P/1 - Well, Nick. First at all, I would like to thank you for coming here, taking some time in your schedule to do the interview. And, in order to register, I would like you to say your full name, your place of birth and your date of birth.
R - Ok. My name is Nicholas Lecuyer. I was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, which is a suburb of Boston, on March 23, 1973.
P/1 - And Nic, tell us a little bit about your studies, your professional path. How did you become… Tell us a little bit about this. Where did you study…
R - Sure. Yes. I did my university studies as an engineer, a civil engineer, at Princeton University, which is in New Jersey. And I was a failed engineer, because I never did any engineering. I left university, and I instead joined the US Army. And I spend 04 years in the US Army, traveling all over the world, to different places, to Europe, to Asia, all over the United States, as a junior officer of the United States Army. And it was very interesting to go to places like Korea or to Europe, where I’d never really spent a lot of time, and I learned a lot doing that. I was very lucky, though. It was a peaceful time; it was the mid-90s as well, so it was very different than our current situation. But anyways, after I spent four years doing that, I realized that I wanted to do something different, so I decided to go back to university to get an advanced degree and an MBA to go to the business world. And so, I did my MBA degree at the University of Michigan, which is in a city called Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. It was very famous because the auto industry. I thought I wanted to be part of the auto industry. And I quickly learned that’s’ a tough way to make a living, the auto industry is a lots of downsizing and cost-cutting. So instead, I was waiting for the wind to blow me in some different way in life, and blew me into the consulting world. And I ended up spending most of my time in the consulting world,...
Continuar leituraP/1 - Well, Nick. First at all, I would like to thank you for coming here, taking some time in your schedule to do the interview. And, in order to register, I would like you to say your full name, your place of birth and your date of birth.
R - Ok. My name is Nicholas Lecuyer. I was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, which is a suburb of Boston, on March 23, 1973.
P/1 - And Nic, tell us a little bit about your studies, your professional path. How did you become… Tell us a little bit about this. Where did you study…
R - Sure. Yes. I did my university studies as an engineer, a civil engineer, at Princeton University, which is in New Jersey. And I was a failed engineer, because I never did any engineering. I left university, and I instead joined the US Army. And I spend 04 years in the US Army, traveling all over the world, to different places, to Europe, to Asia, all over the United States, as a junior officer of the United States Army. And it was very interesting to go to places like Korea or to Europe, where I’d never really spent a lot of time, and I learned a lot doing that. I was very lucky, though. It was a peaceful time; it was the mid-90s as well, so it was very different than our current situation. But anyways, after I spent four years doing that, I realized that I wanted to do something different, so I decided to go back to university to get an advanced degree and an MBA to go to the business world. And so, I did my MBA degree at the University of Michigan, which is in a city called Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. It was very famous because the auto industry. I thought I wanted to be part of the auto industry. And I quickly learned that’s’ a tough way to make a living, the auto industry is a lots of downsizing and cost-cutting. So instead, I was waiting for the wind to blow me in some different way in life, and blew me into the consulting world. And I ended up spending most of my time in the consulting world, working with financial institutions. As part of that work, it was very interesting, I worked with all kinds of different financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, payments companies. But I realized that there was an opportunity to do some really interesting things regarding financial inclusion, so, I ended up doing a lot of work focused specifically on consulting trends and financial inclusion, mostly in the United States. It was a very fabulous experience. It’s also very challenging for families, I had to travel a lot. So, I eventually decided that I didn’t want to do consulting anymore. It was time to do something new. So, I looked around to find something new. And I was trying to find an opportunity that kept me within the payments industry and that had an aspect of financial inclusion to it, and I was working for a well-known company, and all of that took me to Western Union, which has headquarters in Denver, Colorado, so it was a chance to go home as well. So, I joined Western Union, just over three years ago, as head of strategy for the company, and spent nearly three years in that role. Then, over the summer I transitioned to join a new role, looking after product and channel innovation. So I particularly focused on our internet channel, on our global channel, and a lot of new innovation at this point.
P/1 - Nick, I’m just gonna… go back a little bit, just tell me, before you decided to getting in the financial universe, what were your interests, what were you thinking about after the army, when you decided to do the MBA?
