As CGI looks ahead at 50, Tim Hurlebaus, President and Chief Operating Officer, reflects on the attributes that continue to shape the organization’s direction. Here is the transcript of his remarks:

Attributes that shaped our journey

One of my favorite responses on the CSAP (Client Satisfaction Assessment Program) is when, and I’ve seen it many times, a client will say, “Your people know my business better than I do.” And that’s a real compliment.

I think the places where we really bring deep expertise from working with, whether it’s a financial services client in collections, or a telecom client in collections, or helping do budgeting in complex government environments, our people bring that expertise. They’ve seen things before that maybe even a client who has worked in that domain their whole career hasn’t seen because they’ve been in one situation whereas our consultants have been in many.

I think that deep expertise, along with listening and understanding the unique situations that our clients are up against, is what has carried us over these many years and will carry us forward into the unknown. Unknown technology platforms, how AI will continue to evolve, what the world’s political economy will do. All those unknowns. I think sticking to those fundamentals will serve us well as we go forward.

Delivering value for our stakeholders

The things we’re up to are complex. They’re complex enterprises and complex solutions, so there’s always going to be a need for people who have seen it and done it before to walk beside our clients through their journey as they tackle new technologies and new ways of doing things to be competitive in their fields.

The future of CGI is…

We are here to create the future. I think the future of CGI is whatever we make it. If you use the past as a barometer, it will be interesting to see what happens, and I can’t wait myself.