Money working for people
Copyright © 1996-2008, Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec. All rights reserved.
Quebec City Conference Centre, March 29, 2008
(Actual speech may differ from this text)
Distinguished Guests,
Dear Caisse Delegates,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would first like to thank the members of the Desjardins Group Electoral College. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your confidence. Thank you for the quality of the discussions that we had throughout the electoral process. Thank you especially for your commitment and your passion with respect to our Group.
I presented you my vision for the future, and my convictions. You elected me to preside over our Group because you support those orientations. You chose me, so that together we could "live Desjardins with trust and confidence" This is truly an immense honour, and I fully realize the responsibility that is now incumbent upon me as an elected leader.
I take part in the vibrant tribute rendered yesterday evening to our outgoing President. Mr. D'Amours, I would like to congratulate you on your wise leadership. On a more personal level, I would like to thank you for your trust and confidence and for having allowed me to accompany you in your mandate.
I also salute the other candidates for president for their contribution to our democratic debate during the elections.
We must now get to work together, to build the future in complete solidarity.
The election of a new President has brought us toward the future. But the future is always a work in progress, built with pride in our roots and in our history.
For me, Alphonse Desjardins was the greatest entrepreneur, the greatest financier and the greatest cooperator in the entire history of Canada. His model of a caisse that is close to the people is still appropriate today. Attention to members' needs, mastery of finance, innovation, service to the community and the cooperative values he put forth are still at the heart of success for our caisses and for Desjardins Group!
"There's nothing more deserving […] of our attention, than to give the caisses a great and wonderful reputation […] in doing so, we will win a clientele who, in the future, will promote their long-term prosperity."
Alphonse Desjardins had a great deal of foresight.
Being close to members and their needs will always remain the basis of our success. I am profoundly convinced that the strength of the caisses to act locally with our members, combined with the strength of a Group that enables us to act globally, still constitutes our greatest strategic advantage.
I plan to always fully combine these two aspects, which are so essential to our future.
Desjardins Group is the largest integrated and cooperative financial institution in Canada.
Desjardins Group is first and foremost an immense human capital composed of 6 million members, close to 7,000 officers and over 40,000 employees. And it is this human capital that has enabled us to generate a financial capital that constitutes formidable leverage for development and influence.
With $145 billion in assets, over a billion dollars in surplus earnings, $9 billion in capital and $664 million in member dividends, sponsorships and donations, we can very be proud of our achievements.
As Mr. D'Amours has said, "Every day, through its success and growth, Desjardins is living proof that the cooperative model has a promising future."
We must, however, be vigilant with respect to the future. Our challenges are the opportunities that we must seize together. And while fully acknowledging the successes and accomplishments of which we are extremely proud, I believe we need to continue our efforts to:
Today, globalization is upsetting our usual habits. World trade has never been as significant as it is today. We can no longer consider the future of our society or of Desjardins Group without looking at what is going on abroad.
Faced with the "global village" and newly emerging countries, the global balance and the financial markets will be profoundly changed, with a foreseeable consequence being a consolidation of the financial sector. Already, Canadian businesses are lagging behind on the world scale. With the current market volatility and demographic changes, the financial services sector is going to be very different from what it is today.
"Now, more than ever, people's struggles are being carried out on the economic battlefield… The market has gone from being a national one to a global one, and the final victory will go to the country that will be able to use all of the energy and vital strengths of its citizens; the one which will have best nourished their initiatives and, consequently, will have become the most productive with the least effort."
These words were spoken by Alphonse Desjardins in Montreal on September 10, 1910, and they summarize the challenges we face today very well.
Together, we must continue the development of Desjardins Group while capitalizing on our existing assets, without losing our cooperative nature. In a world that is increasingly complex and with today's turbulent financial markets, we must continue to expand our organization through trust and confidence.
The bar is very high but we can do it—together.
My mandate as President of Desjardins Group has a theme: Living Desjardins with trust and confidence means giving ourselves the power to discuss, the power to decide and the power to act.
"Living" because Desjardins is a "movement" that is intensely alive. "Trust and confidence" because Desjardins as a financial group must inspire both trust and confidence; because our success is gained through the trust of our officers and employees in the future and, finally, because, as a cooperative and a democratic institution, our power must be shared.
