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Arlene Dickinson - Ventures Some Advice

By Karin Klassen

If it’s true that necessity is the mother of invention, then Arlene Dickinson embodies the proverb on every count.

On top of being the feminine energy on CBC’s TV hit Dragons’ Den, Dickinson is the owner and CEO of the independent company Venture Communications, one of the largest and most successful marketing and communications firms in the country. PROFIT 100 ranks Dickinson as 13th on its annual list of top Canadian female entrepreneurs, with 2007 revenues of approximately $25 million. With over 75 employees, Venture is consistently ranked among the top ten privately held companies in Canada and has been recognized as one of the 50 Best Managed Companies. Dickinson herself has won achievement awards such as Chatelaine Magazine’s Top 100 Business Owners, Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Hall of Fame, Global TV’s Woman of Vision Award, Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, McGill University’s Management Achievement Award, Ad Rodeo’s Lifetime Achievement Award...and the list goes on and on.

Up by her bootstraps...

But Dickinson didn’t start at the top, didn’t marry money, and didn’t inherit the reins of power - she was her own driving force, one of the reasons she’s become such a role model for entrepreneurial women across the country.  It was in fact a long way up for the plucky single mother of four who found herself scrambling for a job to feed her family. “I was in my early 20s, working out of my kitchen at a time when home-based business wasn’t even a concept,” she reminisces. “My kids were running around in the background, my phone was wired to the wall, and I worked off of a pink Formica table. When I went to the bank, I got asked who my male partners were. I absolutely wasn’t taken seriously – but that just made me want to do it more.”

And more she did. Dickinson parlayed her humble beginnings as an account collector to being the creative vision behind the strategic powerhouse that is Venture Communications, which handles the marketing, branding, public relations and social and media planning for blue-chip companies such as Unilever, Toyota and the Mayo Clinic.

For all her personal success, however, Dickinson labels herself an “accidental entrepreneur”.  She describes herself as a “glass-is-half-full person” who had enough confidence in her own abilities – wherever they ended up eventually taking her – not to worry about failure.  “My dad, Mirvine Massey-Hicks, a great man, taught me a profound lesson. He would say, ‘Arlene, as you make decisions, ask yourself:  Am I prepared to live with the worst that can happen? If the answer is yes, then just go do it.’ I knew in my heart and soul that even if I went bankrupt, I would always be able to put a roof over my kids’ heads. Even if I lost everything and had to go flip hamburgers, I would do it. To me – that’s not failure.”

Lessons from life...

Dickinson’s dad in fact provided a living lab for entrepreneurial spirit and she counts him as her biggest role model – someone who taught her to be true to herself and go after her dream. An electronics instructor at SAIT and NAIT with a PhD in Education, Dickinson’s dad was an innovator who started a software company decades ago when people were still saying “soft-wha?” But she’s quick to add that you’re just as likely to find a mentor in the people working beside and all around you. “I always think, holy-smokes! What that other person has done is so interesting and compelling; they did something I could never do. I don’t want people to think you have to live a special and privileged life in order to think you have something to teach other people. Everybody can be a mentor or a role model to anybody. We just have to listen to learn.”

Apart from the ability to take a leap-of-faith in herself, Dickinson’s success can also be credited to sticking with the work she loves, following her skill-set and acting on her instincts. “I started out working in a variety of marketing related fields – PR, media and communications consulting – so I was all around it and I loved it. When I got the opportunity to be a partner at Venture, I jumped at it. It was a consolidation of all those experiences.” A decade later, in 1998, Dickinson took the next step by taking over sole ownership of Venture. “Was I scared? I didn’t know enough to be scared – I was excited.”

But being successful is about more than just recognizing opportunity as it passes – it’s about the intangibles behind it, like intuition. “Women’s intuition exists; it’s a huge strength and we don’t listen to it enough. When our instinct is to go against the tide and when what we want to do is what everyone else is saying don’t do – that’s when we tend to not listen to ourselves. What I would say to women out there is listen really hard. If you’re thinking it and feeling it and you know in your heart it’s the right thing to do, then do it. You will be elevated as a leader and you will be respected for having an opinion.”

Not a Dragon lady...

Having the courage of your convictions is a key to the advice Dickinson offers, with the TV show Dragons’ Den providing a significant sample size of experience. If you’re one of the few Canadians who hasn’t watched it, here’s how it goes: Entrepreneurial inventors take their creations and ideas for product development to a team of highly successful, opinionated and sometimes scornful critics including, for the last four seasons, Dickinson. Then batten the hatches and clear the deck, because the words that follow can sink or set-sail to a dream. But it’s not just tough talk – there’s power behind the punch. Together or sometimes by themselves, the panellists can and will make an offer for financing, support and partial ownership of the venture. It’s a program that has brought international attention to Dickinson’s lively personality, astute people-reading skills and business acumen, but it’s also brought her quite a diverse portfolio of corporate ownership. She now has a part in companies that range in product from shoe-jewellery to an auto-hammer.

