Somehow, you expect Jim Shaw to start ringing at any moment, even if he is on vacation as he holds court in the kitchen of his mansion in Calgary's opulent Mount Royal neighbourhood.

Yet, there is no cellphone or Blackberry strapped to the belt buckle of one of Canada's most influential communications executives. There isn't a TV in sight. Not even a radio.

And this seems to suit the jeans-clad, unwired, plain-talking, wisecracking CEO of Shaw Communications, who belies the stereotype of the high-powered executive.

In corporate circles, Shaw has a reputation as a rabble-rouser known for playing hardball and a renegade who is not averse to going toe-to-toe with his adversaries. But on this day, it's hard to imagine that this is one of the country's most powerful CEOs. Disconnected from the corner office in the downtown core, the 49-year-old son of Alberta business legend J.R. Shaw flaunts his good-natured and free-spirited side while kicking back at home. His hilarious yarn-spinning has the photographer in stitches.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw has seen and done it all during his career with the cable company his father started in Edmonton in the 1970s.

Yet, Shaw squirms a bit when he is asked to talk about money and his passion for cars.

"I'm like a car dude, man," admits Shaw, sounding like a man confessing to a felony as he lists his expensive toys, including two Porsches and a BMW (he actually has only six cars).

But then Shaw brightens.

"Oh, I also have a '91 convertible Rabbit that has 25,000 K (kilometres) on it. It's like driving a Singer sewing machine."

Flashing a playful grin, the disconnected cable boss does a fair impression of a Singer sewing machine for comic effect.

"Boy, it takes you like an hour to get to 60 (miles per hour) ..."

1. As a youngster, did you aspire to work in your father's business?

"I decided I could work with him after going to university in Calgary. After a couple of years (at the University of Calgary), I said: 'Aw, that's too much.' Going through that BComm (bachelor of commerce) thing, that was too much and it's not for me. I thought: 'I'm going to go out and do my own thing.' I just wanted to get on with it. But I probably should have stuck through and finished university. I never like to be called a quitter and that probably was a little bit of a quitter thing. Then, I started up a whole bunch of stuff - a tree-moving company, a landscaper, a trucking thing. I remember one time asking (J.R. Shaw): 'Why don't you help me and we will get 20 dump trucks and we'll be like the king of dump trucks?' He said: 'Aw, Jim, really, is that what you think?' Then, he said: 'Why don't you come away with me for a weekend?' Then, we went away on our famous weekend (in 1982) and he said: 'Why don't you come to work for me?' I said: 'Well, as long as I don't report to you.' And of course the answer is that ditch diggers don't report to the CEO. Even today, not one ditch digger reports to me as CEO."

2. So you actually started out digging the ditches??

"Oh, yeah. Then, I got promoted to (cable) installer. Yeah. So you go in and you stand over someone's TV like this (he leans over his kitchen bar) and sweat's drippin' down on the TV and your hands are dirty. And the people are looking at you. And you go: 'Hey, let me wipe that off.' Man, you're hot, you're workin' away, you've been in and out of the house 20 times and you've been up the ladder five times trying to get the cable connected."

Jim Shaw

3. What was your first salary with Shaw?

"Oh my gosh. Well, we wouldn't compare it from then 'til now (Shaw's salary and bonus totalled in the $5-million range in 2005). It was about $2,000 a month, in that range, and certainly there was no company car. When we started, my father had a goal. He said: 'If our company could do $100 million in sales a year, I'll be the happiest guy in the world.' Now as we cross $2.8 billion a year, it's a whole different game."

4. There's a lot of controversy over excessive CEO pay these day. How do you feel making millions of dollars a year in salary while some of your employees are paid modest wages?

"When you do my job, you get paid the same. I'm a believer that whoever has the responsibility would be treated in a similar fashion to the way I am treated or other senior people (are treated). Whether other people think it's excessive or not excessive, shareholders get to vote every day. Would you like to buy our stock? Would you not like to buy our stock? All the payroll plans are all published. If you don't like the deal, buy a different company. I think it (compensation) has to be based on performance."

