PHOTO BY MICHAEL CUDJOE PHOTOGRAPHY LTD.
TREVOR CLARKE AND ROSS GLEN
will proactively support through their field service support team. In addition to hardware sales, the RGO technology group provides software solutions that manage print costs and help companies go paperless.
our own building has been really big. We’re not at the whim of other people. We’re creating a bit of our own destiny,” says Glen’s daughter and vice president of window coverings and corporate initiatives, Cathy Orr.
Over the years, RGO has become the leader in the industry and is the city’s premier one-stop shop for setting up an office. And this varied repertoire has been a key to the company’s success. Glen was more the tortoise than the hare, growing the business slowly and always doing what was best for the company.
And management is excited to watch that destiny unfold. The 50-year anniversary of the company has given them an opportunity to reflect on the past and celebrate everything that Glen has achieved, but they aren’t done yet. Far from satisfied, they are looking forward and continuing to grow with the market. RGO has moved beyond just selling furniture; it is creating comfortable and efficient environments in which people can work, live, learn and heal.
“You have to continue to grow. The biggest thing that got us going was we didn’t take money out of the business. We reinvested and focused on building it,” Glen says. “And diversification has been important.”
RGO Products Ltd. | 50 Years | 2
If one of the four divisions is lagging, the others are there to pick up the slack and keep the company on track. This strategy, along with Glen’s strong fiscal planning, has carried RGO through several economic downturns and made it the largest office supplier in Western Canada. Glen further diversified his holdings through real estate investments. Twenty-four years ago he partnered with close friend and business partner Don Taylor to purchase the building RGO calls home. In addition, Glen acquired other real estate holdings by keeping the buildings that the company outgrew. Rather than selling the buildings, he held onto them and now rents them out. “My dad had a vision and a strategy of how we were going to keep ourselves sustainable and I think partnering to own
The best example of such an environment is RGO’s head office just off Memorial Drive. After so many years in the building, Glen decided it was time to renovate. The offices were dated and he wanted to make the space match the mandate of the company, which is to encourage a positive work experience with dynamic, collaborative work processes. “The space wasn’t really reflecting the kind of work we were doing in the marketplace,” says Orr. “We really tried to walk the talk and understand what our clients go through during renovations.” The renovation was a very deliberate, careful one born from extensive research and planning. Glen and Orr wanted to highlight the four areas of their business and have them integrated so that as clients walked through the building, they could get a feel for the company’s story. To be efficient with planning was challenging given that the showroom