Canadian Entrepreneurs

When Ron Foxcroft was 17 years old and a football injury ended his playing days; he turned to refereeing basketball in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. Foxcroft was a well-established ref who was in great demand around the world at amateur and professional basketball games. He had a problem though. The whistles that Foxcroft used had a cork pea in them, so when the whistle was blown hard, or even frozen, dirty, or wet, it wouldn’t work. Therefore, on certain occasions, the whistle wouldn’t sound when he needed it to. Being able to stop play when necessary in a fast-moving sport like basketball is vital, because it can change the outcome of the game if a call is not made.

The event that pushed Ron Foxcroft to address his problem happened in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1985. He was refereeing an Olympic qualifier game when a Brazilian player had been fouled hard at centre court. Foxcroft blew his cork pea whistle to stop play, but no sound came out. The play went on and the fans erupted. What followed was a riot with Foxcroft in the eye of the storm. He promised himself that if he survived the riot, he would go back to Canada and create a more reliable, “pea-less” whistle. Foxcroft figured that a whistle that did not rely on a cork pea in the air channel would be more reliable than the traditional whistles, so when he returned to Canada, he set to work.

Foxcroft presented his idea to Dan Bruneau, the president of a plastic molding company in Stoney Creek, Ontario. Bruneau said that he would manufacture the whistle if Foxcroft could provide a design. With that, Foxcroft took his idea to design consultant Chuck Shepard, who agreed to create a blueprint for the new whistle. Ron’s two sons, Steve and Dave joined Fox 40 to control development and promotion. Today, the Fox 40 whistle is considered to be the best whistle in the world for its quality and reliability. Its superiority is proven through the fact that it is the official whistle of the NFL, NBA, NHL, AFL, NCAA, CFL and others. Foxcroft’s whistles are also used in survival kits and are recognized by the Coast Guards of many nations as a reliable and worthy sound- making device.

Foxcroft is an excellent example of a successful entrepreneur. He started with nothing except for an idea that he felt had a good chance to eventually be demanded. Through unfortunate events that Foxcroft experienced with the original pea whistle, he was able to recognize its shortcomings and strive to make it better. Previously, he had not been involved in the design or manufacturing of whistles and therefore would not have been able to make the Fox 40 on his own. Foxcroft recognized his abilities and had the persistence and research skills necessary to find a willing manufacturer and designer. Foxcroft also showed considerable self-confidence in sticking with an idea that many would have considered pointless and unfeasible. Music has been a lifelong interest of Chris Griffiths's, he started guitar lessons at the age of 12 and has played with various groups in his native city of St. John's, Newfoundland. After graduating high school in June 1991, Chris was undecided as to what career path to follow, so he decided to seek employment in the music field. Finding employment with a small local music store, Chris quickly learned about the ordering, inventorying and selling of musical equipment. He also became very familiar with the many music manufacturing sales agents from which the store purchased supplies and inventory. In addition, Chris began to complete minor repairs on damaged guitars and to modify guitars to suit specific customer preferences

A Garrison acoustic guitar looks like a regular guitar on the outside, but the inside is a modern marvel. Instead of wood braces, a one-piece injection- molded fiberglass structure called the Active Bracing System is encased in the guitar body. It's a high-tech leap for an instrument that's been around for hundreds of years. Garrison is on track to build 25,000 guitars this year, selling to more than 450 dealers in North America and to distributors in 35 other countries.

Chris Griffiths likes to mention that it took six minutes to come up with the bracing concept--and six years to build it. He was no stranger to running a business, having started Griffiths Guitar Works, a small custom guitar-building shop and later a retail store, in 1993, when he was only 19. "All the lessons and all the troubles and all the issues were extremely similar between both companies, just on a different scale," he says. With no factory and only five prototypes in hand, Griffiths went to the National Association of Music Merchants trade show--the industry's largest--in 2000 and came away with prospective orders for over 46,000 guitars per year. By February 2001, Griffiths had secured $4 million in funding. "We had no employees, no sandpaper, no wood, and we started to build a company," he says. By September 2001, Garrison was shipping its first batch of guitars.

From one of North America's oldest cities come the newest innovations in acoustic guitars. As Griffiths says, St. John's is "way out there. It's a big deal to have a guitar factory in this town. We've shown that you can be innovative in Newfoundland and still be a global company." The 37 employees at the 20,000- square-foot factory are all locals. "Without good people, it's just a building, a bunch of machines and a pile of wood," says Griffiths. That focus on the community has paid dividends in terms of loyalty and low employee turnover. "I've transitioned from being a fan of the guitar and a guitar builder to being a guitar CEO," Griffiths says. But he still finds time to play the instrument he's loved since he was 12 years old. With Garrison Guitars looking to double in size over the next year and a half, Griffiths has definitely found his groove.