What it Takes to Build an Exceptional Executive Team with Denis Ricard

In this episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart speaks with Denis Ricard, CEO of iA Financial Group, about what it takes to cultivate a strong, cohesive executive team. Denis shares insights from his remarkable career journey within iA, from his early roles to the C-suite, and the leadership lessons that shaped his approach to building high-performing senior teams.

He reflects on the guidance he offers to his senior leadership team, the importance of alignment at the executive level, and the culture he has intentionally fostered at iA. Through practical examples and candid reflection, Denis offers a clear perspective on the leadership principles that support long-term organizational success.

Whether you're a CEO, team lead, or aspiring leader, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways on team cohesion, leadership development, and organizational culture. A must-listen for anyone looking to elevate their leadership impact.

Show Notes:

00:13 Show intro
00:49 Introducing Denis
02:08 What do you look for in senior leaders?
02:35 Surround yourself with A+ players
03:24 Denis' career path
05:03 Key moment when he decided his big goal
05:24 What changed his goal?
06:16 Switch to marketing to learn the business better
06:37 The next move would be on purpose!
07:00 The CEO asked him, ever thought about taking my job?
07:48 When I became CEO, I was ready
08:38 Depth in executives
09:35 It's not about being an expert, but having a breadth of knowledge
10:15 Story about moving an exec out of their comfort zone
11:11 The best way to grow 
12:19 We could leave people where they are. But it would not build capacity
13:40 Taught at Uni to become a better communicator
16:11 Simplifying the message
17:13 Figure out what you love and go for it
18:40 Essential leadership communication qualities
18:49 Let's make the problems visible
18:57 Energy into building trust
19:29 How do you build trust?
19:56 Recognize and thank an executive when they bring a problem
21:04 How to approach giving feedback
21:48 Example of feedback that he got
23:59 It's all about the greater good
25:34 If you work for the organization, you'll get noticed
26:08 An example of an executive hire that didn't fit the culture
28:12 Advice on cultivating a culture
28:54 Team building
29:48 Start with a group of like-minded people
31:03 How do you communicate principles to a large company
31:10 Be accessible
31:23 Virtual culture challenge
33:39 Leading by example
33:59 What's next for your team?
34:25 Foster a growth mindset
35:35 Thank yous

Show Transcript:

Denis Ricard: Transparency, trust. I always say, guys, let's make the problems visible and let's all work to solve them. And so to me, I put a lot of energy as a CEO in building trust amongst my executive team.

Bart Egnal: M welcome to the Inspire Podcast, where we examine what it takes to intentionally inspire. I'm your host, Bart Egnal, president and CEO of the Humphrey Group. And if you've ever asked yourself how can you develop an authentic leadership presence or how can you tell stories that have people hanging off every word, well, then this podcast is for you. And it's not just for executives. This is a podcast for anyone who wants to influence and inspire others in their work, but also in their life.

My guest today on the Inspire podcast is Denis Ricard. Denis is the CEO of IA Financial Group. Now, you may not have heard of IA Financial Group, but if you haven't already, you will soon. It is Canada's fourth largest life insurance company. It has over 10,000 employees and is growing, has a $13 billion market cap, and not only are they a presence here in Canada, but they've done some impressive acquisitions in the US and are building themselves into a true North American powerhouse. Denis, welcome to the Inspire podcast.

Denis Ricard: Well, thank you for having me today, Bart. It's a pleasure.

Bart Egnal: It's a real pleasure. And for those listening, we got to know each other, and doing some work around investor relations. And really it gave me a chance to appreciate, you, and not just you, but the executive team that you've built in your career.

And when we were preparing for this conversation, I think the measure of a leader is not just the performance of their business. And yours is very impressive. Anyone who's wondering should just look up the stock price over the last 20 plus years. But really in the caliber of leaders that you surround yourself with. And you really have built an impressive team. And so what I want to have you on the pod today to talk about was what you look for in senior leaders. Because I think many people who listen to this either are in senior leadership roles or aspire to it. So maybe give me the headline, give people listening, and then we'll, we'll step back into your story. But if you had to sum up what you look for in a leader at the executive table, what would it be?

