t OBJ: It sounds like this decision came to you gradually. DR: If I go back 10 years, I was thinking about succession planning then as well. I maybe didn’t know as much about the way the financial markets worked, and I thought (an) IPO was probably the best way to do it. When I was 50, I said, ‘I’m going to (do an) IPO by the time I’m 60’ and the reason for that is people would probably like to see me stick around for at least five years. And people can believe that I’ll work until I’m 65 because that’s a Canadian kind of retirement number that people have in their heads. But maybe not 70, or 80, or something like that. So I backdated 65 to 60 and then was able to announce that there would be some liquidity event for people. I was thinking about it from the point of view of taking care of people and (providing) liquidity, but I never really had a plan to actually retire. OBJ: So you haven’t really thought much about what life would be like for David Ross after Ross Video. DR: Some people would say it’s very difficult sometimes for a founder to separate their identity from their work. Ross Video is a family company. My name is on the door; it’s been in the family for 52 years. The fact that Ross Video has been so supportive of employees, we’re so customer-driven — we’re not chasing money so much as trying to do everything really well and the money follows. That’s the hardest type of company to walk away from as a founder. It’s not David’s investment vehicle that he can’t wait to sell to do something else. Ross Video, in a lot of ways, is a family member.
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OBJ: You are currently the majority shareholder of Ross Video. Do you plan to retain your controlling interest in the company as long as it’s a private firm? DR: I could sell some of the company and still run it. If I did sell a lot of Ross Video, I’m not even sure what I would do with that money. I don’t need a yacht. It’s very weird that some of the best ideas that people have is that if you do come into a lot of money, the first thing you need to do is figure out how to give it all away. Maybe that’s fun, I don’t know, but I prefer creating value for Canada by just doubling down (on) Ross Video and creating jobs and great tech and things like that. As I get older, one of my thoughts is I could (hire) a president. I could still be CEO, but get a president or some sort of a general manager that does a lot more of the day-to-day (work). I come to work every day, but I’m dealing with
bigger strategic issues and not the smaller stuff that comes up. After that, if I wanted to step back even more, I could hire somebody to be president and CEO. I’m still chairman of the board and I’m at the quarterly meetings and I’m involved in strategy from one step further (away). Then you go beyond that, there’s the concept of chairman emeritus or something like that. Sony did this. The founder of Sony, when he retired from being chairman, he was just this emeritus person. He was asked by a reporter, ‘What is our role?’ He said, ‘I’m the soul of the company.’ After he passed away, I could swear Sony changed. It wasn’t the same company. Somehow, just this hand that’s off to the side that would be checking in and saying, ‘What is the tone of Sony?’ made more difference than you’d think about what the nature of that company was. You know what? Maybe that’s my path, too. I wouldn’t rule something like that out. That’s another way of doing it. Maybe I keep my ownership right through to the last day and have a plan for when I pass away, how it might get sold. Maybe I never cash in. OBJ: Do you have any closing thoughts? DR: The weird thing about me is I’ve grown up with the company. There were only like 25 (employees) when I started. So I have a lot of insight into every aspect of the company. I’ve been a product manager, I’ve been an engineer, I’ve done demos and training, I’ve created marketing materials, I’ve helped out the sales team, I’ve been involved in lots of high finance and stuff like that. And I understand the industry and its history going back almost 50 years. There are not too many people on the planet, to be honest, that have my background, that could just jump in and be a David Ross clone. It’s really hard to replace somebody who’s been in a company for this long and hasn’t screwed it up. At the same time, I have a friend who says, ‘David, it is the most arrogant thing in the world for you to think that you couldn't be replaced in a week by somebody who could do it better than you.’ (Laughs.) He’d point out that, as they say, the cemeteries are full of irreplaceable people and somehow the world continues on. So, you know, does it really matter that I know all this history, or do you just need a leader who’s really good at managing a team and has a vision and continues on? Everybody’s replaceable in the end, because they have to be. n