No Head Office — Only a Service Centre

“A number of managers were unsatisfied with how the system worked in its early stages, and told Bouchard that they often received calls from the “head office” to resolve different problems. At the end of his tour of the stores, Bouchard rented a reception hall so he could address all the employees from the service centre in Laval, who had become so numerous that none of Couche-Tard’s buildings could hold them. “I’m not here to tell you some good news,” he told the assembly. “We all need to understand that in this organization, today and always, you and I are at the service of the stores. Not the other way around.” And that, he said, should be reflected in their vocabulary. “There is no *head office* in this company, and there never will be,” he insisted. “So, I don’t want to hear the words *head office* or *headquarters* anymore. We are a service centre and a training centre—that’s it.””

““We don’t make a cent in these offices. The money is made in the stores.””