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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
The purpose of this book is to explicitly describe the daily interactions that need to be implemented to transform these One To One, or One to Many, interactions into tangible (business partnerships) and intangible (relationship satisfaction) value. Through my experience, I will try to give an account of the words and behaviour of the crossed protagonists during all these years. My observations will allow to fully understand the perspectives that everyone gives themselves in interactions, in order to better understand the perceptions that result from them. It is the reality of the interactions themselves that will be exposed in order to know how to make the most of them.
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Seitenzahl: 484
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
PART 1: Multiple Journeys
Introduction to Part 1
1 Mr. José Jacques Gustave, the Global Entrepreneur!
1.1. Context
1.2. The little voice inside
1.3. The fool with the hands full
2 Mrs. Cindy Dorkenoo, No Destiny, Only What She Does!
2.1. Context
2.2. From employment to entrepreneurship
3 Mrs. Elodie Sarfati, a Brownian Journey!
3.1. Context
3.2. Time to build
4 Mrs. Chrystèle Sanon, “A Schizophrenic Who Treats Herself?”
4.1. Context
4.2. From employment to entrepreneurship
5 Mr. Christophe Vattier, the Lucky Rebel!
5.1. Context
5.2. From employment to entrepreneurship
6 Mrs. Lise Bellavoine, When Entrepreneurship Becomes an Art!
6.1. Context
6.2. Employment to entrepreneurship
7 Ms. Laura Nordin, the Paradigm Shift?
7.1. Context
7.2. From employment to entrepreneurship
Conclusion to Part 1
PART 2: Marrying Two “Mindsets”
Introduction to Part 2
8 Effectuation Vs. Causation
8.1. From beliefs to paradigms
8.2. From one mode to another
8.3. From one world to another
9 One Stage, Two Headliners
9.1. The distribution of roles
9.2. The difficulties of the script
9.3. The recurrence of obstacles
10 Two Ecosystems
10.1. The ecosystems in question
10.2. Actors’ behavior
10.3. Associated risks
Conclusion to Part 2
PART 3: The Mysteries of the Profession
Introduction to Part 3
11 Skills and Influences
11.1. “Hard” skills or situational intelligence
11.2. Soft skills or people’s intelligence
11.3. Acting with your skills
12 Useful Resources
12.1. Useful human resources
12.2. Useful “non-human” resources
12.3. Misuse…
13 Operation Principles
13.1. Social operating principles (social functioning)
13.2. Structural operating principles (structural operation)
13.3. Business principles of operation (business functioning)
Conclusion to Part 3
Conclusion
References
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 10
Table 10.1. Some risks related to corporate open innovation
Chapter 11
Table 11.1. Questions to ask about a project (start-up, business unit or jobs li...
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1. Mr. José Jacques Gustave. For a color version of the figure, see www...
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1. Mrs. Cindy Dorkenoo. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste...
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1. Mrs. Elodie Sarfati. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1. Mrs. Chrystèle Sanon
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1. Mr. Christophe Vattier. For a color version of the figure, see www.i...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1. Pastels by Lise Bellavoine
Figure 6.2. Mrs. Lise Bellavoine
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1. Ms. Laura Nordin. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste.co...
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1. The entrepreneurial process of effectuation
Figure 8.2. Effectuation vs. causation. For a color version of the figure, see w...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1. Effects. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste.co.uk/latou...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1. Corporate open innovation structure. For a color version of the fig...
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1. Judging skills and procedures. For a color version of the figure, s...
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1. Managers. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste.co.uk/lat...
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1. Operating principles of a corporate open innovation structure. For ...