5. When you were out digging those ditches 24 years ago, were you entertaining thoughts of one day succeeding your father as CEO?

"No. I'm going: 'What ... did I get myself into?' Have you ever worked with your dad? I grew up on a farm, so the later I stayed out, the earlier he got me up. And you're 18 or 20 and been out with all your buddies all night, probably drinking beer and chasing girls around. I got in at 2 a.m. and he got me up at 7 a.m. And all I get is a pitchfork, for loadin' up the manure wagon. All day long, we're moving bales and doing this and that around the farm. I went: 'Mind if I take my truck out on a date?' He says: 'That's not your truck, that's my truck.' During the day, for working, it's all my truck. But dates? Oh, no."

6. What's the most important lesson your father taught you about business?

"He's a big-picture thinker. Let's say you're an exec with Shaw and didn't do something. He'll get mad at you for a bit. But that'll be it. He'll move on right away. I can remember a long time ago when we did one deal ... and at the end we'd agreed to something that ended up making the price about half a million dollars bigger. Well, my father was rippin' (angry). But afterwards, it never came up again. So that's the best thing, that you can be upset and it's just work. You just move on."

7. What have you learned about the key to making a father-son relationship work?

"It was probably more difficult early on when I was more naive and he was more, uh, dominant. As the roles changed, he said: 'You know when I'm 65, you'll be CEO.' And when he was about 58 or something, he goes: 'You know what, you're CEO now, because I don't actually need that anymore.' It comes with a whole raft of issues. Not things that aren't good, but things you have to deal with. We have 3.1 million customers. And if we make a mistake in your house hooking up your cable, we don't just make a mistake. The guy wears his muddy boots in, he probably swears at your wife, he probably goes over and he sweats all over your TV and he will make way more than one mistake. Once he does, the call comes to me, usually. When we do a bad job, we really do a bad job. When we do a good job, we do a good job. But I can tell you stories of unbelievable stuff guys do. I remember one time I was a young installer, hooking up this place. I had to drill up through the floor and unplugged the freezer to plug in my drill. In a week, all the (meat) had all been growing and had huge mould on it.

"So I got payroll-deducted. There was another time (drilling a carpet). The first thing you're supposed to do is take a little knife and make a cut. But I stuck the drill in the carpet. Well, it spun out a weave that went the whole length of the house. Again, payroll deduction."

8. You're sometimes perceived as somewhat of a rebel. Has that tougher side of your management style served you well?

"Let's take an example that came up a few years ago when the government asked us to enforce the gay channel here. We said no. And so we get perceived as that (rebellious). But we are actually more champions of consumers and the rebel thing comes up because we do not necessarily agree because Ottawa says we should have, you know, 20 French channels or (certain) Canadian content. So we're more a proponent of change and the consumer, and don't care if you're gay or not. But I will not force something on someone who doesn't ask for it. If you want to watch porn in your house, watch it. If you don't want to, don't watch it. But I will not put something into someone's house who hasn't requested it."

9. You've had some battles with the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission). What's your main beef with them?

"Why can't you get whatever channel you want from wherever you want? You're forced to take that because we're only allowed to put certain channels with certain channels. But, you know what? I don't think people like that. But you try and get that done with what I call the big beater mill system through Ottawa and everything else that happens right now. And I think it will be hard to change that."

10. If you had one week as head of the CRTC, what would your first order of business be?

"That's a big question. The first thing I'd say is: 'It's going to be a goddamned busy week.' It wouldn't be a matter of creating the tax act again in broadcasting. I would try to focus on what Canadians really, really want. And they could tell me. We put a hot button on our start page at Shaw.ca. We said, if you want HBO, click here. We had 100,000 (responses) and each automatically sent a letter to the commission. What do you think their response was? 'Can you please remove that button, it's very irritating.' And that's why we get that rebel thing. When you look at it, the answer is what? To take the button off and not give you a choice? That's not an answer in my language. And that's why Shaw gets labelled. Because we push a bit. And when we push, we want to push a little bit further."

