Here's a tip – work like hell and don't give up

In the 1960s and ’70s, the name Forzani was synonymous with sport in Calgary with brothers John, Joe and Tom starring in high-school athletics en route to the Calgary Stampeders.

So it didn’t catch too many people by surprise when John Forzani embarked on a journey in the sporting-goods business.

In 1974, in the midst of his career as a Calgary Stampeder, John Forzani opened Forzani’s Locker Room with two Stampeder teammates, older brother Joe and Basil Bark. Tom Forzani, the third Forzani to play for the Stampeders, was an investor in the fledgling company.

However, few would have predicted that the venture would take Canada’s sporting-goods market by storm with John Forzani at the helm.

Today, the Forzani Group is a publicly traded company with 300 stores, including the SportChek and Sports Experts stores.

John Forzani, CEO of the Forzani Group, talked about life and times as a football player and entrepreneur at his office in northeast Calgary while wrestling with a crucial decision: Whether to go with the blue bike or the red bike as a Christmas gift for his son Michael.

1. Who was your role model?
“This may sound corny, but the guy that I admired was my dad (the late John Forzani). He worked exceedingly hard and was enormously successful, in a small way. When he retired, he had a square block of land and a big service station (White Rose Service on Edmonton Trail).”

2. So do you attribute a lot of your success to your dad’s influence?
“Both my parents were a tremendous influence. My mother (Audrey) still tells me what to do. Guys like Sam Walton from Wal-Mart you have to respect but, if you want to talk about impact, I would say it’s been more of a family thing. It was good solid guidance from my parents that made a material difference in my life.”

3. Your first job was . . . ?
“Selling newspapers for the Herald. I was just a kid and it was the middle of winter. Unfortunately, there were three convenience stores on my route and I ate the profits.”

4. Your best memories from your career with the Stampeders (1971-’76)?
“Winning the Grey Cup in 1971 (at Empire Stadium in Vancouver) and when Willie Burden broke (Lovell Coleman’s Canadian Football League single-season) rushing record in 1975 and I was one of the guys that blocked for him. I thought that I always had good technique and good position as opposed to raw, brute strength. At the time, I was average size, about six-foot-one, 250 (pounds). They’re a lot bigger now — a lot bigger.”

5. Physically, are you paying the price for your football career?
“To say I’m paying the price might be a little dramatic. I feel certain aches and pains. I’ve had four knee surgeries, a dislocated shoulder and broken various bones, all through football. It’s a hard sport on the body. But I can ski and I don’t need braces.”

6. Have you been able to channel the lessons from the football field into your business career?
“I think about that almost every day. Whether it’s the issue of a team working towards a goal, whether it’s strategy, how you handle competition or how you get ready for a game, it’s kind of eerie how similar it is. Playing on a team, you have to do your part and everybody else has to do their part and if everybody does their part, then the team succeeds. Philosophically, it’s exactly the same in business.”

7. What inspired you to launch your first store?
“We thought the equipment offered was not up to the standards of serious athletes. We knew the hoops the Stampeders had to go through to get special footwear. My father-in-law owned a very large sporting-goods store in Logan, Utah, and he was an influence.”

8. Did you envision your business would become this big?
“I really didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. I thought it’d be one of those classical little investments you do and then you carry on with your life or you make a few bucks. We invested exactly $9,500 and I worked there first and then Bas (Bark) joined me later and then Joe (Forzani) joined me later and Tommy (Forzani) never did join me. He was in real estate.”

9. How do you explain the explosion of the business?
“We were real lucky because we got into an industry that was ready to blow with the fitness craze. We made a lot of mistakes, but when you’re in a hot industry, that covers up a lot of your mistakes.”

10. Your best advice for a budding entrepreneur?
“Work like hell and don’t give up and fully understand your business before you expand it too much. You can’t give up. There are a lot of brick walls and I think success is really determined by how many of those brick walls you can tear down.”

11. How did you tear down that brick wall that was the company’s financial crisis in 1997?
“We probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I bought a company in Montreal (Sports Experts) that was about three times as big as we were. It was a difficult year and we lost a lot of money. That situation required an awful lot of hours and a lot of very difficult decisions concerning people.”

