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J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 – $ 4 . 9 5 l M A G A Z I N E F O R B U S I N E S S & E C O N O M I C D E V E L O P M E N T
PLUS:• A Key in the Toolbox• Four Point Perspective• Big Picture Vision• Advisory Boards
MARKETDRIVEN
& CUSTOMERFOCUSEDFIFTH-GENERATION FAMILY FIRM LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
ALSO:
• DRIVEN BY DESIREPart Two
• SAYING GOODBYE
ALSO:
• DRIVEN BY DESIREPart Two
• SAYING GOODBYE
MARKETDRIVEN
& CUSTOMERFOCUSEDFIFTH-GENERATION FAMILY FIRM LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
PLUS:• A Key in the Toolbox• Four Point Perspective• Big Picture Vision• Advisory Boards
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JULY/AUGUST 2005 l exchangemagazine.com l 5
DEPARTMENTS
7 PUBLISHER’S NOTE
8 BUSINESS MONITORGuelph Excellence Awards;Pittsburgh-Waterloo Partnership;XQuarterly; XQuote
26 WATERCOOLER
FEATURES
21 MARKET DRIVEN ANDCUSTOMER FOCUSEDBY PHIL WRIGHTFifth-generation family firm, Canadian General-Tower Ltd., looks to the future
14 SAYING GOODBYEBY PAUL KNOWLESFunerals have become personalized celebrations of life
29 DRIVEN BY DESIREBY JON ROHRDecision-making software. Part Two,based on an interview with Larry Smith
COLUMNS
10 MANUFACTURING METHODSBY DOUG CATERA Key in the Toolbox
11 BUILDING BETTER BOARDSBY JIM BROWNStanding on the Shoulders of Giants
13 LEADERSHIP IN THENEW MILLENNIUMBY LINDA GREGORIOWhat Do You Mean – I Need to Step Back?
SERVING BUSINESS IN WATERLOO REGION AND GUELPH
P.O. Box 41030, Waterloo ON N2K 3K0 • Tel: (519) 886-2831 • Fax: (519) 886-6409email: [email protected]
ExchangeCONTENTS
Volume 22, Number 7 JULY/AUGUST 2005
Publisher/Editor: Jon Rohr
Associate Editor: Paul Knowles
Feature Writers: Phil Wright,Paul Knowles, Jon Rohr
Advertising Sales: Brian LyonTMR (519) 886-1946
Creative Director: Diane Johnson
Art Direction: Laurie Martin
Photography: Jon R. Group Ltd., Pirak Studios,and V. Tony Hauser
Models: (pg. 29) Kayy Stinson, Ryan Coulter, Brock Reinhart, Danika Vandersteen, Courtney Bruce and Shannon Todd
Circulation/Office Administration: Leanne Rohr
Exchange
On the cover: Jim Chaplin, chairmanand Gord Chaplin, vice chairman ofCanadian General-Tower Ltd.
Student Kathryn Reicheld listensto digital music.
EXCHANGE magazine is a regional business publication pub-lished by Exchange Business Communication Inc. President,Jon Rohr. Eight issues per year are distributed to each companyin Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, and Fergus asdetermined by Canada Post Business Postal Walks.Subscriptions are available for $29.90. Send cheque or moneyorder to Exchange, P.O. Box 41030, Waterloo, ON N2K 3K0.Attn: Circulation Department. Back issues are available for $8per copy. Phone: (519) 886-9953. Fax: (519) 886-6409. ISSN0824-457X Copyright, 2005. No part of this magazine may bereproduced without written permission from the publisher.
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JULY/AUGUST 2005 l exchangemagazine.com l 7
Tradition and innovationPast, present and cutting-edge future in this edition
BY JON ROHR
It’s summer – time to load the up the car and head down theroad ... only to wonder where the car interior comes from.
