bear mountain wind farm, one of bullfrog power’s green ...€¦ · october2020 trulocal...

OCTOBER 2020

TRULOCALMarc Lafleur,

CEO andco-founder

CANADA’ S

G ROW I NG COMPAN I E S

ANEXCLUSIVERANKINGOFTHECOUNTRY’S

BOLDESTBUSINESSES No.

1 4

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEADERS

JIMMY PATTISONISN’T SCARED OF

A LITTLE VOLATILITY

WHY PASSION ISOVERRATED FORENTREPRENEURS

DIGITAL MEDICINE(FINALLY) TAKES OFF

IN CANADA

ADDRESSINGSYSTEMIC RACISM INCORPORATE CANADA

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Bear Mountain Wind Farm, one of Bullfrog Power’s green energy sources

Since 2005, Canadian businesses have been choosing 100%renewable energy through Bullfrog Power to reduce theircarbon footprint, support renewable energy projects across thecountry, and ensure a bright future for generations to come.

These organizations, and more than 1,500 others, are proud members of the bullfrogpowered community:

Visit bullfrogpower.com/greenindex for a full list!

for 15 years of supporting clean, green energy in Canada

1110183601.ad 1 2020-09-08 3:29 PM

OCTOBER 2020 /REPORT ON BUSINESS 1

2 EDITOR’S NOTE

4 ADVISORY BOARD

6 SEVEN THINGSEveryone’s favouritenew co-worker, thesecret to parentingduring a pandemic,and which deadly sinwill kill your career

9 NEED TO KNOWFrom the silver-liningsfile: The COVID-19crisis has inspiredinnovations that couldprotect us from futuredisasters

11 BIG IDEAEntrepreneurs needto be passionateto succeed, right?Wrong—it couldeven be a liability

14 ASK AN EXPERTAre bickering execskilling morale? Here’swhat to do. Plus,embracing the nap

16 THE EXCHANGECEO Max Koeune opensup about McCain Foods’pandemic woes, itsclimate change planand its lack of diversity

60 WEALTHRBC Global AssetManagement’s ChrisBeer is betting onBarrick Gold, and ongold itself. But is it ametal only boomerscould love?

64 TURNING POINTCapital One Canadapresident Jennifer R.Jackson finds reasonfor hope as BlackLives Matter protestscontinue worldwide

Contents

OUT OF OFFICEYes, working from home—andmaybe doing laundry or watching Netflix—was a rush at first. But with many companies making a long-term switch,what do firms need to do to keep employees happy? /By Stacy Lee Kong

Rx’s Chris Gardner (top)is very serious aboutgrowth page 30.Medical self-testkits from BioLytical(above). Other innovativeproducts page 54

CANADA’S TOP GROWING COMPANIES

30 PROFILESA pandemic-essentialrural pharmacy chain,the maker of the coolestever rompers for adultsand snapshots of otherhonorees in our annualranking of Canada’s 400Top Growing Companies

46 CHARTSThe Top 400 by thenumbers: what they do,where they are and howrapidly they’re expanding

54 OBJECT LESSONSJust some of the cutting-edge products madeby the Top GrowingCompanies, includingrobotic arms, scent-free deodorant andalcohol-free beerwith actual flavourC

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22

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2 OCTOBER 2020 / REPORT ON BUSINESS

PHOTOGRAPH

KOUROSHKESHIRI

Editor’sNote

For reasons that are likely obvious, I’ve been listening to the Talking Heads’song “Life DuringWartime” frequently over the past fewmonths. “This ain’t noparty, this ain’t no disco,” singsDavidByrne.Then, a couple of lines later: “I ain’tgot time for that now.” Put another way, a crisis is a bad time to throw a party.Yet, here we are, celebrating our second annual ranking of Canada’s Top

Growing Companies in the middle of a pandemic.When we began the months-long research to assemble the list, the novel coronavirus wasn’t even a distantworry. While our work continued, the Canadian economy came to halt—thenslowly, tentatively restarted. Now, as we release our ranking, the business fun-damentals for many companies in Canada have changed. And the innovativefirms on the ranking have not been spared from hardship.But as you’ll read in this issue, many found opportunities alongside the chal-

lenges. Prodigy Education, an online learning platform, offered a way for kidsto keep learning while schools were shut down. Lumen5 equipped the WorldHealthOrganizationwith video tools to share facts and combatmisinformation.FundThrough helped small businesses waiting on stalled invoices overcomecrunches in cash flow. The entrepreneurs behind these companies rose to themoment and were rewarded by sales.True, not every company on our list has a product or service perfectly suited

to flourish amid the current circumstance. There are tourism operators, manu-facturers and hospitality companies that face real obstacles. But one of thethings that struck me in reading many of the companies’ application surveyswas their resolve not to allow thepandemic to blunt their ambition. “Many com-panieswant to shrink back during a recession, but I believe in pushing forward,”wrote Darrell Keezer of Candybox Marketing. “Try something new, call yourcustomers, offer new services, do what it takes to grow.”I also noticed how often the CEOs of these firms prioritized the security and

happiness of their employees. “Anything we do in the short term will be point-less if we are not ultimately a strong team at the other end of the pandemic,”wrote AdamCaromicoli of Indellient Inc., a software development firm.That’s why we’re celebrating the past success of these 400 remarkable firms,

even when the outlook is uncertain for many companies across the countrytoday. There are lessons to be gleaned from the strategies and tactics that helpedCanada’sTopGrowingCompanies earn a spot on our list. There’s inspiration tobe found in their current resilience and determination. If we’re going to survivelife during wartime, we’ll need more of the innovative thinking and entrepre-neurial ambition exemplified by these firms. /James Cowan

Send feedback [email protected]

October 2020, Volume 37, No. 1EditorialEditor JAMES COWANAssistant Editor DAWNCALLEJASenior Editor JOHN DALYCopy Editor LISA FIELDING,MICHAEL BARCLAYResearch CATHERINE DOWLING,ANNA-KAISAWALKER

ArtArt DirectorDOMENIC MACRIAssociate Art DirectorBRENNAN HIGGINBOTHAMDirector of PhotographyCLARE VANDERMEERSCH

ContributorsDEBORAH AARTS, JOE CASTALDO,TREVOR COLE, TIM KILADZE, JASONKIRBY, STEFANIEMAROTTA, JOANNAPACHNER, JUDITH PEREIRA

AdvertisingChief Revenue OfficerANDREW SAUNDERSManaging Director, Creative Studiosand Ad InnovationTRACY DAYSenior Manager, Special ProductsANDREA D’ANDRADEProductManagerRYAN HYSTEAD

ProductionManaging Director, Print ProductionSALLY PIRRIProduction Co-ordinatorISABELLE CABRAL

PublisherPHILLIP CRAWLEYEditor-in-Chief, The Globe andMailDAVID WALMSLEYManaging Director, Businessand Financial ProductsGARTH THOMASEditor, Report on BusinessGARY SALEWICZ

Report on Businessmagazine ispublished 10 times a year by The GlobeandMail Inc., 351 King Street E., TorontoM5A 0N1. Telephone 416-585-5000.Letters to the Editor:[email protected] next issuewill be on October 30.Copyright 2020, The Globe andMail.Indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index.

Advertising OfficesHead Office, The Globe andMail,351 King Street E., TorontoM5A 0N1Telephone 416-585-5111 or toll-free1-866-999-9237Branch OfficesMontreal 514-982-3050Vancouver 604-685-0308Calgary 403-245-4987Email: [email protected]

United States and countries outside ofNorth America: AJRMedia Group,212-426-5932, [email protected]

Publicationsmail registration No. 7418.The publisher accepts no responsibilityfor unsolicitedmanuscripts,transparencies or other material.Printed in Canada by TranscontinentalPrinting Inc. Prepress by DMDigital+1.Report on Business magazine is electronicallyavailable through subscription to Factiva.comfrom Factiva, at factiva.com/factivaor 416-306-2003.

tgam.ca/r

No time for dancing?

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The ReganTeam ranked sixthin Canada for Royal LePageout of 18,500 agents in 2019

atthew Regan was workingup to 15 hours a day as a real

estate agent a decade ago when hisoffice manager sat him down for atalk.“Her namewasTammy Snow and

she said I was being a jerk, turning intosomebody who just works all the timeand that no one likes,” recountsMr.Regan, the broker and chief executiveofficer ofThe ReganTeam (officiallyRoyal LePage Regan Real Estate) inToronto. “The irony of all this is I wasTammy‘s boss. But I had a tremendousamount of respect for her and valuedher opinion.”He also knew shewas right.Mr. Regan started his first business

at age 12, mowing lawns. At age 18,in the summer leading into his firstyear of university, he earned $55,000cutting roughly 75 lawns a week.“I was never afraid of hard work,”

he says. “I suppose you would say theentrepreneurial spirit was running higheven back then.”At age 20, Mr. Regan decided

university wasn’t for him and left to gethis real estate licence, following in hisfather’s footsteps.Hewasmaking goodmoney in real

estate in his early 20s, “but I really hadno life,”Mr. Regan recalls.It was the frank discussion withMs.

Snow, and some encouragement fromcolleagues like Allison Addison, nowthe company’s director of sales, thatgaveMr. Regan the courage to let go ofsome of his work.

“BetweenTammy andAllison, theygaveme the confidence to delegateand begin to trust the people aroundme. It set the wheels in motion for thecompounding growth in the years tocome,” saysMr. Regan, now 36.“The success of this team can be

found in one common denominator: Itspeople.”Today,The ReganTeam is one of the

fastest-growing real estate agenciesin the country, with 35 full-time andpart-time people doing business inthe MetroToronto area. He says thecompany ranked sixth in revenueamong Royal LePage’s 18,500 agentsin Canada in 2019 and ninth out among55,000 agents among theTorontoReal Estate Board in sales volume thesame year.The company is on track to reach

a record 200 transactions in 2020compared to 158 last year, Mr. Regansays, with sales volumes of more than

A mix of work and play — and good hires— helps drive The Regan Team’s success

$200-million and revenue of about$5-million. He gives kudos to the salespartners and a special shout out toRosaViviano, the agency’s broker ofrecord.

“Rosa has a way of getting thingsdone. Shemakes a difficult job lookeasy,” he says. “Our sales partnersare themost talented, self-motivated,hard-working and caring group ofpeople I’ve seen in the industry.Whatthey do isn’t easy.They are the bestof the best and without them, ourcompany growth isn’t possible.”

Mr. Regan says the agency’ssuccess to date is due in large part tohiring talented professionals who fitthe company’s culture. “It’s somethingwe’ve worked hard to build,” he says.

His advice to others in the realestate industry: “Surround yourselfwith like-minded, talented people whoyou trust to sell your ownmother’shouse.”

CANADA’S TOP GROWING COMPANIES SPONSOR CONTENT

Advertising produced byThe Globe Content Studio. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved in its creation.

Matthew Regan,broker and chief

executive officer atThe Regan Team,

says learning todelegate and trust

employeescan help drive

business growth.

M

Royal LePage Real Estate ServicesRegan Real Estate, Brokerage.

You’ve never met a real estate team quite likeours. We’re here to provide you with a differentkind of real estate experience.

FIND OUT HOW AT REGANTEAM.CANot intended to solicit properties currently listed for sale. Each office is independentlyowned and operated.

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84%

AdvisoryBoard

Howare you holding up?Since our last issue, businesses acrossCanada have contendedwith a pandemicand the ensuing shutdown of theeconomy.We invited executives fromthe Report on Business listof Canada’s Top GrowingCompanies to tell us whatthey’ve done tomanagethrough the crisis.

MATTHEW NIELSENCEO, FISHBONE ANALYTICS INC.Sells, implements and managesServiceNow workflow software

From a tactical perspective,Fishbone’s teamwas alreadyable to work from home, soclosing our office was the easypart. Keeping everyone engagedand sane while self-isolatingis more challenging. We haveimplemented a multiprongedapproach, from virtual two-on-two lunches with the CEOand another leader, to morningstand-upmeetings three timeseach week—we get together onvideoconference, and a differentemployee leads us throughsomething interesting and non-work-related for 15 minutes.Helping our teammembers tofeel a part of our community isvital to our ongoing success andcontinued low attrition.

CLAUDIA SJOBERGCEO, THE PEDALHEADS GROUP

Make sure you can see the endin the worst-case scenario andknow that you will survive oneway or another. Do what is inyour power during the day anddetach from it at night.Worry isa waste of your valuable life.

JERRY VANKOOTENCEO, EARTHLINE FOUNDATIONSAND SHORING LTD.Provides construction drillingservices and earth retentionsystems

Your people need to have faithin you. Have a good cry at home,where no one can see you, andthen get back hustling for work.I am always telling my people tolook for “Diamond Shreddies”—if you turn a product or servicea few degrees to the left or right,is it something different?

SHELBY TAYLORCEO, CHICKAPEAManufactures organic pasta madefrom chickpeas and lentils

As a shelf-stable pantry item,Chickapea was incrediblyfortunate to see a surge in salesrather than a decline. For thatI will always be incrediblygrateful. The real challenge weexperienced was trying to bulkup inventory enough and plan asbest we could. Our whole teamcame together to form a plan forhowmuch inventory to investin, how to finance it, and to planwhat we would do if there was aslump following the surge.

DARREN ANDERSONCEO, VIVE CROP PROTECTIONDevelops and manufactures cropprotection products

Resilience of your businessis critically important, as ishaving a sustainable businessmodel. Sometimes I seeentrepreneurship approachedas: “Grow at all costs and figureout the economics later.” Havingsolid unit economics and asustainable business modelgives youmore tools to managethrough a crisis.

CEOs CONFIDENT THEIR COMPANIES WILL GROWOVER NEXT THREE YEARS

Send us yourthoughts at

[email protected].

Tweet us@robmagca S

OURCEKPMG

“MAKE SURE YOUCAN SEE THE ENDIN THEWORST-CASE SCENARIOAND KNOWTHAT YOUWILLSURVIVE ONEWAYORANOTHER”


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The Kelowna-based companyyou’ve never heard of thatpowers communication insidethe world’s largest companies

he founders of Kelowna-basedBananatag Systems Inc. didn’t

set out to become tech entrepreneurs.They were just solving a problem forthe electronics company where theyworked; that is, how to monitor theperformance of corporate e-mail online.

“We just didn’t have any of thattype of analytics,” says Corey Wagner,Bananatag’s co-founder and chiefexecutive officer.

He partnered with his friend IsaacOslund and his brother Chris to createa system to track their sales e-mails.Before long, they turned this systeminto a full-on business.

They founded Bananatag in 2011and worked nights and weekends forthe next two years to build a businessaround the e-mail tracking system.By 2013, with the help and advice ofAccelerate Okanagan, the companywas doing well enough for the foundersto quit their day jobs to work full-time onBananatag.

“Once well-known Fortune 500companies took notice of us andbegan using our product to measurethe impact of their employeecommunications, that was the eurekamoment,” Mr. Wagner says. “That’s thepoint where it sparked and we thought,‘hey, there’s something more here.’We saw right away that it had globalpotential.”

“That was a turning point,”

Mr. Wagner adds. “The internalcommunications market was reallyunderserved and there weren’t a lot oftools available for people to do thingslike that. Especially these days withmore and more focus on the employeeexperience, there’s a lot of attentionbeing drawn to it.”

In 2015, based on demand, theyhoned the product into an internalemployee communications platformthat today allows users to manageinternal e-mail as well as Slack andMicrosoftTeams messages from asingle tool.The program also lets teamscollaborate in real-time on e-mailsand newsletters, ensure they reflectcorporate branding, then measure theirimpact with detailed metrics.

The company has about 600 clientsmostly across North America but alsoin the United Kingdom, New Zealand,Australia and India. Its client list includesglobal brands like Ikea, Samsung,H&R Block and dozens of Fortune 500companies.

How Bananatag helpsbusinesses engage theirremote workforce

They called the company Bananatagafter a brainstorming session thatincluded names of animals and fruitsand a realization nobody they’ve heardof in the tech industry had claimedbanana. “Which was surprising: Whochooses ‘apple’ before ‘banana?’” Mr.Wagner quips.

They then grew into the name overtime. “The idea that bananas growin a bunch is meaningful for us: Wesupport the learning of our employees,both on the job and through fundingprofessional development,” he says.

Today, Bananatag has 110 employeesat its offices in Kelowna and Vancouverand plans to hire another 30 by the endof 2020. Mr. Oslund is chief technologyofficer and Corey’s brother Chris is thechief marketing officer.

The company has grown its revenueby 350 per cent over the past threeyears, Mr. Wagner says.

Even before the pandemic led to anexponential increase in people workingfrom home, Bananatag had introducedmany features to facilitate and keepremote workers connected. And likemany companies, Bananatag itself iswidely embracing remote work as ithires across Canada to keep pace withrapid growth.

Mr. Wagner credits hiring well andbuilding a close-knit corporate culturefor much of Bananatag’s success.

“We want to make sure that peopleenjoy coming to work, that they feelgood about being here.”

The culture and co-operation withinBananatag make it a unique place towork, says Agata Zasada, who washired last fall as the vice-president ofpeople and culture.

Bananatag’s founders are veryhumble about what they’ve achieved –perhaps even too humble, Ms. Zasadasays.

“We’re a company you may neverhave heard of, and yet household namebrands use our platform to design andmeasure the impact of communicationto hundreds of thousands of theiremployees,” she says.


Advertising produced by The Globe Content Studio. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved in its creation.

Corey Wagner,Bananatag’s

co-founder and chiefexecutive officer,

T

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6

10/201

7Things

NEVER25%

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3

Screen timecan be agood thing40% of parents say the pandemic has led themto view their children’s use of devices morepositively, according to Morning Consult.

6%

81%

13%

SOURCE ROBERT HALF CANADA

The radio iseveryone’sfavouriteco-workerThree-quarters of people report listeningto music while working from home.

BEINGSELFISHWON’THELPYOURCAREER“A close examination ofbehaviour patterns in theworkplace found thatdisagreeable individualsengaged in two distinctpatterns of behaviour thatoffset each other’s effectson power attainment: Theyengaged in more dominant-aggressive behaviour,which positively predictedattaining higher power,but also engaged in lesscommunal and generousbehaviour, which predictedattaining less power.”—Cameron Anderson et al.,Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences

Consumersappreciatespecifics“Just by using moreconcrete language(e.g., T-shirt ratherthan top), employeescan demonstrate thatthey are listening to thecustomer’s needs andinterests...employeesshould explicitly mentionthe conversation’s subjectmatter, saying [e.g.], “Onescoop of Chunky Monkeycoming right up” or “Yourgrey slacks are right overhere.”—Grant Packard and JonahBerge, Journal of ConsumerResearch

Patios arehotterthan ever70% The increasein sales for outdoorheaters between Apriland June comparedwith a year ago,according to Amazon.

Rivalries are holding steadyLevel of competition between colleagues, compared with a year ago

FINANCIALSTABILITYWILL TAKETIME—SHOPPINGWON’T

HOW SOON DO CONSUMERS EXPECT‘NORMALITY’ AFTER THE PANDEMIC?

FINANCIAL STABILITYDAYS OR WEEKS 14%MONTHS 37%YEARS 46%NEVER 3%

REMOTE WORKERS WHO LISTEN TO MUSIC

SHOPPINGDAYS OR WEEKS 48%MONTHS 46%YEARS 5%NEVER 1%

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SOURCE EY CANADA

27

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Toronto-based firm focuses onnon-traditional alternative fixedincome strategies

ortland Credit Group Inc. isa lifeline to small growing

companies that can’t get credit fromthe big banks but need capital to fueltheir growth.The need for this kind of financing in

Canada“is huge,” says Sean Rogister,Cortland’s chief executive officer.“Growth in the economy always

comes from the small firms,” he says,and“even with a proven businessmodel it can be a real struggle”sourcing affordable capital.It’s an area where Cortland sees

“tremendous opportunity,”Mr. Rogister says, especially asCanada’s big banks are wary of lendingamid the economic challenges of thecoronavirus pandemic,Established in Sept. 2013, Cortland

lendsmoney to smaller privatecompanies backed by their accountsreceivable and other liquid assets.To fund these loans, Cortland offers

andmanages three conservative short-term fixed-income investment vehicles— the Cortland Credit StrategiesLP, the Cortland Credit StrategiesRRSP Fund, and the Cortland CreditInstitutional LP— to both institutionaland retail investors.The emphasis is onprincipal protection and has provided astable income stream to investors,Mr. Rogister says.The strategy has returned nearly six

per cent annually since its inception,even amid the current low-interest-rateenvironment.The number of clients Cortland

lends to, as well as the number ofpeople who’ve invested with the firm,has increased in the past year— andthat growth is expected to continue,Mr. Rogister says.Cortland’s assets under

management, which grew by about970 per cent from 2016 to 2019,currently exceeds $625-million and isexpected to rise to several billion in thenext five years.“There’s significant growth in front

of us,”Mr. Rogister says.Cortland’s employee count has also

expanded from just Mr. Rogister andco-founder and chief operating officerBruce Sherk in 2013 to 16 employeestoday.The firm plans to add threemoreemployees in the next six months.Cortland has 45-to-50 loans

Cortland Credit expands by lendingto growing businesses in Canada.

outstanding at any one time, diversifiedwith more than 5,000 underlyingaccounts receivable and other similarcollateral support. Borrowing clientsinclude information technologyequipment resellers, advertising firmsand industrial service firms.Thesecompanies need the cash to grow or asbridge financing to even out cash flow.“In the Canadian market, we’re the

low-cost provider if you don’t haveaccess to bank capital,” Mr. Rogistersays. “Our capital is a stable source offinancing and we’re very close to ourborrowers.With other, higher-cost lenders, a

company’s borrowing costs can be inthe high teens, but with Cortland, it’sgenerally below 12 per cent, he says.To back up the loans, Cortland

gets detailed information about thebusiness, its revenues, accountsreceivables and clients and takes othermeasures to ensure its loans are repaidon time.“Although our loans are short-term,

our goal is to provide a long-termworking capital solution for our clientsso that most of our borrowers will bewith us for years.”Mr. Rogister says.On the investment side, Cortland

has about 70-per-cent institutionalinvestors, including organizationssuch as corporate and private pensionfunds, mutual funds, endowments andfamily offices as well as credit unions.The other 30 per cent of its investorsinclude about 2,000 accredited retailor individual investors that come to thefirm through registered advisers.Mr. Rogister believes his firm’s

alternative fixed-income strategies area better option than traditional fixed-income products with low returns.“Why are you putting your

investment capital into traditionalfixed income products in this low-rateenvironment?” he asks. “It doesn’tmake sense.You’re not even going tobeat inflation.”



Sean Rogister,Cortland Credit

Group ChiefExecutive Officer

C

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Online TrainingClassroom CoursesConsulting Services

Learn more online atworksitesafety.ca

ristan Dressler and JonMoore,co-founders of Dundas, Ont.-

basedWorksite Safety ComplianceCentre, like to do things their ownway.In Nov. 2011, the pair saw a gap in

how companies offered workplacehealth and safety courses. But insteadof opening bricks-and-mortar locations,they began offering courses online.Then they did the opposite of mostoperations and expandedWorksiteto offer in-class training at physicallocations.Worksite now has 10 training

centres – eight in southern Ontario andone each in Edmonton and Calgary,with plans for fivemore locationsin Canada over the next two years,mostly in Ontario. However, over time,the company aims to have a centre inevery major city across the country.“It has been a roller coaster,”

Mr. Dressler says of the company’srapid growth.The co-founders met while working

in the technology side of the healthand safety sector and saw“a lot ofopportunity to do a handful of thingsbetter,”Mr. Moore says, especiallyoffering a better customer and userexperience for online training.With that focus, the pair figured

Worksite would see“month-over-month growth [in clients] but it endedup beingmore a day-over-day growth,”Mr. Moore says. “We’ve grown itover time as the brand has grown,the influence has grown andword ofmouth has spread and it’s led us tooffer other successful by-products.”

