When being a CMA means challenges and fun

From the outset, Huguette Lavallée admits that she has been a lucky woman. After more than 30 years of working for the CBC’s French-Language Services, many would have already retired. But to this stylish, smiling woman, the idea of retiring seems entirely out of place. “Yes, I am lucky to have spent my whole career here. I am proud of and love this special world. Every day, I come into contact with very interesting and highly motivating people. It’s an open community. I think I am privileged. Technically, I could retire, but I am doing something I care about, and right now, there are so many challenges.”

It is true that in the last three decades, Huguette Lavallée has never been bored. While today she holds the position of Senior Director, Finance and Administration, French Services, she began her career with the national public broadcaster as an administrative clerk. At the age of 18, she thought she was simply taking a job. Her dream was not to enter the world of entertainment so much as to study accounting.

“About two years later, I went back to school at night, while working. I adopted a rather strict discipline and earned my bachelor’s degree in public accounting. I couldn’t make up my mind between the CMA and CGA designations, until I realized that what I really liked was the management dimension and that the CMA designation would describe me better. With CMA training, you can manage resources, plan and organize services. It is the kind of training that opens doors in different parts of the same organization.” In order to be really sure about her choice and acquire experience, the young woman agreed to be demoted to accounting clerk in the finance and accounting sector.

What came next seems simple, like a road that gradually opened itself to her. “I was given my first management job in 1980. Over the years, I have held various management positions in a number of Radio-Canada areas: French-language radio, Entreprises Radio-Canada, strategic planning and international relations. I have also spent time in finance and administration.”

In other words, a wide range of positions in highly varied areas but always in a context that imposed its own rules, those of a Crown corporation. “The approach varies depending on the sector. But all of them work together toward the same goal, to offer quality products to their audience.

“Public funding for Radio-Canada is limited, yet its mandate keeps expanding. Obviously, that’s a challenge. We have to use all our creativity to serve the managers who are trying to produce their programs. What I care about particularly are the people. The strength, the color and the flavor of Radio-Canada come not from tools but from its personnel. I consider respect for my colleagues to be fundamental. It is what motivates me to find funding without having to cut jobs.”

Huguette Lavallée remembers 1994-1997, a difficult period for all Radio-Canada employees faced with budget cuts of $400 million imposed by the federal government. The challenge was a major one: restructure everything while maintaining the quality of the service or even improving it. To deal with it, Radio-Canada invited producers to produce on site, making it possible to preserve jobs, generate revenues and take advantage of staff talent and skills and the advanced infrastructures available. The result is that today, the Montreal head office of Radio-Canada is the largest television production centre in North America.

When in 2002 experts made a study of the wage gaps between men and women at Radio-Canada, Huguette Lavallée, who is proud to show her feminist convictions, immediately felt she had to do something. “I belonged to the joint committee on pay equity that was created at that time. With unions and management sitting around the same table, we realized that we had to introduce procedures that would maintain pay equity.” And it was done. “Corrective measures were introduced, and the process is now an on-going one. It is an issue that matters a lot to me.”

And how does this woman feel about being a manager? “I am convinced that women have a different way of managing than men. We look at problems in another way and our management values distinguish us from our male colleagues. The more women there are in positions of power, the more we will be able to integrate these values in the world of work. The composition of every management committee ought to be balanced in this respect.”

For her part, Huguette Lavallée feels she has been fortunate to work with Sylvain Lafrance, “a man who enjoys being surrounded by women.” It was in 2006 that the Executive Vice President for French Services offered Huguette Lavallée her current position. With a staff of 120 people, a number of whom are located in the regions, the Senior Director, Finance and Administration, manages a budget of more than half a billion dollars for all French-language services offered in Canada. It’s a world in itself, ranging from budget allocation among sectors by way of management consulting services, the development of management plans and budgets and the preparation of reports to the CRTC.

In addition to this “routine,” a very special responsibility has been entrusted to Huguette Lavallée, as Radio-Canada, like all major television networks, faces a crucial transitional period. “The specialized channels have grabbed a lot of our audience in recent years and receive a bigger share of available advertising revenue. Since government funding is virtually frozen and our ad revenues are not rising, innovation is our only option. The Internet is one of the new avenues we are trying to develop, but it doesn’t entirely cover the shortfall. We must therefore reinvent our methods so that our production resources enable us to do more with less.” According to Huguette Lavallée, the words efficiency and effectiveness are part of the everyday vocabulary at Radio-Canada!

Since the interview began, Huguette Lavallée has been speaking calmly and clearly. Her words seem to flow easily. Hearing this comment, she seems a little surprised, but quickly finds an explanation. “Yes I am clear and transparent. When I have something to say, people know it. One compliment I like very much is when people say to me, ‘Huguette, you’re not a real accountant. We can talk numbers with you and you make it possible for us to understand concepts that seem awfully dry to unitiated.’ I am terribly rigorous but I also try to be flexible and to keep my mind open to find solutions while respecting the norms and policies.”

“My colleagues at work are often program creators, professionals in this business. When I talk to them, I like to make a one-page summary and highlight the numbers in connection with their own production sector. That helps give a meaning they can easily grasp to the approaches I suggest to them. My priority is to maximize the use of funds to reinvest in programming. My greatest satisfaction comes when program management has a new project and together we succeed in finding the money to finance it!”

Obviously, the years have done nothing to lessen the enjoyment that Huguette Lavallée feels at work. That is not to say that she should belong to workaholics anonymous! Getting to the office before 8 a.m. and leaving around 6 p.m., she often stops in the training room for an hour of spinning – an infallible method for relaxing and staying in shape–, then, goes home to share a good supper with her spouse. Is Huguette Lavallée happy? “I tell myself you need some pleasure every day. Every night I go to bed thinking, ‘that was a good day.’ That’s my philosophy of life. My father died of a heart attack when I was ten years old, and I realized at a very young age that life can be short. You have to take advantage of it every day, in the present. Work is part of my life but there are other parts too.”

“Other parts,” that means travel for example: after visiting Prague and Alaska last year, Huguette Lavallée is planning a trip to Vietnam and dreams of climbing Kilimanjaro again, more than 30 years later … When she does leave Radio-Canada, because someday it will happen, she is also thinking of studying sociology, given her fascination with how our society is evolving. A passion she has perhaps passed on to her only son, who is currently finishing an academic program in … journalism.

But for now, Huguette Lavallée has much too much fun ahead of her to think of retirement!

The other Huguette Lavallée

If you were a TV newsreader, what news would you like to report?
That there is no more child poverty.

If you were a journalist, what would be the worst punishment?
To have to report the weather, because whatever you say, you’re always criticized and no one is ever happy.

What talent would you like to have?
Manual dexterity. I admire men who can fix anything.