Hans Gjerdrum, Kudu Industries vice-president of international business development

Hans Gjerdrum, the company’s vice-president of international business development, says they’re going to meet that goal early. He says that in 2013 approximately 60 per cent of the company’s revenue will come from exports. Gjerdrum’s focus since he was hired in 2003 has been on growing Kudu’s international presence, and although that’s obviously been a success, he isn’t about to take all the credit himself.

“We have really built a strong reputation as a company,” he says. “We offer a quality product with quality service to match and that has created a strong demand for our product. But the only way I can be successful is if the people that work with me are also successful. The company that I work for needs to be successful too; otherwise I’d have to start looking for a new job and at this age, that’s not something I want to do.”

Gjerdrum is approaching the age of 68 and he admits that retirement has been on his mind lately, if only a little. But he continues to work because, he says, he loves both his job and how Kudu Industries allows him to do it. “The company I work for has allowed me the freedom to do what I believe in,” he says. “I have to give an awful lot of credit to my leaders for that. I’ve worked for companies where that wasn’t necessarily the case and as a result I wasn’t as creative.”

Kudu Industries manufactures progressing cavity pumps (PCPs) that pump everything from heavy oil to coalbed methane out of the ground. Although Gjerdrum has spent his career in the oil and gas industry, he wasn’t necessarily destined to end up in it. The born-and-raised Norwegian studied chemical engineering after military service, and he quickly decided that if the oil and gas industry was going to be his future, his best bet was to move to Canada and learn English. He did that in 1967, and aside from two short stints living back in Norway, Gjerdrum has called Canada home ever since.

Gjerdrum’s first job in Canada was as a chemist with Gulf Oil, but he eventually moved into the service side of the industry because he found working with people more rewarding. It also offered a more interesting career path. “I never wanted to be that person who was trapped at the same job and already planning for retirement in my 20s,” he says. But it wasn’t just his future that Gjerdrum was concerned with. During one of his stints back in Norway he and his wife made the decision to return to Canada, not only for his career but also to ensure the best possible future for their five children. “Norway is a very great place to be, but we felt the greatest opportunity for our children was to move back to Canada,” he says. “It was the best thing to do for my family.” In addition to their five children, Gjerdrum and his wife have 12 grandchildren.

VitalsCategory: Leadership
Winner: Leadership
Location: Calgary
Main export markets:Russia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Australia, Bahrain, India

Being a grandparent hasn’t slowed him down though, and his role with Kudu requires him to travel as much as he ever has, visiting places like Romania, Kazakhstan, Australia, Bahrain, India and Russia, where Kudu Industries has operational interests. It was Gjerdrum’s experience in dealing with Russia, in fact, that originally sparked Kudu’s interest in bringing him on as a consultant during one of its forays into the area. Gjerdrum’s involvement as a board member on both the national and Alberta chapters of the Canada Eurasia Russia Business Association (CERBA) is something he credits for his success as an exporter, and is something he recommends to any business looking to increase exports.

“People who want to grow exports need to step outside of their own company and product,” he says. “When looking at a specific market, you should find out what other companies are doing and analyze their successes and their failures. In Alberta, a lot of companies are small and specialized and are competing against giants. This can be done, but it’s a challenge so you have to learn from other companies. Get on a board, have a say and help drive things. Build the right teams. One of the things as a leader that I take a lot of pride in is other people being successful.”

Brimrock Group

Winner: Emerging Exporter

Location: Calgary
Exports as a percentage of sales: 100
Main export markets: France, Germany, U.S., Middle East, India, Mexico
Finalists: Blackline GPS, Calgary; Swift Environmental Equipment Ltd., Edmonton

Breaking into the international market isn’t something that happens overnight. John MacDonald, president of Brimrock Group, says his company found success in 2012, but only after spending its first five years in the planning and development stages. Brimrock, a sulphur processing technology group that provides consulting services and on-site services to energy companies, was launched in 2006 by MacDonald and his partners. There were several technologies they wanted to develop, but it wasn’t until 2009, when the Texan company Martin Resource Management recognized Brimrock’s potential and bought the business, that MacDonald and his partners had the financial backing they needed.

“Once we got the technology set up, we went through the phase of morphing from technology development to technology marketing,” MacDonald says. “Our focus from the beginning was always international, and our plan was developed specifically for that because we all had a background in international business. Once we got to where we wanted to be, it wasn’t a huge culture shock for us to break into the international market.”

