On Tuesday June 30th at Toronto’s Duke of York Pub, business leader Scott McCain was the guest of honour at East Coast Connected’s Coast and Cocktails. The President and COO of Agribusiness Group, Maple Leaf Foods Inc. came to speak about the crisis faced by his company in 2008, the lessons learned from those troubling days, and the growing importance of corporate transparency in the new millennium.

^{Scott McCain gets up close and personal at the Duke of York. From left to right: ECC Director Erin O'toole, Scott McCain, and ECC Director Jay Dingwall. Photo by Andrew Spearin.}

Addressing the need to “deal with problems head on,” the transplanted New Brunswicker’s well-received conversation was at turns candid, personal and challenging.

The Listeria outbreak in the summer of 2008 posed serious challenges to that company. With lives at stake, a massive recall, and millions of lost business dollars, the executives were at a crossroads of decision-making, damage control and brand perception. A 50% loss in sales, plant closures and a widespread loss in trust meant that corporate values would require serious attention in the face of a sceptical public.

In an act now widely lauded as courageous, Scott and his brother Michael McCain (CEO of Maple Leaf Foods) opened themselves to the public and the media. By being open and honest about the Listeria incident, the McCains cushioned what might have been a fatal blow to their business. “Dare to be transparent,” a strategy developed over a decade ago at a Maple Leaf executive retreat, came to characterize this response. But it wasn’t merely about the clarity of process: McCain claimed that the values that dominated his quest for transparency were “being human and communicating” in a way that stressed responsibility and empathy.

He claimed that in most cases such as this one, the blame would have filtered down to the CFO or the Food Safety Officer. Not here. “It’s about accountability all the way down,” McCain said, and about being “up front with our customers.”

Answering a question about the increased costs of regulation and strict testing, and the possible threat to smaller businesses, McCain was quick to point out that “Food safety should not be a competitive advantage.” He mentioned that once new safety processes were developed, that Maple Leaf would “share with others” the lessons learned. When another question was raised about regulation in general being counterproductive to profit, McCain suggested that “It’s all about the people, not hyper-regulation.” With the right people keeping consumers informed, over-regulation would become unnecessary.

Testing is currently double of what it was prior to the incident, and Maple Leaf Foods’ Chief of Food Safety “is the most qualified in the country.” While they have initiated extra environmental testing and sanitization, McCain suggested Canadian companies could still do better. “When we took our case and compared it globally, we found out we were good, but not great. In fact,” McCain pointed out, “Italy and the UK are miles ahead of us in terms of safety standards. They just have a higher level of standards that we have to live up to. It is a higher cost, but the benefit is a safer product and an initiative within the industry.”

By Alex Willis and Ian Finley