Saluting the icons
Published Wednesday October 21st, 2009
Success: Three New Brunswick titans inducted into New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame
MONCTON - Big dreams, persistence and plain old hard work are the secrets to building successful firms, according to this year's New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame inductees.
Robert Zildjian, founder and chairman of Meductic cymbal-maker Sabian Ltd., called on the words of past U.S. president Calvin Coolidge (1923 to1929) when asked for his advice for budding entrepreneurs.
"Persistence," was his simple message, which he shared in an acceptance speech delivered to an audience of about 700 business and community leaders who came out to the annual gala at Moncton's Delta Beauséjour hotel.
Zildjian was named to a list of provincial business heavyweights by Junior Achievement of New Brunswick, along with Cooke Aquaculture Inc. CEO Glenn Cooke and the late Claude Savoie, past president of Acadian Construction Ltd. and founder of several firms, including Acadian Properties Ltd.
Premier Shawn Graham helped kick off the night's events with a short address, thanking the year's award winners for serving as examples to ambitious young New Brunswickers. He said the laureates have proved that the province's greatest natural resource is "our people."
"Shine" was the theme of Tuesday's award ceremony, a premiere event in the business community that serves as Junior Achievement's largest fundraising campaign of the year, according to Britt Dysart, the organization's New Brunswick chapter chairman.
"JA is a partnership between the business community, educators, parents and students," Dysart told the audience.
Junior Achievement - an international organization - offers school-aged students programs on the basics of running a business, including a course for secondary school students which allows them to form companies with products for sale. Breaking even on costs is the ultimate goal.
In an interview, Zildjian said Coolidge's idea - that neither education nor genius and talent can beat determination - has inspired him over more than two decades building up Sabian, which he formed in 1981 after a dispute with his brother Armand over the centuries-old family business, Zildjian Cymbals.
"I was pretty much thrown out of the family," Zildjian, who began working in his father's shop at the age of 14, said of the ordeal; Armand Zildjian's daughter Craigie now controls Zildjian Cymbals.
"That was probably one of the worst problems I had. I had been at the time running the whole business," he said.
But hard work and determination has meant that Sabian, which started as a 15-person company, now employs 125 people and sells cymbals to about 130 countries across the globe, Zildjian said.
Glenn Cooke, along with his father Gifford and brother Michael, formed Cooke Aquaculture - the nation's largest industry firm - with just 5,000 salmon in 1985, at 20.
The Blacks Harbour executive told the crowd his advice for entrepreneurs getting started is to grab hold of ideas, form a vision and "run as hard as you can."
Cooke emphasized his distaste for the common saying: "You need to learn to crawl before you can walk - and you need to walk before you can run."
In an interview, he said his company's slogan is - fittingly - "refusing to go with the flow."
As the salmon swim upstream to spawn, so does Cooke Aquaculture, Cooke said.
In recent years, the company introduced a three-bay management system of aquaculture into its operations.
Ocean sites are grouped into three large areas with each area designated for a particular age of fish; one area is set aside for young salmon, another for market-ready fish and a third area fallowed or kept out of production.
The system - a pricey one - is meant to protect the environment and health of the fish by bringing practices similar to crop rotation in the agricultural world into fish farming.
"Certainly in Canada, it wasn't being done," Cooke said.
The family of the late Claude Savoie accepted the Junior Achievement of New Brunswick award on behalf of the entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Savoie, who took over his father's business Acadian Construction at the age of 29, was also known for founding Acadian Properties Ltd., Minibar Quebec Inc., Atlantic Minibar, Dieppe Auto, Nova Doors and Windows Ltd., Moncton Saturn Saab Isuzu and Fredericton Saturn.
He helped to form the province's francophone business council, the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick Inc., and raised funds for Moncton's Aberdeen Cultural Centre and the Université de Moncton - at more than $18 million for the latter.
In an interview, Savoie's son David said his father's simple message to his children was to work hard.
"To us, he used to say, 'Don't look for a job, look for work,' " David Savoie said. "I don't think there's a secret to it, just hard work."
The late executive, in an interview with the Telegraph-Journal more than a decade ago, was at a loss for words when asked what makes him tick as an entrepreneur, and keep going.
"That's a hell of a good question," Savoie said at the time. "You ask 'Why,' after a certain number of millions, and I guess you look back and worry about running out of the stuff (money). I just can't stop this thing," he said.
Among the laureates of the New Brunswick Hall of Fame - which number 47 including the 2009 winners - are renowned corporate leaders in the province.
The 2008 winners were Bernard Cyr, founder and chief executive of Cyr Holdings Inc., Derek Oland, executive chairman of Moosehead Breweries Ltd. and Jim Ross, head of Ross Ventures Ltd.
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