Survival Strategies

 Rita Gayle introduced the guest speaker David Wood – David’s family has a long connection with the Easter Seal foundation, he grew up in Toronto, did his undergrad at the University of Toronto and his MBA at Harvard. He co-founded Crsytaplex Plastics ran the business it for several years before turning his attention to working in Addiction Care. In this field David ran addiction centres across Canada and since the 2000 ’s has focused more on addiction counselling with High Tech companies.

 

The message of survival was given using examples from David’s past experience running a business in turbulent times. The story began with the purchase on his father’s plastic business with his business partner. They bought the business in 1969 and decided to take on the task of making the company a success. He did this by focusing on people and established the principle that people were paid to do the job not just to be there. The emphasis was more on results than presence  and in doing so gave the  employees a sense of ownership an autonomy to do their job. This method was extended when they decided to pay the factory and the office staff in the same manner using Salaries instead of hourly. This created value with staff by changing the culture to make all staff part of the profit process.

 

He gave the story of getting through tough times by being transparent with his employees one example was of cutting salaries during a particularly tough financial period. This process turned out to be a unifying force because he was transparent and they included the employees in the process, loyalty was built with the team and rewarded. Through this strategy of involving his employees in the share ownership and the profit-sharing process, employees took pride in their jobs and had a notable impact with customers on their awareness interest in the business.

 

David’s message of success was very impactful; build lasting relationships with stake holders and ensure that people worked in good conditions and were valued. Good business is responsible for their stake holders; employees, customers, vendors, government and the environment.

 

 Questions also highlighted the speaker’s message on the significance of relationship in business, inclusion and opportunities. The speaker mentioned some concerns in building a business in these times of distancing where teams are not able to physically connect, more attention will need to be made to foster relationships.