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Corporate Catalyst : A Chronicle of the (Mis)Management of Canadian Business from a Veteran Ins...

ISBN: 9781118152867 | 1118152867

Format: Hardcover
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
Pub. Date: 4/3/2012

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Summary Table of Contents

An inside look at the real business world In Corporate Catalyst, Tony Griffiths gives readers a ringside seat on the many boardroom and corporate battles that he both fought and witnessed through the nearly six decades of his productive and colorful career. Among other stories, Griffiths replays his two stints as the CEO of Canada's darling of the telecom industry, Mitel Corporation. The first was in the late 1980s, a time when he helped staunch the flow of red ink and returned the company to profitability. The second was in the early 1990s, wh... MOREen he steered the company through its majority ownership by British Telecom and then its sale to Schroder Ventures. As Griffiths relates it, he had to learn how to deal with the bureaucratic style of the former and the power-hungry moves of the latter. Corporate Catalyst includes the author's blow-by-blow account of what went on inside Confederation Life in the 1980s and early 1990s-a story that should have prevented the failure of the likes of Lehman Brothers in the recent Great Recession. Griffiths, who had his hands full at the time with challenges at Mitel, also sat on Confed's board. He tried to warn Confederation Life's executives and his fellow board members of the financial dangers the company was facing. No one but a few other board members would listen-and even they did not do so consistently. The fall of Confed Life became one of the largest failures of a major finance company in corporate history. Griffiths takes the reader on a dramatic tour of the trickery, betrayal, and politicking that the world of business seems to attract. He introduces readers to the biggest and boldest names in Canadian business, including Jake Moore of Brascan, Robert Campeau of Campeau Corporation, Terry Mathews of Mitel, Ted Rogers of Rogers Communications, Conrad Black of Hollinger, Adam Zimmerman of Noranda, Pat Burns of Confederation Life, and Christopher Ondaatje of The Ondaatje Corporation. In the book's many cautionary tales, Griffiths warns against mixing the roles of governance and management and shows the marked tendency of executives to take up residence far from reality when times get tough. "We don't listen. We don't plan. We don't act," he wrote in frustration to the board and management of Confederation Life after months of trying to get someone to address the financial mess they were in. Full of hard-won wisdom, Corporate Catalyst is a must-read for anyone working in business or interested in what the business world is really like.

From the authors "Note to the Reader": I wanted to put on the record my own account of events that I experienced throughout my business career. As time has marched onward, books have naturally appeared written by journalists and business people giving their views of the history of which I was a part. In some cases, biographers and autobiographers have taken considerable licence with the facts. Some of this is inadvertent or innocent since, in many instances, the writer would not necessarily be aware of the other side of the issues. In other cases, there have been clear distortions and reinvention of the facts to suit the writers story. ... [F]or my story to have substance and meaning, I have to provide the full account. ... [M]y experiences have been situational, where I am cast into problems created by others and must evolve a corrective plan and set the tone for the future. These episodes introduced a variety of personalities and forces-some friendly and co-operative, some difficult and complicated, and others, regrettably, that did not respect the trust of a handshake. "In Corporate Catalyst, Tony Griffiths, consummate deal-maker and corporate fixer, shares the secrets of his astonishingly varied experience in Canadian business with wit and wisdom. It should be required reading for aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders." - Peter Stormonth Darling, former Chairman of Mercury Asset Management and former Vice Chair of S.G.Warburg, London, U.K. "This is a wonderful tale about business in Canada over the past forty years as told by the man with the most varied career that I have ever encountered, written in the same straightforward manner that defines his character." - Robin Korthals, Corporate Director, and former TD Bank President "A riveting read. The book is charming in its candour, insight and humour. A great insight into Canadian business personalities." - Michael MacMillan, former Chair and CEO of Alliance Atlantis Communications "If you want to know what goes on in a boardroom and why it is difficult for one director to change the course of a corporation, read this book. The majority may not always be right, but it is hard for one person to convince the majority. This is an inside story told by an insider." - Claude Lamoureux, Co-founder of Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, former CEO of Ontario Teachers Pension

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Acknowledgements	p. ix
Note to the Reader	p. xi
From an Old World to a New: 1896-1956	p. 1
My Next Education, 1956-1960	p. 15
I Cut My Teeth on Glass, 1960-1968	p. 23
Looking Past Glass, 1969-1971	p. 35
From Candy Mergers to Cable Mergers, 1971-1974	p. 49
Cable Wars Go Public, 1973-1977	p. 67
Oral Assurances, 1977-1979	p. 89
Trolling for Takeovers, 1975-1978	p. 109
Weaving a Recovery, 1979-1982	p. 121
From Supergun to Handgun, or Down and Out in L. A., 1979-1984	p. 137
Crisis at Mitel and then British Telecom Calls, 1984-1987	p. 153
From Provincial Bailout to Financial Collection, 1987	p. 183
Extraordinary Financial Escapades, 1987-1990	p. 195
Mitel: Second Time Around, 1987-1991	p. 215
British Imperialism Enters the Boardroom, 1992-1993	p. 233
A New-World Colonial: The Ondaatje Corporation, 1992-1995	p. 257
Catalyst for Change: The Saga of Confederation Life, 1989-1994	p. 281
In Closing: What To Do When Faced with a Company in Trouble	p. 305
Appendix: Board Membership	p. 315
Endnotes	p. 319
Index	p. 327
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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