Denis Ricard: I think one day, one thing that is very important is to have well rounded executives around me. I try to surround myself with what we call A plus players so that I don't have to do their job. I can do my job as the CEO. So I really look at the breadth of experience and to what extent. Those around me have had different assignments. They went out of their zone of comfort during their career. so that around the table, if we have a topic that we need to discuss, that there's not only one person that is a specialist, you know, so that there are many, many of us that can you know, obviously make their opinion and provide some, some input and added value to a specific topic. So that' really what I'm looking for in, in my executive team. I mean in a nutshell I would.

Bart Egnal: Say, okay, and I know you yourself obviously didn't start your career at an exec as, as an executive. Maybe take people listening back. Tell us, when did you join IA and let's talk a bit about really quickly your journey to this step. How long have you been in the company and where did you start your career?

Denis Ricard: Yeah, well, next week it's going to be like 40 years. Wow. Four. Zero. So that's amazing how the time has passed quickly.

Bart Egnal: They hired you as a child worker back then.

Denis Ricard: Okay. I worked all my career at ie, okay I have to admit that. But I would, I would split my career in, in three phases. I would say the first 15 years, like from 85 to 2000 was really a, the learning phase. I mean a very, very intense learning phase, without necessarily knowing the end game. You know, I was, I was the kind of person who was very curious. I wanted to be deep in the expertise in what I was doing. I'm an actuary by training, so I worked in, in actuarial stuff. But obviously I tried to broaden the scope. So I, at some point in my career I wanted to be like the specialist in tax and actuarial. And so I would be the contact person in the company. so to me it was very, very important to, I mean I would raise my hand every X number of years and say, okay, I got, I got to do something different. I raised my hand to go in Vancouver at the time because I wanted to improve my English because I wasn't that really good at the time. I'm a French speaking person. So I really, the idea was to broaden the scope of expertise that I had. So that's my first, let's say the first part of my career without knowing the end game. Now there was a key moment in 1999, just after, let's say 14 years when I realized that it's kind of, I discovered what my ambition would be. I wanted to be the chief Actuary of the company.

Bart Egnal: I mean, that, that, that's a big change to go from early career saying, I'm going to be the specialist, I'm going to be the person who's called on these merits to. I want to, I aspire to this role. Like, what was the epiphany or evolution that led to that?

Denis Ricard: I had a chance to have a new boss in 1997 who, was a guy that was not a specialist. He had a broad view of the market, and, it was enough career assignments for him. And I said to myself, okay, you know what? I can do his job. I had enough experiences in managing people, also being an expert in the financial stuff at the company. So I said to myself, well, I mean, naively, probably at the time I was saying, okay, I can do his job, right? And so I.

Bart Egnal: Tomorrow, I could do his job tomorrow, right?

Denis Ricard: Yeah, tomorrow. And so, but what happened is that, my, the CEO, the then CEO, Yvonne Charette, told me, you know, you've been in your job for that many years. See what's next. And he said to me, you should go to the marketing. And I said, no, no, I want to do his job. I mean, I'm going to be the chief factory. Well, he said, you're going to be a better chief actuary if you go in marketing. So I went to marketing and rolled forward, I mean, four years after I became the chief actuary of IE because, my previous boss went, for retirement. So it was really a start for me that the move that I was going to make, the next move, was on purpose. So I would raise my hand, like six years after the great financial crisis in 2010, I raised my hand and said, oh, I want to go back to. In business development. Because that was the time where this start of that third phase where, this idea of becoming the CEO eventually could take place.

Bart Egnal: And was that an idea that, that you came to yourself, or was it again, someone came to you and said, you know, this is something you should start thinking about. Like, how did you, how did you see.

Denis Ricard: The then CEO told me, I mean, have you ever thought about that?

Bart Egnal: And did you. What did you. What was your reaction?

Denis Ricard: I said, well, you know, I like my job. I mean, my ambition was to become the chief actuary of. I said, well, but, well, you know what? I think about that. Then I thought about it and I came back and I said, okay, yeah, why not? I mean, I've done my job for six years as a chief actuary and cfo, but if I, if eventually I be, I want to become a CEO, I want to go back in business. So I went to a journey where I ran, I mean, in a nutshell, I ran several divisions of the company. And in 2018, when I became the CEO, which is the last phase of my career, I was ready. I was ready because I had worked in various assignments in the corporate world, in business world, I led the several divisions of the company and the most important ones, and then I was ready for that new phase, which was a CEO job, which is a completely different job.