Those additional products includemore online courses, in-class healthand safety training, training for healthand safety trainers and an expandinghealth and safety consulting business.Some of the coursesWorksite offersdeal with back-to-work protocolsrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic,handling hazardous chemicals andsafety for using ladders or highplatforms.By creating their own courses,

publishing their ownmanuals andfocusing on a great customer and userexperience,Worksite has been able togain individual and corporate clientsquickly, Mr. Dressler says.The company expects to train an

additional 100,000 people this year,across various sized companies, upfrom about 89,000 new trainees lastyear.Worksite has trained nearly

Raising the bar for onlinesafety trainingWorksite Safety Compliance Centre is expanding its online and in-person courses across Canada

T 475,000 people since the companystarted in 2011.“Nothing is slowing down anytime

soon in terms of growth,”Mr. Dresslersays.The company’s revenue has grown

more than 150 per cent between 2015and 2019.While COVID-19 has“greatlyaffected” its revenues inMarch andApril,Worksite is still having a strongyear with its in-class training and theexpansion of its online catalogue,Mr. Moore says.At first, the pair were the only two

employees. As the company grew,they focused on hiring specialists tohandle specific tasks.Worksite nowhas 36 employees.“That’s been our approach; growing

an excellent team over time and fillingevery little need that we had with aspecialist in that role and assuming aposition of being in command but outof control,”Mr. Dressler says. “Our growth hasbeen fuelled by finding some amazingpeople for every role that we have atWorksite.”Growth has also come asmore

companies focus on health and safetyin the workplace to reduce injuries andlost work time and want to offer thattraining to their staff, Mr. Moore says.“Over time there has been a greater

focus on health and safety and theeffect it has on the economy,” he says.Amid the push to e-learning due tothe pandemic, he saysWorksite hasan advantage with its robust onlineplatform.

Worksitecofounders

Jon Moore (left)and

Tristan Dressler(right)

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ILLU

STRATIO

NMYRIAM

WARES

Needtoknow

Considering COVID-19’s devastatingimpact, it seems odious to suggestany good has come from the globalpandemic. And yet, there has been atleast one positive effect, according toresearch conducted by the Univer-sity of Toronto’s Rotman School ofManagement and Harvard BusinessSchool. As consumers worried aboutthe risks of shopping and doing busi-

ness, companies cranked up theirdevelopment of new technologiesand services to enhance safety.

It’s a small mercy in a dark time.But in the long run, these innovationscould provide protection againstfuture catastrophic events.

“COVID,” explainsRotman’sAlbertoGalasso, “has given many people andcompanies the time to test and to

Mother ofinventionHowonemedical scandal drovemajor innovation—andwhatthatmeans for our current crisis

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experimentwith technologies that probably theywould not have done before.”Galasso’s research has long focused on decipheringwhat drives companies to

change. “There are a lot of theories out there about what can spur innovation,”he says. Galasso and Hong Luo, an associate professor at Harvard, decided tolook into howpublic fear can factor into the equation. The pair recently studieda 2009 scandal involving CT scans at a Los Angeles hospital. Some 200 patientswere walloped with as much as eight times the normal amount of radiation forthose kinds of medical tests. Further investigations revealed similar radiationoverdoses occurred in other hospitals around the United States. Class-actionlawsuits and congressional hearings ensued.In that case, hospitals, doctors and patients suddenly perceived a high level of

risk. That led to a “statistically significant” increase in what Galasso calls “riskmitigation technologies” for CT scanners and relatedmedical imaging devices.“Ultimately, changes in risk perception can be an important driver of innova-tion and shape the direction of technological progress,” the professors’ studyconcludes.Of course, COVID-19 has pushed many Canadian companies into pure sur-

vival mode, “leaving them with little time or insufficient cash flow to eitherpivot during the pandemic or develop new products,” according toGalasso. Buthe’s also seeing evidence of companies seizing on the crisis as an opportunity to

With a presidential election taking place in the United States,the airwaves are awash in political advertising. Campaignshave already spent more than US$3 billion on TV, radio and dig-ital spots, according to Ad Age. Traditionally, companies worryabout their promotions appearing alongside partisan ads, con-cerned that negative feelings toward a candidate might spillover and reflect poorly on a brand and its products. But thoseconcerns are unjustified, according to new research from Indi-ana University’s Kelley School of Business. Commercials airingafter political spots were actually seen by far more people andenjoyed a 3% bump in online discussion. It could pay to adver-tise during the political season.

create risk-mitigation measures.General Motors, for instance, rapidly

developed new workplace-safety tech-nologies, including automated scan-ning kiosks that can quickly conducttemperature checks on employees. InChina, e-commerce giant JD.com usedautonomous robotic vehicles to delivermasks and other products to people in thestrictly quarantined city of Wuhan. Sucha large-scale experimental pivot, saysGalasso, “would have been unthinkablebefore COVID.”Jane Kearns is seeing a similar spirit

of pandemic-induced inventiveness atthe MaRS Discovery District in Toronto,North America’s largest innovation hub.The vice-president of growth services forthe organization says a long list of MaRSclients significantly refocused their R&Dandmarket direction in COVID-19’s wake.One example: Myant Inc.Under thebrandnameSkiin, theToronto-

based company is developing textile-based monitoring systems—garmentswith medical electrodes and Bluetoothtransmitters woven into them. WhenCOVID-19 struck,Myant quickly switchedsome of its manufacturing capacity at its80,000-sq.-foot plant to 340,000 washableN95 masks per month interwoven withanti-viral copper and silver fibres. JustinTrudeau and Doug Ford have been photo-graphed wearing them.Meanwhile, clinical testing is just get-

ting under way on special garments thatcan continually monitor the temperature,breathing, heart rate and other healthfactors. They could enable doctors andnurses to remotely monitor highly infec-tious patients, transmitting thedata fromapatient’s ownphone. The company is evenworking on configuring the garments toremotely deliver medications directlyinto a patient’s body, allowing health careworkers to safely treat them from afar.Kearns has seen numerousMaRS clients

pivot to make new products or refocustheir research.Companies are nowstrivingto address issues ranging from consumersafety to health care challenges to manu-facturing quandaries. Says Kearns: “I thinkCOVID has really brought out the entre-preneurial spirit in a lot of peoplewhohavethese technical backgrounds and want todo things thatwill help.” / Anthony A. Davis

D O N A L D T R U M P A P P R O V E D

T H I S M E S S A G E

INCREASE IN MEDICAL IMAGING SAFETY PATENTS AFTER SCANDAL

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Needtoknow

PHOTOGRAPH

ISTOCK

Scott Shayko was leading anenvironmental consulting firmwhen an idea struck him that, inturn, led to the creation of hiscompany.

While conducting assessmentson highway pollution frommotor vehicles, he noticed a cor-relation between noisy roadwaysand poor air quality. Sound bar-riers—tall walls typically madeof concrete between busy roadsand residential areas—provide asimple solution to the first prob-lem, but did nothing to mitigatethe vehicle emissions.

The realization sent Shaykoand his business partner, Xin Qiu,an air quality scientist, down adecade-long path to research,develop and market noise barri-ers that also absorb emissions.They founded EnvisionSQ inGuelph, Ont., in 2014. But ask himwhy he devoted a decade of hiscareer to the idea, and Shaykosays that it doesn’t have anythingto do with passion, an intenseemotional reaction that manyassume is necessary for entre-preneurial success.

“I don’t consider myself to bepassionate,” Shayko says. “I’mwilling to work very hard andtake on great risk to providea good life for my family andemployees, and do somethingfor society.”

The idea of entrepreneurialpassion is often tied to success-ful ventures. Founders who pas-sionately believe in their productcome across as more persuasiveand motivated, traits that tend toattract funding and clients. Butthe path to victory is often mis-construed, according to research

from the Smith School of Busi-ness at Queen’s University.Entrepreneurs don’t necessarilyneed to be emotionally investedin an idea to be successful; sheereffort and hard work contributedto greater success.

Moreover, passion can sendunwitting entrepreneurs downa dead end, according to Shayko.“I have met entrepreneurs whoare very passionate about theirproduct, but sometimes that mayskew their thinking,” he says. “Ifthey come up with an idea, andit’s not a good idea but they’re

passionate about it, they’ll keepon pursuing it. But eventuallyyou need to know when to saythis isn’t going to work.”

Those who believe that pas-sion is the starting point to entre-preneurial success are followinga myth, according to MatthiasSpitzmuller, an associate profes-sor of organizational behaviourat the Smith School of Business.Working with researchers in theNetherlands and Germany, heanalyzed 54 startups over eightweeks and found that passionmore often springs from intenseinitiative and effort, not the otherway around.

“We have this misguided notionthatwehave tobepassionateaboutwhat we’re doing,” he says, point-ing to former Apple CEO SteveJobs’s Stanford University com-

BIG IDEA

Clear eyes, no heart, can’t loseIt’s amyth that entrepreneurs need to be passionate to succeed.In fact, burning desire can be a problem

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a product or service that solvesa problem leads many businessesto fail, according to Dan Legault,chief executive of Toronto-basedAntibe Therapeutics Inc., whoworked as a consultant helpingstruggling businesses developturnaround strategies beforejoining the biopharmaceuticalcompany in its early stages in2005.

“Sometimes the market or theworld have changed so much thatyou can’t do that thing anymore,and you need to make a strategicchange and adapt,” Legault says.“There are entrepreneurs whohave a passion for one thing andthat can be brilliant, or it couldalso be an issue. If the worldchangesand thatpassionorvisionis no longer what the world needsor wants or values, then [the busi-ness] is going to be in trouble.Passion can help you persevere,but it can also make you a one-trick pony and makes it harderto adapt.” /StefanieMarotta

SOURCECBIN

SIG

HTS

Big Idea is produced with the support of our advisory panel

Yolande Chan, Associate Dean,Research at Smith School of BusinessNancy Evans, Executive Director,Marketing and Communications,Smith School of Business.

Yrjo Koskinen, Associate Dean, Research;Haskayne School of BusinessStephane Massinon, Director, PublicRelations; Haskayne School of Business

mencement speech in 2005.(“The only way to do great workis to love what you do,” the leg-endary tech founder told thecrowd.) Says Spitzmuller: “Oftenthese comments have been mis-understood by students andentrepreneurs believing that ifthey don’t have this warm, cozyfeeling about what they’re doingfrom day one, then they have tolook for a different career.”

Instead, founders shouldconsider other motivations,Spitzmuller says. Burgeoningentrepreneurs tend to set lofty,long-term goals without cel-ebrating incremental successes.The study found that entre-preneurs who acknowledgedsmaller victories felt more moti-vated to continue to developtheir ideas, even without beingpassionate about the underlyingconcept.

The distinction influenceshow entrepreneurs are trainedand funded. In his courses,Spitzmuller provides studentswith exercises that develop anentrepreneurial mindset. Theassignments are designed toteach students to drive and influ-ence their environment ratherthan simply react to situationsthat could affect their businesses.

“The starting point for anentrepreneur is initiative, so howcan we cultivate and emphasizethat?” Spitzmuller says. “Withpersonal initiative also comesthe feeling that we can perseverein the face of obstacles, changeorientation and inflict changeon our environment. It’s a reallyunderappreciated concept inentrepreneurship training inmost Western countries, whichoften focus more on businessskills, such as marketing andaccounting.”

By encouraging entrepreneursto start with initiative and curi-osity rather than pursuing a pas-sion, founders could better iden-tify blind spots in their ideas.Out of 101 failed startups, only

9% of founders said that a lackof passion or knowledge in theproduct was a key reason forfailure, regardless of whetherthey had a good idea, accordingto a 2019 study by CB Insights.Meanwhile, entrepreneurs tack-ling problems they consideredinteresting, rather than solving amarket need, was cited as the topreason for failure, at 42%.

Inability to adapt an idea into

NO MARKET NEED

RAN OUT OF CASH

NOT THE RIGHT TEAM

GOT OUTCOMPETED

PRICING

USER UNFRIENDLY PRODUCT

NO BUSINESS MODEL

POOR MARKETING

IGNORED CUSTOMERS

PRODUCT MISTIMED

LOST FOCUS

DISHARMONY AMONG TEAM/INVESTORS

PIVOT GONE BAD

LACK OF PASSION

FAILED GEOGRAPHICAL EXPANSION

NO FINANCING

LEGAL CHALLENGES

ENTREPRENEUR DIDN’T USE NETWORK

ENTREPRENEUR BURNED OUT

FAILURE TO PIVOT

“WEHAVETHISMISGUIDEDNOTIONTHATWEHAVETOBEPASSIONATEABOUTWHATWE’REDOING”

TOP 20 REASONS STARTUPS FAIL

42%

29%

23%

19%

18%

17%

17%

14%

14%

13%

13%

13%

10%

9%

9%

8%

8%

8%

8%

7%

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Financial StatementPreparation + ReportingTax Preparation + MinimizationWealth Generation + ProtectionFinancial + Business Coaching

Succession PlanningBookkeepingVirtual CFO Services

www.gauvreaucpa.caT: 705 745 8390 | Toll-Free: 1 888 748 2974 | 150 King Street, Suite 100 W, Peterborough, ON

ost firms meet once a year withtheir accountant, “and that’s not

good enough,” says Robert Gauvreau,partner at Gauvreau & AssociatesChartered Professional Accountants,a boutique firm based in Peterborough,Ont.The belief that more communication

is better has helped the accountingfirm expand from three employeeswhen it started in 2008 to about25 employees and $2.1-million inannual revenue as of fiscal 2019.Thefirm’s goal is to more than double itsheadcount and reach $10-million inrevenue over the next four years.The company’s revenue has

increased by 312 per cent over thepast five years alone, driven by a focuson specialized services that attractbusinesses further afield.“A lot of the growth our firm has

realized is not driven by the client downthe street,”Mr. Gauvreau says. “Theshift in thinking on a global scale hasreally changed our business… andwe are always working on the nextinnovative service that can support ourclients to achieve greater results.”Mr. Gauvreau attributes some of

his big-picture thinking to his timewith business guruTony Robbins, whorecruited Gauvreau &Associates to behis Canadian partner several years agoto help deliver his BusinessMasteryprogram.“For a few years, we travelled with

Tony and his team,” spending time inboardroomswith some of themostrespected business strategists in theworld, Mr. Gauvreau says, describing it

as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”Mr. Gauvreau has since launched his

own virtual chief financial officer (CFO)program that focuses on working withgrowth-minded, high-performanceexecutives.The program helps toguide these entrepreneurs and theirbusinesses to gain financial claritytoday and work towards realizingsignificant financial results in thefuture.“Wework closelywith these

entrepreneurs to help themmakeinformed strategic decisions thatmaximize their financial outcomes sothat they can reinvest in their businessesand increase the impact they havewiththose they serve,” he says.The program’s broader objective is

to learn about clients’ financial goals,both in their business and personallives, andmap out the steps they needreach them.

How Gauvreau & Associates CPA isserving the entrepreneurial businessmarket across North AmericaExtra client attention and big-picture perspective has led to rapid expansion atthe Peterborough-based accounting firm

M

“My job is to help them realizefinancial freedom, which is livinglife on their terms and not having toworry about money,”Mr. Gauvreausays. “How satisfying is it for me tobe able to do this for my clients!Thisis why they love working closelywith me andmy team, and why ourprogram continues to grow.”The Gauvreau &Associates team

consults with its clients throughoutthe year by phone, online andin-person (when there’s not apandemic), instead of relying on anannual visit to solely do their taxes.“Business financial models and

cost structures can frequentlychange and if we don’t correct itfor 15-to-18months, it can be verydetrimental to a company’s financialresults,” he says. “If we can helpit, we don’t want to let our clientsdeliver disappointing results.”To help support the firm’s growth,

Mr. Gauvreau also focuses onrecruiting talent who can deliver ahigh level of customer service andare aligned with the company’svalues, which include providing highquality and proactive accountingservices.“We’ve got a very definitive

culture and set of values.That hasallowed us to build a team of highperformers,”Mr. Gauvreau says.His next goal is to continue to

expand across Canada and theUnited States, offering diverseservices virtually to small- andmedium-sized businesses.He’ll also continue to brainstorm

about what services to introduceto his clients, inspired by learningsfrom his recent book, TheWealthyEntrepreneur.“We love working with growth-

mindset individuals,”Mr. Gauvreausays. “The ultimate end goal is tohelp our clients achieve financialfreedom through valuable advice,exceptional service, and byproviding innovative solutions.”

Robert Gauvreau,partner at

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Peterborough, Ont.,attributes his

big-picture thinkingto time spentworking

with business guruTony Robbins.

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Needtoknow


ASK AN EXPERT

Drama divertedTwo ofmy executives hate each other. They’re both goodat their jobs and it doesn’t affect their performance,but they bicker constantly.What should I do?

First of all, ditch your denialand acknowledge their feudabsolutely has effects—notjust on the executives, buton everybody else in theorganization. “When two seniorpeople fight, the rest of the staffnaturally chooses sides. It’snegative, it sets a bad tone, andit spills over,” says corporateconflict mediator John Curtis.So start with a professionallyconducted survey of thewhole staff. “This will helpyou understand the broaderimpacts and help inform howyou design your mediationprocess,” explains Curtis. Youcould bring in an expert, or youcould toughen up and deliver anultimatum: “If you can’t workthis out, one of you is going togo.” Then stand by your word.“Unless there are consequences,there’s just nomotivation toimprove the relationship. Itwill just get worse.” In themeantime, mediation shouldencourage your bickering execsto work things out. If not, itmight save you from having to

make a choice. “Sometimes thebest thing that comes out ofmediation is that someone self-selects themselves to leave,”says Curtis. Problem solved.

I have an “open-door policy,”but thatmeans people are alwaysinterruptingmewith theirproblems. Howdo I find timeto getwork done?Nowmore than ever, managersneed to be compassionate andsupportive, saysMaria Rotundo,professor of organizationalbehaviour and human resourcemanagement at the RotmanSchool of Management. Anopen-door policy—whetherliteral or virtual—brings“potential benefits likerelationship building,establishing trust and promotinga culture of communication.”Theoretically, your open-doorpolicy is working all too well;the employees clearly feelwelcome, comfortable andcommunicative. Practically,however, it’s unsustainable andoverwhelming—particularly for

just one human. There’s no easyanswer here, notes Rotundo, butthere are certainly ways to makelife easier. “First, establish someboundaries to help manage theseconversations and keep them ontrack,” she says. Clear companypolicy and protocol can plainlystate when to go to the boss,when an HR rep is needed, andwhen venting with a colleaguewill do the job just fine. If andwhen it’s your turn to listen,remember this is an opportunityto empower your employeefor the future. “Through thesediscussions, you want to help theemployee unpack the problembut also take a leadership roleto solve it.”

One ofmy employees takes a napevery lunch hour. Should I object?“Unless they’re snoring throughthe walls or falling asleep inmeetings, what’s the problem?”asks Lisa Bélanger, behaviouralmedicine doctorate andunapologetic nap enthusiast.“Sleep science proves that a shortnap is incredibly beneficial—itreduces fatigue and increasesalertness, memory and reactiontime. It improves performance,and for bosses that’s a greatthing.” Nappers as slackers is anold (North American)myth thatforward-thinking companiesreject—in Sweden, for example,companies are required by law tohave a nap room. Youmight notgo that far, especially these days,whenmany of us are workingfrom our bedrooms anyway.But do offer up some sleepsupport with a non-judgmentalconversation that lets them knowthey need not nap on the sly. Arethey okay? Are they burning out?Not sleeping at night? If there’sa problem that needs fixing, thecompany should help if it can.But if not, if the employee simplythrives with a power nap, thenjust be glad they don’t spendtheir break chain-smokingand butt out. Or even better,suggests Bélanger, “gift thema pillow.” /Rosemary Counter

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lot of companies like to say theyoperate asa family.AtNoFixed

Address Inc. (NFA), it’smore than just talk.Founded in 2016 by two husband-

and-wife teams, Dave Lafond andRachel Lai and Serge and ShannonRancourt, NFA has quickly becomeone of Canada’smost talked-aboutintegrated creative agencies.Thesecret to its success so far, say itsfour co-founders, comes down to thephilosophy exemplified in its name.

Not that NFA’s 140-plus employeesare literally without a home.TheToronto-based agency is headquartered in abrick-and-beam formerwarehouse,known as the East Room, in the city’seast end (where it’s expanded itsfootprint five times in only four years).

Rather, the name represents NFA’snovel approach to the agencymodel.InMs. Lai’s words,“no fixed approach,no fixed hours, no fixed hierarchies...because there’s no common approach;each client and campaign is fully unique.Everything can change if there’s awillingness to evolve.”

Mr. Rancourt,Mr. Lafond andMs. Laifirst metmore than 20 years agowhenthey overlapped at the large advertisingholding company Publicis, whereMr.Rancourt was chief operating officer.

“I rememberwhen Serge camehome one day and said, ‘For the firsttime inmy career, I think I’vemetmy

creative twin,” recallsMs. Rancourt.The relationship persisted through

career ups and downs and job and lifechanges. Finally, in 2016,Mr. Lafond andMr. Rancourt had left their old jobs, andwere restless for something new.Thatwaswhen the quartet struck up the ideato launch a new agency reflecting theirshared creative values.

And theywanted to do it fast.Mr. Lafond andMs. Lai sold their

home inToronto’s Lawrence Parkneighbourhood and the Rancourtscashed inmultiple investments.Withthe accumulated nest egg, theywereable to take a dynamic approachmorecommon in the startupworld—growthfirst, profit later.Thatmeant hiring asmall but top-flight creative team rightoff the bat.

Opening its doorswith a crewof 10people in 2016, the budding agency

soon landed its first break thanks toa connection at Questrade, an onlinediscount brokerage.The campaignNFA put together, called“AskToughQuestions,” resulted in a very satisfiedclient, industry buzz and a raft of awards.

It didn’t take long before the shopwas wining acclaim for campaigns forSickKids Hospital and the CanadianCentre for Child Protection, amongothers. Its client roster has nowmore than doubled, from 19 in 2017to 40 this year, and its revenues haveballooned from $4.1-million in 2017 to$15.3-million last year — landing it wellin the black.

In 2020, NFA moved into Quebec,establishing a new arm of the businessin Montreal. And this year, the companypartnered with Greg Hahn — arenowned NewYork-based creativedirector — on a U.S. expansion calledMischief @ No FixedAddress.

“We just got a call one day fromGreg, who’s one of the most creativeand conceptual storytellers in theworld,” says Mr. Lafond,“and he wasreally intrigued by our model.”

Even COVID-19 hasn’t done muchto hold back the firm thanks to a focuson problem-solving over selling anda flexible model that makes speed,agility and a creative inferno a naturalby-product.

“We don’t care when or where youwork from, as long as you deliver,” saysMs. Lai, the agency’s chief strategyofficer.

That freedom, says Mr. Rancourt,has paid off many times over this year.“We’ve always been about flexibility,about freedom,” he says. “Now theworld is catching up.”



Left to right:Dave Lafond,

Rachel Lai, Shannonand Serge Rancourt,

founders ofcreative agency

No Fixed Address.

A

No Fixed AddressReinventing the advertising agency modelwith a no fixed approach.Visit nofixedaddressinc.com.

