BY CATHERINE BROWNLEE,
PRESIDENT OF ALBERTA ENTERPRISE GROUP (AEG), CALGARY AND EDMONTON CHAPTERS

Canada’s small businesses have a big impact on our economy. As of 2021, there were 1.21 million employer businesses in the country. Of that number, nearly 98 per cent were small businesses. Over eight million Canadians, or roughly 68 per cent of the total private sector labour force, were employed by a small business.¹ To top it off, they generated nearly 38 per cent of private sector GDP in 2019.

Every year, BDC Small Business Week honours these makers, entrepreneurs and creators who fuel our economy. As those who have participated can attest, it’s an invaluable week of learning, networking and more. What’s more, it’s fun, providing an opportunity to celebrate the successes that flow from hard work, determination and vision.

One of the local small businesses that will be celebrating this year is National Growth Partners (NGP), a unique company whose business is enhancing the businesses of others. NGP got its start when Shelia Witwicky, then an MBA student, and Don Cummings, then a professor, crossed paths at the University of Alberta’s School of Business. It was a meeting of the minds, and years later they formed NGP.

Both believe in the transformative power of good corporate governance. The Enron scandal set off a lot of soul searching in the North American business community. What followed were years of studies and reports making the case for changes in corporate governance and financial and accounting controls.

In some respects, Canada was ahead of the curve. The seminal “Where Were the Directors?” report, often known as the Dey Report, was released in 1994. The 1990-1991 recession prompted an uneven response from Canadian businesses. The Dey Report set new guidelines for corporate governance, including growing expectations for how boards of directors are constituted.

Other reports have been released in the intervening years, including another written by Peter Dey (along with co-author Sarah Kaplan) in 2021. The report, “360º Governance: Where Are The Directors In A World In Crisis?” sought to establish new guidelines for the 21st century in response to such challenges as climate change, rising income inequality and COVID-19. NGP has followed these and other developments closely.

Good corporate governance – the system of rules, practices and processes a company uses to direct and control an organization – may be easy to define. Achieving it, on the other hand, is far more difficult. At the end of the day, it comes down to people. In NGP’s view, boards are teams, so the root of their work is examining all the human factors that make any team perform better.

They embrace the theory of team behaviour promoted by Patrick Lencioni, among others, that argues trust is the precondition for the vulnerability and commitment required for healthy conflict. Applied to the boardroom, this theory hypothesizes that careful attention to an organization’s human systems (e.g., individual interests and motivations, cognitive biases and interpersonal dynamics) provides the foundation for an aligned and effective team. Using this insight, NGP designs and builds high-performance governance systems. To date, the company has helped many dozens of Edmonton and Alberta organizations heighten their performance.

NGP is embarking on a new chapter. Don is stepping aside from consulting to focus on a busy board career, and a new partner, Felicia Michie, is joining the team. Together, she and Sheila intend to continue doing what NGP does best: unleashing local businesses’ full potential.