People, people who need people; Are the luckiest people in the world.

- People, Barbra Streisand

Few can relate to the Streisand song better than Shannon Bowen-Smed.

'People' is not just Bowen-Smed's business. It's also her way of life.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Bowen Workforce Solutions' Shannon Bowen-Smed has used her equestrian experiences to good business effect.

For the past decade, Bowen-Smed has been helping companies with people issues through Bowen Workforce Solutions, a thriving family-owned human resources firm. But Bowen-Smed's passion for people also extends beyond the Calgary company she has headed as president and CEO since 1996.

The one-time equestrian show jumper is also a driving force behind various community organizations.

The one that strikes closest to her heart is the Scott Smed Foundation, in memory of the baby she and her husband, Peter Smed, lost. The foundation helps parents cope with the loss of children. Bowen Workforce Solutions also has a foundation, the Bowen BrightLights Foundation, that helps underprivileged women and children reach their potential.

It's no wonder that when Bowen-Smed coaches clients to walk the human resources talk, people listen.

1. What were your interests as a youngster?

"Well, I was an avid horseback rider so I rode English (style) and competed for about 14 years and rode at Spruce Meadows (equestrian arena). I suspect at some point I thought I could be an Olympic athlete (in equestrian). I also tried modelling but I was neither thin enough nor, I suspect, pretty enough. And people - I always knew I would be doing something with people. When I started university (University of Calgary) my original program was centered around social work."

2. How do you reflect on how your show-jumping career contributed to your personal development?

"I think any show jumper would say that you need to or absolutely should have a really healthy respect and trust for your partner, and of course in that sport, that means your horse. It also teaches you about being courageous. Galloping up to a six-foot fence is not for the faint of heart. Competition is also healthy - learning to appreciate when you won and when you didn't, and why. You also developed a respect for those around you who were winning and paid attention to why they were. Those are all things that have applied to my professional life."

3. How has your mother (Bowen Workforce Solutions founder Laverne Bowen-Kruger) influenced your life and career?

"My mom started the firm in 1974. To this day, I tease her about it, but my mother always used two mantras when I was growing up. One of the mantras was that it's much easier to be a follower than a leader and you need to decide what path you're going to take. She also always said to me, 'What is it you want to show up in life to be?' " 4. What was your first job?



"I was a cashier at Home Hardware during university. I was miserable at it (laughing). They were a lovely company to work for. They took good care of me when I was there. Probably, what I enjoyed most was the people contact and you got quite a significant amount of people contact in that role, both internally with colleagues and externally with customers. I think I excelled at that part of it. What I was really poor at was the whole cashier side. I'd overcharge and undercharge, and I'm not sure if they were ahead or behind by the time I was done."

5. How did you initially get involved with Bowen Workforce Solutions?

"I started here in a part-time summer job to answer the phones and provide some administrative support in 1984. At that time, I had no aspirations whatsoever to ever run the company. My intent was to go back to university, but I really enjoyed what I was doing here. So I actually asked if I could stay. I went back to university and took a continuing education certificate in personnel administration. For me, it's all about making a difference in people's lives and feeling that I'm helping people and I was able to do that here. I got to register all the (employment) candidates coming through the door. I was their first point of contact, so I got to hear a lot about why they were looking for a job and what that was going to mean to them and their families. I saw how we were making a real difference, how we were transforming people's lives."

6. What was your mother like to work for?

"Well, she played no favourites. Her expectations of my performance were certainly equal to and maybe even higher than other people's because I was her daughter. I know that's pretty typical of family business. She was an excellent leader, very inspiring, very committed, very ethical, well respected and well regarded. Those were certainly the characteristics I wanted to be known for as well."

7. What were your goals when you became CEO in 1996?

"At the time, Bowen provided administrative, temporary and permanent services and really our relationship was with an individual in an organization rather than the organization as a whole. So one of the key things I wanted to do was expand our business relationships. We wanted to diversify our services into other strategic areas that would position our solution as more unique to the marketplace so that we could find our own niche market. I also wanted to create a more economically viable business. The staffing business is good when companies are hiring, as in the current market, but not so much fun to be in when companies are downsizing. So the first expansion for us was opening a career resources centre where we started to provide outplacement services. So that put us in the hiring and firing market, allowing us to position ourselves as being unique to our staffing competitors."

8. When you hire staff for your company, do you look for street-smart or book-smart candidates?

"Personally, we hire someone really based on street smarts. We can teach people how to succeed in their jobs. We can't teach people how to be successful individuals. That's inherent to who they are."

