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/325830
bcbusiness.ca July 2014 BCBusiness 119 of understanding." They basically said, "So, sue us." We decided it wasn't worth it and eventually negotiated a settle- ment—we just wanted our costs back. A few months later they came out with their own modular buildings. So you learn, even when you're dealing with a huge company like that, to be really careful and protect yourself. Does luck play a role in business success? Yes, but you earn your luck. One time when things were tough in Montreal this highrise building got auctioned off. The bank had a $12-million loan and they foreclosed on it. The court date was set, but the bank was mov- ing offices and didn't have anybody there. So they go ahead with the auction, and you know who ends up buying the building? The bailiff. For $500,000. The bank freaked out and made a deal with the guy—gave him $2 million to take over the asset and protect their investment. So he makes $1.5 million just because he was on his toes. Lesson learned. Don't take things for granted. Never be lazy. I tell my kids, 90 per cent of it is just showing up and pay- ing attention. You never know what's going to happen. What does adversity teach you? In the early '90s we bought West Edmonton Village, almost 1,200 units. Six months later Ralph Klein, who had just come in as premier, starts making all these cuts. Edmonton, being the capital, got hit really hard. Suddenly we have 300 vacancies and it's really hard to pay the bills. Big problem. It took a long time to figure out what our com- petitive advantage could be. We decided to put in great amenities—a big new rec centre, we'll drive you to and from West Edmonton Mall, all these value-added things—and people finally started responding. I was there every week for almost two years trying to stop the bleeding. In tough times you learn that there's a solution out there somewhere, and you keep working until you find it. What's behind the acquisition of wine properties in Washington state? Part of our strategy is to always take the long view. We're got food and agri- culture businesses, blueberries and cranberries, so grapes is a nice comple- ment. Earlier this year an opportunity came up at Red Mountain, where there's great land for wine. It reminds me of Napa 15 or 20 years ago, before it took off. Then the planted vineyards at Horse Heaven Hills came on the market. Auc- tions are funny—you never seem to get market value. It's always over or under. At Horse Heaven we got a good deal. The same vineyards in Napa or the Okana- gan would cost at least 10 times as much. It's eventually going to become a great wine area. Why partner with First nations in northern B.C. on a pipeline proposal? If people knew how much of what they have comes from oil, they'd see we need to find ways to use our natural resources to everyone's advantage. The environ- mental movement always frames it as good guys versus bad guys, but it's not that simple. I've got five kids, my broth- ers have got kids—of course we want the planet to be healthy and sustainable for them. We're involved in the pipeline because we think it's a huge opportu- nity—for us, sure, but also to guarantee ownership and a prosperous future for the First Nations and the people of B.C. Purchasing the Canucks meant writing a cheque with lots of zeroes. is taking risks part of the satisfaction of what you do? Risk is a test of your belief. Taking risks is how you grow. While we were in the lawyer's office closing the deal to buy the Canucks, there was a TV behind me and Gary Bettman came on to announce he was cancelling the 2004-05 sea- son—a lockout, which means no revenue. Right while I'm signing the closing docu- ments! You know the differ- ence between conversation and commitment? It's writing the cheque. What went into the decision to let Canucks president and GM Mike Gillis go? When we hired him in 2008, everyone thought it was a bad idea because he was an agent with no experience as the president or GM of a hockey club. But he had the right skills and the right attitude— he was just as committed to building a Stanley Cup- winning team as we were. All the people badmouth- ing the Canucks this year, I hope they can step back and look at the big picture. We won the Northwest Division five times and the President's Trophy twice. We came up a game short of the Stanley Cup in 2011. Believe me, I was as heartbroken as anybody, probably more, but there are 30 teams in the NHL and about 27 of them wish they'd had the success we did with Mike. You have to keep things in perspective. This is one of the best NHL franchises, and we owe a lot of that to him. "iF you couldn'T Take on a role wiTh no experience, we wouldn'T ever have a new mayor, a new prime minisTer, a FirsT-Time ceo. Trevor has vancouver and The canucks in his blood" ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ BOSS MAN Aquilini with Canucks new president of hockey operations, Trevor Linden. p112-121_Aquilini_july.indd 119 2014-05-29 11:31 AM