April 2014
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azine | 3
Letter from the Editor
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It’s occurring all around us, in nearly every place we live.
Behind the scenes, smart people are gathering around tables, on job sites or via virtual technology to plan what the infrastructure surrounding us is going
to look like in the next five, 10 or 25 years.
While most of us don’t ponder the changes until we’re stuck in traffic amid road construction or pondering residential choices based on the amenities of a
given municipality, the work being done is hugely important, distinctly challenging and typically uncelebrated.
That changes, at least to some level, in this month’s issue of Business World, which includes the stories of a handful of locales in which changes are being
made today that will positively impact the way residents live in the next generation and the ones that follow it.
It’s trying work, says George Elliott, commissioner of transportation and public works in Cambridge, Ontario, but it’s an endeavor he believes all cities
should be intently focused on.
“There is hope,” he said. “Cities have extremely long lives. They’re going to be here for hundreds of years. There is hope that you can establish a city system
of infrastructure that is sustainable and can be in place for the long term.”
In his area’s case, an ambitious team of planners have been able in a handful of years to address a gradually decaying water and sewer infrastructure and
set wheels in motion to get Cambridge back to level ground.
“It took us probably 70 years to get into this jackpot of a problem, and we’ve been able to get it turned around in a forecasted 20 years,” he said. “It may
take 20 to 25 years to turn your city around, but there is the hope you can do it. It can be done.”
Elsewhere, some 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, Pa., the same family focused operation that was in place when Ralph A. Hiller founded his industrial distri-
bution entity in 1950 is still there today, even though the names, faces and parent companies have changed.
These days, Hiller – now a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Rotork – has full manufacturing capabilities, a weld shop and a paint booth, as well as
engineering, procurement, project management functions and support for the sales staff under one roof. Forty-five employees work at the facility, a total
that’s been boosted by about 10 over the last few years.
“We were run as a typical privately held mom and pop shop,” he said.
“Now we follow more of a corporate structure where we have a management team in place. A general manager, then an executive management team,
then supervisory roles and then the employees, the rank and file. Everybody understands that you have to work to make money, but at the same time,
family is very important to the Rotork group. That all carries forward from the way it was before they owned it, too.”
Take a look at those items and others included in the April issue, as well as supplemental content in the form of interesting business-related Top 10 lists,
the Executive Summary and month four of our newest interactive feature – “One Last Question” – located on the issue’s final page.
As always, please feel free to contact me with any comments or critiques, as well as suggestions for ways we can continue to provide a publication that’s
pertinent, educational and entertaining.
Until next month…
Regards,
Lyle Fitzsimmons
Managing Editor, North America
