Product Description
Northern Tigers: Building Ethical Canadian Corporate Champions is both a fascinating memoir by one of the most successful executives in North American business history, and a personal manifesto from an outspoken corporate leader on the issues of business ethics and private philanthropy.
In a book brimming with behind-the-scenes intrigue and insights, the man whose name now graces the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, discusses his life and career?from his Depression-era roots as a butcher?s son in whistle-stop Gleichen, Alberta?to his top-of-the-ladder success as head of nine major Canadian companies, including Home Oil, TransCanada Pipelines, MacMillan Bloedel, and Fording Inc. As he chronicles his long career with revealing, richly anecdotal detail, Haskayne addresses a vital and timely theme: the need to create companies that are true domestic Tigers?enterprises firmly based in Canada and strong and quick-witted enough to withstand predatory takeovers by foreign corporations.
Haskayne has written first-hand the fortitude and the foibles of many of the most sensational and colourful characters in Canadian corporate circles, entrepreneurs and businessmen such as the Reichmann brothers (international developers, Hiram Walker, Gulf Canada), ?Smilin?? Jack Gallagher (the lord of Dome Petroleum), Harley Hotchkiss (oilman, Calgary Flames co-owner, NHL chairman), and Gwyn Morgan (EnCana founder).
Among many successes, he helped guide some of Canada?s largest-ever mergers, including Fording Coal/Sherritt International, NOVA/TransCanada, and PanCanadian Energy/Alberta Energy, which gave birth to EnCana. But there were many obstacles along the way, too. Haskayne is bluntly forthcoming and regretful about the ones that got away?like the American takeover of the venerable lumber giant MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. and the painful death of the legendary Hudson?s Bay Oil and Gas Company.
In Northern Tigers?co-written with veteran business author Paul Grescoe?Dick Haskayne filters all of his hard-earned wisdom through the lens of his impressive life?s work for an unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary era in Canadian corporate history.
About the Author
PAUL GRESCOE is the author of numerous well-received business biographies chronicling western Canadian entrepreneurs including
Jimmy: The Story of Jim Pattison of Vancouver, the head of Canada’s fourth-largest private company. He is also the author of
The Mavericks: Lessons from the West’s Winning Entrepreneurs and
The Money Rustlers: Self-made Millionaires of the New West — both business bestsellers.
DICK HASKAYNE retired as chairman of the board of TransCanada Corporation in 2005. In 2004, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution — only the fourth Canadian so honoured. That same year, he was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, and last fall into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame and the Calgary Business Hall of Fame. He lives in Calgary.
