Tomorrow... as seen by Nathalie Palladitcheff

Alumni BSB'91, President and CEO at Ivanhoé Cambridge

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Nathalie Palladitcheff graduated from BSB in 1991. She is currently President and CEO at Ivanhoé Cambridge, in Montreal (Canada). Founded in Quebec in 1953, Ivanhoé Cambridge develops and invests in properties, projects and real estate companies around the world. Nathalie Palladitcheff tells us here about her career, about the modern CEO, about the modern CEO, about corporate culture, about a world where CSR and ESG have disappeared or about the transformations in her sector, accelerated by the Covid-19 episode.

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“I have excellent memories of the three years I spent in Dijon. I often say it: I was very well trained there, acquiring a very solid technical base in finance, accounting, law, taxation, which made all the difference at the start of my career. I am very grateful to this institution, which was called ESC Dijon at the time, and I still have moving memories of the courses of Odile Dendon, a professor who gave me confidence in mastering a subject.

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At the time, I wanted to be an expert, and I was hired by an audit firm before I even graduated. In fact, this is a constant in my career: in 30 years, I have never looked for a job, people have always come to me. It is certainly a question of time, but this technical solidity, beyond the skills and the passport that it constitutes, has allowed me to try a lot of things throughout my career.

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I also remember the open-mindedness that the training brought me. A top management school is like a Spanish inn: you take what you find there. And I found a lot of things there in addition to lessons: diversity, enriching experiences... This was very important for me, and in particular for the position of CEO that I hold today, because a manager must be someone curious, humble, able to ask questions without necessarily having the answers. From this angle I can see that my eyes are not the same as those of previous generations.

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At the time there were no CSR courses or anything else. However, today, that's what I do every day. I am convinced that sustainable actions are profitable actions — and even more so in the real estate industry in which I work! It is absolutely necessary to produce in a sustainable way; tomorrow, it will be the strict minimum.

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The end of the omnipotent CEO

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Before, Europe was ahead of the curve on this issue; now, we are seeing the emergence of social, environmental and governance dimensions everywhere. They become the key to the performance that we build for the future. This evolution confirms that we are going through a phase where expertise is no longer so important. What matters for a CEO is to set up the connections, the networks that will work. To have a method for organizing what you don't know.

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For me, this is why a school like BSB trains the CEOs of tomorrow. You should not format people with certainties, tell them that they are right and that this or that something is needed in their journey. The new leadership profiles are very different from the past. Beyond technical skills, you need the humility to know that you don't know everything and to organize yourself according to that. There is no more room for an omnipotent CEO who knows everything. That time is over.

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True success is finding what is best at any given moment. Nothing has to be planned in advance, there is no point in projecting yourself to 20 years. You get much more satisfaction by leaving room for what you don't know and what doesn't yet exist. For my part, this is what I am learning from my experience: I find coherence in my journey through this step-by-step process, from company to company, by having done things because it was time and not because it was scheduled.

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Look: we may make all the projections of the world, except Bill Gates, nobody predicted a crisis like that of Covid-19! This only confirms that you don't have to do things in reaction: you have to do things, the right things, because they have to — otherwise you don't prepare for the next crisis. The idea is not just to respond to the current crisis, but to also draw lasting lessons from it and to look forward.

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CSR and ESG, the proper use of capital

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It is necessary to have the strength and the courage in ESG policy — Environmental, Social and Governance — to prepare for future crises. And let's go even further: the words “CSR” and “ESG” should almost have disappeared. I mean: the day they disappear, it will mean that what they wear is integrated, that they are just a necessary and natural lung of the company. I often say that when you build a building, you don't ask yourself if there will be electricity: it's a presupposition. Likewise, CSR and ESG must become standards.

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I developed this reflection because the more I progressed in my professional life, the more I had a high level of responsibility, the more I became aware that these dimensions were the most fundamental. This reflection is closely linked to my own background, much more than to a current trend.

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At Ivanhoé Cambridge, we consider ourselves to be activists. We absolutely want CSR and ESG to be an integral part of team culture; it has to become unconscious. In fact, I consider this to be the main objective of my mandate. There is no obligation of result but an obligation of means. And this is all the more imperative as we are in the real estate world: people live in our buildings.

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Let's be clear: I don't put a philosophy into it, but for me it's performance that we create over the long term. Ivanhoé Cambridge has 30 billion euros in capital: CSR and ESG are simply the right use of capital. When I took office last October, we looked at the trends, and based on that, we saw the need to incorporate this significant pillar into our strategic plan.

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Influence and place of women

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So everything we do must be passed through the RSE/ESG filter. When building a building, no aspect of the project is exempt. And I have to say I am struck by the level of buy-in internally, how people are taking ownership of that. And how it also diffuses beyond our walls. For example, we welcomed 25 interns in April, despite the lockdown, and we were able to measure that for these young people the choice to go to us had been made a lot on this dimension.

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This is in line with the second part of my ambition: for Ivanhoé Cambridge to be influential. Our institution is very well known in the real estate world — it is fourth in the world in terms of assets. The more the company is shown as an example on these topics, the more it has a contagious effect on our peers. I like the idea of having an influence in this way, of generating this emulation. There is a pleasant side to being at the forefront of these trends that are going to become widespread. Because at the end of the day, everyone will have won.

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My other fight, perhaps more personal, is that of women. I have never suffered from being a woman professionally, but today at my post I realized that the subject of the place of women was not settled at all. To put it simply: there are not many and they are always the same! I don't consider myself a feminist, it's not about having women for the sake of having women. But I am for diversity. In governance, we can see how the place of women contributes strongly to performance. Unfortunately, the evolution towards parity is very slow...

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Covid-19: accelerator of reality

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This episode of Covid-19 is an accelerated period of trends: we are witnessing an evolution of commerce, working practices — with more flexibility, less public transport, office transformations, etc. In our industry, there are no big surprises to be aware of, everything is simply going much faster.

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In fact, this period reinforces our beliefs. We are experiencing a transformation of the sector the likes of which has not been experienced since the Second World War, developments are exacerbated by the current crisis and this accelerated reality reinforces our positioning.

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Three quarters of Ivanhoé Cambridge's assets are located outside of Canada, and we always adopt a sociological and cultural approach to our projects based on geographic locations. Our credo is “Invest globally, act locally”, and this is becoming all the more powerful today. Real estate must be made in response to local needs. And yes, this episode raises questions about a form of deglobalisation.

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Historically, our portfolio was very office-based but it had already evolved in recent years. We already had this structural movement in mind so we are not disconcerted by its acceleration, it was anticipated. You have to see one thing clearly: flexibility is the most important thing. There will always be offices; this asset class is not going to disappear but will change significantly.

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We are living as a revolution in action. Places evolve, buildings evolve, and a natural selection is made between what works and what doesn't. This is an observation that applies to all crises, not only that of Covid-19. Remember, for example, how SARS accelerated e-commerce in Asia in the early 2000s. There is an optimistic way to look at these episodes because there are going to be interesting and lasting things that will come out of the one we are currently experiencing.”