11. What do you see as the biggest change in television programming in the next few years, in terms of Shaw's business?

"We're having a huge network difficulty in that the programmers don't want to do it. I think it's one of the biggest things we can do. Let's say you're an NFL (National Football League) fan. But you can't watch it on Sunday. So it's gone. Well, why? You paid for it. Why can't you watch it when you want to watch it on Monday night or Saturday or whatever night, when you're doing nothing? Why can't you order it? You already paid for it. You just couldn't watch it at your time and at your convenience. So I think it's got to shift from CRTC control to consumer control. You control it all and we host it all and no one says that by the time the next Miami (football) game is on in a week, it (the previous game) is deleted. So I think the biggest (change) will be consumer-driven choice. And I'm not saying people won't pay for it. I think they will."

12. What's your view of the aggressive acquisition strategy that Rogers Communications has implemented in recent years and why hasn't Shaw taken a more aggressive approach?

"Yeah, (Rogers) have done a pretty good job. And there's a few acquisitions for Shaw to do. But basically we're more in the mode of: 'How do we take this home and deliver it?' What do you want in this home? How do we make it your TV? That's the key. As soon as I can call it your TV, not my TV, not Shaw's TV, that's the key. That's the key for us."

13. Can you provide an update on your recently launched voiceover Internet protocol (VoIP) service and explain why Shaw didn't move a little more quickly on the VoIP opportunity?

"It's been very, very successful. There's a lot of people out there that are very interested. And why is that? Because it's been a captive market. When you come to Shaw or Rogers or StarChoice (Shaw's satellite network) or ExpressVu, you have a choice. It (VoIP) is huge, huge, huge. So we're spending hundreds of millions on that. And you know what? The first guy in doesn't always make all the money. You think about it. Remember Unitel? We're into long distance, we're going to compete with everybody?" 14. Vonage Canada has criticized Shaw for its quality-of-service enhancement fee for non-Shaw VoIP users, describing it as a "thinly veiled VoIP tax.”

How do you explain that fee?

"We base it on one thing specifically. If you want to use Vonage, go ahead. But if you want to have guaranteed service, then you have to pay for it. Otherwise, we are not going to monitor it. You ride with the rest of the dudes.

"If you want to go with all the other traffic, and with the guys downloading movies and music files, well, you're on your own. But if you want a dedicated service that works, you have to pay for that. If you look at Shaw digital phone, it does not ride with the Internet. It rides on its own private channel, so you are not mixed with any Internet traffic. There's no traffic congestion and your phone works all the time. Now, Vonage just wants to ride, piggyback in and do nothing. That's fine. But if you want a guaranteed quality, you've got to pay. These are the guys that offered their stock at $16 (the initial public offering was at $17 US) and it's at $6 (the stock has traded as low as $6.30). That'll tell you a bit... . And, two, it would tell me that the business model is flawed. I'm here in Calgary and I have a problem with my Vonage phone. Who do I call? Who comes to service it? I think we have 500 trucks in Calgary alone and a guy will show up within an hour. Who does that for them?" 15. When you reflect on Shaw's growth, to what do you attribute your success in leading the company?

"I'm an old bugger. And I'm 49 but another number's comin' soon. So I would say it would be a factor where you're more of a shepherd than an implementor, meaning that you keep everything moving. My father always says: 'Keep all the horses moving, you can always turn 'em when you're moving.' So you kind of keep it all working, and then just pull and tug. And jump in where you have to. We grant a lot of authority to our operating VPs. We have a couple of planes and we fly like crazy. I would think my (managing style) would be more of a delegator and more of a communicator."

16. Who's the CEO you most admire?

"I was reading an article that I really thought was quite interesting on the Starbucks guy (former Starbucks CEO Orin Smith). I admire their creativity. I'm not a big coffee drinker. I drink usually pop or juice. But I do have the odd coffee. But when I go there, there's always a new product on the shelf, like music or a 'mochafrappuchinogopagubagubavinilabolabean.' I admire how they're able to kind of recreate themselves all the time. It's no different in cable TV. We will offer those products, but what about this? Would you buy that? It's those kinds of things that make you really successful."