12. God taps you on the shoulder and says you can change one thing?
“Honestly? I don’t have a burning desire to change anything. I sometimes wish I was 100 pounds less, but it’s not a burning thing.”

13. You’ve been known to spend a lot of time at your other office, the golf course. And you call that work?
“I believe that relationships in business are exceedingly important and the golf course is a great place to do relationship business. When you go there, it’s an eight-hour day. As a by-product of going to the course, you have to find out what a new guy’s character is really like. There’s been more than one vendor I’ve been with that I’ve caught cheating. Inevitably, when you do business with that guy, he’s a cheater. I remember golfing with the president of (one company). On the second hole, he hit it in the trees and I looked one way and he looked the other. I looked back to see him dropping it out of his pocket. And he says: ‘I’ve got it!’ He turned out to be a sleazebucket to deal with.”

14. Is winning everything?
“I’m from the school of win-win. For long-term success, your employees have to win, your customers have to win and I have to win.”

15. Your house is on fire. One possession you’d take with you?
“My Rolex watch that my dad used to have that I have now.”

16. Would you live in another city?
“Nope. We have stores in every city in Canada, so I’ve been to them all. I don’t like Toronto. I do like Montreal. If it wasn’t for the traffic, I’d like Vancouver. I don’t like Edmonton. I just wish it was warmer in Calgary in the summer.”

17. A celebrity you’d like to have beers with?
“Bill Clinton. Is he the most admired guy? No. But I think he’s exceedingly sharp and I think he’d be interesting to talk to.”

18. Your company sponsors a lot of charity events. How important is that to you?
“I think business has a responsibility, like it’s not even a choice. We try to promote volunteerism here and we reward volunteers. We have a fund-raiser here called Mama Forzani’s Spaghetti Dinner before Christmas. I try to find every single mother who works for our company and we give ’em $300 to $500. To me, the real heroes are people like that who can go on welfare, choose not to and then raise a family by themselves, and their husbands are who-knows-where. I was an altar boy for seven years and pray to God and thank Him for the good fortune. There are a lot of childhood stories, whether they’re ill or deprived, that to me are exceedingly sad.”

19. Your vision for the Forzani Group for 2005?
“To be a billion-dollar business — and we will be. Another goal is to have 20 per cent of the marketplace in Canada and to become a multi-faceted retail business. All of our goals will be achieved.”

20. Your New Year’s resolution?
“To get in shape. I’m not in bad shape — I work out regularly at the YMCA — but I think it’s exceedingly important to maintain some kind of physical fitness when you’re extremely busy at work. Aside from health, I know I make better decisions when I’m in better shape. I know that when I haven’t done anything in six months, I’m tired and yawny and make sloppy decisions.”

THE COMPANY: Forzani Group

* Brass: John Forzani, Chairman/CEO; Robert Sartor, CFO, president, business services.
* Profile: The Forzani Group, founded in 1974 by John Forzani, Joe Forzani and Basil Bark, is Canada's largest sporting-goods retailer with 300 stores, including 156 franchised stores. The stores are under four banners — Forzani's Locker Room, SportChek, Sports Experts and R'n'R Relaxed'n'Rugged. The company also markets products online.
* Recent Stock Price: $3.90 (year high/low, $3.55-$5.10).
* Web site: Forzanigroup.com
* Address: 824 41st Ave. N.E. T2E 3R3.
* Phone/Fax: 717-1300, 230-8370.

IN PROFILE: John Forzani

* Born/Raised/Age: Calgary, 53.
* Title: Chairman/CEO, Forzani Group.
* Education: Utah State (business degree).
* Family: Wife Linda, daughter Jodi, 25, son Michael, 12.
* Role model: Late father John Forzani, former Calgary service-station owner.
* Claim to fame: Toiled with Calgary Stampeders from 1971-’76 and won a Grey Cup in 1971.
* Passions: Golf, skiing, salmon fishing, hunting, charity work.