So the time has come to hand the floor to a new Quebecer, so you can benefit from a point of view from the other side of the mirror. Reading my columns, you will have grasped the importance I place on the role of the entrepreneur-leader, a genuine agent of change in our society. I am also convinced that the newcomer's leadership matters just as much — after all, what good is one person's openness in front of someone who is closed?
In my columns, I have always kept to a guiding line that I would sum up in two sentences:
The strength of a society lies in its majority's ability to settle which of its cultural elements are non-negotiable.
The future of that society will be secure if it has the wisdom to understand its minorities and draw the best from them.
My company and Quebec have changed. They are more colourful than ever. Consensus is harder to reach. All the more reason to speak with pride and conviction, and with respect. Old-stock Quebecers, new Quebecers of North African origin, of sub-Saharan African origin, from France, and so on. Let's talk to each other! We will quickly discover that our reference points are surprisingly compatible.
In an SME like mine, I admit things are simpler. Ultimate authority rests with the owner. The one who does the “inviting”. It is up to that person to set the path everyone will follow. That privilege comes with a heavy responsibility, though: defining the culture with the elements that make the company what it is, and that create value all around it.
It falls to the leader to influence and hold the course. Because, as the saying goes, “nature abhors a vacuum”: without guidelines, new employees will spontaneously turn to their own reference points, sometimes diametrically opposed to those of the company welcoming them.
That same business leader also has to remain a leader of their time and take the new social fabric into account. They can no longer rely on their instinctive willingness to welcome alone; they have to raise that responsibility to the level of a corporate competency and rally all their people around it. Welcoming and integration is a collective project.
I dream of the day entrepreneurs lead the way on welcoming and integration and, in doing so, inspire the rest of society. Joseph-Armand Bombardier showed Quebec that we could stand among the most ingenious peoples in the world. Why could we not become the courageous, intelligent model of inclusion that so many people are looking for?
In closing, I thank Informe Affaires for the trust placed in me over this past year. Let's all welcome Mahdi Gueblaoui, who takes over next month!
