Budget 2001: Full Coverage

Ms Morden chose not to wait. "She came to my house perfectly attired, madeup and ready to do business at 5:30 in the morning," Mr Nadal says. "Theonly thing she asked for was a Diet Coke." He hired her as president ofMaxxcom, the largest full-service marketing communications organisationbased in Canada and a unit of MDC, a check printer and credit-cardproducer.

In the two years since, Mr Nadal and Ms Morden, who is now Maxxcom's CEO,have put in plenty of early mornings and gone through cases of Diet Coke.Madison Avenue is taking notice as Maxxcom invests in one advertising agencyor specialised marketing concern after another. During the past two years,Maxxcom has taken positions in such brand-name agencies as New York'sMargeotes/Fertitta & Partners and Miami's Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Alltold, Maxxcom has bought large interests in 13 companies since 1998.

Maxxcom's strategy differs from that of many companies in the industrytrying to grow through acquisitions because its deals are intended to keepmanagement in place. "If you're passionate about your business, why not stayon?" asks Ms Morden, 47 years old.

MDC went public in the 1980s, and spun off 26 per cent of Maxxcom last year.In 1999, Maxxcom bought control of five companies in deals with a combinedvalue of 130 million Canadian dollars (US$85 million). It has also financedwhat it calls "tuck under" acquisitions of specialised agencies for its newsubsidiaries. For example, Maxxcom backed Margeotes/Fertitta's acquisitionsof Bratskeir & Co., a public-relations firm, and Chinnici Direct, adirect-marketing agency, both of New York. While Ms Morden believes thecompany will slow its deal-making pace this year because of the softeningeconomy, the company is now in talks to buy stakes in three more firms.

Mr Matthew Hooper, founder of London communications agency InterfocusNetwork, decided last year to buy his company back from Interpublic Group,to which he had sold it four years earlier. He was also negotiating to buyOsprey London, the advertising and direct-marketing arm of OspreyCommunications.

When he realised that financing both deals at once would be tough, he turnedto Ms Morden. Maxxcom announced its purchase of 60 per cent of Interfocusand Interfocus's acquisition of Osprey London on the same day.

This opened a door to more capital while enabling Mr Hooper to continuerunning his own business. When an entrepreneur joins a traditionalmultinational, he can find himself "within a large bureaucratic operationwith professional managers," he says. "They often quash that which has madethe entity successful in the first place."

Mr Nadal's belief in entrepreneurs stems from his own experience. He startedhis first company when he was 21 with C$500 he borrowed on a credit card.His first employees were his parents. To motivate new employees today, MrNadal, 43, gives each a copy of the movie "Rudy," which tells the story ofan undersized football player's unlikely success. "I love the underdog," MrNadal says.

Ms Morden has her own underdog credentials. After high school in Toronto,she landed a job as a secretary. Encouraged by her boss, a senior vice-president at a utility company, she enrolled in night classes. It took MsMorden, then a single mother of a young son, seven years of night classes toearn her college degree. Ms Morden, who has since remarried, now has twochildren, a 22-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.

Ms Morden started her post-secretarial career in human resources and workedher way up the ladder at several big companies in Canada, including Motorolaand Monsanto. Before joining Maxxcom, she headed the trade-show division ofCanadian publishing company Southam, and made a series of acquisitions inthe US.

While Mr Nadal points to Ms Morden's unconventional career path as evidenceof her steely determination, she plays down her accomplishments and creditsa series of mentors with helping her to succeed. "I was lucky," she says. "Ihad people recognise my potential."