Strategy With a Shovel

Working your way up the ladder, owning three businesses, working from home, great colleagues, work/life balance that fit, good money. There must have been some really good strategic planning to have this kind of career.

There was, and it started with a shovel.

Summer, 1976. Wrapping up my second year of university. We got married in 1975 and this was our first summer in London, Ontario. I needed a job. I registered at temporary manpower and a few days later got a call. Some company needed a trench dug in front of their factory so they could install underground wiring for a set of outdoor lights.

I showed up and they gave me a shovel and said dig a trench there. So I did; it took about three days. As I finished, this guy came up to me and asked if I was available for more work since someone in the factory had just quit. Yes, was an easy answer!

An actual real life ice cream plant! This is summer work heaven and they even paid the summer staff union wages! They showed me how to operate a machine that wrapped up the ice cream packages and said go do it. So I did. That lasted the summer of 1976 and in summer 1977 I applied again and got hired.

Also in summer 1977, baby # 1 arrived. I needed a job. So as summer came to a close I asked if they needed any full time people and guess what; they did! I became a full time employee in 1977 and was happy as an ice cream cone!

I worked at that plant for 12 years, my last role as production manager.

Fall, 1989. Our company was introducing a Quality Management approach and wanted someone with plant experience to deliver training throughout the organization for about 18 months, then back to the plant. I applied. I got the role. It was better than ice cream. 18 months turned into 8 years.

Spring 1997. Stuff happens. Our successful company sold some divisions to bigger players and downsizing of us overhead people was inevitable. My spouse went back to school. In 1980, 1988 and 1990 babies 2, 3 and 4 were born. I still needed a job. Pathways and Crossroads Consulting was born. Dial up internet was a thing.

A bit of a roller coaster ride!

January 2007. I'd been involved with Team Management Systems for a few years. There came an opportunity to become a distributor. TMS Americas was born. I had a business partner; and a few employees. We were completely virtual. The 2008 economic crash happened.

Still on the roller coaster.

December 2017. Business partner retires. Pathways and Crossroads is amalgamated into TMS Americas. Accountants said it was the thing to do. Lawyers too. Who am I to argue.

March 2020. Pandemic happens. You know... roller coaster still in operation.

March 2024. Stuff happens. TMS Americas wraps up business.

April 2024. I don't really need a job. Kind of like working though. n of team is born. We'll see what emerges...

1977 to 2024. Can't say I followed any mainstream strategic planning theory. But I was strategic; the way strategy has been done for most of organizational history. Do the best you can with what you are doing and stay aware and open to what's happening. Opportunities emerge. Act on the ones that fit. Repeat.

The roller coaster is part of strategy. You cannot plan it away. Some of the mainstream strategy stuff might be required, but it's not strategy.

My guess is that your strategic story is quite similar to mine. That would be cool.