Building The Best: Lessons From Inside Canada's Best Managed Companies

STRATEGY. CAPABILITY. COMMITMENT. These are the three vital building blocks to competitiveness. Each is illustrated in these engaging stories of ten exceptional businesses chosen from nearly five hundred past winners of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies program, one of this country's most prestigious business awards.

Drawing on interviews with senior executives, owners, and founders of some of Canada's most dynamic-and most interesting-enterprises, Building the Best: Lessons from Inside Canada's Best Managed Companies delivers crisp and memorable lessons in how obstacles are overcome and success is achieved.

Step inside the boardrooms and the front lines of an array of fascinating companies-among them a winery, a restaurant chain, a toy maker, and a circus-to learn from real world experiences how the managers and entrepreneurs behind some of Canada's most successful enterprises have overcome the challenges in their industries-and how their strategies can be applied to any business.

These rare glimpses of admired Canadian companies are compelling reading. And with perspective from the professionals at Deloitte and commentary by faculty members of Queen's School of Business, this book is a must-read for anyone in business.

Companies featured in Building The Best:

Armour Transportation Systems (Moncton, N.B.): A small trucking company that leveraged its core competencies to become a leading transportation services business in Atlantic Canada, with continental reach.

Boston Pizza (Richmond, B.C.): A western Canadian restaurant phenomenon that has kept risk at bay in expanding across Canada and into the U.S.

Cirque du Soleil (Montreal, Q.C.): A global entertainment brand with a leadership vision that has produced a dazzling array of permanent and touring shows on which the sun never sets.

EllisDon (Toronto, ON): A building contractor that looked beyond shovels and cranes to take information technology by storm.

Harry Rosen (Toronto, ON): An upscale men''s clothing retailer with a relentless focus on the customer experience.

Magnotta Winery (Vaughan, ON): An award-winning vintner (and brewer and distiller) whose unique strategy for growth has redefined its industry''s retailing practices.

Mediagrif Interactive Technologies (Montreal, QC): An Internet start-up that made all the right financing moves in exploiting the potential of the business-to-business market.

National Leasing (Winnipeg, MN): A specialist in leasing small- to medium-size assets that has turned corporate culture into a cornerstone of profitability.

PCL Construction Group of Companies (Edmonton, AB): A diversified, multibillion-dollar construction company that has robust processes and a talent for spotting its own talent in its corporate foundations.

Spin Master (Toronto, ON): A children''s products company that leverages strategic alliances in its agile pursuit of first-to-market innovation.

With almost three decades of experience, Anthony Grnak is the GTA Business Unit Leader for Deloitte's Manufacturing and Consumer Business practice. Grnak has developed a broad portfolio of expertise advising and assisting clients with financial reporting, acquisitions, divestitures, due diligence, and public offerings. Grnak has a solid understanding of the Canadian business landscape through his three years of leading and 13 years of involvement with Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies program. Grnak is the recent coauthor of Building the Best: Inside Canada's Best Managed Companies (Penguin Group Canada, 2006), a member of both the Canadian and Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto.

With two decades of experience, John Hughes, a chartered accountant and partner in the Private Company Services group for Deloitte in Toronto, has spent his career helping entrepreneurs and their management teams create value and grow their businesses. Hughes has developed a broad range of expertise in issues unique to entrepreneurs in privately held companies, particularly where corporate ownership and families intertwine. As program leader, Hughes has been involved with Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies program since its inception, and is the coauthor of Building the Best: Inside Canada's Best Managed Companies (Penguin Group Canada, 2006.) Hughes is a member of the Canadian and Ontario Institutes of Chartered Accountants and holds a Masters of Business Administration from York University.

A writer, editor, and graphic designer, Douglas Hunter has written widely on business, history, and sport. A former staff writer with the Financial Post (and graduate of the Canadian Securities Course), he has authored or coauthored more than a dozen books, a number of which have approached business from very different angles, including Open Ice, which detailed the birth of Canada's monumental food industry success, Tim Hortons, and Molson, which delved into the late-eighteenth century origins of the Montreal brewing dynasty. His study of the Nortel stock debacle, The Bubble and the Bear, won the 2003 National Business Book award. He is a coauthor of Building the Best: Inside Canada's Best Managed Companies (Penguin Group Canada, 2006).