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The “Homebound” Issue /PRESIDENT’S Letter/ The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time by Verne Harnish and the editors of Fortune Magazine explores decisions made by entrepreneurs and CEOs of major companies and how those decisions determined the company’s success or failure. For example, the founder of SoftSoap bought an entire supply of pump dispensers to prevent major companies like Procter and Gamble from entering the market and ensured their position as the first liquid soap in the industry. The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time focuses primarily on American companies and does not shed light on the life of firms right at our doorstep. This issue of The Atrium pays homage to Canadian companies throughout the three stages of their life: startup, growth, and maturity. We discuss their stories, the decisions they’ve made, and the trials and tribulations that have shaped their positions in the Canadian marketplace. We hope you take the lessons and stories from this issue of The Atrium to reflect on your own successes so far and the current stage you are at in your life. Are you a start-up or in the growth stage? What decisions will you make to reach that peak? Mawadda Basir and Andriana Vinnitchok Co-Presidents
/EDITOR’S Desk/ Dear reader, This theme continues on providing stories of success but hits closer to home. Identity is difficult to define. It’s built through understanding the consequences of your decisions, and learning to make good choices from your mistakes. It’s understanding that the resolution of one experience means the beginning of another, and that you will live through a cascade of failures before reaching a moment of success. There is nobody to hold accountable for the shaping of your identity but yourself. You can only know who you are by what you are not. At AMG, we have had the pleasure of featuring some of the best employers, brightest entrepreneurs, and bravest students around the community. We’ve covered articles from student start-ups to profiling head honcho executives. We have always wanted to share with you the stories of experience and practice, to understand the thought process behind businesses and people, and most important of all, to provide you with the insight to make well-informed choices. My goal for you is to think here and now. We’re not experienced in our professional lives, nor are we gifted with the luxury of hindsight. The only way we can see what is ahead of us is through what others have already seen. By focusing on the people and businesses at home, we may just pick up a few lessons. Whether you flip through this magazine or read cover-to-cover, remember that this was created with you in mind. On behalf of the dedicated team at AMG, we hope that you enjoy this latest issue! Daniel Chen Editor-in-Chief
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Taking It One Chomp At A Time! Printchomp, a Kitchener-based printing services start-up, is well on its way to surpassing business on the Canadian home front – one chomp at a time! Printchomp serves as a real-time marketplace for printing businesses, where they are instantly matched to customers’ printing inquiries. From business cards to posters, and thank-you cards, Printchomp is the simple one-step process to finding the best printing service at the lowest price.
By Sylvia Novac
The company was founded by CEO Joseph Puopolo in 2012, and has since propelled itself from a start-up, to a rapid-growth stage in its business cycle. “People can instantly tap into a network of 1,000 printers and begin ordering things…it’s also a great mechanism for small and mid-sized companies to tap into this network and compete with larger companies”, says Puopolo. “One of the main motives of starting Printchomp was having the ability to help not only one company, but many companies grow through this service, and doing so, especially on the global level, will help in driving revenue up and propelling Printchomp into the next stages of the business cycle.” The company is gearing up and expanding their reach outside the Canadian market and into parts of the United States and Asia. In order for them to maintain and grow their success, they understand the importance of increasing asset liquidity as well as leveraging larger companies to extend their services. Joseph has been working in marketing for a long time. He has been an IT Manager, in Business Development, Director of Marketing and Community, VP of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer.– it was only suiting for him to start his own company. Through 6/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
determination, ambition, and emotional temperament, he was able to establish a platform which connects small and medium companies into a network which will can compete with the printing behemoths in the industry. What separates Printchomp from traditional printing services is the ability to connect via applications and/ or computer systems, to an easily accessible network of their printers. In 2014, they launched the Print API which is a ‘Print & Mail Infrastructure’ available for every device. Simply log into the application and input the print job to have the documents printed at a local network where you are able to compare prices and available printing products. Order in the back-end without any interference; ‘it speeds up the process and also helps automate mundane tasks’. At the end of last year the company reached a milestone in obtaining 10,000 print partners within their network. They offer over 40 products and allow quick and easy access to each of the partners wherever you are. For a company which started its growth with the Communitech Hub providing local printing services three years ago, they have truly undertaken the largest print job of their lifetime. ////
Collect. Customize. Broadcast. with eventpeeks Measure. Share.