Having all of its sales coming from international exports might seem odd for a company in Alberta that specializes in the sulphur industry. But MacDonald says despite the amount of drilling activity, there hasn’t yet been a lot of domestic demand for their technology, although that could change. “We’ve focused internationally where production is growing.” But MacDonald says the company is open to the domestic market if opportunities arise, even if it isn’t actively pursuing them.

If its financial results are any indication, Brimrock’s move into the international market has been a success. The company’s 2012 revenue was up 300 per cent from the previous year and is expected to continue growing in 2013 and beyond. There’s nothing sour about that.

Sealweld

Winner: Services

Location: Calgary
Exports as a percentage of sales: 80
Main export markets: U.S., China, Russia, Saudi Arabia
Finalists: Datacan Services Corp., Red Deer; Nelson Environmental Remediation, Spruce Grove

Sealweld’s products speak for themselves, but where the family-owned company really shines is through its training and educational services. “In our case we are very specialized,” says Dean Chisholm, the company’s president. “We don’t have a lot of direct competition because there’s nobody that delivers the complete package like we do.”

That’s helped the company, which focuses on the safe reduction and elimination of pipeline valve leakage, to do business abroad. The company’s first international market was the U.S. but it has since gone on to provide products and services to 90 countries, with a particular focus on those that have increased their use of natural gas.

While the technical challenges of valve fitting and maintenance are the same around the globe, Sealweld has found a way to overcome the cultural barriers that exporters face when doing business in new places. That’s especially true when it comes to its training services, which have been translated to several languages.

The payoff, both for Sealweld and its clients, has been considerable. Chisholm estimates that over the last two years, the company’s products and services have saved its clients over $2 billion by ensuring that pipelines were able to remain active. And while the quality of the company’s products have played a role in that success, it’s a commitment to service that has really sealed the deal. “We follow up our products with the top-quality service,” Chisholm says. “What we do is show you how and then leave you with this knowledge for the future.”

Aamna Zia

Winner: Student

Knowledge is something that’s best acquired from as many sources as possible. That’s Aamna Zia’s philosophy, which makes sense considering she recently graduated as an international business management major from the University of Lethbridge.

Zia values the time she spent at the university, but what’s been equally important to her is the time she’s spent away. In particular, she thinks the semester she spent studying in France is an experience that will prove to be invaluable.

That wasn’t the only exposure she’s had to international business, either. Zia recently returned from a co-operative program working with a banking firm in Malaysia. While the basic fundamentals of banking are universal, Zia says the way businesses conducted themselves in that part of the world differs from what she’s seen in Canada.

“I didn’t realize how much more global the Asian market is than we are in Canada,” she says. “Their mindset was to automatically look outside their border when it came to growth and expansion.”

Zia’s short-term goal is to pursue a career in corporate advisory, but rather than take her knowledge overseas, she plans to stay in Alberta and apply what she’s learned to help others bridge the divide between the two. “A lot of what I learned was the importance for a company to have a growth and expansion plan first,” she says. “Once you know that plan, the financial aspect comes a lot easier. My goal would be to help apply some of the same concepts over here. Companies should never be afraid of distance or cultural difference.”

Questor Technology

Winner: Technology & Media

Location: Calgary
Exports as a percentage of sales: 75
Main export markets: China, Russia, Indonesia, U.S.
Finalist: SMART Technologies ULC, Calgary

Audrey Mascarenhas is one of a select group of people who can say she earns a living by making the world a better place. As the president and CEO of Questor Technology, her professional life is dedicated to eliminating gas emissions in a safe and sustainable way.

With a technology that focuses primarily on eliminating waste gases through methods other than flaring, Questor’s main market is the U.S., where recent regulations in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act have led to increased enforcement of anti-flaring regulations. “The U.S. has some very tough but fair emission rules in place right now,” Mascarenhas says. “Companies need to have a high efficiency, and our efficiency rate is 99.99 per cent.”

As a result, Questor’s revenue in 2011 from its U.S. operations alone increased roughly 450 per cent on a year-over-year basis. It continued to grow in 2012, Mascarenhas says, primarily through word of mouth.

Mascarenhas says that although Canada isn’t as strict on emissions, she expects that to change and when it does, both Questor and the country as a whole stand to benefit from the company’s technology. “I really believe that if we are going to address the public concerns about the industry of oil and gas development, then technology is the key to ensuring that it’s done sustainably.”

