A turnaround man's triumphs (gam)
Jacquie McNish
BCE Inc.'s new chief executive officer Michael Sabia has made a career out of turning thankless tasks into triumphs.
As a senior bureaucrat in the Department of Finance a decade ago he helped design and promote the reviled Goods and Services Tax, which now generates more than $25-billion annually for the federal government. He joined Canadian National Railway in 1993 to help transform the bloated, money-losing Crown agency into a profitable company that launched the largest initial public share offering of its time in 1995.
Now he is being asked to recalibrate the damaged strategic vision of one of Canada's largest companies and restore its tarnished image with shareholders and bankers. All this from a 48-year-old former civil servant who was a stranger to the communications sector until he joined BCE in 1999.
"You don't need a phone guy to run this phone company," said Stanley Hartt, chairman of Salomon Smith Barney Canada, who previously worked in the federal government with Mr. Sabia.
"Michael is a master strategist who knows how to make tough decisions. He is one of the best managers in the country."
Mr. Sabia is described by associates as a blunt, outspoken and driven manager whose specialty is cutting through layers of management to speed up decisions and improve accountability. When asked by one reporter in 2000 to describe his job in 2000 at BCE, he responded "I'm a shit disturber."
One person close to BCE's senior management said Mr. Sabia was recruited as chief executive officer of Bell Canada International in 1999 to improve the executive "gene pool."
Backing Mr. Sabia's leadership at the communications company is Paul Tellier, a BCE director and widely respected CEO of CN. Mr. Tellier, a former senior civil servant, hired Mr. Sabia at CN and, according to sources, was instrumental in recruiting him to BCE.
Once Mr. Monty made his decision to resign, people close to the company said Mr. Sabia was the board's favoured replacement. In a conference call with analysts, Mr. Monty was gracious about the talents his successor brings to the troubled company.
"Our industry is going through a period of turmoil and I know that our new captain Michael Sabia will steer the ship wisely and profitably. BCE stands tall among its peers and it will continue to do so."
While shareholders will be looking for Mr. Sabia to outline a new strategic vision in the wake of the Teleglobe disaster, he signalled yesterday that it was too soon to outline a new plan at a time when the telecommunications sector is imploding.
"The world changes, things evolve and our sector evolves quickly, and any strategy that's fixed in time is a strategy that's dead. Strategy changes and as events unfold we'll evolve that strategy," he told a media briefing yesterday.
While the outlook may be uncertain, Mr. Sabia is expected to set a tough pace for his managers. The executive is such a driven worker, prone to 15-hour work days and Sunday office sessions, that one New York banker once quipped "I think his wife forgot what he looked like."
Mr. Sabia brings a rich personal history to his new job.
His wife is Hilary Pearson, granddaughter of former prime minister Lestor Pearson and a former federal bureaucrat and Royal Bank executive.
His mother was the late Laura Sabia, an outspoken feminist activist and St. Catharines, Ont., politician who once chided major Canadian corporations, including BCE, for their lack of female senior executives and directors.
"There are 25,000 women in Bell Canada and you can't tell me they're all stupid," she said. |