Bart Egnal: And so I wonder if this experience that you had, of, you know, going deep in, in into one area of the business and then switching to, you know, taking on more and then going deep into other areas of the business. You know, when we talked about this conversation, you said really what the first lesson that you had for people was when you look for executives, you want to see depth. If you want to see depth in their experience, you want to see depth in their career. Is that, tell me how your experience led you to that conclusion when you now look for executives.

Denis Ricard: Well, my previous CEO used to tell me that, whenever someone, presents something, he has to be able to answer the first three questions. And then trust is established. And to me, to be able to answer the first three questions, you have to know your stuff. You have to have the deep knowledge of what you're doing. And so it always kept that in my memory. you have to have the courage to step out of your comfort zone, go the extra mile, and be able to get all those, those experiences, competencies that will allow you to answer those first three questions. And that's what I'm looking for around me. People that have a deep knowledge of what they're doing and so that they can inspire their people by. It's not necessarily being an expert, but have enough knowledge across the spectrum of, not necessarily only in your vertical, but also in the horizontal, having enough experiences, being able to participate in discussions that are not only inside your expertise, but also outside of your expertise.

Bart Egnal: So I wonder when you have executives now on your team, maybe who you believe can be great, you know, take on more senior roles in the future, and you go to them and you say, look, I know you've developed this incredible expertise in this area, I want you to go to another area where you're not as confident. Like, what are the reactions? What reactions do people have? And have you have that conversation with them?

Denis Ricard: Yeah, I gave you one anecdote. Once I spoke with, a lady in the company that, she had been in her role for 10 years and it was very clear to me that she had to move to grow. And so I went to see that person and I discussed about mobility and I gave her some options of things that she could do. And she was always kind of coming back and telling me, well, I still have a lot to learn in my current job, blah, blah, blah. And I said, okay, listen. Okay, here's an. Is a new job for you? What is the percentage of your time that you're going to learn something new and well, maybe 90 to 100% every day. Yeah. In your current job, every day, what's the percentage of your time that you're learning new stuff? Well, maybe 10%. There you go. M. There you go. So I had this conversation in the past and to me, the mobility is the best way to grow because you get out of your comfort zone and you learn about yourself. You learn what. I mean, you learn about what you love, what you don't love. Because in your job you have to have fun. Also, if you're always doing something you don't like, it's, not fun.

Bart Egnal: I love that. I love the fact that, yes, you can still grow in your current job, but the growth trails off and minimizes.

I have one more question for you. As CEO. When you think about, let's say you have someone in a role and they're highly capable, right? Because they've been in the role. Like back when you were chief actuary and spent six years in the role. This is what you aspire to. The company can rely on you. Is there a risk as a CEO of moving people who are highly competent in a role and moving them to an area, say, run a division that they're not competent in? From a business standpoint, like, how do you balance that? Hey, we got to develop this person and. But we also need them. We benefit from having them in the role. How do you think about that as a CEO?

Denis Ricard: There are two things that I would say is that, it's a culture, it's a mindset. It's a mindset we have. We could leave people in their job where they are like 100% efficient. In the short term, it's great, but you don't build the long term capabilities of the organization. And so the second thing is that you have to take the risk. As an organization, you have to take the risk. and there's a risk that the person, for some reason, does not Succeed as much as you would like. And guess what? The person is going to learn about himself or herself. And that person, we believe in that person, we can bring that person back to another role depending on her or his skills. So we've done that in the past. We've done that in the past. So to me, the risk, there's a risk reward all the time. I mean, I'm always, every day I'm arbitraging risks. That's right, that's one, that's one of the risk. but with proper coaching, most of the time it's going to work.

Bart Egnal: I love it.

Okay, so lesson one. If you're an executive, you need depth and you need to have the courage to move to new roles. Let's go to your second lesson. And I think you embody this lesson more than anyone, which is you have to be an exceptional communicator. Tell me what you mean by this and how your own career led you to this conclusion.

