The Godfather - Atlantic Business Magazine

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86 | Atlantic Business Magazine | May/June 2010
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TO BE FRANK
OBSERVING THE COLEMAN CODE OF CONDUCT
BY DAWN CHAFE
S
omewhere in the vicinity of 4:00 am, a handful of mildly ‘preserved’ twentysomething siblings and their barely legal age sister return from a night on the town.
As they enter the darkened family home, joshing and jostling in the foyer, their
attention is drawn to a muted glow in the living room. There they find their father, silently
commanding attention from a wing back throne. The severity of his facial expression is
made even starker thanks to the harsh illumination of an overhead lamp. The festivities?
Over. The lecture for having kept 19-year-old Maria out so late? As another of the seven
Coleman children, Maggie, puts it: “he made sure we knew how he felt.”
What he also felt, though the kids didn’t know it until later, was incredible joy at seeing how
happy they were together. He’d barely been able to hold back the hugs. He would have
loved to join in their exuberance, to bask in their sibling revelry, but a fatherly point had to
be made and (regardless how hard it was on him) he was going to make it. In doing so, he
inspired Maggie to forever dub him, ‘The Godfather’.
It’s an apt sobriquet. Frank Coleman has much in common with the iconic character Marlon
Brando made famous. Both head the most influential families in their communities. They are
each preternatural prognosticators, evincing gifts of strategy that Napoleon would have
envied. They are entrepreneurial, insightful, forceful, and growth-oriented. They are wise
Solomons whose audience and counsel are sought by many. They offer deals whose refusal
comes with not-so-pretty consequences. And both are surrounded by a defensive circle of
informants and gate keepers.
Photo: Scott Grant, roninphoto.ca
But Coleman is equally the anti-Corleone. What was sinister and threatening in one, is
endearing and even sometimes quasi comical with the other. Vito’s armed inner circle is
Frank’s loyal coterie. The Don’s immoral justification that “it’s just business” is flipped with
Señor Frank to whom everything is personal. And where one is completely bereft of moral
compass, the other overflows with decency. Frank Coleman’s people will never have to take
a bullet for him (as if he’d ever let them), but they eagerly agreed to, and even requested, the
opportunity to praise their champion. Be thankful: it’s a story well worth the telling.
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In the beginning...
Born in 1953, Frank Coleman
is the oldest of Eugene and
Lorraine Coleman’s eight
children. He describes growing
up in Corner Brook, NL as
“idyllic”.
Frank made his grand entrance into the
world in 1953, the eldest of eight children
(three boys and five girls) born to Eugene
and Lorraine Coleman. Though Eugene
and his brothers were second generation
owners of the Colemans retail business,
Frank says his wasn’t a particularly privileged childhood in the financial sense.
“We didn’t live in a glam house or
anything, but we thought we were well off
as a family. We were very close. We had
opportunities to work, to go to university.” Indeed, he describes growing up in
Corner Brook as a delightful idyll of
summer vacations driving around in the
family station wagon (yes, all 10 of them)
and salmon fishing with his younger
brothers.
Bill, eight years his junior, recalls one
particular occasion when the two of them
headed off to the lake before dawn. Hours
later, fishless and fly-bitten, Bill had had
enough. He curled up in the bottom of the
boat and went to sleep. Frank, meanwhile,
fished on, landing not one but two impressive salmon.
Formative years
It was apparent that between the fly
fishing and back seat sing-alongs, Frank
was unconsciously absorbing the
Coleman code of conduct, an informal
prescription of moral fortitude best articulated by father Eugene’s favorite poem
(‘If’, by Rudyard Kipling): “If you can
keep your head when all about you are
losing theirs and blaming it on you… If
you can wait and not be tired by
waiting…”
At 10, however, Frank hadn’t yet developed the anger management skills that
would become his trademark in later
years. When a neighbour smacked one of
his friends for some now long-forgotten
misdemeanour? Young Frank repaid the
lady’s too quick hand by spray painting
her brand new car. “Of course, she
grabbed me the next day in my backyard.
