Daniel Lamarre et Rassembler | Atypique HEC Montréal

“I go to the cafeteria, I walk around on the floor, I listen to people, and that way I quickly know if there’s a problem or what the morale of the troops is.” When he joined Cirque du Soleil in 2001, Daniel Lamarre stepped into a whole new world. Having co-founded the public relations firm National and led the television network TVA, he was used to managing teams. But working with artists and navigating an organization made up of 90 different nationalities forced him to evolve. “I liked selling my ideas, and that notion of selling didn’t go over very well at Cirque du Soleil,” he recalls. “At the beginning, I really had an image problem with the team. I had to change my style — stop selling and start convincing instead.” He also had to build a working relationship with the dynamic founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté, whom he would eventually succeed as head of the company. “I never said no to Guy Laliberté. I always told Guy, ‘Yes, we’ll evaluate it,’” he explains. “With our teams, we would assess his ideas. And the good news is, he understood the numbers.” From years of explosive growth to a forced shutdown during the pandemic, Daniel Lamarre reflects here on two decades at the helm of Cirque and on crisis management, which was long part of his daily reality. He speaks candidly about a leadership approach rooted in calm and attentive listening. “I’m not the one who comes to the front to impress people, but I’m the one who stays close to people,” he shares. His Atypique? The Power of Bringing People Together.