R - Sure. I was 100% sure of what I wanted to do. I had this idea though, that maybe it would be a good thing to work for a manufacturing company. That’s why, actually, I selected the University of Michigan, because it’s very close to a lots of big manufacturing companies. And somehow I got distracted and ended up, like I said, going into the consulting world instead. And again, when I started consulting I thought I wouldn’t want to spend all my time in manufacturing company. I did that. I spent my first, probably, year or so, in manufacturing companies, and like I said, at least at that time, they were mostly focus on cost cutting and downsizing and laying people off. So, it wasn’t a very fun work. So I decided to go into a different industry.
P/1 - What do you think are the main values and the main learning experience that you’ve brought with you from the Army into this new path of your life?
R - Sure. Well, so, one of the things that I gained from the army, I was just the exposure travelling around the world, working with different kinds of people and different countries. And I think that is just the very good experience for any sort of professional background. But, the other thing that I gained is, I was in leadership positions, in a very young age. And I had to rely on the people around me, because (…) when you start, they know more than you do. So, you have to build relationships with them, let them teach you. It is much more than anything else. So, that is another thing that I learned.
P/1 - Once you started working as a consultant for Mackenzie, what were the main challenges? What was hard for you to deal with? And how did you deal with? And what did you think about it?
R - Sure, sure. So, for me, the two biggest challenges, was first at all, being in business as opposed to a government organization, and I had to learn a whole new language, and a whole new way of thinking about things. The second thing, and this was actually a bigger learning experience, when I was in the Army, I used to be in charge of things, so I would figure out what needed to get done, and take a decision: This is what we’re gonna do. And what I quickly realized when I was in consulting, was that I wasn’t actually in charging of anything, the people who were charging of things were the clients. So my job was not to make decisions, my job was to help my clients see facts and understand their world better, so they’d take the decisions. And in the end of the day, that was all I could do. I wasn’t in charge of them. They were the ones that had to do things differently, not me. And took me the better part of the year to really work that through and understand that I needed to work differently in order to take advantage of that. But that was a big learning experience in my first year in consulting.
P/1 - And Nick, what would say are the main strategies to get a client to accept your strategies, and to trust you?
R - Well, the starting point is to build relationships with people and understand their points of view, and understand their situation, that’s first. And the second thing is just to really care about what they are doing. If you care about what they are doing, people can usually tell and helps them open up a bit. So, those two things.
P/1 - And can you tell us your main accomplishments at Mackenzie? What would you consider were the main things that you achieved?
R - So, I probably did… I was there nearly seven, going on eight years, and I probably did 75 projects, so, it’s tough to say. I was there quite a long time. But, one of the ones that I am proudest of was actually, was a pro-bono project, working for the school district in the city of Pittsburgh, (...) was in Pittsburgh. And we helped them design a very innovative scholarship program that provided (…) scholarships for all the graduates of the city of Pittsburgh’s Public Schools. And the scholarships were designed so the better the grades the students got, the more the scholarship would worth. And this enabled all the students to go to any public college or university in the State of Pennsylvania. It was a very innovative approach, because it was focused just on students of the public school system, and it had been a very low-performing public schools system, and we were trying to raise the standards of the system and get the students excited about it, and going forward with life. And they ended up finding a local, a big company that was headquartered locally and they committed over 100 million dollars to funding the scholarship program. And since, another company funded another 100 million dollars. So, it’s been a huge benefit for the city, so I was just very proud to get a chance of be part of that project.
P/1 - How did this idea came up, or what is the story? How did you start working with the schools…?
R - Sure. So, the chancellor of the public schools, Mark Roosevelt, he came to our firm and he said: ‘I got this idea, but I don’t know what to do about it, I don’t how to make it real. What do you think of this idea? Can you work with me?’ And I heard about this and thought that was a very interesting idea. What he actually needs is a business plan, and we are good at that. So, I got my partners to commit to making this a pro-bono project and we dedicated after work to the business plan for the schools for nearly six months and we put together a business plan which took to, like I said, a bunch of the local companies to commit to funding it.
P/1 - And how did it feel to work with a different project, that is not so financial, thinking about profits. How did you feel about it?
R - It was very inspiring, but on the other hand, I mean, one of the things was really about working with Mark Roosevelt, even though it wasn’t a business project per se, we applied a lot of business tools. Thinking about performance, matrix, thinking very clearly about objectives, how do we achieve those objectives, and what is the budget required to achieve those objectives. What are the benefits, what is the cost-benefit analysis? And putting all of that in financial language was very important for the companies and they ultimately ended up investing in the program.