My vision of the future is based on five convictions I describe as "generators of change" that will have a leverage effect on the growth of our cooperative. These convictions will serve as the foundation for my entire mandate as President.
My first fundamental conviction is that the caisses are the driving force of Desjardins Group. I would therefore like to strengthen caisse entrepreneurship through the direct contribution of the officers and general managers to the life and evolution of the Group.
Each caisse must be positioned as a mirror of the "Desjardins integrated cooperative financial group" within its community. I would like to see everyone's ideas put to use, and rely on all the experience, business sense and knowledge of our officers and general managers.
Thus, together we will need to review our ways of doing things in order to implement operational methods that will allow us to move from intentions to action. To do so, I intend in particular to establish a direct link between the President's office and the caisse officers and general managers by the end of 2008.
The result of this priority will be to strengthen and encourage local and regional initiatives, thereby promoting flexibility in terms of our means and ways of doing things. It is important for us to agree on objectives and principles, in other words, on our "destination" and our ultimate purpose, but we would do best to leave the choice of means up to the caisses and their members.
This in no way prevents us from developing common tools and systems, but it constitutes a gesture of trust towards the people who can decide and act with complete creativity and solidarity. That's the true nature of cooperation!
My second conviction is that the Fédération and the subsidiaries are working for the caisses and their members.
Considering the development and growing maturity of the network and the caisses, the role of the Fédération needs to grow as well. I believe that the Fédération must play a Group-wide orientation and integration role. While ensuring that it continues to sufficiently meet the basic needs of the caisses, certain activities and projects currently headed by the Fédération could be decentralized and taken over by the network and the caisses.
Refocusing the Fédération's role could lead to certain changes and motivate us to optimize our operational methods. We will also need to continue our efforts to eliminate redundancies while ensuring that the critical activities of the Fédération and Desjardins Group, particularly with respect to markets, financial management, strategy, talent management and technology, are commensurate with what is expected of a financial institution of our size.
For sound performance management, I propose that we implement—both for the Fédération and for each subsidiary—an approach based on benchmarks and comparables in order to verify efficiencies and stimulate productivity and performance. While still respecting our distinctive nature, it is important to make comparisons and understand the whys and hows of our cooperative difference. I believe that this way of doing things goes without saying, insofar as we ask the caisses to perform this internal benchmarking exercise.
Finally, we have yet to seize all our opportunities in terms of operational, financial and balance sheet management synergies. We need to continue our work to ensure that the caisses benefit from greater returns on their investments in the subsidiaries. I also propose to implement a system of governance by the caisses with respect to Fédération business units and service centres. This strengthened governance system will enable us to better align our strategies, in agreement with the caisses.
In conclusion, the Fédération's performance depends on continuous improvements to its efficiency, strategic alignment with the subsidiaries, the decentralization of certain activities and, most especially, a strong conviction that the Fédération and the subsidiaries are in fact working for the caisses and the Desjardins Group. To accomplish this, I intend to encourage the caisses, the Fédération and the subsidiaries to discuss, decide and act together.
As Raymond Blais said, "Our structure... is not only decentralized, it is also that of an inverted pyramid. This means that the "support structures," as we call them, do not have any reason for being other than to serve the base, which is represented by the caisses."
My third conviction is that the growth and strategic development of Desjardins Group is through the caisses, supported by the subsidiaries.
I firmly believe that Desjardins Group must come together around two major basic objectives, which are: strengthening our position as a leader in Quebec and developing our activities in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. While cautiously managing our risks and development, and while taking into account both the constraints and the new opportunities created by the financial market turbulence in Canada, we must continue to move ahead under the sign of profitable growth, developing organic growth with external growth, hand in hand, at a more sustained pace.
For me, Desjardins' strategy must first aim at vitalizing internal growth for all our caisses and our entities, in other words, strengthening our ability to gain the loyalty of our existing members and clients and to acquire new members and clients.
Faced with this challenge, we must plan for greater caisse involvement in Desjardins Group's strategic reflection process. To me, Desjardins growth on the Canadian market must be based on a shared definition of our ambitions and the strategies we will adopt to achieve them, in accordance with our competitive and distinctive advantages.
