From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

Wallace McCain, 2003.
wallace mccaIn
Foreword
I am writing this on my own behalf and on the behalf of my
brother Harrison. We were a team. I wish he were here to add
his own, most distinctive, voice, but I think I know what he
would feel and say.
We were two young guys, eager to have a business we could
call our own; eager to succeed. We never really started out with
grandiose ambitions. We used to think just maybe we could
build a business that might make a million dollars. And, we
never really did it for the money. We just thought business was
fun – it was a game and a challenge. We liked building things,
and we loved the people we worked with. That’s why we did
what we did.
Our success wasn’t because we were great financial engineers
– we weren’t. It wasn’t because we had the very best plants –
often we didn’t. And our success wasn’t because we built a sophisticated
strategic plan – in fact, we never prepared one in all
our years! We had some good timing, and we had some good
luck. But mostly, we were able to build a team of truly great
people. People who cared a lot. People who didn’t care so much
about the material things of power, title, and money; they just
wanted to get things done (quickly), just like Harrison and me, and they wanted
to make a difference. People who were honest, hard working, persevering, direct,
and dedicated to success; people who shared our dreams – that’s what made McCain
Foods Limited a smashing success.
This book, on the occasion of our fiftieth anniversary, will tell the story of hundreds
of those very people. It tells stories of our victories, and some of our failures
(we had many, but we learned from them). It tells war stories and love stories (we all
loved the business). This book is an important collection of stories to describe the
past: fifty years of success led by two people but driven by thousands. I am proud of
what we accomplished together. I am proud of the unique relationship Harrison and
I had, with the support of our older brothers, even after what transpired and when he
passed away. I am proud of all the people described in these stories, and they should
be equally proud, because it is their story also.
One of the things that made Harrison and me pretty good leaders was that we
always looked forward, never back. After these stories get told and the memories are
embedded, it is just as important for us to keep facing forward into the future. No
matter how good Harrison and I, and our people, were in our day, it should never be
the same. Great companies renew themselves. The McCain family has renewed itself
– from a family business into a business family. And just as important, McCain Foods
is renewing itself under exceptional professional management, with the world’s best
professional management techniques of large global enterprises. That means change,
and of course change can be difficult, but it is necessary to perpetuate the legacy that
Harrison and I, and the people described in these stories, have built. Inside difficult
change is opportunity, and we have the opportunity now to take a great twentieth
century organization and make it a great twenty-first century organization.
I believe in that. I know Harrison would believe in that. And I think the hundreds
of people who were our partners would also believe in that. In fact, it’s just as exciting
today as the day in February 1957 when we turned on our first fryer to make a
McCain frozen french fry.
On behalf of Harrison and me – thank you all for fifty amazing years.
G. Wallace F. McCain
Toronto, Canada
March 2007
x From the Ground up
Foreword
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