P/1 - I would like you to tell us a little bit about what you think about the business universe. What can be used? What can be added to the social universe?
R - Sure. So, there’s clearly a lot of skills and methodology and expertise in the business world that is very relevant to the social world. In terms of, like I said, thinking about performances, matrix, thinking about business models, thinking about, you know what are the benefits for the different stakeholders. All those sorts of things are very useful, there’s relevance to both, in both the social world and the business world. I think that the main thing, that’s the difference, in the business world, typically, the objectives are much clearer. In the end of the day you calculate a number, what’s the profit. And you have to work much harder to figure out the equivalence and goals in the social world. And typically there’s many different goals, and you have to figure out which ones are most important (…). So, you know, how do you know if you’ve succeeded? It’s not always so easy in the social world.
P/1 - How did you hear about Ashoka’s program of the executive? How did you hear about it? How did you connected with it?
R - So, this is the second year that Western Union is participating in the program. And it was initially the leader of the Western Union Foundation, Luella, that helped, who made the connection. And in the first year, because I was in the role of head strategy for the company, she asked me to sit in the selecting committee, and we ended up selecting four executives to become part of the program. It was just a really thrilling opportunity to see all these folks, and all the opportunities they went to. So, in the second year, when we decided to do the program again, and in fact to make it bigger for the second year, I decided I didn’t want to sit in the selecting committee anymore, I wanted to be part of it. So I told Luella that I wasn’t gonna sit in the selecting committee and instead I ran an application and that’s how I ended up here.
P/1 - What drove you, what were the reasons, for you to decide to be part of it?
R - Sure. Well, when I was in the consulting world, I had some really nice opportunities to do big material pro-bono projects, and that’s partly because that’s the way the professional services world is set up. It is all based on projects, so you can just have one project amongst many that is a pro-bono project. In the corporate world it is not typically so easy, it’s not easy to take two weeks and leave and go spend time working with a social organization. It just seems like a really special and unique opportunity to be part of the Ashoka project, that normally I wouldn’t have access to in the corporate world.
P/1 - How does the problem function, if could you tell us? Is there a training? How do they choose? How did they think you would be good for this specific institution?
R - So, the selection process was kind of two steps. The first was applying to the Ashoka program. And there were lots of applicants from all over Western Union, and in total seven of us were selected this year. And it was based on… And I had to write an application and describe why I was passionate about it, and how I thought I would benefit. My work back at Western Union as well as how I thought I might be able to benefit. One of the Ashoka partner, social organizations. At that stage, I didn’t know which organization I would end up with, so it’s tough to know precisely, but at least I knew the kind of skills that I would have. Based on those applications we had the selecting committee and a total of seven executives were selected from the company. And then at that stage, Ashoka partnered with the executives to understand their professional interests. And to figure out a good partner organization. And that was really interesting because when I described the sort of things I was interested in, I mentioned that I was interested in education, that I was interested mostly in education, and I had no idea that Ashoka would say: “Well, we’d like you to go to Brazil”. The first thing I said was: “Well, you know I don´t speak Portuguese, I told you that, right?” And they said: “Oh, it’s not to worry, you’re going to find that everybody in this organization speaks very good English. It’s not a problem.” But that is the one of the things that is most surprising, I wanted to make sure that I was in an organization where I wasn’t in disadvantage because I didn’t speak the local language, so, I’d assumed that they would send me some place in the English speaking world. And I think that’s part of what’s (…) about Ashoka, they said: “you know, we’re going to stretch you a little bit, we’re going to do something that you didn’t think you are ready to do. But we bet you can do it”. And so I thought… it’s worked out really well, it’s been really exciting to get a chance to be working and living in Brazil for two weeks, and seeing Brazil through the eyes of the CDI.
P/1 - How was your first contact with the CDI? Did you study for? Or did you do a little research on the institution?
R - Yes. I did a little research, and then also Ashoka arranged a conference call with the founder, with Rodrigo, as well as with Mauricio, who is one of the key leaders in the organization as well, to start to understand, you know, what CDI does, how they view some of the opportunities and challenges. And that was very good to start, to get to know the organization. And we did a little bit of planning on how I might spend my time here. The truth of the matter is, until I got down here, I really understood the organization. That’s when I really figured out the best way to spend my time, but it was a good start to get to know folks and it meant that when I arrived here at least via teleconference I already knew a couple of people.