Creative agency No Fixed Address credits‘no fixed approach’ to business successThe family-run creativebusiness has earned industrybuzz and a raft of awards forits work with Questrade andSickKids Hospital

1109899201.ad 1 2020-09-08 3:29 PM


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Needtoknow

Let’s jump right to the COVID-19 crisis. A number of foodprocessing operations have seenclusters of infection.With 51plants around the world, what hasMcCain’s experience been?We benefitted early on fromhaving operations in China. (1)So on Jan. 2, I think, we wentinto crisis mode there. Our teamdeveloped a set of protocols forhow to keep our operations safe,and that gave us the blueprintfor how to run our plants safelyworldwide.What are those protocols?First, to make sure that ifyou’re not feeling well, you’restaying at home and you’regetting paid.We have dailyquestionnaires and temperaturechecks, and we have reinforcedall the social distancing, maskwearing, sanitation and safepractices.We’ve brought on anepidemiologist, who is advisingus on keeping our operationssafe. It’s not a static process.You have to constantly adapt theprotocols because it’s differentto operate in a period when all ofthe economy is in lockdown andyour factory’s working becauseit’s an essential function, versustoday, when things are graduallygoing back to normal. Thatcreates a different level of risk.Have you changed anythingphysically about the plants?Yes. The canteens don’t lookthe same anymore. There arebarriers everywhere to keeppeople safe, with individualbooths. If you go to the breakroom, it will be clearly indicatedwhere you can be and whereyou shouldn’t be. I could go onthroughout the factory.Do you know howmany of yourworkers have been infected?Wemonitor it on a day-to-daybasis. We offer tests to our teammembers to proactively check.We check on everyone who’s notfeeling well, making sure theyget the support they need.Where have you had outbreaks?I won’t disclose that, but I can

It’s easy to forget the immensity of McCain Foods.Being privately owned, it evades the spotlight thatfollows a public company’s every move. So it mightbe a surprise to learn thatMcCain produces at leastone out of every four french fries sold in the world.It’s the biggest company of its kind, accounting for aquarter of the $19-billion global frozen fry industry.Every single McDonald’s fry sold in Canada comesfrom McCain. It supplies every major restaurantchain inNorth America, and the production systembuilt to feed this demand stretches across six con-tinents. Its potato fields cover 150,000 hectares, theequivalent of roughly 280,000 Canadian footballfields. It is big.Noneof this escaped the attentionofMaxKoeune

whenhe leftDanoneSAafter a nearly 15-year careerto becomeCFOof a company he viewed as “iconic.”Andwhenhewas namedCEO in 2017, Luxembourg-bornKoeunewaseager toexpandthegiant’sempire.Soon there were plans for new operations in thestate of Washington, in Brazil, maybe even in Rus-sia. Then 2020 delivered its rebuttal, and it becameclear that great sizewas no protection against a tinypathogen. Now as Koeune works—one hesitates tosay feverishly—to steer McCain through growingchallenges, he sits for his very first major interviewsince joining the company.

THE EXCHANGE

Hold the friesIn his first major interview since joining McCain Foods,CEOMaxKoeune talks about the french fry giant’spandemic preparations, how it made sure its farmers hada place to sell their spuds and the future of agriculture

1. McCain’sfactory is inHarbin, in China’snortheasternprovince. It alsohas operationsacross Europeand NorthAmerica, as wellas in Tasmania,Argentina,Colombia, Indiaand SouthAfrica. And itis proceedingwith plans tobuild a newplant in Brazil.

BY TREVOR COLE

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tell you it’s much lower thanwhat we’ve seen in benchmarks.A couple of months into thepandemic, another major Canadianfood producer estimated the crisiswould add $20 million to its Q2expenses. How does that comparewith your experience?We’re seeing a big disruption ofour business—I’m just asking about expenses.Well, I really have to start withthe top line, because morethan half of our sales are to therestaurant, hotel and cateringindustry. And when thatdisappears overnight, the mainissue is not the costs; it’s thatyour revenue base has taken abig hit. The other big concernwe have is that our growersin Canada ended up havinghundreds of millions of poundsof potatoes on their hands. Samein the U.S.; same in the wholeof our operations.What are wegoing to do with that? Thoseare issues in the hundreds ofmillions, not the tens of millions.So, your restaurant and hospitalitysales dried up overnight?It depended on the country.Sit-down restaurants obviouslyclosed down. But thendepending on the legislation,country by country, some had toshut down all their drive-throughand delivery facilities. But ifyou think about Canada, it was apretty severe lockdown.What did you do with all thosepotatoes you couldn’t sell?The problem starts with rawpotatoes. You can store someof the potatoes harvested in thefall until, say, June. In Canada,when the crisis hit, there wereabout 300million pounds ofraw potatoes sitting in growerstores. The sales dropped; wehad to stop our factories. Thenweworked with our growersto find a solution. This is nota moment to let them feel thepain of this on their own. Andwe realized that with massiveunemployment building on ascale never seen before, thefood banks were going to beoverwhelmed. The last thing

we wanted was to see potatoesgo to waste. That would havebeen catastrophic. In Canada, wedonated 20million pounds to thefood banks.We’ve done the samein all the countries where weoperate, at different scales.Those were raw potatoes?We left it for the food banksto decide based on what theyneeded. It was about 80% rawand 20% prepared potatoes.And wemade that commitmentover multiple months.We alsoworked with the growers to findalternative channels, where wewould buy the potatoes fromthe farmers and sell them indifferent forms—which cameat a loss for us, but we thoughtit was our responsibility to getthe potatoes into productive useand to get the farmers’ incomesecured.We’re extremely proudthat we were able to honourevery single contract we hadwith every single potato farmerin Canada.What about the rest of the world?The same.We’ve dealt with thecrop in the U.S., in Canada, inEngland and in Europe, so that’sbeen our key focus.When you saw the dramatic dropin demand on the restaurant side,did you see an increase in demandon the consumer side?There was a very substantialincrease on the retail side, inthe grocery stores. But 70%of potatoes that are grown inCanada for processing endup being served on a plate ina restaurant or hotel, or at a

caterer. So even if the retailmarket doubles, it’s still notmaking up for the biggest chunkthat has disappeared.How able is McCain to withstandthe financial blow?As a family company, we canonly rely on ourselves, right?There’s no stock market to goto. So we’ve always managed thecompany in a prudent way. It’s acrisis, clearly, but we’re workingto get out of it stronger.Were you forced to lay offworkers?We had to do temporary layoffsas we shut down factories, butas demand came back, we wereable to bring people back. (2)We pivoted completely for theoffice-based people to work fromhome in a matter of days, andit has redefined the way we seework.What has the whole crisis revealedto you about the resilience ofCanada’s food supply chain?There was, of course, the frenzyof the pantry loading and all thestories around empty shelves,but that didn’t last very long. Ithink the food system has shownvery good resilience. Everyonein the supply chain workedtogether to figure out how tokeep the shelves stocked.How much uncertainty is there foryou now about the future demandfor potatoes?What is clouded is the healthsituation. Is there going to be asecond wave?Where? How big?That’s really clouding our abilityto forecast. The potato industryhad been growing for years andyears, so fundamentally, thedemand is there. (3)We’re notconcerned about the long term.The uncertainty is over—you tellme—is it months? Is it years?Let’s talk about other challenges.What effects are you experiencingfrom climate change with harvestsaround the world?We had twomajor droughtepisodes in Europe over the pasttwo summers.We had twomajorspring floods in Canada overthe past three years. Those arecentennial events, except they

2. The companysays “nearly all”of its laid-offemployees areback to workaround theworld.

3. According toKoeune, globaldemand forfrozen potatoproducts hasbeen growingat a rate of 3%to 4% per yearfor the pastfive years.

4. McCain isalso committingto a 15%improvementin water-useefficiency inwater-stressedregions,100% potatoutilizationin all plants,and 100%recyclable orcompostablepackaging by2025. By 2030,it vows to beusing 100%renewableelectricity.

5. There are18 signatorycompanies forOP2B, includingDanone, Google,Kellogg, L’Oreal,Loblaw, Mars,Nestlé andUnilever.


6.


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HEGLO

BEANDMAIL

seem to repeat themselves oneyear after the next. We’ve seenwildfires in Alberta much earlierthan usual. I could go on likethis probably in most, if not all,of the areas where we operate.And that’s clearly affecting ourfarmers and our operation.Can you quantify the effects?It’s in the tens of millions ofdollars every year.What percentage of crops do youlose to climate change every year?In Europe—which is a big chunkof our business—two years ago,we lost 20% of the crop. Closerto home, in Manitoba, there weretwo consecutive years of earlyfrost. This year, we lost 30% ofthe crop. We can keep going.What are you doing to overcomeall those challenges?It starts with ourselves. We’vepublished a sustainability reportthat sets goals for the next 10years—on emissions, farmingpractices, plastic waste, waterusage, et cetera. (4)But thoseare big problems. We needsolutions and scale. So we’vejoined or formed coalitions withlike-minded companies to createmore scale. To give you oneexample, we founded a coalitioncalled One Planet Businessfor Biodiversity. (5)As a set ofbusinesses tied to agriculture,we want to foster regenerativeagriculture and biodiversity,and continue the fight againstdeforestation.In some countries, you’re workingwith governments that areresistant to action around climate.How do you deal with that?That’s the benefit of havingscale. As you put all those18 companies together, wehave about $500 billion inrevenues. When we decide to dosomething, we can get the ballmoving a little bit.One ofMcCain’s commitments isa 25% reduction in CO2 emissionsfrom potato farming, storage andfreight, and a 50% reduction fromoperations by 2030. How does thatcompare with your competitors?When the Paris Agreement sayshere’s what needs to be done

to limit climate change to 1.5degrees, that’s where we peg ourambition—not so much on whatcompetitors are doing. We wantto make sure that as a globalcitizen, we do our part in thefight against climate change. Andwe have it audited, so it’s notjust us talking to ourselves. Withother potato manufacturers, Ihaven’t seen a report to date thatmakes as broad a set of targets.So, I’m a bit at a loss to answeryour question.Maple Leaf Foods (6), maybenot a direct competitor of yours,declared itself the first majorfood company in the world to becarbon neutral. You, on the otherhand, called being carbon neutralan “aspiration.”Well, we set up targets. Myaspiration is that as we makeprogress, we realize, hey, we cando more faster.You have 3,500 growers aroundthe world who need to changetheir practices. (7) It must bemore difficult in some regionsthan others.The click happens whenfarmers see that despite alltheir hard work, their yieldsare going down. Think aboutpopulation growth—from 7.5billion to 10 billion by 2050?The UN Food and AgricultureOrganization said a food increaseof 60% to 70% will be required.Collectively, as a food system,we’re already using half of theland mass for agriculture. Ifyou want to increase that bytwo-thirds, that’s going to be

deforestation on a massivescale. So, you have to work onthe yields. Same thing withgreenhouse gas emissions. If wekeep doing what we’re doing,emissions will increase by 85%or 90% for that food productionincrease. According to theIntergovernmental Panel onClimate Change, the food systemis already a third of all emissionsin the world. The way we set upagriculture over the past fewdecades has worked really well.We have to find a different waygoing forward.Of course, it’s 2020, so there’sno end to the issues, and somego beyond food. You launchedsomething called the Diversity andInclusion strategy three years ago.What’s the goal of that program?Well, it’s to realize that, first, ifyou look at our senior ranks, it’svery obvious we have work to do.You have 15 people on your seniorleadership team. Two are women,and there are no people of colour.That’s a fact. That’s why I’mvery clear that we have workto do. The second thing is I’mabsolutely convinced that to bea good company serving ourcustomers, we need to reflectwho our customers and ourconsumers are.Are you giving yourself a deadline?We started setting targets aroundgender diversity, because that’sthe demographic informationwe have. We don’t have ethnicstatistics. We are going to lookat ways of getting that withoutinfringing on any privacy laws.I believe you get things movingwhen you measure them andset objectives. And so, we’resetting objectives. We’re makingit part of compensation. It’s acultural transformation. It startswith education around biases,conscious and unconscious. (8)Ultimately, my goal is a companywhere everyone feels they can betheir authentic self.

7. As part ofits Farms ofthe Futureprogram, McCainplans to buildthree workingexperimentalfarms to test andshowcase new,more efficientpractices. Thecompany hasestablished NewBrunswick as thefirst location.

8.McCain hasbrought in acompany calledWhite Men asFull DiversityPartners toeducate itssenior leadership.

Trevor Cole is the award-winning authorof five books, including TheWhiskyKing, a non-fiction account of Canada’smost infamousmobster bootlegger.

Actually, Maple LeafFoods is a rival. Wallace

McCain (left) wasforced out of McCain

Foods in the early 1990sby his brother and

co-CEO, Harrison, overleadership issues.

Wallace wanted hisson, Michael, to become

McCain’s next CEO;Harrison (left) and other

family members didnot. Wallace went onto acquire Maple Leaf

Foods in 1995.

Michael (left) hasbeen CEO of Maple

Leaf since 1999.


Congratulations totheserecentappointeesPhillipCrawley,Publisher&CEOof TheGlobe andMail, extendsbestwishes to thefollowing individualswhowere recently featured in theReport onBusiness Section ofTheGlobe andMail newspaper. Congratulations onyournewappointments.

OCTOBER 2020

Stephen Polozto Board of Directors

CGI

Suzanne McGurnto President andChief Executive

OfficerCADTH

Denis Helloto Vice-President

andGeneral ManagerAbbVie Canada

Mary Powellto Board of Directors

CGI

Judy Cotteto Board of Directors

Gibson Energy Inc.

Jean-François Chalifouxto Chair of the

Board of DirectorsCanadian Life AndHealth Insurance

Association

Dr. Michael T. Cohento President

The CanadianMedical Protective

Association

Denis Berthiaumeto Board of Directors

Assuris

Victor Kingto Vice President,

ExplorationB2Gold Corp.

Kathy Cunninghamto CFO

The Globe and Mail

Dr. Lisa Calderto CEO

The CanadianMedical Protective

Association

Dominique T. Husseyto Vice Chair andToronto Managing

PartnerBennett Jones LLP

Tara Deakinto the Boardgoeasy Ltd.

Costa Poulopoulosto Chair

The CanadianReal EstateAssociation

(CREA)

Anne Mette dePlace Filippini

to Chief InvestmentOfficer

Burgundy AssetManagement Ltd.

ROBM_TEMPLATE.indd 1 2020-09-08 3:32 PM

Recent Appointees

OCTOBER 2020

To make arrangements for an Appointment Notice, please call 1-800-387-9012 or email [email protected] all appointment notices online at www.globeandmail.com/appointments

Dr. Lysa Porthto Dean, GordonS. Lang School ofBusiness & Economics

The University ofGuelph

Marisa SterlingP.Eng., FECto PresidentProfessional

Engineers Ontario(PEO)

Mary Ann Leonto Chair of theAudit Committee

LFL Group

Hon. James Mooreto Board of Directors

goeasy Ltd.

Barbara Zvanto inaugural

President and CEOUniversity PensionPlan Ontario (UPP)

Catherine Bestto Chair of the

BoardWawanesa Mutual

Insurance Company

David Cynamonto Co-Chair ofthe Board

Sinai HealthFoundation

Maxine GranovskyGluskin

to Co-Chair ofthe Board


The HonourableLisa Raitt

to the Board andAudit Committee

LFL Group

Jennifer Stamto Insolvency &Restructuring

PartnerNorton Rose

Fulbright

Andy Taylorto the BoardGore Mutual

Insurance Company

Paul Soubryto the Board

Wawanesa MutualInsurance Company

Howard SokolowskiO.Ont

to Co-Chair ofthe Board


Paula B. Madoffto Board of Directors

Power Corporationof Canada

Byron HornerLLB MBA CFAto President

Hold It All Inc.

Daniel Jutrasto Rector

The University ofMontreal

Siim A. Vanaseljato Board of Directors

Power Corporationof Canada

Eileen Marikarto Senior VP,and CFOKeyera

Anne-Marie Vanierto Board of Directors

Gore MutualInsurance Company


PHOTOGRAPH


Out of

A LONG-TERM SHIFTTO REMOTEWORK IS NOWINEVITABLE.HERE’SWHATCOMPANIESNEED TO DO—ANDWHATTHEY NEED TOCHANGE—TOGUARANTEESUCCESSILLUSTRATIONS BY RYAN GARCIA

BYSTACY

LEEKONG

10_20_RemoteWork.indd 2210_20_RemoteWork.indd 22 2020-09-08 12:47 PM2020-09-08 12:47 PM


Alessia Yaworsky, a senior projectmanagerat Telus, has a work-from-home routine:She’s an early riser, doesn’t need muchtime to get ready and has zero commute.So she can be at her computer between7:15 and 7:45 a.m. Instead of stopping by acolleague’s cubicle to chat, she checks inusing Google Chat. She’ll often throw aload of laundry in the machine and mightgo for a run through her Vancouver neigh-bourhood, tune into a workout class orgrab groceries as a quick break. She appre-ciates the flexibility, but setting boundar-ies between work and the rest of her lifecan be hard. And she misses connectingwith colleagues in real life.Please note: This isn’t Yaworsky’s pan-demic routine. This is just how she’sworked for her entire nine-year tenure atTelus. She loves setting her own scheduleand logging in fromwherever shewants—her grandparents’ place in the Okanaganor a hotel in Halifax—but understandswhy it’s been so hard for some people toadjust to the new normal.“I think some friends who had neverworked from home were excited at thebeginning, just because they thought, Ican do all this other stuff,” she says. “Andthen the prospect of being able to watcha Netflix show during the day, or some-thing like that, wore off. We still have ourlist of things that need to get done withina week.”If we didn’t understand that reality atthe beginning of the pandemic, we cer-tainly get it now. Back inMay, 51% ofwork-ers in the U.S. were experiencing burnout,according to a poll conducted byMonster,the global employment website. Thatnumber had increased to 69% in a fol-low-up survey taken in July. Partly, this isbecause we’re not just working remotely;

we’re trying to get work done during apandemic, which is an entirely differentthing. But there are also too many compa-nies trying to approximate their in-officeexperience with employees now spreadacross a city, country or even the world.

“The research doesn’t support full-time telework in a lot of ways,” saysLinda Duxbury, a management pro-fessor at CarletonUniversity’s SprottSchool of Business and an expert onwork-life balance. She differentiatesbetween telework and remotework.With telework, employees have adesignated workspace at home,with an ergonomically designedarea and access to all the data, soft-ware and technology they’d haveat the office. Remotework ismuchmore ad hoc—and that’s whatmost of us are doing right now.“We know what works for tele-work andweknowwhat doesn’t,”she explains. “And this breaks allthe rules. Telework is some daysin an office and some days athome. You should never be tele-

working and trying to do childcareat exactly the same time. And it’s usuallythinking work, knowledge work—workthat doesn’t require collaboration.”But despite the challenges, a generallong-term move to working from homeno longer seems like a question of if butwhen. In late April, OpenText announcedit would be permanently closing half itsoffices. In May, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütkeproclaimed that “office centricity is over”and that most of the company’s workforcewould work remotely on a permanentbasis. This shift isn’t restricted to tech—the Bank of Montreal announced that upto 80%of its employeeswould beworkingfrom home, at least some of the time, ina new hybrid model. In the U.S., Nation-wide Mutual Insurance announced a per-manent move to a hybrid model, while JesStaley, the CEO of U.K.-based Barclaysbank, noted that “the notion of putting7,000 people in a building may be a thingof the past.”Companies have realized that workersdon’t have to physically be in the office tobe productive—and reducing the numberof employeeswhowork fromtheofficecanlead to huge cost savings on everythingfrom rent to office snacks to administra-tion, says Stefan Palios, a consultant on

Alessia Yaworsky, a senior projectmanagerat Telus, has a work-from-home routine:She’s an early riser, doesn’t need muchtime to get ready and has zero commute.So she can be at her computer between7:15 and 7:45 a.m. Instead of stopping by acolleague’s cubicle to chat, she checks inusing Google Chat. She’ll often throw aload of laundry in the machine and mightgo for a run through her Vancouver neigh-bourhood, tune into a workout class orgrab groceries as a quick break. She appre-ciates the flexibility, but setting boundar-ies between work and the rest of her life

we’re trying to get work done during apandemic, which is an entirely differentthing. But there are also too many compa-nies trying to approximate their in-officeexperience with employees now spreadacross a city, country or even the world.

“The research doesn’t support full-time telework in a lot of ways,” saysLinda Duxbury, a management pro-fessor at CarletonUniversity’s SprottSchool of Business and an expert onwork-life balance. She differentiatesbetween telework and remotework.With telework, employees have adesignated workspace at home,with an ergonomically designedarea and access to all the data, soft-ware and technology they’d haveat the office. Remotework ismuchmore ad hoc—and that’s whatmost of us are doing right now.“We know what works for tele-work andweknowwhat doesn’t,”she explains. “And this breaks allthe rules. Telework is some daysin an office and some days athome. You should never be tele-

working and trying to do childcareat exactly the same time. And it’s usually



remote work and the founder of RemotelyInclined, a newsletter on the subject. Ifyou’re not physically in an office, youdon’tneed an office manager, he points out.But if our six-month experiment with

remote work has made one thing clear, it’sthat if this new approach is going to workfor both companies and their employees,employersneed to stopfinding adhocfixesand start crafting long-term strategies. Itwill mean detailed policies, investing intechnology and changing companies’ fun-damental approach to management.

Leadership mattersTelus instituted its flexible work program,Work Styles, in 2006. By early 2020, 73%of its employees were set up to work fromhome at least some of the time. Duringthe pandemic, that number rose to 95%of employees with relatively little fuss,because the company had already devel-oped a plan—and they’d had the luxury ofworking out the kinks more than a decadebefore.Executive buy-in was the key to suc-

cess, says Sandy McIntosh, the company’svice-president, people and culture, andchief human resources officer. “At thetime [Work Styles] launched, there werevery senior people who were reluctantto accept or believe that team memberscould be productive if they weren’t physi-cally in front of you,” she says. “There’sjust general mistrust: If I can’t see people,how do I know that the collaboration,productivity and outcomes will still bethere?” Spending time helping seniorleaders understand both the benefit butalso the “nuances and challenges” is abso-lutely critical, McIntosh says.Managers who still conflate presence

with productivity need to loosen the reinsa little—or a lot. Unless an employee isclearly lagging behind, there’s no needfor daily checklists of completed work ortracking software. McIntosh was recentlyon a call with a group of HR profession-als when someone asked how to ensureemployees are working. Her response?“You don’t. You have to stop trying tomeasure how people are working like weused to—who’s in at seven in the morningand who leaves at six at night.” Instead,managers should ask themselves: Did this

employee deliver what they’ve agreed todeliver on deadline, and is it high-quality?And did they work with their teammateseffectively?“It’s about giving employees the power

to make choices in how they spend theirday,” says Doron Melnick, a partner inKPMG’s people and change advisory ser-vices division. “And giving them guide-lines so that certain staff don’t feel disad-vantaged by decisions that other staff aremaking. If you can create that level play-ing field and the rules, and everybody’sclear on how it should work, then I thinkyou can get the right results.”Duxbury also notes that remote work

“tends to hurt people’s career progres-sion, because we make a lot of our judg-ments of people in terms of our interac-tions with them personally.” To offset thisproblem, managers should make a par-ticular effort to recognize, and document,their employees’ successes—and workersthemselves should deliberately seek outopportunities for internal networking andmentorship.

Put it in writingIn face-to-face workplaces, new employ-ees can learn a company’s culture overtime. In a mostly remote workplace, thatjust doesn’t work. “A high-productivityremote environment requires a lot morethings documented to ensure collabora-tion, communication and that employeeconnections can be forged without physi-cal presence,” Stefan Palios says. Thatmeans onboarding documents that clearlyexplain how things are done—and why—along with guides for commonly usedtools. He points to one remote entrepre-neur whose company explicitly tells newemployees that Slack is for urgent workmatters, email for non-urgent matters andWorkplace by Facebook for office “water-cooler” conversations.And that level of detail doesn’t just apply

to processes or tools. “Remote work poli-cies should be pretty comprehensive—they really should not leave anything to theimagination,” says Louise Taylor Green,CEO of Ontario’s Human Resources Pro-fessionals Association. “One of the mostcritical sections of these policies reallyhas to be about work design.” That comes

NUMBER OFMEETINGS

13%ATTENDEES PERMEETING

14%DURATIONOFMEETING

20%TIME SPENT INMEETINGS

12%

SOURCENATIO

NALBUREAUOFEC

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WHAT PEOPLE DID MORE (ANDLESS) OF DURING LOCKDOWN



down to questionslike: What are thecore working hours?Are compressed workweeks allowed? Whatabout split shifts?

