A strong work ethic. It’s a common thread from the early days of the Mannix family businesses and still continues today. That determination for success drew many a future Canadian business leader to work for the Loram Group before heading off on their own ventures.
A young lawyer, Peter Lougheed worked with F.C. Mannix and the Loram Group in the 1950s. He would then go on to become the Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985.
“One of the key reasons to the success in that period of time is that we outworked everybody, really,” recalled Lougheed. “We’d fly half way across the world, we’d fly to New York, and we be up for a breakfast meeting. It was always a contest to see who could organize the earliest breakfast meeting. We were very determined people, and we worked damned hard. That was the nature of the success of the outfit.”
Trust, integrity and accountability. These core aspects of the Loram Group and now Coril Group of Companies remain as true today as they did when the company first formed. Add in determination and hard work and you have an unstoppable force.
“The real secret, which is what Fred instilled in everybody, was hard work,” said Lougheed. “Maybe you didn’t have quite as much financial strength as somebody else and maybe you didn’t have some of the other assets or maybe you weren’t as closely connected as some of the competitors. But we outworked them all. I’ve always attributed that to Fred’s motivation to do just that. You can do a lot in this world by outworking people, and that was what he brought to it. We outworked everybody else. Steadily. And F.C. Mannix was the one who inspired that.”
Lougheed was considered by many to have been Alberta’s greatest premier. He was a true champion of Canadian history, playing a significant role in defending provincial rights that led to the 1982 patriation of the Constitution.
Lougheed passed away Sept. 13, 2012.
