Stability a rainmaker

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California recruit Michael Erlanger, left, looks over plans with CEO Scott Stirton at the Smith Carter offices in Winnipeg. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

The Manitoba Association of Business Economists is holding its annual outlook conference on the provincial economy today and the message, as it has been for much of the last decade, will likely be about stability.

But with dramatic changes occurring in economies around the world, it will be interesting to see if that native stability itself might become a growth-driver in and of itself in Manitoba.

It may already be happening.

With the collapse of the overheated housing and commercial real estate sector in the United States, professional-services firms have suffered along with construction firms and building supply and raw materials distributors.

For instance, large consulting architectural firms in the United States have seen their staffs cut in half.

That pool of sophisticated professional talent can recognize systemic change when they see it and they might start looking further afield than they had previously been accustomed to doing.

In fact, local architectural firms are starting to benefit from just that.

Who knows if it will become an enduring trend, but it is certainly a new and interesting dynamic for this city.

Michael Erlanger, 48, may be the face of that new phenomenon.

A veteran architect from Los Angeles, Erlanger started working at Smith Carter in Winnipeg in June. He is one of five people -- 20 per cent of the firm's new hires in 2009 -- to move to Winnipeg from elsewhere this year.

Erlanger laughs enthusiastically about how it's mostly Winnipeggers who are surprised at this.

After a 15-year career at the Los Angeles office of Gensler, one of the largest architectural firms in the world, and another 10 years with his own firm, Erlanger has broad professional experience in one of the busiest cities in the world.

But the economic collapse in the United States forced him to close his firm that had grown to 15 people and to look around for other opportunities.

It's true, Erlanger did have a connection to the city. His wife, Wendy, is a Winnipegger who moved to California more than 15 years ago to teach and they had regularly visited and eventually bought a cottage in Manitoba.

"I knew there were good things happening here from the social and cultural aspect, but I had never worked here," he said. "I was blown away by the sophistication and talent and the worldliness of the people who work in this office."

In its unique way, Smith Carter has benefitted from the stability of the local market and parlayed that into an international practice that actually relies on the firm's internal stability to grow.

And Smith Carter has doubled in size over the last five years.

Its work on the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health on Arlington Street more than a decade ago leveraged the firm into the forefront of the highly specialized field of containment labs and mission-critical facilities for medical, defence and institutional clients around the world.

But it's not just technical skills that are required to win those kinds of projects.

"We specialize in a number of areas where we need people to stay (with the firm) to build a depth of knowledge," said Scott Stirton, Smith Carter's CEO. "If people leave we have a hard time building that depth of knowledge."

Not only is it important for the firm's knowledge base, it is also becoming an important commercial consideration.

"Now, when we respond to requests for proposals, there are key questions about demonstrating corporate stability and financial stability," he said. "It is not just a feel-good thing. It is very important to our business model."

Heather Smith, who works on business development for the firm, said, "Most RFPs (requests for proposals) ask if the firm has been forced to lay people off over the past 15 years because of lack of work. Of the firms we compete with, we are the only ones who can say we have not."

Smith Carter and others may be hiring professionals from outside the area, but that doesn't mean locally trained people are losing out.

Art Martin, a principal at Stantec in Winnipeg and vice-president of the Manitoba Association of Architects, said the provincial licensing body has never registered so many new professionals.

"When I graduated from the U of M in 1979 there was nothing happening here," said Martin. "Now the numbers of registrants are way up."

And so is the volume of business. He said it is not unusual for Stantec's overworked Winnipeg office to farm out jobs to other Stantec offices throughout North America.

The slow and steady dynamic to the provincial economy has served the province well and one of these days it may even become a sexy story.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

80

the number of people working at Smith Carter's city office when it opened its new building five years ago

130

the number of people now working at the new building

170

total Smith Carter head count including Ottawa, Calgary and Atlanta offices

25

number of professionals the firm has hired so far this year

26

number of new architects registered in Manitoba in 2005

43

number of new architects registered in Manitoba so far in 2009.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 5, 2009 B5