By Jeel Shah Many ideas are conceived in the halls of Laurier, some are born into the Launchpad program and are grown and tested in the marketplace. Eventpeeks is a company which fits the bill.
company formally started a year ago but since then has come a long way; they have served clients such as Google, Twitter, Ernst & Young and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Eventpeeks is a tech startup focused on social media aggregation which started off as a project for former MBA student and co-founder, John Beresford. The company engages audiences through live social media presentations, providing a continuous feed of data from Twitter or Instagram. It is a platform that provides organizers with infographics which highlight useful data.
Despite their success, Beresford says that the company operates as if it were on the lowest level of business since it is well known that in the tumultuous startup phase the tables can turn quickly. In the coming year, they are looking to expand their operations by further enhancing user experience through a “phone booth” product and gamification which adds game-like characteristics to their platform. The phone booth will be an interactive display where users are able to share interesting information about the event in a more physical way.
AMG sat down with John Beresford at Communitech to learn more about the company, where they see themselves in the next year and what advice he has to aspiring entrepreneurs at Laurier. A common problem for event organizers and the like, is the lack of opportunity to see how their audiences are reacting to events in real time. Eventpeeks is the solution to the problem. Eventpeeks presents visually stunning real-time data, and provides opportunities for planners to engage audience members in intimate and personal interactions. At a technical level, Eventpeeks works by accessing Twitter, amongst other platforms, at the Application Programming Interface (API) level and sorting through the deluge of content through hashtags. From here, they are able to display the hot topics and trending discussions so it is easily understandable and engaging. They have experienced encouraging success, working with globally known brands, and are remaining profitable without debt or equity funding. The 7/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
As the amount of employees grows, culture plays an important role in any business. The culture at Eventpeeks is dependent on two things: mutual respect and the market. Beresford explained that being brought up in the Launchpad program, there was particular emphasis on “treating your business like it’s a hypothesis and letting the market decide.” This was a great way to diffuse arguments that related to features and future products. Beresford’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs was to think of their business as a hypothesis and try to prove it wrong. In the unfortunate event that the idea is taken or is not validated by the market, do not see this as a sign of failure but as an opportunity to strengthen the idea to reflect the perception of the market. This means entrepreneurs should be open to new ideas and to know that “the only easy day was yesterday.”////
The Power of Location By Daniel Chen The development of Canada and the Canadian economy can be traced back to the early enterprises in fur trade. The European demand for beaver hats led to the exploration and establishment of companies such as the Hudson Bay Company. It comes to no surprise that the nation has evolved and changed into a service-based economy; it is an industry that comprises 70% of the country’s GDP in 2014. It comes to no further shock that ideas and people are coming together to start purely service-based companies. Via Informatics provides its own niche service. The growing need to organize collections of data into physical and tangible information provided itself with a new market. The company started in 2013 from a different perspective. ‘A lot of times these ideas come from a pain point’, says Co-Founder Mossab Basir, ‘our idea came from a great piece of technology that we realized, could be tilted and then used in a completely new, and powerful way.’ The basis of the service is on aggregating data, readily accessible by the public, and honing-in on its value. By analyzing ‘volunteered data’ - data from cellular networks, social networks and other sources – they provide crowd-sourced location analytics, or the movement of people. It is a powerful systematic tool which determines new opportunities for businesses. Currently, Via Informatics deals with customers in retail, real estate and the government. They provide services such as traffic statistics for retailers to understand consumer behaviour, and information for market segmentation; analyzing volume and demographic changes to provide scoring or valuation of real estate property; and monitoring traffic congestion for urban development planning and zoning permits through city analytics. 8/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
Mossab Basir mentions the application of their services as allowing an owner to be able to see foot traffic of their coffee shop. The shop opens at 8AM and closes at 6PM, but what happens outside of that time? The owner has no idea on what goes on before and after hours. To Via Informatics, it is about providing vital information outside regular time frames to optimize that owner’s business. While they have entered a young, niche market, the company is starting to see growth. Mossab forecasts Via Informatics to be in the start-up stage for the next three years before they enter maturity. They have a marketable product for sale which has finally generated income, but the most challenging hurdle to overcome is securing credibility. It is about being able to connect results to the bottom line, and demonstrating the need for their services. ‘A lot of data companies struggle with this… Data is like a vitamin, it’s nice to have because it may improve things. However it’s easier to sell a painkiller because it will work. The first thing somebody will spend money on is a painkiller, if they are sitting on a lot of money then maybe they will consider vitamins…It’s about connecting what you offer in order to alleviate pain.” As a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, he considers expanding your network to be crucial. “The BBA degree gets you good at running a business but not at building things. It is important to gain skills which will let you create things with your hands. Once you have that then you will be more successful at starting and managing your own business.”////
Do You Have The Zpirit? By Eric Luong
In a Canadian marketplace where health and nutrition increasingly drive consumer decision-making, companies must now offer products that deliver in the areas of both value and health benefit. Zpirit Foods, a Toronto-based startup launched in 2013, has done just that within the beverage industry. Zpirit offers Canada’s first line of fruit-infused waters – flavours like Peach & Basil and Mandarin & Mint contain real fruit pieces, and bring a unique and natural taste to the table.
drink,” said Daniel. “We’ve also gained a lot of publicity within various blogs, and ramped up production – in December we produced over 40,000 bottles in one run, which is quite a bit.”
