Réal Plourde, Couche-Tard/Circle K and Entrepreneurial Facilitation
ISBN: 978-1-83797-013-1, eISBN: 978-1-83797-012-4
Publication date: 13 December 2023
Abstract
Réal Plourde helped to oil the Couche-Tard/Circle K machine for Alain Bouchard, speeding up the pace of acquisitions and smoothing out the integration of newly acquired chains. As an engineer and MBA graduate with extensive international experience, he brought considerable added value to Alain Bouchard's team. Among other things, he helped to train many of the organization's senior executives, including the current CEO, Brian Hannasch, who joined the company in 2001, working closely with Réal Plourde for nearly a decade before replacing him as Head of Operations in 2011 and ultimately taking over from Alain Bouchard as CEO in 2014.
Although officially retired for some years now, Réal Plourde continues to sit on the boards of several organizations. He also chairs the board of an engineering firm employing more than 2,000 engineers. His Foundation has received several awards for its social and community contributions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
An initial version of a case study about Réal Plourde (in French) was filed with the HEC Montreal Case Centre in 2010 (9 40 2010 063): Réal Plourde: facilitateur et généraliste aux multiples talents. This case study was never published. A copy is available at the HEC Montreal Case Centre (http://www.hec.ca/en/case_centre).
Unless otherwise indicated, the citations in this 2023 version of the case study were taken from an interview conducted by the authors with Réal Plourde on 22 February 2010, in the company's offices in Laval. All citations are free translations from the original French. This case study includes most of the material from the previous case study produced by the authors in 2010. An additional interview was held with Réal Plourde on 21 February 2020.
This case study will be easier to understand if the following case study, telling the story of the enterprise, is read first: Alain Bouchard, Couche-Tard and Circle K: Conquering the World, Step by Step.
Information is also available from the company's websites: Couche-Tard/Circle K.
Additional information about Couche-Tard/Circle K is available in the following book: Guy Gendron (2016) Daring to Succeed. How Alain Bouchard built the Couche-Tard and Circle K convenience store empire. Montreal: Juniper Publishing.
Citation
Hafsi, J. and Filion, L.J. (2023), "Réal Plourde, Couche-Tard/Circle K and Entrepreneurial Facilitation", Agents of Innovation, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 91-109. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-012-420231003
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024 Joëlle Hafsi and Louis Jacques Filion. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited