The Canadian Enterpreneur Series Part 2 : Give Me Land, Lots of Land..

By Tony DeSouza

A True Story of sex and intrigue in the Canadian business environment in the eighties and ninetees. In this book there are two segments that meld into one episode. The first deals with the sequence of events in the life of the author and his family following arrival in their new homeland. How they were able to meld into the Canadian mosaic in spite of heavy odds.The second deals with the author’s success at his workplace and life in the manufacturing environment. He discovered that behind the screen of normal business behavior, there was always sex, drugs, profanities and intrigue. I hope that my experiences and success will be an inspiration to others. I sincerely hope that I have provided you the reader with some valuable tips and encouragement to success along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365738364

Book preview

life.

Chapter One

Lesson learnt

In Part 1, I dealt at length about our family life following our arrival in Canada. How we were able to overcome the challenges of the new environment and to successfully blend into the Canadian Mosaic.

Those were the days of my life at Ocean and ReOcean Engineering. I was mature enough not to burn my bridges after my untimely dismissal that had been the result of treachery. What followed was an unbelievable chain of events. This is a great lesson for all.

Faith had brought me back to ReOcean where I would rise to the position of Divisional Controller. Then, at the appropriate time I would challenge top management for the post of General Manager of one of the Divisions responsible for sales among other things. I would get the position and I would succeed.

I took the company to new heights bringing in over a million dollars in orders from one customer alone. That was a lot of revenue for a little company. I would spend much time knocking on doors for I believe that no obstacle is insurmountable.

One must set goals and then have the determination to meet those goals. That has been my motto in life in whatever I do and in the end I am always successful. It is not easy but one must persevere.

I learned several lessons from my early experiences. Entrepreneurs who are aggressive tend to be successful; after all, the higher the risk, the bigger the profits.

However, some entrepreneurs tend to be over aggressive taking on more than they can handle. With manufacturing processes requiring high technology come added risks. Specialized equipment requires specially trained and capable personnel.

The successful entrepreneur knows the limits of his organization and lives within those limits. Greed is often a key factor in failures. The result is a chain of unfortunate events; defective products, reworks, lost capacity and dissatisfied customers which could result in loss of orders.

This chain of events cannot be allowed to go unchecked over a prolonged period without having an impact on the organization’s bottom line and liquidity.

Another thing I learned is to be careful when dealing with major conglomerates. Doing business with these organizations looks attractive after all one can boast of having a ‘Big Name’ as a customer. But these organizations have very stringent specifications and high quality and delivery requirements. They are also tight on pricing which leaves little margin for errors.

When doing business with large organizations try to limit their control over your operations. Have several other contributing customers. Do not put all your eggs in one basket.

External factors can be the final nail in the coffin of a dying organization. Recession, loss of demand and high cost of borrowing can prove to be fatal.

This was the unfortunate situation at Ocean and ReOcean. Top management was aggressive but they took on too much in risk. The products were highly technical but know how was lacking. Then again they ended up being controlled by a major account.

They were not able to meet the customer’s demands and ended up getting fined for breach of contract. The external environment was also unfriendly. Interest rates were at an all time high making borrowing suicidal. With the high rate of defects and lost production and sales, the company was having negative cash flows month after month ultimately resulting in the company declaring bankruptcy.

Chapter Two

A new adventure

A couple of employees who had experienced the turn of events at ReOcean figured they knew enough on how to make it on their own.

There was Patel who worked for me in the plating office. When ReOcean went under, Patel approached me with a plan to continue operations.

One hundred thousand dollars is all we need. We should be able to pick up the equipment at auctions where the bank will sort off just give things away.

I found Patel’s proposal to be farfetched and highly risky and so refused his offer.

Patel was adamant and able to sell his ideas to a friend. In time he and the friend bought bits and pieces of ReOcean’s equipment at auctions and went into the plating business. In time they would expand into the printed circuit board area as well.

It was a struggle initially for the new entrepreneurs but within a couple of years they would become a recognized and successful business and Patel would soon be a millionaire.

Then there was Patrick Rosario who was the manufacturing manager at ReOcean’s printed circuit board division. After ReOcean, he too, with a friend who was a salesman for the competition, went into the manufacture and sales of printed circuit boards.

They rented just about 10,000 sq ft of building space in an industrial complex where they manufactured boards for several small accounts. They avoided the large conglomerates and hi tech boards.

With high margins from these accounts and decent volume for the size of the operations, Patrick and his partner were a profitable business. They were looking for additional business for growth, so Patrick asked me if I would like to work for them.

I went to see