Bringing people together drives Yamaha Motor Canada

With a lifelong love of automotives and outdoor recreation, Véronique Dupuis-Daly was thrilled when her employer, Yamaha Motor Canada, offered employee training in its various vehicles.

“You get to try new things here which is a really refreshing experience,” says the asset performance skip tracer.

Being able to marry her interests with her work is partly why, when Dupuis-Daly started at Yamaha three years ago, she knew she had landed at her dream company.

“It’s something that aligns with what I love,” says Dupuis-Daly, who now gets to share those passions not only with a team of like-minded talent, but with Yamaha’s global customer base.

That same feeling resonated with James Matthews, senior vice president of corporate services, when he joined Yamaha eight years ago.

The team had gathered for a field sales meeting at Deerhurst Resort, a well-known Yamaha Motor Adventures site.

“We had spent three days together learning about exciting upcoming launches and were about to try out the new products,” recalls Matthews. “When the group was dismissed, everyone ran for the doors. It felt like I was back at school, heading for recess.”

For Matthews, moments like this frame the emotion inherent within the Yamaha brand and represented in the Canadian company’s purpose statement: to create lifelong memories by connecting people through unique Canadian outdoor experiences.

“It’s a gift to be outdoors spending time together, especially in Canada,” he says. “If we can play a role in helping people connect and reset in their busy lives, this is very meaningful for us.”

Connection and togetherness are central to how the company goes to market and the goal of its culture building activities. Yamaha Motor Canada has been through a lot of change over the last few years and continues to experience rapid change. Nurturing a strong culture is essential to ensure the group is resilient and successful.

“Culture is the muscle we work each day to ensure we make the most of what change throws at us,” Matthews explains.

Yamaha's culture is also part of the collaborative force that helps employees thrive.

When Dupuis-Daly applied to the company, she knew of Yamaha’s excellent reputation for employee culture and understood there would be room for growth, but she was surprised to see it come to fruition so quickly.

“It’s a reality that there are infinite growth opportunities within the company, because I’m realizing it right now,” says Dupuis-Daly. “I’m so excited to see where my journey leads me next.”

Dupuis-Daly immediately gelled with her upbeat co-workers, and while the camaraderie helped create a supportive learning environment, it was only part of the equation in her career growth.

In July, Dupuis-Daly graduated from the Yamaha Women’s Integrated Network, a year-long formal training program designed to empower women in leadership and provide an opportunity to connect with other women in the industry.

“Opportunities like that accelerated my drive to keep pursuing my career here,” she says. “They’re elevating and supporting more women in management or executive positions – and that’s a very cool thing.”

Helping teams connect, spend time together and learn from each other is central to Yamaha’s many programs and initiatives, including leadership and development programs, field days, hybrid work weeks, and Insight Days that teach about different cultures.

Yamaha is focused on developing people, and spending time together to actively learn is integral to the “we” culture, as Matthews puts it. The result is more than professional development – it’s personal fulfilment.

“We have fun together, we accelerate together, it's awesome when folks are in the office,” he says. “It's a buzz.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Greater Toronto’s Top Employers winners, published December 3, 2024 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.