Business greats share story of success and winning attitude
Speaking from the top of the business world, two of the 2012 inductees to Junior Achievement of British Columbia’s Business Laureates Hall of Fame maintain there is no magic formula for even the greatest success.
“A lot of it is being in the right place at the right time,” inductee and Telus Corp. chairman Brian Canfield said. “A lot of it is having the attitude you could do something beyond what you were doing.”
However, Canfield added that another big part of it is recognizing what education you need to take so you have the skills required when opportunity knocks.
Canfield, who has spent 56 years with Telus and predecessor company, the British Columbia Telephone Co. ( BC Tel) — 41 years as an employee and another 13 as chairman of the board, will be one of three business luminaries to be inducted to the Junior Achievement’s Hall of Fame tonight.
Fellow inductee Dave Ritchie, cofounder of the B. C.- born auction giant Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, added that desire and fostering an attitude that you can win is another prerequisite to success.
“Never give up and just work as hard as you possibly know how to,” Ritchie said. “Just when you think it’s the worst and darkest picture is usually when you see a little bit of daylight out of the deal.”
Canfield, Ritchie and the late Milton Wong, banker and chairman emeritus of HSBC Global Asset Management were named to the Junior Achievement of B. C. honour last November and will be formally inducted to the Business Laureates Hall of Fame roll in a ceremony this evening at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
Wong, who was battling cancer as he was named as a laureate, died Dec. 31.
All three were selected not just because of their tremendous business acumen, but because “their drive, vision, leadership and connection to community that make them excellent role models for JA students,” Junior Achievement of B. C. president Jan BellIrving said in an emailed statement.
Canfield worked his way up from the bottom rung of BC Tel ( his first job in 1956 as an 18- year- old was refurbishing old telephones) by recognizing that to advance, he needed more education. So he enrolled in night school.
His advice to young people today is try to get as much of that education as you can before taking on family obligations, although he added he still has “a lot of time for” people who take a few years to work after completing high school while figuring that out.
“Not everyone is wise enough in high school to really have the insight, vision and ability to execute to some goal,” Canfield said.
However, in his career, Canfield executed on a series of moves that carried him from the technical side of telephony in BC Tel’s engineering department to management and sales positions, and finally the executive ranks starting in 1985 as the company’s vicepresident of technical support
Canfield became CEO in 1990, and served as chairman and CEO from 1993 until his retirement in 1997. He stayed on as non- executive chairman until BC Tel’s merger with the Alberta telephone utility in 1999, and served briefly as CEO of combined entity until current CEO Darren Entwistle was hired in 2000.
While racking up numerous educational credentials over the years, Canfield said he never earned a degree, though he is an honorary Doctor of Technology at BCIT. Among his other honours, he is a Member of the Order of Canada and Member of the Order of British Columbia.
Ritchie, with brothers Ken and John, founded their eponymous auction house in Kelowna during the late 1950s after holding an auction sale to raise some money to pay bills at the furniture store they had taken over from their father.
That company has gone on to perfect the formula of a straightforward, transparent, no- reserve bid auction, where the titles on all sales items are meticulously proven. It is a global empire and leader in online auction techniques.