LJ Welding Automation

Winner: Manufacturing

Location: Edmonton
Exports as a percentage of sales: 28
Main export markets: U.S., Southeast Asia, South America, U.A.E.
Finalists:

Manufacturing Other

Cyntech Canada Inc., Calgary
Evans Console Corporation, Calgary

Manufacturing Oil & Gas

Katch Kan, Edmonton
Optima Manufacturing Inc., Calgary

When Ryan Holt and his partners bought LJ Welding Automation in 2006, the furthest the company had ever exported to was Saskatchewan. Fast-forward seven years and the company has a completely redesigned product line and customers in 34 countries. Talk about reinventing the wheel.

“Our exports have gone from making up zero per cent of our revenue up to 28 per cent,” Holt says. “That number would probably be a lot higher but our local growth has been really strong, too. Alberta is a phenomenal market for what we do. We could probably see higher immediate revenue if that was our main focus but we’re really thinking long-term as far as our exports go.”

Since Holt and his partners bought the company, they’ve implemented further innovation into its product line by using the engineering backgrounds that several of them hold. This has led to a niche product line, including integrated high-end welding systems and a growing emphasis on robotics. Holt says that’s left LJ Welding in the enviable position of having only one direct competitor in Canada.

Diversifying the product lines and the markets have led to success for the outfit. Since 2006 the company’s revenue has increased tenfold, and in 2012 it generated $20 million in sales. Holt is obviously proud of the financial success his company has achieved, especially when it comes to exporting, but that’s not the only reason he’s enjoyed having international customers.

“Our product really speaks for itself and that makes the sales process pretty easy,” he says. “We definitely don’t shy away from a challenge either and I think that helps, so it’s been really exciting. Doing business in countries all around the world is actually a lot of fun.”

Gord McCormack, president and CEO of Hyduke Energy Services

“With all the technology, especially regarding communications, the world has no doubt gotten smaller,” he says. “But our successes with international clients have been due to old-fashioned spending time with the customer. We’re not afraid to get on a plane and actually go see our customers. Obviously, we have to try to be responsible financially, but the key factor in developing relationships and trust with your clients is spending time face-to-face.”

VitalsCategory: Exporter of the Year
Winner: Hyduke Energy Services
Location: Nisku
Exports as a percentage of sales: 46
Main export markets: Russia, Mexico, South America, North Africa

McCormack has been with the company since 2002, when he came on board as CFO before becoming president later that year. He says that while exports have always been important to the company’s success, they’ve played a more a substantial role as of late, with an estimated $50 million of the company’s $120 million in revenue coming from international sales in 2012. One might think that with the number of wells being drilled in Alberta each year, a company like Hyduke would never have to look outside the province’s borders, but McCormack says this level of activity can often be misleading.

“The oil and gas sector is very cyclical, especially when it comes to the new equipment end of the business,” he says. “There are years where there is very little capital spending, despite the fact that there is a lot going on. Our international customers help us maintain sustainable revenue when this is happening. We want to continue to grow in Canada, but we’re happy with our international clients and we’ve had recent success in focusing in that way. When you want to grow as a company, the first step is to diversify. What we chose to diversify was the market. It’s what we know so that’s what we’ve been sticking to.”

But being from Alberta has no doubt helped Hyduke expand on the international stage. The environmental challenges that occur when drilling in the province have led to the development of some of the most reliable and efficient products in the market, and Hyduke is no exception. One thing McCormack says he’s learned while branching out in the international market is that there is a demand for products that meet Canadian standards.

That’s not to say there aren’t disadvantages to

being located in Alberta. McCormack says international manufacturers, which have now become the competition, aren’t faced with the high cost of manufacturing that Canadian companies must deal with.

Local competition can be fierce as well, but what sets Hyduke apart is not only the number of different business lines it offers but also the cradle-to-the-grave model where they continue to service their equipment for customers after the sale has been made, something it’s able to do because of the team it has assembled throughout the company.

“As we’ve grown, we’ve been fortunate enough to put together a group of exceptional people,” he says. “I love the challenges that the industry brings and then working with this great team to overcome those challenges.”

Because of the travel that’s often required to do business the way Hyduke prefers, McCormack says having this competent team share the travel duties allows everyone to stay at home as much as possible. But at the end of the day, whether he’s dealing with someone from Edmonton or Ethiopia, the fundamentals of a successful client relationship
are universal.