It’s a point of pride, to be able to say in a straightforwardmanner, “part of our product is in every North American builtcar except [one] manufacturer, and this manufacturer is serv-iced by a company we supply our product to.” And that’sexactly the kind of statement Rick Chaplin can make. Canadi-an General Tower (CGT), a Galt success story, is ourJuly/August cover story. The companyhas evolved successfully for the past 137years, a steady history of growth, merg-ers, acquisitions and market expansion.Jim and Gord Chaplin, and the wholefamily, have been great corporate contrib-utors, philanthropically – fostering theCambridge YMCA. Commercially, it’smore than a quarter of a billon dollarcompany. Innovatively, Canadian GeneralTower leads the industry with its colourmastering and formulation process, which sets the tone foryour car’s interior colour. The company has won manyawards, in including the 2002 CIBC Business of the YearAward presented by Junior Achievement of Waterloo Region.
Phil Wright, a regular Exchange magazine journalist, delvesinto the family run business in a way only a Cambridge nativecan. I’m certain you’ll enjoy it.
Canadian General Tower could be a case study of the prin-ciples taught by professor Larry Smith, notable lecturer andeconomic guru, whose arguably most frequently quotedphrase, during the past several years, is “innovate or die.” Thefeature “Driven by Desire” is part two, (part one is available atwww.exchangemagazine.com) arising from Smith’s interview
with Exchange, on the changing communication industry.Using the record industry as his example, Smith discusseshow performance driven databases are changing con-sumers’ buying habits, saving them time and eliminating thecost associated with searching. This visionary look at themusic industry is cutting edge. As you’ll discover, musictouches a chord in everyone’s soul and up to the turn of thecentury, contributed to record labels profits.
On the economic development front, itseems Waterloo Region has got itself intoa bit of a pickle surrounding the recentwater banning debate council underwent.The underlying issue is, if we are to growthis 500,000 region into an area populat-ed with 750 000, we need to have water.
Some say we have enough water;watering bans frankly say we don’t.Water is our most important resource. Weneed to be able to count on a steady sup-
ply of drinkable water. Citing the contamination of local wellsas the reason for the ban rationalizes the situation. Wells canbecome contaminated at any population level. The factremains, if we grow too close to our capacity, we put our-selves at higher risk.
We live in the middle of the largest supply of fresh water inthe world. No wonder we’re atthe top of fresh water use – it’severywhere. I’m all for growth,but let’s not get careless aboutour water.
Enjoy the summer.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
JON ROHR IS
PUBLISHER OF
EXCHANGE MAGAZINE
FOR BUSINESSe-mail: [email protected]
Lex Haga, ReidHeritage Homes Ltd. receives
the Outstanding Corporate Philan-thropist Award (100+ employees)from Tom Manes, sponsor MillerThomson LLP.
8 l exchangemagazine.com l JULY/AUGUST 2005
BUSINESS MONITOR
• The rebound in the value of residential permitsin April was more than offset by the firstdecline in three months in the non-residen-tial sector. Overall value of building permitsissued by Canadian municipalities fell 2.6% to$5 billion. Even so, construction intentionsremain strong. Municipalities issued $5.2 bil-lion in March; permits surpassed $5 billion infive of the previous six months.
• Commercial sector permits fell 11.3% to $1 bil-lion. Even so, commercial permits were 22.4%higher than last year’s monthly average.
• Industrial permits increased 5.1% to $372 million.• Canadian corporations continued to report
record earnings, first quarter 2005. Profits rosein 11 of 13 previous quarters. Retail saw thestrongest quarterly sales increase in the firstquarter in just over three years. Manufacturersanticipated maintaining their same level of pro-duction this summer.
• Television broadcasting operating revenuesincreased 4.1% to $5.4 billion in 2004 comparedwith an 8.8% advance the previous year. Air timesales rose 4.8% to $3 billion and subscriber rev-enues increased 5.9% to $1.3 billion. Grants fell2% to $0.8 billion last year following a 10.1%surge in 2003. Private conventional television hadthe slowest growth, up 0.9% to $2.1 billion. Pay-tvand specialty television broadcasters experi-enced another year of strong growth (+9%) inrevenues, surpassing $2 billion for the first time.
