Frank Stronach's is the quintessential rags-to-riches immigrant tale: He was a tool and die apprentice who left war-ravaged Austria in 1954 at age 22 with a one-way boat ticket and $40 in his pocket. Today, he is a billionaire entrepreneur whose grass roots style of doing business is as much a story as his building of Magna International into a global automotive empire.

The Magna founder, who now additionally makes the news pages when mentioned in connection with fast-rising MP and daughter Belinda Stronach, was born Franz Strohsack in the small town of Kleinsemmering, Styria, in the foothills of the Austrian Alps.

His parents were a working-class couple, who raised their family in very difficult times. It was a period marked by the Great Depression and the Second World War.

At 14 Frank left school to apprentice as a tool and die maker. In 1954, driven by a desire to travel the world, he arrived in Montréal, Canada, and later moved to Ontario.

In 1957, after three years of picking up golf balls, washing dishes in a hospital and working as a machinist, Stronach and his friend Tony Czapka opened their own tool and die business, Multimatic Investments Ltd.

Using personal savings and a $1,000 overdraft, he purchased some second-hand lathes and milling machines and set up shop in a rented gatehouse in Toronto’s old manufacturing district. It was here, working long hours, spending the night on a cot next to his lathe, that Stronach began building his small operation into Canada’s largest automotive parts manufacturer.

By the end of that first year, his company had ten employees. Two years later, in 1959, the firm landed its first automotive parts contract – an order to produce 300,000 metal-stamped sun visor brackets for General Motors in Oshawa. The company never looked back.

As the company grew, Stronach held on to his best managers by giving them a share of the profits and ownership. In so doing, he was able to harness their entrepreneurial energy and enthusiasm and place the company on a path of phenomenal growth.

Initially, only managers participated in the profit and equity sharing arrangement. But in order to generate even greater growth and to avoid the adversarial labour/management conflicts he saw taking shape around him, Stronach wanted to give every employee a share of the company’s profits and ownership, as well, making each of them a part-owner with a tangible stake in the company’s success.

In 1969, his company merged with Magna Electronics, a publicly-traded firm. As chairman of the new firm, Stronach expanded the profit and equity participation plan to include every employee, and the concept of “Fair Enterprise” was born. In 1973 the name was convered from Multimatic Investments Ltd to Magna International Ltd.

Stronach’s Fair Enterprise business philosophy provided the foundation of Magna’s unique corporate culture. At the heart of this culture is an operating philosophy based on profit-sharing between the three driving forces of the business: investors, employees and management.

Each of these key stakeholder groups receives a pre-determined percentage of the company’s annual pre-tax profits. This profit and equity sharing principle –sometimes referred to as Magna’s “success formula” – is enshrined in a governing Corporate Constitution that clearly defines the rights of all employees and investors. Employees receive part of the profits in cash, while the remaining portion is used to buy Magna stock on their behalf, making them shareholders.

As a testament to the unique entrepreneurial culture established by Stronach, Magna began booming. Over the decades, it has had more ups than downs, and today, Magna International is a global automotive empire that employs 50,000 people and sells $14 billion in auto parts. In 2004 alone, Stronach himself made over $26 million.

Stronach’s passion for taking risks also led him into federal politics in 1988 as a Liberal candidate and into the world of horse breeding. Though his political bid was unsuccessful, Stronach saw his horse-breeding venture soar: Magna Entertainment Corp, owned by Stronach and his son Andy has become one of the largest and most successful horse breeders in North America.

Horse-racing isn't the only sport Stronach has channelled into business opportunity. He is also president and main sponsor of top Austrian soccer club FK Austria Vienna.

Stronach's musings often make the news pages, but perhaps no quote symbolizes him better than this one: “I’m a great believer in luck.  The harder I work, the more luck I have.”