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Begin Reading
Conclusion
References
Index
End User License Agreement
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Innovation and Technology Set
coordinated by
Chantal Ammi
Volume 10
Open Innovation: Human Set-up
Pascal Latouche
First published 2020 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:
ISTE Ltd
27-37 St George’s Road
London SW19 4EU
UK
www.iste.co.uk
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030
USA
www.wiley.com
© ISTE Ltd 2020
The rights of Pascal Latouche to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020936632
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78630-575-6
Acknowledgments
First of all, I wish to thank my children, because they help me to advance every day. Most certainly, my thanks go to Mrs. Chantal Ammi, because she has always been there to support the apprentice author that I am. Finally, for all the entrepreneurs who took the time to answer my questions and beyond the entrepreneurial ecosystem in which I progress.
Without becoming self-centered, this book, in retrospect, is probably also a way for me to thank myself for wanting to weather the storm….
Preface
There was a time when, for the most part, start-ups offered “pure and hard” technological innovations. While this time has not yet come to an end, we have observed during the last two years, the appearance of other innovations (processes, HR, communication, marketing, legal, etc.).
All these innovations do not escape the appetite of major groups, which intend to maintain their positions. Developing relationships with start-ups has now become strategic for many of them. In the framework of such relationships, the impacts inherent to the innovations proposed by start-ups cover a much wider field than the mere question of integration into Information Systems. Indeed, these innovations are transforming large groups from within. We can now speak of integration in the plural form because there are multiple dimensions to consider.
Through observations, anecdotes, testimonies, it is a question of presenting the three major protagonists of the scene that is going to be played out before us. It is the corporate open innovation system that welcomes start-ups, and the two players from different worlds, the start-up CEO and the employee of a business unit (or business line) of a large company. We’ll see what obstacles stand in their way time and time again.
However, these obstacles can still be overcome by the action of the members involved in the corporate open innovation system team, who are true architects of interactions. Their skills, their involvement and their ability to dispose of useful resources can enable them, by manipulating the large group’s internal ecosystem as well as the start-up’s external ecosystem, to address the objective: to marry (contractually) protagonists from two different worlds (the world of start-ups and the world of large established companies/institutions).
Replacing the human being at the heart of the process, a process of bringing together start-ups and large groups is the challenge that needs to be faced. For this, it is a question for each person to become aware of his or her own environment, as well as that of others.
Enjoy!
Pascal LATOUCHEMay 2020
Introduction
What were you doing in November 2013? For my part, it was in November 2013 that I discovered a vocation of which I had not been fully aware until then.
A combination of circumstances put me in the shoes of someone who had to implement something that was unknown to many in my company: a corporate start-up accelerator. You will understand that I do not wish to go into more detail than that on the basis of circumstances, assuming that I owe myself a certain level of reserve as to what happens within the company of which I am still an employee. I pay tribute to this company, by the way. In any case, the story began like this and, as it turns out, would take me on many journeys….
Let’s get back to the point at hand. So here I am, called to launch quite quickly (in three months), a corporate start-up accelerator. Do you know what this is? Without extending myself at this stage, I will just tell you that this is a type of open-innovation mechanism tasked with making internal teams within a company interact with external ones, for example, start-ups. I had previously worked a lot on marketing, sales, innovation from R&D (internal innovation) and with the world of developers (those who code). In hindsight, I guarantee you that this did not predestine me to hold a position as head of a corporate start-up accelerator and did not presuppose my ability to do it well. Indeed, I had never created a start-up and this ecosystem was quite unknown to me in fact.
I.1. No obvious predisposition
In marketing, I had never really designed products in digital format! However, I knew from all my previous experiences within the current company (Telecom) and from all my experiences before this company (Agro-Food), how to put a given product or service on the market (positioning, competition, price, preferred channels, etc.). As a marketing expert, I recognized that I was, because I had been to the right professional (business) schools.
In sales, I had never held a sales position (too shy and unassuming, a lack of chatter, as we would commonly say, the person you don’t notice). I don’t know how to sell and I never knew how to sell myself (it’s still true today)! My tasks have always concerned product argumentation. In short, writing down for salespeople what they needed to say to sell the product well. But you can well imagine that a salesperson sells more as they are rewarded for the sales in question. Not all products are rewarded. My sales arguments and other commercial tools were therefore sales aids and did not in any way presume the success of the sale itself. I rather like to consider my tasks in sales as a natural extension of my marketing expertise.