Taylor Green says policiesshould also outline whether em-ployees are required to track theirhours, how accessible they will be dur-ing work hours and to whom the policyapplies. It should spell out whether remoteworkers are subject to the same vacation,sick day and bereavement leave policiesas in-office workers. Employers must alsothink about labour laws. “Some employerswill only accept responsibility for injuriesincurred in the course of employment dur-ing working hours, whether at home or atwork,” says Taylor Green. “But if employ-ees aren’t tracking working hours, it canlead to some [confusion over] whether it’san occupational injury or not.”

The policy should also clearly spell outhow and when an employer will monitortheir employees via camera or keystrokes,or other forms of surveillance. (ThoughTaylor Green cautions against using thesetools, as they can “signal distrust.”)

Money talksCompanies might see some savings long-term, but the initial transition to remotework requires an investment

“When an employee works from home,their home becomes an extension of theworkplace, and the same obligations toensure compliance with [occupationalhealth and safety legislation] applies,”Taylor Green says. “So, you have to makesure employees have an ergonomic spaceto work in and that it adheres to any ofyour health and safety protocols.” InMarch, for example, Shopify providedemployees with a $1,000 stipend to buyoffice supplies like lamps, office chairs ora new desk.

Companies also need to ensure theiremployees have the right technology,which means both hardware (laptops) andsoftware (key computer programs, accessto shared drives). And their responsibil-ity goes beyond office supplies. If youremployee lives in a rural area without high-speed internet, they might need to usecellular data to work. Employees might

see higher utility bills, or an increasein their home or tenant’s insur-

ance, because they’re now mak-ing their home a place of work,Taylor Green says. Remote workpolices must be very clear aboutwho covers those costs—and itmight be the company.

Culture clubWorkers—especially millennials—areincreasingly concerned with companyculture. But many businesses’ go-to teambuilding strategies—especially aroundrecognizing and rewarding achieve-ment—aren’t possible with a remoteworkforce. But maybe that’s okay. KPMG’sMelnick says conversations around cul-ture make him think of a quote from HerbKelleher, the former CEO of SouthwestAirlines, who said, “Culture is what peo-ple do when no one is looking.”

“Behavioural science finds that humansmirror each other’s physical actions toform emotional bonds, so it’s not sur-prising we build connection by work-ing together, eating together, playingtogether,” Melnick says. “And withoutphysical proximity, yes, I think it probablytakes longer to form a sense of team. Butculture is an expression of values, and wedescribe values through stories. So evenin remote work, we can still share storiesabout accomplishments, about comingtogether and overcoming challenges.”

Storytelling that emphasizes a compa-ny’s values can happen in a multitude ofways: on conference calls, in digital news-letters, via video chat. Melnick points toone of KPMG’s clients, a big insurancecompany, whose CEO creates a video foremployees every week. “He’s sitting in hishome, he’s dressed casually, and he’s justrelating stories about what’s going on inthe company and what they’re doing tohelp customers. It’s a great way to expressthe values, and people really relate to it.”

Some experts believe employee well-ness will become an even more importantpart of company culture. “I think we’regoing to see an expectation revolution,”Taylor Green says. And it won’t just beabout physical health. “We’re going tosee employees expect their employers toreally step up the kinds of mental healthsupports that are being provided.”

NUMBEROF INTERNALEMAILS SENT

5%NUMBEROF RECIPIENTSINCLUDEDONEMAILS

3%NUMBEROFAFTER-HOURSEMAILS

8%LENGTHOFWORKDAY

8%

SOURCENATIO

NALBUREAUOFEC

ONOMIC

RESEARCH

Are compressed workweeks allowed? What

Taylor Green says policiesshould also outline whether em-ployees are required to track theirhours, how accessible they will be dur-ing work hours and to whom the policyapplies. It should spell out whether remoteworkers are subject to the same vacation,sick day and bereavement leave policiesas in-office workers. Employers must also

see higher utility bills, or an increasein their home or tenant’s insur-

Culture clubWorkers—especially millennials—areincreasingly concerned with company


Rx Drug Mart is one of Canada’s largest independent networks ofpharmacies with 95 stores coast-to-coast and growing. We are aleading healthcare provider committed to servicing the needs ofour patients and customers across the country.

For many Canadians, the pharmacy has become one of the mostaccessible places for healthcare guidance since the pandemicbegan, and we expect the community pharmacy will continue toplay a vital role in Canada’s ongoing fight against COVID-19.

We want to express our overwhelming gratitude to our dedicatedpharmacy teams, customers, patients and partners for their continuedsupport and loyalty throughout these unprecedented times.

We also want to thank our partners.

Martha Switzer, co-founder of SproutWellness Solutions, a global corporatewell-being platform, agrees. The newcorporate wellness program “has to bedigital, of course. And it has to be holis-tic,” she says. “It can’t just be physical, ora challenge platform where everyone getshealthy together.” Employees will be look-ing for programs that cover everythingfrom financial well-being to nutrition.And, she says, it has to allow employees to“socialize”with one another—andnot justbecause we’re socialized to want tomimicwhat other people are doing. “That well-ness program is a good chance for peopleto have a platform to actually communi-cate, whether that’s COVID informationor just wellness information in general.It’s a way to get those messages out.”A larger shift toward remote work was

already coming—according to theConfer-ence Board of Canada, in 2018 just over

one-third of organizations offered full-time remote work and just under halfoffered it on a part-time or ad hoc basis.But companies that neverwould have con-sidered flexible work are now consideringit in a post-pandemic world. “COVID-19 has forced us to rethink what we canaccomplish from home, and employersare looking to make it work whereverthey can,” says Alison Cowan, director ofhuman capital research at the ConferenceBoard of Canada. Still, we’re not going tohave an “ideal” model of working fromhome while the pandemic is ongoing andpeople are also needing to engage in somecombination of elder care and child care.For now, success comes down to lead-

ership, Cowan says. “Leaders who areauthentic, open and transparent help insetting clear expectations for employees.Leaders who are focused on the employeeexperience will be most successful.”

MYORGANIZATIONSUPPLIED/ISSUPPLYING THEAPPROPRIATE TOOLSFORWORKINGFROMHOME

BEFORE COVID-19LOCKDOWN

DURING COVID-19LOCKDOWN

62%

41%

47%

65%

MYORGANIZATIONPROVIDED/IS PROVIDINGEFFECTIVE SUPPORTFOR TOOLS USEDWHENWORKINGFROMHOME




f you’ve ordered lipstick, a laptopor a patio lounger online in recent

months, there’s a good chanceGO Logistics Inc. helped deliver it toyour home.Fueled by the exponential growth

of online shopping, theMississauga-based delivery service has rapidlyexpanded to become a top-tier deliverypartner for some of Canada’s largestmanufacturers and retailers, includingAmazon Logistics and Home Depot.“Our area of expertise is the

final mile of the supply chain,getting goods from the retail ormanufacturer warehouse to thehome of their customer,” says EdwardSattaur, director of marketing andcommunications at GO Logistics.The company started in 2005 as a

courier service that primarily offeredsecure delivery of legal and financialdocuments. In 2012, co-founderAnthony Whyte assumed full controlof the company and became its CEO,setting it on a trajectory for growth.GO Logistics has since shifted

its business to mostly deliveringconsumer products. It began bylaunching a“big and bulky” programto deliver large items, includingfurniture and gym equipment. Itsaw huge growth in delivering theselarger items by enabling retailers andtheir customers to track items enroute to their final mile destination.The company also added a “White-Glove Service” to install goods andappliances in consumers’ homes.

Then, in 2017, GO Logistics becamethe first Canadian delivery serviceprovider to have a wholly ownedsorting and delivery station for AmazonLogistics Canada.

“We were entrusted with settingup the infrastructure for everything

from the drop-off of items from theirdistribution centre, to sortation andthen getting those parcels deliveredquickly and accurately,” Mr. Sattaursays. “In many places in the GreaterToronto Area, we can move items toAmazon Prime customers’ homeswithin four hours of them ordering itonline.”

Amazon moves a massive volumeof packages through several deliveryservice providers (DSPs), but GOLogistics is among the largest inCanada.

“Having been a co-architect of thefour-hour delivery service, we areable to help smaller and mid-sizedcompanies trying to compete with thepacesetter Amazon, to move quicklyand get into efficient shipping of theironline orders,” Mr. Sattaur says.

Today, GO Logistics serves manye-commerce companies and retailerswith an online home delivery business,in addition to third-party logisticscompanies and manufacturers offeringdirect sales to consumers. It alsoprovides parcel delivery services toCanada Post in eight suburban cities.

The need for package speed isincreasingly critical, especially for

GO Logistics: Bringing online purchases to your door, fastMississauga-based delivery service is a top-tier delivery partner for some of Canada’s largest retailers

I

retailers pushed to redefine theirbusiness amid storefront restrictionscaused by COVID-19.

The company moves about eightmillion to 10 million items a year,up from about one million annuallyfive years ago. It has about 1,750employees, up from 15 when thecompany started in 2005. GO Logisticsis addressing the current need forquick, transparent delivery of itemsordered online, as well as preparing forthe surge in years to come. Canadianonline spending is expected to riseto around $79-billion by 2024, upfrom about $52-billion estimatedin 2020, according to eMarketer.Separately, Canada Post’s 2020Canadian E-commerce Report includessurvey results showing 75 per cent ofconsumers will shop more often fromretailers that offer faster shipping.

“Consumers are becoming verycomfortable with ordering online,” saysJohn Barr, vice-president of businessdevelopment at GO Logistics. He saysconsumers and, in turn clients, havealso come to expect next-day or evensame-day delivery in some cities. “It’sa phenomenon that’s here to stay andis only going to expand.”

GO Logistics isthe first Canadian

delivery serviceprovider to havea wholly owned

sorting and deliverystation for

Amazon LogisticsCanada.

1110158401.ad 1 2020-09-08 3:22 PM


Welcome to our second annual ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies.The 400 businesses on this list sprawl across sectors, from fashion to finance,and manufacture everything frommedical testing devices to organic pasta.Much of the success celebrated in these pages occurred before a global pan-demic changedhowmost companies operate. But as youwill read,manyof thesebusinesses were able to adapt, innovate and even expand despite the challengesposedby thesepast fewmonths.As individual companies, and the entire country,work to rebuild, there’smore need than ever to share the stories of entrepreneur-ial success—and the innovations and strategies that made it possible.

METHODOLOGY

Launched in 2019 by The Globeand Mail, the program ranksparticipating private and publicCanadian businesses on three-year revenue growth.

Canada’s Top GrowingCompanies is a voluntaryprogram. We accepted entriesfrom businesses throughMay 31, 2020.

Applicant companies hadto submit a ballot, complete

a full application survey andsupply supporting financialdocumentation to our researchteam for both 2016 and 2019.We evaluated companiesbased on the most recentfiscal year for which financialstatements were available,with a latest possible year-enddate of April 30, 2020. In someunique cases, companies wereevaluated on calendar yearsinstead of fiscal.

In order to qualify, a companyhad to have at least $2 millionin annual sales in its mostrecent fiscal year. Companieshad to be for-profit, Canadian-run, headquartered in Canadaand independent. In rare casesin which applicant companieswere recently acquired, theywere admitted only if theacquisition occurred followingthe close of the companiesmost recent fiscal year.

Franchisors were ranked oncorporate revenue only, notsystemwide sales. All revenuefigures are in Canadian dollars,unless accompanied by anasterisk, which indicates U.S.currency.

Research was conducted byDeborah Aarts and StefanieMarotta. To learn more abouteach company or to apply forthe 2020 ranking, please visittgam.ca/TopGrowing.P

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HP

HIL

IPC

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Meet the next generation: the 400 boldest businesses in the country

C A N A D A ’ S T O P G R OW I N G C O M P A N I E S

Ashley Freebornof Smash + Tesspage 34

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are mandated to come towork, and sick people arecoming to see them,” saysGardner. In rural commu-nities, where many of Rx’sstores are located, the phar-macist is sometimes theclosest thing to a medicalprofessional. If any of themwere to get infected, resi-dents would lose access tohealth care. So, when a truckloaded with three pallets ofprotective shields arrivedat Rx’s Toronto headquar-ters, everyone from payrollclerks and sales staff to theCEOhimself piledwhat theycould into their cars andfanned out throughout theprovince. “It was divide andconquer,” says Gardner.While the pandemic has

demonstrated both thehealth care system’s short-comings and its resilience,it has also highlighted theessential function of ancil-lary services such as phar-macies—among the firstplaces people went whendoctor’s offices shut down.Some of the response mea-sures added to pharmacyburdens.Topreventmedica-tion shortages, governmentslimited prescriptions to 30days’ supply, down from 90,tripling the volume of refillwork. Paperwork balloonedeven as fees dwindled, part-ly due to caps on dispens-ing fees and partly becausepeople avoided visitingdoctors for all but the mosturgent issues. Compound-ing the challenge were staffshortages: Out of Rx’s 1,000employees, 100 were outthe first week because theywere in high-risk groups,quarantined upon returningfrom March break holidaysor forced to take stress leave.Gardner himself hasn’t had

When Chris Gardner left hiscorporate job three yearsago to run a small, fast-growing pharmacy chain, hefigured he’d need to adaptto a more entrepreneurial,hands-on way of working.But installing plexiglasspanels on store counters?He didn’t foresee that beingpart of the boss’s role. Yeton March 24, the CEO of RxDrug Mart was filling in asa deliveryman, handymanand doorman in a franticeffort to keep the compa-ny’s pharmacies open, andstaff safe, as scared peopleflooded the stores.Days earlier, the Ontario

government, along withmuch of Canada, had im-posed a lockdown on allretailers, except those pro-viding essential services—including pharmacies .“Everybody is being told togo home, but pharmacists

a day off since mid-Marchbecause, while COVID-19has been an unprecedentedchallenge for his company, italso presents a big opportu-nity. Rx may have been bornfrom the idea that the largecorporate entities drivingthe drugstore business wereoperating in their own bestinterests rather than thoseofpatients or the community.But it’s also a consolidationplay in a highly competi-tive marketplace. Withinfive years, Rx has emergedas the third-largest nationalchain (excluding Quebec)—a three-year growth rate ofnearly 14,000% that putsit at No. 1 on this year’s listof Canada’s Top Grow-ing Companies. With theSeptember acquisition ofa chain of 35 pharmacies in

Western Canada, Rx willhavemore then 130 locationsacross the country, bestedonly by Shoppers DrugMart (owned by Loblaw,with more than 1,300 stores)and Rexall (part of Texas-basedMcKesson Corp., withroughly 400).Its main competitor is

Saskatchewan-based Rubi-con Pharmacies, and thetwo companies have muchin common. Both are owned P

HOTOGRAPH

JANICKLA

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The boomer rush to retire means majorexpansion opportunities for this small-town pharmacy chain

BY JOANNA PACHNER

H Q / Toronto N o. /

DRUG MART

T O P G R OW I N G C O M P A N I E S



added work, risk and stressbrought on by the pandemicwill likely lead many inde-pendent owners to look foranexit. BothRxandRubiconwant to be their first call.

The consolidation of thepharmacy sector startedmore than a decade ago,largely driven bymajor play-ers’ expansion campaigns,but with smaller chains andtinvestor groups jumpinginto the fray. Brian Daw-son, former vice-presidentof acquisitions at Rexall,launched Rx Drug Mart in2015 with seed money fromPersistence and an eye tomerging family-owned busi-nesses into a network withgreater efficiencies.

Today, depending on whoyou ask, there are between adozen and almost 30 playerslooking to consolidate inde-pendent drugstores, mostof them regionally focused.In 2017, two clear leadersemerged. That June, Rx wona highly competitive sale of27 Rexall pharmacies, whichthe Competition Bureauforced McKesson Canada todivest as part of its US$2.1-billion acquisition of thechain. Then, in September2017, private equity firmTorQuest Partners acquiredAmenity Holdings, operatorof 32 pharmacies in WesternCanada, and seven monthslater merged it with Rubi-con, another Western chainfounded by a group of phar-macists in 2005. As a result,Rubicon and Rx became No.3 and No. 4, respectively, inthe Canadian pharmacy sec-tor. The ascent of PE-backedbuyers is due to the con-straints that family-ownedchains face around manage-ment expertise and capital,says TorQuest partner Dan-iel Sonshine. “At some point,they can only go so fast from

by private equity firms.Both focus on small-marketstores out of the crosshairsof the corporate behemoths.And both are capitalizingon the accelerating trendof baby-boomer businessowners looking to retire.Stuart Elman, managingpartner of Persistence Capi-tal Partners, the health-care-focused private equity firmthat owns Rx, says that ofthe nearly 11,000 retail phar-

macies in Canada, close to60% are independent. “It’sa highly fragmented mar-ket, the trends are drivingdemand, it’s a recession-re-sistant industry, and aginghas increased the focus onhealth and wellness.”

The aging trend is particu-larly pronounced in ruralCanada. As access to healthcare there diminishes, thepharmacist’s role growsmore important. But the

Chris Gardner,CEO of Rx DrugMart



an acquisition perspective.The banks are pretty good inproviding debt, but there’san equity requirement.”

With a network of 42 loca-tions, Rx now needed notonly M&A know-how butintegration and operationschops. Elman asked around,and Gardner’s name keptpopping up. He was runningShoppers’ national opera-tions when he got the call.His answer? “No thanks—Idid that 20 years ago.”

Gardner had spent hisentire career at Shoppers,during which the companytripled its store network.Originally from Newfound-land, he started as a storemanager while still in uni-versity, fully intending toeventually “get a real job.”But he kept advancing, firstto managing multiple storesin Alberta, then overseeingregional operations afterShoppers bought NorthernDrugs in 2005. His rise tookhim through merchandising,IT and eventually oversee-ing the countrywide storenetwork. He had brightprospects at Shoppers’ newparent company, Loblaw;its president, Sarah Davis,mentored him in biweeklycoaching sessions. “But inthe back of my mind I knewthat if I stayed another fiveyears, I’d be a lifer,” he says.“I was young enough tomake a move, and if it didn’twork out, I’d recover.” Plus,after its merger with Loblaw,Shoppers’ growth slowedas it focused on synergies.“I knew there were a lot ofmarkets Shoppers was notpursuing because they weretoo small for its one-size-fits-all footprint,” he says.

He joined Rx as VP ofnational operations in 2017,becoming CEO two yearslater (Rx’s parting withfounding CEO Dawson wasnot amicable, says Gardner).He overhauled the manage-ment team, poaching expe-rienced executives fromShoppers andRexall. But the

pricing, brought in 25% to40% reductions in the costof most prescribed drugstwo years ago, a change thathit revenue and profits hard,and reignited consolidation.

But while some pharmacyowners may be ready to sell,thepriceisoftennottheirtoppriority. “There are a lot oflegacy factors, especially forpharmacies that have beenpart of multigenerationalownership structures,” saysMaxBeairsto, a formerphar-macist and director withKatz Group (former ownerof Rexall). He now brokerssales of businesses, particu-larly in health care, and hashandled deals involving Rx.

“Whatmakes themunique isthey offer the store a level ofautonomy others wouldn’t,”he says. “They also let theprevious owner stay on andtransition the business.”

Gardner says many own-ers worry that if they sell toShoppers or Rexall, “theirpeople will get fired and thename will change.” Theyhave good reason: The twogiants sometimesbuystores,only to shut them down androll the prescription busi-ness over to existing loca-tions—a tactic known as“close and roll.” The relent-less focus on productivitycan also affect patient care.The average Shoppers storehandles about 500 prescrip-tions a day, says Gardner,

compared to 200 at an Rx-owned pharmacy. “Whenyou’re doing that type of vol-ume, you can’t focus on thepatient as much.”

Finding a friendly buyerthat commits to maintainingthe community connectionis therefore an appealingproposition. When LovellDrugs, a small pharmacychain in eastern Ontario,looked to sell, Arthur andDiana Lovell, the third gen-eration to run the business,were anxious to find a com-pany thatwould“respectourvalues,” Diana says. Theysettled on Rx. In a videoannouncing the change, thecouple, dressed all in white,

look like they’re eulogizingthe death of a loved one asthey leaf through albumsof customers and com-munity activities while aphoto of the founder looksdown from the wall. Gard-ner assured the family theirname would stay not onlyon the storefronts but onthe paycheques, the uni-forms and the website. “Wepride ourselves on not beinga cookie-cutter pharmacychain,” he says. “Our defini-tion of success is that whenwe buy a store, patientsor staff see no change. If itwas Bob’s Drugs, it will stayBob’s Drugs.”

Rx looks for stores thathave been in communi-ties for decades, not years.

biggest part of his job wascourting pharmacy owners.“For all the stores we’re buy-ing, this is someone’s baby,”says Elman. “It’s the singlebiggest transaction they’relikely to do, so we need toassure them their businessis in good hands.” Withlengthy experience dealingwith Shoppers franchisees,Gardner has the everymantouch the task calls for. “Youcan tell Chris is very smartand experienced, but he’salso authentic and down-to-earth—none of that ‘Ooh,I’m CEO’ arrogance,” saysMichael Forbes, who soldeight pharmacies to Rx twoyears ago. “It’s like going on

a date: If they’re rude to thewaiter, that’s not cool.”

By the late 2010s, thefeverish consolidation paceslowed. “You don’t see buy-ers overpaying for busi-nesses,” says an industryinsider who asked not to benamed. “Some conservatismhas entered as consolidatorshave reflected on the riskin the industry.” With up to80% of small pharmacies’revenues coming from pre-scriptions covered by third-party payers, a drugstorein essence has a handful oflarge customers that have alot of power. In addition, thepan-Canadian Pharmaceuti-cal Alliance, established byfederal and provincial gov-ernments to regulate drug

WE PRIDE OURSELVESON NOT BEING A COOKIE-CUTTER PHARMACYCHAIN. OUR DEFINITIONOF SUCCESS IS WHEN WEBUY A STORE, PATIENTSOR STAFF SEE NO CHANGE.



While it tends to focus onsmall markets, it’s not a firmrule. Occasionally, an acqui-sition will include urbanstores, and some of Rx’slocations are affiliated withor housed inside medicalclinics, hospitals or grocerystores. “When you can part-ner with a clinic, you canopen that store at a very lowcost, take advantage of officesynergies and be cash-flowpositive within a year,” saysGardner.To capture those syner-

gies, he oversaw the devel-opment of a cloud-basedsystem that integrates withfinance, payroll and point-of-sale platforms, and allowsmanagement to track salesand prescription countshour by hour. This is partic-ularly important for moni-toring far-flung locations,such as apharmacy in Inuvikor the one on Fogo Island,off Newfoundland. By inte-grating more functions andspreading costs across a

growing network, the oper-ating costs per store drop:What used to be 8% of salesbefore Gardner started isdown to 3%. “We try to findstores where the value of usowning it versus an inde-pendent is higher,” he says.

