Success Stories

A Guelph Region Success Story

 

Linamar

Where Innovation Is A Core Value

Growing a company from the founder’s basement to a multi-billion-dollar global corporation takes many strengths – among them strong leadership, technical expertise and a passion for being the best. In today’s post-recession, deeply competitive transportation marketplace, a company like Linamar needs one more ingredient to ensure success: a near-fanatical obsession with innovation.

“At Linamar, we don’t just pay lip-service to innovation, we live it, it is one of our Core Values,” says CEO Linda Hasenfratz. “We want everyone who works here to look for new ways to improve our business, every day. We encourage collaboration – pooling ideas and skills to create extraordinary products and processes, and firmly believe it is a huge driver of our success.”

As part of building a culture of innovation at Linamar, the company committed $1.1 billion to R&D and training in 2006. Part of that funding went to the creation of an advanced manufacturing technology centre in Guelph, named for company founder Frank Hasenfratz.

Today, funding from the province of Ontario is helping research at the centre focused on developing fuel-efficient vehicle parts, including engines and transmissions. These components will help carmakers boost performance and reduce emissions, while creating good new jobs in Guelph.

Like Linamar, Ontario believes that encouraging new ideas and sharing expertise is key to economic success. That’s why the province created the new Ontario Network of Excellence and has opened a regional innovation centre in Guelph.

“The Guelph region has been building a significant entrepreneurial community,” says Kirk Roberts, executive director of the Guelph Innovation Centre. “Now, with the launch of the new centre, start-ups and growing companies will be able to share knowledge with one another and tap into expertise from across the province – creating new opportunities and jobs.”