Marc Parent.SAM SINGH/The Globe and Mail
My first toys were airplanes. I joined the air cadets when I was a teenager because that’s the only way you could learn to fly. We didn’t have any money—not that kind of money, anyway.
If I was the same person today that I was 30 years ago, I would not have gotten to where I am for the simple reason that my co-workers would have killed me. One of my first mentors said, “From a temperament standpoint, I would say you’re on the right of Genghis Khan.”
There are about 100,000 airline flights every day, and probably 75% of those pilots have been trained in one of CAE’s simulators or at one of our training centres. We do defence, as well—we play an essential role in preparing people for the missions they’ll have to fly.
I’m the perfect undercover boss, because as a licensed airline pilot, I have to go every six months into our simulators to demonstrate that I still have the skills to operate the aircraft. I get a huge amount of feedback from other customers, who don’t know who I am.
Statistically, chances are that an engine will never fail on me. But it will happen to somebody. So that person has to be able to react when it matters. That’s our mission. The magic is making sure that anywhere you are in the company, you understand how your job contributes to that.
When I first got to CAE, we had serious difficulties. The employees knew what we needed to do, so I had breakfast meetings every day at 7:30 with 12 of them. Then at noon, I’d meet with my team and say, “Okay, this is what we heard this morning. What are we going to do about it?” In parallel, I’d visit our customers—the airlines of the world—and ask, “How do I turn things around?”
When a problem feels insurmountable, I delegate it to somebody I trust. As soon as I do that, it’s gone off my shoulders.
There’s never been a defence market in Canada large enough to support a company like CAE. So we have to win on the export market, and we do—90% of what we do is engineered and built in Canada, and exported around the world.
The world’s not getting any safer. So I applaud the government for increasing their focus and expenditures on defence. There’s a new minister in charge of accelerating procurement. That needs to be done—our process has been too slow.
Industry and government need to work together. The military knows what it needs to accomplish a mission. And we know the art of the possible, technologically. The trick is to do it way ahead of when you think you’re gonna need it. You can’t just wake up one day and say, “We need new helicopters.” You have to see it coming.
Not many people do 16 years as CEO of a public company, and I feel I’m leaving CAE in a very good position. I’m gonna do some more flying. I’ll probably complete my helicopter licence. I wanna do my U.S. federal airline transport rating just for fun. I’ll spend time with my kids. And I’m getting married next year. But I’ll stay in the industry—I think I can contribute more to the discourse on defence and aviation.