The View From the Trenches

Linda D’Angelo
Vice-president, Business Development
Abraxus Construction Group L.P., Calgary

What do you do as vice-president of business development? I’m responsible for the strategic planning and growth of Golosky Energy Services.

How are you able to overcome daily challenges? The toughest part of my job is planning for the future in an ever-changing environment. It’s key that we understand how our core business interfaces with industry’s requirements so we can continue to meet our customers’ needs and grow with them.

What are you most proud of in your work? At Abraxus we work together as a team and go out of our way to understand our customers’ business drivers and meet their needs. It’s all about finding solutions, creating new opportunities and adding value to our customers’ bottom line. For example, Commonwealth Construction, whose purchase order is framed and hanging in our boardroom, gave us a chance when we first started our business and, by continuing to meet their needs, are still a valued customer 10 years later.

Does Abraxus offer any interesting perks? The company recognizes that good employee retention is key to our success in this marketplace. In addition to employee bonus and production incentives, we sponsor regular shop barbecues, golf tournaments and a variety of social activities. We’ve also begun offering our staff [an additional] six paid days off per year in an effort to reward our employees and share in our success.

What keeps you working for your company? The ability to contribute in a meaningful way and make a difference. At Abraxus, and throughout Golosky Energy Services, our people reflect who we are. Our core values are safety, teamwork, integrity and respect. These values not only assist in our decision-making but ensure we are the company of choice to our employees and clients.

David Beresford
Vice-President Of Research and Development,
Pandell Technology Corporation, Calgary

How did you get your job? Being that I started Pandell, I gave myself the position. We started during the dot-com boom. We’re a survivor of that time because of all the current interest in the Internet and we have a lot of experience in technology.

How did Pandell survive the dot-com crash? Companies got really excited, really greedy. People were desperate to give you money. And I wasn’t sure why. We decided to run Pandell as a value-based company; if we’re not adding value, we don’t deserve to be in business. We didn’t borrow any money. So by not borrowing, we were forcing ourselves to figure out how to make money.

What is your growth strategy? By acquiring companies, we get expertise in areas we want to get experience in, by providing better quality work faster and with less people and by “software as a service” – anything you sell gets aggregated in the next month, so we’re desperately trying to get more of that revenue.

Two and a half years ago we started acquiring companies. We take things like desktop applications and put them on the Internet and make web-based applications. Software as a service is a trend. We rent software – no big, upfront costs and there are more immediate tax benefits. For us, it’s slow but steady.

How has growth affected Pandell? You need people. You need people to be productive, to be very fast. But you don’t grow if [an employee] is tapped out – they’ll move slower.

How do you feel about the present economy? I’m confident because we’ve been there before and we’re in a better position. We know how to make money. There’s nothing scary looming over us. I’m excited to prove we can do this and be strong in this downturn.

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