With the innovation coming out of R&D, my job in essence was to identify solutions not used to date (tucked away in drawers) and to evaluate what the company could do with them in consultation with the marketing and sales teams. This task was very interesting. I hadn’t worked with pure engineering profiles until then. I admit that it took me some time to adapt to understanding what they were saying. By understanding, I mean knowing how to ask the right questions so that the expression of their technical discourse could become audible to the non-engineer that I am. It was also during this period that the scope of my tasks broadened, because technical products often require development. For those who experienced the 2010–2013 period, I think they would recall the emergence of the start-up weekend-type events. The latter were very badly labeled “start-up weekends”, since they were mostly developers who were in between pitching sessions, eating pizza and drinking cola! During these weekends, I really appreciated supporting, with my marketing and sales expertise, developers who on Friday evenings proposed their ideas and had the weekend to develop it. Developing an application in a weekend to hope to be the winner on Sunday night was very challenging. Modestly, I was making my contribution to these “techy” weekend warriors who have my total respect!
So, as I was saying, in terms of the profile for taking responsibility for a corporate start-up accelerator, I wasn’t quite in the picture, as some would say. I’ve never created a start-up, and I’ve always been an employee. Thanks to my diplomas and a strong work ethic, I enjoyed working in relatively stable comfort. I say relatively stable because the sociology of large organizations sometimes imposes a balancing act on employees and we must avoid falling off. Finally, if you do it well, if you work well and avoid expressing too many sincere opinions, you receive your salary and finally, unless you have a social plan, you have peace of mind.
There is one point I will discuss, because it will be important for what follows. None of the positions I had held in the companies in which I had worked, or in which I work, existed before I was entrusted with them. In short, I have always systematically forged my own job using the company as a kind of resource provider (a “business angel” in a way…). At the time, I was not aware of the importance of this point, which turned out to be an essential asset with hindsight. In any case, at the time I took over responsibility for this corporate start-up accelerator, I was not aware of this asset, so it was a bit like I didn’t consciously have it. Moreover, those who appointed me responsible for the corporate start-up accelerator to be created, knew nothing about it. Not being aware of an asset, or that your environment is not aware of an asset, can be problematic if you want to capitalize on it….
I.2. What’s this “thing”?
Here I was, in charge of a corporate accelerator to be created in three months, from a blank sheet of paper in terms of objectives and implementation. I was not alone in this adventure; a long-term colleague was once again at my side to help me move forward with this new challenge. I say again because we’d been working together for a while and we really enjoyed doing it.
I had vaguely understood from this new challenge that the company was keen to support the world of young innovative companies and benefit from it at least from a brand image point of view. It was the time when the major brands in France (CAC 40 stock market index) wanted to show themselves, politicians and citizens their commitment to the times: digital technology.
What I learned from the school of life and from the school of the professional world is that when you spend money, you have to make money. I don’t know if I knew how to create a business for myself. But I knew how to do business with a product or service. In more elaborate terms, I would say that managing things could only be business to me. We had to do business with the start-ups. Moreover, communication is not my field (and I have a lot of respect for the many corporate communicators). It is on this unique “Business” conviction that I developed the objectives and implementation of the corporate start-up accelerator.
I can’t help but reiterate the reasoning that many who have heard me since in speeches are familiar with. Let’s go! In the digital world, there is a bloody war. Furthermore, digital technology has broken down the barriers between sectors of activity. In short, everything is in everything, because of or thanks to digital technology. An established company, in order to avoid losing its position on its markets, must therefore quickly provide innovative solutions to its clients to build loyalty, or even bring new solutions to market in an attempt to acquire new ones. We both know that producing innovation within an established company can take a long time…. Therefore, being able to capitalize on start-ups, their velocity, their innovations, can represent a significant competitive advantage for the established company. At the same time, start-ups looking for clients are well advised to deal with established companies that have large customer bases. It is not over until the fat lady sings. This was to be the main objective of the corporate start-up accelerator: to make commercial partnerships between internal business units and start-ups. In short, it was necessary to “marry” start-ups and business units.