Fans of Alice Munro willrecognize Wingham as thequintessential small town.A community of about 3,000on the edge of Ontario’sMennonite country, it hasthree schools, two grocerystores and a small museumabout Huron County witha library garden dedicatedto its most famous native.“This is our wheelhouse,”saysGardner, standing at the

entrance of an IDA on theedge of town.This drugstore was part

of Rx’s 2017 Rexall acqui-sition. Since retaining thename wasn’t an option, thecompany put it under theIDA banner—one of sev-eral programs that supplyindependent owners withmerchandising, private labellines and other support.Clad in a crisp white

shirt, navy dress pants anda forest-green cloth mask,Gardner steers a tour ofthe roughly 5,000-sq.-footstore—one of Rx’s larg-est. He is short and fit, withthe amiable manner of thesmall-town business own-ers with whom he regularlyinteracts. Since taking overthis location, Rx has addeda Hallmark “store withina store” offering cards andknick-knacks, and so-called“programs” of curated selec-tions, including clothes,sunglasses and jewellery. “Insmaller communities, we

tend to be like the generalstore,” he says as we pass apassport photo booth andan ATM, and every “frontstore” has a different prod-uct mix. “A store that servesa dozen Indigenous reservesin northern Ontario willhave very different needsthan one in Ajax.”Aside from its size, the

Wingham IDA is distinc-tive in being the first Rxpharmacy to house a virtualhealth clinic. While manystores offer telehealth appsthat refer people to physi-cians, this location is staffedby a part-time health careprofessional who assessespatients, logs their informa-tion and, when warranted,connects them with a doc-

tor via video. A partnershipwith Appletree MedicalGroup, which provides thetechnology, the equipmentand the physician’s assistant(typically a foreign-traineddoctor in the process of get-ting licensed in Canada),the clinic also offers on-sitepregnancy, blood sugar andother basic tests.In the wake of the pan-

demic, this is a natural areafor expansion. Most Rxpharmacies already provideflu vaccines, and Gardnerhopes they’ll one day play animportant role in COVID-19 vaccinations. “When weacquire a store, we trainthe pharmacy teams onthe best practices from ourother locations to expandtheir scope of practice,” hesays. How far that scopecan expand varies provinceto province. In Ontario,for example, pharmacistsmay soon be able to diag-nose minor ailments suchas pink eye or urinary tract

infections. In Alberta, theyalready have broad pre-scribing authority, and canrequest lab work or initiatetherapy.But introducing such ser-

vices is expensive and time-consuming. “As an indi-vidual operator, it’s almostimpossible to do some of thenew things the big guys aredoing,” says TorQuest’s Son-shine. To compete with thecorporate chains, Rubicon,for example, plans to imple-ment “central fill,” wherebyprescriptions are filled off-site and sent to the storeready for customer pick-up.It’s also introducing tech-nology that facilitates medi-cation reviews and synchro-nization. But with generic

drug prices down about60% in the past 15 yearsand wage costs rising, mostindependent pharmacistslack the resources to stayabreast of change. Forbes,for one, sold his businessafter growing disenchantedwith dwindling margins andtangled bureaucracy. “It’snot as entrepreneurial. It’stotally riddled in red tape,and as a pharmacist, you’realmost just a clerk process-ing receipts.”COVID-19 may be the

last straw for many olderowners who’ve been hold-ing out. Being elderly putsthem in a high-risk group;do they really want to befrontline workers if a sec-ond wave hits? While that’sa grim prospect, it does havea silver lining for Rx. It hasalready registered a signifi-cant uptick in inbound callsfrom pharmacists wishingto explore a sale. “COVIDhas shown how much of anessential service apharmacyis,” says Elman. “There arenot a lot of businesses thatcan say that. The impor-tance of pharmacy as keyhealth care resource is hereto stay.”Additionally, the pan-

demic may usher in a trendfavourable to Rx: a rever-sal of the urbanization thatemptied out small commu-nities. With people work-ing remotely, more mayreturn to the towns theyleft or move to the country-side. Gardner notes that thepharmacy industry’s con-solidation in Canada is 10years behind the U.S., where“the small-town communitypharmacy has effectivelydisappeared.” The story inCanada may prove to bedifferent. Rx—which dubsitself “the pharmacy pres-ervation society”— hopesthat by making independentdrugstores more profitable,they’ll remain a Main Streetfixture, says Gardner. “Wemay see a re-emergence ofcommunity pharmacy.”

IF IT WAS BOB’S DRUGS,IT WILL STAY BOB’S DRUGS



When Ashley Freeborn andher mother, Teresa, startedSmash + Tess in the springof 2016, they thought they’dbe selling cute, comfortableand affordable pyjamas. Butwhen the now-famous Sun-day Romper appeared in thecompany’s first fall collec-tion, the pair quickly recog-nized their star product.“The romper took off,”

Freeborn says. “So veryearly on in the business, wepivoted and started to cre-atewhatwe call ‘everywear,’which is clothing that [can]transition from the sheetsto the street, as we say. Werealized that women had noproblem investing in goodquality clothing, if it’s some-thing that we could get a lotof wear out of.”It was a smart decision.

Though the company doessell tops, bottoms, dressesand robes, the now-ubiq-uitous one-piece garment,which costs betweenUS$119and US$135, is its top sellerand the driving force behindits massive growth.Ne i t h e r mo the r no r

daughter had a backgroundin fashion, but they’d spenta long time thinking aboutpyjamas. Wearing matchingPJs on Christmas morningwas a family tradition, but

they had grown frustratedat the lack of options. Theywanted comfortable sleep-wear that was fun but notcutesy, a combination thatwas hard to find. After Free-born attended the VogueSummer Intensive Courseat Condé Nast College ofFashion & Design in Lon-don, U.K., the duo decidedto launch their business.Now, the company reports

three-year revenue growthof 4,922%. In addition to itsdirect-to-consumersales, itsofferings are sold by morethan 200 retailers acrossCanada, including Indigoand Well.ca. And its com-munity of #SmashTessGirlsis constantly growing—thebrand has a popular blog,60,000 newsletter subscrib-ers and 186,000 Instagramfollowers. In fact, Freebornstill devotes time every dayto messaging with custom-ers; she sees the company’sInstagram page as a spacefor discussion and support,not just a source of cuteloungewear.“Instagram in particular

has been a top driver for us.I think the reality of our Ins-tagram strategy is authen-ticity. Where a lot of brandsare very curated, we tend touse it as a shared commu-nity space,” she says.That engagement has

been a key driver of thecompany’s success. “If youlook on Amazon, there aredozens or even hundredsof competing romper prod-ucts, and in order for cus-tomers to pay two or threetimes more, they need tohave a reason,” says EricJanssen, an entrepreneur-ship expert and lecturerat Ivey Business School.“Smash + Tess knows who

their core customer is, andwhat she cares about—andeverything they do or sayaligns with that.”That’s true of the actual

product; the company’s cus-tomers want inclusive siz-ing, and long-lasting fabricand construction. They alsowant comfortable clothesthat are a little cooler thanyour run-of-the-mill leg-gings or athletic wear. So,every garment comes inXXS to XXL (and, soon,XXXL). The rompers aremade of a sustainable bam-boo and Tencel rayon thatretains its shape and soft-ness over time. They’remeant to look just as goodon a girls’ night out as theydo the next morning in theschool drop-off line.But the engagement is also

about shared values. Smash+ Tess’s target audience—women between the ages of20 and 40—want rompers,but they also want to shopat companies that sharetheir beliefs. That’s why thebrand’s garments are madeby a team of B.C. tailors whoare all paid a fair wage. ItsInstagram page is populatedwith a diverse range of peo-ple who represent differentshapes, ethnicities, sizes P

HOTOGRAPHPHILIP

CHEUNG

SMASHTESS

They make the pandemic uniform of choice for many women. But success sprungfrom using social media as a listening device, not a megaphone

BY STACY LEE KONG

H Q / Richmond, B.C. N o. /




than $100,000 to charitableorganizations.“This has become so im-

portant because it’s so easyto find competing prod-ucts that are also de-centlymade, ship quickly and,frankly, look quite similar,”Janssen says. “Finding abrand that is more expen-sive but does have a face, avoice and truly does caremeans that customers arewilling to spendmore for the

dropped by 13% and 12%,respectively. “We were inthe same boat as everybodyelse: really scared, not surehow COVID was going tohit. And then literally over-night, we started to see ourorders double and tripleevery day,” she says.But Smash + Tess is also

a (mostly) direct-to-con-sumer company, and thatcommunity space is instru-mental in driving sales.The brand operates on apre-order model, wherenew drops are announcedto existing customers, whorush to place their ordersbefore each item sells out.This helps reduce waste—but it also creates hype,especially around the Sun-day Romper, which is for-ever selling out.“We never set out to have

a scarcity model, but we’vecreated it unintentionally,”Freeborn says, comparingit to a smaller-scale Appledrop or release from Yeezy,Kanye West’s clothing line.“It speaks to what the con-sumer is willing to sacrificefor quality clothes.”Freeborn’s next move is

to open a distribution cen-tre in Los Angeles, whichwill help the company makeinroads into the U.S. mar-ket. But even as she plansfor greater growth, she’sstill hyper-focused on whatcustomers want, especiallyin a post-pandemic worldwhere online shopping willbe even more important.And that presents its ownchallenges, particularlywhen consumers can’t tryclothes on before they buy.“There’s all kinds of funthings to explore, like beingable to virtually try thingson,” she says. “But I thinkif you’re going to ask some-one to spend 120 bucks on aromper, it better fit.”

and skin colours. In May,the brand launched a col-lection of gender-neutral,size-inclusive bridal partyrompers in collaborationwith Jessica Mulroney—then just as quickly endedthe partnership when newsbroke that Mulroney hadthreatened Toronto lifestyleinfluencer Sasha Exeter’slivelihood. And over thepast three years, it has fun-draised and donated more

story that aligns with theirown beliefs.”Freeborn does acknowl-

edge that the pandemic hasbeengood forbusiness.Dur-ing lockdown, loungewearand athleisure saw hugespikes in popularity amongonline shoppers. Accordingto data by Adobe Analytics,which tracks top retailers,sales of pyjamas rose 143%between March and April,while sales of pants and bras

Ashley Freebornof Smash + Tess



A few hundred cattle grazethe fields at Heritage CattleCo. in Keene, Ont.

Aaron MacDonald, alongwith his brother and dad,has operated the grass-fedbeef operation, just a coupleof hours east of Toronto,since 2007. A few years ago,they decided to start sellingmeat online. Customers hadbeen asking about delivery,and the world was becomingincreasingly digital, after all.Things did not go well.

The number of orderswas unpredictable—10 inone week, just a single orderthe next. They had to packthe boxes themselves, stuff-ing each with dry ice. Thefarmers schlepped meat toPurolatorordirectly toacus-tomer’s home, which occa-sionally meant a 45-minutetrek to deliver a couple ofboxes of liver. They soonrealized e-commerce anddelivery were more troublethan they were worth, andgave up. “We’re really goodat farming,” MacDonaldsays, “but when it came tothe online thing and thelogistics behind getting fro-zen products to people in anefficient way, we struggled.”

Over the years, variouscompanies solicited theMacDonalds, armed withpitches about how to taketheir business online. Thefamily always declined,burned by their past expe-rience and preferring tofocus on farming. Still, whenMarc Lafleur, from a com-pany named TruLocal, got intouch,MacDonaldhadheardso many pitches that he wasready to give in. “Marc cameacross like he’s going to giveit his all, and this companyis his baby,” he recalls. “He’svery, very passionate. I waslike, ‘Okay, this guy is gonnago for it.’”

Lafleurco-foundedTruLo-cal in Kitchener, Ont., in2016 and serves as CEO. It’sessentially an online meatvendor, buying from suppli-ers likeHeritage. Its custom-ers, in turn, assemble ordersonline, choosing from fro-zen beef, pork, chicken andfish products. The companyships an insulated box totheir door. Revenue has bal-looned nearly 3,700% overthe past three years, withmost of the firm’s customersin Ontario. (British Colum-bia and Alberta are growingmarkets.) “Farmers focuson raising animals, and forthem to focus on trying toget all this onlineexposure istricky,” Lafleur says. “We’verallied these farmers in onelocation and built demandand credibility that way.”

For suppliers like Heri-tage,TruLocaloffersanothersales channel. At least 30%of Heritage’s orders arerouted through the onlineplatform, providing a steadyincome stream in an indus-try that can be unpredict-

able and contributing toa boost in sales. “There’sbeen a huge increase sincewe started with TruLocal,”MacDonald says.

Lafleur, 29, credits TruLo-cal’s growth to a few fac-tors. Mainly, it has a clearpurpose and a well-definedbrand that taps into a num-ber of current food trends—convenience, the popularityof high-fat and low-carbketodiets and, most importantly,the desire to eat locally andknow where your food iscoming from. “Ifwe just sold

meat online, you’d probablyfeel a little bit grossed out,”Lafleur says. So he framesthe company’s mission dif-ferently. “We’re all aboutconnecting you directly tolocal producers,” he says,“and that resonates withpeople.” That promise isreflected in the company’sname and website, whichprofiles suppliers.

There have been othermeat delivery services, andTruLocal is aware of andlearning from those previ-ous attempts. While com- P

HOTOGRAPH

JANICKLA

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REPS

Selling meat online might sound like a dodgy proposition. But not when you connectfarmers with consumers eager to eat local—and then wrap it in an appealing box

BY JOE CASTALDO

H Q / Kitchener, Ont. N o. /


LOCAL



pleting a bachelor of sciencedegree at the Universityof Waterloo, Lafleur took ajob as a door-to-door meatsalesman. That probablysounds challenging enough,but Lafleur had to convincepeopletobuyanentireyear’sworth of frozen meat in oneshot. An upbeat guy and afast talker, he discovered aknack for sales and later ranan office for the company inLondon, Ont.He became friends with

another employee, namedGreg Quaile, 31 , and the

two of them often tradedideas about what could beimproved at the bulk meatcompany. The adherenceto the door-to-door modelignored the power of onlinemarketing. There wasupselling involved (if you’regoing to get a year’s worthof frozen meat, you’ll prob-ably need an extra freezer),and there was no way forcustomers to receive deliv-eries weekly or monthly.The pair brought some ideasto their bosses, but theywere rebuffed. “I think they

they quickly learned work-ing out of a garage with achest freezer wasn’t goingto cut it—and then startedbuilding relationships withfarmers. Explaining to “old-school meat guys” that theywanted to ship slabs of beefdirectly to consumers waschallenging, Lafleur says.“They didn’t want to associ-ate their name with us. Wewere really just two guys.”But they found a few sup-

pliers willing to take theleap. Lafleur and Quaile,now vice-president, walkedin to a company ca l ledTownsend Butchers in Sim-coe, Ont., one day to try tosecure them as a pork sup-plier. “They said, ‘We’rewebsite designers with ataste for meat,’ ” recalls co-owner Steve Miedema. Thecompany, which Miedemaruns with his brother, hadjust expanded its facilitiesand had the capacity to ful-fill neworders. “We thought,Why not? We can handlethis ,” he says. TownsendButchers now has four staffmembers dedicated to Tru-Local business.A crisis hit early on when

one of TruLocal’s large cou-rier partners dropped themover safety concerns. Theirdelivery boxes contain dryice; when handled improp-erly, it destroys skin cells,leaving an injury akin to aburn. “We were like, ‘Thisis the worst thing ever. Wequit our jobs for this. We’llbe out of business if we can’tship our products,’” Lafleursays. The team scrambledto find another courier andluckily partnered with onethat lobbied for a regulatorychange that would allow

were looking back to whathad worked historically forthem,” Lafleur says.But the two shared an en-

trepreneurial streak. Lafleurhad previously launched aninstant messaging app anda platform for finding oddjobs, both of which fizzledout. He realized that if hewere going to succeed witha business, he couldn’t treatit like a part-time project. Sohe and Quaile quit their jobsand started TruLocal.One of their first tasks

was securing a warehouse—

Marc Lafleur,co-founder of TruLocal


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them to leave dry ice at thedoor without a signature.The company says themate-rial usually dissipates by thetime someone actually getstheir order, and disposalinstructions are included ineach TruLocal box.That box, insulated and

painted black, with the com-pany’s name stencilled on it,has become something of atotemforTruLocal.Custom-ers have posted unboxingvideos on Instagram, alongwith shots of their ordersand finished meals, all ofwhich has built the brand.Those boxes are also used

to deliver a whimsical per-sonal touch. Each one con-tains a new handwrittenmeat-related joke—“You’rebacon me crazy,” for exam-ple—every week. “We thinkthis isoneof themost impor-tant things the customerreceives when they open thebox,” Quaile says. “We try to

engagewith themwhen theyleast expect it.” The com-panyhas a staffmemberwhohas the uncanny ability tocome up with a prodigiousnumber of meat puns. Theyhave yet to recycle one, asfar as Quaile knows.An appearance on Drag-

ons’ Den in 2017 also helpedget the TruLocal name out.On the show, Lafleur andQuaile struck a deal withMichele Romanow andJoe Mimran—a $100,000investment in exchange for10% of the firm—althoughonly Romanow ended upactually investing. She wasimpressed with the found-ers and also by the nichethey were carving out inthe crowded food-deliveryspace. “They’ve been able toreally eke out a completelydifferent position,” she says.A typical meal-kit company,for example, might charge$60 and deliver a package

every week, making it hardto recoup the cost of acquir-ing customers. But TruLocalcharges more and deliversless frequently (the mostpopular option is a $249monthly box), which is bet-ter for profitability. “Thatreally changes the econom-ics,” Romanow says.The pandemic caused

business to skyrocket dur-ing the first few months oflockdown. People not onlywanted to avoid grocerystores, but they also wantedto stock up. Frozen meatfilled the bill. The companyhired about 15 people tohelp fulfill orders, and thesurge in demand has pushedTruLocal into profitabil-ity year-to-date. “We wereplanning to be profitablethis year, regardless,” Quailesays. “It just got us there afewmonths sooner.”These days, TruLocal is

expanding beyond its origi-

nal business model. Thecompany recently launcheda service called TruLocalConnect, which helps farm-ers set up their own onlinestores to sell directly to cus-tomers—a Shopify for beef,if you will. It’s a way to buildon the company’s ethos ofshowcasing food produc-ers. “I want to give custom-ers more of a connection tothese people,” Lafleur says.TruLocalwill charge a trans-action fee, while the farmhandles the fulfillment andshipping. Lafleur views it asa complementary business,not one that competes withthe company’s core offering.The company has signed

up a few farms to TruLocalConnect, including Mac-Donald, despite his pastbad luck. “I’m just going tolean on TruLocal and theirexpertise,” MacDonald says.“They’ll definitely steerus inthe right direction.”


ith many new smartphonesand tablets priced at $1,000

or more, cost-conscious consumersand companies are looking to repairrather than replace their brokendevices.That’s where theMobile KlinikProfessional Smartphone Repair chaincomes in, specializing in guaranteed,‘while-you-wait’ repair and care ofsmartphones and tablets.

“When phones are that expensive,you need a good repair solution anda good professional operation,” chiefexecutive officerTimMcGuire says.

Toronto-basedMobile Klinik isCanada’s largest and fastest-growingprofessional smartphone and tabletrepair, care, sales and services retailchain. In the past three years alone,the company has grown a“dramatic”2,326 per cent,Mr.McGuire says. It has84 stores in shoppingmalls,Walmartsand other high-traffic retail locations ineight provinces—with plans to have 90stores and be in all 10 provinces by theend of the year.

“We gowhere the traffic is,”Mr.McGuire says of the company, whichhas about 350 employees.“We havecemented our position as the No. 1player across Canada.”

The company plans to reach 140stores by the end of 2021, and aminimumof 200 across Canada by theend of 2022, reaching every communitywith a population of 30,000 ormore.

Mobile Klinik was founded in2015 by Canadianwireless and retailindustry leaderswho saw a need fora trustworthy, national repair chain. Itstartedwith one store in Ottawa, thenone inToronto, and expanded rapidlyby opening dozens of new locationsacross Canada and through several

acquisitions, including six-to-ten locationchains operating inAlberta, Ontario andQuebec.

Mobile Klinik has“a lotmore growthahead,”Mr.McGuire says.

“Mobile Klinik is the repair partnerof choice for virtually every devicemanufacturer, carrier andmany device-protection insurance providers; nowwe’re increasing our focus on corporateand government organizations,” headds.“In a timewhen employees areworking from home and access tothe company IT group is limited, it’smore important than ever to have areliable repair solution to keep everyoneconnected and productive.”

Mobile Klinik is broadening itscorporate business, which includeshelping companies repair, protect andreplace their company phones or tablets— and savemoney.

Companies can send their devicestoMobile Klinik for service or direct

employees to get devices fixed at anyMobile Klinik location on a corporaterepair plan, with discounted pricing,special product offers, and eithercentral billing to the company oremployee reimbursement throughexpense accounts.“For business accounts,Mobile Klinik

takes a lot of hassle and administrationoff the IT and accounting departments,which already have enough things toworry about – and saves the companymoney”Mr.McGuire says.The company has increased the

number of corporate accounts by about50 per cent year-over-year and expectstomore than double that business eachyear over the next few years.Mobile Klinik is also one of

the largest buyers and sellers ofrefurbishedmobile phones in Canada,whereMr. McGuire says there’s beena“massive increase in demand” that’sdoubling year-over-year.“Two-and-a-half years ago, we

weren’t in the used-phone businessand now it’s a significant portion ofour overall business and the fastest-growing part of the business,” he says.“For companies that require employeesto ‘bring your own device’ or that needreplacements for lost or stolen devices,we can provide amore affordable optionthan buying new.”Mobile Klinik is also expanding

the devices it services to includelaptops andwearable devices such assmartwatches.Mr.McGuire saysMobile Klinik will

continue to pursue new store locationsand acquisitions as part of its ambitiousgrowth plans, including expansionbeyond Canada.“There’snoshortageofopportunities.”



Mobile Klinik chiefexecutive officerTimMcGuire says

the companyhas experienced

“dramatic” growthin recent years asconsumers andcompanies lookto repair, rather

than replace, theirsmartphones and

tablets.

W

High cost of smartphones drivesgrowth for repair chain Mobile KlinikCompany sees boost in consumer and corporate repairs as it expands across Canada

1110161301.ad 1 2020-09-08 3:25 PM


PHOTOGRAPHRICARDO

CELL

ERE

Last December, the boardof directors of the Mon-treal-based telemedicinecompany Dialogue metto discuss the challengesahead in 2020. Specifically,how could the firm shift theperception of telemedicinefrom being an afterthoughtto the forefront of healthcare? Since its founding in2016, Dialogue had workedhard to bolster telemedi-cine’s lacklustre reputation,but the team agreed changewould take time. “We werehoping that telemedicinewould go mainstream inCanada in five to sevenyears, maybe,” says CherifHabib, co-founder andCEO.But just three months

after that meeting—well,you know.Asmost businesses scram-

bled to stay afloat amid thepandemic,a luckyfewsawanuptick in sales. Then there’sDialogue, which scaled upto 10 times its previous sizein four weeks. “We’ve added600 new employees in 100days,” says Habib.Habib started Dialogue

after earning a degree incomputer science and acareer inventing and sell-ing medical devices. Untilrecently, it was a small firmthatmergedhealthcarewithtechnology to provide bet-ter telemedicine. You’re notalone if you hear the wordtelemedicine and automati-cally think it’s a variation

on the provincially fundedtoll-free phone service thatmost Canadians can access,be it Telehealth in Ontarioor Capital Health in Alberta.Wherever you are, too

often the call goes some-thing like this: After an inev-itably long queue, the calleris connected with a regis-tered nurse. Now imagine,for example, this case studyfeatures a worrisome rash.The nurse is not a dermatol-ogist and lacks the creden-tials for a definitive diag-nosis. Even if they’re 99%sure it’s nothing to worryabout, a diligent nurse willalmost certainly err on theside of caution and suggestyou see your doctor—or, ifyou’re particularly unlucky,head to the emergencyroom. Despite the best ofintentions, health resourcesweren’t well deployed, thenurse’s skillsweren’t used atall, and the patient ended upmore anxious than before.Here’s how Dialogue does

it differently: That callerinstead snaps a photo ofthe rash and uploads it totheir account on the compa-ny’s app (or through a webbrowser). “A dermatologiston our team will look at itand say either, ‘No, don’tworry about it,’ or, ‘Yes, youneed to be seen,’ ” explainsHabib. If it’s the latter, Dia-logue will then refer youto the right medical pro-fessional in your area and,

even better, schedule yourappointment. If you need aprescription, Dialogue candeliver it to your door. Twoweeks later, they’ll follow upto make sure you’re better.“We’re lowering the barrierto access for people withnot-so-serious ailmentsthat they might otherwiseignore,” says Habib.Still, as any doctor will

tell you, many patients willprocrastinate for monthsor even years before visit-ing a doctor—even if it’s avirtual trip. And there areother challenges in attract-ing online patients. Someare concerned with privacy;some struggle with the tech-nology; some can’t imaginetaking medical advice froman app. To expand the com-pany, Dialogue’s sales team

had to get creative.Rather than sell directly

to consumers, Dialogueins tead par tners wi themployers. The benefit ofhealthy employees is actu-ally measurable in termsof engagement and pro-ductivity. For about $10 peremployee per month, Dia-logue promises reducedabsenteeism, less presentee-ism(workingwhile sick)andfewer disability claims. The

Selling employers on a better way tokeep workers healthy—and happy

BY ROSEMARY COUNTER

H Q / Montreal


LOGUEDI

N o. /



company used these incen-tives to steadily expand itsclient list.