17. Ideally, how long do you want to remain CEO?

"Oh, listen, I think there's always a time for a change. That's a board call - you're invited on the team and you're invited off. And I'm totally comfortable with that situation. I think there's also time for new blood. There's what I call 'our team,' which is me and the dudes running it now. The board wanted to know if I was committed for the next while, or for how long. We told them: 'Listen, we're pretty solid for the next five years and let's talk about it. It's not something that's a big worry.' There's lots of guys who could run a company like this. It's a great company because it has strong, strong assets, great markets, lots of fibre, lots of technology, lots of consumer demand, lots of money in the household you're willing to spend. So it's a company that has lots of opportunities."

18. Who's in line as your successor?

"I don't know. I'm not saying that if I fell over dead tomorrow there wouldn't be a couple of other guys who could do the job. Whether the board took them long term or not, that would be their decision. But we have a pretty strong management team. If you look at Shaw and you say: 'How many guys (senior managers) have left Shaw?' Unless they were fired, they do not leave. Nobody leaves. They love it because they're empowered, they do their own thing and they make decent dough. Basically, there's been no turnover so there's lots of depth in the senior management, if that's what the board would like. Right now, I think the board wants it this way."

19. What fires you up to get out of bed in the morning to go to work?

"I'm my father's son and the apples don't fall far from the tree. And I come from a long line of not spenders, workers. So I was brought up (in a family) where my father worked all the time. He'd be on the phone with his father who was calling him Sunday night to talk about work all night. And so I just come from that. So I like the business. It's lots of fun. Lots of challenges, too. When you put your name on something, when you write it down, it makes a big difference. We will be successful. There's too much push in us. Isn't it funny how all your life, you don't want to be your dad until you turn into him?" 20. Has money changed you?

"No, I don't know if it's changed me a lot. Maybe a little degree, where I might buy a nicer bottle of wine than I used to buy. Everybody wants to think I'm a real rebel. I'm pretty much a homebody, unless I'm out having to work. I'm happy being here. There's a gate on my house in Kelowna, and the gate's not to keep people out, it's to keep us in. We barbecue every night and I like to cook. I think the money hasn't changed a lot."

Jim Shaw

* Title: CEO, Shaw Communications.

* Born/raised/age: Edmonton/49.

* Education: University of Calgary (did not graduate).

* Career: Jim Shaw has been CEO of Shaw since 1998. Prior to that, he held various management positions, including president, chief operating officer and senior vice-president of operations. He started his career with the company in 1982 in construction and cable installation.

* Family ties: Shaw's father, J.R. Shaw, is the founder and executive chairman of the company. All three of his siblings - Heather, Julie and Brad - have been involved in the business.

* Moonlighting: Shaw is a governor of Shawnigan Lake School in British Columbia. He sponsors students at the private school, where he attended high school.

* Passions: Art collecting, cooking, cars.

* Last book read: The Da Vinci Code.

* Favourite painters: Tony Sherman, Nick Grandmaison.

Shaw Communications

* Brass: Jim Shaw, CEO; J.R. Shaw, executive chairman; Peter Bissonnette, president; Steve Wilson, senior vice-president, chief financial officer.

* Profile: Shaw is a communications company that provides cable television services, video-on-demand services, satellite services (through StarChoice), Internet access and digital telephone services, primarily in Western Canada.

* History: Shaw was founded by J.R. Shaw in Edmonton in 1966 as Capital Cable Television Co.

* Stock price (TSX: SJR.B): $33.40 (52-week range, $23.18-$34.25).

* Market cap: $7.27 billion.

* Website: www.shaw.ca

* Head office: Suite 900, 630 3 Ave. S.W., Calgary, T2P 4L4.

* Phone/Fax: (403) 750-7429/750-4501.

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