VanillaPlus: What was your first job?
Germain Lamonde: For me it was EXFO right from the start some 30 years ago from my student flat, with simply a hundred-dollar investment. I remember writing the mission statement on my balcony during the summer of 1985: “become the world leader in fiber optic testing for the telecoms industry”. We reached that goal within the first 12 years and in the summer of 2000, EXFO became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ and TMX markets. I’m still at my first job and tremendously excited to lead a far larger and more diversified EXFO with the ambitious goal of being the trusted advisor and partner to Communication Service Providers globally to efficiently deploy better networks and deliver superior quality of experience thanks to our end-to-end visibility solutions and contextually relevant analytics tool for hardware and NFV/SDN centric networks. EXFO’s secret sauce is of course our very deep network and technology knowledge thanks to our highly talented team of 1600 people that have joined my dream along the way.
VP: What led you into a career in telecoms?
GL: After achieving my physics engineering degree at Polytechnique Montreal, I completed a master’s degree in optics at Université Laval, the top university in optics in Canada at the time, where, the now common, singlemode fiber optic cables were just becoming a reality. It was there I recognized an opportunity to establish a leadership position in the optical test segment that EXFO now dominates. Innovation has always been part of our DNA and it has enabled EXFO to be first to market in many key technologies such as PC-based OTDRs, DWDM, and high-speed optical testing. We were also first to bring comprehensive 10G testing solutions for OTN networks which established EXFO as a leader as networks transformed beyond circuit-switched towards packet-based methods. EXFO continues to be a unique innovator by anticipating and rapidly evolving technology in sync with the next-generation needs of the telecoms industry.
VP: Without naming and shaming, tell us about your worst ever boss.
GL: Well, I’ve almost never had a boss but of course I’m tough on me. Unlike others I have not experienced either a great or poor boss. I’ve always believed in an organization where we can connect the brains of all the people and empower them to constantly be in pursuit of excellence to bring the organization to the next level. “Market-driven Innovation” is mission-critical to us. I feel privileged to have talented people working hard and breaking new ground while having fun in the process. I’m also firm believer in leading by example, for myself and for all team leaders across our organization who exemplify our core values in their work, in building teams of outstanding people and in inspiring individuals to grow while communicating the spirit to win as a team. I believe that is why people become great contributors and stay at EXFO.
VP: What has been your worst business travel experience?
GL: Of course I’ve had my share of snowstorms, delayed flights, and so on but that’s not what I really remember. What sticks out in my mind are the joys I have travelling to meet partners and customers who, over the years, have become friends but also strong EXFO supporters. The rare privilege of having witnessed countries emerge from lower to high development in both economic and technology terms as they enhanced their telecom capabilities is nothing short of amazing. So I don’t have bad stories to tell, but I do have an anecdote, something that happened in Tokyo some 25 years ago. Back then, it was more challenging for foreigners to get by without knowing Japanese. Hailing a taxi, figuring out the subway system, asking directions, and everything else was an adventure. One evening, I was looking for an affordable restaurant in Tokyo – I was grabbed by the arm, pulled inside a door, and was seated at a table and before I said anything – heaps of food and drinks started being placed on the table. The place looked very posh – so I became worried this was going to cost too much; EXFO was still an early start-up. Eventually, two Japanese engineers that were also seated at the same table and they explained to me in broken English that the restaurant was just opening and taking people in to taste their food for free!
VP: What has been the proudest moment in your career?
PB: There are a lot of proud moments to pick from over the past three decades. I’m extremely proud to partner with top communications service providers to aid in their massive service deployments around the world. I’m proud of the more than 100 industry awards for our innovative solutions or market-share gains and whenever an employee or team gets a thank you letter or email from our customers for the outstanding support provided and for contributing to the success of their projects. There are so many proud moments shared with the whole EXFO organization globally.
VP: Where do you see yourself in five years?
GL: In the coming years, I’ll continue help crafting the strategy and steer the vision for the long term. My plans are to ensure EXFO’s continued success in the long run. In my personal life, I am an avid skier, I play tennis, I run, I bike. In business, as in my personal life, I will continue to push hard to outperform competitors and my mind is bubbling with strategic ideas for the future. At the same time, I’ll continue building EXFO’s future leadership to ensure EXFO has the strong long-term capabilities to thrive.
