From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

As has been the case wherever McCain has expanded, the Australian branch
benefited from the expertise of McCain employees who came from other countries.
In some cases, these were experienced executives bringing their knowledge and experience
with them. In others, younger employees were sent to Australia to gain
experience and be groomed for important jobs elsewhere. Ian Cameron, Bill Mabee,
Sherry Brown, Bill Mackay, Allison McCain, Rod MacDonald, Bruce Phillips, and Dan
Dawkins all came from Canada, while Paul Turner arrived from Maine and Frank van
Gils came from the United Kingdom.
Other key players in building McCain Australia included Robin Cuy and Gerard
Richmond in finance, Owen Porteus in manufacturing, Tony Ford in agronomy, and
Ernie Jones, who for many years headed the purchasing and procurement department.
A facet of the McCain management style, much appreciated by Clements and other
regional directors, was that the company’s leaders were present when they were
needed and absent when they weren’t. “Although they gave a great deal of autonomy,”
continues Clements, “if there were problems – of which there were quite a few – they
were only too happy to discuss them. You didn’t have someone breathing down your
neck all the time, but if you did have a problem, you always had a ready ear.”
Harrison and Wallace always asked their senior executives to be open about their
problems. If a serious problem arose in Australia, they wanted to hear about it from the
managing director for Australia, not from somebody else. Knowing that they would
be kept informed, the two heads of the company felt confident delegating authority.
The McCain management style resulted in an unusually enjoyable work environment.
“In most large companies there is a lot of politics going on,” observes Clements. “I know
because I worked in two such companies before I went to McCain. People jockeyed for
positions. In McCain, it was virtually non-existent.”
Milton Rodda, because of his thirty years of service, is in a good position to assess
the reasons for McCain’s success. “Pig-headed determination and never accepting no
as an answer went a long way in the early days,” he argues. “Luck backed up by hard
work also helped. By ‘luck’ I mean that the McCain boys got into the right business at
the right time and pushed hard.”
Its success in Australia gave McCain a major presence in the food industry on
three continents. Meanwhile, there was plenty of action back home in Canada.
Pea harvesting, 1979. Long-time employees: (left to
right) Peter Donovan,* Robin
Cuy (seated),* John Orton,
Margaret O’Brien,* Graeme
(Bennie) Stewart,* Tony Ford,
Ernie Jones,* Leigh-Anne
Burgess,* Ian Dwyer, Steve
Yung. Asterisks indicate McCain
employees with thirty years or
more of service. The others have
at least twenty years of service.
122 From the Ground up
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