The heart of the recovery will be “to better rebuild” our economy, argues the President and CEO of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Isabelle Hudon. The challenges are many, but the opportunities are just as many, insists the first woman to lead the institution, returning this summer from Paris after having been Canada’s Ambassador to Monaco and France for four years.
“When the pandemic arrived, I was still in France and I was starting to think about what my next challenge would be. I knew that I wanted to return to the economic world, to my first love, ”says Isabelle Hudon.
From France, Mme Hudon believes he has learned from the experience of French leaders wanting to help France emerge stronger from this pandemic. “It touched me a lot and that’s what motivated me to say to myself: ‘how can I continue to serve my country in one way or another?’ »She explains, now at the head of BDC, a Crown corporation that contributes to the development of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by offering them financing and consulting services.
Viable solution?
If the sky is gradually clearing up, some clouds continue to overshadow the recovery for the business world. “When we survey our SMEs, our customers, the first challenge is the labor shortage”, underlines Mme Hudon.
“On this aspect, I think that we can help our companies to think about the integration of technologies to alleviate the shortage,” adds the one who already headed the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal in the early 2000s. At the time, there was a very high unemployment rate, and we were in a very different economic situation. We couldn’t say what I’m going to say here: but now we have to think about how technology can replace jobs ”, believes Mme Hudon.
According to her, all sectors must think about automation, but the issue is even more pressing for some, such as the retail sector. “Take the example of automatic cash registers in a pharmacy or any store. It is very pleasant to be greeted by someone, but now you can also yourself to scan its objects and pay its bill, without there being any human interaction, ”she illustrates.
“For some small businesses, integrating technologies means one or two fewer people. But for other companies in the manufacturing sector, or in large factories, the impact is even greater on the number of jobs that can be replaced ”, pleads Mme Hudon.
Diversity and parity
A better economy must also be fairer and more inclusive, according to Isabelle Hudon, both in terms of parity and diversity. And for her, that goes through the objectives that an institution sets for itself and through the service provided to its clients.
“Since my arrival, the management committee has been almost equal,” says Mr.me Hudon, qualifying however that efforts still need to be made. “As a financial institution, I also want us to accelerate our penetration of less well-served markets, among others: women entrepreneurs, Aboriginals and the black community”, clients who, in addition to facing the same challenges as all entrepreneurs, must also overcome additional obstacles – in particular due to sometimes a lack of credit history or less substantiated financial literacy, explains the leader of the BDC.
The question of the representation of women is an issue dear to Mr.me Hudon, she who co-founded L’effet A, an initiative to promote the place of women in the workplace.
What then does she think of the Legault government’s bill aiming at parity on the boards of directors of state-owned companies and which could cost the position of some female directors on boards where female representation exceeds 60% – such as that of Hydro-Quebec? “It’s going to be interesting to see how they handle this, notes Mme Hudon, who herself has served on the board of Hydro-Québec in the past. Me, I’ve always said that my activism on the gender equality front is linked to the fact that I want there to be better representation of women, but I don’t want us to go to the other extreme, and that all organizations are 100% feminized. The greatest wealth of a team lies in its diversity of genres and expertise. I think it’s important that we keep this parity zone between 40% and 60%. “
The private sector’s green shift
Another major issue for a better recovery is the green turn, believes Isabelle Hudon. And to help companies take this turn, “we must be there financially to support them in their actions and help reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” notes Mme Hudon, according to whom it is also necessary “to give SMEs better visibility of the actions they can undertake.” “
We must be there financially to support companies in their actions and help reduce their greenhouse gas emissions […] and give SMEs better visibility of the actions they can take
“At first, I wondered if we were really going to learn from this pandemic. There are real scars, I agree, but there are also some nice and good lessons to be learned. The BDC and the companies it works with must rethink the impact they have other than through their financial performance alone, believes the head of the institution. “Thinking about our impact on the climate is one example,” she concludes.