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Color Photo: Paul Latour, The Ottawa Citizen / Tundra chief executive [Adam Chowaniec] recalls the long-gone Amiga as `a brilliant piece of technology' but admits, `We did a lousy job of marketing.' ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / webPLAN executive Randy Sexton, left, shares words with Brian Carolan, also of webPLAN, and Tracy Praill. webPLAN's Brian Kerr received a silver award in running for Business Person of the Year. ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / Nicole Desnoyers, left, Danielle Viau-Gougeon and Denise Bond of Waller Etc. were among hundreds of people at last night's gala for the Ottawa Board of Trade's annual business achievement awards. ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / Ferne Wyman, left, and husband Bill Wyman of the Davis Agency, who was nominated for Business Person of the Year, found a quiet table with Nicholas Newton of Results Systems and Wendy Finnie. ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / Gail Ryan, left, Catherine Stewart, Kathy Ryan and Mary Ann Turnbull all represented Turnbull Learning Centre/Turnbull School, which was nominated for the Company of the Year award. The school received a bronze award ; the gold went to Cognos Inc. and silver to Dollco Printing. ;
(From the Ottawa Citizen, November 27, 1999) Michael Ker, president and CEO of webPLAN Inc., won business person of the year award at the Ottawa Board of Trade business achievement awards Thursday. Incorrect information appeared yesterday in a photo caption. *****
Remember the Amiga? Many people faintly recall a quaint early personal computer that fell under the juggernaut of Microsoft and Intel.
But Adam Chowaniec, named Business Person of the Year last night by the Ottawa Board of Trade, has no trouble remembering a product many enthusiasts still believe was the best on the market.
"The Amiga was my product," said Mr. Chowaniec, 49, now the chief executive of Tundra Semiconductor Corp. "I was the vice-president for technology at Commodore Computer.
"We had a brilliant piece of technology, but we did a lousy job of marketing and that proved to be the Achilles heel."
The bitter lessons the young hardware engineer learned at Commodore operations in Philadelphia from 1983 to 1986 are still useful today.
"It was a real education in business for me. Until then, I only knew about technical things. But I learned lessons there about how important successful marketing and strong teamwork are."
Other award-winners include Cognos Inc., Company of the Year, Eftia OSS Solutions, New Business of the Year, Med-Eng Systems Inc., Exporter of the Year, Larry Poirier, Nitro Microsystems Inc., Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and Davidsons Jewellers, Small Business of the Year.
Mr. Chowaniec used the Amiga lessons to build Tundra into a successful maker of specialized chips for the telecommunications industry.
In 1987 he came back to Canada to take over Calmos Semiconductor, a troubled chip design company teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with sales of only $4.5 million.
While Amiga eventually went broke -- twice -- in the mid-90s, Calmos has flourished under its new name of Tundra Semiconductor.
Mr. Chowaniec sold the company to Newbridge in 1989, then led it to independence in 1996 and to an initial public offering early this year.
This week it reported a 47-per-cent gain in quarterly sales and a startling 126-per-cent increase in profits.
Tundra stock has jumped 135 per cent this year. It closed at $24.50 yesterday, a gain of 12 per cent on the day.
Analysts are quickly upgrading their target prices for Tundra over the next year as high as $33 yesterday.
Todd Coupland, an analyst with CIBC World Markets, said in a report , "Customers are responding very well to Tundra's new products" which are expected to start generating sales shortly. He upgraded his estimate for Tundra revenue growth in fiscal 2001 from 27 per cent to 38 per cent.
The new products are called systems-on-a-chip and they will speed processing inside the complex computers that manage telecommunication systems.
"Tundra holds the skeleton key that allows you to get into any of the locked doors that hinder communications among chip components," Mr. Chowaniec has said.
The vast majority of Tundra customers are outside Canada. But unlike many other high-tech executives, he has taken an active role in the local community serving as vice-chair of the Ottawa Economic Development Corp.
Mr. Chowaniec will campaign early next year in Toronto to raise the region's profile with the provincial government. And his wife, Claudia, a management consultant, has championed moving the region to a single-tier government.
He is also not afraid to speak out on issues even closer to home. With Newbridge Networks and chairman Terence Matthews considering offers for the company, Mr. Chowaniec is worried about the impact of a possible sale on the region -- even though Newbridge and Mr. Matthews are the biggest single shareholders in Tundra.
"If the ownership passes out of the region, I am concerned that we won't get the same number of start-up companies that we have in the past. We will continue to get the research and development, but I think we lose something if the decision-making goes."
Born in the United Kingdom, Mr. Chowaniec emigrated to Canada to gets his masters in electrical engineering at Queen's University in 1972.
After returning to Sheffield to get his doctorate, he was coaxed by his Canadian-born wife, who also has a PhD, to return to Canada in 1975 where he went to work at Bell Northern Research, now Nortel.
While Tundra has flourished, the Amiga is still alive.
It enjoys cult status in Europe and with many dedicated user groups around the world. The reason is that offered a lean, stable operating system and a technology that supported multimedia and other applications better than its well-heeled competitors could offer.
The Amiga could still rise again. Gateway Technologies, the second- biggest maker of build-to-order computers, bought the Amiga technology last year.
It is working with American Online, the world's biggest Internet service provider, to incorporate Amiga technology into a new generation of TV set-top boxes and other simple computing appliances.
And these Web appliances could yet break Microsoft and Intel's domination of the desktop computer market.
Color Photo: Paul Latour, The Ottawa Citizen / Tundra chief executive Adam Chowaniec recalls the long-gone Amiga as `a brilliant piece of technology' but admits, `We did a lousy job of marketing.' ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / webPLAN executive Randy Sexton, left, shares words with Brian Carolan, also of webPLAN, and Tracy Praill. webPLAN's Brian Kerr received a silver award in running for Business Person of the Year. ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / Nicole Desnoyers, left, Danielle Viau-Gougeon and Denise Bond of Waller Etc. were among hundreds of people at last night's gala for the Ottawa Board of Trade's annual business achievement awards. ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / Ferne Wyman, left, and husband Bill Wyman of the Davis Agency, who was nominated for Business Person of the Year, found a quiet table with Nicholas Newton of Results Systems and Wendy Finnie. ; Black & White Photo: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / Gail Ryan, left, Catherine Stewart, Kathy Ryan and Mary Ann Turnbull all represented Turnbull Learning Centre/Turnbull School, which was nominated for the Company of the Year award. The school received a bronze award ; the gold went to Cognos Inc. and silver to Dollco Printing. ;
Copyright Southam Publications Inc. Nov 26, 1999