From the window of his 28th-floor office in downtown Winnipeg, Craig Sheldon can clearly see the future of Canada’s largest agribusiness. “Right now, it’s just a construction site,” says the executive vice-president of Richardson International.
It’s a big, brave and much-anticipated move for a company that was building grain elevators in Prairie communities even before the railroads arrived, in some cases. By embracing innovation while building a global team, Richardson has earned its place as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, as recognized by Deloitte. Up until just two decades ago, Richardson—which is still owned by the original family, albeit now in its sixth generation—was mostly a grain-handling company.
Richardson’s global footprint means its 28,000 employees are spread all across the world. Glamorous, yes, but wide expansion presents its own problems: “We have to keep everyone in the organization up to speed, which gets harder as you grow,” says Sheldon. An annual Christmas party isn’t enough to connect that many people over that many miles, so Richardson works hard to be “a company both big and small,” says Heather Dezan, the assistant vice-president for HR.
Richardson is also a big proponent of moving its employees around, for the same reason that farmers rotate their crops: “It cross-pollinates our knowledge and experience,” Dezan says, “so we move our leaders to different physical locations. If you’re willing to relocate, the sky’s the limit here.”