I got in a lot of trouble for that one!” he
laughs.
There’s a common adage that idle
hands are the devil’s workshop, and that a
heavy work load keeps you out of trouble.
Whether that was Eugene’s motivation or
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88 | Atlantic Business Magazine | May/June 2010
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Frank Coleman, businessman,
scholar (B.A., M.A.) and father
(shown below with two of his seven
children, Eugene and Anna Claire).
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not is impossible to discern (he passed away in
1991), but one thing is certain: he made sure Frank
was rarely unoccupied. In addition to pushing him
to excel in school and public speaking (Frank won
first place every year), Eugene had no problem
finding jobs for his son, along with Frank’s brothers
and cousins, in the family business. No task was
beneath them. From stocking shelves to bagging
groceries to prepping produce, the Coleman kids
were expected to do it all. In Frank’s opinion,
sweeping the dark, dusty warehouse was the worst
chore imaginable.
That is, until his father put him and his cousin
Mike on the sales floor in the furniture department
wearing pink shirts with matching ties, beige twill
pants and seeksucker jackets. “He had seen it
somewhere,” says Frank. “He said, ‘this is what
salesmen should look like’. We looked like two
fellows out of a Barnum and Bailey circus. That
was the year I enjoyed the warehouse.”
Not all of Frank’s part-time employment was in
the family business, however. He also spent one
summer selling newspaper subscriptions, and
another two in the Corner Brook economic development office. “And then I set up a little business
of my own. I was selling advertising for a project
that I thought I could do, and I did that for a
summer.”
The casual jobs, however, were mere interludes
punctuating the really serious work of higher
education. Though Frank was a diligent student,
earning a B.A. from St. Francis Xavier and a
Master of Economics degree at Dalhousie, one of
his most memorable lessons was again delivered by
family.
“I was at university, and I phoned my father and
said I needed some money. ‘Okay’, he said, and he
sent me $100. I phoned him back and I said,
“$100? That’s not enough. That’s chicken feed.’
And he says, ‘Oh, is that right? I’ll look after that.’
Four or five days later, an envelope shows up and
there’s something in it and it shook. I opened it up
and there was this little note. And the note said:
‘This is chicken feed. That was money.’ I never
forgot that.”
Coming of age
In the final months before his graduation from
Dalhousie, Frank was introduced to Yvonne
Hennebury, an attractive St. John’s native and
nurse. That same night, he wrote a note to himself
that this was the girl he wanted to marry. She,
however, wasn’t equally impressed by the introverted student. Yvonne reportedly could have had
her choice of suitors, but she was more interested in
building her career and doing missionary work
overseas. Fortunately for Frank, Yvonne’s sister
had taken a liking to him and quietly encouraged
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the subject of his admiration to give him a second
look, all the while encouraging Frank not to
pursue Yvonne too aggressively. The strategy
worked. Yvonne soon liked him enough to warn
off a potential rival by describing the unsuspecting
Frank as “a nerd”. Six months after they first met,
Frank proposed. Before another six months had
passed, they were married.
Frank’s first career opportunity was as a senior
economist with Newfoundland and Labrador
Hydro, but he was living in Halifax at the time
and didn’t have the money to fly to St. John’s on
the premise of an interview that might not pan
out. “I wouldn’t ask my father for it,” he says,
remembering the chicken feed. Instead, he
approached what was then the Unemployment
office and asked them for the money. The funds
were provided following verification that there
was an actual interview pending, a proceeding
which impressed the future boss and secured
Frank the job.
Yvonne, meanwhile, tried to continue her
nursing career, but she and Frank had both agreed
they wanted a large family and she eventually had
to give up nursing. “When we had two children, it
was too hard to keep up,” she says. “I agreed to
stay home with the children.”
Towards the end of his seventh year with
Hydro, Frank needed a new challenge, so he
began teaching night classes at Memorial
University. “Then I started a company selling
satellite dishes, and then I started a consulting
company.” With four children at home and Frank
working day and night, it wasn’t long before
something had to give.