Denis Ricard: Yeah, I'll give you an anecdote. I mean, maybe two. early in my career, I also was a teacher at Laval University, teaching some courses. And, and and the reason why I did that, on top of my job was to become, a better communicator. And I had no clue exactly what it meant at the time. But I, through the experience, I realized that I'm the kind of guy who learn on, on, you know, on the spot by being, challenged on the job. And so I, I taught four sessions. The first session, my con. I mean I, I will exaggerate my, my, my, my, my talk here, but the first session, my, my focus was to give the material.

Bart Egnal: Right.

Denis Ricard: The syllabus, the fourth one was that do they understand what I'm saying? And so I went through that journey, and it helped me a lot. When I moved to marketing in 2000, for example, my concern when I was in front of advisors was okay, do they understand what I'm saying here? You might just give less material, right, but they will understand. And, and, and so you connect with the audience. you adjust to the audience. You repeat, you repeat. If necessary, you simplify your message. Those are lessons that I learned through on the job, you know, through the experience. And so, and, and, and I'll give you another anecdote of that. In 2000, we demutualize. I was responsible of coming up with the.

Bart Egnal: And just for people listening. What is demutualization?

Denis Ricard: Oh yeah, so we were a mutual company. So the company was owned by These policyholders and all the life codes in Canada in 2000 went from a mutual company to a stock company going to the stock, market. So it was. It's what's called demutualization. And so, and. And one of the result of the demutralization is that you give to the policyholders who were the owners. You give stocks, you give shares, shares of the company. How many shares, how many shares? I was responsible of coming up, coming up with that formula. So I was an actuary. So I came up with a perfect actuarial, type of formula. And I presented it to the executive committee at the time, and they just said, denis, you have to do your homework here. Go, back to your drawing board. This is way too complicated. We are not going to be able to export it to the market. So I came up with something which, very simple. Okay, it was based on, let's say, the size of the policy, the years since it was. But there was no actual formula or whatever that people would not understand. And, it passed the test. And, it was. Everybody could understand very easily the concept and the reason why this guy had a bit more share than the other. But it's. It was not actuarially equivalent. But that's.

Bart Egnal: But it didn't matter. So it didn't, it didn't matter. It wasn't this kind of perfect formula, but it, but it was understood. And so it was embraced.

Denis Ricard: Yeah. So to me, simplifying the message, adapting, to the audience is key, is key in communication.

Bart Egnal: And I know one other thing that you've always demonstrated is passion, you know, passion for the business and passion for the strategy and passion for the people. Tell me, you know, is that something you intentionally cultivate or like, how do you, how do you bring that out when in your communication.

Denis Ricard: I love what I'm doing. I think each individual in its life, has to make some, let's say, reflection about, what they love, what they're good at, what they can be the best at the world at, and just go for it and trust their capabilities. And so to me, every day when I woke up, I've never, I never complained. I realized that once I said to my kids, I've never complained about my job or what. I mean, that's amazing. Getting up in the morning and going to the. To my, my job. In fact, I. I don't feel I'm working every day. I'm having fun every day.

Bart Egnal: Right?

Denis Ricard: So. So find out what you love and, you're not going to work every day. You're going to love what you're doing.

Bart Egnal: I love it. And it comes into the passion. So, so, okay, so that's, I love your, your idea that you've got to be an amazing community, you've got to simplify, you've got to bring passion, you've got to bring clarity.

So let's now look at you, you know, your executives, right? Because you're bringing this very diverse group of executives to the table who have very distinct styles. You've got introverts, you've got extroverts, you've got people who are loquacious, you know, and then you've got people who are judicious in how much they say, how do you think about the balance of cultivating these qualities and at the same time allowing people the authenticity of their style? Like what? In other words, what's essential and what do you look to the person to set in terms of communication, transparency, trust?

Denis Ricard: I always say, guys, let's make the problems visible. And let's all work to solve them. And so to me, I put a lot of energy as a CEO in building trust amongst my executive team and between the board as well.

Bart Egnal: Okay.

Denis Ricard: Because there's going to be difficult times. I mean there's always some difficult times and if you have built the trust, it's going to be easier when times are more difficult.

Bart Egnal: How do you do that? How do you. Because I think that that's something that a lot of executives would say, I want to cultivate trust. I mean Google, you may have heard of this project that Google ran some years ago where they assessed what made some teams high performing, than others. And I think it was called Project, Artemis. And the number one thing they found was that psychological safety was the differentiator, which essentially is a euphemism for trust. People could speak openly and trust that they would be respected. So how do think about cultivating trust and how do you encourage executives to cultivate trust?

