Unconventional actions can often have widespread influence. Others see people doing something unexpected, get inspired and do it too. It helps if the people putting a new idea into action have the capacity to communicate to large numbers of people.
Evi Mustel excels on both fronts.
She is a winner of Business in Vancouver’s 2016 Influential Women in Business Awards in part because of her role co-founding the Mustel Group in 1980 with Joan McIntyre and then, along with current partner Jami Koehl, building that company into an 80-employee polling firm.
BIV ranked that firm as No. 14 on the 2015 list of biggest B.C. businesses owned by women.
Along the way, Mustel learned the importance for a pollster to be in media, as she is often seen in radio, television and print and giving presentations to industry groups.
Her involvement with organizations such as the Vancouver Board of Trade (VBOT), where she is vice-chair, has also helped her earn respect and influence.
“I have always admired her determination and involvement in positively impacting the business community,” said VBOT CEO Iain Black. “We have been both enriched and shaped by her volunteer service over the past decade, as she has served on VBOT’s board of directors for almost 10 years.”
Mustel is also a past chair of the VBOT’s Women’s Leadership Circle (WLC) signature program.
She told BIV that about six years ago she was part of a group of women who created the WLC, because “at that time the VBOT was viewed as being an Old Boys club.”
The WLC devised separate programs and held receptions for women, and has been successful in increasing female membership at the VBOT, Mustel said.
She has also had directorships at both the YMCA of Greater Vancouver and EasyPark, which is the City of Vancouver-owned parking lot operator.
When Mustel joins organizations, she often gets involved at the committee level.
At the VBOT, for example, she is a member of its policy council. That committee helps choose the issues that VBOT focuses its lobbying resources on.
At her business, Mustel has also been an innovator.
For example, she allows her call-centre employees to work from home.
“There’s a huge upside to doing that because the quality of interviews has increased,” she said. “Other companies are hesitant to go that route because they think that they will lose control, but we’ve found the opposite.”
Mustel also differs from competitors by assembling randomly recruited web panels. It is a nuance that might at first sound esoteric, but it is important.
“Most web panels are just opt-in ones where anybody who wants to take part can do so and get rewards to offer their opinion,” Mustel said. “Ours is 100% randomly recruited so we don’t allow people to opt in.”
The result of actively seeking out people to take part in web panels, which are created to match the demographics of a target survey group, is that the survey can then have a margin of error, Mustel explained.
“You can’t have a margin of error if the panel is not randomly recruited,” she said.
Originally from Oakville, Ontario, Mustel moved to B.C. after she completed a bachelor’s degree from McMaster University in Hamilton.
She worked for two years at the polling company TNS before co-founding her company.
Now in her 60s, Mustel is getting to that age when people ask if she is ready to retire. She’s not.
“I’m having too much fun with what I’m doing,” she said. “And I have a balance with all of these other extracurricular activities with the VBOT and other organizations.”
Launching a career in politics is also not out of the question: “I wouldn’t rule it out,” she said.•
Join us March 8th when Business in Vancouver celebrates the 17th annual Influential Women in Business Awards at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. For further information or to register for the event visit the events page at www.biv.com/events/iwib.
