The Person behind the practice…

I'm Michael Bugg, and I started Lodestone because I kept seeing the same problem: small and mid-sized businesses with great people and solid products, stuck in operational chaos that didn't need to exist.

I've spent the last twenty plus years wearing a lot of hats — IT Director, COO, Business Development Manager, Training Manager, and now Area Maintenance Manager for a hospitality group operating in a Canadian National Park. I've built an IT department from zero for a 50-store co-operative, mapped and automated operations for a growing tech company, designed training programs from the ground up, and currently oversee 20+ buildings across a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Every one of those roles taught me the same lesson: most business problems aren't actually that complicated. They're just tangled. The technology doesn't talk to the processes, the processes aren't documented, the training doesn't match the systems, and the people doing the work are left to figure it out on their own.

Lodestone exists to untangle that. I work directly with business owners and their teams — no junior consultants, no hand-offs, no mystery. Just practical, hands-on work that builds systems your people will actually use.

I'm based in Waterton Park, Alberta — one of the most beautiful places in the country — and I work with clients across Western Canada and remotely nationwide.