P/1 - And, once you got here, and you got in contact with CDI, what were the first things that you saw, that you thought: “Oh, this could be changed. We can do this. What were the first things that you believed could be changed?
R - Well, you know. It’s interesting. So I’ve learned this discipline as a consultant. The first thing that happens is that your mind races with all these different things that could be done differently. And I wrote all those things down, and then I said: “Ok, that’s great. But the problem is, I don’t know anything about this institution, so let’s instead, go learn about this institution and figure out what they are really trying to do, and how they really work”. So, I still only know this much of it. And what the real issues and opportunities are. And then, let’s go back to my original list and see if it still matters. Inevitably, what I found is, you know, nine out of ten things on the list didn’t make a difference, they didn’t understand what’s really going on, and so, you just have to be patient, to take time to understand things. Meanwhile, some of the things, that I didn’t have on my list at all, turned out to be pretty interesting opportunities as well. So, you just have to learn to be patient, to say: “I’ve got a lot of ideas, let’s write them down, let’s set a list and decide where to go first.”
P/1 - And once you think about your personal and professional path, how do you think, what do you think you can bring to CDI?
R - Well, one of the things that… Because they focus on technology and digital inclusion and technology education. And my work at Western Union has had me very much focused on the internet and mobile for the past three years. So that’s the sort of experiences that I brought where I might bring a perspective that is a little bit different from theirs because I’m working in different parts of the world with different sorts of consumers, but it’s enabled me to have very good conversations with them about where’s the technology market going, how things are trending, what’s that gonna mean for their students, what’s that gonna mean for their other stakeholders, and that’s been a very rich sort of conversation on both sides, I’ve learned, you know, I’ve learned quite a bit from them and hopefully they’ve have learned something from me, I’ll have to ask them.
P/1 - What are CDI’s main challenges today?
R - Their biggest challenge… They´re providing a really inspirational sort of service for their students. And they do it all with what they call social franchise model, so they’re partnering with the actual community organizations that are running these different centers. And their biggest challenge is that the need for the services is practically unlimited and they have very limited resources. So, how do they figure out how to serve more communities, more students, in a world in which they have limited resources. That´s the biggest challenge. And partly it means thinking about different models, partly it means trying to think about… they’re very keen on exploring notions of social businesses, so there’ll be more self-funding, and they’ve got a lot of ideas how to go at that. But that’s the biggest challenge: how they’re going to serve more students and more communities in a world with limited resources.
P/1 - And, so far, the work that you guys have been doing, does it focus on such challenges, and did you build a plan for them? Could you tell us a little bit of this?
R - Sure. I’ve been working in three or four areas with them. The first is something in documents, overall how the model works, and what are the situations and opportunities for them, and helping them, kind of facilitate the discussion, to agree on which of those opportunities are most important, and which are most urgent. The second is, I’ve been spending a bunch of time looking at their efforts in regard to mobile technology. They got a very interesting pilot program in the UK, regarding mobile apps, and I’m trying to figure out what that’s mean for their model, here in Brazil, and how they can apply some of those learnings too, here in Brazil. And that seems like some really exciting opportunities. And in the third area, I’ve been spend some time with them, trying to understand how do they serve more students and more communities, and how do they do that in a world with limited resources, that’s probably the least (?) but that’s obviously the one that had the most excitement for them over time.
P/1 - And now, I would like you to tell us a little bit about your experience, here in Brazil. How did you fell once you got here? What was really difficult? What did you enjoy?
R - Yes. So, I’d never been in Brazil before. So, as I mentioned, I didn’t speak any Portuguese, and so, this was very much the sense of cultural shock. “I’m in Brazil, I’m in Rio, I’ve never been to Rio. I don’t know anybody here. I don’t speak the language. Okay, how are we gonna do this?” And what I found is, Rio is an incredibly friendly city, everybody is eager to talk, everybody is eager to have a conversation. It’s a very vibrant city. I’ve just been amazed by all of this spirit of entrepreneurism and growth. Everybody is trying to do something. And there’s a lot of places where you go in the world where that’s not true. So, it’s just very energizing from that regard. And lastly, it’s just a stunningly beautiful city. I got a little bit of an opportunity over the weekend to go to see some of the big sights, I went to Corcovado, I went to Pao de Acucar, and it was just beautiful.
