A worldly CMA

"I have always been sent to places where things weren't going very well, to plants that are starting up, having trouble or being restructured," says Éric Laflamme, President and Chief Operating Officer - North America, of the Cascades Boxboard Group. This is the second largest division of the Quebec pulp and paper multinational, which has 25 plants in 8 countries, 4,000 employees and sales of slightly more than $1 billion.

Hired as a controller in 1987 and catapulted to the presidency of his division 15 years later - that should give you a basic idea of this young 42-year-old CMA's spectacular career. Éric Laflamme made his mark by significantly improving the financial situation of the various plants to which he was assigned, often in an unfavorable economic context, even one of market overcapacity.

As President of a world leader in the packaging industry, Éric Laflamme has to contend with a number of challenges: develop new markets through product and service innovation, diversify clientele, optimize plants and customer service and cut production costs. And he must do all of the above while respecting the environment and making sustainable development a constant concern, values that have inspired the company from the start and that it has continuously put into practice over time.

"It is much more complicated to do business today than twenty years ago," notes Laflamme. "Things develop much faster. International competition is much stronger, especially from Asian countries. They not only manufacture but also package their products. And there are many more constraints imposed by control procedures, which has the effect of hampering entrepreneurship. There may not have been enough controls in the past, but now there are simply too many. I am not sure that shareholders benefit from that as much as some may think because the result of such regulatory complication is that managers have less time to make the company productive. There is some food for thought in all that."

Hesitating between management accounting and information technology, Éric Laflamme didn't choose between them but trained in both. "I might have become the president of my own company if I had followed the IT path," he says without any regrets. But although the desire to work in the pulp and paper industry became clear to him early on, he never seriously dreamt of becoming the head of a business in this cyclical industry. "Cascades was the model company when I was doing my bachelor's degree in business administration at the Université de Sherbrooke," he explains. "I was hired right out of school, and the many new challenges I faced kept me there. The presidency? I never even thought of it until I returned to Quebec. I'm the kind of person who does things one step at a time rather than follow an overall career plan."

Allying experience and youth, Éric Laflamme was promoted to his current position in 2002, at the age of 38. He doesn't consider that anything extraordinary. "It is part of the Cascades culture, many people in senior management are young," he points out. "Don't forget that I was one of the most experienced in the boxboard segment when I was offered the division presidency."

Scarcely a year after being recruited as controller for the Cascades head office in Kingsey Falls, Éric Laflamme began an international career that would last 14 years and take him to five countries on two continents: first to the United States, then Sweden, Belgium and finally France. "There's no doubt that Cascades looks primarily for controllers with a CMA education for its management positions, and since there is no CMA education program in Europe, except in England, it often happens that the company entrusts Quebec CMAs with the management of its new European acquisitions," he explains. It is important to realize that the CMA educational profile corresponds perfectly to the Cascades management philosophy, which definitely focuses on fieldwork and participation. "At Cascades, accountants are not confined to accounting. They are involved wherever decisions are being made, in the heat of the action and in a collegial spirit. They are asked to see beyond just numbers and to use them to improve processes and innovate. In short, because CMAs are equipped to understand the many facets of the situations we experience, we can have a tangible impact on performance."

Among other important achievements, our feature CMA successfully restructured all of Cascades' European sales, initiated the acquisition of the German plant and introduced an optimization plan for Cascades' European potential. And he accomplished all that without having intentionally sought an international career. "I was simply ready to go anywhere," says Laflamme. "That's not the case for many young people today. They are very willing to travel when they are hired, but it doesn't take long for them to get stuck! Motivating personnel is becoming a generational problem. I have come to think that young people are not as flexible as they used to be, perhaps because they are more spoiled and used to instant gratification. Motivating them and keeping them in the same company is no small task."

During his long stay in Europe, Laflamme wasted no time getting right down to business. He took courses on pulp and paper production at specialized schools in France, England and Holland and worked as a trainee in the mills. He also took intensive courses in Swedish, in order to be able to communicate directly with those in charge of production at the Swedish plant. These various professional experiences, however, have not fundamentally changed Laflamme's management approach, which is mainly based on communication.

"While adapting to local cultures, Cascades promotes its own methods in its plants," he says. "For example, our managers are not stuck in their offices, to such an extent that the European employees were initially surprised to see us but happy we went to meet them. In fact, the other striking difference between North America and Europe is in the area of customers. There, you have to take time to establish a business relationship. You cannot arrange sales as fast as you can here."

Renowned for his organizational skills, analytical ability, go get'em attitude and resolutely positive life vision, Éric Laflamme has nevertheless faced realities that do not lend themselves to much optimism, as when he had to make a decision about recommending the closure of the Belgian plant. "It is never easy to make a decision like that, and even less to tell the staff about it," he says. "You can tell yourself that everything has been analyzed and that it is logically the right decision, but it is still distressing in human terms."

This lover of music - especially the progressive music of the 1970s - and reading - especially about history, is also and perhaps above all a speed demon! No need to say how delighted he was on the highways of certain European countries where there aren't any speed limits. He even treated himself to the thrill of a course in driving racecars and tried pushing his car to 255 km/h! Today, after having tried virtually all sports, he finds satisfaction on the tennis courts and ski slopes.

There can be no doubt that Cascades is the focus of Éric Laflamme's life. Especially since it was at the company's head office where he met the woman who followed him on his European incursion and is today the mother of his two children. Will Éric Laflamme's future career continue to be associated with Cascades? This is a question that doesn't really come up for someone who works in steps. The current step is to repeat in Montreal what he managed so well in Europe: multiply sales while virtually eliminating debt. The next step will come at the right time and place.

The other Éric Laflamme, in a few words…

The thing that annoys him the most in everyday life
Taxis that stop anywhere and are a terrible nuisance in his eyes as a well-trained driver.

His tic that makes others laugh
Only recently a colleague pointed out that when he is thinking, he systematically touches his nose!

The page of history that fascinates him the most
The whole history of Russia, from the Tsars to contemporary developments in this country with such a fabulous and astonishing destiny.

What he would like to be in another life
A rather upsetting question for Éric Laflamme, who doesn't like the idea of losing control. If he was reincarnated, he could imagine himself come back as a musician but on condition that he wouldn't forget the one he is today!