A CMA who has the profession in his blood

At the junction of highways 40 and 13 in Montreal is the headquarters of Héma-Québec. Every day, trucks leave its parking lot and enter traffic, either to collect blood or deliver its products to hospitals. In all of this coming and going, Héma-Québec performs its humanitarian mission according to a precise and rigorous sequence of steps, which are executed like clockwork. Its dazzling performance in fact earned it a Grande Mention at the Grands Prix québécois de la qualité in 2009, and CMA Guy Lafrenière certainly had something to do with that.

Around five feet tall, I am walking next to Guy Lafrenière, whom I notice has the build of a former football player. Both of us move down a very wide hall. The Vice President, Administration and Finance, shows me, on each side, the laboratories that analyze and treat the blood, separated by glass walls. At the end, a wooden palisade announces work on an addition to the building, a sign of the intense growth of the organization. In this building with modern, vibrant lines, everything is impeccable, as you might expect from an organization with a mission as crucial as supplying blood, human tissues and cord blood.

The week before my visit, Héma-Québec received a prestigious award from the Quebec government, confirming the quality of the work it has done since it was founded 11 years ago. Is Guy Lafrenière proud of this recognition, considering he helped create the organization? His answer is a bit surprising, revealing his genuine humility. “We were told that it is fairly rare for an organization to qualify the first time it applies. That is why we were a little surprised to receive a Grande Mention. This is a wonderful achievement for the entire organization.”

A taste for challenges
It is true that this whole journey could not have been made without the strength and desire of a team, given the context at the time: after the blood contamination scandal at the end of the 1990s, Red Cross made the decision to pull out of the blood supply program in Canada. “Nearly bankrupt, the organization left offices, laboratories and a fleet of trucks that needed to be modernized. The accounting was done in Ottawa. Everything had to be set up …,” remembers Guy Lafrenière.

That is when Francine Décary, who had just been named President and CEO of Héma-Québec, offered a job to Guy Lafrenière. Having met Ms. Décary during his MBA program, he knew that he would not be bored in the position. “It’s true that there was a lot of work, but it was also a really enticing challenge!” he says in an ever delighted tone.

In the 20 years before he joined Héma-Québec, Guy Lafrenière was mainly involved in restructuring financially troubled businesses. As a financial controller, he first worked on the start-up and development of Alsthom Énergie in Sorel-Tracy, after it acquired the Energy division of Groupe MIL. Appointed Vice President, Finance, he then actively participated in reorganizing Alsthom Transport in Pointe-Saint-Charles, a workshop that had earlier belonged to Canadian National. He knew the challenge...and liked it!

Working closely with people
However, the situation was quite different at Héma-Québec. Indeed, by moving into the public sector, Guy Lafrenière could import tried and tested management practices from the private sector and adapt them. But he himself would also have to adapt: “In the public sector, the concept of profit does not have the same meaning. At Héma-Québec in particular, we directly affect humans, we help save lives. In the railroad industry, it is rare for a citizen to congratulate you on the efficiency of a locomotive. At Héma-Québec, the testimonials of receivers are common currency and always very touching. We work for them.”

When he arrived at Héma-Québec, Guy Lafrenière was given “a few” projects. After participating in the acquisition of the Blood Division of the Canadian Red Cross, he set up a part of the new organization by creating and directing the administration and finance, human resources and information technology departments.

In that period, he worked hard to instil a team vision in the personnel, drawing from the many years he spent as a football player and coach. “Like the teams I coached, there was neither structure nor organization, but a lot of good will. My contribution was giving the team a goal. This vision eventually took root in the personnel and after much effort, we acquired a group strength that enables us to perform.”

The right words
Guy Lafrenière and I are now on a very special loading dock: there is a space designed for incoming blood donations, and another, for outgoing treated products, at a rate of 400,000 per year. Both docking areas are separated by a solid screen door to prevent products from mixing. Nearby, a control centre oversees everything. All of these measures remind me of how important it is for Héma-Québec to maintain a flawless reputation. And not just for its science laboratories and teams.

“The entire chain of operations is important. Our budget mostly depends on invoicing hospitals, which are funded by the government. It is therefore essential to convince the public that we properly manage the money that is entrusted to us. We had to find the right words to make our teams understand that all expenditures are part of a whole and that efficiency is very important. Effective management of expenditures makes it possible to ensure the viability of the organization, bear comparison with its equivalents elsewhere in Canada and in the world and convince the government that we can accept other mandates.”

In fact, the Quebec government has asked Héma-Québec to broaden the range of products and services it offers to hospitals, particularly corneas. A responsibility, not to mention a challenge, which signifies a major role for our CMA. “Procurement is under my control. Since cornea donations are in short supply in Quebec, we have to use supplies from Canada and the United States. But we are working on becoming self-sufficient, which means winning over Quebec donors.”

Once a CMA…
Whether it involves numbers or a social mission, Guy Lafrenière speaks with a lot of spirit and passion. He says that he likes the creativity that his position demands from him, creativity that his CMA training has made it possible for him to exploit. Sure of his answer, I ask him if at 55, he still likes being a CMA. “I am still very happy to be a CMA. It is also the propensity of CMAs to be near to the product and the people who manufacture it that led me to Héma-Québec.”

Then he tells me about how two CMAs convinced him to pursue studies in this field. “In fact, it was a condition for hiring me! I was already interested in accounting, but the CMA approach won me over. CMAs are there to participate in the development of the business, understand the product and convert it into figures.”

A hard worker, Guy Lafrenière has been bringing home his briefcase every night for years, which has had some influence on his two daughters. “My oldest, Marie-Pier, used to say that I was working all the time, and my spouse would answer her: ‘Yes but he likes what he does!’ That daughter is now a CMA at Bombardier Aerospace. My youngest, Josianne, works in a hospital laboratory. And as incredible as it sounds, I never tried to influence their career choices. I let them freely decide what they wanted to do based on their preferences and interests!”

While he still enjoys his profession and responsibilities, Guy Lafrenière also wants to meet other challenges before retiring, which he imagines somewhere quiet, out in the country with perhaps a team to coach. “Contact with young people keeps you young. And succeeding in bringing one or two troubled teenagers back on the right path, convincing them to pursue their studies for example, would be the payoff for volunteering.”

But for the time being, this CMA has many other things on his mind. “For me, the Grande Mention at the Grands Prix québécois de la qualité is not a sign of accomplishment, but encouragement for the future.” And Guy Lafrenière wants to be part of that future.