“We really do offer a great product backed by an outstanding service culture,” he says. “It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, that’s really what it comes down to because that’s what customers are after.”

The 2013 winners for each category are:

• Technology & Media: Questor Technology Inc.
• Services: Sealweld Corporation
• Manufacturing – Other: LJ Welding Automation Ltd.,
• Manufacturing – Oil & Gas: Hyduke Energy Services Inc
• Emerging Exporter – Brimrock Group Inc.
• Leadership Award Recipient – Hans Gjerdrum, Kudu Industries Inc.
• International Business Student Award Recipient – Aamna Zia
• Exporter of the Year - Hyduke Energy Services Inc

Congratulations to all the finalists: Datacan Services Corp., Nelson Environmental Remediation, Evans Console Corporation, Cyntech Canada Inc., Optima Manufacturing Inc., Katch Kan, Swift Environmental Equipment Ltd., Blackline GPS,  and SMART Technologies ULC. Click here for the category listings.

If you’d like to be notified when the 2014 awards nominations and applications are open, please sign out this form bellow.

2013 Alberta Export Awards Gala Luncheon

Click here to buy tickets to this year’s event

Read more about the categories or download the forms.

Norm Leach

“It was a very formative two years for me,” he says. “I saw how companies don’t work in the immediate [term]. You take this long-term view of things, and if you do things well, it will come back to you. But you don’t try to get everything right now.”

Evidently, though, he learned how to get everything eventually. Leach now speaks four languages and runs an export consulting firm with offices on three continents. When not working, he writes books on Canadian military history (he’s had five published), strategizes with his wife about their boutique stone import business and watches his trilingual daughters perform ballet. Prior to founding Norman Leach & Associates, he headed provincial chambers of commerce in Manitoba and Alberta and ran the 2000 Grey Cup in Calgary.

It’s all built on a cosmopolitan foundation. “My whole life has been international,” he says. “I don’t know what it would be like to not be international.” Leach also teaches international business practices at multiple universities, including the University of Lethbridge and the University of Calgary. While working for the Alberta Chamber of Commerce, he opened up the provincial government’s trade office in Mexico City, where he met his wife.

His work in Mexico reinforced earlier lessons about the importance of looking at things over the longer run. “You have to learn to be patient,” he says. “You can go to Mexico and spend two or three trips before they’ll talk business, because they just want to know who you are as an individual.”

Leach attributes his success to his abilities to pick the right people to work with and to take a macroscopic view of business. “Good people are good people, and you need to let them run things, and be there for guidance,” he says. “And I think my team would say I’m the big-picture guy.”

Assiduous analysis of that big picture lets Leach position his firm for the long run. He says Norman Leach & Associates struggled through the aftermath of the 2008 recession, but persevered and eventually returned to prosperity. “I’m a generalist,” he says. “That was a struggle for a long time, because people wanted that highly tuned specialization.”

That’s about to change, Leach believes. An aging population and low birth rate, he says, means Canada will have more jobs than it has workers to fill them by 2016. This will benefit firms that can offer clients a variety of services. If you can engage only one company, you’ll probably pick one with a broad skill set – like, say, Norman Leach & Associates, which can help with marketing, communications, export consulting and event co-ordination. “We think with this dramatic labour shortage that generalists are going to be back in vogue,” Leach says.

Not that business is bad right now, mind you. “2011 has been a great year for us, so we’re really happy with that,” he says. The firm currently works with about 13 clients, and Leach likes the company at around that size. “We’re a boutique consulting company. I never wanted to become a manager of consultants. I wanted to have my hands in it.”

Leach spends a lot of time promoting Alberta’s export products and the businesses that produce them, and his pride in both is obvious. “When Albertans say they’re going to do something, it means something,” he says. But he still sees areas in which Albertan businesses could improve. For example, while governments and businesses will pursue exporting with great enthusiasm for a time, he says, they then turn their attention elsewhere and end up undermining their own efforts. “We cut off the foreign customer,” he says. “We have to stop doing that. We need a long-term perspective.”

This article originally appeared in the December 2011 issue of Alberta Venture.

Hans Gjerdrum, Kudu Industries

Well, sort of. As vice-president of international business development for Kudu Industries Inc., Gjerdrum spends an awful lot of time abroad, especially in the winter – up to half of every year. Avoiding all the snow and ice might sound appealing, but Gjerdrum often leaves the province for even colder climes. “Sometimes I leave Alberta in the winter and I go to Siberia,” he says.

