At a crossroads, the Montreal-based marketing communications and digital consulting agency Adviso has opted for the less traveled path. It has decided to entrust its future growth to internal succession rather than selling itself to the highest bidder, in a sector where mergers and acquisitions are however the norm.
At the beginning of September, this led to the appointment of Elizabeth Henry to the position of CEO of this Montreal box of around 100 employees. The one who was until then Chief Executive Officer inherits by the very fact of a participation in the shareholding of her company which she cannot divest in favor of a third party without the consent of the other members of the management of Adviso.
In his new role, Mme Henry replaces co-founder Simon Lamarche, who is retiring from the company. Jean-François Renaud, the other co-founder, retains his title of president and will devote himself to promoting the company outside its current market.
“I am the first of the next gang of leaders to have been appointed, ”summarized in an interview with To have to Elizabeth Henry. “My role will be to make sure that the activities are going well and to manage the growth to come. “
The big leagues
Adviso is a private company; Mme Henry has a certain latitude in the management that she will make of it. It still relies on an advisory committee that includes personalities from the business world, including former leaders of the Bank of Canada and the FTQ. The professor at HEC Montreal and marketing expert Jacques Nantel is one of the lot. The idea of betting on internal succession rather than selling to a larger foreign rival comes largely from him, says Mme Henry.
“There was a lot of pressure to sell, and even at a sometimes very attractive price, but our founders said no. They preferred to develop talent internally. “
This goes against the grain of the market, admits the new big boss of Adviso. “We are in a sector of strong consolidation. We saw Cossette and Mr. Lee be redeemed. Large international groups are looking for local branches in regional markets such as Quebec. We believe we are doing better by keeping our spirit and our SME culture and raising it to the next level of growth. “
Adviso has doubled in size in five years. Elizabeth Henry’s goal will be to double her again within the next five years. She hopes the gang will inspire other business leaders to prepare their subordinates to take over rather than selling everything to a third party. “It’s tempting to let yourself be eaten up to access the big leagues. It takes more effort to avoid this pressure. But it is doable, ”she assures us.
A turn that is slow to be seen
The insistence for a year and a half for SMEs to go digital to minimize the impact of the pandemic has partly borne fruit: investment in technology has peaked in most economic sectors of the country. province. This shift has not been felt as keenly in marketing, however, where companies have often cut spending, rather than increasing it.
It won’t be long, says Elizabeth Henry. “Above all, there has been a lot of investment in activity and inventory management applications. Marketing budgets have not increased even though the share devoted to digital has increased. I expect an increase in business spending very soon, ”explains the one who forecasts growth in revenues this year.
To be able to achieve this objective, it intends to bet heavily on the Quebec fiber. Among other things, she wants to see the provincial government entrust its marketing budgets to a truly local agency, rather than to a Quebec subsidiary of a foreign giant (even if this agency has since become Quebec again).
As in many other industries, buying local could have a beneficial effect on the combined marketing and consulting industry. “If big companies can wage a price war, we can show off our authenticity and our knowledge of the local market,” explains Élizabeth Henry.
An authenticity that goes beyond the postal address located in Montreal. The leader is putting in place a new organizational structure that will put more emphasis on diversity, equality and inclusion. The positions of human resources manager and finance manager, which are to be filled, will have this directive prominently in their definition of tasks.
“It’s important to have the right structure to be able to play in the big leagues”, concludes M.me Henry.
Go play in the big leagues. Another way to illustrate how an SME is slowly but surely becoming a large company. A target that is often reached more quickly by playing the game of mergers and acquisitions. Many business leaders forget that they can also achieve it by focusing on an often neglected asset: internal succession. This is Adviso’s bet.
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