For nearly fifteen years, Louis Vachon led the National Bank, setting a record for longevity at the head of Quebec’s largest bank. Today, the career banker retraces his journey and the lessons he learned in a new book, Passion for the job. Interview.
“I am not a natural leader. I am a very incomplete and very imperfect leader,” humbly told the Duty the one who was president and CEO of the National Bank from 2007 to 2021.
Louis Vachon’s management skills were “patched”, he says, learned through experience, but also nourished by inspiring figures and formative readings. It is precisely these learnings that the 61-year-old banker decided to bring together in a book published by La Presse.
The idea germinated in the summer of 2022. “I went on vacation and read the autobiography of Disney president Bob Iger, which was very interesting. I said to myself: “Coudonc, maybe I should publish one too,” says Mr. Vachon.
He did not retreat into a solitary “corner” to write down on paper his good and his less good moves. The book is the result of a “series of conversations on different subjects” with its co-author, Claude Breton, former vice-president of communications at the National Bank, with whom Mr. Vachon “worked closely for more than ten years” .
Getting through crises
If Louis Vachon thought of bringing together some lessons from his journey in a book, it is because he himself draws inspiration from reading to “be inspired by others and learn from their mistakes”.
In his house on the West Island of Montreal, the banker has his own refuge: a personal library which rises over two floors. Aside from financial works, Mr. Vachon is fond of military stories, which have also helped him overcome “periods of adversity”.
“My career at the National Bank began with a crisis, that of asset-backed commercial paper in 2007, which was difficult on a personal level. And then it ended with another crisis, that of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020,” notes Mr. Vachon.
” It’s inevitable. When you are a manager, you have to be ready to face crises. But the best way to manage a crisis is to avoid it as much as possible,” he adds.
Business acumen
Louis Vachon did not enter the field of finance without knowing what to expect. “I always knew there would be tough times in business,” he says. He particularly remembers the recession of 1973-1974 and the “great stress” his father experienced, then at the head of the Dumont Express trucking company. Business acumen has been running in the Vachons’ veins for several generations, recalls Mr. Vachon.
Her great-grandmother, Rose-Anna Vachon, originally from Beauce, created the famous Vachon cupcakes, which also celebrated their hundredth anniversary last year.
I am not a natural leader. I am a very incomplete and very imperfect leader.
“For my part, although I am fundamentally a business person, I have become more of an intrapreneur, which could generally be described as someone who is very enterprising, but within the framework of an established company,” underlines Louis Vachon in his book.
“I didn’t start a business. But I created departments, new business lines within a large organization. So there is still this entrepreneurial side that came out in a certain way,” he says.
And politics?
In his book, Louis Vachon mentions a handful of politicians, whom he considers to be “authentic leaders”: Jean Chrétien, Stephen Harper, Régis Labeaume, François Legault and Brian Mulroney.
However, the financier does not dream of being in their place. “I have always said: ‘What interests me is the aspect policy [l’élaboration et la prise de décision], the strategic side. Politics, especially in the 21st centurye century, I don’t see myself in that. It’s a lot of appearances and bla-bla,” says the one who stays away from social networks.
“I think my authenticity and my outspokenness would catch up with me quite quickly in the political context,” he emphasizes.
“If there really was a geopolitical crisis or a serious economic crisis, maybe I could lend a hand. But again, at the level policy [stratégique]. I wouldn’t be the prime minister forward. Maybe I could be the one to say, “Have you thought about doing this?” I would be more useful that way rather than being up front arguing with an opposition leader,” says Mr. Vachon.
His daily life is already very busy anyway. Barely three months after his departure from the National Bank, Louis Vachon returned to finance, as a partner at JC Flowers & Co., a New York investment firm, where he continues to practice. He also sits on several boards of directors, including those of Alimentation Couche-Tard, Groupe CH and BCE.