Denis Ricard: The first way to do it is really to recognize and thank your executive when they bring a problem on the table. Thank you for bringing that problem on the table. And now let's discuss how we're going to solve it. And there's always, there will always be problems in the company. And as a team we are responsible of moving forward and solve that problem. So to me it's really to have the open discussion and make things visible and thank people when they make things visible. That's the first step as far as far as I'm concerned and now and, and, and after that there are like one on one discussion sometimes. Okay. Sometimes you need to have someone. Some one on one discussions. And I had, I had a, I had an event once one of the executive that I had. I had to do a like a one on one intervention about you know, some behavior. And I said, you know, I trust that you can adjust here. and, but, but here's, here's something that needs to be corrected.

Bart Egnal: Right, Right.

Denis Ricard: Don't procrastinate. Be direct as much as possible. But at the same time make sure that You know. Okay. I'll tell you one thing that I, that is very important. Feedback. Feedback. To me, the way I position feedback is that if I give you feedback, it's because I care about you. It's because I have respect about you. If I don't, if I don't care about you, I'm not going to see you anything. Okay? So here's the thing that I want to say to you. And then you know, you. And then, and then you move on. It's, it's really, it's really a matter of respect, and want, I want people to grow.

Bart Egnal: Can you think in your career, I love that you care enough about people getting feedback. Can you think back in your career to the toughest and yet most caring and valuable feedback that you receive?

Denis Ricard: Yeah, I had done a 360. It was quite a great exercise that we had done at the company. And one of the things.

Bart Egnal: And when was this, Denis, by the way?

Denis Ricard: I was I would say, in 2010. Ish.

Bart Egnal: Okay. Okay. So pre CEO. Pre CEO. But you were what, chief actuary at the time?

Denis Ricard: I was a chief actuary at the time. And the feedback that I was told is that, I was in a mindset in 2010 where I was in a group, in my executive group. Okay. I was in a mode where I was let's say the expert on the financial stuff. And I did not contribute enough on other things than the financial stuff. And the 360 made me realize that as an individual I was, my mindset was okay, I'm the financial specialist. Don't tell me what to do. I know my stuff. And I'm going, I'm not going to tell you what to do. You know what I mean?

Bart Egnal: Yes. Yeah.

Denis Ricard: Whereas.

Bart Egnal: And stay in your, you were going to stay in your lane and they should stay in their lane.

Denis Ricard: That's it. So I learned that as an individual I had a contribution on Other things than financial stuff. Because I had a lot of experience, I started to have a lot of experience. And at the same time I needed to open a bit, to open a bit more to receive the comments from others on my area of expertise. That's the best feedback that I got.

Bart Egnal: And someone cared enough to have you go through that process and give it, and you probably felt safe enough back to what you were saying in terms of trust to welcome it and grow from it. And it's great to hear that you continue to cultivate that in others today. So I think that I love your second lesson for people listening, that if you're going to be a successful executive at your table, really any table, communication is important. It's about simplifying complexity. It's about being able to be passionate, and it's also about being able to create trust with intention.

Okay, so let's go to your third and final lesson, which is it's all about the greater good. Tell me about the greater good and how you discovered it in your career.

Denis Ricard: I had a chance, to, to work with individual at the company that had, ah, A tattoo called the elephant because the logo of IE is the. Is the elephant.

Bart Egnal: Right. And what year was this, Denis?

Denis Ricard: Oh, I mean all my career.

Bart Egnal: I agree. Okay.

Denis Ricard: From the onset, I very rarely had people that would work for their, you know, Individual Inc. You know, like myself Inc. I think the culture of RIA has been and will continue to be really, that we, work for the greater good of the. Of the organization. they are not that. I mean, I don't feel. And, and here, here again, I've done all my career at IE so it's difficult for me to testify for other companies. But the people that come at IE from other organizations.

Bart Egnal: Right.

Denis Ricard: I always ask them after 100 days, let's say, okay, what's the biggest difference between where you come from and IE and they tell me things like, oh, here is. It's like a family. Okay. there they are. Trust. Political is at the very minimum. Okay. And when there's no. I mean political issues, when. You know what I mean?

