CDPQ creates Repères numériques
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) launches Repères numériques, a training and support program created exclusively to help Québec SMEs adopt a digital business culture in their organization. Tangible and practical, this one-year program seeks to generate lasting changes and a greater capacity to evolve and compete in a digital business environment in around fifty SMEs. They will be selected from across Québec and represent various industries.
The pandemic quickly changed the business environment for companies, from the supply chain to customer relationships. Beyond technology itself, the digital culture and ability to understand and act in that environment have become even more critical for a company’s continued success.
Evolving mentalities
While SME leaders understand that it is important to accelerate their transition, there is still significant potential for improvement in adopting a digital business culture in all key functions of a company to generate growth and ensure they are competitive in the market.
“Technology shouldn’t to be limited to a sector, it should be deployed across the organization,” says Kim Thomassin, Executive Vice-President and Head of Investments in Québec and Stewardship Investing. “Given that, we want to equip SME leaders with the knowledge and reflexes to take action and adopt behaviours to handle today’s technological environment and use it to their advantage.”
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A personalized program
“Over the last few months, we surveyed SME leaders to get an understanding of their needs. It prompted us to develop a custom program that focuses on adapting business strategies and practices in an ever-changing digital environment,” added Kim Thomassin.
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Repères numériques will be aimed at leaders and their teams. Starting in fall 2021, the 12-month initiative involves:
- Setting tailor-made objectives for each SME based on a digital maturity audit of the company.
- Creating cohorts of participating entrepreneurs based on audit results and similar needs.
- Providing targeted training to the various entrepreneur cohorts, including group activities such as workshops, exclusive conferences, master classes, etc.
- Defining and implementing an action plan within their SME, with the support of a business coach.
- Organizing open forums to foster networking, sharing of best practices and co-development among the entrepreneurs.
- Evaluating and measuring results following an audit at the end of the program.
Themes such as technology evolution and its impact, consumer behaviour and the employee digital experience will be addressed throughout the program.
SME selection
Interested companies will have until April 9, 2021, to submit an application. A committee will then select the 50 SMEs that will be admitted to the program.
To be eligible, SMEs must meet the following criteria:
- Seek to adopt a digital business culture in the company
- Have sales of $5–35 million
- Turn a profit and have a promising growth outlook in their sector
ABOUT CDPQ
At Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), we invest constructively to generate sustainable returns over the long term. As a global investment group managing funds for public retirement and insurance plans, we work alongside our partners to build enterprises that drive performance and progress. We are active in the major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. As at December 31, 2020, CDPQ’s net assets total CAD 365.5 billion. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.
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