In 1983, Frank Coleman resigned his safe,
steady job at Hydro to become a full-time private
consultant. He was soon engaged with environmental impact studies for the Hibernia offshore
oil development. “I did some work for Sealand
Helicopters. I did some work in agriculture, and I
found that all very fascinating.”
He says he would have been content to
continue following his entrepreneurial instincts,
but fate had something else in store.
Destiny
“I guess I always knew in the back of my mind
that I was going to return to Colemans,” says
Frank of the invitation to return to the family
firm. “I tried to fight it for a long time. I guess
perhaps I felt that I had to prove, to myself, that I
could make it on my own.”
At that point, he’d been gone from the
company for 18 years. He had to relearn the
culture of the business, understand the drivers
required to move it forward, and reacquaint
himself with the market and products. Most
(Top) Frank Coleman stepping outside
his comfort zone on a paving machine;
(Bottom) Fishing with brother Bob Coleman,
Eagle River, LB.
continued page 94
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Frank Family Stories
YVETTE (17): I have always dreamed of
a career performing classical music or
opera, and dad has always been there
helping me pick out music for hours,
looking at different artists and music
schools. He has always dreamed of
being an opera singer and I think he is
very proud that his daughter is reaching
for that goal.
MARIA (21): To dad, heart is more important than talent. How bad do you
want it? At one point when the circumstances surrounding my dream were at
their worst,…when people were telling
me to choose one thing or the other, I
pictured my dad quietly whispering –
you can have it all. Impossibility is not a
word he throws around.
Frank Coleman in his favorite pose: standing side-by-side with the Coleman clan. Back row (L-R): Frank’s daughters Anna Claire,
Yvette and Janet; Middle row (L-R): daughter-in-law Janice (married to Eugene) holding granddaughter Clare, son Eugene, wife
Yvonne, daughter Maria, daughter Maggie, Frank Coleman; Kneeling in front: son Aidan.
Southwest Properties is proud to
congratulate CEO Jim Spatz on being
inducted into Atlantic Canada’s Top 50
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92 | Atlantic Business Magazine | May/June 2010
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AIDAN (23): Dad thrives on change, and
the chameleon in him will always adjust
to whatever environment he finds himself
in. If you dropped him and mom off on
an uninhabited island with only his un-
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derwear, this is what would unfold. He’d
say to himself, ‘Hmmm, what can I do
with a pair of underwear?’… then he’d
run off into the forest and by golly if by
evening my mother wasn’t sitting down
to a candlelight dinner with a glazed ham
and pina coladas. But he only understands his purpose through giving. Put
him on the same island without mom,
and he wouldn’t last a week. You’d find
he died, turned into a raisin and left nothing but the underwear behind.
JANET (25): My dad is a great man, who
has no idea he is great, which makes
him a rare breed among great men. He
recently spoke for a seminar class at our
local college. He asked my two-and-ahalf year old son Gabriel and me to go
with him. I was hesitant, but dad was insistent that Gabriel come as his assistant for the day. He told me he hoped
the students didn’t just remember him
as the boring old CEO, but as the guy
who brought the cute kid.
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MAGGIE (27): Every summer, late August, he would call us into the house
one-by-one to talk about what we
wanted to achieve in the coming school
year. He’d have a chart with columns
for studies, extra curricular activities,
exercise, musical talent, etc… He never
pressured us to do any particular activity, but he wouldn’t let us be lazy either.
ANNA CLAIRE (28): Dad is a very
funny person! He loves music and will
sing almost any song that catches his
ear. He came into the kitchen one
evening, doing a little dance and
singing “don’t cha wish your girlfriend
was hot like me”. And he would do
funny things while driving us to school
as kids. He would beep the horn and
wave at every passing vehicle, and the
other drivers would wave back at us in
a peculiar way, all the way trying to figure out who was waving at them.
