- President and co-owner, Synesis Inc., Montreal
A lawyer by training, Ugo Dionne discovered in 1998 that he was better suited to business. Indeed, he planned to obtain an MBA and become a corporate manager. Then he was introduced to Doug Wiseman.
"He's the anglophone equivalent of you," a mutual friend told him. The two hit it off and within six weeks of meeting they made an offer to purchase Synesis Inc., a company that offers specialized information technology training and recruitment services.
"'Let's meet these people and then you can make up your mind,' Doug said to me. I said to myself, 'What have I got to lose?'" recalls Mr. Dionne, who earned his law degree at Université de Montréal and practised civil and commercial litigation for three years at Brouillette Charpentier Fortin LLP.
Becoming an entrepreneur meant assuming some risk. "You have to live with that and say, 'I accept the possibility of failure,'" says Mr. Dionne, who says he gave up law because he wasn't cut out for it. "But it was the right time. You don't have a mortgage and kids, and I figured it's better now than in 10 years."
That risk clearly paid off. Synesis, which began with one office and four employees, has emerged as the largest corporate training firm in Quebec. And it grew rapidly thanks to his "never say no" attitude, which focused on meeting client needs.
In the early days, that single-minded approach sometimes drew laughs. The firm pretended it had laptops, when in fact it had desktops with a large TV that served as a kind of mobile classroom. "We made it happen — and the client liked that," says Mr. Dionne, who is married and has two young children.
That attitude prevailed even as the firm grew to 100 teaching specialists and has evolved into teaching soft skills, such as stress management, project management and language training. Among Synesis's clients are Loto-Québec, Hydro-Québec and National Bank of Canada.
Synesis has also grown through acquisition. In 2006, it acquired the Multihexa training centres in Montreal and Laval. Last year, it acquired Versalys Inc., its largest competitor. It has also formed a strategic partnership with TrainCanada, a Calgary-based software and technical training firm with 25 offices across the country.
This month, Mr. Dionne will celebrate the 10th anniversary of acquiring Synesis.
"If you are an entrepreneur and your business is going well, you can't ask for much more," says Mr. Dionne, who channels some of his passion for business into helping one of his pet projects, Bénévoles d'affaires (Business Volunteers), which brings together business owners and non-profit groups.
Special to The Globe and Mail