• Commuting patterns in Canada’s largest urbancentres have become more complex as a resultof stronger employment growth in the suburbsthan in city core areas, according to a newreport analyzing work and commuting in urbanareas. Jobs are still strongly concentrated indowntown core areas in most urban centres.
However, between 1996 and 2001, the relativeeconomic importance of inner cities declined,as the number of jobs in the suburbs increasedat more than four times the pace that they did inthe core areas. Between 1996 and 2001, thenumber of jobs within 5 km of the city centres ofcensus metropolitan areas rose increased by156,000. On the other hand, the number of jobsoutside 5 km rose by 733,200. As a result, moreand more people are commuting cross-town tothese suburban areas. Altogether, 58% of com-muters drove to work when their job was locat-ed less than 5 km from the city centre. This roseto about 80% when the job was more than 20km out. In most large metropolitan areas about9 out of every 10 workers took a car to work,either as driver or passenger, when the job was20 km or more from the city centre.
• Travel in Canada by Canadian residentsincreased 1.6% to 175.1 million trips in 2004 com-pared to 2003. However, the number of domestictrips taken in 2004 was 6.8% less than the high-est annual level recorded in seven years (187.9million trips in 2002). During the same period,Canadians took 41.8 million trips to foreign coun-tries, a 6.5% gain over 2003. Over 36 million ofthese trips were to the United States. Canadiansmade 2.5% more domestic trips for business orto attend a convention in 2004, taking 20.1 milliontrips compared to 19.6 million in 2003, which wasthe lowest level in seven years. Pleasure trips(67.6 million), which represented 39% of alldomestic trips made in 2004, edged up 0.2%compared to 2003.
www.xquarterly.ca
Several individuals and organizations were honoured recently at the GuelphAwards of Excellence. The sixth annual gala event recognized the communityspirit of individuals and celebrated voluntarism and business excellence.
Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar Corp., wasthe keynote speaker at the sixth annual awardsceremony.
photo left: Chuck Summers (left),active volunteer with the AlzhemerSociety of Guelph-Wellington for 12 years, receives The DowntownVolunteer of the Year presentedfrom Dominique O’Rourke, sponsor, Co-operators Insurance.
The winner of the Guelph Partnershipfor Innovation is received by Norris W. Hoag PAg. (right) from LindaHazenfratz, sponsor, Linamar Corp.
photo right: The winner ofthe Guelph Chamber of
Commerce New MemberAward is received by
Michael Dodgson, ownerof ReviveSolutions.com
from Dr. Edgardo Perez,sponsor Homewood
Corporation.
The Bell Canada Communication Technology
Award is presented to Mary Ann Walker, St.
Josephs Health Centre from Nancy Sullivan,
sponsor University of Guelph.
photo far left: Doug MacMillian,MacMillian Marketing Group,receives the Outstanding Corpo-rate Philanthropist Award (1-19employees) from Bill Higgins,sponsor Guelph Tribune.photo left: Mark Stacey,Investors Group, receives theOutstanding Corporate Philan-thropist Award (20-99 employ-ees) from Michael Weinstein,sponsor Weinstein Group.
PH
OTO
: BO
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OU
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PH
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GR
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ExcellenceGuelph Awards of
Pittsburgh-Waterloo Partnership launchedA GROUP OF WATERLOO REGION BUSINESS and academic leaders visitedPittsburgh June 2 for a day of events and meetings as part of a “Pittsburgh-Waterloo Partnership Day”. Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO of ResearchIn Motion (RIM), gave the keynote address to the Allegheny Conference’s AnnualRegional Investors Council Summit, a community visioning session involvingPittsburgh’s business leaders. Lazaridis was introduced by Martin McGuinn,
Chairman and CEO of Mellon Financial Corporation, thePittsburgh-based global financial services corporationthat has more than $US4 trillion in assets under man-agement, administration or custody.
