At age 48, Ottawa entrepreneur Denis Staples was “essentially retired” after the sale of a family business, but all that changed when he had the opportunity to pass on his knowledge to the next generation of business leaders.
Earlier this week, Algonquin College professor and program coordinator Christopher Doré announced on LinkedIn that Staples will provide mentorship and feedback to students in the management and entrepreneurship program as the first volunteer “Entrepreneur in Residence.”
“We couldn’t be happier to welcome Denis Staples as the inaugural EIR,” Doré wrote in the post. “This new position marks a milestone for our program, giving students direct access to entrepreneurial leadership at a level we’ve never had before, and furthering our goal of becoming the best business and entrepreneurship program in Canada!”
With a bachelor of commerce from McMaster University and an EMBA from Queen’s University, Staples worked alongside his father at Renfrew-based Madawaska Hardwood Flooring. He later went on to a stint in marketing and human resources at Rideau Carleton Raceway. In 2000, he joined another family business, Deslaurier Custom Cabinets, and took over as president from 2005 to 2018, growing the company from $2 million in annual sales to around $29 million when it sold in 2019.
In an interview with OBJ Thursday, Staples said he’d “essentially retired” at age 48 after the sale of the custom cabinetry business, but, unable to sit still, he turned to volunteering.
Algonquin college Entrepreneur in Residence Denis Staples. Photo credit: Christopher Doré/LinkedIn
“I got involved in minor hockey stuff and was on the board of the Ottawa Jr. 67’s. And it got to the point where I realized that I have all this institutional knowledge in my head and I’m not sharing it with anyone,” said Staples, who also provides HR, marketing and management advice through his company Umbrella Consulting & Executive Coaching.
Staples started volunteering at a local school, a habit he kept up into the pandemic when the principal would ask him to fill in when substitute teachers weren’t available. He said the experience uncovered his love of teaching and taught him a lot about younger generations.
“For me, they’re completely different from my generation,” he said. “They learn differently, they interact differently. I’d go in and say to the kids, you guys want to do (these worksheets) or do you want to learn about money? I developed this presentation about financial literacy. What is a savings account? What is interest? What’s good debt and bad debt? That’s when things started to click in my head. Like hey, I think I’m pretty good at this. Maybe I should be looking into teaching.”
While Staples didn’t have the teaching background, he found a unique opportunity at Algonquin College after connecting with Doré.
Over the past few years, Staples has regularly visited with the school’s aspiring entrepreneurs to provide insight into what it takes to run a business. Through the Entrepreneur in Residence role, he said he now has an opportunity to double-down on the work and provide direct mentorship and feedback to students.
“There was one class where (Doré) asked the students how many of them are going to want to open a business and like 90 per cent of them raised their hands,” said Staples. “That’s part of the idea. I can help with their business plans and, in some cases, their actual businesses. It’s super exciting.”
In a tumultuous world for new grads who must navigate a rocky job market, technological advancements and high costs, Staples said he isn’t surprised to see so many students looking to forge their own paths.
He said his first impression of the current generation of students is that they aren’t following traditional formulas.
“There’s always going to be some element of risk and I feel like this generation is okay with that,” he said. “They have these ideas and they want to try them out. They’re open to non-traditional employment. I think they’re less restricted and they view that there are many paths to success. In my generation, there was a formula and we all sort of did the same thing. I think this generation has way more paths to their careers.”