THE PRESIDENT KEEPS TOOL CHEST HANDY

Michael Paisley keeps a tool chest under his desk.  As president of Toronto-based Paisley-Manor Insurance, he can easily afford to hire trades people whenever repairs need to be made around the office.  Instead, he always tries to rectify any given situation himself.  That’s why people were amazed when he was the voice on the other end of the phone at 3 a.m. when clients were calling about damages caused by a sudden and violent rainstorm.  Paisley said of the phone call, “it’s never a bother to speak to a client, no matter what the circumstance.  Literally and figuratively, that’s why I keep the tool chest handy. If something needs fixing, we get involved, even if we don’t have to.”

It is these attitudes have permitted the company to grow from one worker, founder Irving Paisley, with a dream in a small, shared office to 52 employees handling business on an international scale. The journey has been over 50 years and today’s president, Michael Paisley, emphasizes “the success of this organization, to a great degree, is not based on grandstanding or working on hitting home runs, but with the focus on many single-score runs. Remember that many drops fill the bucket.” 

Michael is the first to explain that “my father’s reputation precedes me and, in the end, reputation is all you leave behind.  Dad led some very big projects, such as funding and building York Finch General Hospital because he recognized the need in the northwest corner of the community.  It took 10 years to collect funding.  I’m the baby with my parents in the photo used to solicit fund-raising.”

Asked to offer advice to anyone thinking of insurance as a career, Michael explains “any skill can be utilized in insurance. Most importantly, be best at whatever you do, wherever you are on the ladder in an organization.  I started here as a teenager, sweeping the floors and collecting discarded paperclips.”  Paisley continues to uphold this hands-on attitude today answering client calls and, of course, putting his tool chest to good use.