Bart Egnal: Yeah.

Denis Ricard: Playing the politics.

Bart Egnal: Right. For your own advancement over the good of the company.

Denis Ricard: Exactly. So if you really work for the organization, you'll get noticed at I. You'll get noticed and people will want you to work in the. In your sector. You will be. Let's say people will want your expertise, they will want you to contribute to their sectors. It's being recognized at our organization. If you Play politics in the current environment. It's so obvious because you will stand out.

Bart Egnal: Can you give me an example in your career where you saw someone, maybe they joined IA from the outside and they stood out because they weren't living the IA way and it was noticeable. Like, I think, you know, it would be helpful to hear what is not the IA way, not the greater good.

Denis Ricard: Yeah, I made a mistake once, to hire a, vp, from another organization. And for some reason it did not work. because the person was protective. He was protective of his turf, was not transparent, enough. You know what I mean?

Denis Ricard: did not make the problems visible. So the, I mean it was, there was too much work to change the mindset of that individual, taking in consideration the fact that that person has been in the business for so long. So I had to, unfortunately, terminate. Terminate that person. But you know, that's.

Bart Egnal: That's one example and that's a rare example. I mean, it sounds like you have the culture, the dominant culture is the greater good at the company.

Denis Ricard: In fact, you have to know this. That person, I mean, I could see that it was not really working. But what has been the trigger for me to act and terminate? the individual was one person that I worked in the company that was another sector completely, that we had worked together in the past in the company. And that person trusted me. She came into my office, closed the door and I said. And she said, denis, you should not put up with what that person is doing.

Bart Egnal: So someone else in an unrelated unit was speaking up for the greater good?

Denis Ricard: Yes.

Bart Egnal: So when you look at what you've created and what, I mean, not just you, but what IA has created in terms of this culture of common good, people listening I think might say, oh, I want to work at IA my or my company, or I'm in another industry and I wish my company had that kind of culture. And maybe they're in the CEO suite, but more likely they're in a, you know, say a VP role or an aspiring leader. What advice would you give to them about, hey, you're in. About how they can cultivate that kind of common good and culture. When the dominant culture may not be maybe political, it may be, you know, turf. Because I think, having worked with companies in so many industries, I would say that what you have at IA is rarer than the opposite.

Denis Ricard: I would say that, I mean, I may sound like it's perfect at I. It's not. Okay, so let's just be clear. It's continuous work, continuous reinforcement. So, to me, even though there is this mindset that is there, one of the things that I did when I started as a CEO was to take my executive team and do, workshops on M team building. Not that it was like, not great before, but it's more like you are in a situation when you want to make a change. You want to send a message, you want to talk about what is important for you. So it was a pretext, a way for me to send a message. Okay, let's get together. Let's, as a team, discuss what is important for us. And it's not only about the Nirikaal. It's also about the people that were around me. Some of the people were already there, some were new. And we set together a modus operandi that, fit what we wanted to do. And then we adjusted after that. But I mean, my advice would be to start with a critical mass of people around you that you agree on what you want to become as a team, right? And then work your way up. from that point on, you can.

Bart Egnal: Create it even in the pocket of the organization. But I'm also hearing from you. It really takes intention. It takes work to say, and it takes back to the communication skills, right? You have to say, look, this is what we want. Let's do it. And then it's back to your point around. It's never perfect. It requires an ongoing commitment to maintain and nurture that. That common good, that commitment to the common good. Is that fair?

Denis Ricard: Oh, yeah, it is fair. It needs to be repeated. I mean, in my town halls with employees, I say that, for example, with, you know, pro, there's problems. Make it visible, guys. I mean, right? Don't hide it. Okay. it's worst. I mean, if you make it visible. I mean, we work as a team. We're going to work and, and help it.

Bart Egnal: So, Denis, we've been talking about this culture across aa, but we've really been talking more about you and your executives. Tell me, how do you take these principles around the greater good, transparency, bringing, like, how do you communicate those authentically to the whole organization of 10,000? Or can you.