It is difficult to claim that this choice, which I can clearly state as having been an individual choice for the corporate accelerator at the time (with the consent of my company), is a choice of objective that can be generalized to all start-up corporate accelerators. It would be wrong to claim this, and I believe that many start-ups would certainly be able to confirm that there is a gulf between the promises of objectives made by corporate structures supporting start-ups and the reality. The constant is the communication about the relationship between the established company and the start-ups. Some corporate start-up accelerators go further in the sense that the objective is primarily business, communication being only the representative that aims to speak about the results obtained. This was my conviction from the first second of my mandate.
As for the corporate accelerator that I was responsible for launching with my employee, things were very clear. This choice would become the decision that would change the course of my life in a lasting way. It was easier said than done, and I’m weighing up my words, because that’s what’s making me write these ones….
I.3. How do you do it?
I then asked myself and my colleague the question of how to do it. I met a lot of people, first and foremost external people working in the start-up ecosystem. My assistant did the same, and we debriefed each other quite regularly.
From all these interactions, and debriefings, I retained the following points from the outsiders (the people involved may recognize themselves). Here’s a small sample (because I kept countless notes of my appointments and debriefings from my colleague). This book could have been called “Journal of a numb person” (I’ll explain later).
–
“You’re a big company. You are expected to encounter problems and you will make the front pages of the web media if you botch it”
– A representative of a well-known web media company.
– “
Start-ups want business, not communication
” – A successful entrepreneur who has succeeded by sheer determination.
– “
Be careful to strengthen them while you accelerate them, you’re big and startups are small
” – An expert used to coaching start-ups.
– “
You know, your company, like a lot of big companies, doesn’t have a good reputation in its relations with start-ups. Stop pillaging ideas!
” – An entrepreneur who had had some unfortunate experiences with my company.
– “
You’re a great brand and you have a big role to play with start-ups, how can we help you?
” – A representative of institutions that promote start-ups under the aegis of the government.
It wasn’t just external actors we were looking at. Internal actors were also solicited. I’ve encountered internal colleagues at somewhat different points.
–
“Start-ups are no more innovative than we are internally”
– An R&D Engineer.
–
“Step forward and engage that corporate accelerator. Move the boundaries, even though we know you won’t just make friends”
– A Chief of Staff.
– “
Don’t make promises to start-ups that the company can’t keep”
– A top manager in innovation.
–
“It’s not clear what the risks are of working so conspicuously with start-ups. Identify risks and control them operationally”
– A Communication Manager.
–
“Business partnerships with start-ups? Why not! Make us some proposals and we’ll take a look”
– A Business Unit Manager.
This is a small sample of the exchanges. For the internal actor, as for the external one, the tone was sometimes positive, sometimes aggressive. But in any case, my feeling was that there was a real desire to face this mystery embodied by the universe of start-ups whose media were buzzing in our ears every day. Everyone was asking to see, some in an observing role, some in a potential inquisitor role, and some in a benevolent one.
What better way to try to succeed than to enlist the services of allies, as well as critics, both internal and external? That’s exactly what was going to be done. From the outside, we could expect pushing the best start-ups and helping us strengthen them in terms of structure and people. Internally, we were able to find the first “courageous” people who were at least committed to taking a good look at start-up cases and helping us to retain those that made sense. It was difficult at this “first” stage of obtaining firm commitments from commercial partnerships at the end. I was counting on the involvement of the corporate accelerator team to make sure we got there as much as possible. Shy, numb, no doubt, but I was not giving up.
