EDMONTON -- Ross Grieve is the boss of Canada's largest construction company, but he hardly fits the mould of the imperial CEO. The affable 60-year-old engineer heads PCL Constructors of Edmonton, which is owned by about 2,500 of his fellow employees.
Besides being the Canadian industry leader - with annual construction volume at more than $5-billion and a payroll of 3,100 people - PCL is No. 8 in the United States and No. 38 in the world. Mr. Grieve talks about what it's like to run a big, employee-owned company.
Is it hard to be CEO in this
kind of firm?
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No, it makes your job a lot easier. I have a lot of help.
Doesn't it also mean a lot
of unsolicited advice?
No, it's a very helpful, effective model. You have a couple of thousand partners who are all looking after the company. They get it - that we have to do things right. They are always watching for things that would concern them and they deliver customer service that will get us another opportunity on another day.
How about a market for
their shares?
It's only internal. Anybody who departs and wants to sell their shares gives the company first right of refusal and it's always been executed. The shares are valued once a year, with a modified book-value formula. It's lasted 30 years and we've been profitable every year through a couple of pretty tough cycles.
How did you get to be one of the original 24 managers who bought PCL from the founding Poole family?
I was a junior manager living in Toronto in 1977 and had no idea this was going on. I got a call one night that told me to go to the airport, pick up a courier package and be in Edmonton on a Saturday morning. I said, 'What the heck is that all about?'
So I scooted out to the airport and - oh, my gosh - here was a big package that said the Pooles were selling the company to the management group and I was being invited to buy shares.
Bob Stollery [the president at the time] bought about 75 per cent and the rest of us had much more minor positions. Bob started quickly divesting his shares and bringing in more people. That was his vision from the get-go. Now, we're a broadly held private company.
Are you the model for how
to do it?
We were a leader. Bob Stollery [who died in 2007] did it in the face of some advice that said he was crazy to bring so many employees in. A lot of people were saying 'Keep it tight, have just a handful owning the company.' But he was right. You're seeing a lot more of it now in our industry.
What is it about the
construction industry?
It's a pretty easy business to get into. If people hit it right and have their wits about them, they can grow a company that suddenly becomes viable. But a lot of companies make it for one generation and struggle after that. The trick is how do you make the company go forward and survive for a few generations?
If you're not giving it to your family, what do you do with it? Are you going to sell it to somebody? That's not always easy, or you don't always get your value out of it.
This is a way to recognize and reward the loyal people who have helped build it. They get a shot at an equity interest; they may take over management. And it is a mechanism of exit and liquidity for the original owners.
Our business is very transient and people typically move from company to company. I've been here 39 years. We have a lot of people like that, and employee ownership is part of the reason. It makes people stay because their compensation package is enhanced if the company does well.
You don't seem to be a
top-down CEO.
I've taken the CEO job in a company with a long history and a great series of senior managers. I stepped into a growing concern and it was my job to keep it healthy and not screw it up.
In your 10 years as CEO,
have you changed the job?
I've put my stamp on it. My claim to fame is I worked hard at the outset - when I had the authority to do some things I thought should be done - to make sure we had the right people in the right places. I did some reorganization and got the executive management team I wanted in place.
Then the stars lined up. I took over in 1997 as the market was just starting to strengthen and we were ready. We weren't trying to react to a situation. We were prepared for an opportunity, caught the wave and stayed on top of it. We were very fortunate to have that readiness.
What's your management style?
I rely a lot on the executive team. I give them a lot of rein, I stay in touch, I want to be kept always informed about what is going on. And when I do get personally involved in higher-risk profile issues, I make sure it is blessed properly before we plunge into anything that could be dangerous.
So do you see yourself as
a risk manager?
Yeah, and very much a quarterback. I've got a team that I try to fire up. The challenge is to point them at the goal line and try to get them there. I'm kind of a coaching quarterback.
But it's been said you're not an engineer's engineer?
I think that's fair. I do have a civil engineering degree, but my high school counsellor told me not to go into engineering and I think he was right. I'm not a highly technical person.
But what was great about engineering, and civil engineering in particular, was that it's a pretty broad curriculum and it exposed me to this industry. I know enough about it to understand the fundamentals and how things work.
Could I sit down and design something and put a stamp on it? No, you wouldn't want me to do that. But I know enough about the technical side - what makes things stand up and what makes things go together. Nobody's going to snow me on that side of the game.
Where are your strengths?
I'm more of a people person, and I've always been okay with responsibilities. I'm fairly strong at reading people and evaluating their fit and potential. I think I'm okay at coaching people and getting the best out of them. My strengths are handling the people situations and co-ordinating their needs.
Is this a people business?
It's absolutely, hugely people-oriented - all kinds, all skill sets. Our business is a lot of negotiation, dealing with conflict, motivation and high-stress situations. It's got a lot of technical aspects and a tremendous amount of communication has to happen to make it click. My skills fit that part of it.
Ross Grieve
Title: President and CEO,
PCL Constructors Inc.
Edmonton
Born: Winnipeg, 60 years old
Education: 1969, Bachelor of science, civil engineering, University of Manitoba
Career highlights:
1969: Joined what was then Poole Construction Ltd. in Winnipeg
1975: Transferred to Toronto as local PCL manager
1977: One of 24 PCL managers to buy shares from the Poole family
1997: Appointed president and CEO
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