Denis Ricard: Well, in fact, I want to be as accessible as possible. I mean, one of the. I would say best compliment that I can receive is that you are an accessible CEO. And the way I do that is that I do regular town halls with my employees. and it's funny because people are saying, okay, we work virtually most of the time, and, and so the Culture. There's a risk that the culture can fade away over time. It's the contrary. I have so many opportunities to talk directly, directly, without filter to my employees. The most important one are the town halls that I do on a monthly basis. And I repeat, and I repeat and I repeat what is important for me as the CEO for the culture of the company. For example, make problems visible. And, we work as a team. and trust is important. I mean, all those values that are important for me. I can talk about it directly. I organize, what we call the cafe. It's like meeting with employees whether I'm in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, or in the U.S. i did one in the U.S. I meet with, let's say, 10 to 15 employees for breakfast, and I just hear about them and I tell them what you know. I answer that question, I tell them what is important. Just have a, you know, informal conversation so I can have a feel of what's going on when I. When I am in Quebec City or even here in Montreal or elsewhere, I go for lunch with. With employees. Sometimes I just, you know, pop up and say, okay, well, what are you doing? And I don't know. I don't necessarily know them, and what are you doing? And some of them sometimes funny, because it's okay. What are you doing? Okay, so you are a new employee or you don't watch my town hall. Okay.

Bart Egnal: Like, who are you anyways?

Denis Ricard: Yeah.

Bart Egnal: Ah.

Denis Ricard: But anyway, it helps me understand more what are the issues? I mean, this is how I learned, for example, in a five. I mean, happy hour. Sometimes there's happy hour, and I just dropped there. And I mean, I learned that we had hackers in the company. Like, we have the team, like a attack team in a different. Because we do, try to, you know, get into our systems and stuff like that. So I learned about the people. They're their concern. And they are. They hear directly from me. So everybody knows that I'm talking to anybody in the company.

Bart Egnal: And is that something you, you look to your executive team to do as well?

Denis Ricard: Absolutely. Oh, yeah. And they do.

Bart Egnal: So it's not. So if we go back to these lessons, you need the depth. You need to be an amazing communicator. You need to foster the greater good. It's not just what's happening at the executive suite. It's really something that you look for people to model and lead and demonstrate through the entire organization.

Denis Ricard: Yeah. Leading by example is very, very important as far as I'm concerned. Yeah.

Bart Egnal: So, Denis, how long have you been CEO now?

Denis Ricard: seven years.

Bart Egnal: See, I can tell, as you said, you're still passionate. It's like you never worked a day in your life. What's next when you think about the team that you're cultivating, the growth of the business, when you look to the future, and we'll end on this note, what kind of executives do you want to develop into your team? What kind of people do you want to bring into the fold? Who's going to help lead in addition to the people you have now? Who are you looking to. To. To build as the leaders of I tomorrow?

Denis Ricard: What is very important at I is that to have a growth mindset. to me, that is very important. Growth mindset. Growing the company, but also grow potential, like, like the talents. To me, this is the most important aspect of a leader. I mean, eventually I'm going to, move on to something else in my life in several years. but we are growing leaders as we speak. That, we're going to be ready at some point, and we have a growth leader already, but we are obviously, pushing the envelope and developing even more skills. we have. The pipeline is pretty good. So I'm very pleased with that.

Bart Egnal: Yeah. And I can see your passion for developing talent and your clarity around how your own career and your own growth has shaped your focus.

Denis Ricard: I owe it to the company. I've been fortunate to work at IE all my career, and, I owe it to the company that we prepare for the next generation well.

Bart Egnal: And from the executives who I've worked with on your team, I'd say you're doing a pretty good job. So I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your philosophy, your own story and lessons for people, whether they're in the CEO role today or aspire to it tomorrow. So thank you so much for your time.

Denis Ricard: You're welcome.

Bart Egnal: I hope you enjoyed that episode of the Inspire Podcast and the conversation that I had, with our guests. And hopefully you left with some really practical, tangible tools and tips that you can use to be more consistently inspirational. If you're enjoying the pod, I'll ask you a favor. Please rate and review it. I love the comments, appreciate the reviews, and the visibility allows others to discover the pod. It's really how word of mouth has spread the Inspire Podcast to so many listeners and helped us keep making this great content. Stay tuned. We'll be back in two weeks with another inspiring conversation. Thanks so much for listening. Go forth and inspire.