Many business owners spend years waiting for the “right time” to make a major decision about their company. Whether that means investing further, bringing in partners or preparing for a sale, the instinct is often to wait for clearer market conditions. Christine Pound believes that moment rarely arrives.

For many prairie business owners, global instability can feel distant. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions and social media activism can often seem like issues for multinational corporations, not local SMEs. Grant Kook sees it differently. As Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chair of Westcap Mgt. Ltd., and now Chair of BTF Saskatoon, Grant brings a broad perspective to prairie business.

Many owners spend years building a business, only to discover late in the process that deals don’t fall apart on price alone. They unravel on terms, trust and expectations that were never fully negotiated in the first place. That reality came through clearly in our conversation with William M. Donnellan, President and CEO of IRL Group of Companies.