Involving the actors, while taking final responsibility for the outcome seemed the right stance to me. If it worked, it would be thanks to all these actors. If it went wrong, it would be because of me. This is reassuring enough for an organization faced with the unknown to be able to blame someone in advance in case of failure. It seemed to me a good way to bring the external “family” (of start-ups) closer to the internal “family” (of the established company). The corporate accelerator and its small team (two people including myself) had to and was going to enter unknown lands that had nothing to do with marketing, sales or even the idea that one had of business techniques.
I.4. Design and launch
A few rules were set (three months of acceleration), a few priorities for start-ups, a few legal frameworks, a few services to be offered to start-ups against the backdrop of a business objective clearly stated from the outset. In a way, the entire design part of the corporate accelerator was forged in a few days, two weeks at the most. The best way forward for me was to learn by advancing and systematically asking myself the following questions: How do I serve the purpose through what I do? How is what I do profitable/dangerous for my company and for start-ups? Do I have the resources to act? I never consciously questioned who I was, what my values were. However, we will see later on that this is important, even of fundamental importance, when we want to forge a structure.
A website, a Twitter account, a few tweets to announce and maintain the first call for applications, and in February 2014, the first season of acceleration was launched. This launch was, in my opinion, as much in the realm of improvisation as it was in the realm of reflection, and I am quite unable to say what was prevailing at the time. Action took precedence, with all the risks that this entailed and with confidence in our desire to succeed. In fact, I remember the launch day (with media support). Originally, neither I nor my collaborator were foreseen being in the “photo” or to telling our story…. A curious approach on the part of large groups to hide those who had done things in reality.
Since then, many seasons followed one another. The corporate accelerator even diversified its program offerings over the years. In addition to my national roles, I have even taken on a coordinating role in the world of corporate accelerators that have sprung up in many countries. Each corporate accelerator recruits start-ups at the national level for national business partnerships. The most promising start-ups are “exported” to other markets by being supported by the corporate accelerator of the market concerned. This is called cross-acceleration. We are now a network of corporate accelerators on four continents, a unique asset for my company and what I believe is unique in the world. A fine mechanism that all those who are proud of, wherever they are in the field, at headquarters or internationally, have believed in it not by words, but by action.
I.5. You (really) want to know everything!
Let me share with you what you will discover in this book. This is the second one. The first one I entitled “Open Innovation, Corporate Incubator”, the fruit of my doctoral thesis, was, as I like to say, halfway between “the academic” and “the general public”. By that I mean that my point may have seemed a bit too elaborate. I’ll take it! The aim was to understand how open innovation works using the artifact (representation) of the corporate incubator. Theories were inevitably shared, but the expression of the field was favored (mainly managers of corporate structures supporting start-ups). For this second opus, you will judge for yourself the accessible nature of the work. “Everything you always wanted to know about the relationship between start-ups and large corporations, but never dared to ask” could have been its title in reference to Woody Allen’s film “Everything you always wanted to know about sex, but never dared to ask”. As you can imagine, my theme is somewhat different, although we’ll often talk about marriage.
In the overall system that a company and its environment constitute, managers of open innovation systems act as architects whose main raw materials are interactions. They have to forge and then manage the latter in order to contractually marry the protagonists of two different worlds: the CEO of a start-up and the employee of a large group. Each of the two protagonists will interact with their own personalities and beliefs. In addition, their respective “families” (mentors, etc. for the CEO, and colleagues, etc. for the employee) are also involved in this marriage.
The aim of this book is to explicitly describe the daily interactions that need to be implemented to transform these one-to-one, or one-to-many, interactions into tangible (business partnerships) and intangible (satisfaction in the relationship) values. Through my experience, I will try to give an account of the words and behaviors of the protagonists encountered during all these years. My observations will allow me to better understand the perspectives that everyone gives to each other in the interactions, to better understand the perceptions that arise from them. It is the reality of the interactions themselves that will thus be exposed in order to know how to get the best out of them. The conclusions will broaden the scope of reflection beyond the business world. Indeed, human interactions to generate value (in the broadest sense) are not only a necessity in the professional field but also in the personal field. The place of humans in any system is essential. They need to find it to move forward and generate value. On balance, it is our behavior towards others that is in question.
