Best Companies 2012: Open Companies Close Deals

A healthy company culture starts with open communication. Brian Scudamore is the CEO of WOW 1Day! Painting Inc. and he doesn’t have an office. It’s not that the young painting franchise company doesn’t have the space, but being office-less means he has an opportunity to drop in and chat up anyone, in any department, at any time.

A healthy company culture starts with open communication.

Brian Scudamore is the CEO of WOW 1Day! Painting Inc. and he doesn’t have an office. It’s not that the young painting franchise company doesn’t have the space, but being office-less means he has an opportunity to drop in and chat up anyone, in any department, at any time.

Communication is a big part of the company’s corporate DNA, as is evident in its daily meeting (called the “primer”) where the successes and the struggles of the company are shared. Managing director Craig Jooste says, “I think there needs to be transparency, which we have; we’re transparent on numbers, we’re transparent on goals, we’re transparent on our top three for the week and how does that tie into our top three for the quarter.”

Best Company Industry Leaders

Public, Non-profit & Crown
Greater Victoria Visitors and Convention Bureau

Operating as Tourism Victoria, the official not-for-profit destination marketing organization works in partnership with over 750 business members and municipalities in the Greater Victoria area.

Manufacturing/Transportation
Ideon Packaging Ltd.

Ideon began 10 years ago with a conversation about how to put the customer first with customized packaging solutions. Today Ideon occupies an 85,000- square-foot manufacturing facility in Richmond.

Retail
Mr. Lube Canada Inc.

From humble beginnings in 1976, with a single auto-service shop in Edmonton, Mr. Lube Canada is now headquartered in Delta, B.C., and has grown to 115 locations.

Open and frequent communication helps define company culture at many of this year’s Best Companies to Work for in B.C. At Clevest, a Richmond-based software development company, for example, president and CEO Thomas Ligocki believes regular communication with staff is essential. “We have an all-hands meeting where we provide updates so that everyone is informed about everything that’s taking place at the company,” he explains. “We have a one-page strategic plan that is communicated to everyone on a regular basis and updated quarterly.”

Ian Druce, president of Steer Davies Gleave North America Inc., a transportation planning business, believes that keeping the staff informed and engaged results in a company culture where everyone feels they have a role to play in the company’s success. He says, “When you are a part of a big multidisciplinary team, the more you can kind of expose people to the work you’re doing, it really helps breed that culture and understanding of why we do the work we do.”

Jooste has seen similar results with his teams, noting, “If you go to work every day and you just go through it like a drone and you process whatever you need to process and you go home and you don’t really know how you’ve truly added value to a business, I think it’s a challenge for people.”

Ligocki is keenly aware that having staff members who feel included and personally connected to the success of the company is a key part of a strong corporate culture, especially as the company grows. “We are starting to grow to a size where individuals may not fully appreciate and understand how their contribution makes a difference to the bigger vision and the bigger plan,” he says. But that bigger plan does seem to be hitting home. He recalls walking through the development area recently when he noticed, on a cubicle wall, an employee had posted the one-page strategic plan. It was proof to Ligocki that Clevest’s staff is invested in the corporate vision and that company culture isn’t just a managerial ideal.