Lazaridis also spoke at a luncheon hosted by thePittsburgh Tech Council. The invitation originated withPittsburgh’s Allegheny Conference and its partners,including the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance. TheCanadian Consulate General in Buffalo, responsible forPittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, has encouragedthe partnership. Canada’s recently appointedHonorary Consul in Pittsburgh, Roger Cranville, who iswith the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, spearheaded theinitiative, working with Canada’s Technology TriangleInc. and Communitech Technology Association.Mike Lazaridis
JULY/AUGUST 2005 l exchangemagazine.com l 9
BUSINESS MONITOR
XQuote“Demand-pull is what you see hap-pening with blogs. Mass media issupply-push, and blogging isdemand-pull. The power of the blog,to some extent, is that suddenly awhole set of bloggers intersect witheach other and they move fromoblivion to a powerful force thatmass media then picks up. So, there’san interesting interplay betweendemand-pull and supply-push; sets ofsynergies serendipitously happen thatthen force their way into conscious-ness, in terms of mass media.”
– JOHN SEELY BROWN, former Xerox Chief Scientist, scholar at USC’s Annenberg Center, and
author of “The ‘Pull’ of Niche Communities Full Transcript found at Campus Technology Feb., 2005,www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10572
Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO Research In Motion andMr. Roger O. Cranville, Senior Vice President, Busi-ness Investment Allegheny Conference on Commu-nity Development talk with Bill Flanagan, ExecutiveVice President & Chief Public Affairs Officer forAllegheny Conference on Communuity Developmentat the "Pittsburgh-Waterloo Partnership Day, involv-ing business leaders in Pittsburgh and Waterloo.
LARRY H. BIBLEGENERAL MANAGER
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10 l exchangemagazine.com l JULY/AUGUST 2005
A Key in the ToolboxSingle Minute Exchange of Dies and the fallacies of EOQ
BY DOUG CATER
Traditional manufacturing thinking suggests “standard costs” can be reduced byincreasing batch sizes. In the plant, this means longer runs and fewerchangeovers, amortizing set-ups, capital costs and transportation costs over a
greater number of parts. The logic is hard to dispute: the larger the batch size thelower the unit cost.
Models such as the economic order quantity (EOQ) were developed to help us bet-ter understand the appropriate way to cost and price goods, and they actually support-ed the economy of scale thinking. EOQalso helped production control to plan andschedule appropriate run quantities,ensuring we would achieve the lowestpossible cost in producing components,subassemblies and finished goods.
The problem is, EOQ assumedchangeover costs were fixed, and no effortwould be expended to reduce this “non-value-adding” time. This thinking was sup-ported by the belief that with longer runs and fewer changeovers, manufacturers couldget further down the learning curve before they had to stop and change over.
The natural evolution of this thinking led firms to look for larger and larger capitalequipment capable of even greater efficiencies, not by producing faster, but by having
MANUFACTURING METHODS
DOUG CATER IS A
FOUNDING PARTNER
OF PROCESS IMPACT
INC., A MANUFACTURING
CONSULTING COMPANY.
email: [email protected]
the ability to process even larger quanti-ties, further reducing the “standard cost”of each item.
This type of thinking:1. Drives up inventory and requires
either the sale of more identical units,or it requires forecasting even furtherinto the future (adding the risk ofdamage, obsolescence, and theresulting wasted capacity).
2. Reduces flexibility; since larger and larg-er batch sizes mean less frequent runsand increased lead time to customers.
3. When there are quality problems witha batch of goods, the problem can beenormous in lost capacity, scrap andrework.
4. At the supervisory level, where theyare measured based on efficiency theynaturally become focused on meetingefficiencies, often at the expense ofmeeting schedules. Activities are nolonger synchronized, WIP grows, andmaterials are consumed ahead ofschedule, resulting in unnecessarydowntime due to material outages.5. The breadth of product offering to
customers is compromised, since theobjective in the plant is efficiency andmeeting standard costs. Productionbecome less focused on new productsand lower volume (potentially highermargin) products.
