2006 a year of historic milestones for Saskatchewan businesses.

A couple books released this spring should be considered required reading for every Saskatchewan entrepreneur looking to expand his or her enterprise. Both examine the birth and growth of home grown businesses. One chronicled the development of PCL Construction, a rarity in that it has celebrated its centenary, and the other looks at IPSCO.

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While both firms have seen their development take their head offices outside Saskatchewan, there is no doubting that both owe a great deal of their success to this province because both started here.

Ernie Poole began by constructing those famed large farmhouses from a base in Stoughton in southeast Saskatchewan before relocating to the Rouleau-Avon lea district and then to Regina. His legacy is clearly visible throughout Saskatchewan, whether it's the enormous mental hospital at Weyburn or the more recent First Nations University of Canada building. Poole's unique approach, including his 11 rules of doing business, remains as valid today as it was a hundred years ago. My favourite is allowing the competition to win the unprofitable projects.

The other story is IPSCO's. At 50 years old, it is truly a reflection of the second half of Saskatchewan's first century, complete with heavy government intervention. At one point, IPSCO was mostly government owned--Saskatchewan held 20 per cent as did Alberta and a subsidiary of the British government.

Public ownership in the firm ultimately ended but there is no doubt that the vision of a handful of entrepreneurs--names like Sharp, Turvey, Maclennan, Solomon, Whitmore, Sangster and MacPherson--was truly the force that made it possible for IPSCO to become one of the continent's steel giants.

Originally it opened its doors as a pipe mill but soon its founders realized that buying steel from eastern suppliers left it vulnerable so it created a steel mill next door to the pipe works. On its own the pipe mill did all right but the steel plant was a different story and would have bankrupted the firm if not for government help. Ironically, though, despite cash flow challenges, it eked out a modest profit almost every year.

It wasn't until the firm's 20th birthday that it truly began to find its stride but that too raised important, fundamental issues that every entrepreneur faces: should it expand or simply remain a major player in a regional market?

One man who doesn't get much attention in the Saskatchewan lore surrounding IPSCO is Jim Maclennan and he probably was the one individual who did more to shape the company's future than any. He was CEO for only five years in the late '70s and was the one who posed the big question of whether or not the company should grow beyond Western Canada.

After shepherding that question through the board of directors who decided it was indeed time to expand, he recognized he was not the individual best suited to lead that growth and stepped aside. The man chosen to replace him was Roger Phillips who guided the ship for 20 years, the longest of any chief executive in its history.

He brought new technology, new talent and a discipline to the operation. In large measure it was Phillips who executed the answer to Maclennan's question.

Today, with half a billion in profit last year, IPSCO has emerged as one of the true powerhouses of North American steel. It ranks No. 1 in plate making. It is the largest producer of large diameter pipe and second overall in pipe sales on the continent. Perhaps most significant is the fact that while achieving this, virtually the entire steel industry was restructuring, going broke or being sold off. Stelco and Algoma, the big boys when IPSCO started, were in bankruptcy protection while IPSCO flourished.

Phillip's arrival marked the end of IPSCO's swashbuckling entrepreneurial days and the beginning of its life as well-managed, disciplined business entity.

For successful entrepreneurs anywhere that decision--of when to step aside in favour of a professional manager--is perhaps the most difficult of all. The stories of firms such as PCL and IPSCO provide a little insight into the process. Both have proved that it can make a powerful, and positive, difference in the long-term future of the enterprise, its shareholders and employees.

Paul Martin is heard daily on 980 CJME and 650 CKOM as well as on the radio stations of the Golden West Broadcasting network in Saskatchewan.