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SECTION F BUSINESSthe record

BUSINESS EDITOR: KEVIN CROWLEY

894-2231 EXT. 2624 kcrowley@therecord.com

W E D N E S D A Y , A P R I L 1 3 , 2 0 0 5

NO INCREASE - F4Bank of Canada leaves

interest rateunchanged . . . for now

Hardware dealersdue for spring visit

An estimated 13,000 peoplewill pour into the village of St.Jacobs this weekend for HomeHardware’s spring market.

The three-day event, whichofficially starts Sunday morn-ing, is a chance for store opera-tors from outlets across Canadato order merchandise and learnabout industry developments.

Home Hardware, launchedin 1941, has its head offices in St. Jacobs.

Most activities this weekendwill take place in the Henry Sittler Building, a giant ware-house just west of the villagecentre.

PrinterOn productput to use on campus

PrinterOn Corp. of Kitchen-er is making it easier for uni-versity and college students toprint documents from their lap-tops with the launch of a prod-uct that it calls the CampusPrinting System.

The technology lets studentsstudying on campuses outfittedwith wireless access points toprint documents on campusprinters from any location. Itcan also be used with hand-helddevices, such as the BlackBerry.

The software company saidthe technology already is in useat the University of WesternOntario in London, Ont., and atQueen’s University in Kingston.

Mall owner halts saleof London property

Griffin Corp. of Kitchenerhas halted the proposed sale ofits Huron Market Mall in Lon-don, Ont., after the prospectivebuyer defaulted on the deal.

Griffin says it will keep a$150,000 security deposit paidby the unidentified purchaser.

The property’s realty listingagreement has been extendedand Griffin says it “anticipatesconcluding a sale of similar financial merits as previouslyannounced.’’

Griffin is a real estate invest-ment company that owns in-come-producing commercial real estate in Hamilton, Kitch-ener, London and Timmins.

400 students landToyota summer jobs

Toyota Motor Manufactur-ing Canada announced yester-day that its employment roles inCambridge will swell by 400 stu-dents this summer.

The company has hired thecollege and university studentsto help keep production steadyduring the holiday season.

They will work at tasks in-volving assembly, body work,painting and quality control.

Call centres workingto strengthen industry

The head of Waterloo-basedBenchmark Call Centre willrepresent area call centres onthe provincial arm of a federalgroup working to strengthenCanada’s call centre industry.

Louise Surnoskie was select-ed by representatives of Water-loo Region’s call centres.

Contact Centre Canada, es-tablished by Human ResourcesDevelopment Canada, haslaunched projects that focus onindustry image, managementtraining and the development of“best practices” for human re-sources policies.

It also is studying the impli-cations of proposed regulatorychanges and industry trendssuch as offshore call centres.

Wellington event willfocus on rural tourism

Ideas for promoting ruraltourism will be discussed nextweek during a two-day confer-ence at the Wellington CountyMuseum near Fergus.

Reality Tourism — KeepingIt Real in a Changing World isthe theme for the April 20-21event, which is geared, organiz-ers say, to tourism organiza-tions, merchants, accommoda-tion providers, plus anyonethinking of starting a tourism-based business or festival.

Details can be found onlineat www.gov.on.ca/omaf. Followthe links to the Beyond the CityLights Conference for Welling-ton County. Or phone 846-9841.

LOCAL SCENE

BY ROSE SIMONE

RECORD STAFF

When Ron and ChristineBender began operating

a machine shop 16 years ago,they didn’t imagine WaterlooRegion’s high-tech sector wouldbe the key to their success.

A machinist by trade, RonBender didn’t have a universityeducation.

Yet today, RJB MachiningLtd. has a 20,000-square-footplant on Colby Drive in Water-loo with millions of dollarsworth of equipment. And it hasfound its niche filling ordersfrom firms that sprang up be-cause of the area’s universities.

The Benders attribute theirsuccess to a combination ofgood timing, the right location,high-quality machining andgood communication skills.

They have 40 skilled employ-ees who specialize in producingaluminum components to holdthe computerized electronics ofdigital cameras, laser systemsand circuit boards sold by localhigh-tech companies.

“The University of Waterloohas been our biggest asset,” RonBender says.

“That is not something that Iwould have thought when westarted out. But now, all of ourmajor customers are spinoffsfrom the university.

“Geographically, we are inheaven here because we havethis high-tech community.”

RJB Machining’s successwas partly the result of being inthe right place at the right time,the Benders say.

In 1989, Ron, who had previ-ously been in business with hisbrother in Wellesley, decided tostart his own machine shop in a 1,000-square-foot facility onColby Court in Waterloo.

