A Belief in Change

Terry Rhode has spent most of his life getting ready for success. As a child growing up in Saskatoon, Sask., he honed his “can-do” edge. At the tender age of 10 he began working for his parents’ family run business, painting scaffold and cleaning brick, for a whopping 50 cents a day!

Getting involved in business at such a young age, Rhode quickly learned the importance of change and being pro-active in business. “My parents taught me change is inevitable so you have to embrace it and run with it,” says the 33-year-old. Curiously, he grew up listening to complaints by his parents’ staff, who resisted and even tried to prevent change. “That experience taught me adjustments are a really stressful thing, so you have to get staff involved in making transitions happen or it doesn’t work.” Living up to that motto is the reason Rhode is this year’s E Award winner for Business Results – Quality Enhancement.

For the last five years, Rhode has earned the reputation at Rosenau Transport Ltd., an Edmonton-based transportation company offering freight hauling, as the man who dips his hands into everything. He joined the company primarily in a finance capacity having a background in commerce and accounting, then quickly became involved in the company’s Y2K-friendly program.

Using his knack for numbers he developed a process to e-bill Rosenau’s customers directly by developing a Web site. The result gave customers external access to their accounts and billing information, subsequently eliminating the manual handling of substantial numbers of Rosenau’s invoices. His ideas and actions have increased the company’s revenue stream, increased the efficiency and timeliness with which Rosenau meets its clients’ expectations and has helped to attract and retain more customers. Through all of these changes Rhode has managed to decrease personnel turnover by actively involving staff in decision-making and by providing them with a sense of ownership in the organization.

Impressively, Rhode’s initiatives have helped to transform the entire company, changing an organizational culture that once stated, “We aren’t able to do that,” to a culture that now asks “How can we do this and how can we use technology to make business even more efficient,” says nominator Pat Young. Given Rhode’s impact on Rosenau, along with the honour of an E Award, he says so far “he doesn’t need a bigger hat for his head, it’s not swelling yet.” He adds, “I’ll keep doing whatever it takes to keep making the company even better!”