The Ferro Building Systems Ltd. team taking in its monumental new project, the Cloverdale Sportsplex under Graham Construction for the City of Surrey
SURREY – When Maxime Spakowski took on the role of Principal and CEO of Ferro Building Systems Ltd. five years ago, she knew she was stepping into some big shoes. However, in this instance they were not just big shoes but familiar ones, as she would be succeeding her family, who were retiring from the company and handing the reigns over as a second generation business.
The company was at a crossroads and the future was an empty canvas. Spakowski was joined by her business partners in the transition, who also happen to be her husband, Joel, and her brother, Patrick, and upon reflection turned inward and asked the employees to dictate the company’s fate. In response, the company aimed for the stars.
“The team wanted to take Ferro to a whole other level,” says Spakowski. “At the time, we were doing simple to medium-sized buildings in complexity, a lot of our clients were more direct end users like a farmer or a manufacturing owner that was using our buildings, some were supplied, some were installed.”
(From left to right) Joel Spakowski, Maxime Spakowski, Patrick Hebert, Jack Hebert, Molly Hebert
“We wanted to get more into design work, we wanted to work as a major trade in design work, as well as in supply and installation of big structures.”
However, it was extremely important to the new management that the company decided to make this move together as a whole. The leadership wanted to ensure a safe space for the team to suggest and take risks, and nurture the kind of collaborative environment that fosters innovation.
“We knew that the type of change that was being suggested was the change we wanted to see, we wanted to take Ferro to that level too but it was important that the team wanted to as well,” says Spakowski. “We knew we had to listen more than we had to direct, and we knew we had to be really curious with our team members.”
So began a bold, all-consuming overhaul of the Ferro Building business. Before the pivot, Ferro had been fairly comfortable servicing a roster of clients in the pre-engineered metal building industry since 2004 led by then president Jack Hubert. With the new desired direction, Ferro would be stepping into a new world, therefore intensive consultation and strategizing was necessary.
“We had to do a lot of networking in the industry, up until we took over, my father was happy to be working with his small circle of clients but we had to really get out there not just for the purposes of business development but we had to go find and assemble a good team of advisors and consultants,” says Spakowski.
“We had to recognize that we didn’t have all the answers to get to this next level, so we got really involved with the Surrey Board of Trade, the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, and we just started to listen and learn.”
Fast-forward to present day, the company has grown to 12 full-time employees with the aim at having up to 18 before the end of the year, and has catapulted into new markets and service offerings with new clients and project types. One such project is the nearly completed Cloverdale Sportsplex under Graham Construction for the City of Surrey.
“This was a pivotal project for our team,” says Spakowski. “It represents the momentous shift our company took under the new leadership and ownership five years ago.”
The momentous undertaking was emblematic of the companies emboldened new direction, and from the delivery and execution of this project, Spakowski and her team is fully confident the right work will flow.
“Your service delivery is directly tied to your relationships, relationships with suppliers, vendors, employees – when all of your relationships are dialed in and all these things are in place, the rest will follow,” said Spakowski. “We knew when we started this journey that we had to focus and invest in our people and our team and that would flow naturally into a better service delivery and, overall, the new, better bolder company we wanted to be.”
