by Leo Valiquette
In what has become an annual spring event for the Ottawa Chamber, a plaque bearing Mr. Beraskow’s name was unveiled with a ceremony in the outdoor amphitheatre beside the World Exchange Plaza, where the plaques of previous winners are on display.
The unveiling was followed by a luncheon at which Mr. Beraskow shared how he built IT/NET into Canada’s most award-winning IT consulting firm before its acquisition by KPMG in September 2010.
"I'm very honoured to be part of this august group and very humbled," he said. "Some people would say I have a lot to be humble about."
He joked that the secret to his success was hiring great people, getting out of their way and then taking credit for their great work.
On a more serious note, however, he attributed his success to five key points:
- Promote the notion of ownership: If a person is given ownership of an issue or a problem, they will be that much more passionate about, and committed to, resolving it.
- Always do the right thing: This was particularly aimed at managers. It isn’t about following a process, but doing what you know to be right. “I don’t know what went wrong, we followed the process,” is the wrong kind of thinking.
- Grow or die: You should constantly be trying to learn new things and stretch yourself in new directions. "I’d rather be sorry for something I did than for something I didn’t do."
- Be successful: It begins with understanding what it is you need to succeed, knowing what you need that you don’t have and doing what is required to get it.
Be self-critical: Mr. Beraskow said he is a proponent of "critical collaboration", which encompasses critical thinking, holding everyone on the team accountable and being open to constructive criticism and feedback from your team.
In addition, he emphasized the importance of giving back. Over the past six years, for example, IT/NET has raised and donated $150,000 to the Ottawa Hospital Foundation thanks to Mr. Beraskow’s leadership.
Lastly, Mr. Beraskow challenged the Chamber and Ottawa’s other economic stakeholders to take action to revitalize the region’s tech sector.
The time is ripe, he said, considering how many of the region’s 70,000 federal public servants work in an IT capacity and the federal government’s plans to cut program spending and employment levels to tame the deficit.
"Ottawa was once known as the high-tech capital of Canada," he said. "Unless something is done, it will be the bye-bye tech capital of Canada.”
