Donald has been 'in the trenches'. He speaks clearly, honestly and with such integrity about how to be extraordinary in business that I immediately hired him to work with my team. Donald has given us the tools to create even more compelling value, a clear Vision for our future...and a process to make it happen.
Donald Cooper transforms businesses…and business people! He has helped thousands of companies throughout the world to add more real value to their customers’ lives…and more dollars to their bottom lines!
Donald started his business career at the age of 6, sweeping the floor in the family business for 5 cents a day. Long days and low pay…excellent early training for an entrepreneur!
He earned an undergraduate business degree and an MBA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth…followed by 18 years at Cooper Canada, the family business. From humble beginnings with just 15 employees, in just two generations Cooper Canada became the world’s leading maker of hockey equipment and a Canadian Brand icon, with 2,800 employees.
As the company grew, partners were bought out; the company went public, then went global, was unionized and un-unionized; built a dedicated, world-class team; opened an offshore factory in Barbados; imported and exported; bought competitors and, finally, sold to the wrong people.
At age 43 Donald left the family business to do something less corporate, reinventing himself as an award-winning fashion retailer. In just 3 years he fundamentally redefined the customer experience, for which he received 7 Awards of Excellence for marketing, service and business innovation, including being voted Canada’s outstanding innovative retailer.
Drawing from his real-life experience as a world-class manufacturer, retailer and business coach, Donald now helps companies rethink and reinvent themselves to create compelling customer value, clarity of purpose and long-term profitability.
When not speaking, coaching or researching, Donald and wife Wanda travel the world in search of new adventures and new insights.
For his unique, bottom-line business insights and extraordinary ability to engage, challenge and inspire, Donald has been awarded the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, the highest earned designation in the world of professional speaking…and he has been inducted into the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame.
Donald Cooper is ‘the Management Guy’. His insights into how to sell more, manage smarter, grow your bottom line and have a life will inform you, challenge you, disturb you, inspire you…and leave you with a new and powerful understanding of your business, your customers and your life!
Donald, thank you for your wonderful contribution to our Client Conference in Banff. It is impossible to fully put into words the value that you delivered. You also left us with specific management tools to make real change in our businesses.