Algoma's man of steel: Denis Turcotte is charting a new direction for the steelmaker.

• Author: Ross, Ian

Denis Turcotte says right off the top he hates laying off people.

But he reconciles it as necessary when faced with the bare facts of the Sault Ste. Marie steel company's past business performance and the condition of the global steel market.

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Edging forward in a leather-bound chair in his office over looking the St. Mary's River, the 42-year-old president and CEO of Algoma Steel says he refuses to manage from a crisis situation. But he says he has a "moral responsibility" to make the tough decisions and do the right things pro-actively to place the 103-year-old steelmaker on solid financial footing and reposition it globally.

Turcotte is the new driving force behind a cultural change taking place. With a new logo in place, a tighter management structure and a pared down workforce by 18 per cent. Algoma has taken steps to reduce inefficiencies, show faith in employee expertise, give better service to customers and gain some confidence from investors.

In May, as steel markets began to improve, the new management took a paring knife to reduce its 3,400-person workforce by 600 this year through their market adjustment plan. Many of the workers were temporary employees and others will leave through attrition. In an effort to reduce inefficiences, the company eliminated layers of management by cutting two of eight organizational levels that separate Turcotte from the shop floor.

As steel markets began to improve in the last quarter of 2002 and the first quarter of 2003, Turcotte felt the company "had to act as quickly as it could" and it "acted in a pro-active way."

Pragmatic and optimistic, analytical and expansive in his thoughts, Turcotte has spent his year behind the president's desk of the sheet and plate producer and on the shop floor understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the company and dissecting the problems plaguing the Canadian steel industry. He has been crafting a plan for success.

Born in Beardmore and raised in Thunder Bay, Turcotte understands the socioeconomic roots inherent in one-industry towns and how sometimes competent, capable managers can be paralysed with community pressures that lead to either indecision or bad judgment that might cause their neighbour to lose a job.

After an 11-year career at Tembec, most recently as president of its paper group and executive vice-president of corporate development and strategy, Turcotte was brought in, in September 2002, by a search committee, after the...