But what makes Kalle’s story compelling is not his bottom line; it is the lifelines he throws new Canadians. Kalle’s willingness to hire talent over skin-tone has proven to be as good for business as it is for his employees.

Pathway’s beginning

In 1995, Kalle and a partner registered Pathway as an Internet Service Provider. Their business was one of dozens of ISPs at the time—Kalle needed to stand out from the competition.

His solution was an innovative pricing strategy. Customers were charged $9.95 a month for 30 hours, but if they signed on for a year, could carry their unused hours over to the next payment term. Consumers responded and Pathway Communications became one of the top five ISPs in the country.

Not many executives can say they discovered a star programmer who was stocking shelves in a hardware store.

“The phone wouldn’t stop ringing,” says Kalle. “We were signing up 30, 40, 50 people a day.”

Good service and good equipment were standard. Pathway was the first ISP in the world to receive an ISO certification for quality.

In 1999, Kalle was approached by a buyer. As much as he resisted the idea of selling, he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse and the company’s Internet division began operating under the name Axxent, with Kalle staying on in an executive role. The company grew from 40 to 1200 employees.

Then the dot-com bubble burst.

By March 2001, most of those 1200 employees had been laid off.

Instead of walking away from the industry, Kalle bought what was left of the company back—22 employees and $1.5 million in annual revenue.

Kalle refused to take salary until he could improve the company’s profits. His faith in the business was so contagious that the remaining employees agreed to take a 10 per cent salary cut.

A company is resurrected

Kalle’s journey to revive Pathway Communications was a bumpy one. The ISP world had changed dramatically since he first started, and Rogers Cable and Bell now dominated the market. In order to stand out from the competition, Kalle marketed his company as a managed services provider rather than an ISP, and introduced customized service packages that included installation, troubleshooting and Internet Security.

Within five years the company’s revenue had climbed to over $10 million. Today, Pathway Communications has over 130 employees in three cities, as well as a call centre in India. Kalle has also started two other companies – in Internet Security and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Equal opportunity on every path

Kalle operates his company as if it were 30-person operation, despite the fact that it’s a mid-sized company that’s lauded for fast growth.

“We’re more of a family-oriented type of environment. If someone is sick for a month, we don’t necessarily dock their wages.”—Kalle

The environment has created a devoted workforce – one that has stuck with Kalle since the beginning and through the ebbs and flows of the market.

Hiring from ‘other buckets’

Their loyalty also stems from Kalle’s willingness to employ those with fewer opportunities than established Canadians. The majority of Pathway’s employees are first-generation immigrants.

“It’s a question of equality,” says Kalle. “For a lot of the people who work here, it’s their first real job, they were doing garbage work before.”

Kalle recalls shopping at Home Depot and talking to a sales clerk who was shelving boxes. He learned that the man was a computer programmer in Russia, but he couldn’t find a job because he didn’t speak English well.

That former shelf-stocker is now one of the best programmers at Pathway.

“People tend to play around in the same bucket, not realizing that there’s another bucket next door with lots of goodies in it,” says Kalle.

Kalle’s confidence in “other buckets,” has allowed him to uncover talents that other companies have brushed aside.

“[Canadian society] pays too much attention to the interview and the resume,” he says. “We hire immigrants because they’re qualified and they’re just as talented as any Canadian.”

In fact, Kalle says that hiring the ‘top players’ doesn’t necessarily bring about top results.

“Imagine a hill with two tigers,” says Kalle. “Extraordinary players come with extraordinary expectations and extraordinary egos.”

Kalle’s workforce on the other hand, appreciates both the opportunity and Pathway’s benefit package, which includes dental care, health insurance, employee training, and language courses.

Even if his employees are offered higher salaries elsewhere, they’re reluctant to leave Pathway’s exceptional work environment.

Sub-continental benevolence

Kalle’s goodwill in helping those who are less fortunate has even spread overseas. In 2006, the Toronto Star wrote a story about Pathway’s call centre in Pune, India.

The Indian centre is modeled after the Pathway office in Markham, Ontario, and is equipped with a cappuccino machine and ergonomic chairs. Employees are paid 300,000 to 500,000 rupees a year – a significant salary in India.

In an age where money trumps morality, Kalle gives new Canadians a chance to prove their worth, supports them with extraordinary benefits, and in return they generate millions of dollars. His compassion is a reminder that benevolence can be very good business.