Jim McSheffrey loves to explore.

"Some day, I'd love to do a really long, extended (canoe) trip from one end of (Ontario's) Algonquin Park to the next," he says. "But that will have to take a backseat for now. I'm pretty busy."

For the past 24 years, when he wasn't taking biannual trips to Algonquin Park, he has paddled his way upstream at global giant 3M.

His journey began as a quality engineer in Perth, Ont., and took him to the U.S. a couple of times and back. Now, he's crossing the country as he gets used to his new role as president of 3M Canada, the American firm's London, Ont.-based Canadian subsidiary.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
3M Canada president and general manager Jim McSheffrey started at the ground level of the global giant as a warehouse supervisor in Perth, Ont.

"3M has changed," says the Ottawa native. "The global company used to send people out to manage one of the big subsidiaries. In the old days, all of the subsidiaries would have had an American foreign-service employee in the leadership role. In the last three years, 3M has gone local with all of its subsidiaries. All my predecessors were promoted back to St. Paul. I was promoted into here. I'm right where I want to be."

But it took him a while to get to his present post after he graduated from Carleton, where he played basketball for the Ravens and later completed an MBA across town at Ottawa University.

His 3M career began with a chance application during a time when Ontario's economy was struggling and jobs were scarce, a not-so-unfamiliar scenario today.

McSheffrey has some interesting interpretations on why manufacturing plants in Canada's most populous province are closing. And he does not hesitate to speak out about what he feels is Canada's lack of global competitiveness.

1. What did your parents do?

"My mom was a stay-at-home mother. My dad had a very interesting life. He really wasn't able in his world to get any formal education. When he hit adulthood, he had a farm in Maniwaki, Que., about (180 kilometres) north of Ottawa. So he farmed into his 40s. I'm from a fairly big family. When I came along, I was the sixth of seven kids. He and my mom decided that the kids would have more opportunities if they moved to the city, so they moved from Maniwaki to Ottawa, where he worked for the (federal) government as a carpenter. He retired from the government when he was 65 and was probably one of the best home-grown engineers. Farmers in those days had to be that way. He could fix anything with a couple of screws and some wire and twine. He was amazing - really innovative."

2. What were some of your interests when you were younger?

"I've always enjoyed sports. I probably had your typical Canadian upbringing. I played hockey right through the minor system, up until bantam. I went to St. Pius X, a sports-oriented high school in Ottawa, that had excellent sports programs. I always enjoyed the academic side, too. I participated on our Reach for the Top team (on a CBC TV show) in high school. That was a lot of fun. It was really the only inter-scholastic academic competition that you could get involved with in those days."

3. What steered you toward chemistry?

"Just a natural interest. I had some very good chemistry teachers in high school. Chemistry to me is one of the most interesting sciences, because it bridges some biology with some physics and some math. It's very logical but, at the same time, it's as wide-ranging as you want to get - and it's very practical. I've always enjoyed problem-solving."

Jim McSheffrey

4. What were your initial career plans?

"When I first graduated from Carleton, I worked in a lab for a couple of years. It was kind of a routine. A lot of chemical analysis, field sampling and things like that. After I'd been there a year, the lab manager assigned all of the students to me to set up a storm-water management project. I started enjoying that part of the job more than the bench work. As I looked around the technical world, there seemed to be a real need for people who were not only good in the technical areas, but were also good at managing activities. So that really pushed me. I left that job and went to Ottawa U and got an MBA."

5. How did you end up joining 3M?

"When I graduated from Ottawa U in late '82, early '83, there was a pretty good recession going on and nobody was hiring. I was applying for jobs all over the place and doing some supply teaching, whatever I could do to get back into the workforce. I was married at the time and we had our daughter, so we just decided: Not a lot's happening in Ottawa. Why don't we start looking elsewhere? We had always really liked the town of Perth. A lot of big companies had manufacturing operations in Perth at that time, Westinghouse and Jergen's and Air Equip. 3M was also there. So I went around and picked up an application (at each location), put them in, got an interview with 3M and got a job."

6. How long did you think you'd be there when you started?

"I really didn't know. The first thing that struck me when I walked in the door at 3M was that it was a very welcoming culture. It's a very problem-solving and improvement-oriented culture, and I just took to it like a duck to water. The plant there was a world-class tape-manufacturing facility. I got in there and thought, 'Wow. This is exactly where I want to be.' Within three years, I got my first management role and I decided to stay on the management side of what 3M calls the dual ladder. You can stay on the technical side of 3M and advance up a series of jobs to the level of corporate scientist. That's equivalent to an executive on the management side. I liked the management side, so I've stayed on that side of the dual ladder my whole career."