At first, the staff consisted ofhim and Christine, plus a hiredapprentice and help from Ron’sbrother in the first year.

Christine was pregnant withtheir first child at the time.

“We just wanted to get going,so at first we just took the one-off parts that came in . . . any-thing and everything,” RonBender says.

But in 1992, business boomedwhen a digital camera companyasked RJB to machine |aluminum components — the casings and internal parts — forits cameras.

Soon, the Benders were get-ting larger orders and othercompanies began knocking ontheir door. The shop outgrew itssite and the Benders moved to a9,500-square-foot Rankin Streetplant. It outgrew that as well, soin 2001, RJB more than doubledits space by moving to the cur-rent site on Colby Drive.

Over the years, the Bendershave used that space to installhigh-speed vertical machiningcentres worth hundreds ofthousands of dollars each.

They’ve also continued toadd to their skilled workforce.

FINDING NICHE

Developing a niche in thehigh-tech sector has been thekey to growth, Ron says.

“We have stayed away fromthe automotive industry be-cause that is something that canmake or break companies.

“With the automotive indus-try, you can get a three- or four-year contract, but if one of theBig Three automakers decidesto stop a model, you don’t havethat work anymore.”

By contrast, the high-techsector, at least in this area, hasbeen more stable.

Still, winning contracts hasn’t been easy and has required RJB to focus on thequality of its machining.

“These companies have zerotolerance for any kind of flaw,”Ron says.

Delivery times are also vitaland are one reason a local ma-chine shop can still have an edgeover parts makers in China.

“As long as you can turn theparts around quickly enough,and as long as you can afford tohave the latest equipment andstay as high-tech as you can, youcan be stable,” Ron says.

And since RJB is a local firm“they are able to come over andsit down and discuss the draw-

ings and the engineering issuesface to face,” Christine adds.

New orders and growth mustbe taken on with care.

“If you have one large cus-tomer, you can’t say no to thatcustomer. But if you have capac-ity, that means that you are tooslow. So you have to work at alimit that almost fills you up allthe time,” Ron explains.

Skilled trades people are alsohard to come by, so when theBenders hire, they must investin full-time people and keepthem as long as possible.

“We do have people here whohave been with us from the be-ginning,” Ron says.

Furthermore, the equipmentemployees use, machines thatcan turn raw metal to objects ofalmost any size, is incrediblyexpensive. It is not unusual forthe Benders to spend $200,000 ona single machine.

That can require giganticrisk-taking with finances — es-

pecially since they never haveguarantees of future orders.

“Our orders go out as far asmaybe three months . . . We getrepeat business, but there areno set orders,” Ron says.

“With any company that wedeal with, they never stick theirnecks out to tell us what theyare expecting and in a lot of cas-es, they don’t really know,” heexplains.

“Their sales person willmake a good sales call to some-body and they get an order andthen down it flows. Then, wejust have to be able to make ithappen.”

EAR TO THE GROUND

To help guide decisions, theBenders try to keep their ears tothe ground. They look for cluesabout how their customers aredoing in the long term.

“There are green lights outthere that we take as signs,”Christine says. “We look at thevolumes that come through andwe talk to people in the industry.It is about talking to customers,talking to the engineers andeven to the guy in shipping andreceiving.”

Communication is the key,Ron agrees.

“Sometimes, the guy in ship-ping and receiving can tell youmore than anyone else how acompany is doing,” he says.

While RJB has done well inrecent years, it has also surviveddownturns, including one afterthe Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

In August 2001, RJB had justmoved to its current location.The Sept. 11 tragedy caused bor-ders to shut and the economynosedived. Orders dwindled tonearly nothing.

“We were still in the waterfor about six months,” Chris-tine recalls.

“That was a very stressfultime for us,” Ron adds. “Wewere pushing the limits of ourcash flow and wondering ifcoming into this facility was theright move.”

Support from an excellentaccountant and the banks gotthem through, Christine says.

“They were calling us andtelling us they would lowersome of the interest rates onour operating lines,” she says.

“They looked at our cus-tomer base and said to us, ‘Theyare going to come back.’ ”

The Benders, who now havetwo children, ages 15 and 13,have also learned to lean oneach other for support.

“It is a tough balance and itis a constant struggle being self-employed . . . (and) being in abusiness that carries us both,”Christine says.

Even so, Ron, who appren-ticed as a machinist in the rub-ber industry, says he’s happy be-ing his own boss.

“I couldn’t see myself work-ing for someone else again.”

rsimone@therecord.com

Close to the customer

When was the last time youtried to teach yourself

something from a book? Whatabout attending a lecture?

