social entertainment website Young Entrepreneur

Michael Katchen Wealthsimple Online investment management company Emerging Entrepreneur

PACIFIC

Dr. Allen Eaves STEMCELL Technologies Inc. Stem cell techology supplier to life sciences industry B2B Products & Services

Elana Rosenfeld Kicking Horse Coffee Producer of organic fair trade coffee B2C Products & Services

Jason Jacob, Scott Jacob and Todd Jacob

Jacob Bros. Construction Inc.

General contractor with a focus on heavy civil and building construction

Construction

winnerswinners

This content was produced by The Globe and Mail’s Globe Edge Content Studio, in consultation with an advertiser. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved in its creation.

*Overall regional winner

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Accelerating Growth - Building a better working world - EY ... first step, as Al-Katib did – spot and exploit an opportunity. A vision for success: The five regional winners Emerging