With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1501233
100 BCBUSINESS.CA JULY/AUGUST 2023 "I don't think I've ever had a great disagreement with any individual staff over the last 50 years. I let people get on using their gifts and talents—I really wouldn't interfere with what they were doing." – PETER LEGGE In March of this year, Canada Wide Media founder and former CEO Peter Legge sold the company to Alive Publishing Group. While things remain steady at BCBusiness and Canada Wide's other publications under the eye of CEO Ryan Benn, it's a new era for Legge, who started the company some 50 years ago. Legge is not retired—he's busy with speaking engagements and a public speak- ing course he's developing—but he has left the publishing business. For now, anyway. Legge, who has written more than a dozen books, many of which are collections of quo- tations he's gathered over the years, might have a tough time staying away from the written word entirely. The company came from a humble start. Asked his proudest moment, Legge brings us all the way back to the very beginning, when he had a drink with the famed sports- caster Al Davidson at the now defunct pub in Coquitlam's Cariboo Shopping Centre Mall. "He said, 'I've got this magazine called Al Davidson's This Week, but I'm not a magazine publisher, I'm a sportscaster.'" Legge, who had previously worked in radio, jumped at the chance to get into publishing and renamed the magazine TV Week. Some 20 years later came the next big move, the acquisition of BCBusiness (hey, that's us!) from magnate Jimmy Pattison. "He got into the publishing business but knew nothing about it," recalls Legge. "So he thought that he should get out and that I should take over—that was basically the conversation. And we've stayed good friends over the years." At its biggest, Canada Wide Media had some 120 staff in Burnaby. We asked Legge, who has literally written books on the sub- ject of leadership—including Lunch with Joe, which details the many conversations Legge and Vancouver business icon Joe Segal had before the latter's passing last year—about his personal leadership style. "I'm not sure I have a style, maybe I have a mannerism of how to deal with people," says Legge. "But I think being a good leader is your ability to deal with the staff you have. And being on good terms with all the people you have to deal with. At some point, in a month, a year, you're probably going to have to ask them to do things beyond the norm, and so you have to have good relations with your staff. And I think I have. I can't think of exceptions where I've had a rough patch with any staff. I've done my best to be kind and generous in my praise." Pressed on whether he's ever had any fights with a staff member in his time with the company, Legge reverts back to his English roots. "I can't ever remember having a punch-up with a staff member, honestly," he says. "We might have dis- agreed on a story, but we never got into a yelling match. I was usually able to con- vince them to take a different approach. I don't think I've ever had a great disagree- ment with any individual staff over the last 50 years. I let people get on using their gifts and talents—I really wouldn't interfere with what they were doing." Two of those staff members in particular were his daughters, Samantha and Rebecca Legge, who worked for many years under the Canada Wide umbrella in senior roles. Samantha was president of the company until the sale. "It was one of my dreams that my girls would work with me somehow," says Legge. "I'm not sure they craved com- ing to work with me, but when there was a real job available, that persuaded them. I wasn't making up jobs for them—I would say, If you don't do this, someone else will. I think there's no question that they've done a pretty good job." Asked if there are any staff members (aside from his daughters, of course) who he felt really made their mark on the com- pany, Legge doesn't hesitate for a second in naming former president Karen Foss. "She started many years ago, we were a small company," says Legge. "We originally hired her on spec, but she worked for more than 30 years. She was a game changer; she could do things I wished I could do. I didn't have the temperament to do them." And what does Legge think about his successor, Ryan Benn? "He's got passion, work ethic and smarts," says Legge. "It's not an easy business, certainly not as easy as it was 10 or 15 years ago. You need someone on it every day." Asked if there's any life lesson that his time at Canada Wide has taught him, Legge reflects on how quickly time can go by. "The biggest surprise is how fast it goes, you can't reclaim it," he says. "If there's something out there you want to do, just do it." n Leadership