A CULTURE OF COLLABORATION

For Curtus Larson, reliable is more than just a word on the sign

Never being satisfied is a common theme among athletes and performers at the top of their field. Broke a record last year? Great—so how are you going to top that this season? How are you going to follow a chart-topping debut album?

This ever-present conflict can cause some to crack under the pressure, while others rise to the challenge and excel.

Curtus Larson discovered this a little over 20 years ago while playing left wing for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings, and has since come to instil this environment of constant improvement within his collision repair business.

“When we had success in hockey, it was typically because we had a positive culture,” he told Collision Repair in a phone interview.

“You would have role players—not everybody is a goal-scorer—you need somebody who will grind away in the corners. You need that older veteran that calms the room and those younger guys to spark them to work a little harder. I think that goes the same with any team.”

Curtus took over as co-owner and day-to-day operations manager of CSN Reliable in March 2020—needless to say, company culture was one of the few things he could control about his business at the time.

In fact, Curtus says, above everything, he feels most proud of his team’s constructive mindset.

It was no simple point A-to-B trip in getting where he is today, however, as Curtus will tell anyone his experience was far from typical.

“I actually just needed a job while I was playing junior hockey in the Comox Valley when I was 18 years old. I started off sweeping floors and washing cars; just kind of general clean-up stuff, for about a year-and-a-half.”

When he hit the ripe age of 20 and his time came to hang up the skates, Curtus said he started to take work more seriously and view it as something he could make a career out of.

“When I was getting into prep and everything, I discovered that it was something that I was actually pretty good at,” he said.

“That’s when my passion and everything started to kick in. As I got better and honed my skills, the more I enjoyed it.”

Those skills ended up kicking off a 12-year run as head painter at CSN Reliable for Curtus, and in effect, making him a vital gear in the shop’s entire production plan.

Curtus says he was equally inclined to educate himself on the many other aspects of his shop’s operations as well, making clear to his boss and eventual partner, Mike, that he had aspirations beyond the paint booth.

“When Mike asked me if I had plans for the future, I said ‘I plan on owning CSN Reliable one day,’” Curtus said.

From there, Curtus’ trajectory towards ownership found its launch pad and he began leading a double-life between the production floor and the front office.

“I would start early, at around six or seven in the morning. so that I could get my work done by two or three o’clock…I would do the Superman phone booth change in the bathroom to get into my office clothes and work in the front for the last three hours,” Curtus recalled.

“I had no idea what I was in for. I am completely a technician through-and-through—I can barely type. So, it was painful for the first couple years and I just remember being so mentally exhausted when I was getting started—it’s a completely different kind of exhaustion.”

Curtus was eventually offered a position as full-time estimator and co-manager with the other estimator, despite the protests of his fellow AkzoNobel performance group members who “thought Mike was absolutely nuts to take his lead painter out of production and put him in the office,” according to Curtus.

“Even though we did struggle for two or three years getting our bearings…it was a risk that Mike was willing to take for the sake of the long-term,” said Curtus.

“From there, it’s just kind of about formulating your own plan. I took a little bit from my co-manager from before and omitted the stuff that didn’t make sense to me.”

It is now March 2020, Curtus is manager and co-owner of CSN Reliable alongside Mike, but the true challenge is only a few weeks away.

Pandemic lockdown measures gave the shop a true crash-course in strategic parts ordering, with Curtus electing to hire a full-time parts specialist and increasing inventory by about 400 percent to ensure he can facilitate any repair.

“We’re definitely making it work, as far as having [the parts department] extremely organized and having the parts carts loaded, which in turn helped technician and estimator efficiencies,” he said.

Regardless of what outside forces may affect his shop’s operations, Curtus always ensured that his positive company culture never wavered; it is a mentality that served him well in the hockey world, and would again in collision repair.

“I attribute a lot to the coaching I did in hockey. I coached the junior team that I played with, as well as youth with my kids in rep hockey, so I took a lot of what I learned coaching into managing,” said Curtus.

“One of the biggest things I learned is listening—listening to everybody. You may not agree with everything somebody is saying, but I always make a point of listening because there are always a few things, a few processes or ways to handle things that you can take from pretty much anybody.”

Now with a few years of running the show solo under his belt, Curtus says he makes a concerted effort to support the apprenticeship programs that helped get him to where he is today.

“We linked up with North Island College on Vancouver Island for a pre-apprenticeship course,” said Curtus. “Their technicians will come here to talk to real technicians and ask them any questions they want. We’ll give them some damaged hoods to work and give them some pointers.

“A nice thing about our crew right now is that they are super responsive to teaching and passing on their knowledge.”

Regardless of whether the world is shut down and repair work is few and far between, or the lot is packed with jobs waiting to be done, Curtus says he is keen to cement this culture he has helped build into the foundation of CSN Reliable and prove the value of balancing business with genuine group camaraderie.

“You’re not going to have the same team forever; I’m not naïve to that,” he said.

“But, if you are continually striving for that culture, production, quality mix—once you get there, it is a pretty proud moment.”