Lean manufacturing requires a com-pletely different perspective onchangeovers. It requires one to look atset-up time as variable. Whenchangeover time is fixed, batch sizemust be increased to reduce cost. If it’sconsidered variable, we can reduce unitcost with the same or an even lowerquantity of parts, by reducingchangeover time. Lean manufacturingsuggests energy should go into findingways to reduce changeover time, ratherthan investing in capital equipment forlarger and larger batches. Benefits:• Lower inventory levels (raw, WIP and
finished goods).• Greater run frequency (shorter lead
times to customers).• Lower costs associated with poor
quality.• Greater equipment utilization.
The most widely used process forreducing changeover time is Single MinuteExchange of Dies (SMED). The objective isto reduce changeover time to below 10minutes, so the cost is no longer a factor isassessing product cost. This allows theschedulers to plan and schedule run quan-tities closer to actual customer demand –reducing inventories and associated risksof obsolescence and quality costs.
The basic premise SMED is, we canmake dramatic reductions in changeover
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JULY/AUGUST 2005 l exchangemagazine.com l 11
Standing on the Shoulders ofGiantsCapitalizing on the power of advisory boards
BY J IM BROWN
BUILDING BETTER BOARDS
It’s exciting to see businesses succeed with ideas that take the market by storm.These leaders have shaped history and most have been richly rewarded. But virtu-ally every one of them attained success by “standing on the shoulders” of others.
Consider Henry Ford. Keys to his breakthrough included using interchangeable parts(an idea he learned from Walter Flanders of Singer Sewing Machines) and the contin-uous-flow assembly line (inspired by “disassembly” lines of Chicago meat packers).
Your company can benefit from other people’s ideas. Look for seasoned, clear-thinking, well-connected leaders and enroll them as advisors. Perhaps these peoplecould make up your board of directors, but there’s another approach to enhancingyour business. Think of six or eight influential and experienced people who could cat-
apult you to higher levels of thinking, plan-ning, networking and decision-making.
Most of them will have excuses for notaccepting a position on your board ofdirectors: they just don’t have enoughtime; the ever-growing bureaucracy ofpaperwork ; work and travel schedules;the escalating exposure directors have toliability claims. Advisory boards caneliminate all these excuses and make
time by organizing, planning and coordi-nating activities. The changeover isorganized into two basic types of activity;internal – while the equipment is stopped;and external – while the equipment isrunning. This type of categorization andsubsequent reorganization of thesequence of activities can result in up to50% reduction in changeover time, with-out significant investment in equipment.
The systematic SMED process:1. Data collection (identify activities as
internal and external).2. Analyze the data; determine all activi-
ties that can be moved to external.3. Reduce the time required to complete
all activities, focusing on internalactivities first.SMED is straightforward, but it
requires a focused effort, time and achampion. Finance and Accounting peo-ple may be tough to convince, since thecosting model is typically built on effi-ciencies, and the direct vs. indirect coststhey are intended to control. On the otherhand, long term Operations people canbe even tougher to convince becausethey have no other tools for measuringand controlling their direct reports.
SMED is important, but tough to sellto management because the goal is todo more changeovers, not reducechangeover cost.
JIM BROWN IS A
CONSULTING PARTNER
WITH STRIVE, WITH
OFFICES IN GUELPH
AND OHIO.
email: [email protected]
12 l exchangemagazine.com l JULY/AUGUST 2005
your association with those winnersattainable.
Let’s clear up a potential problem:advisory boards flounder when the peo-ple involved have an incorrect under-standing of their role. These people areasked to share their wisdom and helpopen doors, not to have authority tomake decisions for the company. Any-one invited to join in this capacity mustbe clearly informed about the role. It’sbest to avoid the term advisory “board”and replace it with one less indicative ofdecision-making, like Advisory Council,President’s Council, and Council of Reference.