9. What do you think is the No. 1 human resources issue that employers need to pay attention to these days?

"I'd say it's walking the talk. You know, we hear companies constantly saying that their greatest asset comes out of their elevator every day and then there's really absolutely nothing behind that. It's about consistency. It's saying you want to be an employer of choice and then stepping up and acting like one. As employers, we have to acknowledge that our organization is made up of lots of unique individuals and celebrate that diversity to make sure that our retention and attraction programs are as unique and varied as the people that work in our organization. We have to celebrate our people's values and align them with the company."

10. If you could snap your fingers and change one thing to enhance the workplace environment today, what would it be?

"The corporate workforce is still too traditional. We're still holding on to what used to work, instead of what will work for this new generation and this new marketplace. I would say that's our inherent challenge today - thinking outside the box. We've got a lot of emerging leaders who are thinking differently and, when you look at the juniors (companies) starting up, you see so many people leaving big companies to head to the juniors. And that's because there are these emerging leaders that are thinking differently and they are engaging their people. And it's exciting and it's fun and it's flexible and it's unique compared to some of these stoic blue-chip organizations. And, granted, it's hard for them (large companies) to move as quickly. But in many cases it's long-term leaders who would rather just hold out for their next five years of retirement than rock the boat and start implementing significant change. I think they sit there thinking, 'You know, it'll be the next person's problem.' That's really shortsighted leadership."

11. The majority of your clients are in the oilpatch. How would you characterize that job market right now?

"The reality is that the greatest challenge for the industry is the skill shortage that we are facing. So we have to look at ways of tapping into the Aboriginal market and the new immigrant market and really engage a whole new workforce. We're working with the Alberta government right now to build a new immigrant internship program here in Calgary. And one of our key goals for 2006 is to be seen as a diversity leader in the city and to be working with our clients to find new immigrants and to help them successfully engage that talent in the long-term strategy of their organizations."

12. What's your long-term vision for Bowen Workforce Solutions?

"Unquestionably, our goal is to be seen as Canada's leading provider of flexible workforce solutions. So diversity, contract management and staffing falls under that portfolio."

13. What in your mind makes a great business leader and what have you learned about being a successful leader?

"Someone that's compassionate, resourceful, innovative, a good listener and someone with a good balance of humility.

"Probably humility is the biggest thing I've learned. Not every business decision I make is good and not every time I lead do they follow. And not everything (that) I say will come true does. One of my strengths is in building successful relationships. My community connection has been essential. And I think I can inspire people more than perhaps other people can."

14. Who are the business leaders you most admire?

"I have great respect for Nancy Southern (CEO of Atco Ltd.) and my brother-in-law Mogen Smed (former CEO of Smed International) who has done some remarkable work in the furniture industry. Mogen has started a new company called DIRTT (DIRTT Environmental Solutions) and he will be competing with Haworth (the company that acquired Smed). I've learned from him that tenacity, passion and vision can get a lot done. And he's probably really taught me that there is no such thing as falling down."

15. What's the greatest obstacle you've had to overcome in business?

"That's a great question. A couple of years ago, I would have told you actually that it was my gender. But I don't perceive that any longer as an obstacle. I guess I would say it's the rapid growth of the business and managing our own capital to be able to continue financing that growth. That's something we're more mindful of now."

16. What's your best advice for a young person starting a small business?

"It's the same advice I give every time. I love the book The E-Myth (by Michael Gerber). Just because I'm an excellent chef doesn't mean I know how to run a great restaurant. The book talks really practically about why so many entrepreneurs fail. There are some excellent lessons in the book that might save a lot of people some great frustration. Once they've read the E-Myth or as they're doing it, they should be real clear what they love and make sure that whatever they do in business is wrapped around what they're passionate about. The two should never be separate."

17. You and your husband Peter have a foundation dedicated to the memory of your son Scott. Can you talk about Scott and the foundation?

"I was seven months pregnant when we lost our son in 2001. We had put an item in the newspaper saying that we had lost our son and didn't know why, and if people wanted to make donations, we would find a good cause. In a short period of time, we had $6,000 donated. We wanted a charity for this money that was connected to infants or children. The pregnancy and infancy loss program in Calgary was in dire need of support. When we left the hospital, we were given a teddy bear and found out it was the last teddy bear in the Calgary Health Region. We bought teddy bears with the donations. Then, we started a golf tournament in the name of the Scott Smed Foundation. We've just had the fifth tournament and have now raised over $150,000. We've built self-contained family rooms in the Foothills and Rockyview hospitals, and we're just working with the Calgary Health Region to build an entire centre of excellence for families in southern Alberta going through infancy and pregnancy loss."

