"Tunnel vision will break you".

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: News - Learn from Leaders

Ideas and opportunities are everywhere; one just has to be willing to tap into them.

To succeed, Bruno Niederer says it is vital to know your profession inside-out.

"You have to educate yourself on a daily basis," says Niederer, 55, a former Thunder Bay hotelier, caterer and now successful car dealer in describing his quest to achieve perfection. "Tunnel vision will break you. Learn from other people's mistakes."

As a principle partner at Performance KIA, the Swiss-born Niederer has made a successful transition from managing one of the city's flagship hotels, the Airlane, to guiding one of the fastest growing car dealerships in north-western Ontario.

"Everybody has a creative side to themselves, all we have to do is tap onto it," says Niederer, who keeps a bedside notepad to jot down any nocturnal brainstorms. "I keep my eyes and ears open, 365 days a year. You have to look outside the box.

"Sometimes I have to close my office door, sit down and it takes about 10 to 20 minutes to get my mind into the mode. It's like a computer I've got to warm it up and the ideas come so fast and I can't write them down fast enough."

Over 26 years at the Airlane, Niederer worked his way up from a 23-year-old chef to becoming part-owner of a highly profitable, top-level hotel, overseeing 350 employees.

Under his management, the Airlane's catering services were expanded to include managing the food services outlets at Old Fort William in the mid-1990s, as well as operating a flight kitchen for Air Canada and other regional carriers.

Niederer designed and...