I haven’t talked to Mark Cutifani apart from the occasional “howdy” at social events for quite a while.
I didn’t have to. If you spend any time at all in the veins of this community where we do our business, (politics, media, education, volunteer organizations, or the mining business, etc.), there has been a general sense that the company has lost momentum. That is not Mark’s style. Inco casts a very long shadow and you can pick up the rhythm pretty quickly. Too much was going into the hopper and not coming back out. You have to believe the pace was either a result of Mark’s decision to leave the company and the internal limbo that creates or the reason he decided to leave in the first place.
Either way you knew the end was near.
I haven’t seen the official chatter on Mark’s departure as I am holed up in the fog in Nova Scotia. The plaudits will flow and deservedly so.
Mark was an extraordinary leader.
It was a year ago I did my own fawning. Here is what I had to say. “It must be said at the outset, Cutifani is the most talented, charismatic, straightforward, community-minded, hard-driving executive to occupy this position in my 33 years of business in Sudbury.”
I went on to describe the community contributions Inco had supported under his leadership and the successful labour negotiations he had concluded.
I finished by saying, “But more than that, Cutifani walks the talk. He sits on the board of Laurentian University and he shows up at the strategic planning sessions to do the hard work.”
Nothing has changed my mind about his integrity and talent, although it needs to be said his charisma sometimes overreached. The enthusiasm Mark had for his job and the transparency under which he operated simply broke down traditional lines of communication.
We wish Mark well in his new life in South Africa. Mark is a world citizen and will enjoy his new challenges. We will miss him.
It needs to be said this is not good news for Sudbury.
Although the country, the province, and the previous board of Inco failed us all in giving away this Canadian jewel to the highest foreign bidder, there was still Mark, and at a minimum, the community believed he understood there was an inherent social responsibility that came with the privilege of mining our nation’s riches.
He agreed there should be a mining tax on nickel that should accrue to the community, and he believed the company had an important role to play in building a sustainable community. In the end, it is unwise to become dependent on any one person in this global economy. People move on.
If CVRD wanted to keep him, they could have. His currency isn’t money (although he’ll make lots of it). It is dignity and alignment of purpose and culture.
For a company to allow a talent of such magnitude to get away is a statement. Either they were not interested in Mark’s leadership or Mark wasn’t interested in theirs.
My guess is that Mark has been annoying for them for some time, and having paid lots of dough, they wanted to put their own imprint on things. Rock stars and rugby players can be hard to manage.
We will now see what CVRD’s intentions truly are. No one of consequence from the old Inco is left at the top.
CVRD owes its allegiance to another country and it will fill its management ranks with people that owe their allegiance to another country.
What matters to us is the treatment of our community, our suppliers, our workers and our tax base.
We’ll know where the real CVRD is coming from soon enough. In the meantime, Mark, thanks for the memories.
We’ll not soon forget you, and no doubt to the chagrin of your replacement, we will continue to measure their performance against the high standards you set. Good luck.
Michael Atkins is the president of Laurentian Media Group,[email protected].
