Wallace

"Wallace, a mild-mannered personality, also felt a “comfort level” speaking up at Confinity. “If I had been walking into somewhere where I didn’t know anybody, I wouldn’t have been talking that way.”"

"Wallace, a mild-mannered personality, also felt a “comfort level” speaking up at Confinity. “If I had been walking into somewhere where I didn’t know anybody, I wouldn’t have been talking that way.”"

"this mantra time and time again whenever the question was broached. As for expertise, Harrison and Wallace once again got lucky when they learned that a pioneer in the business was living just down the road from them, working for H.C. Baxter in Houlton, Maine. Olof Pierson would earn the label “the father of the frozen French fried potato.”16 Pierson was an eccentric, MIT-trained, chain-smoking, hard- drinking, absent-minded inventor. He earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from MIT in 1932, and while serving in the American army during the Second World War he was given the task of working out how to dehydrate potatoes for the armed services. His success led to his joining H.C. Baxter, where he continued his work on processing potatoes, first in canned goods and later in freezing them as french fries. He invented and drove the process and indeed was dir- ectly responsible for the first package of frozen french fries sold in 1947 by the Birds Eye Company.17 He later became an independent consult- ant in the frozen food business. McCain Foods was an early client, and later he advised the United Nations Food Organization. Pierson had the run of the place on the technical side with McCain"

"of the McCain family, believe me.” Harrison and Wallace also learned management by doing, by try- ing this and that, and by sharing information freely. They had no for- mal training, no management school training, and certainly no MBA degree. What they knew about management they had learned from K.C. Irving. Like him, they would lead by example, put in long hours, improvise when necessary, look a few years down the road, manage by suggestion, and give wide flexibility to their managers and staff to operate the way they saw fit. Harrison was never one to draft a memo when a phone call or a brief visit would do. They hired competent staff, no small feat in Florenceville, far from"

"thing. Building one from scratch was quite another. By the time Wallace arrived, the McCain brothers had a fair idea of the challenges ahead. Yet neither Harrison nor Wallace ever lost faith. I once asked Harrison if he ever regretted leaving a secure, well-paying job with Irving. “Christ, no,” he said, “no sense looking back. We were in it and that was that. Best years of our lives, best years of our lives.”"

"Foods because no one else knew how to build and operate a frozen food processing plant. He went to work improvising, sketching plans on the back of cigarette packages, thinking how the production process would work, and designing new machinery. Wallace explained that Pierson “had it all in his head,” never one to outline elaborate plans, preferring to solve problems on the spot.18 Harrison and Wallace were dependent on Pierson’s work. Once Pierson had put together plans for the plant, Wallace took his"

"to the what, the when, and the who. Harrison and Wallace had raw ambition, youth, energy, and an exceptionally strong work ethic. Both had gained invaluable business experience working under the ever-watchful eye of K.C. Irving. They also picked a fortuitous time to get into the frozen food business. The fast food industry was still in its infancy, but rapidly gaining momen- tum. Canada’s population was well into a growth spurt fuelled by the baby boom of the postwar period and the arrival of many new Can- adians. More important still, women were joining the workforce at an increasing rate. Two-income families meant eating out often and also easy-to-prepare meals to eat at home. Frozen french fries were a cru- cial ingredient of both. But launching a frozen food firm required a great deal more than"

"Asked to explain his business success, Harrison said, in his typically succinct way, “Good timing, good luck, right place.”15 He would repeat this mantra time and time again whenever the question was broached. As for expertise, Harrison and Wallace once again got lucky when"