BC Business
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When Brett Hodson was given the opportunity to buy the water and utilities division of Terasen from new owners Kinder Morgan in December 2005, he asked for 90 days to raise the funds. He was given 10. The challenge didn’t faze him; few in his 14-year career with Terasen had.
As president of the division under Terasen, he now had a vision of breaking away from the large corporation and taking his management and staff with him. In January 2006, Hodson went from Terasen employee to president of Corix, and it was a sudden leap into entrepreneurship. Hodson had always approached his employment at Terasen as an entrepreneurial opportunity, and being a shareholder had helped him feel aligned with the company. He explains that he wanted Corix’s almost 700 employees to have that same sense of ownership: “The key in dealing with our investors was that they would allow us to offer shares to the employees, and they did. We had a great turnout: hundreds of employees are now investors in the company.”
Hodson raised a total of $200 million to buy Corix and get it off the ground; the remainder came from Hodson and a consortium of select outside investors. Corix has grown revenues from $210 million in 2006 to a projected $475 million in 2009. According to Hodson, the key to its post-Terasen success has been switching from an economy of scale (providing one service to a lot of people) to an economy of scope (providing a selection of services). He uses the example of fuel choice: “If a customer is looking for an energy solution, we can give our best advice. We are not bent one way or another toward gas or electrical.”
That approach is what initially drew Hodson to the utilities industry. Studying at SFU, he developed an affinity for using statistics to create behaviour models – in this case, for fuel consumption – that led to creative and sustainable solutions to both the existing and future utility needs of communities.
This approach to business has garnered Corix contracts that include the rebuilding of Regent Park (an inner-city mixed social housing project) with Toronto Community Housing and the privatization of utilities at U.S. Army bases in Alaska. Closer to home, Hodson is proud of Corix’s contracts to provide customized multi-utility solutions to Sun Rivers in Kamloops (a First Nations community development partnership) and Dockside Green in Victoria. Hodson is reluctant to take any credit, but he was the one his former staff (most of whom are now current employees) all turned to when Kinder Morgan first hinted at its lack of interest in Terasen’s water and utilities business. It was Hodson’s vision they followed and invested in when the business broke away. Perhaps it was also his humble approach that made him so easy to follow.
And with a team he can count on, he has time to enjoy his home in Horseshoe Bay with his wife, Jill, and even manages to fit in some leisure reading. His latest book seems fitting of a burgeoning new titan of industry; it’s Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.