Clem Grant was Manager of the Ottawa branch of the Milcroft Concrete Forms Corporation (Milcroft
Corp.). Milcroft Corp. was established in 1932 and based in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, with branch
offices in several major cities across Canada.
The Ottawa branch was their most successful, having been
a consistent moneymaker until last January, when Clem Grant was brought in as Manager of the Ottawa
branch. Clem came from the Vancouver branch office of a competing Canadian concrete firm,
CementWo
rks Inc. (Cl).
Up until his retirement in January, the Ottawa branch was managed by Bartholemew (Bart) Stallone.
Stallone was born and raised in Ottawa and was a graduate of the University of Ottawa’s School of
Management (then known as the Faculty of Adm
inistration). He had worked for Milcroft Corp. first as a
student during his time at university, and after graduation, signed on full
–
time, working his way up to
become manager of the most successful branch of the company. It was, in fact under Stallone’s
leadership that the Ottawa branch eventually became the most successful branch of Milcroft Corp.
During Stallone’s thirty years as manager of the Ottawa branch, the’branch had never fired or laid off a
single employee, and staff turnover was well below ind
ustry standards.
Stallone was a very confident and likeable person, and believed strongly in developing an environment
in which his employees would become self
–
motivated. He encouraged everyone to have a voice and
strongly preached that if employees worke
d hard, the company would take care of them. He was
charismatic and believed in, and demonstrated delegation and empowerment. He was regarded as a
cautiously optimistic risk
–
taker who earned employees respect and loyalty by sharing his knowledge and
showin
g them how to do things.
Clem Grant was the second
–
in
–
command at the Vancouver branch of Cl. As with the Ottawa Branch of
Milcroft Corp., the Vancouver branch of Cl was also very successful
–
the branch had experienced ten
consecutive years of growth and
profitability, and was regarded as the most successful branch of Cl.
As second
–
in
–
command in Vancouver, Clem was responsible for managing all the construction workers
employed at the branch. He was task
–
oriented, actively assertive and was accustomed to
exercising
control and influence. He was also strongly motivated to make the numbers given to him by the
Vancouver branch manager in terms of revenues, expenses and people. While staff turnover at the
Vancouver branch of Cl was considerably higher than t
he industry standard, for the past 10 years he
made the numbers
€”
often with margin to spare.
Clem had worked in concrete for over fifteen years and like Bart Stallone, had worked his way up in
the same company since graduating from a Canadian west co
ast university in civil engineering.
One of the reasons frequently cited for Milcroft Ottawa’s success was the shrewdness of Bart Stallone in
recruiting division chiefs of different cultures, given Ottawa
–
Gatineau’s multicultural environment. It
was this
management team that Clem inherited when he accepted the job as Manager of Milcroft
Ottawa. This management team was made up ofYoshi Mundansha, Chief of Engineering, Susan
Comfort, Chief of Sales and Marketing, Wilhem Thiele, Chief of Finance and Administr
ation, and Jacques
(Le
–
grand) Fromage, Chief of Quality Control. Clem also had an Executive Assistant, Martin Campbell,
whom he recruited from his old office in Vancouver.
Yoshi Mundansha was born and raised in Japan where he earned his undergraduate degr
ee in civil
engineering from the University of Tokyo. He subsequently completed a master degree in architecture
from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and was recruited by Stallone five years ago to head up the
engineering division of Milcroft Ottawa.
With forty persons reporting to him, Yoshi was responsible for
engineering, construction and transport.
Susan Comfort was born and raised in New York City and held earned degrees in business administration
and marketing management from the State Universi
ty of New York. After working for ten years as a
marketing manager for a major American construction and development company, she married a
Canadian from Ottawa and moved north. Her first job application in Canada was successful
–
Stallone
hired her, impress
ed with her credentials and successful work record
–
and instructed the Milcroft
attorneys to take care of the citizenship thing post
–
haste’. That was seven years ago. Comfort had a
staff of twenty employees, ten of whom were salespersons paid on
commission.
Wilhelm Thiele was born, raised and educated in Munich, Germany. He held an undergraduate degree
in Accounting Science and a Master degree in Finance from the University of Munich, and had worked