P/1 - And now, tell us what will be your next steps, once you go back. What are the challenges at Western Union?
R - Sure. Well, one of the things I committed to do as part of the Ashoka problem, the Ashoka project rather, is to document my experiences and my learnings here at city high, and take those back and share those with my colleagues at Western Union. I’ll be doing that. And a lot of my colleagues are really interested to understand what’s going on, and what I learned, and how did it go. So, that´s one thing I’ll be doing. But then I’ll just be getting back to the day job, and so it will be the same things I was working on before, except for now I’m behind, so I’ll have to catch up. Working on growth projects, working with new investments, working on all those sort of things that I do every day. So that’s what I’ll be doing.
P/1 - And, you said that you´re going to write about the things that you’ve learned. So, could you tell us?
R - So, one of the things I’ve learned is, again, what a fabulous place Brazil is. I want to make sure to share that with my colleagues. But the second thing that I’ve learned… I’d never before really connected the notions of non-profit organization and entrepreneurial. And I guess, I’ve spend enough time in the social sector, but that’s really inspiring to work with folks that really think of themselves as entrepreneurs in the social setting. So, that’s to me, was very inspiring. And the third thing, CDI’s model is very much a partnership-based model. In terms of partnering with different organizations and building professional networks and that’s a very powerful model. And there are parts of what we do at Western Union that are very similar, but just to be able to point out to my colleagues what a powerful model that is, I think it’s also very interesting.
P/1 - Now, Nick, I´m going to ask a few evaluation questions Ashoka asked to do it. Why and how this experience with CDI is important to you?
R - Why is it important to me? You know, that’s a good question. Because I have this sort of (…) sense: ‘I have to go do this’. And everybody says: ‘Why?’. ‘Because I have to go do it, right?’ But to me, again, a big part of it, I always got so much inspiration out of working with pro-bono projects when I was in the consulting world, and I really missed that. And this was a chance to essentially take two weeks (…) and work with a non-profit organization. I just really missed that experience. And I was looking for a chance to do that. And the opportunities to do that on a global basis, in a country like Brazil, it was even more exciting. So, that was part of it. And then, when I learned about the CDI, the approach and the success in the mission, it was also very inspiring.
P/1 - And, did this experience change you as a person?
R - Well, I’m probably about the same height as before. I’m two weeks older. But, I definitely got a new outtake in the sense of… You know, it’s really easy when you are in the corporate world, things can get very beaten down, you’re cutting budgets, you have to make the numbers, and there’s the travel… It’s really easy, to kind of get stuck in the groove. And it’s nice be able to step back and realize all the exciting things that is happening and be part of it. So, that´s very energizing.
P/1 - And, how did this experience change you and shape you as a leader?
R - How did it shape me as a leader? I guess time only will tell, but one of the things that I’ve learned is… how much CDI has been able to accomplish with such little resources. So, that´s very inspiring. This is something I can take away.
P/1 - Once you think about your own professional path, the Army, then Mackenzie, Western Union… What are the values and the things that you’ve learned in … each of them that were useful for you here, in Brazil?
R - Well, from the Army, I mean, I took to the Army and I also brought away a sense of social purpose and social mission. And that was part of the reason that I came here. From Mackenzie, I learned business skills and consulting skills, and that’s very useful in terms of being professionally effective in a situation like this. And, from Western Union, I bring experience operating in a multinational and global company that does business all over the world. And, so, that was very useful for me, cultural perspective as well.
P/1 - And, how do you think… What do you think could be done to inspire other executives to come here and talk to us, tell us a little bit about their paths…
R - Sure. Well, you know, Rio is a real easy destination, so, just tell everybody to go to Rio. I don’t know! But, seriously, I think, just spreading the word about what an inspiring opportunity it is. I really do believe, I mean, almost everybody in business world, they went into business because they are trying to make difference in the world. And they are really quite passionate about doing that. Business is a great way to do that. But, sometimes, it is nice to take a break and try a different way to make the difference and that can be really inspiring. And the opportunity to do that for two weeks, I think, can be very motivating for people.
P/1 - And now, we would like to thank you for coming here, and talking with us. Is there anything you like to add, you like to say, to tell us about CDI?
R - It’s been a fabulous experience. I just feel very humbled and honored to get a chance to work with CDI. So, I’ve been very pleased with the open arms reception and just making me feel very welcome and part of the family CDI. So, it’s been a great experience.
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