A CMA with his eye on the horizon

Yvon Rousseau likes a challenge. Whether it’s acquiring new skills, tasting other cultures, meeting inspiring people or implementing cherished values, this 44-year-old CMA constantly seeks to reach new horizons. It’s something he has always done…

Is it because of where he comes from? It’s true that growing up in Rivière-du-Loup, with the St. Lawrence River right before you and the wavy line of the Laurentians off in the distance, it is easy to think big and have the horizon as your goal. Once a young and determined hockey player, now North American Vice President, Finance, for Uniboard Canada, Yvon Rousseau has had many experiences along the way, all enriching and many surprising. They have taken him to three continents and enabled him to better know worlds as different as assisting the handicapped and the forest industry. And what’s best is that all of these experiences were ones he wanted to have.

"Determination, some might say, is my trademark. In fact, I think that when you have a vision, you have to do everything you can to make it a reality. There is some luck involved, of course, but there must also be effort and sacrifice. But above all, you must be open to opportunity,” suggests our CMA. As a child, Yvon Rousseau excelled in mathematics, a talent that never failed him and led him, in time, to take an interest in cost accounting. “I have always been attracted to the concrete side of things. My decision to become a management accountant came naturally, because it was a career that would enable me to do exactly what I like."

As soon as he completed his studies, Yvon Rousseau returned to his home town and took a job as controller of the Groupe Prosac, a small manufacturer of leather bags that helps handicapped persons join the workforce. Six months later, he became its Executive Director. Even though more than 20 years have passed since then, Yvon Rousseau still speaks with feeling about this adventure. “It was the chance of a lifetime! I could take a start-up with only one customer and one product and make something of it. And in addition, the special mission of this company reflected a value I consider very important, i.e. giving to the disadvantaged, in return for what society has given to me.”

“I also had the good luck to be guided by the members of the Board of Directors, who were experienced businessmen. We created a network between intellectually and physically handicapped individuals and different organizations, and in that way we built a truly productive and socially useful enterprise.” When Yvon Rousseau left it four years later, Prosac had become the largest manufacturer of leather bags in Quebec. Meanwhile, he was able to apply his CMA competencies to all aspects of managing a company. “Whether accounting, costing, profitability analysis and organizational management, my training was extremely useful to me.”

Anxious to learn English, Yvon Rousseau went into “exile" in Toronto for a while, before settling down in Quebec City, where two love stories were waiting for him: one involving Price Waterhouse, where he worked for a decade, and the other with the woman of his life, Sophie Gauthier, who was then studying accounting. Did he try to “convert’ his future wife to becoming a CMA rather than a chartered accountant? Laughing, Yvon Rousseau admits: “Yes, but she had already made up her mind."

At Price Waterhouse, the young CMA was given various assignments, all associated with management consulting but especially strategic cost management and activity-based accounting, and he was sent abroad for the first time. For two months, Yvon Rousseau worked in New Guinea, where he replaced the controller of ÉNELGUI, the national electricity company. There, it was not so much the work that helped him get ahead, because he already knew that job quite well, but the encounter with a completely new culture. “There was an election campaign going on, and it wasn't unusual to see soldiers carrying rifles. On the night the election results were announced, people celebrated in the street by shooting…” It was quite a culture shock, but this first assignment abroad made him more aware of differences.

After a year’s sidetrip to Deloitte & Touche, Yvon Rousseau returned to Price Waterhouse. “At that moment, in 1996, the worldwide transformation of the finance function was starting. Vice presidents of finance were no longer traditional accountants but professionals with an overall view of the organization. They needed to have the most advanced types of information and fast. We studied how to improve this function, how to reduce its costs and automate it, and how to choose appropriate performance indicators. We had the advantage of being a multinational, so we were able to apply the outcome of our research with our clients.”

Still interested in international assignments, Yvon obtained a position in Belgium. And this time, Sophie came too. Of the two years they spent in Brussels, Yvon Rousseau remembers, of course, the good meals and weekend trips to neighbouring countries, but most special was his close relationship with Olivier Lefebvre, then President of the Brussels Stock Exchange. There was an enormous challenge, the merger of three companies into one that would then become the new Brussels Stock Exchange, and it required both diplomacy and leadership. “How to make sure that the three entities formed one perfectly integrated organization, that the functions of three independent organizations were properly merged? I had no choice but to convince those involved that it could be done, but it was no mean feat. We launched an immense process, divided into ten projects that included: the selection of the person in charge of the functions, alignment of the processes and technology. In a word, it took an “iron hand in a velvet glove” to successfully complete this project while respecting the individuals involved and the cultural differences between the Flemish and the Walloons.”

Speaking of this experience as one of his fondest, Yvon Rousseau is happy to have maintained his friendships with his colleagues in the Belgian office and some of the clients. But Price Waterhouse was then experiencing some major changes, including the 1997 merger with Coopers. As parents, Yvon and Sophie decided to return to live in Montreal, with Yvon becoming the Canadian expert in finance function restructuring, a job that took him to Texas every week. So much travel soon became a burden to what was now a family of four. Everything lined up to bring him back to the world he preferred above all others: manufacturing.

In the early 2000s, Yvon Rousseau made his first steps in an industry already experiencing serious problems, the forest products industry. “Joining Domtar as director of finance, I became acquainted with a marvellous manager who pushed me to rethink my approach. We made a thorough analysis to understand all the costs of a sawmill, identify its weaknesses, dissect the investment strategy and analyze merger proposals. In terms of strategy, these were two really enriching years!”

On the future of the sawmills, Yvon Rousseau displays a degree of optimism for the medium term. “In Quebec, there are many small forest companies, other mergers are bound to come. The next few years look very hard; we will have to wait for the economic recovery in the United States and the selling off of timber surpluses from western Canada to see an upturn. Our companies will also have to entirely rethink their production models to become more productive and more competitive, but it can be done."

Competition… With that word we touch on Yvon Rousseau's main concern since he joined Uniboard Canada. This major manufacturer of panels and floor coverings must in fact deal every day with supply problems and US clients who themselves are competing with a very productive China. Is the best suited response to this situation found in a new, environmental vision? “I think that CMAs have a responsibility in this area. They are the ones who know the management systems and who are especially well informed. They are therefore able to play a key role in developing new production models more in harmony with the environment. I take my role very seriously as the person to accompany Uniboard Canada’s current process of changing orientation and creating greener products in order to survive in global markets.”

Predicting the future is a fool’s game but one thing is certain. From Africa to North America, by way of Europe, in turmoil and in calm, the horizon is never far off for Yvon Rousseau.

The other Yvon Rousseau

The miracle he’d like to perform
Having seen the suffering of children in Africa, he’d like to eradicate hunger from the world.

The talent he would like to have
A person who cannot sing, Yvon Rousseau has always wished to be a singer.

His habit that makes others smile
When he wrinkles his nose, everyone instantly knows that he doesn’t agree. In other words, his nose speaks for him!

The object he is most attached to
A little rocking chair that belonged to his mother and in which he rocked just as his children do today.