I.6. The three parts
To introduce you to this world of corporate open innovation, and what the players have to do to make it work, I have structured this book in three parts.
The first part honors the protagonist that I consider the first solution: the entrepreneur. If there was no entrepreneur, there would be no corporate open innovation. The entrepreneurial journey will be revealed to you. There you will discover women and men, like you and me. Women and men that events have led to a shift towards entrepreneurship. But is it events that make us change our ways? Is it not rather our way of reacting and this little flame that each of us carries within us that acts? I’ll let you make up your own mind. In any case, for me, starting out from these journeys is first and foremost a way of sharing a deep conviction: entrepreneurship is first and foremost a life project and an experience that should allow you to earn a living.
It requires a certain way of thinking. This is called the mindset. This is the subject of the second part of the book. It will be a question for me of drawing up for you, based on a concept known from literature (digest), the portrait of the entrepreneur. But not only that! Indeed, we will also talk about the portrait of a classic employee within a large organization. Are entrepreneurs and employees of large organizations alike? Besides, when these two protagonists want to work together, is it simple or complicated? What are the obstacles in front of them? And besides, entrepreneurs and employees of large organizations both have their own environments. How can these environments interact? The questions that this second part seeks to answer are numerous, as you can see.
I could add one more: what is the role of the corporate support structure for start-ups? Well, that simple question took me a whole section to deal with. This is the subject of the third part of the book. Who are these people who work in the corporate support structures of start-ups? What do they actually do and why do they have to act in a certain way if they want to succeed? I might as well tell you that I’m going to take the time to explain all this to you. It is not for me to tell you “that’s the way it is and that’s that”. Everyone has their own experience. Mine, I just want to share it with you by starting from the reality of the field and by enlightening it with literary concepts (digestible I remind you). It’s up to you to judge whether this advances the debate on the relationship between start-ups and large groups. For my part, I tend to consider that debates lead all the more to progress when we want to connect with the reality of these same things.
At the end of these three parts, I think you will have a slightly more precise idea of the experiences of entrepreneurs, the experiences of employees of large organizations and the experiences of those who are seeking to marry these two worlds. Not easy, but solvable, if we take into account one fact: the human! It is an obvious “given” … and yet when you take the time to read articles on the relationship between start-ups and large groups, you are surprised to realize that you will probably hear more about innovative solutions, investments, technological integrations and finally very little about these humans. In my opinion, they are the ones who do or don’t do things, so they are the ones I’m interested in….
My name is Pascal Latouche and as I write these words, I have a dual mission within a large French international group. On the one hand, I manage the group’s start-up corporate accelerator in France, and on the other hand, I am also in charge of coordinating the international network of the group’s start-up corporate accelerators, spread over four continents. I am a professional in open innovation ecosystems, marketing and communication, strategic management and business development. I am a graduate of Paris 1, Panthéon La Sorbonne, and have a Doctorate in Management Sciences from Paris-Saclay. It’s factual in the present tense (as I write these words). Tomorrow will be another day, because right now it’s just an illusion….
PART 1Multiple Journeys
Happiness is not at the top of the mountain, but in how to climb.
– Confucius –
Introduction to Part 1
The entrepreneur, as you will have understood, is one of the protagonists without whom the very object of this work would be meaningless. It is the entrepreneur who interests me, and it is their business development that motivates this book. Their business development is their life project, and they are trying to make a living out of it.
First of all, it should be noted that the entrepreneur has probably existed since the dawn of time. Men and women have had to take action for themselves, their loved ones, their families or more broadly for humanity to move forward. If today we reduce the notion of the entrepreneur to the one that comes to mind spontaneously, i.e. the digital entrepreneur, we cannot say that this is a recent phenomenon either. The democratization of the Web dates back to about 1989/1990. The end of full employment was combined with this democratization, and the entrepreneur (especially the digital entrepreneur) was then carried to the skies. If you can’t get hired, you might as well create your own job. Anyone who had a good idea and the means to develop it could call themselves an entrepreneur. I say could, because this is less true today and will probably be less and less true in the future, without a proper approach on the part of the entrepreneurial CEO. This is a far cry from the jeans/sneakers that are created in a garage and become a multinational company in just a few years.
