The Origin

The idea for Carpedia International originated in an unlikely place: at the bottom of a potash mine in the middle of the windswept Canadian Prairies.

It was the late 80’s when Peter Follows and Greg Tremblay were first hired as consultants for a large operations consulting firm. Young and inexperienced, neither knew much about the consulting world, or the business world for that matter.

The Canadian operations had 110 people at the time they joined the organization, but the company soon fell on hard times and shrank to a team of about 10. Most of the staff were relocated to international destinations, primarily Australia. Peter and Greg requested transfers, as the warm climate seemed appealing, but were determined to be part of the so-called “A team” and were unceremoniously placed on a mining project in a small town in Saskatchewan. It was the middle of winter.

Although initially positioned as rivals, Peter and Greg became good friends and worked together to help deliver a very successful project, one that led to a slew of new mining opportunities for the firm.

Though they were only junior consultants at the time, they were given the opportunity to work alongside some very knowledgeable, experienced consultants. They came to believe that an implementation-based methodology, coupled with a strong pool of talent, and focused on different market sectors, could be the basis of a successful consulting company.

They were not the only ones inspired by the success of the Saskatchewan project.?Two of the project’s senior managers decided to start their own firm, and asked Peter and Greg to join. The company was to be called “Quadrant,” a name inspired by its four founders.? This might have been catchy, had the company ever gotten off the ground.

During a formation meeting, the group’s attorneys suggested that the move would trigger retaliation from the parent company and said they would need a sizeable “war chest” for the court battle that would likely ensue. The senior guys pulled the plug on the project before the lawyers had finished the sentence.

Subsequently, Peter went to work at Canadian Pacific in their corporate internal consulting group. At the time, CP was an $8 billion conglomerate with many subsidiaries, including railways, trucking, shipping, hotels, and telecommunications.

The company was spending about $25 million per year on large, strategy-based consulting firms such as McKinsey and Bain, and the internal group was designed to reduce the company’s reliance on external advice. One advantage of this was that Peter had the opportunity to learn techniques from some very capable external strategy firms. Those skills would prove important in providing a more well-rounded approach to the work Carpedia would eventually do.

Greg remained at the operations consulting firm and continued to excel, climbing to a senior level in the organization. He learned the business development process and this knowledge later became a crucial ingredient in the start-up phase of Carpedia.

In 1993, Greg was part of a start-up firm in Quebec with two other consultants. Although it was a successful venture (the company continues to operate today), a rift developed between the partners, in part over the possibility of bringing Peter in to develop the Ontario market. One of the partners wanted control of the firm and a shotgun clause was triggered. Greg considered buying the company and approached Peter to gauge his interest. After finding out Peter didn’t have enough money to buy dinner, let alone buy out his partners, Greg took the buyout offer and left the firm.?

Meanwhile, Peter was experiencing an adventure of his own. By late 1993, he observed that the internal group was losing access to the portfolio companies and was getting positioned as a railroad consulting group. The diversity of CP appealed to him, being strictly a railroad guy didn’t.?

So, the second attempt at starting Carpedia was in the form of a management buy-out of the internal group called “Management Services”.? Peter put together a game plan and presented it to his boss. Hindered by the fact that, at 29 years old, Peter didn’t properly understand what a management buy-out meant, and that the independent company he envisioned and presented didn’t include his boss, the concept didn’t go over particularly well.

Undeterred, Peter decided to present the plan to his boss’s boss, and ultimately to the CFO at Canadian Pacific. Perhaps unsurprisingly in hindsight, he was politely turned out at each level.? When one of Peter’s break-away lieutenants was fired to make a point, Peter decided to leave and start Carpedia (a move not entirely supported by his then pregnant wife).? The lieutenant was a talented guy named Mark Malone, who would subsequently become one of the founding partners of Carpedia.

Peter and Greg met in Montreal in 1994 to finally put pen to paper and officially form Carpedia. The incorporation was signed on March 21, 1994. Initially Peter, Greg, and Mark Malone divided the firm equally. However, Mark preferred a strategic orientation and would end up leaving after two months when Peter and Greg determined the company’s focus needed to be on implementation rather than strategy.

From those humble beginnings which included landline phone calls, perforated business cards, and a quaint office space in a little blue?house, the founders could hardly foresee the remarkable journey their?new firm would embark upon.?

Over thirty years, Carpedia has conducted over 1300 engagements across five continents and nine market sectors and worked with some of the best managed companies in the world. The firm has helped clients generate over two billion dollars in additional operating profits.

The?insights and motivation that took root in the frosty depths of that remote tundra have found?application in renowned entities such as The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, H. J. Heinz, ADP,?Constellation Brands, FedEx, LVMH, CRH/Oldcastle, John Deere, Blackstone, Delta Airlines, and?Yale New Haven Hospital.?

The tenacity of the young optimists has bloomed into an organization that?continues to both deliver and embody continuous improvement.