EUGENE (30): I’ve worked with my father for the past eight years. I appreciate his honest and objective feedback,
even though that might take place at a
moment’s notice in the living room.
Working with dad and other family members certainly brings a higher level of
dedication to the business.
WIFE YVONNE: We were going on a
family weekend to Rocky Harbour, and
he brought his easels. I knew that meant
he was planning a meeting and I wasn’t
very pleased with him. The next day, he
ushered the whole family into the hotel
conference room. The meeting was for
us! He had juice and muffins arranged,
tea and coffee, and we spent the whole
morning talking about the meaning of
family and what we wanted to achieve
as a family. We created a family mission
statement, we had it framed and we
gave copies to each of the kids. They
loved it!
We’re proud to congratulate so many of our clients, colleagues
and friends for being selected as this year’s Top 50 CEOs.
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I always knew
in the back of my
mind that
I was going to
return to
Colemans.
importantly, he had to earn the trust of the people
around him. There wasn’t any jealousy or resentment, but there was a natural curiosity about
whether or not he was up to the task. Frank had
joined the company in a senior management role
and he was determined to quickly deliver an
impressive performance.
Upon his arrival, he found an entrepreneurial
business with hard working leadership and
equally diligent staff. What they lacked, he
thought, was the infrastructure to carry the business to the next level. Specifically, they had
limited computing capacity and no HR function.
Frank had identified a niche where he was
needed. Within 60 months, he had made his
bones–and earned the company’s top post.
Seeing Results
Fast forward 24 years, and everyone can
finally, clearly, see what Frank had so readily
perceived. The results are, pardon the pun,
frankly astounding. The company’s technology
investment has grown into a Point of Sale business intelligence software that would make Sam
Walton proud. Sales data from all 12 grocery
stores, by department, is updated every two
minutes. Each day, sales and inventory values are
published internally and data automatically
compared against results from the same day in
the previous year. And each week, complete sales
and gross profit reports are available for management review.
Scott Bennett, director of Colemans fiveperson information technology department,
thrills to the company’s progressive environment.
“We’ve brought in consultants from around the
world, bought systems in the U.K.. It makes it
very exciting to work here,” he says. When
pressed, he admits he might be able to make more
money elsewhere, but shakes his head at the
thought of even considering that possibility. “I’m
paid well, I have a lifestyle in Corner Brook that’s
second to none, and I have a boss who gives me
lots of leeway to make decisions.”
That autonomy is balanced by accountability.
Thanks to the technology systems he’s helped put
in place, Bennett and his fellow department heads
know they will be held accountable for their decisions every Tuesday morning. That’s when Frank
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holds his weekly management group meetings. “We don’t manage the business by
quarters, or by six month intervals, or
annual statements,” asserts Frank. “We
manage the business by day. We work with
a sense of urgency so that we can fix problems before they become issues.”
Despite last year’s recessionary environment, and in spite of operating in an ultracompetitive retail environment against
heavy-hitters like Loblaws, Sobeys and
WalMart, Colemans annual retail sales are
up 17 per cent. Shareholder return on equity
is up by a comparably comfortable doubledigit figure.
Rather than dreading her turn in the
Tuesday morning hot seat, Janet Joyce looks
forward to her participation in those regular
progress meetings. Joyce manages the 830employee company’s Human Resources
department, and she relishes her inclusion at
the departmental level. She describes the
fact that she reports directly to Frank as a
“very enlightened approach”. “HR typically reports to Finance,” she says.
That statement reminds her of a time
when Frank overheard one of her colleagues
teasing her about HR not being a revenue
generator. “He was not amused,” she says
about the perception of the department he
founded more than two decades earlier.
Colemans, explains Joyce, is a business
where the people on the front lines frame
the customer service experience. “Our profitability is tied to the engagement of our
employees, and Frank really gets that.”
