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Jim Estill knows a thing or two about what customers want. He’s been in the business of selling for 40 years.

At the top of the list is value, he says, something many business owners forget.

“When you see an entrepreneur, they complain. ‘People aren't buying from me.’ The reason people aren't buying from you is because they don't believe you're adding enough value for the price you're charging.”

As CEO and owner of Danby Products Ltd., an appliance company based in Guelph, Ont., Estill is all about providing value for money. Danby, which is known for smaller, compact appliances such as bar fridges and wine coolers, makes what Estill calls “decade” products – devices that will last for 10 years or more.

In an era when many goods are made cheaply and burn out quickly, it’s a characteristic that helps the company stand out, he says, a day after being named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019 Ontario.

Estill’s entrepreneurial origin story is well-known in Canadian business circles. As a student at the University of Waterloo in the late 1970s, he re-sold computers out of his car trunk. That company would grow to record $350-million in sales before Estill sold it to Synnex Corp., in 2004. As CEO of Synnex Canada, an information technology supply-chain services company, Estill increased sales to $2-billion from $800-million in five years.

After a short-lived retirement from Synnex, Estill ran an early stage venture fund in New York for six years, then returned home to Guelph to be with his ailing father. When the opportunity at Danby came up, Estill couldn’t resist. He became CEO in 2015, and subsequently purchased the company.

“I view Danby as a platform that has enough size and heft to allow me to enter different markets and do different things,” he explains.

Leveraging his tech background, Estill recently introduced Parcel Guard – an anti-theft smart mailbox for storing packages on the front porch – to the Danby line. It’s an area that Estill says will only grow in future.

“I believe that within a decade, most households will have some sort of parcel solution. It’s not only going to be ours, there will be other players. But why would Danby not be well-positioned to get a piece of that?”

Although Danby is a well-established brand in Canada, more than half of its sales are outside the country, Estill notes – and he envisions more expansion into the United States, Britain and Europe in the future. The trend toward smaller living spaces and increased energy conservation in these regions has been a boon to Danby’s business, Estill says.

“I'm a big environmentalist, so we’re trying to make that one of our niches – that we are lower power consumption than other products.

“I also believe by focusing on that, it will give us long-term competitive advantage. I think a decade from now, it's going to be almost the first question: ‘what's your energy consumption compared to others?’ If we've spent more [research and development] dollars and have more expertise in that area, we can win.”

When it comes to running a business, Estill says he believes in setting an example for his employees in the way he leads and in the way he lives.

“I try very hard to be a servant leader. So my job is to help everyone else do their job,” he explains. “And I have a principle that I always say, ‘if a company does well, the people do well.’ The lifestyle that I choose to live is the same as any of my employees can live. I don't believe in huge gaps between the top and the bottom.”

Estill also aims to inspire his employees with his philanthropic work. Since 2015, he has spent $1.5-million of his own money to help more than 300 Syrian refugees settle in Canada. Estill says the work he’s done helping refugees is just as important as what he’s accomplished in business.

“I’m good in business, but I’m actually not doing it to buy a bigger yacht. I’m not doing it to buy a newer car. In my mind, I’m trying to save the world. Business is a tool, it’s the way I do it.”

Master of expansion plugs into energy

Annette Verschuren, chair and CEO of NRStor Inc., was honoured with a Master Entrepreneur Award at the EY Entrepreneur Of the Year 2019 Ontario program gala on October 24. SUPPLIED

Annette Verschuren’s introduction to leadership came earlier than most. Looking back, the chair and CEO of NRStor Inc., says she developed the can-do attitude she brings to business in her childhood.

“I grew up on a farm in Cape Breton Island and when I was young, my dad had a heart attack,” Verschuren recalls, one day after being honoured with a Master Entrepreneur Award at the EY Entrepreneur Of the Year 2019 Ontario program gala. “He couldn't do a lot of physical work, so the kids and my mother, we did it. I learned about being your own boss at a very young age. I loved seeing the problems and finding the solutions.”

That lifelong do-it-yourself mindset drew Verschuren to her first foray into business ownership, where she proved to be a master of expansion. As president and co-owner of Michaels Canada, she opened 17 stores in 26 months. Verschuren then moved on to Home Depot, where as president she grew the company to 180 stores from 19 stores over a 15-year period.

“It was very exciting, very big growth in a very short period of time,” she says. “I always create my hurdles to be higher. I just believe that everybody has that 25 per cent to 30 per cent more in them.”

Now, Verschuren is in the energy storage business. Her company NRStor builds, owns and operates innovative energy storage projects such as grid-connected flywheels and fuel-free compressed-air energy storage (CAES) facilities. “I just see enormous growth in this business. We produce way too much energy across all of our systems because we don’t have much capacity to store. And this is where the future is.”

Verschuren says she has identified three key ingredients to business success. The first is gender equality in leadership roles. “Diversity of thought and diversity of perspective helps us make richer decisions.”

The second ingredient is sustainability, and the third is giving back. Over the years, Verschuren has been involved with many charitable and non-profit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. And this work has gone far from unnoticed: In 2011, she was named as an Officer of The Order of Canada. The subsequent year, she was appointed co-chair of the Governor General's Leadership Conference.

“I've always seen profit with purpose. Always, always, always,” she says.She adds that it’s important for business leaders to remember who knows the customer best.

“I think the smartest ideas come from the people that are closest to the customer, so I’ve always been a ‘bottoms-up’ leader. I spend just as much time listening to the people on the front line as I do to my senior leadership team.

“And I’ve taught my team to do that, too.”

Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.