At least some destinations, like Muscat, Oman or California, offer a little more sunshine. Gjerdrum has travelled everywhere that Kudu does business, which makes for an impressive collection of passport stamps: Russia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Australia, Bahrain, India, Venezuela, Mexico, the United States and more. The list demonstrates the impressive globe-spanning reach of the family-owned oil and gas manufacturer.

It also highlights the size of Kudu’s competitors. Kudu manufactures progressing cavity pumps, or PCPs, which can suck everything from heavy oil to coalbed methane out of the ground. (The company takes its name from the horns of a genus of antelope that resemble the rotor of one of its pumps.) This matches the company up against oil and gas Goliaths like Weatherford International, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger, the world’s biggest oilfield services company. Kudu gathered more than $90 million in revenue last year, and should finish higher in 2011. Not bad, though it’s less than one-tenth of Weatherford’s revenue in the same year, and amounts to a whopping third of a per cent of Schlumberger’s 2010 income.

How does the comparatively small Kudu compete with firms many times its size? Greg Jardine, executive director of the international and intergovernmental relations branch of the provincial government, thinks invention plays a large part. “They invest a great deal of money and research into their product to maintain its high quality and innovative nature,” he says. “They’re truly an international company.”

Kudu holds more than 25 patents and, unlike its larger competition, focuses exclusively on progressing cavity pumps. It also consults closely with customers to develop new products that will meet their demands and generate sales for Kudu.

The approach seems to pay dividends. Jennifer McMurtry, Kudu’s marketing manager, is quick to point out that the company regularly comes a close second to Weatherford for the coveted global market leader position among PCP providers. Kudu sells about 5,500 pumps a year. In 2011, it opened new service centres in Romania, Kazakhstan and California and a new office in Perm, Russia, as well as expanding one of its three Australian service centres.

Gjerdrum says the biggest challenge facing the company these days is finding the manufacturing capacity to get everything built and shipped in time – “A good problem to have,” in his words. Another continuous concern is the challenge of cultural literacy. Different places do business differently, so maintaining effective relationships across a cosmopolitan customer base isn’t easy. “It’s very difficult to find individuals who have the capability to navigate the cultural norms and practices of a place like Kazakhstan,” says Jardine.

Kudu takes a multifaceted approach to dealing with the challenge. First and foremost, it exercises due diligence when it comes to research. “Before we go into a country, we do our homework,” says Gjerdrum. “We don’t just go to the airport and buy a ticket.”

Kudu also targets locals in its recruiting, both for work abroad and in its Calgary office. And it offers extensive training to international customers to make sure their pumps operate safely and effectively. “Internationally, it’s a huge educational curve. They are not used to progressing cavity pumps,” says McMurtry. “That’s really where our staff excels. They go in there and they really work with the customer.”

Commercial cultural fluency is a definite challenge, but Gjerdrum appreciates the variety it brings to his work. “The business culture is so different in all these markets,” he says. “The product stays the same. The challenge becomes being close enough to the customer to provide the service that’s needed to go with the product.”
Kudu isn’t the biggest player on the field, but Jardine still considers them industry leaders. “They’re truly an international company, on par with any other manufacturer in the province,” he says.

Gjerdrum puts it a little differently. “For a small Calgary company, I think we’re often playing in the big league. It’s exciting to play in the big league, but you really have to be on your toes.”

This article originally appeared in the December 2011 issue of Alberta Venture.

Selection Process

The Alberta Export Awards recognizes outstanding exporters within Alberta, and also recognizes the Exporter of the Year selected from amongst the winners in each category.

In order to determine the finalists, and, ultimately the winners in the various categories, the Alberta Export Awards Selection Committee employs a two part process, the nomination form and the application form.

Eligibility

The Awards are open to companies in Alberta that have produced goods and services which have significant Canadian content; earned foreign revenue; and have been exporting for two or more years.

The Leadership Award is open to individuals or organizations that are recognized for their excellence in, and their significant contributions to, the cause of exporting and global trade in Alberta.

The International Business Student Award recognizes an outstanding post secondary student in Alberta who is demonstrating leadership in global trade.

Nominations

Nomination forms and application forms are now available. Please click here to go to the awards categories to see the forms.