Founder Phillipe Roireau was working in Poland when he discovered Kompot, a traditional juice made by cooking fruits in water to preserve them through the winter. He understood a need for healthy alternatives in a market saturated with unhealthy beverages and knew a low-sugar version of the Kompot would be a hit in Canada.
Zpirit’s success is attributed to keeping an open mind. “Understand that there will be letdowns along the way, but take a lesson from them. Rely on your teammates, and just stay positive,” advised Daniel.
Like all startups, Zpirit had their fair share of challenges. “The initial launch of the product wasn’t very successful – the packaging just wasn’t attractive,” says Product Manager Daniel Aspler. “Additionally, since fruit-infused waters didn’t exist in Canada before, we continue to do a lot of convincing and educating. Finally, we experienced technical bottlenecks along the way as we actually place all the fruit pieces into the beverage by hand.” Since then, Zpirit has seen some success with an ever-growing list of achievements. “Our biggest success stories include having ourproduct sold in large food retailers like Longo’s and Whole Foods, and working with innovative companies like Google who are big fans of our 9/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
Leveraging Canada’s resources, Zpirit was able to obtain a $67,000 investment from the government of Canada. “Canada has always been interested in investing in innovative companies they believe will make a positive difference,” commented Daniel.
In terms of what you can expect to see from Zpirit in the future – they will be present in multiple tradeshows, restaurants, and universities in Canada demonstrating their line of Zpirit Infused Water. They are currently working on a new line of infused waters in plastic bottle format, and will be appearing on CBC’s Dragon’s Den: Next Gen Den, a webisode series this spring. Finally, Zpirit will be featured in Wilfrid Laurier University’s Leadership in Business Conference case this May. When asked about his personal experience at Zpirit, Daniel had this to say: “It’s been a great experience so far with Zpirit, and working in a startup environment. You get to work with people who are passionate. I highly recommend it if you want to find out what you’re really interested in – so why not? Take a leap of faith!”////
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Accountants at MNP LLP Understand Fun Profiling people and culture, at Canada’s largest mid-market accounting firm. 11/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
By Daniel Chen Walk through the cubicles and corridors of the MNP office to see busy season events like the office chair derbies, speed skating, and pie throwing. MNP values fun. Written in their values are the words ‘fun is important’. The company’s vision for the majority of its history was to be Western Canada’s pre-eminent mid-market accounting, tax, consulting and advisory firm. In 2008 MNP merged with Horwarth Orenstein LLP, one of Toronto’s largest mid-market accounting firms. At the time revenue was roughly $200 million, but since then has doubled to $480 million. The firm has experienced a steady growth rate of 10% plus, year over year, and continues to progress its national presence in the market. The practice officially came to existence in 1953 when Ron Meyers purchased the original Brandon, Manitoba office from the partners of another accounting firm, who had decided to merge with a Montreal practice. For a price tag of $75,000 at the time, it was a high risk which Ron wholeheartedly took, that paid off. Within the next decade, Dave Norris and Don Penny had joined alongside as partners. Revenue went up from $69,000 in 1958 to $223,000 in 1969. The firm experienced organic growth – increasing services and enhancing sales – and between the decades of 1989 to 1998, underwent 35 mergers. This time last year MNP completed 8 mergers alone. During that time the running joke in the office would be “’How many partners do you have?’ ‘I don’t know, better talk to Don. I knew how many we had last night, but I don’t know how many we have this morning.’” 12/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
From personal experience, the work at MNP is not scripted. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, as the firm gives every employee autonomy. I was able to plan, prepare and conduct a file from the beginning to the end for a small real-estate audit client. MNP offers the freedom to take on more responsibilities, and to further engage above and beyond the position. It is not a do-what-you-are-required environment but a personal development experience where on the first audit, you are expected to ask many…many questions. ‘Conducting ourselves with humility and shame…[being] entrepreneurial…one pot/one team/ one firm..,’ is also directly from MNP’s values. The firm runs a matrix-structure organization, with industry focus areas referred to as niches, that are local and national in scope. It gives the offices flexibility, and employs a hub and spoke model. By concentrating certain resources in one office known for a niche specialization, it encourages shared knowledge, intercommunication, and facilitates the team effort. Values are the universal at MNP. They strategically choose and merge only with others who are an organizational fit; a strategic and people fit. It is about recognizing the foundation of values which creates a unifying culture, and understanding influences as an effect of regional characteristics. For example the firm’s extensive experience serving the Hutterite community since the 1980s, provided a unique opportunity for them to provide other services to help the Aboriginals community as well. MNP is leading the market, offering unique services to the fast growing business communities in their areas.
