GM Canada Congratulates Parkwood Estate on 100 Years of Inspiration and Innovation
2017-09-13
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OSHAWA, Ont. – On Friday September 8, 2017 General Motors of Canada president and managing director, Steve Carlisle, addressed the audience at the Parkwood Estate Centennial Celebration dinner. The prepared text of his remarks is below. As always, the speaker’s words are definitive.
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I am delighted to be here this evening to add GM’s congratulations to Parkwood on it’s Centennial year.
As the home of GM Canada’s founder Colonel Sam McLaughlin, this is indeed a very special place for me and the family of GM employees and dealers across Canada. It is not just a wonderful estate property, I think you will agree, Parkwood is a special place where you can sense the vision, ambition and innovative spirit of Colonel Sam.
As we know, R. S. McLaughlin was one of Canada’s greatest business leaders and innovators. He was certainly at the forefront of change in his time as he transformed, what was one of the largest carriage companies in the British Empire into one of the first automotive companies in North America.
From our files at GM we came across a letter to his carriage dealers in 1915 which we found to be both interesting and timely. In it he wrote:
“Time and tide wait for no man. The invention of the gasoline engine and its adaption to vehicular travel is, in my judgement, at present working a revolution in the horse-drawn vehicle trade.”
With that he announced arrangements to take care of his traditional customers while converting his carriage factories to the manufacture of “five thousand automobiles as a minimum” for the Chevrolet Motor Company which led to the founding of GM of Canada in 1918 – which means that we’ll have another centennial milestone to celebrate next year!
Sam McLaughlin was managing through the “innovator’s dilemma” long before we wrote books on the subject. I can’t help but take inspiration from that as the auto sector transitions today through what is certainly the most significant and rapid period of change since the time of Colonel Sam’s letter.
If he were here today, I believe he would have loved to see the innovative new truck program we are preparing at Oshawa Assembly. But he would have also been looking around the corner at how artificial intelligence and machine learning could improve life for his customers. He’d be focused on automobiles that are electric, connected, autonomous and shared. And I am sure he would be working with universities and a whole range of partners — as we are today — to define a future of mobility that promises zero emissions, zero traffic congestion and zero collisions.
So, in my two, now almost three years back in Canada, I’ve become increasingly fascinated with R. S. McLaughlin and his spirit of innovation as an inspiration for us during the current era of disruption and transformation.
Having said that, I also need to admit to a special additional connection to Colonel Sam, through one of his friends and fishing buddies of the day, Dr John Oille, who is, in fact, the great grandfather of my wife, Andrea Derby, who is here with me tonight. Andrea and I are very honoured to be here with the GM Canada team to celebrate Parkwood’s centennial.
To mark this great legacy, I would now like to recognize and call upon Col. Sam’s granddaughter, Jocelyn Shaw to join me on stage for a photo which Parkwood will place in a time capsule they are curating.
Thank you and congratulations Parkwood on your Centennial anniversary.
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