And then came COVID-19.“Overnight we were thrustinto the mainstream,” saysHabib. “We went from offer-ing a little-known concept tosomething the health min-ister is talking about on TVevery day.”

Telemedicine was longin the works and is here tostay, says Dr. Samantha Hill,

president of the OntarioMedical Association. “A lotof patients are very well-served by telemedicine,”she says. “Think about sin-gle mothers or people whocan’t take the day off workor people with lower mobil-ity. Think about if you livedway up North and now haveaccess to a specialist.”

And yet, as always, thereare limitations. “You needgood, high-speed internet.

You need a computer or asmartphone, and you needto be tech-savvy,” says HillAnd without buy-in fromthe government, you need tobe employed by one of Dia-logue’s clients. “Health carein Canada is supposed to beuniversal and equitable,”Hill notes.

Dialogue has had manyconversations with govern-ments across the country,but a partnership has yet

to be made. In early March,as concerns began to risein Canada about the novelcoronavirus, the companylaunched a free service toprovide accurate informa-tion. It’s called Chloe. “Ifyou know how to text yourfriend, you already knowhow to use Chloe,” saysAlexis Smirnov, Dialogue’schief technology officer.

If you’re isolating in quar-antine, Chloe will text youto check in and help moni-tor your symptoms. And thefriendship goes both ways.Says Smirov: “We built a sys-tem that answers questionslike, can I get COVID frommy dog? Do I need to washthe vegetables I buy?”

Dialogue’s new 2020 chal-lenge is keeping up withdemand. Their off ice isempty, having gone entirelyvirtual weeks before the restof us. Habib’s once-smallstaff is now mostly peoplehe’s never met in person. “AsCEO, I used to know every-one’s name,” he says. “Allof a sudden there are morenew people than old peo-ple.” In hopes to keep thesmall-business feel withinhis ever-bigger business,Habib has invested in whathe calls a “playbook” to pro-mote culture and cohesive-ness as they continue torecruit across departments.

Dialogue has just sur-passed 800 employees and700 medical professionals,and due to increased needfrom patients, has hiredmore counsellors and men-talhealthproviders.Anylin-gering telemedicine stigmais gone, if only by neces-sity, and almost five mil-lion Canadian users—andcounting—have embracedDialogue’s virtual care.

Cherif Habib,co-founder and CEO, Dialogue



Leena Yousefi hasn’t spent apenny on advertising to pro-mote her Vancouver-basedfamily law practice, YLawGroup. She doesn’t need to.Once held back by self-

doubt and depression—shewas at one point on theverge of flaming out of anundergraduate degree—Yousefi sells her business onthe strength of her outsizedpersona and personal touch.Offering this window intoher world works to show-case the kinder, gentler lawfirm she’s built—one whereclients feel taken care of andcolleagues feel like family.One morning in January,

Yousefi posted a photo ofherself on LinkedIn dressedin her black and white courtattire and snuggling herbaby girl before she left forthe day. The post, whichincluded an inspirationalmessage to her one-year-old daughter, along with thehashtags #workingmom,#lawyerlife and #multitask-ing, attracted more than40,000 reactions and laterprompted theBBC to featureYousefi in an online storydetailing how she spendsher time andmoney in a typ-ical week.

Over the past three years,YLaw has roughly doubledits contingent of lawyers tonine, and seen its revenuegrow by 331%. The firm,founded in 2013, movedinto a spacious new officein downtown Vancouver’sYaletown neighbourhood in2017 and opened a secondlocation in the nearby sub-urb of Surrey.“Thereasonwe’regrowing

is because we [promote our-selves] organically,” Yousefisaid in an interview. “I spendover 1,000 hours a year writ-ing content and informationon small aspects of familylaw, because that’s what alot of people don’t find onGoogle.”Articles posted to the

YLaw website delve intotopical issues related tochild custody, separationand divorce. Posts includehow to resolve family lawdisputes during the pan-demic and how to reducesupport payments if yourincome has taken a coro-navirus-related hit. Newlyseparated spouses searchingfor information on divorceor custody often land onthe YLaw site, as do report-ers—Yousefi is frequentlyquoted in national and localmedia, as well as in trademagazines—and she saysthe combination has helpedboost business.The 38-year-old Yousefi

writes in a way that is bothintimate and reassuring.“Two nights ago I had apanic attack,” she said in aMarch update during theearly weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I am totallyOK by the way. In fact afterfollowing the below sugges-tions, I feel fantastic. Any-ways, back to the attack…”

She went on to share arelatable story about herfears and frustrations, andoffer readers a list of solu-tions and resources.“She’s got a real talent for

knowing how to reach outto people and talk to themand engage them,” says AriWormeli, a law school class-mate and friend of Yousefi’s.She convinced him to joinher as a business partner in2017 (though she remainsthe sole owner of the firm).Accolades collected along

the way have also helpedYousefi raise her profile. Shewas included on the Fortyunder 40 ranking producedby the website Business inVancouver and landed onCanadian Lawyer’s list ofthe 25 most influential law-

yers, voted into the younginfluencers category by themagazine’s readers.Yousefi also has a “defi-

nite view of how she wantsto present the business,”Wormeli says, citing theall-white, Apple-store-likeaesthetic of YLaw’s down-town Vancouver head office(which was designed by herarchitect husband). “It’s notthe lawyer-with-the-book-case approach.” P

HOTOGRAPHKAMIL

BIALO

US

A defiantly different law firm—for both its clients and employeesBY CHRISTINE DOBBY

H Q / Vancouver N o. /


LAW



Born in Iran, Yousefi’s earlyyears were marked by theconflict of the Iran-Iraq warand the aftermath of the Ira-nian Revolution. She cameto Canada with her parentsand older sister at 13. “Mychildhood was spent wit-nessing violence, oppres-sion and trauma. I internal-ized all of that.”

Leaving her friends andadapting to a new coun-try also took a toll. Yousefi,

‘What can I do to prove herwrong?’ ” With her sisteralready on track to become adoctor, Yousefi made a planto go to law school and wenton to complete both degreesat UVic.

She started YLaw just twoyears after her call to the barand pledged to do things dif-ferently from what she sawat other family law firms thatpushed young lawyers to billlong hours at all costs. “Oneof my biggest concerns wasthat lawyers and staff aren’ttreated as humans. Whenyou kill someone’s soul,they either burn out or theyleave.” Yousefi emphasizesemployee happiness. Thefirm takes a team approachto solving client problemsand offers unlimited men-tal health days along with amonthly stipend for recre-ational activities.

Yousefi actively looks torecruit single mothers andwomen just returning frommaternity leave—more than90% of YLaw’s lawyers and20supportstaffarewomen—as well as lawyers from dif-ferent cultural backgrounds.“Almost all of our staff andlawyers come from differentcountries,” says Yousefi, whoherself remains involvedwith the Iranian communityin Canada and whose prac-tice often involves helpingimmigrant families navigatedivorce.

But her humane approachto running her business hasnot always been reflected inthe way she actually prac-tised law. Yousefi’s previousexperience had taught herthat litigation was the way tosettle disputes. She was pas-sionate about fighting—andwinning—cases in court.“My clients were happybecause I was winning thecases. But in the long-term,I was noticing that no mat-ter how many times we won,there was still loss—loss of

struggling with depression,almost walked away fromher undergraduate studiesat the University of Victo-ria. But she seems to drawstrength from a challenge;it was her mother’s gentlesuggestion that she applyfor a job as a bank teller thatspurred her return to school.

“For her to see my careerbeing limited to an entry-level position—that trig-gered something. I thought,

Leena Yousefi,founder of YLaw


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love and time and money.”A major turning point

came when she was expand-ing her firm in 2017 and hiredmarketing consultant BradSherwin to research thebusiness. After interviewswith half a dozen previousclients, Sherwin reportedthat the major emotion mostfelt when they first came toYLaw was not, “How do Iwin this case?” but, “Howdid I get here?”

“There’s vulnerability andsadness. These people areenvisioning the day of theirwedding and all of a suddenthey’re sitting in the divorcelawyer’s office,” Yousefi says.“As obvious as it should havebeentome, itwasn’t,becauseI wasn’t going through adivorce. I realized I have themost important role in thissituation. I can destroy thiscase by fighting, or I can helpminimize damage.”

Now she goes to court

only as a last resort or indangerous cases. Some ofthe firm’s lawyers practiseexclusively collaborativefamily law (which sees bothspouses sign an agreementnot to resort to litigation),but most of Yousefi’s casestake a “hybrid” approachthat starts with a four-waymeeting with the other sideand their lawyer, and canmove to negotiation andlater mediation if needed.

“We want to get to a con-ciliatory ending. It can besad and it’s okay, but it’sgoing to be loving, no matterwhat.”

“Family law was tradition-ally seen as the ‘pink ghetto’of law practices. It was seenas a softer, gentler prac-tice where lawyers wererequired to be pseudo-socialworkers,” says Dal Bha-thal, managing partner of

Toronto-based legal recruit-ing firm the Counsel Net-work. More recently, shesays, it has been recognizedas a challenging area of thelaw that demands talentedlawyers.

Bhathal says demand forfamily law practitioners hasbeen consistent “and showsno signs of slowing down.”In B.C., the number of law-yers who performed anywork in the family law areahas increased steadily; lastyear it was more than 2,000lawyers, according to theprovince’s law society, upfrom around 1,200 five yearsearlier.

“Boutique law firms, inparticular, have been grow-ing their teams,” says Bha-thal, noting that most largenational firms have elimi-nated family law practices tofocus on corporate clients.“But it’s also an area thatyounger lawyers—and not

just women—are becomingattracted to.”

When the pandemic firsthit in March, Yousefi saysbusiness stalled as “every-body froze.” She keeps thef irm’s earnings in cash,which gave her a cushionduring the first challengingweeks, and there has sincebeen a surge in breakups andother disputes. “After theinitial shock, we started get-ting inquiries back. Divorcehas definitely experienced aspike during COVID. We’rebusier than we were pre-COVID,” says Yousefi, whowants to bring more lawyerson board.

“She’s a go-getter. Itsounds trite, but she is,” saysWormeli. “She went outrelatively [soon after lawschool] and started up thisvery successful business. Iwould not have advised herto do that. Fortunately, sheknows when to ignore me.”




anadians are justly proud of livingin a country with an effective,

equitable healthcare system. Butthere’s one area where our systemsometimes faces difficulty: timelinessof care, particularly around wait timesfor diagnostic procedures.“Timeliness is very important in a

modern health system,” says SureshMadan, chief executive officer ofMyHealth Centre. “It’s simple: if thepatient has a disease and the diseaseis not attended to in time, it getsworse. By providing timely care, wecan solve a lot of crises before theybecome crises.”That simple mandate is what led

Mr. Madan to foundMyHealth Centrein 2013. At the time, hemanaged aprivate investment fund where hefollowedwith interest a major healthcompany that had been purchased bya large pension fund. But there wasone part of the company’s businessthe pension fund wasn’t interested in:a small chain of six diagnostic imagingclinics with locations in Sudbury, SaultSte. Marie and London, Ont.Mr. Madan, along with several

physician friends, saw an opportunity.They pooled their resources, acquiredthe clinics andMyHealth Centre wasborn.Today, boasting 41 locations across

Ontario, with more on the way,MyHealth Centre operates under theprovincial health system, with morethan 10,000 doctors referring patientsto its locations.The company says its locations

are the only independent healthfacilities that are accredited withcommendation. “This distinction

attests to the highest standard ofinfection prevention, cleanliness,safety and comfort,” the companystates.Most proceduresMyHealth Centre

offers are covered by OHIP— but it’sin the delivery of those procedureswhere the company has innovated.One exampleMr. Madan cites isa robust analytics system that thecompany has developed to predictspikes and troughs in demand fordifferent services throughout the year.“There is strong seasonality for a

lot of procedures,” he says. “So whenthere are high demands for certainthings, you staff themmore and keepclinics open longer.When demandis lower, you shift resources to otherareas that are in higher demand.”Cold and flu season is one

example; another is the annual floodof snowbirds seeking appointmentsbefore heading south for the winter.Yetanother is the predictable summertimespike in demand for X-rays related tooutdoor sports and activities.“Our understanding of these

How MyHealth Centre reduces waittimes for diagnostic procedures‘By providing timely care, we can solve a lot of crises before they become crises,’says MyHealth Centre CEO Suresh Madan

C

demand curves helps usmeet demandbetter, and reduce wait times,”Mr. Madan says.The company has also invested

in cutting-edge diagnostics tools,bringing them to communities wherethey were previously unavailable. Forexample, it has pioneered the use ofnuclear diagnostic scanning on cardiacpatients in Canada, a technology thatresults in lower radiation doses thanprevious imaging techniques.Its innovations have paid off.

Revenues increased to $63.8-million in2019 from $12.1-million in 2014, whileOHIP-covered services grew to 1.95million from 320,000 over the sameperiod.Of course, COVID-19 has created

new challenges. MyHealth Centre had650 employees before the pandemichit earlier this year, up from 550 ayear earlier and 45 in 2014.Tomanagethe extra demands from COVID-19,another 50 people were hired in recentmonths.The company has also seen an

explosion in demand for its telehealthdivision, founded in 2017. Back then,Mr. Madan says, many doctors werehesitant about telehealth and patientsweren’t always comfortable if a doctordidn’t see them in person. However,COVID-19 has changed that andMr. Madan believes the service willcontinue to be popular beyond thepandemic.MyHealth Centre has begun

providing telehealth servicesnationwide and is preparing for a“brick-and-click” future, featuringa greater marriage of online and in-person care.“You can’t do everything remotely,”

Mr. Madan says. “You can’t take abiopsy or an X-ray. But you can do a lotwe’re not taking advantage of now.And this can do evenmore to reducewait times, and improve efficiency andpatient care, especially for patientsin remote areas.This is the next biggrowth area.”

Suresh Madan,chief executive

officer of MyHealthCentre, at one of hiscompany’s clinics indowntown Toronto.

1109899001.ad 1 2020-09-08 3:24 PM


We list Canada’s Top Growing Companies by three-year revenue growth

RANK COMPANY DESCRIPTION

3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE

EM-PLOY-

EES HEADQUARTERS

1 - 50

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

Toronto

Halifax

Kelowna, B.C.

Montreal

Calgary

Toronto

Montreal

Richmond, B.C.

Vancouver

Markham, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Kitchener, Ont.

Victoria

Mississauga

Calgary

Toronto

Burlington, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Montreal

Burnaby, B.C.

Puslinch, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Quebec City

Nisku, Alta.

Toronto

St. John’s, Nfld

DeBolt, Alta.

Kitchener, Ont.

Kelowna, B.C.

Mississauga

Oakville, Ont.

Kitchener, Ont.

Calgary

Vancouver

Montreal

Montreal

Toronto

Montreal

Markham, Ont.

Vancouver

Toronto

Toronto

Calgary

Ottawa

Toronto

1,000

800

97

35

8

125

803

26

38

12

116

80

63

40

92

20

65

34

18

130

325

41

215

50

114

136

32

100

15

300

22

43

59

54

100

61

82

144

32

14

63

8

45

40

23

500

17

30

31

28

$100M-$250M

$10M-$25M *

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M *

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$50M-$75M

$50M-$75M

$25M-$50M

$100M-$250M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

13,940

8,602

8,090

7,578

6,661

5,748

4,944

4,922

4,811

4,703

4,380

4,298

3,918

3,695

3,677

3,457

3,266

2,794

2,742

2,506

2,325

2,203

2,095

2,085

2,075

2,066

2,060

1,998

1,968

1,956

1,823

1,794

1,622

1,543

1,530

1,429

1,397

1,368

1,314

1,283

1,268

1,258

1,251

1,237

1,235

1,201

1,154

1,150

1,113

1,107

Acquires, opens and operates independent pharmacies across Canada

Provides home health care services to seniors in Canada and the U.S.

Designs carbon dioxide extraction systems

Operates a loyalty program for players of mobile video games

Runs an online marketplace for buying and selling oil and gas equipment

Facilitates point-of-sale loans for retail consumers

Provides telemedicine services to clients’ employees and families

Sells everyday apparel for women

Develops and publishes mobile video games

Acquires, markets and distributes pharmaceutical products

Develops automated customer-service chatbots

Designs smart lighting and home decor

Offers technology that allows health care providers to deliver care remotely

Operates a marketplace for local meat suppliers to sell their products online

Creates custom software for business, public and non-profit clients

Provides logistics services for e-commerce retailers and distributors

Operates a digital platform to connect consumers with financial institutions

Runs a peer-to-peer lending platform for small businesses

Delivers institutional, commercial and industrial construction

Provides marketing communications services

Runs a chain of smartphone and tablet repair storefronts

Acquires and operates niche e-commerce websites

Operates a job-search website active in 79 countries

Offers residential construction management and general contracting

Offers transportation and supply chain management services

Acquires, develops and manages residential properties

Develops and manufactures crop protection products

Manufactures medical testing devices

Manufactures and sells professional hand tools and tool organizers

Operates an online automotive auction platform

Develops and sells sports nutrition products online

Develops billing and operations software for businesses

Makes property insurance software for carriers, adjusters and contractors

Develops, builds and operates rental apartments

Operates a media agency specializing in influencer marketing

Collects plasma and develops therapies to treat various health conditions

Develops and sells surgical navigation solutions for joint replacements

Provides managed pressure drilling services to oil and gas companies

Provides recruiting services for companies seeking technology workers

Streams video and audio from amateur and youth sports to subscribers

Offers marketing and analytics services for clients in entertainment

Develops apparel and related products for women

Publishes motivational and inspirational digital content

Sells yoga products and related accessories

Designs and sells collaborative robots for industrial applications

Operates a chain of boutique indoor-cycling studios

Offers supply chain support services

Sells, implements and manages ServiceNow workflow software

Provides data protection software for small and medium-sized businesses

Develops software to analyze and manage energy use in residential buildings

Rx Drug Mart

Nova Leap Health Corp.

Vitalis Extraction Technology Inc.

Mistplay

Fuelled

Flexiti

Dialogue

Smash + Tess

LB.C. Studios

Exzell Pharma Inc.

Ada

Nanoleaf

Maple

TruLocal

FreshWorks Studio

Wizmo

LendingArch Financial Inc.

Lending Loop

Ritestart Ltd.

No Fixed Address Inc.

Mobile Klinik Pro. Smartphone Repair

Emerge Commerce Inc.

Talent.com

ETRO Construction

Wellington Group of Companies

Marlin Spring

Vive Crop Protection

Icentia

Olsa Tools

Eblock

Jacked Factory

Sonar Software Inc.

Encircle Inc.

Highstreet Ventures Inc.

Viral Nation

Canadian Plasma Resources

Intellijoint Surgical Inc.

Beyond Energy Services & Technology

VanHack

LiveBarn Inc.

Wavo

Numi

Goalcast Inc.

B Yoga & Halfmoon (Mindful Collective)

Novarc Technologies Inc.

Spinco

The Moresby Group

Fishbone Analytics Inc.

Rewind

Parity Inc.

10_20_TopGrowing400_list1.indd 4610_20_TopGrowing400_list1.indd 46 2020-09-08 1:02 PM2020-09-08 1:02 PM

OCTOBER 2020 /REPORT ON BUSINESS 47*COMPANY REPORTS IN U.S. DOLLARS


3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE

EM-PLOY-EES HEADQUARTERS

51 - 100

Montreal

Montreal

Burlington, Ont.

Edmonton

Calgary

Vancouver

Toronto

Vancouver

Toronto

Montreal

Toronto

Toronto

Welland, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Collingwood, Ont.

Vancouver

Toronto

Toronto

Kitchener, Ont.

Mississauga

Vancouver

Toronto

Mississauga

Toronto

Vancouver

Vaughan, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

London, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Edmonton

Toronto

Ste.-Julie, Que.

Toronto

Toronto

Brampton, Ont.

Vancouver

Anjou, Que.

Toronto

Waterloo, Ont.

Vancouver

Burnaby, B.C.

Victoriaville, Que.

Toronto

400

116

56

200

15

230

75

36

80

32

35

44

385

60

70

75

15

140

179

19

123

104

55

19

834

145

41

600

145

40

70

55

12

150

8

157

214

42

65

31

38

250

40

29

36

30

161

15

207

25

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M *

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$50M-$75M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M *

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$50M-$75M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M *

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$50M-$75M

$5M-$10M

1,051

1,041

1,037

1,016

1,009

989

968

961

917

857

836

829

817

809

800

785

766

765

754

744

733

728

726

718

699

695

689

688

681

678

672

669

646

636

623

609

600

590

587

582

575

568

554

516

512

511

503

494

489

482

Creates software used by home health care agencies

Uses AI and machine learning to collect and analyze sports data

Offers online-reputation management for businesses and professionals

Offers insulation, drywall and taping services

Manufactures non-alcoholic craft beer

Develops original and branded video games

Runs an app used by daycares to share child information with parents

Provides competitive intelligence software for enterprise sales teams

Offers software to help entrepreneurs with commercial insurance

Provides IT services and consulting for businesses

Conducts retroactive personal tax reviews for consumers seeking refunds

Develops technology used in emergency, mobile and remote health care

Sells home, automotive, business and life insurance

Provides online personal finance education and tools

Provides expense-management solutions used in mobile and online banking

Provides energy retrofit upgrades to businesses and residences

Manages investments and runs a credit-based income fund

Provides instalment payment plans for e-commerce and in-store purchases

Operates a programmatic digital advertising platform

Manufactures organic pasta made of chickpeas and lentils

Develops practice-management software for health care providers

Provides software to personalize client experiences with financial institutions

Runs a digital platform for businesses to manage invoices and cash flow

Develops prototyping equipment used by manufacturers

Offers supply chain and logistics services, specializing in final-mile delivery

Develops software to create, market and sell online courses

Brokers insurance for clients in construction and real estate

Provides staffing and technological resources for transportation clients

Develops software to help businesses better respond to RFPs

Manages an online marketplace for freight rates

Provides energy-management technology for smart buildings

Operates AI-driven data analysis for retailers and insurance providers

Operates an online platform to facilitate payment of parking fees

Provides payment, loyalty, gift card, and engagement solutions to merchants

Designs and builds commercial and residential properties

Develops mobile apps used primarily by retail sales associates

Operates an app that connects consumers with home services businesses

Operates a platform to connect social media producers with brands

Brokers automotive, home and business insurance

Uses AI to convert high-resolution images to high-definition vector maps

Manufactures premium pet foods

Provides trucking and logistics services

Offers technology that helps produce videos for social media

Provides specialized IT support, managed services and staffing

Provides technology to help companies access and manage data

Creates loss prevention, audit and fraud analytics software

Provides fraud prevention and security technology for online transactions

Produces and sells collagen-based health and wellness products

Designs and manufactures cellular camera systems

Offers discounted currency exchange services

AlayaCare

Sportlogiq

GuaranteedRemovals.com

Impact Drywall Inc.

Partake Brewing

Blackbird Interactive Inc.

HiMama

Klue

Zensurance

Fencecore Solutions Inc.

Family Tax Recovery

Thornhill Medical

BIG (Billyard Insurance Group)

Borrowell

Sensibill

Ontario Green Savings

Cortland Credit Group Inc.

PayBright

StackAdapt

Chickapea

Jane App

Flybits

FundThrough

Voltera

Go Logistics Inc.

Thinkific

Platform Insurance Management Inc.

AAI Corp.

Loopio

Freightera

Kontrol Energy

Daisy Intelligence

HonkMobile

Paystone

Vamar Construction Inc.

Tulip

Jobber

#Paid

OVC Assurance

Ecopia.AI

Open Farm Inc.

Cargo Group

Lumen5

R2i Inc.

ThinkData Works

ThinkLP

Trulioo

WithinUs

Spypoint

Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100




3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE


101 - 150

Toronto

Montreal

Oakville, Ont.

Langley, B.C.