An advisory council is no replacementfor a good governing board of directors,but it can powerfully augment your cor-porate composition. When directorsgather to govern, their legal role is “todirect and protect in the interests of theowners.” It’s most effective if the boardrefrains from “advising” the CEO andmanagement team in the context of theboard meetings.
You may have your advisory councilmembers meet together once a year, butthe majority of connection will be directconversations to get input on specificissues. Sometimes, their most immediateservice is to help you avoid land minesthey have encountered. “You must learnfrom the mistakes of others. You can’tpossibly live long enough to make themall yourself. (Sam Levenson).”
Sometimes you want to project greatercredibility by having prominent personal-ities associated with your company. Usu-ally, it’s better that they not be given adecision-making voice at the board table.Rather, ask them to join your advisorycouncil.
Your business will go through seasonswhen specific areas of expertise areneeded. Tap into this in key people with-out creating a long-term commitment,and release them when the season isover. The decisions made by the boardand management team are often com-plex and affect shareholders, employeesand customers. A collection of peoplewith diverse backgrounds can providebroad perspective and valuable insightsthat complement the skill sets of theboard members and senior staff.
Involving people in an advisory capaci-ty can be a pipeline for fresh blood onyour board of directors. Some advisorswill shine and even develop an appetite tobe more involved. Now you know whatthis person can contribute. You have bigdreams for your organization. Go findsome giants! Put the power of an advisorycouncil to work in your company.
continued on page 20
JULY/AUGUST 2005 l exchangemagazine.com l 13
• Check Blame – at the door. Eliminatethe need to lay blame. Learn to identi-fy how you are adding to the problemor to the solution
• Check Ego – at the door. Don’t allowyour ego to kid you into thinking thatyour perspective, or idea, is the onlyone or the best there is.
Point Two: Don’t JumpEffective managers are able to think
before you act, and when you do act youdo so with some method and consisten-cy. Remind yourself of the affects of‘jumping’ too quickly.• Don’t jump – down a person’s throat.
Be sure you have heard someone outfully, and that you clearly understandtheir point of view, before even con-sidering disagreeing with them. If youdo disagree, do so respectfully.
• Don’t jump – to conclusions. Beforeyou act, ask questions that help yougather all the information you need.Ask yourself if you would rather takethe easy road to failure, or the slightlymore difficult road to success? Often,getting all the facts is slightly moredifficult or slightly more time consum-ing, but very worthwhile in the end.
• Don’t jump ship. In today’s fast movingenvironment teams don’t have time toconstantly pull members back into the
What do you mean – I need tostep back?“Check, Don’t jump, Get open, Don’t shut down”
BY L INDA GREGORIO
LEADERSHIP IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
If we remain too attached to any one method of achieving success; to any one for-mat for reaching our target audiences and customers; or to any one perspective,we are setting ourselves up to have a short shelf-life as a manager, and we are
negatively affecting our business.How then can we learn to expand our perspectives and teach those skills to our
teams? What can we use to remind ourselves to step back from ‘what we have alwaysdone’, and ‘how we have always thought about things’, to be better able to expandour view of possibilities.
We find our “Four-Point PerspectiveMethod” very useful in our leadershipdevelopment series. Aimed to help leadersbecome and remain open to new views,this method also aids in creating high-functioning team environments in whichindividuals can be open and honest abouttheir opinion and biases.Point One: CheckEffective managers are held accountable for self-monitoring, and for teaching yourteam to self-monitor and be held accountable.• Check Assumptions – understand the difference between an assumption, a fact, an
opinion, and a bias, and teach your team members to do the same.
LINDA GREGORIO IS
PRESIDENT OF
PRESENT OF MIND, AN
EXECUTIVE COACHING
AND ORGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT FIRM.
email:
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