“We once sent a new student into minus twenty-two degree weather to dig up a soil sample in a lunch bucket for the City of Medicine Hat audit.” In this industry it is about quality customer service. The phone lines are off-the-hook in partners’ offices because MNP believes in meeting their client’s needs. Clients have direct access to a partners’ line and the partners will commit time on listening to every, and any question. They are the fifth largest accounting firm within Canada, and one of the top 50 Best Employers in Canada for five consecutive years. Growth is still top of the agenda for MNP, as the firm focuses more on growing in mature markets through organic growth. Will the firm look towards expanding into Atlantic Canada or explore cross-border opportunity? Never say never, says an inside source. The firm is proudly Canadian. They embrace a fun culture, and practitioners and partners enjoy their fair share of office pranks. ‘We once sent a new student into minus twenty-two degree weather to dig up a soil sample in a lunch bucket for the City of Medicine Hat audit,’ stated Sherry Strothmann from the Medicine Hat office. Looking back, the original practice which Ron had purchased their Brandon office from, eventually merged with Coopers & Lybrand. This eventually led 13/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
and became the international accounting firm known as PwC. Had Ron not made his decision, the firm may not have existed as it is today. Currently MNP has approximately 3,200 employees – 900 in the Ontario and Quebec region, 500 in British Columbia and the rest within Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Their strategic plan for the next five years is to grow focus areas regarding service lines and niches, continue to grow, improve market and client penetration and be recognized as both employer of choice and partner of choice. It looks like being a CPA has never been more valuable. ////
The Sentry Difference By Jeel Shah In the ever-changing landscape of the stock market, very few firms are able to stand out. Sentry Investments is one of the few, having become one of Canada’s fastest-growing independent asset management companies with over $17 billion in assets, managed on behalf of more than 450,000 Canadian investors. It is also one of the few independents in the Canadian investment industry. Sentry opened its doors in 1997 as a small mutual fund company with big ideas. Their main objective has been to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns, which translates into income and growth with less volatility. ’ It still remains a family-owned, family-run business driven by the goal of helping Canadians achieve their investment goals. Enter Dennis Mitchell. Mitchell is the Executive Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer of Sentry. He is also a graduate of Laurier’s Bachelor of Business Administration program, and plays an active role in identifying and recruiting students from Wilfird Laurier University. The burning question that comes to mind, when considering Sentry’s growth and strong performance, is: “How do you do it?” As Mitchell explains, the company uses a unique ‘house style’ that starts with “…looking for good businesses.” By this he means finding businesses that generate strong, recurring free cash flow, led by management teams that are disciplined allocators of that capital, and possess ‘enduring competitive advantages.’ 14/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
“A basketball team cannot draft all seven-footers or all point guards,” as Mitchell explains, “the team has to be balanced.” Similarly, the Sentry house style aims to build a portfolio that is well-balanced and stable. A philosophy focused on long-term results for clients requires discipline and patience. As Mitchell says, “…in terms of being patient, I would equate it to raising a child.” A child is not raised in a month or a few years and analogously, it takes time for a “thesis” – the investment strategy – to play out. According to Mitchell, individuals often lose their perspective; which is to say they can forget what they are trying to build or achieve and can lose sight of what their long-term goal is. An antidote to this problem is to understand that, “there are interim milestones that confirm you’re headed to where you are going.” As Mitchell explains, this means money that comes with the patience needed to reap the long-term returns and desired goals. The rest of the money, free-flowing in the market, is not important to them. Mitchell’s advice is to pursue passion. In an industry that is highly competitive, anyone entering it for money or glory will not be as motivated as someone who is passionate about it and wants to understand it at a deeper level. Find people working in positions you want, role models and mentors, and ask them about what it’s like to work in that position. Understand the position you want to get yourself into, know where to start and then develop from there. ////