Toronto

Vancouver

Saskatoon

Vancouver

Montreal

Richmond Hill, Ont.

Toronto

Edmonton

Markham, Ont.

Toronto

Laval, Que.

Markham, Ont.

Toronto

Brantford, Ont.

Ottawa

Toronto

Kitchener, Ont.

Ste-Bruno-de-Montarville

Edmonton

Toronto

Toronto

Oakville, Ont.

Toronto

Brockville, Ont.

Stoney Creek, Ont.

Ottawa

Calgary

Kelowna, B.C.

Toronto

Montreal

Dorval, Que.

Montreal

Quebec City

Toronto

Vancouver

Montreal

Toronto

Oakville, Ont.

Surrey, B.C.

Toronto

Calgary

Vancouver

Toronto

London, Ont.

Toronto

Calgary

102

118

25

12

15

25

153

435

79

6

50

30

90

61

54

36

20

16

50

180

44

26

32

252

15

7

35

20

82

17

90

105

10

80

150

13

800

300

20

46

405

347

29

15

230

100

429

35

30

150

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M *

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M *

$100M-$250M *

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M *

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M *

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$75M-$100M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$100M-$250M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$50M-$75M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M *

$25M-$50M

$75M-$100M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

481

476

475

472

472

467

467

460

445

441

438

434

432

427

426

421

410

405

404

401

400

398

398

397

381

379

377

362

361

359

352

350

346

343

336

333

332

331

331

330

321

320

320

316

316

315

314

308

308

305

Offers software to help teams capture feedback, prioritize ideas and plan

Develops maintenance and inventory management systems for aviation

Develops software and provides workflow automation and data services

Distributes hobby products to retailers across Canada

Provides marketing, advertising and technology services

Provides business education for entrepreneurs in the skilled trades

Develops web and mobile software for restaurant staff scheduling

Sells modern furniture direct to consumers

Provides photo post-production services for photographers and brands

Provides freight-forwarding services to Canadian importers and exporters

Operates a platform that allows individuals to compare financial products

Develops software to help oil and gas operators avoid pipeline failure

Develops industrial automation technology solutions

Screens academic applicants for professionalism and people skills

Develops an agile innovation management software platform

Facilitates mergers and acquisitions for automotive dealers

Provides data and intelligence based on citizen sentiment

Makes and distributes concrete accessories, fasteners and building products

Provides technology and processes for digital verification of identification

Develops software for asset management and maintenance

Builds rewards-program infrastructure used in e-commerce

Designs interactive installations for public spaces

Sells mattresses direct to consumers via an online storefront

Builds software and online tools used to facilitate live events

Helps businesses set pricing and manage revenues

Produces custom parts for original equipment manufacturers

Operates a craft brewery

Provides internet, telephone and television services

Provides remote security video monitoring and reporting services

Operates an online marketplace for automotive wheels, tires and parts

Designs and builds prefabricated buildings

Develops employee-communication software

Provides portfolio management services

Operates a digital advertising exchange platform

Provides transportation services, specializing in paper products

Sells unscented and refillable home and body-care products

Consults businesses on technology and organizational management

Creates video content, produces events and operates a network of creatives

Offers legal services, specializing in family law

Provides digital marketing services for businesses

Creates electronic learning software for businesses

Produces a curriculum-aligned video game that helps children learn math

Processes, trades, imports and exports agricultural crops

Designs and makes tools and pigment for permanent makeup

Develops technology used to monitor worker safety

Offers recruiting services, specializing in technology professionals

Provides point-of-sale software for restaurants

Offers waste management and recycling solutions to organizations

Develops solutions used by food manufacturers to reduce contamination

Paints new homes, high-rise residences and commercial buildings

Roadmunk

Traxxall

Dispatch

Hi-Performance Distributors

Array of Stars

Breakthrough Academy

7shifts

Article

Image Salon

The Logistics Factory Ltd.

LowestRates.ca

OneSoft Solutions Inc.

Bluewrist Inc.

Altus Assessments

Planbox

DSMA

RIWI Corp.

My Construction Supply Corp.

WorldReach Software

Fiix Inc.

Smile

Creos

GoodMorning.com

AudienceView

Revenue Management Labs

GJG International

Henderson Brewing Co. Inc.

Truespeed Internet Services

Caliber Communications Inc.

CanadaWheels.ca

Nomodic

Bananatag

Laurus Investment Counsel Inc.

District M Inc.

Vantage Logistics Services

The Unscented Company

Levio Conseils Inc.

Media One Creative

YLaw

Bloom

Docebo Inc.

Prodigy Education Inc.

Adroit Overseas Enterprises Ltd.

Tina Davies Professional

Blackline Safety

MatchBox

TouchBistro

Waste Solutions Canada

Agri-Neo

Zoom Painting

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150




3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE


151 - 200

Toronto

Montreal

Richmond Hill, Ont.

Mississauga

Ottawa

London, Ont.

Richmond, B.C.

Vaughan, Ont.

Regina

Ottawa

Montreal

Toronto

Mississauga

Victoria

St. Catharines, Ont.

Toronto

Vancouver

Quebec City

Surrey, B.C.

Hamilton

Ottawa

Montreal

Mississauga

Rossland, B.C.

Toronto

Montreal

Milton, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Vancouver

Stouffville, Ont.

Kitchener, Ont.

Quebec City

Toronto

Ottawa

Vancouver

St-Laurent, Que.

Magrath, Alta.

Vancouver

Brampton, Ont.

Toronto

Pointe Claire, Que.

Mississauga

Oakville, Ont.

Montreal

Vaughan, Ont.

Smithville, Ont.

Shawinigan, Que.

Fort Langley, B.C.

Montreal

22

96

55

396

340

52

135

19

84

545

61

2,150

300

40

53

25

55

170

85

25

20

17

36

159

15

29

150

129

30

435

67

25

79

22

21

425

150

130

225

225

250

3

25

48

50

100

75

20

15

65

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M *

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$50M-$75M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$100M-$250M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

301

301

301

297

296

294

294

290

287

286

286

285

284

283

283

279

269

268

266

263

260

260

255

255

255

251

245

244

243

243

242

239

236

236

233

228

226

225

222

220

214

214

213

213

212

212

211

209

208

207

Helps brands deliver product samples to consumers

Builds custom themes, apps and system integrations for e-commerce

Provides technical services for clients in telecommunications

Provides final-mile delivery software, analytics and transportation

Provides building abatement, remediation, demolition and related services

Provides technology, data and services to help consumers purchase vehicles

Manufactures natural nutraceutical gummies

Provides IT hardware, software, consulting and managed services

Develops digital technology used by automotive dealerships

Provides software used to manage data and risk within supply chains

Develops video games and immersive experiences

Offers product sampling and experiential marketing for beverage brands

Brokers residential real estate

Distributes sport-related video content to publishers

Provides marketing software and services for rental properties

Helps firms redistribute surplus office furniture, equipment and supplies

Manufactures eco-friendly laundry detergent strips

Provides 3D animation and computer graphics used in film and video games

Manufactures LED lighting technology

Operates a digital brand experience agency

Provides professional placement services and consulting

Acquires, commercializes and develops health care products

Offers private mortgage financing and alternative investments

Creates software to crowd-source answers to questions in real time

Produces and manages digital marketing initiatives

Recruits employees for businesses

Provides freight hauling services

Offers a suite of real estate services for buyers, sellers and renters

Provides online accounting and bookkeeping services for businesses

Brokers real estate for homebuyers and investors

Designs and builds video and AI modules for military and aerospace

Manufactures metal sign frames

Offers testing services for natural resource and energy clients

Manufactures and sells down, feather and alternative bedding products

Sells lighting and energy efficiency products and services

Offers automotive, mortgage and personal financing tools

Co-ordinates international trading of metals

Brokers home, auto and business insurance online

Provides IT recruiting and consulting services

Recruits staff for food, transportation, logistics and manufacturing roles

Caters events and operates quick-service food outlets

Invests in and rents out commercial real estate

Finances home improvements for property owners

Manages and implements IT systems used in industrial applications

Designs, engineers and builds properties

Develops mobile apps for businesses

Manufactures and distributes frozen raw pet food and supplements

Manufactures polyurethane foam insulation systems

Offers digital marketing and public relations services

Offers IT management and development services

Sampler

Diff Agency

COMsolve

Fleet Optics Inc.

Inflector Environmental Services

Mobials Inc.

Herbaland Naturals Inc.

SolutionStack

sMedia

Assent Compliance

Illogika Studios Inc.

Embr

Search Realty Corp.

SendtoNews

Rentsync (Landlord Web Solutions Inc.)

Green Standards Ltd.

Tru Earth (My Passion Media Inc.)

Squeeze Studio Animation

LED Smart Inc.

Operatic Agency

NewFound Recruiting Corp.

Searchlight Pharma

Canadian Mortgages Inc.

Thoughtexchange

Underdog Studio Ltd.

Humanify 360

Trans Expert Inc.

Zoocasa

ConnectCPA LLP

Oakwyn Realty Ltd.

Wolf Advanced Technology

KW Signs

Nucleom

Canadian Down & Feather Co.

Lightenco

Canada Drives

Sinobec Trading Inc.

Surex

Affinity

Nova Staffing Inc.

The Food Dudes Hospitality Group

Fronsac Real Estate Investment Trust

CHICC

AXSource

A+

Clearbridge Mobile

Big Country Raw

Genyk Inc.

Jelly Marketing

Solutions Techso

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200




3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE

EM-PLOY-

EES HEADQUARTERS

201 - 250

Toronto

Montreal

Vancouver

Toronto

Ottawa

Burnaby, B.C.

Burlington, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Oakville, Ont.

Toronto

Kelowna, B.C.

Quebec City

Montreal

Toronto

Vancouver

Toronto

Montreal

Vancouver

Markham, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Longueuil, Que.

White Rock, B.C.

Toronto

London, ON

Calgary

Richmond, B.C.

Toronto

Toronto

Ottawa

Richmond, B.C.

Boisbriand, Que.

Ottawa

Winnipeg

Toronto

Calgary

Vaughan, Ont.

Vancouver

Laval, Que.

Vancouver

Toronto

Kingston, Ont.

Montreal

Vancouver

Mississauga

Quebec City

Edmonton

Toronto

Richmond Hill, Ont.

197

27

100

200

100

721

1,100

280

55

1,248

92

23

250

268

73

63

75

84

5

25

45

17

5

160

230

9

45

50

16

375

25

20

172

25

315

38

30

45

35

50

281

812

400

60

710

48

504

210

6

80

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$100M-$250M

$10M-$25M

$75M-$100M

$10M-$25M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$250M-$500M *

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M *

$50M-$75M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M *

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$50M-$75M

$25M-$50M

$100M-$250M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$100M-$250M

$2M-$5M

$75M-$100M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M *

$10M-$25M

207

202

201

201

197

195

194

194

192

191

190

190

189

189

188

188

186

185

185

184

183

183

182

181

181

179

178

178

176

174

174

171

171

170

169

169

168

168

167

167

167

167

167

166

165

165

163

162

162

159

Offers data and digital tools for health care clinicians

Designs and manufactures test and measurement equipment

Runs digital publications serving major Canadian cities

Develops technology used by marketers to manage digital advertising

Develops digital experience monitoring technology

Provides enterprise software consulting and application development

Offers in-home care for physically and cognitively challenged individuals

Designs, builds and runs commerce technology solutions

Plans, produces and executes business conferences

Develops telematics solutions used in fleet management

Provides public relations consulting services

Designs and manufactures airborne audio communications equipment

Runs a charter airline and provides related services

Develops workplace improvement software

Delivers data management and information technology asset protection

Provides recruitment and staffing services across Canada

Manufactures gluten-free, vegan and allergen-friendly baked goods

Offers recruiting and staffing services

Provides full-stack managed IT services

Provides pest control services for residential and commercial clients

Provides IT and managed services for clients in health care

Delivers boutique Salesforce consulting services

Sources, trades and exports grains and seeds

Provides advertising technology for online publishers

Offers point-of-sale financing for home improvement, vehicles and retail

Produces cold-pressed juices, vegan probiotics, smoothies and cleanses

Manufactures and sells gelato and sorbetto

Provides tech-supported waste diversion and recycling management

Offers data-driven mobile marketing services

Operates a teaching platform for professors to facilitate online learning

Creates access-control software used by businesses

Provides specialized asset management services

Designs and manufactures assistive robotic technologies

Provides cybersecurity consulting to businesses and government

Develops e-commerce software and apps

Provides business-to-business marketing services for technology firms

Develops, manages, markets and leases real estate properties

Provides moving and storage services across Canada

Offers university and private-school admissions consulting to students

Packs wild seafood and manufactures natural and organic food products

Provides decision analytics for managing critical infrastructure

Develops fleet telematics and connected vehicle technologies

Facilitates online estate and downsizing auctions

Provides audiovisual rentals and services for events

Sells custom menswear online and through bricks-and-mortar stores

Supplies air purifiers for commercial, industrial and residential use

Designs AI-powered software to predict content relevant to users

Manufactures frozen Indian appetizers and meals

Develops, sells and markets consumer packaged goods

Provides managed cloud services for mid-market and enterprise firms

Think Research Corp.

Introspect Technology

Daily Hive

AcuityAds

Martello Technologies

Traction on Demand

Right at Home Canada

Pivotree

Generis Group

Geotab

Argyle Public Relationships

Jupiter Avionics Corp.

Chrono Aviation Group

Gsoft

ThinkOn

Impact Recruitment

O’Doughs

Fuze HR Solutions Inc.

Ook Enterprises Ltd.

HomePro Pest Control

BlueBird IT Solutions Inc.

Lane Four

Alliance Zone Inc.

MonetizeMore

Financeit

Pulp & Press

Righteous Gelato

RecycleSmart

Curate Mobile Ltd.

Top Hat

Feenics Inc.

Gentai Capital Corp.

Kinova

MDOS Consulting Inc.

Bold Commerce

Starshot

Equium Group

Metropolitan Movers

KEY Education

Marina Del Rey Foods

Copperleaf

Fleet Complete

MaxSold Inc.

Expert’ease Productions

Indochino

Surgically Clean Air Inc.

Coveo

Aliya’s Foods Ltd.

Masontops Inc.

Carbon60

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

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221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

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230

231

232

233

234

235

236

237

238

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250




3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE


251 - 300

Vancouver

Mississauga

Mississauga

Montreal

Toronto

Waterloo, Ont.

Toronto

Quebec City

Toronto

Richmond Hill, Ont.

Blainville, Que.

Vancouver

Vaughan, Ont.

Foresters Falls, Ont.

Kincardine, Ont.

Markham, Ont.

Toronto

Brampton, Ont.

Toronto

La Prairie, Que.

Montreal

Toronto

Saskatoon

Kitchener, Ont.

Toronto

Victoria

Toronto

Ottawa

Vaughan, Ont.

London, Ont.

Ottawa

Aylmer, Que.

Calgary

Quebec City

Rouyn-Noranda

Calgary

Kitchener, Ont.

Montreal

Ste-Frédéric, Que.

Ottawa

Toronto

Ottawa

Toronto

Toronto

Dundas, Ont.

Toronto

London, Ont.

Vancouver

Toronto

Langley, B.C.

55

33

22

60

155

27

20

77

95

23

58

75

58

75

363

15

30

150

4,808

70

35

25

395

49

140

23

100

30

30

65

50

225

55

65

75

142

12

60

153

190

40

35

37

501

35

1,200

37

20

41

99

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$750M-$1B

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$50M-$75M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$75M-$100M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$100M-$250M *

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

157

156

156

155

155

150

149

149

148

148

145

145

143

143

143

142

138

137

137

137

137

136

135

135

134

133

132

132

131

129

128

127

125

125

124

124

123

122

122

122

121

121

120

120

120

119

119

119

118

117

Archives web and social media posts for firms and government agencies

Provides real estate services for homeowners and investors

Delivers audio, web and video conferencing and collaboration services

Designs and implements customer relationship management technology

Operates digital properties to help Canadians manage personal finance

Provides wireless IoT products and services to cities and campuses

Provides managed IT and cybersecurity services

Offers IT and web consulting services

Provides research technology and delivers consumer insights

Creates technologies to design, test and build telecommunication networks

Consults organizations on IT infrastructure and processes

Creates free-to-play games for mobile devices

Provides utility engineering services

Brews and sells beer, and operates two brew pubs

Provides capital, staffing and payroll support for the nuclear industry

Wholesales and retails professional audiovisual equipment and supplies

Publishes medical research journals

Provides design/build, HVAC and plumbing services

Manufactures and sells luxury outerwear

Distributes electrical materials to contractors and industrial clients

Delivers artificial intelligence, web, mobile and other digital solutions

Provides marketing services to corporations

Runs a platform that lets clients develop digital properties

Develops software to facilitate management of construction projects

Provides financing for energy-efficient HVAC systems

Designs and manufactures solar-powered outdoor commercial lighting

Designs, manufactures and delivers gift baskets

Delivers marketing campaigns to small- and mid-sized businesses

Provides third-party logistics services across North America

Operates a digital agency specializing in omnichannel retail experiences

Develops mobile technology used in construction materials

Manufactures packaging for the automotive industry

Delivers fully outsourced IT services for clients

Rents out event furniture in Quebec and eastern Ontario

Manufactures power equipment used in industrial and mining settings

Operates a fleet of private jets used by businesses and wealthy individuals

Offers digital marketing services for businesses

Helps automotive dealers improve their digital presence

Designs and manufactures small, energy-efficient motorhomes

Retails and caters Montreal-style bagels and sandwiches

Delivers IT consulting and solutions

Offers technological systems design, support and services

Designs office, retail and institutional interior spaces

Operates a global digital advertising marketplace

Offers occupational health and safety training and consulting

Franchises quick-service restaurants

Provides digital marketing services and software

Offers a suite of software and digital marketing services

Delivers management consulting focused on performance improvement

Sells industrial process equipment, specializing in water treatment

Pagefreezer

The Regan Team

Wish Collaboration

XRM Vision

Ratehub Inc.

Eleven-x Inc.

M.I.T. Consulting

Ciao

Dig Insights Inc.

Acentury Inc.

Openmind Technologies Inc.

A Thinking Ape Entertainment Ltd.

DPM Energy Inc.

Whitewater Brewing Co.

CRG Energy (Garneau Group Inc.)

AVShop.ca

JMIR Publications Inc.

LPI Mechanical Inc.

Canada Goose

Electrimat

Osedea Inc.

The Mark

Vendasta

Bridgit Inc.

Simply Green Home Services Inc.

First Light Technologies Ltd.

Baskits Inc.

Seoplus+

Mactrans Logistics Inc.

Northern Commerce

Giatec Scientific Inc.

Precision Fab Inc.

Debian Information Technology Inc.

DX Event Furnishings

Adria Power Systems

AirSprint Inc.

Stryve Digital Marketing

D2C Media Inc.

Safari Condo

Kettlemans Bagel Co.

WebSan Solutions Inc.

DLS Technology Corp.

X-Design Inc.

Index Exchange Inc.

Worksite Safety Compliance Centre

Quesada Burritos & Tacos

tbk

Mintent

Isaac Operations Ltd.

AWC Solutions Ltd.

251

252

253

254

255

256

257

258

259

260

261

262

263

264

265

266

267

268

269

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288

289

290

291

292

293

294

295

296

297

298

299

300




3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE


301 - 350

Mississauga

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto

Winnipeg

Pickering, Ont.

Vancouver

Toronto

Kitchener, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Lambton Shores, Ont.

Mississauga

Toronto

Toronto

Dartmouth, N.S.

Winnipeg

Edmonton

Toronto

Oakville, Ont.

Ottawa

Guelph, Ont.

Toronto

Quebec City

Quebec City

Toronto

Chambly, Que.

Mississauga

Vancouver

Yorkton, Sask.

Montreal

Vancouver

Quebec City

Vaughan, Ont.

Richmond, B.C.

Toronto

Richmond, B.C.

Markham, Ont.

Toronto

St-Germain, Que.

London, Ont.

Brampton, Ont.

Mississauga

Mississauga

Markham, Ont.

Vancouver

Vaughan, Ont.

Toronto

11

138

30

260

23

76

65

100

75

12

246

3,200

60

120

80

7,500

100

19

300

200

230

95

40

30

25

100

158

100

33

35

125

40

65

620

125

60

143

25

100

95

605

36

250

788

1,500

24

24

50

35

35

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M *

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$250M-$500M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$750M-$1B

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$25M-$50M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$50M-$75M

$5M-$10M

$50M-$75M

$10M-$25M

$250M-$500M *

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

116

115

115

115

114

114

113

111

111

108

108

108

107

107

107

105

105

104

103

102

102

102

101

101

100

98

98

98

98

98

98

97

97

97

95

95

93

92

92

91

91

91

91

90

90

89

89

89

88

87

Sells, installs and services after-market automotive performance products

Provides digital strategy and custom software development services

Develops and delivers integrated solar energy projects

Provides software and services used to facilitate investor relations

Wholesales and retails decor and housewares for babies and children

Provides enterprise service and IT operations management

Provides online training programs and tools for businesses

Designs, installs and manages building lighting systems and media facades

Provides IT services to businesses and organizations

Sells recycled plastic raw materials

Develops technology to help cities improve and manage traffic

Provides staffing services, specializing in IT and engineering

Provides construction and project management for commercial interiors

Propagates vegetable seedlings for commercial greenhouses and consumers

Develops tools to help manage utility consumption of buildings

Acquires and provides business services to dental clinics

Develops mobile video games

Offers managed IT services for businesses

Designs and manufactures Indigenous footwear

Provides IT support for small businesses

Offers wealth management and facilitates capital market transactions

Provides software development and IT professional services

Offers guidance, design and software development

Provides digital marketing for home improvement and construction firms

Provides financial modelling training, consulting and accreditation

Manufactures medical devices used in dental work

Consults on strategy, operations, HR, education and technology

Supplies staff in the light industrial, hospitality and sanitation industries

Manufactures refrigerated displays for food and beverage

Provides construction drilling services and earth retention systems

Develops video games for mobile devices

Processes and packages oil seed products

Manufactures and distributes sound, lighting and video equipment

Runs business and language schools and related real-estate services

Provides architecture and building services

Distributes natural and organic food products

Manufactures natural health and beauty products

Practises labour and employment law

Develops rapid in vitro medical diagnostic kits

Creates business management software for spas and wellness providers

Owns and operates health care clinics across Ontario

Manufactures custom corrugated cardboard packaging

Provides automation technology and system integration for manufacturers

Facilitates temporary and permanent staffing for industrial clients

Develops and sells technology and software for senior care providers

Imports and wholesales commercial food equipment

Manufactures folding cartons and distributes packaging supplies

Offers branding, digital and marketing services for social-impact groups

Builds, maintains and landscapes commercial and industrial properties

Offers digital marketing and advertising services

Touge Tuning

TWG

Solar Provider Group

Q4

Pehr

SuMO IT Solutions Inc.

Neovation Learning Solutions

3S Lighting Solutions

Softlanding Solutions Inc.

CANEI Corp.

Miovision

Tundra Technical Solutions

mform Construction Group

Roelands Plant Farms

Wyse Meter Solutions Inc.

dentalcorp

Uken Games

Digital nGenuity

Manitobah Mukluks

F12.net

Echelon Wealth Partners Inc.

Indellient Inc.

OPIN Digital

Intrigue Media

The Marquee Group

Panthera Dental

Edgenda

Talent Employment Inc.

MTL Cool

Earthline Foundations and Shoring Ltd.

East Side Games

TA Foods Ltd.

Theatrixx Technologies Inc.

CIBT Education Group Inc.

STGM Architectes

Jonluca Enterprises Inc.

Organika Health Products Inc.

Monkhouse Law Employment Lawyers

BioLytical

Book4Time

MyHealth Centre

Les Emballages Boxpack

JMP Solutions

Vertical Staffing Resources Inc.

PointClickCare Technologies Inc.

Food Service Solutions Inc.

Astrapac

Briteweb

York Property Services Ltd.