7. What did you do in Perth?

"My first job was supervising the warehouse - (managing) the lift trucks, receiving materials, storing them, keeping production supplied, shipping stuff out (and) those sorts of activities. I got my lift-truck licence to do that job. I went from there into a logistics role, planning the activities of the plant. Then I went right into production. So I had responsibility for all the operations part of the plant - safety, quality, customer service (and) productivity. I really loved that. It was very measurable. You could see your improvement week to week (and) month to month. The biggest facility 3M has in Canada is in London, and I moved there as the maintenance manager. 3M really encourages careers within a career. So I actually moved over into human resources for a couple of years. My responsibility there was negotiating our labour contracts across Canada. Then I was plant manager at a couple of our operations - the one in London for a few years, and then I moved to our biggest facility on the globe, in Hutcheson, Minn. That was my first move to the U.S. Later, I moved back to Canada as vice-president of human resources for Canada. In the late '90s and early part of this century, 3M went on a Six Sigma journey, which is a process-improvement methodology. I took the job in Canada as what's called a master black belt for Six Sigma, did that for a couple of years, and then I moved back to the U.S. into a global role as manufacturing director for our chemical division for a couple of years. Then the opportunity came to move back to Canada as president. I jumped at it because I love 3M Canada and I love living in Canada.

"I've had a lot of different careers in 3M, and that's one of the strengths of the company."

8. Could you explain your 15-per-cent program?

"The root of our success is the innovation that we have and use in the company. New products. Being the first to market with a new technology. There are a lot of things that 3M has invented over the years. Once (a product) has become, more or less, a commodity, we'll move on to something else. 3M invented masking tape, sandpaper, recording tape, Post-it Notes, videotape - there's a whole long list of things that have come out of 3M's labs. The company invests a tremendous amount of money in research and development - this year, for 3M globally, about $1.3 billion. To be an inventive company, people like to have the freedom to explore. We encourage our technical people to spend 15 per cent of their time on just things that they think might be a good idea that would have some commercial value at some point. Get out of what your boss wants you to work on - the programs that are being run in the lab - and get into things that are interesting that we can commercialize. Really, it's a result of creating this environment where people are free to explore and innovate."

9. What's your take on government investment in R&D?

"The government's role is to create an environment and encourage it. Governments, generally, could do more to encourage and (provide incentives) to spend more locally in research and development and things like that. A great example of government doing that is in Alberta, through the Alberta Ingenuity Fund. Ontario has been very selective in targeting certain industries. If you're in those industries, that's a very good thing. If you're not ... you can just read the paper to see what's happening in Ontario right now. We're losing a lot of jobs in manufacturing. I don't think you can lay that at the feet of the government. Too many companies rode the loonie down. A lot of companies forgot about some good business fundamentals around driving productivity. Now that the loonie has come back, the companies that rode the loonie down and the ones that didn't focus on their core productivity and efficiency - like with us, Six Sigma - they're really suffering."

10. How do you plan to refocus on core businesses?

"If you look at the last year and a half, I think our run rate on acquisitions in previous years was something like five to six acquisitions a year.

In 2006, we had 15 global acquisitions. Within the first half of 2007, we had nine. A lot of these acquisitions are around the core of 3M - around some of our traditional technologies like tape, abrasives and things of that nature. It's a great strategy. It's being driven by our CEO (George Buckley)."

11. Can you shed some light on possible acquisitions in Canada?

"We have had acquisitions directly in Canada, including a company called AiP in Ottawa. It's a security-system business (with) passport readers. There was a touch system in Vancouver back a few years. There was Racal (Health and Safety Inc.) in Brockville. There was GBG (Global Beverage Group Inc.) in Waterloo. A lot of these are driven by the global business unit. 3M has business units that operate globally, and then we have subsidiaries - like the 3M Canada company and 64 others - that execute locally.

"The power of 3M lies in how well this matrix works, with 35 business divisions acting for 65 subsidiary organizations. So the business unit will drive the acquisition strategy. The subsidiary will drive the acquisition activity. Most of them will have some impact in Canada."

12. Where do you see growth opportunities in Canada?

"I see 3M continuing the acquisitions that we're going after now. We call them bolt-on acquisitions. They're at or adjacent to our core. Within Canada, like any company, we follow economic activity. Starting last year and probably finishing this year, we'll have an increased presence in Alberta, people-wise, by about 50 per cent. That's just good business, following where the activity is. We also see a lot of opportunities coming up in British Columbia. We have signed on as an official supplier to the (Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic) Games. I was out meeting with VANOC (the Games organizing committee) and I was just thrilled to hear them say that 'our objective is to win the Olympics' (i.e. overall medal count). I think that is just a great objective. It's a little bit out of the box (for) a Canadian organization to be that competitive."

13. What's your take on Canada's global economic performance?

"We need a new mindset that we are going to compete more. When we decide to compete, it's amazing the things that we can do. But sometimes we're too happy being in second and third place. What occurred to me in my last assignment in the U.S., because I had a very global role in my last job, was how competitive the world has become in terms of attracting investment and global companies. I noticed that, when it came time to make decisions on where to make some of these investments, Canada was barely making the shortlist."

