Peter Conlon: 'Now I'm glad I'm vanilla.'
Peter Conlon, CEO of LED Roadway Lighting, had just received the greatest compliment of his career.
“Yesterday, I bumped into a former colleague from the days when I was CEO of Nautel,” he said.
“She told me that everything is fine at Nautel. She said, ‘You made us so confident in ourselves we know we can do it.’
“That felt great. Now I can sit back and say, ‘I didn’t mess that up.’”
Conlon was president and CEO of Nautel for nine years, before leaving to become LED CEO last August.
Nautel is based in sleepy Hacketts Cove, near Peggys Cove, but has become a global leader in the manufacture of radio broadcast transmitters.
The company has projects in 177 countries, and NASA features on its client list.
Conlon led the organization to its global position after being headhunted for the role.
“Nautel was a beautiful company but it needed a spark. I thought it was a diamond in the rough,” he said, remembering the early days.
When he took over at Nautel, there was never any reason to fear that Conlon, who had experience managing businesses of all sizes around the world, would mess up.
But Conlon had been falling prey to mid-life self-doubt. He was unhappy that he’d dropped out of university without completing his math degree, although he later managed to persuade George Mason University in Virginia to allow him to gain an MBA.
Over the years, he’d become a generalist in business. He had tried many different roles, including sales, finance, marketing and manufacturing, without excelling at any of them.
“I’d become a generalist because I am easily bored and because I see life as series of puzzles. I love Sudoku. Puzzles keep the brain active and allow the subconscious to work on other problems.
“But I woke one day feeling terribly stressed. I asked myself, ‘What am I?’ I realized that because of a career path that wended like a drunken butterfly, I wasn’t anyone. They wouldn’t know what to put on my epitaph.
“I realized that I’d better become a very good generalist. Now I’m glad I’m vanilla. At Nautel, I realized that not being anything in particular could be valuable.”
Conlon said generalists are valuable because they see how things fit together.
“We understand the impact of decisions on other parts of an organization. I have actual experience of the day jobs of everyone who works for me and understand their roles.
“Everyone’s work improves when they learn to assess their decisions in a company-wide context.”
Conlon said he learned about leadership from working for Terry Matthews, founder of Ottawa startup Mitel Networks, a company with strong similarities to Nautel.
“Terry allowed me to see what inspirational leadership can do. People would follow Terry into what appeared to be an abyss because he made them believe the bridge was there.”
Conlon’s dislike of boredom means he has moved 17 times since leaving his parents’ Ottawa home.
He has been in Nova Scotia since 2006, after his P.E.I.-born wife expressed a desire to return to the Atlantic coast.
These days, boredom is less of a problem.
“Each of my recent jobs has been complex, and it takes longer to get to that point.”
Now, he aims to repeat his Nautel success story at LED. The Bayers Lake-headquartered company specializes in the design and manufacturing of LED-based street lighting and control systems.
Increasing global sales is a key objective.
“At the heart of a business is a team. You have to get them all to believe and to move in the same direction.
“Confidence means working to create a global market for Nova Scotia technology. Doing business in your own community is wonderful, but the same money is being circulated. It’s exports that bring new wealth to the region.”
Disclaimer: Entrevestor receives financial support from government agencies that support startup companies in Atlantic Canada. The sponsoring agencies play no role in determining which companies and individuals are featured in this column, nor do they review columns before they are published.