Canada lost one of its greatest business leaders early this month when Rogers Communications founder and CEO Ted Roger died at his Toronto home at the age of 75. Rogers was celebrated for his business vision, intelligence and determination, but it was his equally renowned philanthropy, fairness and bravery that made him a true Canadian icon. Marketing—which has been a part of the Rogers empire since Ted bought Maclean Hunter in 1994—spoke with various colleagues and competitors in the days after his death. Some of their comments:
BRIAN SEGAL
PRESIDENT AND CEO, ROGERS PUBLISHING
He had an incredible imagination. The culture of innovation in the company is rooted in Ted’s innovative spirit. At Rogers, the one thing you learn is that your career would be limited if you didn’t try new things. But it wouldn’t be limited if you tried new things and they didn’t work. We’ve launched magazines that have been very sucessful, and some that haven’t. We launched Chocolat and lost money. Many years ago, when the Internet first started, we launched iMedia. It didn’t go the way we wanted it to. We retreated from it and lost money, but we weren’t penalized for it. All of us who worked with Ted try to convey that innovation in the DNA of the company.
The other element of Ted’s philosophy was he believed in urgency. If you’re going to get it done, well then do it. Because if you don’t get it done, your competitor will. He was not a leader who tolerated things like “Well, we’re developing a plan for…” He wanted to know the deadline and when you’d be in market. Even if you didn’t have it 100% perfect, get it into the market, test it and improve it while you’re there.
He demanded a lot of the people who worked with him, but he was a person of great generosity. He felt that people who worked in his family company were part of the family. It didn’t matter if you were a senior executive or not. He cared about people and believed in motivating and inspiring them.
LEONARD ASPER
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CANWEST GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS CORP.
Ted Rogers will be remembered by us all not only as a competitor who played fairly, but more importantly as a reliable business partner and personal friend. He was a great collaborator who helped shape and build the Canadian media landscape. Through his visionary leadership, he first pioneered the build out of the Canadian cable industry and almost single-handedly positioned Rogers as a leader in the wireless and broadband age. While his place in history is secure, the future will demonstrate even more the true impact of his life’s work. His business legacy will perhaps only be surpassed by his philanthropic work that will benefit Canadians forever.
SERGE RANCOURT
PRESIDENT AND COO, PUBLICIS CANADA
When I was young in the business, I never knew that one day I’d have the chance to sit at the same table as Ted Rogers. I remember a meeting we had with him, where beforehand his assistant told us he had a function at 7 o’clock. We were asked to keep our meeting from 5:00 to 5:30. But there we were at 7 o’clock, still meeting. Ted wanted to see all the details. He was interested in all the numbers and details, taking his glasses on and off to look between us and the numbers. It was fascinating. He understood every nuance of the branding and research. Even when we first pitched him, he was engaged [with the presentation]. He was sitting with [longtime senior Rogers executive] Phil Lind and we could hear all his comments. “This is great,” or “This is really bad.” Just after our pitch, we had about half-an-hour alone with him. He wanted to make sure the chemistry was there. We talked about hockey and schools. It was amazing.
JOHN CASSADAY
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CORUS ENTERTAINMENT
Ted Rogers had a vision for the future of communications. He was a fearless entrepreneur. Many questioned the bets he placed on untested, innovative technologies that are now a part of our everyday lives. But as Phil Lind once told me, they were never bets in Ted’s mind, as he always trusted his entrepreneurial instincts. Ted’s level of boldness and conviction are rare in any field. He has done his family, his company and his country proud. He will be missed.
GLENN O’FARRELL
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS
Ted Rogers was without question one of the most remarkable Canadians this country has ever produced. Of course, he will always be defined in terms of his outstanding entrepreneurial vision and strengths, but it is fitting that tribute also be paid to his astonishing philanthropy and spirit of community.
IVAN FECAN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CTVGLOBEMEDIA
Ted Rogers was one of the greatest entrepreneurs and builders our country has ever seen. I admired him enormously. For us at CTVglobemedia, he was both a wonderful partner and very tough competitor. But at all times, he was a gentleman and his word was his bond. Ted always used to say: “The best is yet to come.” Today, that’s not true anymore.
