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/950283
ApRIL 2018 BCBusiness 53 TOp: ADAm BLASBERg; FROm LEFT: CIRQUE DU SOLEIL; ORDER OF BRITISh COLUmBIA 2008 Vancouver mining giant Teck Cominco purchases Elk Valley Coal partner- ship's assets for US$14 billion. A year later, the renamed Teck Resources Ltd., which had faced criticism and legal challenges for its environ- mental standards, adopts stronger ecological and social sustainability practices. In 2012, chair and CEO norman Keevil wins the pacific EOY Lifetime Achievement Award. 2009 Chief Clarence Louie, president and CEO of Osoyoos indian Band Development Corp. (OIBDC), receives the pacific award for Social Entrepreneur. The first and, to date, only First Nation chief recognized by EOY, tough-talking Louie became head of the Osoyoos Indian Band in 1984, at age 24. he created OIBDC and built it into a major player in the tourism industry, with some $28 million in annual revenue and holdings that include two resorts, a winery and a golf course. 2007 montreal-based Cirque du soleil founder Guy Laliberté becomes the first Canadian to win EY World En- trepreneur Of The Year. The onetime fire eater, stilt walker and accordion player—now a billionaire—vaults over 44 other nominees from 39 countries to claim the coveted honour at the global competition in monaco. on average. What was once a staff of 10 is now a workforce numbering more than 1,000, with 13 offices across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and distribution in 25 coun- tries. Stemcell's rapidly expanding product lines offer more than 2,500 tools for life sci- ences research, from tools for cell-growing media and kits for cell isolation to instru- ments and reagents for analysis. This year sales are expected to hit $185 million. Remarkably, while the company has ballooned in size, its pace of innovation hasn't slowed. That's no accident. Contrary to the romantic view of the tech entre- preneur as a convention-busting renegade, Eaves's secret to retaining a foothold on the bleeding edge of his industry comes down to good old-fashioned discipline. Stemcell rigorously reinvests 15 percent of its revenue in research and development, focusing on projects that respond directly to customers' needs— which is why nearly all of its sales and marketing staff have science backgrounds, 40 percent of them PhDs. "We've got all these salespeople who work with leaders in the field and they tell us what they want," Eaves explains. "They have to really understand their customers, which they do. Our tagline is 'Scien- tists helping scientists,' and that's very genuine," he adds. "We basically take the ideas from academics and turn them into robust products and sell them back to them at a profit. But in so doing, we've saved them time, and we've given them the assurance that if they use our products the way we say, they will work." To get products to market quickly, Stemcell doesn't make anything for clinical use, circumvent- ing time-intensive regulatory approvals. However, Eaves hints that this may change when the company aggregates its separate research, sales, manufactur- ing and distribution centres in Metro Vancouver into a campus-type facility in Burnaby. Currently in the planning stages, the campus will be equipped to make clinical-grade products. The other key to innovation, according to Eaves? Meetings are frequent—and productive. "There's that book called Death by Meeting," Eaves acknowledges. "But how do you make a really good meeting? You WORk aFTER WORk Forced retirement led Eaves to turn a side project into a new business