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CCCA_V5No4_EditMessage-FIN_CCCA_V1No2_EditMessage-V1.qxd 11/20/11 11:35 PM Page 5 From the Editor Garder une Under pressure Mot de la rédactrice exécutive What do you do when your organization perspective globale is under attack? Keep your cool. Si votre organisation est menacée, restez calme! By Beverley Spencer Par Beverley Spencer im McLandress, general counsel to the Canadian Wheat Board and the subject ’avocat-conseil général à la Commission cana- Jof this issue’s profile, clearly has a sense of humour. Ldienne du blé, Jim McLandress, est en vedette Musing about what led him to the beleaguered marketing agency in 1999, he says: dans ce numéro. “My initial thought was: ‘Wheat? How complicated can that be?’ I was so wrong.” Interrogé sur les raisons qui l’ont motivé à inté- As McLandress has discovered, it can get very complicated. Twelve years later, he grer en 1999 cette organisation en proie à des diffi- finds himself in the middle of a firestorm over the Conservative government’s cultés, il a répondu : « Je me suis dit que le blé ne move to strip the board of its 76-year-old monopoly over grain sales throughout devait pas être compliqué. C’était faux ». Western Canada. Douze ans plus tard, Jim McLandress se retrouve The Conservatives argue that farmers should have the right to market their own au cœur d’une controverse après la décision du gou- grain and say their majority government gives them the mandate to end the board’s vernement conservateur de priver la Commission de monopoly without going directly to farmers. The board counters that farmers ben- son monopole de 76 ans sur la vente des grains à tra- efit from its clout in overseas markets and points to its own plebiscite showing 62 per vers l’Ouest canadien. cent of the 40,000 farmers who voted support keeping the board for wheat sales. Le vœu du gouvernement : donner le droit aux The ensuing brouhaha has led to lawsuits and a $1.4-million media campaign to fermiers de commercialiser leurs propres grains, mais garner public support for the board, which its chairman says will disappear within a sans avoir à les consulter! La Commission rétorque few years if the legislation is successful. que les fermiers bénéficient bel et bien de son influ- How is McLandress weathering the storm? The sense of humour helps, but his ence dans les marchés outre-mer et que ses consulta- colleagues are also quick to credit his reputation as a “cool-headed big thinker” with tions auprès des fermiers démontrent que 62 % des a knack for taking a step back and looking at the big picture. 40 000 fermiers ayant voté souhaitent préserver la Most in-house counsel won’t find themselves in the middle of a direct assault on Commission pour la vente du blé. their own organization. But many could learn a thing or two from McLandress about Des poursuites judiciaires ont suivi, de même how to fight the smaller fires that flare up from time to time. qu’une campagne médiatique de 1,4 million de As Nadine Letson, a senior lawyer at Microsoft Canada put it in in our feature on dollars pour obtenir le soutien de la Commission par working with sales and marketing, “Sometimes you have to be the person who can le public. see the bigger picture,” especially when emotions are running high. It’s true whether Jim McLandress gère cette crise en faisant preuve you’re working on a major deal or helping the sales department under pressure to d’humour, de sang-froid et en prenant du recul pour meet monthly targets. obtenir une vue d’ensemble. And sometimes what your colleagues need is someone who can hold it together La plupart des avocats-conseils généraux ne se when everything is coming apart. When that happens, an ability to laugh and keep retrouveront pas dans une situation où leur organisa- things on an even keel will pay dividends. tion est directement mise en péril. Mais quelques Finally, there’s the ability to keep things in perspective. McLandress hasn’t lost sight leçons tirées de l’expérience de Jim McLandress les of the fact that he is part of something that will make history. aideront à gérer les plus petites crises organisation- “That’s pretty cool,” he says. nelles qui surviennent de temps à autre. Send your comments to ccca@ccca-cba.org. Commentaires? ccca@ccca-cba.org. A conference of / Une conférence de ROGERS PUBLISHING LTD. Subscription enquiries should be addressed to/ Executive Publisher Pour les questions concernant l’abonnement, Financial Services Group veuillez communiquer avec : Garth Thomas Debbie Walsh — CCCA/ACCJE One Mount Pleasant Road, 7th Floor Toronto, ON, M4Y 2Y5. CANADIAN CORPORATE COUNSEL ASSOCIATION Executive Editor/Rédactrice exécutive ISSN No. 1913-0562, HEALTHCARE & FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP Beverley Spencer: beverleys@cba.org Publications Mail Agreement L’ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES Publisher Our environmental policy is available at: CONSEILLERS(ÈRES) JURIDIQUES D’ENTREPRISES Senior Editor/Rédacteur principal No. 40070230. Return Stefanie MacDonald (416) 764-3911 http://www.rogerspublishing.ca/about_rogers/ 410-20 Toronto Street, Yves Faguy: yvesf@cba.org Undeliverable Canadian stefanie.macdonald@rci.rogers.com environmental.htm Toronto, ON, M5C 2B8 Associate Editor/Rédactrice associé Addresses to: Production Manager Vous pouvez consulter notre politique de l’environ- Tel.: (416) 869-0522 Fax: (416) 869-0946 Katya Hodge : katyah@cba.org Circulation Dept., One Mount Karen Richards (416) 764-1688 nement à : e-mail: ccca@cba.org Art Director/Directeur artistique Pleasant Rd, 7th flr. Toronto, ON, karen.richards@rci.rogers.com http://www.leseditionsrogers.ca/about_rogers/ Tony Delitala: tdelitala@cogeco.ca M4Y 2Y5 environmental.htm This magazine is printed with vegetable inks and Chair/Président Designer/Conceptrice graphique is 100% recyclable where facilities exist. Geoff Creighton: gcreighton@ccca-cba.org Rozalynd Taylor-Platt: taylorplatt@gmail.com Recyclable là où le service est offert. HIVER 2011 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 5