To me, it is essential that our vision of growth be supported by a solid foundation, that the basis of Desjardins Group's success be the strength and vitality of the caisses in the regions and among groups. We need to continually seek out the best ways to enable each caisse to pursue its growth within its own community and to support it with respect to its particular issues. We must not forget that it is the strong position of the regional caisses that enables the Group to support its development in new markets.
I also believe that the strategy to develop Greater Montreal must be carried out by the caisses, supported by the Fédération and the subsidiaries, and not the reverse. This leadership of the caisses in Greater Montreal and of all Desjardins Group caisses means that the officers and general managers will propose and put forward initiatives, to which the strategies of the Fédération and subsidiaries will be added.
We must therefore design and implement an integrated plan—led by the caisses—that will bring us profitable, structured development, supported by a performance-generating business plan. This is closely connected to the caisses' influence and power to decide and act. Let us take advantage of all our network intelligence and expertise to meet this challenge.
We must also meet the challenge of Canadian business development, first through a more strategic approach in Ontario, where the Ontario caisses will have a decisive role to play. Many subsidiaries also operate in that province, and Desjardins Credit Union is pursuing its strategic plan there as well. While each of these entities has its own strategies and teams in place, we will need to implement an integrated Group-oriented plan for Ontario and elsewhere across Canada, based on a targeted and distinctive Desjardins approach.
We must therefore continue our reflections in that respect, so that together, we can develop a clear vision for this market, where Canadian banks and many insurance companies are firmly entrenched, by positioning the caisses at the centre of our strategy and our development.
I believe that our insurance companies have strategic assets that should enable us to accelerate their development between now and 2011 throughout the entire Canadian market, particularly with respect to loan insurance, group insurance and direct property and casualty insurance. This provides Desjardins and the caisses with a highly favourable leverage effect and diversification, especially when our strategies are complemented by an integrated offering of Desjardins products.
In a context of global consolidation where the size of businesses will increasingly matter, we will also have to focus on potential partnerships with the major cooperative financial groups world-wide. Business opportunities will present themselves. I therefore believe that we need to have a plan of action, both strategic and financial, that would best serve the interests and long-term sustainability of Desjardins Group.
We can go even further in achieving our full potential in terms of wealth management and securities. Despite the growth in our market shares, our success does not yet reflect our strong position among Quebec consumers. We have had considerable success in the field of insurance by integrating its products and services into the caisse offering using a distribution model unique to Desjardins. I believe that a similar approach would enable us to take our rightful place in the fields of wealth management and securities.
We need to strengthen our positioning among businesses in order to allow Desjardins to fully take on its role in the economy. The business market offers numerous targeted growth opportunities for Desjardins. I would like to step up the pace of our work to develop a "Desjardins Business" vision to be supported by an integrated game plan involving financing, securities and venture capital.
This will allow us to stand out and position ourselves well in Quebec and on the Canadian market. This vision and this plan will place the caisses at the centre of our reflection process.
Desjardins has always stood out for its efforts to remain close to its members and its community. But we are now living in a global world, characterized, among other things, by the Internet, which has completely changed our relationships with individuals and businesses. Distance and location no longer matter; at any time, any one of us can seek out information, carry out transactions or simply chat online, anywhere in the world.
This opens new and very exciting commercial and democratic horizons for us, as long as we can integrate these changes into our strategies and our practices. We will have to further develop our Internet approach and integrate it on a Group-wide scale so that we can develop new communication connections with our members, officers and employees, particularly through the virtual communities that meet on the Web.
Young people represent a capital that is essential for Desjardins continuity. Democratic changes present a double challenge in terms of succession: that of adequately serving members and clients of the X, Y and Z generations, and that of recruiting them to make loyal employees and officers of them. The specific behaviours and needs of the up-and-coming generations, which will soon take up more space than the Baby Boomers in our society, will force us to rethink our ways of doing things.
In line with our educational mission, it is essential for us to further develop our approaches to young people. I plan to invite the caisses to push even further, with the support of the Fédération and its subsidiaries, to develop an integrated offering of "Desjardins Confidence Capital." This offering is to be supported by commercial practices that promote responsibility, individual self-sufficiency and savings. I also hope that we will be able to have regular discussions with young people, through appropriate forums, so they can tell us what they expect from the Desjardins of tomorrow.