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WESTJET A HOMEBOUND LEGACY Examining WestJet’s successful strategies which made the company what it is today. By Tyler Wang On the home front of Canadian companies, WestJet has carved out a reputation and is a household name. WestJet has become one of the largest and most recognizable companies in Canada today. In 19 years, the low-cost carrier has soared to the top of the nation’s airlines industry, second only in size to Air Canada, and is the ninth-largest airline in North America. In an extremely competitive industry with meager profit margins, WestJet has successfully built a strong reputation for providing excellent services at an affordable price. Robert Palmer, Manager of Public Relations at WestJet describes how a company grew so quickly in an industry riddled with bankruptcies and the graves of defunct airlines. He describes it as a combination of their efficient cost structure, their committed employees and their dedication towards customer satisfaction. WestJet was founded in 1996 by Clive Beddoe and three other like-minded entrepreneurs who believed flying should be affordable and enjoyable experience. Initially a three-aircraft operation that serviced only five destinations in Western Canada, WestJet’s history is not all smooth sailing. In mid-September 1996, WestJet’s fleet was grounded for two weeks due to disagreements with Transport Canada over maintenance schedule requirements. However, it pressed on and an excellent opportunity was presented to them in 2000 when Air Canada’s takeover of Canadian Airlines opened gaps in the industry. They grasped the opportunity to expand domestically and never looked back. 17/Atrium Magazine Spring 2015
The efficient cost structure allows the firm to pass on savings in the form of lower-priced airfare. One of its original cost-saving strategies was to operate Boeing 737 airliners almost exclusively, allowing it to purchase parts for only one model, reducing inventory, and lowering staff training expenses. WestJet also saves costs by offering direct city-to-city flights instead of webs-and-spokes model, where passengers accumulate in hub cities before being transported to smaller centers. This helps maximize airtime which is crucial to reducing costs in the airline industry. The best part about working at WestJet, according to Robert, is the corporate culture. He feels that WestJet has an extremely healthy corporate culture which helps cultivate a friendly and productive working environment. For example, their profit sharing program. At WestJet, every employee receives a share in the profits. This provides their employees an incentive to act in the best interest of the company because of the personal stake in its financial well-being. “WestJetters have skin in the game, as we like to say,” said Robert. “More than 85 per cent of us own shares in our company so we have a vested interest in its performance. We don’t view ourselves and our company as two different parties; we are one and the same. It’s our company and we want to see it continue to be successful.” WestJet strives to promote internally to fill senior level positions before hiring externally. It provides
“it’s important to experience a variety of roles in a variety of businesses to gain 365 different experiences rather than one experience and repeated 365 times”
opportunity for employees to advance their careers and improves workplace efficiency as managers are familiar with the operations of the firm. They also encourage their employees to transfer departments after a few years for them to gain broad experience in a variety of roles; keeping them motivated and challenged in their careers. According to Robert, WestJet’s corporate culture is the biggest key to their success. “A company’s culture is its lifeblood,” he says. “It’s the underlying foundation of everything it stands for. For a company to project a certain image, it must have that same fundamental beliefs and values at its core. It cannot project outward something it does not truly believe internally. At WestJet, our culture is based on the notion of care: we care for our guests, for each other and for our company. And it shows, both internally in terms of the way we treat one another, and externally, in the manner in which we strive to treat our guests.” The final key to WestJet’s success is their customer-oriented mindset and adaptability. They recognize that success and survival is contingent on how well they can satisfy their customers – or guests, as WestJet calls them. One significant transition made is the gradual shift to attract more business travellers. Focused primarily on leisure travel for most of
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its history, WestJet is evolving to become an airline of choice for the business segment as well. In recent years the airline has introduced a rewards program, a premium economy seating product, and fare bundles (packages) which offer more flexibility to accommodate the busy schedules of business travellers. Robert believes that WestJet has plenty of room to grow and expand. He was not able to reveal to us any specific details of exciting new opportunities, but he is pleased to say that WestJet is looking to add additional non-stop flights to popular sun destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean. As for the big changes that have happened in the industry, such as the merger between United and American Airlines, WestJet welcomes the additional competition because healthy competition in the industry ultimately benefits the consumer. Robert has advice for business students looking to work in public relations. The most important skill for public relations managers is the ability to write quickly and write well. Speed is absolutely essential; things change quickly in business and it can be difficult to stay ahead of the curve. Robert also believes in the importance for students to experience a variety of roles in a variety of businesses, especially in the early years of their careers, so they can gain 365 different experiences rather than one experience and repeated 365 times. ////
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