Organizations have renewed optimism about the future

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Birchcliff Energy’s focus on employees never wavered

Birchcliff Energy’s leadership group had one overarching job when COVID-19 sent the energy industry into turmoil last year — keeping its talented workforce safe and in the know.

“We definitely experienced a double-hit,” says Chris Carlsen, vice-president of engineering at Birchcliff, a Calgary headquartered exploration and production energy firm focused primarily on natural gas production.

Not only had COVID-19 created a vacuum of uncertainty for Birchcliff from March to June in 2020, but oil and gas prices plummeted as investors panicked over the prospect of cratering demand for energy.

“The best thing we could do was keep staff very informed, letting them know that, moving forward, the company would be OK,” says Carlsen.

Key to that was explicitly telling them no layoffs would occur. Also critical was ensuring the team remained connected.

“For the first six months, we had virtual staff meetings every week to make sure everyone was in the know, and that’s really unusual for a company of our size,” says Jesse Doenz, controller and investor relations manager at Birchcliff.

This overarching strategy was not new to the company, which prides itself on being a top choice for bright new talent.

“Our best asset is our people,” adds Doenz.

In turn, ensuring its workers are able to be at their best has always meant leadership must be and remain connected with its team. This came organically to Birchcliff during the pandemic, as it has always spent considerable time nurturing the next generation of innovators. Over the past six years, for example, 40 summer students have worked at the company. This past summer is no different, with 13 accounting, engineering and other post-secondary students working at Birchcliff.

What’s more, the company’s community commitment is a major attraction for talent — and a point of pride for staff, with Birchcliff donating more than $5 million to various charities and community organizations over the past five years.

That focus on responsible corporate citizenship also extends to the ESG (environmental, social and governance) space, including membership in the Natural Gas Innovation Fund, “focused on supporting clean-tech innovation,” says Carlsen.

Birchcliff has had much to be optimistic about, even in the darkest days of the pandemic — something leadership communicated frequently to its team. That strategy is paying off, with the company forecasting its best year ever in 2021, Carlsen adds.

“After getting through 2020, this is really exciting news for everyone.”

new mount royal leader focuses on Indigenization

Nadia Moharib
Postmedia Content Works

EDITOR’S NOTE: mount royal university’s office of Indigenization and decolonization uses lower case text as Indigenous ‘eventing’ to support resistance. they join leaders such as e.e. cummings, bell hooks and peter kulchyski who reject symbols of hierarchy wherever they are found and do not use capital letters except to acknowledge the Indigenous struggle for recognition.

there was a time when dr. linda manyguns was so ashamed of her roots that she hid everything that identified her as Indigenous.

“you deny your culture, the whole idea of being attached to Indian-ness. you pretend to be anything else, you try to be as white as possible,” she says.

“i would say i was polynesian or from south america.”

that so-called cultural cringe is long gone for the Blackfoot woman. as mount royal university’s associate vice-president of indigenization and decolonization, manyguns plays her part in a national push for Indigenous pride in the wake of the discovery of more than 1,000 unmarked graves at residential schools that underscore canada’s dark history.

to go forward as a country that respects Indigenous culture, canada must go backward to revisit the rotten roots of colonization, she says.

while some are tired of truth and reconciliation talk and can, perhaps, rationalize horrors adults faced — manyguns says revelations of children being slain by a system prompted outrage across cultures.

“it was genocide, and the adults were dying at just as high of a rate as the children at residential schools. our reserves should be filled with graveyards and there are none,” she says.

as history is on the cusp, perhaps, of being rewritten to reflect the facts, manyguns is grateful for her role at mru. only a few months into the new position, she is bringing in a Traditional Thinkers Circle, planning a garden with traditional Indigenous plants and bringing traditional languages to some studies.

“this isn’t about beads and feathers and putting up pictures on the wall. they are expecting me to make some pretty fundamental changes to the system … not just curriculum,” she says.

“if you are going to take away the notions of colonization, then you have created a vacuum and you have to fill it with something. that’s what I intend to do.”

KPMG helps businesses prepare for uncertainty

Joel Schlesinger
Postmedia Content Works

The global economy will continue to face challenges in the short and medium term, and accordingly, there remains significant uncertainty.

Calgary firms are facing “an out of the frying pan into some sort of fire scenario,” says Neil Honess, partner at KPMG Canada.

Simply put, many businesses don’t know what to expect.

From the impact of COVID-19 variants to the prospect of a strong economic recovery and the removal of stimulus programs such as wage subsidies, the future has never appeared more up in the air.

Businesses can make their operations more resilient and flexible so, no matter what comes next, they can roll with the punches and be profitable, Honess says.

The head of KPMG’s deal advisory, restructuring and turnaround group in Calgary should know. He has plenty of experience helping companies make the necessary changes to overcome big, often existential, challenges.

To that end, Honess and others on his team at KPMG in Calgary — a full service audit, tax and advisory firm owned and operated by Canadians — have been busy over the past several months preparing organizations for what comes next by helping them focus on better cash flow management along with more efficient allocation of working capital.

“We’re having conversations with our clients about the steps they could take to put themselves in a better position in uncertain times, including for what happens when stimulus is reduced and eliminated as the pandemic fizzles out.”

Minding cash should be job No. 1 for all companies, he adds.

While that may sound self-evident, only the most successful companies are adept at managing cash flow and allocating working capital to be able to change course if economic conditions take a sharp turn.

“The problem is a lot of companies don’t do that,” Honess says.

Organizations are likely to face different challenges in the coming months than those they have experienced during the pandemic, including rising borrowing and payroll costs. Without managing cash and working capital, they may not be able to react in the most effective way to these changing stresses. Companies that plan to manage their cash flow and working capital efficiently are often successful no matter the economic conditions.

Indeed, that’s the experience of many of KPMG’s clients, Honess adds.

“Every company that prioritizes cash management, benefits,” he says. “The very best companies always build preparedness for the unexpected into their business models.”

This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Calgary Economic Development.