Dragons’ Den is also a perfect example of the difference between business men and business women.  “A man will come on and say: I’ve had huge success, I’ve made a hundred thousand sales and that’s amazing. A woman will come on the show and say: I’ve only had a half million in sales and I’m making some money so that’s ok. Women always down play their success. It’s a completely different point of view. I think one of the biggest mistakes women make is that they don’t believe in their own capability. They believe their success is not on the same level as a man’s.”

Family first and foremost...

As much as Dickinson can talk shop, she’s clear about family being her priority then, now and always. She gives them full partnership credit for her success. “My kids built my business with me. Without their support and their willingness to give up some of the time they would have liked to have had with me, it would have never been built.” In fact one of the benefits of having your own business, Dickinson points out, is being able to bring them into the company. That togetherness not only allows you to spend time with each other, but gives them an opportunity to see it in action from the inside out, upside down and backwards. All of Dickinson’s children have worked at some point with Venture and two are now entrepreneurs themselves. But it wasn’t always easy.

“When I was a partner in Venture, on my own as a parent, it was a time when we had little money so the sacrifices were more financial.  Later on when I took it on as the sole owner, the sacrifices were more about time.” Laughing about it now, Dickinson jokes that what they call mother’s-guilt, they should call child-guilt. “There was definitely push-back,” she admits.

“We were just like any other family - I was a hockey mom and they had school plays. I didn’t go to 100% of the games and I missed some concerts. We’re not perfect; we’ve had ups and downs like any other family. I’m not even sure if perfect exists. We’ve had to be really frank with each other over the years, and we have strong relationships to this day because all along we communicated, individually and as a family.” Dickinson notes that that level of understanding has increased over the years as her children now have their own children, pressures and careers.

“There’s just no success that can compensate for failure with your family. It’s critical for both men and women, but for some reason women particularly struggle with achieving a balance.”

The business of communicating...

Why do so many women flock to the communications industry? Dickinson believes women are just more apt to understand the need to communicate. Women are comfortable with it, they generally need it, and they’re good at it. This isn’t to say men can’t communicate, Dickinson is quick to point out – they just do it differently. In any case, when it’s done well, it’s an art, she says. “Understanding how to express yourself and how to compel people to your opinion, how to get people on-side, to champion people, elevate, encourage or inspire people is all about how you say things.” 

This is more important now than ever. “There were more millionaires made during the depression than at any other time,” Dickinson says. “I don’t think there’s ever been a better opportunity to be an entrepreneur than right now. There’s opportunity in down markets because large companies contract. Innovative people who have different and new ideas and people who go to the market with a new value proposition do extremely well. You also learn a lot of business skills at these times because you learn to be really protective of your money and your business, and you’re more frugal.”

“But you still have to have a good idea,” she adds.

Communications is also an industry that accommodates the many facets and responsibilities of a woman’s life. “There are a lot of home-based communications businesses created by women who have to stay at home because of their family circumstance and who want to create a career that’s flexible. Communications is something that you can do as a consultant out of your home if you need to.”

What’s the future of the industry? Dickinson says marketing is extremely important in these times and points to empirical data showing that businesses that invest during a recession actually do better not only during tough times, but for three or four years afterward. “Make sure you’re managing your cash flow well, make sure you’re taking care of your customers and make sure you’re in the market and being present – and don’t grow your company too rapidly,” Dickinson advises. She adds: “Learn how to read a balance sheet and get a good CEO and accountant. Getting back to basic business fundamentals is extremely important.”

Regrets? I’ve had a few...

...But then again, too few to mention. “Life is about lifelong learning. I made a lot of mistakes, and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve absolutely had moments when I thought, gee I wish I’d handled that differently. But there’s a difference between learning from a mistake and regretting something where you wish you could take something back and re-do it all over again. When I think through the rolodex in my mind, I can tell you the most successful people I know have failed at something.”

Dickinson also points out the need to take care of yourself. “I know how to compartmentalize extremely well; I can shut off work and stress in a heart-beat. With experience and age, I’ve learned how not to let things influence me in a negative way. I’ve learned to be quiet and calm about life. Music is important to me and I run and try to eat well. I’m in better touch with myself and take time by myself when I need it.”

Dickinson reflects back on her career to offer some final words of advice. “Women have earned a right to be at the table; now it’s more about what you do when you’re sitting there. We’ve come a long way. But if you don’t really believe in what you are doing and don’t hold onto your vision, nobody else will. You’ll have to learn to deal with people saying ‘Oh that’ll never work, that’s a bad idea’, and just keep going regardless because in your heart, you know better.”

Pull Quotes

If you’re thinking it and feeling it and you know in your heart it’s the right thing to do, then do it. You will be elevated as a leader and you will be respected for having an opinion.

I don’t think there’s ever been a better opportunity to be an entrepreneur than right now... Innovative people who have different and new ideas and people who go to the market with a new value proposition do extremely well.

My kids built my business with me. Without their support and their willingness to give up some of the time they would have liked to have had with me, it would have never been built.

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