How to succeed in business by not trying too hard IT IS no surprise to let fall open a copy of Maclean’s Magazine and find that one of the leading industrialists of our time is Wilbert Hopper of Petro-Can, a man who boasts he has never had a problem playing hatchetman. assembled one of the larger work forces since the pyramids were built. He, or another more astute in- dustrialist, would have seen the Friday, June 21, 1991 - North Shore News - 9 We are told that Mr. Hopper’s contribution to the nation has been selling off properties and laying off staff. Since 1989 Petro-Can has cut its work force by 1,000, mothbalied one of its five refineries and put $500 mil- lien worth of assets up for sale. If Petro-Can had kept all the staffs in the companies it gobbled in the last 15 years, its work force would now be 20,000. Instead it operates with 6,500 people whom chief executive officer Hopper calls ‘‘nimble survivors.”’ He says Petro-Can’s human resources people are experts at downsizing staff. (Downsizing staff means fir- ing people.) Far from being exceptional, Mr. Hopper fits the mould of a mod- ern captain of industry like a duck’s foot in a cowflap. He knows how to buy out other companies, fire their staffs and shut down plauts. He is hard-nosed. His eye is on the bottom line. That’s what the business community admires most. He is what the business world needs, everybody in the financial press says so and they must know. Thai Petro-Can is a publicly owned industry that is about to become privately owned is of no relevance. Private or public, to- day’s captains of industry are beginning to look and sound pret- ty much the same. Think hard, think lean, think small, think mean. Sharpen your pencil. Sharpen the carbide tip of your nose every morning. Heat the knives in the company cafeteria so the staff can’t spread so much margarine on their rouffins. What if this thinking had prevailed in the days when the Canadian Pacific Railway was be- ing built from coast to coast? We could expect William Van Horne to stop construction of the line at Canmore, Alberta, surveys having revealed that there were hard-centred hills in British Col- umbia where construction costs would rise to unacceptable levels. The line would be completed to the Pacific Ocean later, when there was enough people in the new province to make it prof- “The more. _noise you | hear today, the less u'll hear omorrow. To find out how you can prevent hearing loss. call us toll-free at 1-800- 465-4327 of contact your focal athice The Canadian Heating @9 Paul St. Pierre PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES itabie. Andrew Onderdonk would send all the coolie laborers back to China. There wouldn’t be any Pacific Railway scandal to unseat Sir John A. Macdonald. A transcon- tinental railway that didn’t cross the continent wouldn't excite even the crooked people. AS a railway line, the CPR wouldn’t have amounted to much, perhaps, but the bottom line on the balance sheet would be better. In a world where the contrac- tion of business was admired and the timid exalted, the Hudson’s Bay Co. would not take over the Northwest Fur Co. and rule all the West. It would still be based at Churchill on the cold shores of Hudson Bay, living on govern- ment subsidies, the local furs hav- ing been long ago trapped out. Henry Ford would not have put a car into every garage in North America. Neither would he have AFTER HOURS ARDAGH HUNTER TURNER Barristers & Solicitors IMPAIRED DRIVING 300-1401 LONSDALE, NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. advantage of downsizing. As for paying five dollars a day to his workmen, an almost unimaginably large wage in the early years of this century, the Ford company would have kept its labor rates in step with that of the cotton pickers in Mississippi and the New York needle trades. Automobile manufacturing would be a mean and lean opera- don, tailored in the known market potential which would be and re- mains a small one. No place in such a world for Henry Kaiser who could turn out a Liberty ship in 24 hours, using Rosie the Riveter, the first indus- trialized woman. No place for J.P. Morgan with his statement that any man who had to ask the price of a yacht couldn’t afford one, And B.C.’s own famed captain of industry, the late H.R. Mac- Millan? He, too, would not have fitted. What did he know about junk bonds? He spent a lifetime cutting more trees, making more planks and paper rolls, building more plants, hiring more men and making more money, all at risks clearly unacceptable. The man himself said that the secret of his success was luck. It wasn't true, but it was the style of boast he preferred. His enemies said he was a buc- caneer capitalist. Perhaps he was, but at least he didn’t make his own crewmen walk the plank. The age was different. Then, it was said that a man who wanted to lead a big company had to be part dreamer, part engineer and part son of a bitch. Now we seem willing to settle for less. FAX 986-9286 R U 688-0328 Mon. - Sat. 9-5 “My neighbour liked Gary Born, but I've decided to use another realtor.” “Better let me choose the wine.” For Results, Get Born Into It’ GARY BORN 934-9711 Sussex Group—Gary Born Realty Corporation Sussex 2996 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. Realty N C Now there’s a good reason to get out of bed on Sundays. Sizzling bacon, hor coffee, steaming omelets and freshly baked muffins are only four of the many good reasons why you should get out of bed this Sunday morning and come down to The Keg North Shore for brunch. All for only $9.99. We open at 10 am and serve brunch until 2 pm. So you can still have a leisurely morning, then meet your friends or family at The Keg and catch up on everything vou would have missed if you stayed in bed. sc For reservations call 984-3534