After receiving a B.A. in Economics from University of Toronto and an Ivey M.B.A. from the University of Western Ontario, I worked for the IMEDE School of Management in Switzerland developing case studies in manufacturing management. Returning to Canada, I joined Ontario Die Company of Kitchener, eventually becoming V.P. of Sales and Marketing, responsible for expanding the sales of its specialty diecut tooling produced in its 2 Canadian and 4 U.S. factories. With technically superior products, a strong North American salesforce, and strategically located plants, we were able to successfully penetrate the U.S. and Mexican markets in a variety of end use categories including automotive trim, footwear, and packaging. After 14 years with Ontario Die I became a marketing consultant and taught a course at Wilfred Laurier on Starting Your Own Business. In 1988, I started a Sales Company, Singer Cutting Machinery Sales Ltd., representing equipment manufacturers from Canada, U.S. and Italy that supplied machinery to the same end use markets I was servicing previously for Ontario Die Company. For the next 20 years, I marketed and sold equipment solutions throughout North America and Mexico, emphasizing advanced quality products, a value added sales strategy, geographical diversification throughout North America and Mexico, close customer relationships, and continual product innovation.
These past 35 years of face to face contact with hundreds of North American factories and their management, has provided me a real life storehouse of manufacturing strategies and experiences that helped me formulate some of the ideas that I will be sharing in my blog. This experience also gave me an acute appreciation for the tremendous value that the manufacturing sector creates not only for its employees, customers, and suppliers but the wider community. It is my view that a society in the long term will only be as healthy as its manufacturing sector, notwithstanding economic pundits who believe that our evolution to a service economy is both inevitable and to be desired. Hopefully, my blog, which will center on creative marketing strategies that both small and large manufacturers can use to not only survive but prosper, will help in a small way to turn around the declines we have seen in our manufacturing sector over the past decade.
Finally, I have lived in Waterloo since 1973, have a wife and 3 grown children(one of whom is a jewelry manufacturer I am proud to say), continue to do volunteer work coaching Special Olympic Basketball and helping our Neighbourhood Association, and have an interest in alternative energy technologies. I look forward in getting to know you through my blog.