If you’re like many people, itcould be some time. And theremay be good reason for this.

Reading involves sight, butresearch shows we actually re-tain only about 10 per cent ofwhat we see. Lectures primarilyinvolve hearing, but researchshows that we retain only 20 percent of what we hear.

If we’re lucky and find a situ-ation where we both see andhear what is being taught, weincrease our learning retentionto about 50 per cent.

But what kind of a result isthat? What if you bought a carand it only worked 50 per cent ofthe time?

Most businesses are not hap-py with results that border onfailure. Yet most organizationsspend the majority of theirtraining dollars on one-time in-structor-led seminars and work-shops. While these may be fun,participants retain and applyonly about half or less of whatthey take in.

It’s often said a new car loses

50 per cent of its value once ithas been driven off the dealer’slot. In a similar way, 50 per centof an organization’s trainingmoney can evaporate as soon asthe instructor departs.

So what’s the alternative?Consider the following:

We retain 70 per cent of whatwe discuss, 80 per cent of whatwe experience and 95 per cent ofwhat we teach to others.

Clearly, a more effective wayto ensure transfer of learning isto involve ourselves and othersin the subject matter throughdiscussion and active participa-tion.

Peer mentoring is a learningstrategy that’s gaining momen-tum these days.

Mentoring itself has been

around since the dawn of time,ensuring that experienced indi-viduals pass on their knowledgeto the less-experienced.

Peer mentoring takes this astep further by providing a nat-ural structure in which individ-uals can share their knowledgeand learn together in groups.

Many people in the work-place today do seek mentors.But often they do not find thembecause companies are reluc-tant to “waste” the time of theirmore effective people on thosewith less experience.

The effect of this shortsight-edness is to downgrade the or-ganization’s ability to retainand disseminate its own inter-nal “knowledge capital.”

Neglecting natural opportu-nities for employee learningand growth is like robbing Peterto pay Paul. Sooner or later,morale drops and there’s an in-crease in miscommunications,delays and staff turnover. Theorganization loses its competi-tive edge.

Setting up a structured peer-mentoring program has a num-ber of advantages to hiringtrainers.

First of all, it’s more cost-ef-fective to set up and much lessexpensive to maintain overtime. Rather than having to hirea trainer every time learning isrequired, the trainer is hired toteach self-directed employeeshow to learn on their own, andhow to create their own learn-ing agenda in response to theneeds of the organization.

Once these basic skills havebeen developed, the groups canlearn anything they wish.

Research clearly shows thatthe way to keep top performersin your company is to keepthem growing. So another ben-efit of the peer mentoring ap-proach is that it can turn any or-ganization into a learning com-munity.

Peer mentoring automatical-ly provides positive learningand growth in the self-directedindividuals who facilitate thelearning groups.

It then generates all kinds ofpositive informal coaching andmentoring between each groupmentor and his or her peers.And by encouraging people tohelp one another learn, peermentoring can break down

those nasty competitive barri-ers that frequently arise be-tween the various task groupsin an organization.

But the real beauty of peer-mentoring is that it is not justfor the elite of the organization.

Any group of individuals,from the shop floor to the execu-tive suite, can use it to learn andgrow. Learning and leadershipdevelopment can thus be drivento the lowest levels of the orga-nization, making any businessa much more productive, inter-esting and motivating place towork.

Why pay trainers to learn?They already know the materi-al. Instead, educate your peopleto learn on their own, teacheach other and apply theirlearning every day in your busi-ness.

As the old saying goes, give aman a fish and he eats for a day;teach him to fish and he eats fora lifetime.

• Debra Bannister and LoisRaats are partners at Meta TeamSolutions of Waterloo. Readerscan contact them by e-mail at:info@metateamsolutions.com

Learning groups create a motivating workplace

RECORD STAFF

Ron and Christine Bender of RJB Machining Ltd., stand on a balcony above the shop floor of their Colby Drive plant in Waterloo.

We asked Ron and Christine Bender of RJB Machining:

Q. What does it take to run a successful machine chop in anera of increased competition from China?

A. “You have to be skilled in the trade first. It would betough to run a machine shop and not really know the

trade,” Ron says.Christine adds: “It is the little things that can come back

to haunt you. So it is all about detail, detail, detail.”

SMALL BUSINESS

DEBRA BANNISTERAND LOIS RAATS

Machine shopfinds its nicheserving region’shigh-tech firms

“The University of Waterloo has beenour biggest asset. ”

RON BENDERRJB MACHINING LTD.

F1-RD #4