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/383533
iLLustratiOn: carsOn tinG 74 BCBusiness OctOber 2014 i knew my business was a success when… ViLLAViCenCiO: a large mill in the u.s. told us, "We used to do a lot of business with other wholesalers in the Mexican business, but now you guys killed everyone and we do everything with you." i get my best ideas when… ROKsTAD: i'm listening to music, or when i exercise— i'm able to take snippets of information i've fi led away in my mind and incorporate them into the bigger picture. People tell me the phrase i most overuse is… ViLLAViCenCiO: "the better we know our customers' needs, the better we can fulfi ll their expectations and become real partners—not only another supplier!" The most underrated trait of an entrepreneur is… YORK: Patience. even though you want things to happen quickly, others have their own schedules and priorities. if i weren't doing this i'd be… ROKsTAD: i might be an aspiring crossFit competitor. The person i learned the most from was… YORK: My ex-partner, terry sumner, had faith in my ability to "sell"—and that was something i didn't see in myself. f i n a l i s t Carlos Villavicencio CEO, Natural Trade Ltd. C arlos Villavicencio was an architect in Mexico before moving to Canada in 1999 looking for a better life for his family. He fi rst started Natural Trade in 2000, with the goal of operating a lumber trading company that involved Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. After a couple of years and what he calls a "very expensive learning curve," Villavicencio closed down the com- pany. Still, he wasn't deterred ("I'm pretty fi rm in my objectives," he says). Villavicencio got a job as a wholesale lumber trader and, in 2008, used the extra experience to reopen Natural Trade; he also set up a company in Mexico City, Global Forest, to help distribute lumber inside Mexico. Today, North Vancou- ver-based Natural Trade is North America's largest exporter of lumber products to industrial and commercial clients in Mexico (such as pallet manufacturers), with annual sales growth of between 40 and 60 per cent, according to Villavicencio. —B.B. President, Frontier Power Products Ltd. L arrie York doesn't see himself as a risk taker. The president of Frontier Power Products Ltd. says the business he co- founded more than 30 years ago has been a success because of a drive to "take the norm and jack it up a notch." Delta-based Frontier, which distributes engines and man- ufactures electricity generation equipment for resource companies in Western Canada, has grown from two employees when it was founded in 1983 to 125 today with branches in B.C., Alberta and Manitoba that provide ser- vice, parts and manufacturing. "Our business has evolved, step by step, over many years, in an eff ort to provide ever greater levels of reli- ability and improved response times," says York. "We rely on our clients to tell us what they want." —Brenda Bouw f i n a l i s t Larrie York 6 QUES T IONS E n e r g y in my mind and incorporate them into the bigger picture. People tell me the