"Want to become a manager? Are you ready to work 9 months in our steel plant to learn where th

Back in the 80s, when I had a column in the Report on Business in the Globe and Mail, in Toronto,

I made a deal with the Editor-in-Chief.

“Okay, you win, I won’t extend my 700 word column to 2000 words!

But on condition we make a deal."

The deal I proposed was simple.

I would write 6 columns at 700 words each, but as part of a series:

“How great companies treat their employees!”

Deal accepted.

I got the names of 6 companies that fell into that category from Mckinsey & company.

The first column featured Dofasco.

I flew to Hamilton, rented a car, and immediately got lost!

In the middle of the street, there were a bunch of “orange hard hats” digging away.

I stopped the car and asked them which way Dofasco.

Right at that very moment, I got the feeling something was different about them.

An aura that "they" are the ones that own this town!

That “something different” hit me again when I parked the car in the Dofasco parking lot

and started walking up to Head Office.

There in front of me was an orange hard hat walking nonchalantly into the Head Office

as if he belonged there.

He did!

The PR man sent to greet me answered my puzzled question as we went up in the elevator

“What’s he doing at H.O.?”

He answered. “There’s an entrenched policy here at Dofasco.

If you’ve got a complaint, and you’ve exhausted every level up the chain,

and you’re still not getting an acceptable resolution, you can take your complaint right to the president.

And that’s where this man is going!”

I soon learned. That was Dofasco!

.

The door to the office opened and an unassuming man held out his hand.

“Welcome. I’m the VP of Personnel.” Not Human Resources. Not an MBA.

He had grown up through the ranks.

The first thing that grabbed me when I walked into his office was the large picture window.

“Yup, you’re looking straight at the steel mill.

That’s where all our future management types start working.

Their first 9 months with the company. Right in the steel mill.

We tell them right from the beginning .

"You’ve got to learn right from the beginning.

That’s where Dofasco makes its money. Not on a piece of paper!'”

The VP was very proud of his company.

“Stelco used to have their Head Office right next to their mill.

Same as us. They decided to move it to fancy digs in Toronto.

We stayed put. Our employees need us. And we need them,"

Dofasco lives up to its slogan.

“Our product is steel. Our strength is people.”

It's not by accident Dofasco's strength is their people.