18. How did you cope with your loss?

"I mean, I really wouldn't wish the experience on anyone. I went to the clinic and they couldn't find the baby's heartbeat. After several tests, they indicated that we had lost our child and I still had to deliver this baby. Where many families are buying cribs and rejoicing in the delivery of a healthy child, we went through 24 hours of labour knowing that we were going to deliver a stillborn baby. In fact, it was suggested at one point that we may have to go into a shared room on the maternity ward and I couldn't imagine anything more cruel for both me and the mother next to me who was going to be delivering a healthy baby. I think that was behind our whole inspiration behind building the private rooms in the hospitals. I was born a human doer, so the tournament for my husband and I actually was just a wonderful way to acknowledge the life of our son and the value of his life, and just to do something to engage the community. We now have a beautiful five-year-old daughter (Elacy) and we adopted her two and a half years ago. She helps make everything that happened with our son sensible. So we know she's meant to be in our life and it required the gift of our son to make all that happen."

19. Do you see yourself continuing to run your company long term?

"Between co-chairing the United Way Small Business Strategy Team, the golf tournament, my daughter and my husband (Peter owns a spa company), who is currently building a spa in Toronto, my challenge bucket's pretty full at the moment. But who knows what next year will bring? But I need to be busy, I need to be challenged and I need to be engaged. One of the things I love so much about my role at Bowen is that I have support from my colleagues to have my hands in many different things. And as long as I have that opportunity within the company, that's as long as I'll be here."

20. What are some other challenges that you'd like to tackle in the future?

"I'll always have a role in the community in some form or fashion. I'd like to maybe get more involved in for-profit board work at some point. And I even tease that some day I'd like to have my own TV show, so who knows? It would be Canada's version of Oprah Winfrey or something like that. I've done an employment feature with Global television for the last seven years so I've certainly had some, though modest, exposure. And I've been approached actually by a couple of people about some television possibilities. Yeah, I'd say that could be part of another chapter in my life. Helping other people in their lives ultimately makes me feel better about my own. It reminds me that I really do have a purpose here. I don't know if you've read the book by Robin Sharma, Who Will Cry When You Die, but I want a lot of people to cry when I die."

Shannon Bowen-Smed

* Title: President/CEO/part owner, Bowen Workforce Solutions Inc.

* Born/raised/age: Edmonton/Edmonton, Calgary/40.

* Family: Husband Peter Smed, daughter Elacy.

* Education: University of Calgary, personnel administration certificate.

* Career: Bowen-Smed joined Bowen Workforce Solutions in 1984 as a part-time administrative assistant. She was appointed president and CEO in 1996.

* Accolades: Bowen-Smed has been ranked 14th on Profit magazine's list of Canada's Top 100 women entrepreneurs and has been nominated for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

* Claim to fame: Bowen-Smed is a former show jumper who performed at world-class venues such as Spruce Meadows.

* Moonlighting: Bowen-Smed is involved in various community initiatives, including the Scott Smed Foundation (www.scottsmed.com) and is campaign co-chair of the United Way of Calgary and co-chair of the United Way Small Business Strategy Team.

* Recommended business books: The E-Myth (Michael Gerber), Purple Cow (Seth Godin), Winning (Jack Welch).

* Favourite celebrity: Barbra Streisand.

* Favourite pastime: Travel.

Bowen Workforce Solutions

* Brass: Shannon Bowen-Smed, president/CEO; Anna Nelson, vice-president, financial services; Debbie Wershler, VP, workforce management.

* Owners: Laverne Bowen-Kruger (majority shareholder), Shannon Bowen-Smed, Jeffrey Smed.

* Profile: Bowen is a human resources firm specializing in workforce management, talent sourcing, career resources and outsourced human resources.

* Growth: Since 1996, the company's revenue has grown from $2 million annually to an estimated $36 million this year.

* Stat: The energy sector accounts for 76 per cent of the company's business.

* Community ties: The Bowen BrightLights Foundation helps underprivileged women and children achieve their potential.

* Web Watch: www.bowenworks.ca

* Office: #101, 525 7 Ave. S.W., Calgary, T2P 3V5.

* Phone/Fax: 403-262-1156/537-6952.

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)