CCL Home > Newsroom > Profiles in Learning
“It’s hard for me to imagine a life that is less active and involved,” Shaw says. “I’ve always been eager to put my experience and learning to use in the community.”
Anyone who has spent any time in Nova Scotia is probably familiar with Allan Shaw’s name. The scion of one of Atlantic Canada’s oldest families, he’s responsible for building the family business from a modest brick-and-tile company to the thriving Shaw Group Ltd., which now manufacturers more than 1,000 products for the building industry.
A Harvard MBA graduate with a life-long commitment to volunteerism, Shaw’s imprint can be felt on all aspects on the construction industry via Shaw Brick, Shaw Pipe, Shaw Resources, Shaw Wood, Shaw & Shaw, Prestige Homes and Clayton Developments, to name just a few companies.
In his 25 years at the helm of The Shaw Group, Shaw also earned a reputation for community involvement. His reshaping of Nova Scotia’s voluntary sector in the early 1970s contributed to his appointment to the Order of Canada.
Shaw credits three factors for helping him achieve personal and professional success; His education at the world’s top business schools, his volunteer work, and countless backyard chats he’s had over the years with his neighbours in Halifax.
“I was given a great deal of opportunity to make my life successful,” he explains. “Good schooling was part of that process, but over the years I have done some of my most meaningful learning right in my community.”
In fact, one of his formative learning experiences came from the Tolson sisters, two middle-aged women who lived next door to Shaw when he was growing up. The sisters befriended Shaw early in his life and effectively served as the first mentors to the budding industrialist, taking him on outdoor hikes and answering all of his many questions patiently and thoroughly.
“The Tolson sisters took me under their wing when I was very small and taught me about flowers, nature and cooking,” says Shaw. “They didn’t keep toys. Just a few special books, which they took out now and then and showed me.”
He has drawn on that early learning throughout his life, and is a firm believer that a strong, loving family, and a wider community of intelligent, well-meaning adults—like the Tolson sisters—has made him who he is.
“They were prepared to take the time,” he says. “They seemed intent on making the effort, which is a powerful thing for a little kid.”
After more than two decades as the head of The Shaw Group (he is now chairman of the board) Allan Shaw has earned a reputation as a hard working, brilliant, and fair-minded businessman.
Over the course of his career Shaw has continued a tradition established by his grandfather, L.E. Shaw, to focus on community involvement and industry leadership. He is known for overseeing profound change at three organizations in Nova Scotia; he chaired the board of Voluntary Planning, the province’s premier citizens’ policy forum for 12 years; served in 1985 as campaign chair of the Metro United Way, restructuring the campaign so that it raised more money than in any previous year; and served as board chair at Dalhousie University, where he was a key player in the merger between Dalhousie and the Technical University of Nova Scotia—a challenge that had been attempted many times before.
“These organizations seemed to know they needed new blood and new ideas and I was qualified to bring that expertise to them on a voluntary basis. I learned a great during those years about my abilities as an agent of change. I consider them as having been among the best experiences of my life.”
His efforts have received wide recognition. In 2001 he received the Order of Canada, was named Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year and received an Honourary Doctor of Laws from Dalhousie University.
Although he attributes his accomplishments in part to strong family traditions and to his early days in Bedford, there is no denying Mr. Shaw’s formal learning experiences have been critical to his success.
After earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Dalhousie University and serving for several years as a manager with his family’s company, he attended the prestigious Atlantic Summer School. It was here that professors from Harvard and the University of Western Ontario used a case-study method to teach rising stars in Canadian business about best practices and leading business techniques.
“I learned from that experience—both by how much I loved it, and by how well I did—that I could indeed hold my own at the best business schools in the world.”
Mr. Shaw’s next major career move was to apply to the Harvard Business School’s MBA program. He got in and earned an MBA with distinction. In retrospect, Mr. Shaw considers 1969 and 1970—the years during which he moved his family to Boston and attended Harvard—to have been the most rewarding and blissful of his career.
“I found at Harvard that I could compete with the best,” he says. “That’s a powerful thing to learn about oneself.” He found he was able to hold his own in class discussions and in competitive situations that were part and parcel of attending a top business school. “I was able to do things my way, according to my nature, and excel as a business person. Once I got home I found I was looked at differently because I had established impressive business credentials from what was the best school in the world.”
Shaw’s business style was about careful thought followed by determined action. He has always been a team player, but does not like to embroil himself and others in endless unnecessary debate. “These qualities were valued at Harvard. There’s no doubt that the experience there stoked my confidence.”
This was critical because Shaw was plagued by worries that within the family company, he would be perceived as not having earned his job if he were placed in key management roles. He had even considered accepting jobs elsewhere in Canada and in the United States to escape his community’s expectations and judgments.
“Leaving the company for two years to earn the kind of accolades I did from Harvard was crucial both for the company’s perception of me and for my perception of myself. I learned I belonged at the head of this company—that I’d earned it. I returned to Nova Scotia and have lived there ever since.”
Shaw’s commitment to industry and community continues to this day. He and his wife regularly host Spanish-speaking students who learn English before returning to their families and careers in Spain. Among other appointments and directorships, Shaw continues as the director at the Bank of Nova Scotia, the Harvard Business School Alumni Association board and as chair of Canadian Policy Research Networks.
“It’s hard for me to imagine a life that is less active and involved,” he says “I’ve always been eager to put my experience and learning to use in the community.”