Creating new rules with tools.

• Author: Mills, Patricia
• Position: NEWS

It used to be that you would go to college or university, study business, accounting or finance, work for 10 years climbing a corporate ladder, then spend 10 or 15 years waiting for your manager to retire, so you could finally rest your career in the ultimate seat of success.

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That was then. It is certainly not now. Not in this era of mega-mergers, an aging population, scarce workers, increased globalization, diversification and unstable financial markets.

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This generation's buzz word in not MBA, international experience, or tenacity, although they are useful supports. Today's focus for business owners, managers and entrepreneurs is on leadership--thinking leadership, reinventing how leaders work, lead, study, recruit, manage and perform. It makes interesting reading and even more interesting learning.

In some ways, Northern Ontario Business has been introducing our market to examples of such a leadership shift through the stories in the paper, but also through our events division.

For example, this year's Influential Women of Northern Ontario Awards program is bringing in a keynote speaker who took a leap of faith 15 years ago from her corporate career to launch an innovative company focused on the burgeoning "new market" of home renovations. Lori Mitchell, owner of Tomboy Tools Canada, reinvented the marketplace for home improvement and maintenance among women, and leads through her innovative thinking and execution, a truly unique market.

Mitchell has become one of this country's most inspiring business success stories. A niche business without direct competition in today's marketplace, Tomboy Tools Canada sells high-quality hand and power tools designed with the ergonomic needs of women in mind.

While still in university, Mitchell started her first company and, by the early 90s, had founded Mitchell Consulting Services, specializing in quality and customer service consulting and training. After a 15-year career in the corporate world, Mitchell took a leap of faith in 2004 and founded Tomboy...