We are proud of the growth and financial stability that Desjardins has acquired in recent years. The Group has gained greater credibility on the markets, thanks to outstanding results and credit ratings that are among the highest in Canada. These collective results confirm the importance and the relevance of our financial objectives with respect to profitability and capitalization, while maintaining a healthy balance between cooperative performance and financial performance.
Finally, the economic and market environment that Desjardins Group will have to deal with in 2008, and possibly in 2009, will be very demanding. It will require great vigilance and a rigorous follow-up of financial risks, as well as fluid and regular communication with the caisse network and the markets. During this period of financial market turbulence, we must be able to tightly control our finances and strictly manage our balance sheet in order to maintain our high credit ratings.
Our financial stability and our capitalization are very important strategic assets on which we can continue to build the future of Desjardins.
My fourth conviction is that our human capital is our greatest wealth and our strength for the future.
Desjardins is not an enormous "cruise ship" commanded by a single captain. It's more like a "fleet" where each "ship" is directed by a board of directors and a general manager. A fleet where the Fédération acts not as an "admiral" but rather as a "lightship."
To ensure the success and continuity of Desjardins Group, we must be not only a Best Employer for our managers and employees, but also a Group that can engage and mobilize our officers and general managers.
"Our growth and our size will make it a necessity..." said Alfred Rouleau, in 1979. "We must seek and maintain a healthy balance between our elected volunteer officers and the presence of a technological structure linked to our growth rate and to the complexity of the issues at hand."
In this spirit, we need to make sure that our modes of governance, our democratic management and the way we work together continue to provide leverage for engaging and mobilizing the people of Desjardins. I therefore intend to continue to improve upon the way our single management and the Councils of Representatives operate and ensure constructive dialogue with the associations of presidents and general managers.
My fifth conviction is that our values of cooperation must always be central to our actions.
Our values are the basis of our ambition. They must serve as a guide and inspire our actions and decisions. They express our ways of doing things and our way of thinking to the benefit of members, officers, employees and partners. They also shape the way we would like to approach the future together.
Our challenges are substantial, but we have know-how, experience and great individual and collective strength. And many choices are open to us to keep growing the Desjardins of tomorrow.
As you know, the electoral process has made it possible to put forward many ideas and proposals for the future. It seems to me therefore very important to gather up and assemble the vital forces of Desjardins Group, to discuss our ambitions and our governance together by reaffirming our common values.
I would like to announce the holding of a Congress, on a date to be agreed upon with all of the components, in 2009 at the latest. I am convinced that this Congress will give us a new momentum to meet our challenges with confidence and success.
Like many of you here, my life with Desjardins began in 4th grade, with the School Caisse. At that time, I discovered the power of savings and finance. This experience of my youth marked my career path towards finance and my interest in Desjardins.
My parents, who are here with us today, also taught me honesty, and most especially to always focus on facts. That is the basis of trust and confidence, as well as of respect for people. And that is the very basis of cooperation.
Like you, I have always wanted to get involved in society and take action. Like you, I have a passion for listening to people, implementing the best ideas and making things possible—that is what drives me. That is our nature and that is Desjardins.
In 1912, Alphonse Desjardins wrote that: "Two qualities triumph over all: Knowledge of what needs to be done and a vigorous and self-determined perseverance based on the conviction that we are on the right track."
Our mission is clear and our values are strong. By carrying out our mission, we enable the members and communities that Desjardins serves to live better, to feel supported and protected, to know that they are not alone as they carry out their plans and projects, throughout all the stages of their lives. Our mission is what gives our day-to-day work its full meaning. It embodies the social and human aspects of our activities, which has never been more relevant.
Our human capital is essential to the growth and continuity of Desjardins Group. That is why I have chosen to articulate my vision as "living Desjardins with trust and confidence" because the power of people and the power of trust are at the heart of our future.
Together, we have the power to carry our pride in Desjardins even further.
Together, we have the power to make Desjardins Group the most admired financial institution in Canada and the most respected for its mission, its cooperative values, its caisses—which remain close to the people—and its success!
I am completely confident in the intelligence of the women and men who make Desjardins. Their collective wisdom made it possible for the Group to carry on for more than a century.
I know that together we will make the best decisions necessary to continue growing this organization for another hundred years!
Money working for people
Copyright © 1996-2008, Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec. All rights reserved.