Art & Science

301

302

303

304

305

306

307

308

309

310

311

312

313

314

315

316

317

318

319

320

321

322

323

324

325

326

327

328

329

330

331

332

333

334

335

336

337

338

339

340

341

342

343

344

345

346

347

348

349

350




3-YEARREVENUEGROWTH

(%)2019REVENUE


351 - 400

Golden, B.C.

Ottawa

Toronto

Ottawa

North Bay, Ont.

Toronto

Toronto

Edmonton

Vancouver

Vancouver

Toronto

Chilliwack, B.C.

Guelph, Ont.

Toronto

Mount Forest, Ont.

Kirkland, Ont.

Mississauga

St. John’s, Nfld.

Waterloo, Ont.

Toronto

Kelowna, B.C.

Vancouver

Montreal

Winnipeg

Calgary

Peterborough

Toronto

Toronto

Collingwood, Ont.

Burnaby, B.C.

Moncton, NB

Mississauga

Mississauga

Bolton, Ont.

Toronto

Ottawa

Toronto

Richmond Hill, Ont.

Vaughan, Ont.

Boisbriand, Que.

Ottawa

Delta, B.C.

Vancouver

Vancouver

Georgetown, Ont.

Mississauga

London, Ont.

Halifax

Halifax

Montreal

20

200

100

30

274

2,600

12

36

1,800

1,499

10

60

3,100

80

27

35

500

16

100

40

36

22

28

20

21

20

36

700

35

100

40

138

507

14

39

63

36

44

15

81

60

140

5,075

61

52

21

80

31

65

40

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$50M-$75M

$500M-$750M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$100M-$250M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$50M-$75M

$2M-$5M

$75M-$100M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$25M-$50M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$25M-$50M

$50M-$75M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$10M-$25M

$2M-$5M

$10M-$25M

$10M-$25M

$25M-$50M

$10M-$25M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$5M-$10M

86

85

84

84

84

84

84

83

83

83

83

83

83

81

79

79

79

79

77

77

76

75

75

75

75

75

75

74

74

73

73

72

72

72

72

71

71

71

70

70

70

70

69

69

67

67

66

66

65

65

Wholesales powersports parts and accessories

Provides paving, concrete, snow removal, landscaping and other services

Invests in early-stage emerging technology organizations

Provides IT services for businesses and government institutions

Manufactures vocational trucks and specialized trailers

Runs small-group adventure travel tours

Recruits marketing, sales, IT and executive professionals

Provides technology and services related to enterprise software

Operates bike, swim and sport camps for children

Develops specialty cell cultures and related products for scientists

Delivers services that help facilitate innovation in companies

Produces metal parts for manufacturers

Arranges installation and assembly services on behalf of large retailers

Provides digital marketing services for organizations

Makes and distributes semi-underground waste and recycling containers

Brokers business, automotive and home insurance

Offers network infrastructure and investment recovery services

Provides advertising, marketing and branding services

Offers ad-supported, free-for-users phone service

Provides medical education and evaluation for health-care professionals

Operates a software platform to manage corporate wellness programs

Develops business administration software for school districts

Creates art-driven experiences in public, institutional and corporate spaces

Manages investment portfolios for individuals and small institutions

Sources, imports, distributes and retails specialty coffee equipment

Provides accounting, taxation, bookkeeping and virtual CFO services

Offers varied management and marketing services

Operates restaurants in Toronto and California

Offers web marketing and software for small- and mid-sized businesses

Provides residential and commercial construction

Transports vehicles to and from plants, auctions and dealerships

Supplies botanical ingredients to manufacturers of personal care products

Recruits, places and manages IT professionals for clients

Designs software to help banks and others manage currency and coins

Consults for private- and public-sector clients on strategy and policy

Develops water measurement instrumentation

Helps clients ideate, design, manufacture and ship new products

Manufactures folding cartons

Imports, packages and distributes food products

Manufactures safety equipment for industrial storage racks

Sells energy-efficiency, sustainability and emissions-reduction products

Supplies steel and rubber components for highway bridges

Operates and franchises private-duty home care services for seniors

Develops websites for academic, non-profit and business clients

Makes baked goods, granola and ice-cream sandwiches

Provides digital marketing services

Offers digital solutions and web development services

Creates cloud-based software for the hospitality industry

Provides engineering, architecture and project management services

Provides electronic signature solutions for professionals and organizations

Mountain Sports Distribution

D-Squared Construction

Prodigy Ventures Inc.

CloseReach

Gincor Werx

G Adventures

Marketers on Demand Inc.

Dynamic Manufacturing Solutions

Pedalheads

Stemcell Technologies

The Idea Suite

Harmonic Machine Inc.

QuickContractors.com

Elite Digital

Molok North America Ltd.

Assurance KBD

The Wesbell Group of Cos.

Ray

TextNow

PharmAchieve

CoreHealth Technologies Inc.

Rycor Solutions Inc.

MASSIVart

B.C.V Asset Management Inc.

Eight Ounce Coffee

Gauvreau & Associates CPA

Managing Matters Inc.

Gusto 54 Restaurant Group

WordJack Media

Gibraltar Construction

Auction Transport Services Inc.

New Directions Aromatics Inc.

Nexus Systems Group Inc.

NamSys Inc.

Nordicity

RBR Ltd.

Inertia

E.B. Box Co.

Minami Group Inc.

Damotech Inc.

Thermal Energy International Inc.

Marcon Metalfab Inc.

Nurse Next Door

ImageX

Terra Cotta Foods Ltd.

Candybox Marketing

Digital Echidna

B4

EastPoint

Notarius

351

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10_20_TOP400_products.indd 5410_20_TOP400_products.indd 54 2020-09-08 12:53 PM2020-09-08 12:53 PM


PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUECH AND BECK/JK REPS

KINOVABoisbriand, Que.

Build robots, but don’t forget about the humans. This designethos, laser-focused on the end user, is behind Kinova’s growth(along with an aggressive export strategy—it established acustomer base in the Netherlands before its domestic market).Kinova’s first product, launched in 2009, is a robot arm calledJACO that helps people with limited upper-limb mobilitydo everything from open doors to brush their teeth and playwith their pets. The project was inspired by founder CharlesDeguire’s uncle, who had muscular dystrophy and fashionedhimself a makeshift arm to help with everyday tasks.

Kinova’s human-focused approach has propelled it intodeveloping robotics for industrial uses, along with medicine,education and research. “We’re gearing up to launch our nextgeneration of collaborative robots for small to medium-sizedmanufacturers,” says Deguire. “Productivity boosts are agiven. The real challenge is making sure the robots empowerhumans, that they improve the lives of people on the factoryfloor.” Their latest launch, in January 2019, was the KinovaGen3, a surgical-grade robot arm for the U.S. market basedon the same precise gripping and manipulation technologythat underlies JACO. Its foundational principle, as always, ishuman-centric—“augment human capabilities, not replace”is the product’s catchphrase. Gen3 has performed more than1,000 surgeries since its launch.

OBJECTLESSONS

How Canada’s Top Growing Companiesturned ideas into products

BY LIZA AGRBA




Cutout themiddleman, butdon’t cut corners—that’sOlsa Tools’ simple formula for explosive growth.Founder Charles Marois, a DIY auto mechanic (orself-described car tinkerer), got into the tool busi-ness when he couldn’t find a quality product toorganize his screwdriver bits for a reasonable price.A frustrating Amazon search led to a little marketresearch, which revealed that the middleman was

the problem. Olsa Tools manufactures its own lineof hand tools, accessories and organizers, and sellsdirectly to its target market, which spans DIY andprofessional mechanics.“It’s all about taking pride in the quality of design

and functionality of our products,” Marois says.“When developing a new product, we always ask,is it high-quality, beautifully designed and dura-ble? If so, we proceed to the next step.” His teamworks closely with several professional heavy-dutymechanics to test their products before manufac-turing. Prices are lower than those of big-namemanufacturers thanks to the aforementioned lackof middlemen, a strategy supported by the com-pany’s heavy use of e-commerce for distribution.Olsa Tools grew 1,968% in the past three years, andMarois says they’ve done it allwith nodebt or exter-nal investment. Score one for dedicated tinkering.

OLSA TOOLSNisku, Alberta



Jerry Seinfeld once wondered aloud whether traffic would one day get so bad thatit would have to start moving backward. Miovision, a Kitchener-based traffic datacompany, is here to save us from that particular nightmare. Cities face an increas-ingly urgent congestion problem, but many still count cars with 20th-century meth-ods like pencils and clipboards. Miovision’s founder, Kurtis McBride—a UniversityofWaterloo grad with a master’s degree in computer vision—saw another way.Scout is essentially a weatherproof camera rigged out with Miovision’s propri-

etary AI. The system, trained with massive quantities of video data through a pro-cess called deep learning, gives a comprehensive picture of traffic going through ata given location. It can recognize and count cars, trucks, bikes, pedestrians and evene-scooters in real-world conditions like rain and fog. Plus, it syncs up with DataLink,a one-stop web portal that makes for seamless collaboration between transportationprofessionals.While the firm has enjoyed healthy growth, McBride says widespread adoption of

high-tech traffic solutions is partly a matter of politics. “The best thing federal andprovincial governments could do to supercharge the civic tech economy is to enablemunicipalities to modernize their civic infrastructure at a national scale,” he says.

MIOVISIONKitchener, Ont.



Most varieties of non-alcoholic beer are an unconvincing off-shoot of the real thing—an estranged third cousin more thana sister product. Ted Fleming, the founder of Partake Brewery,lamented thiswhen he quit drinking in 2015.Hewas a bona fidebeer guy who regularly sampled craft brews before a Crohn’sdisease diagnosis forced him to give it up.Being his own target market turned brewing non-alcoholic

beer into a passion project. Focusing on aroma, finish and thefine flavour notes that concern craft brewers, he developed afour-ingredient, 10-calorie can of non-alcoholic IPA and suc-cessfully pitched it on Dragons’ Den. He’s since launched fourmore styles—including a malty red and deep brown stout—entered Ontario’s Beer Store and major grocery chains, andwon four international awards for taste. “We’ve revolutionizedthe industry with our laser focus on simplicity,” he says.

PARTAKE BREWINGCalgary



Anie Rouleau started The Unscented Companywith a blank sheet of paper in a coffee shop. Shewrote down her mission statement—reduce ourcollective plastic footprint and help stop single-use plastic packaging—next to her vision and val-ues. That piece of paper remains the foundation ofher business. As the name indicates—streamliningclearly being amongRouleau’s strengths—the com-

pany makes unscented home and body care prod-ucts such as soap, laundry detergent and deodorant.The product line is also biodegradable, refillableand locally manufactured.When it comes to The Unscented Company’s

rapid growth, Rouleau is the first to admit that tim-ing was key. She had always been intolerant of fra-grances and knew she wasn’t alone in that regard.She was also acutely aware that the demand for cli-mate- andhealth-consciousproducts hasneverbeenhigher. “Beforemoving forwardwith any new prod-uct idea,we always ask ourselves the samequestion:Is this new product coherent with our companymission and vision? Not many products move pastthis stage,” she says. “But if they do, it means localmanufacturing is available, sustainable packagingis possible, and most importantly, this new productwill have a positive impact on the world.”

THE UNSCENTED COMPANYMontreal


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PHOTOGRAPHKATEDOCKERAY;SOURCEMORNIN

GSTA

R

W E A L T HSMART MONEY

RBC GLOBAL PRECIOUS METALS FUNDANNUALIZED % TOTAL RETURN (THROUGH JULY 31)

1-YEAR 88.110-YEAR 7.715-YEAR 13.2

S&P 500 TOTAL RETURN INDEX ($CDN)

1-YEAR 14.210-YEAR 16.915-YEAR 9.6

Barrick Gold, Newmont, NewcrestMining and Agnico Eagle Mines,now have free cash flow yields in the5% to 8% range. Formid-tier produc-ers, it’s higher. And dividend yieldswill probably approach 2% in 2021.If gold goes higher, investors will gettheir dividend plus capital apprecia-tion. Share buybacks are a relativelynew phenomenon, but miners suchasKirklandLakeGold are increasingdividends and buying back shares.

Legendary investorWarren Buffetthas not been a fan of gold in thepast, but his Berkshire Hathaway

conglomerate bought shares of Barrick this year.Why is this miner attractive?In the gold bearmarket of 2011 to 2015, Barrick wastheposter child for an industry suffering frompoorcapital-allocation decisions. It made ill-timed andexpensive acquisitions, including a coppermine inZambia. Coupledwith cost overruns and failure todeliver projects on time and on budget, Barrick’sshare price suffered. Under its new chief execu-tive officer, Mark Bristow [formerly CEO of Ran-goldResources, acquired byBarrick in 2018], it hasbeen getting rid of inferior assets, paying downdebt and cutting costs, and hires locally at mines.It now has strong investment discipline.

Silver tends to follow gold’s rise but is nowherenear its 2011 peak of nearly US$50 per ounce.How are you playing silver?We don’t have a strong view on silver. There arefew silver mines, and a lot of silver is a byprod-uct of gold mining. We have owned MAG Silversince it was a junior in 2003, but it only recentlybegan production at its Mexican silver mine. Wealso hold SilverCrest Metals, which is developingamine inMexico; PanAmerican Silver; andWhea-ton Precious Metals, a royalty company that getsabout half of its revenue from silver. /ShirleyWon

Why has gold been on a winning streak?A weakening U.S. dollar, lower interest rates andinflation fears are fuelling the price of gold. Mas-sive amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus tocombat the COVID-19 pandemic and support theglobal economy may lead to inflation pressuresin the future. Inflation-adjusted interest rates onthe 10-year U.S. Treasury bond are negative. Goldhas become attractive to investors because thereis basically no income for investors in many fixed-income assets. It has become an alternative cur-rency and a safe haven.

What is your outlook for themetal?Wedon’t have a price forecast, but we look at bear,base-case and bull scenarios. We currently see a75%probability that goldwill trendhigher over thenext couple of years. Even if a COVID-19 vaccineis developed near term, the world is still awash indebt and future growth will likely be slow. Cen-tral banks will be reluctant to raise interest ratestoo quickly as that would kill any recovery. This ispotentially bullish for gold. The inflation-adjustedprice of gold at its 1980 high of US$850 an ounceis about US$2,700 today. I can’t see any reason wecouldn’t achieve that down the road.

Investors don’t typically buy gold stocksfor dividends. Should they?A lot of mining companies are increasing divi-dends gingerly. In 2011, when gold stocks traded athigh valuations, the industry spent a lot of moneyon mergers and acquisitions. Every cent minersmade went to growth. Today, their balance sheetsare stronger, they are not buying assets that don’tmake sense, and they are making commitments inenvironmental, social and governance practices.Using spot gold prices, senior producers, including

CHRIS BEERVICE-PRESIDENT AND SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGERRBC GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT INC., TORONTO

Over his career, Chris Beer has watched the price of goldsoar—albeit in fits and starts.When heworked as afield geologist searching for gold in Newfoundland in thelate 1980s, bullion fluctuated aroundUS$400 an ounce.In 2003, he became portfolio manager of the RBCGlobalPreciousMetals Fund, which he now co-runs with BrahmSpilfogel and Jeffrey Schok, and has $1.16 billion in assets.Gold took off and peaked near US$1,920 an ounce in 2011,but then plunged and only surpassed that record this pastAugust. The equity fund has outpaced the S&P 500 TotalReturn Index in Canadian dollars over the past 15 years.We asked Beer, 55, if investors should consider gold stocksfor dividend income andwhy he likes Barrick Gold Corp.

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DECODER

THINK GOLD IS A SMART BETTHESE DAYS? OK, BOOMER

Cameron and TylerWinklevossmay have risento prominence by accusingMark Zuckerberg of stealingthe idea for Facebook fromthem, but these days they’rebetter known for toutingbitcoin. So when BarstoolSports founder and day traderDave Portnoy asked them toexplain the cryptocurrency tohim last month, they laid outtheir out-of-this-world theoryfor why bitcoin is not just analternative to fiat currenciessuch as the U.S. dollar,but gold as well.As Tyler put it, there are

“billions of dollars of goldfloating in asteroids aroundthis planet” waiting to bemined by Space X founderElonMusk. That will makegold worthless, he claimed,while bitcoin’s supply isfixed. “Gold is for boomerswho don’t understandthat,” he said.It was one of themore

direct shots taken in ademographic divide that’semerged between bitcoin andgold during the inexplicablecoronavirus-era investmentboom. In a research notelast month, JPMorgananalysts examined the vastsums ofmoney flowing intoinvestments tied to eachalternative. “Older cohortsprefer gold while youngercohorts prefer bitcoin”when it comes to bettingon awinning “alternative”currency to the weakeningU.S. dollar, wrote analystNikolaos Panigirtzoglou.While both have been

on a tear since their Marchlows, the cryptocurrency hasbeen the clear winner—as ofthe end of August, bitcoin’svalue was up roughly 135%compared to 35% for gold,though it’s worth notingthe cryptocurrency is stillmore than 40% below its2017 peak and suffered a far

steeper drop than goldduring the February sell-off.At the same time, the

generational divide hasbeen evident in stocksas well, the JPMorgananalyst wrote, with olderinvestors exiting equities toload up on bond funds thissummer. Millennials pouredtheir money into stocks—especially technology shares.Score another one for theyounger crowd: The NYSEFANG+ index, which providesexposure to 10 tech giants,including Apple, Tesla, Googleand Amazon, has nearlymatched bitcoin forits pandemic returns.As for those investors

pouringmoney into bitcoinand gold, it’s unclearhowmany ascribe to anyparticular theory aboutthe unsustainability ofwestern fiat currencies—andhowmany are scared ofmissing out. /Jason Kirby

CANFOR CORP.VANCOUVER

REVENUE (2019)$4.7 BILLION

LOSS (2019)$263 MILLION

THREE-YEAR SHARE PRICE CHANGE–23%

P/E RATIO (FORWARD)7.10

Forest products may not seemlike the sexiest of sectors, butCanada’s largest producersoften tempt value investorswith alluringly low price-to-earnings ratios, then take themon a wild ride.It’s an inherently volatile

business, with demandfluctuating widely througheconomic cycles. Canada’sproducers also face frequenttrade disputes with the UnitedStates over softwood exports.All that volatility is reflected

in lumber prices and, thereby, inthe financial results and shareprices of forest products giants.“We know it’s a commodity,and the price moves around,”says Vancouver multibillionaireJim Pattison, who owns 51% ofCanfor Corp. and 13.8% ofWestFraser Timber Co., the country’stwo biggest producers byvolume and revenue.The key, as in other highly

cyclical commodity sectors, isto invest when prices are lowand strap yourself in for theturbulence that is bound tofollow. The COVID-19 pandemichas magnified and acceleratedthe ups and downs. Before thecoronavirus hit in February, theprice ofWestern SPF (spruce,pine and fir), an industrybenchmark, had languishedbelowUS$400 per thousandboard feet for more than a year.It then plunged belowUS$260in April, but has rocketed backup to record prices of more thanUS$800 as U.S. homebuildinghas surged back.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

150%

125

100

75

50

25

0

PERCENTAGE CHANGE SINCE PANDEMIC LOW

DAYS SINCE HITTING LOWEST PRICE IN MARCH

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

BTC(since March 12)

FANG index(since March 18)

S&P 500(since March 23)

GOLD(since March 19)

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In many ways, Canforpresented the best opportunityin the sector to follow the classicvalue investing advice of buyingon the dips. Its share price on theTSX crashed from around $14before COVID to a low of $6.17 inMarch, but has since reboundedto more than $17 recently—the biggest turnaround amongmajor producers.

Yet Canfor may still be cheap,priced at a meagre seven timesthe company’s forecast earningsfor the next year. True, it lost $130million in the first half of thisyear, but in the three-year stretchfrom 2016 to 2018, it earned atotal of $800 million in profits.

Also consider Pattison, the91-year-old catalyst investor whocontrols Canfor and is the largest

shareholder in West Fraser. Lastfall, he offered $16 a share totake Canfor private. That wasalmost double the market priceright before, but less than halfthe all-time highs hit in 2018.Pattison withdrew the offerwhen he appeared certain to losea shareholder vote.

But he’s not going anywhere.Pattison has been a majorinvestor in B.C. lumbercompanies for two decades.Analysts and executives in thesector have speculated for yearsthat he’d like to merge WestFraser and Canfor.

Asked about that idea, heskates around it, and talks aboutthe sector generally. “We live inB.C.,” he says. “Of course, we’rebig supporters.” Pattison alsoseems to be completely unfazedby the inevitable volatility.“We think it’s a good long-termplace to be,” he says. /John Daly

CANFOR CORP. TSX SHARE PRICE

$18

16

14

12

10

8

AUGUST 2019 AUGUST 2020


ILLU

STRATIONKYLE

SCOTT

TurningPoint


I grew up in Philadelphia, in an all-Black neigh-bourhood. There were generally good people onthe block, but there was a fair amount of joblessnessand violence. When I was 12, we moved to a pre-dominantly white suburb. And by predominantly,I mean almost exclusively. While there were somechallenges from some students and teachers, over-whelmingly it was a good experience. It was saferthere. More importantly, it got me ready for beingthe only Black person during much of my educa-tional and corporate journey.

Most of the discrimination I’ve faced in my careercan be attributed to my being underestimated basedon my race and sex. I’ve been passed over for oppor-tunities despite having the same qualifications andpedigree as the other person. In team settings, I’vebeen looked over as “less than.” Once, at a globalmeeting, a colleague went to introduce me to some-one from a different company. As I was approach-ing, the person ordered drinks from me—theyassumed I was the wait staff.

Staying true to who I am has helped me deal withdiscrimination and bias. There were times whenI tried to be different based on feedback that wasprobably biased itself, and that took away from mynatural strengths and ability to deliver in the work-place. Knowing I belong has been an important partof my journey, but it’s something many underrep-resented minorities and Blacks struggle with whenwe face so many barriers and biases. It’s easy to playinto that ourselves. But because so many of us havesucceeded despite these barriers, we have morethan earned a seat at the table.

The murder of George Floyd was just off theback of several other deaths of Black people in theUnited States. I felt helpless, like I always do. Whatsurprised me, in a good way, was the global proteststhat followed and how diverse they were. There wasan acknowledgement of systemic racism that didn’tseem to exist before, and non-Blacks seemed to belistening in a different way. That’s encouraging. Weneed to leverage this moment, where so many indi-viduals are inspired to do something. And manycompanies, similarly, are being inspired and pushedby their employees and customers to do more.

Systemic racism isn’t just an American problem;it exists globally, and it definitely exists in Canada.As a Canadian business community, there is morewe can do to effect meaningful change. This beginswith acknowledging the biases and systemic chal-lenges that exist overall, but specifically in the workenvironment. Leaders must also acknowledge thatrepresentation is not only critical, but better forbusiness. They should set this as a business prior-ity, and ensure they bring a diversity lens and mind-fulness of bias to the recruiting process. And onceyou’ve got employees through the door, it’s impor-tant that they stay, and that’s where creating aninclusive environment comes into play.

Leaders can play a critical role in fostering empa-thy within an organization, along with a genuineappreciation for the challenges faced by underrep-resented groups. They should also be purposefulin their advocacy of those employees—helping toinfluence and create opportunities that will helpthem advance.

I’m sure I will still have some days where I’m dis-heartened, but I’ve always been hopeful, because I’vehad the benefit, blessing and pleasure of interactingwith a lot of different people in my life. And more sothan not, people are good. We want the same things.And that helps me smile every morning and getthrough challenging moments. So I am absolutelyoptimistic—but there’s a lot of work for the corpo-rate community to do. /Interview by AlexMlynek

1,325NUMBER OFEMPLOYEESUNDERJACKSON,WHO BECAMEPRESIDENTIN 2018 ANDHAS A PHDIN CHEMICALENGINEERINGFROM CARNEGIEMELLON

US$28.6BILLIONTHE U.S. PARENTCOMPANY’S2019 REVENUE

A ray of hopeCapital OneCanada president Jennifer R. Jacksonbelieves the police killing of George Floyd andongoing Black LivesMatter protests could finallyforce a reckoning around systemic racism

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