The employees get it too, ‘it’ being formal
Respectful Workplace and Guaranteed Fair
Treatment policies, an Employee Family
Assistance program (to support staff in
times of crisis), an Employee Caring
program (to recognize joyful and tragic
moments), a Wellness Program for health
promotion, Reward and Recognition and
Something to Look Forward To programs
(to recognize employee contributions in a
concrete manner). Wages are competitive,
orientation and mentorship programs are in
place, there’s flexible scheduling, recruiting
bonuses and even a Colemans scholarship.
Not to mention the regular training in food
preparation and presentation.
The most effective weapon in Joyce’s
recruit and retain arsenal, however, is often
Frank himself. “I was in his office this time
for a meeting, and a bakery assistant who
was leaving the company came up to his
office to say good-bye. She said she couldn’t
go without shaking his hand. This was
someone who worked in the basement of
the building, and we were on the top floor.
continued page 97
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Frank Lessons
In his own words…
ENTREPRENEURIAL
CULTURE
“Inventiveness and innovation are
key to surviving a second, third,
fourth generation. One of my
biggest fears is that we will drift
away from our entrepreneurial
drive. That’s why I attempt to
recreate our business all the time,
to destroy it, beat it up and change
it.”
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96 | Atlantic Business Magazine | May/June 2010
“I’ve been really, really careful
about putting family members in
roles that match their skills and
abilities. I’ve never had to fire a
family member, though I have had
some tough discussions with some
family members and encouraged
them to consider alternate
arrangements.”
ACHIEVING BALANCE
“I’ve never allowed the accountants to bring me a financial report
or a piece of bad news that didn’t
absolutely rank as a priority, an
emergency, on a Friday. It always
had to be a Monday. Monday, if it
wasn’t an absolute disaster that
required emergency corrective
surgery, then you had your
weekend with your family.”
SUCCESSION
“I feel confident about the future of
this company. We have some very
ambitious and capable people,
both Colemans and nonColemans. But I’m not retiring any
time soon. I’m having too much
fun.”
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It’s not like he passed the bakery on his
way to the office every day, but he had
obviously made a regular effort to meet
and talk with the people who worked
there. That made a powerful impression
on me.”
Gentlemanly Behavior
Indeed, the character of the man is integral to the story of the CEO. Frank
Coleman’s worst faults (brace yourself)
are playing Andrea Bocelli at full volume
first thing in the morning, using every pot
in the house whenever he cooks and occasionally showing up late for meetings.
Family is always his top priority. He can
be forceful and direct, but he doesn’t get
mad – ever. Anger, he says, is counterproductive. He is consistently respectful of the
people around him: family, friend and coworker alike. Both the current and former
mayors of Corner Brook (Neville Greeley
and Priscilla Boutcher) affirm the City is
fortunate to have such a civically-minded
company in their community. They
couldn’t even report a single development
or tax-related dispute with the company.
He is reliably charitable and selfless, a
man his admirers report is defined by his
ability to serve others. Childhood friend
and president of Rocky Mountain Liquor,
Peter Byrne, describes him as having the
moral authority to be a CEO.
In conducting the interviews for this
story, subjects invariably asked what the
angle and purpose would be. At first, it
appeared there must be something to hide.
Soon, it became apparent that people were
genuinely concerned that the story do
Mr. Frank justice. In a reversal of the
mafia code of silence, word of the story
soon got around. Before long, potential
subjects were emailing and calling with
offers to do interviews – a first for this
scribe.
The obvious and only conclusion is that
Frank Coleman is truly one of a kind–but
not entirely. Even as he forges ahead with
growth, the father in Frank carefully
nurtures the next generation Coleman
clan. Son Aidan, in particular, appears to
have inherited his father’s talent with
paint. He plans to redecorate the family
home some night after his unsuspecting
parents have gone to sleep. He says the
current uniform vellum-toned hue is
“driving him crazy.” His plan is to get
hyped up on coffee, and assign each room
its own vibrant shade. In the Coleman
family, painting is the equivalent of
sleeping with the fishes. | ABM
Page 97
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Congratulations
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