Opinion: Leadership on collaboration produces manufacturing success

Opinion: Leadership on collaboration produces manufacturing success

Opinion

One of the stories Manitobans tell about themselves, is that we are good at collaborating.

It’s a good narrative to partially explain how the economy does as well as it does, even though the province is relatively isolated from other markets and as from an overseas shipping port as could be.

But the story about Manitobans being good collaborators is likely over-stated … except when it comes to the manufacturing sector where such co-operation is structured, organized and maintained by the Manitoba division of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporter Association.

Ron Koslowsky, the guy who has led the Manitoba division for the past 19 years, is stepping down in March. He’s already agreed to stay on for a while as a consultant.

No one person can claim responsibility for the success of an organization such as the association, but it’s growth under Koslowsky has been phenomenal. It has a staff of about 50 people — more than some of its smaller members.

It’s efforts to create leadership councils — where CEO’s get together and compare notes — and its training programs including world-class lean manufacturing courses have created an operation unlike any of the other divisions in provinces across the country.

Koslowsky’s Manitoba operation now boasts half of the association’s entire workforce across the country.

While other provincial divisions of the organization act primarily as a lobby/advocacy group – Alberta recently hired a government affairs specialist as its vice-president — in Manitoba it’s much more focused on workforce development and sharing best practices.

In the context of Manitoba’s much heralded diversified economy, manufacturing plays the role of big brother, representing about 10 per cent of the GDP and employing about 66,000.

Koslowsky, 73, had been active in the organization for about 15 years while he was the vice-president of human resources at Palliser Furniture, serving as the chair of the Manitoba advisory board and also on the national board before he started working for the association.

As he says it, he has manufacturing in his fingernails, something he believes is beneficial in his role.

“At the core of what we do, is we bring manufacturers together,” he said. “We aggregate their needs. We also bring them together to learn from each other. Our goal is to have the best connected group of manufacturers in the world — out of little Manitoba — to help them be successful.”

It is a recipe that has worked. Koslowsky’s office has evidence that companies that engage with the organization are far more successful than members that don’t.

His history of leadership of the organization is full of the kind of accomplishments that anyone would be proud of.

Long before the National Research Council committed to investing about $70 million in building its advanced manufacturing facility in Centreport that had its official opening earlier this year, Koslowsky had formed a provincial coalition that presented a report to the council about how and why Winnipeg made sense for it.

The president of the council said after that it helped them make the decision to build in Winnipeg.

The CME in Manitoba under Koslowsky’s leadership, was an early adopter of structured training in lean manufacturing. Its staff of lean trainers – from which the organization derives significant revenue — are now among the industry leaders. It has an annual lean conference in Winnipeg that is the largest in the country.

Chad Brick, president of the Eastside Group of Companies and chairman of CME Manitoba’s advisory board, said unlike in other markets, there is a real desire to see peers succeed here.

For instance some of the largest original equipment manufacturers in the province, like New Flyer and MacDon Industries, have gone out of their way to build up a supply chain from local suppliers.

“Our company has benefited from that and now we’re strong enough that we export to the U.S. Midwest,” he said.

“We’re very competitive because we got our act together (because of the support from the larger companies and the CME).”

Manitoba has a lot going for it, but because it’s so small and relatively isolated, to truly capitalize on its assets it really needs to work it.

The association under Koslowsky has produced an enviable track record about how to leverage existing strengths into the biggest bang possible.

An executive search undertaking will commence in the new year to find his replacement. Meanwhile, Brick said Koslowsky’s human resources expertise has been deployed such that the organization is deep with talent and will likely not have to break stride even when someone as impactful as Koslowsky decreases his professional engagement.

Koslowsky regularly likes to remind people about its simple and straight-forward mission statement — helping manufacturers grow. Many others in the province could do a lot worse than to take a page out of the CME playbook.

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