Laval

"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.”"

"The management of St-Hubert often takes its meals at the rotisserie on boulevard des Laurentides. And for good reason. For the past year, it has left the offices on rue Saint-Hubert to set up its base on the upper floor of the rotisserie, on boulevard des Laurentides. The decision was self-evident. In 1966, St-Hubert Bar-B-Q had five branches, nearly 550 employees, and served at least 800,000 chickens per year. Eighty vehicles equipped with warmers served the metropolitan area. The Léger family also devoted an annual budget of $150,000 to advertising—which was a phenomenal sum for a restaurant at the time. Two years earlier, the company’s expansion already required the centralization of operations. The Léger family therefore did not hesitate to embark on another adventure: the construction in Pont-Viau of a custom-built building. The complex includes, on the second floor, the head office, a bakery, and the catering service; the dining room is on the ground floor, and the reception hall on the first floor. Laval was also not chosen by chance. It is a rapidly growing suburb attracting young families in search of a patch of grass, a “natural” clientele for St-Hubert."

"Paul Desmarais’s higher education also played a large part in his development, not only because it broadened the scope of his educa¬ tional experience, but because it also exposed him to contacts and friendships that would be important in future. The contacts made in younger days are important; they offer a view of an individual in the making, which lets the watcher know the stuff of which the person is made. Once they’re adults, then, these people know who can be trusted and how far; armed with a measure of one’s partners or ad¬ versaries, business becomes immeasurably easier to conduct. That’s why the children of the powerful or aspiring English are sent to preparatory schools like Upper Canada College before going to universities having the cachet that comes of being populated and patronized by the ruling class, like the University of Western Ontario or Queen’s. For the Franco-Quebecois, the prep schools were Loyola and Brebeuf; the university was Laval. The Franco-Ontariens pre¬ ferred the University of Ottawa, a small, bilingual men’s university that bridged English and French cultures. It was J. N. Desmarais’s alma mater, and Paul’s elder brother Louis studied there for a while before going on to McGill University in Montreal. After graduating from high school in Sudbury in 1947, Paul Desmarais followed his father and brother to the University of Ottawa."