PAUL GODFREY
PUBLISHER, NATIONAL POST,
FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Ted set the bar very high and by doing so made us strive to get over that bar. It made all of us who worked for him better leaders, CEOs, communicators and result-oriented people. He also had great understanding of what it meant to be a leader in the community. He realized you have to put something back, and by buying the Blue Jays, [the team] was given to the people. It ensured Toronto would have a major league team. He did something for the community and his business all in one fell swoop. Because of that, the ball club is in Toronto on a permanent basis.
PIERRE KARL PÉLADEAU
PRESIDENT AND CEO, QUEBECOR INC.
[Rogers] was not only a leader in telecommunications but also one of the greatest, if not the greatest, entrepreneurs that Canada has known. Coming from a family of visionaries who also made their mark in the history of Canadian communications, Ted Rogers had a vibrant sense of entrepreneurship. He never feared forging ahead and he undertook enormous risks in a career crowned with great success. This is how he built one of the strongest businesses in the country. Ted Rogers was an exceptional human being and a great gentleman.
ROBERT DÉPATIE
PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIDÉOTRON
Not only was he a top-flight entrepreneur, but his skilful leadership succeeded in ushering his company into the 21st century brilliantly. He was an unparalleled leader. His contribution to the industry, his intelligence and his passion will be sorely missed.
IAN GREENBERG
PRESIDENT AND CEO, ASTRAL MEDIA
He was a man of his word. One time he called me up and said “You know Ian, I have such faith in what you’re going to do with pay television, that we’ve started to buy shares on the open market.” He ended up buying slightly over 20% of the company. He said “I just want to assure you that this is in no way a hostile act, because I firmly believe in family enterprises and I respect your family. I just want you to know this is strictly an investment and in no way is this meant to be a hostile investment.” He did buy 20% of the company and I offered [Rogers Communications] a seat on the board.
And then at some point during that time it was decided that this investment was not a core holding and that he was going to sell it. Just as easily as he bought it on the open market, he could have sold it on the open market, [but] he called me and said “I want you to know this is not a reflection of my lack of confidence in you as an operator, it’s just that I’ve got my own issues financially and people have suggested that I sell off some non-core holdings. I don’t want to upset you and I don’t want to upset the marketplace by putting such a large block on the market at one time, so maybe we can work together and have an orderly sale.” The reason I tell that story is it tells you the kind of person he was—how fair-minded he was and how compassionate he was with people, particularly family enterprises.
I have often classified Ted as one of my business heroes. And because I’ve said that many times internally, upon his death I must have received from employees across the country at least 20 e-mails expressing condolences on my losing a very close friend. I’m truly very saddened by his loss.
He had no qualms about calling me on a weekend or late at night and it was like he was talking to me as if was 3 o’clock in the afternoon—which I never minded. He’d be upset about something and he’d like to know if I could come see him, and the next day I was always there. If I would put something on the table in response to something he heard or somebody told him in the company, he’d listen and if he felt he was wrong and I was right, he would immediately say “Ian I’m sorry, you’re absolutely right, let’s go forward.” He wasn’t an obstinate, inflexible, stubborn person. I only have the utmost admiration for the man.
Five decades of media empire building
1960 – Ted buys CHFI, Canada’s first FM station, for $85,000
1963 – Ted wins the licence for CHFI-AM at 680 on the AM dial
1967 – Ted is granted cable TV licences for three Ontario markets, including portions of Toronto
1979 – Rogers becomes a public company when it acquires Canadian Cablesystems and becomes the country’s largest cable company, a position it has held ever since
1985 – Rogers becomes a partner in Cantel, the predecessor to Rogers Wireless, introducing Canada’s first cellular service
1986 – Rogers acquires CFMT-Toronto (renamed OMNI Television in 2002), Canada’s first multicultural, multilingual TV service
1994 – Rogers buys Maclean Hunter, encompassing consumer and business magazines (including Marketing), radio, TV, cable and the Sun newspaper chain
2000 – Rogers purchases the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team
2007 – Rogers acquires the network of five Citytv stations
2008 – Rogers records annual revenue of more than $11 billion and launches the iPhone in Canada