14. How can Canada be more competitive?

"From a financial standpoint, our tax rates are not competitive. That sounds like a pretty cliché thing for a business guy to say, but it's true. I remember back a couple decades ago when we were building plants in Canada. We had accelerated capital cost allowance to accelerate depreciation of equipment (for tax write-off purposes). You may recall, in the recent budget, the federal government announced that they were going to re-introduce that for two years. That's a great start, but the investment cycle can be a lot longer than two years."

15. What about basic skill development?

"Besides tending to basic literacy needs, I think we need to do more to encourage excellence in kids right back to the high-school level. We have a scholarship and bursary system that's built a lot around need. There is pretty good access to our university system if you really want to go. That's very Canadian. But at the same time, the students at the top of the class should be getting a full ride - right through university. We should reward excellence in the top students.We need to (guide) our top students into engineering, physics, chemistry and computer science. We should have a scholarship system where it doesn't matter what your means are. It's worth it for the country to help them get through a program."

16. What has been a memorable experience for you since you became president?

"This is the first job that I've had where I've had responsibility from literally coast to coast. The energy and the optimism and the enthusiasm of our front-line sales force really gets me all pumped up."

17. How have your time constraints changed since you became president?

"In previous roles, I always thought I was pretty good at time management. For those jobs, maybe I was. I'm just finding I have to relearn it.

I literally could have my schedule filled 18 hours a day in this job. I'm just relearning that, no matter what position you have, you have to re-prioritize and you have to simplify. In a job like this, more than any other I've had, you've got to build a good organization and then you've got to rely on them to do their job."

18. How would you describe your management style?

"I believe in the power of teams. So in the job of the leader, you have to make sure that you've filled all of the spots on your team with people who are really good at their roles. The sky's the limit if you have an energized team."

19. Do you foresee any changes that you would like to introduce at 3M Canada?

"More so than ever, organizations need to be very agile these days. You need to be where the opportunity is. In the old days, the big companies would have an advantage from economies of scale. Today, fast companies have advantages over slow companies. I think that's going to remain true for quite a while. I just see us doing everything we can to be more agile and more responsive to our customers."

20. If you weren't running 3M Canada, what would you be doing?

"I think I'd be teaching in university. I've had an opportunity - a few times, in different jobs - to get engaged with a class at a business school. I enjoy the debate, the discussion, the challenge, the push-back and the exploring things. Whenever I get a chance to do that, I don't pass up on it."

Jim McSheffrey

* Title: President and general manager 3M Canada

* Born/raised/age: Ottawa/51

* Education: Bachelor of science in chemistry from Carleton University (1979) and MBA from the University of Ottawa (1983).

* Family: Married to Kathy, with two children, Shannon, 25, and Ryan, 23.

* Career: McSheffrey joined 3M Canada in 1983 as a quality engineer in the company's Perth tape-manufacturing plant. He then advanced to more senior positions, including vice-president of human resources for the Canadian organization from 1999-2003. From there, he was appointed the company's Six Sigma Master Black Belt. His 24-year 3M career also includes two assignments in the U.S., first as manager of the 3M plant in Hutchinson, Minn., and most recently as manufacturing director, responsible for energy and advanced materials division in St. Paul.

* Moonlighting: Sits on board of Conference Board of Canada. Having moved back to Canada this year, plans to get involved with more boards in 2008.

* Passions: Basketball, golf, skiing, spending time at his family's cottage, reading, canoe trips in Ontario's Algonquin Park.

3M Canada

* Brass: George Buckley, CEO; Jim McSheffrey, president and general manager; Jim Brock, vice-president of supply chain operations; Kevin Higgins, vice-president of health care; Bart Sullivan, vice-president of industrial and transportation.

* Profile: The London, Ont.-based company is a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M Corp., a US$22-billion diversified technology company that was founded in 1902 and serves customers in more than 200 countries. Created in 1951, the Canadian firm operates manufacturing facilities in this country, at its London headquarters, Toronto, Ottawa, Brockville, Ont., Perth, Ont., and Morden, Man.

In Canada and abroad, 3M is a leader in several markets, ranging from health care and highway safety to office products and optical films. In conjunction with its parent, 3M Canada sells more than 50,000 products, including Post-it Notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite and Thinsulate acoustic insulation, which is used in industrial applications ranging from aerospace to electronic office equipment, and Thinsulate clothing.

* Stats: 3M Canada has 1,950 employees, out of the parent company's 75,333 worldwide. The Canadian firm helped the entire operation generate global sales of $22.9 billion last year. The Canadian locations are among 139 around the globe. In Canada and abroad, the company devoted a total of $1.5 billion to research and development projects last year.

* Branch offices: Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver.

* Recent Stock Price (NYSE:MMM): $79.98 (52-week range, $97 - $72.90).

* Website: www.3M.ca

* HQ: 300 Tartan Drive, London, Ont., N5V 4M9.

* Phone/Fax: 1-888-364-3577/1-800-479-4453.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)