Driven to Succeed: How Frank Hasenfratz Grew Linamar from Guelph to Global

by Rod McQueen, Susan M. Papp

Overview

The story of what one daring entrepreneur with dreams and determination can achieve.

Frank Hasenfratz grew up in Hungary learning to dodge bullets and avoid land mines during the Second World War. When the 1956 revolution erupted, he and his army unit joined the insurgents. After the revolution was crushed, he fled to Guelph, Ontario, where he gambled everything on a one-man operation making oil pumps for Ford. The company he founded, Linamar, today has 15,000 employees in eight countries and is the second-largest maker of auto parts in Canada. To create this global empire, Hasenfratz stayed ahead of competitors through hard work, visionary leadership, a cost-conscious regimen, and a skilled workforce.

In 1990, Hasenfratz designated his daughter, Linda, to succeed him as chief executive officer but first put her through a prolonged apprenticeship that took her from the plant floor to head office. Driven to Succeed is the story of what one daring entrepreneur with dreams and determination can achieve.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459707955
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	11/13/2012
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	491,792
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Rod McQueen has written more than a dozen books, including Who Killed Confederation Life?, winner of the National Business Book Award, and The Eatons, winner of the Canadian Authors Association prize for history. He lives in Toronto.

Susan M. Papp is a television producer and director and the author of Outcasts. While working at the CBC, she was awarded the Michener Award for outstanding investigative reporting. She teaches at the Munk School of Global Affairs and lives in Toronto.

Table of Contents

One: Learning to Survive …………………..………..….. 1
Two: Narrow Escapes ………………………..………...  15
Three: The Prankster ………………………….……..…. 30
Four: In the Army ……………………………….……...  46
Five: The Freedom Fighter ……………………..…….… 54
Six: Life as a Refugee ………………………………….... 70
Seven: Stranger in a Strange Land ……………….……. 84
Eight: Brave Beginnings ……………………….……… 100
Nine: The Man at the Machine ………………….……  116
Ten: Hits and Misses ………….…..…………....……… 132
Eleven: Going Public …………………………………... 149
Twelve: Firing on all Cylinders ………………………. 166
Thirteen: The Linamar Culture ………………….……. 185
Fourteen: Starting at the Bottom ……………….……... 201
Fifteen: The Family Way …………………………….… 216
Sixteen: The Ups and Downs of Skyjack ………….…. 231
Seventeen: Her Own Stamp…………………………..... 244
Eighteen: Recovering from the Crisis ……………….... 260
Nineteen: Roots and Wings ………………………….... 275
Twenty: Steering the Canoe ………………………..….. 290
Twenty-One: Doing Well and Doing Good …...…..…. 306
Epilog: Words to Live By ………………………………  322