Catherine Runnals: President of brand.LIVE Management Group Inc.
Despite a rock 'n' roll pedigree managing tours for big-name music talent ranging from The Tragically Hip to Chantal Kreviazuk, Catherine Runnals remembers feeling daunted just before the Olympic Games came to town.
At the time, Runnals was steering events management company brand.LIVE Management Group Inc., which she had co-founded in 2008.
"[Vancouver was] about to host arguably the biggest special event in the world, and we produced special events," she remembered. "But we didn't know how to go after that business – and we didn't operationally have the policies and procedures in place that we could have operated the business once we won it."
As Runnals saw requests for proposals cross her desk without any idea of how to land them, she came to a decision: her company needed help.
She turned to T&M Group of Companies, which includes Boston Pizza co-founders Jim Treliving and George Melville.
"We went to them for stewardship – straight up, how do you run a proper business? Not just in just my sector, my little production company where I sort of knew what I was doing – but how do I run a business?"
What did Runnals' new business gurus tell her?
Sound business practices and procedures, she said. That, she said, was a tough transition from the company's seat-of-its-pants approach to everything from accounting to commissioning sales staff.
"We thought we were managing OK and still turning a profit, and it was explained to us in no short order that we weren't going anywhere fast until we really tidied ourselves up."
Runnals said the advice paid off in spades – not only with key Olympic business won but also with the realization that "seeking help" in a broader sense can develop her business.
Now when Runnals sees business she wants, she seeks out the people who can help her land it – from architectural talent to social media hotshots.
"I look at the thought leaders in this city; I look at people who can help me connect to [the piece of business] so that by the time I am actually going after the business, I have backup – I have a bit of an arsenal behind me."
