On the soccer field, Patrick Drolet is a defender. It’s the defence’s job to stop the opposing team from getting to the goal and correct any mistakes made by other teammates.
At Notarius, Patrick has the same role. Whether it’s rolling out new products, rethinking customer service, fixing bugs or building the website, he’s often the first guy off the bench, ready to tackle any issues.
What motivates him to overcome the obstacles in his daily work? Where many people would see roadblocks, Notarius’ VP of Operations and Product Strategy sees opportunities to take new paths and talk about things differently. Is it an engineer’s intuition? Maybe! But there aren’t many who manage to do it with the same sense of teamwork as Patrick.
Finding his way back to what he loves
To really understand Patrick, we need only to look at how he treated the employees of his specialized IT security firm, Galea. Despite their success and the support they received from the Caisse de dépôt du Québec, Patrick and his partners had to close Galea’s doors back in 1999. While some entrepreneurs would have immediately headed off to greener pastures, Patrick made sure to score interviews for most of his former employees.
“We closed while showing our team we cared,” he said.
With his mind at ease, he next worked for companies like Hyperchip in Montreal, and AcceLight and Nanometrics in Ottawa. He then moved on to Atlanta-based EMS Technology, where he worked as a product and program manager, spearheading initiatives that generated revenue of around US$40 million annually.
Wanting to return to Quebec, he then worked for three years as a product portfolio manager at EXFO before learning of Notarius.
“When I was at EXFO, a third of the time, I was overseas,” he said. “After a while, I didn’t have a life anymore, […] so I wanted to stop travelling. That’s when I heard about Notarius and encrypted digital signatures. As someone with a background in IT security, I was definitely interested!”
In addition to being an IT security buff, Patrick admits he was also impacted by a fraud case that turned one of his friend’s lives upside down. Joining the Notarius team was an opportunity to help mitigate fraud and a rare chance to work more closely with the general public.
“Something I find really motivating is that at Notarius, we’re helping protect the public. We’re close to the people we’re helping. In reality, we’re protecting people who work in the engineering, legal and architectural sectors.”
Continuous change as a management principle
Patrick is always trying to perfect how Notarius operates. He loves taking teams out of their comfort zone to find novel or unexpected solutions.
“Sometimes, we’re lucky,” he observed. “For example, when COVID started, our new identity verification process allowed us to onboard a lot of people in a short amount of time. I think we learn and change by getting out of our comfort zone.”
And Patrick knows a thing or two about being uncomfortable! He’s even an expert in what we call “three-headed monsters.” By his own admission: “Our current team is already busy with ongoing projects. My job is to handle the challenging or special projects where there’s a lot of uncertainty and we need a new approach.”
Like a defender on a soccer field, Patrick is the player who gets the ball going in the right direction again. He makes clever passes to get the team back on the offence—and back on track.
What’s his secret? More than anything else, it’s a deep understanding of market conditions, what the stakeholders want, and the technology itself.
“When you know what’s going on underneath the hood, you can come up with much more creative and effective ideas. Otherwise, I might make a completely ridiculous request!”
As Vice President of Operations, Patrick changed several key processes that are now integral to the customer experience. He also oversaw the implementation of an online subscription option for Notarius’ digital signature solution.
“Before, you had to do it by hand by filling out a form. We had people entering data manually.”
Patrick got a taste of his own medicine when he joined Notarius, and now he’s glad he did! Once an ISO standards skeptic, Patrick is now a strong proponent of Notarius’ ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications thanks to the support of several of his colleagues.
“I’ve always strived for efficiency. We’ve reached a noteworthy level of operational efficiency thanks to the reference frameworks provided by our certifications.”
Proudest of all of Notarius’ values
For Patrick, Notarius’ greatest strength is the organization’s culture and values, and he takes it upon himself to share Notarius’ vision with new team members as much as he can.
As he describes it, “We have five official values: respect, ambitiousness, curiosity, exemplarity and commitment. We have an unofficial one, too, and that’s transparency. Playing a role in sharing these values is really important to me.”
Patrick believes Notarius has never had as many opportunities as it does right now. And the key to seizing those opportunities is gaining qualified and motivated people to join the team.
“If what interests you is feeling like you are playing a vital role in a company, there's a place for you.” he said. “For being such a small company, we have amazing benefits, and we’re having an incredible growth spurt. Plus, the compensation is very competitive.”
Having spent time at big foreign companies, Patrick knows what he’s talking about when he compares Notarius to other workplaces. With his experience and qualifications, he’s the type of manager who could work anywhere, but he admits that the atmosphere at Notarius makes all the difference.
“We don’t shy away from challenging others’ ideas. We can discuss ideas constructively, and in the end, we arrive at a better approach.”
He also concedes that the business is now at a mature stage where it’s easier to plan for long-term growth. As a VP, he considers himself lucky to be able to put people at the centre of his decision-making. He also acknowledged he likes having a variety of different backgrounds and personalities on his teams.
In his opinion, diversity means more points of view and more debate. In the end, thoroughly hashed out ideas not only result in finding the best approach, they also help bring different stakeholders closer together. It’s through ideas like these that Patrick embodies consensus-based leadership.
“You have the right to not understand everything”
Back when Patrick started out in IT, there was no such thing as iPods! With his impressive career, he is well placed to offer a few words of wisdom to those whose IT careers are just getting started:
“Try to understand not just what’s going on the surface, but what’s underneath, both on the technical and business side of things. You’ll need to learn to work in a team and all the project lingo. And be curious. It’ll give you a foundation to build on.”
He added that at Notarius, “You have the right to not understand everything.”
That’s our Patrick! Whether acting like a mentor or big brother, he is always helping others grow.
From the entire Notarius team, thank you!