Entrepreneurship has been and still is the subject of much analysis by the web media and other entrepreneurship consultants. The latter have taken the entrepreneur by the hand to talk about their inventions or to raise money from investors. These analyses have the merit of existing, even if they can sometimes be criticized for being too popular and not allowing useful lessons to be drawn from them. Entrepreneurs are “analyzed” in substance only recently thanks to the serious studies that real authors devote to them. This is a good thing as long as these analyses can be understood by the greatest number of people. Whether it is extension work or academic work, the right tone and substance must undoubtedly be found to enable entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurs to maximize their chances of success. This should also allow the large group to better understand the start-up “thing”, by taking advantage of it and avoiding disastrous relationships. Indeed, we must recall that these are first and foremost people who, as parallel employees in large organizations, or whose sole source of income is their entrepreneurial project, are certainly reshaping the world around us, but who must also be able to make a living from it. Entrepreneurs are indispensable for tomorrow because they are ultimately a “representative of intellectual growth” for society itself, with values and jobs at stake.
Contrary to my previous work, which was rather academic because it stemmed from my thesis on corporate open innovation, this book will be anchored in reality, palpable and audible to all, with a solid academic backdrop. Anchoring oneself in reality means observing and questioning real people without preconceived ideas. So that’s where I’m going to start to get you in the mood.
In this section, I will profile some entrepreneurs. I know hundreds of them. Why these? I cannot answer this question only rationally, because there are not only rational reasons. I was looking for profiles with technological and non-technological solutions. I was also looking for a certain mix. I was finally looking for personalities that you don’t hear much about, or even see at all, but who, in my opinion, don’t confuse entrepreneurship with being a Hollywood star. To begin this book, let’s discover groups of life… five women and two men!
1Mr. José Jacques Gustave, the Global Entrepreneur!
Mr. José Jacques Gustave (G2J) is the first entrepreneur I had the pleasure of interviewing. I say pleasure, it was more than that. We come from the same corner of the globe: the Caribbean. Needless to say, listening to him reminded me of my past, I sometimes had the scent in my nostrils and the taste in my mouth.
In fact, when it comes to travel, with G2J, I will take you to different destinations: the Caribbean, mainland France, the USA, Africa, Asia. In my opinion, G2J is more likely to be seen as a global entrepreneur, because his favorite terrain is the world, wherever he feels there is something to be done.
Like any story, it needs a beginning, and it starts in 1965, somewhere on an island in the Caribbean.
1.1. Context
G2J comes from a modest family from Martinique. Martinique for those who do not know is one of the many French islands of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. He is the fourth child of a sibling group consisting of one brother and two sisters.
1.1.1. Parents-warrior
With a driving license obtained during his time in the army (military service), his father started earning his money as his brother-in-law’s “apprentice”, a small plantation owner who had demonstrated Caribbean customary solidarity by hiring him. He was indeed a handyman. At that time in the West Indies, there was nothing extraordinary about hiring the youngest of the family. In short, it was an approach that we would readily describe today as a form of economic “mentoring” aimed at giving people “smaller” than ourselves the chance to earn a few pennies in exchange for a variety of services. With money in his pocket and access to credit in the West Indies, his father was able to buy his own truck. For G2J’s father, this was the beginning of an “entrepreneurial” adventure: he then became what we could call today a craftsman – a transporter. To get around these islands, you should know – and this is still true today – that there were only roads. G2J’s father answered – is there a need? I guess so. Goods, such as bananas, needed people to get them from one point to another. Note that his father was an innovator, because he was the first to have the idea of transporting racing skiffs from one side of the island to the other via his truck, as it is recounted in Mr. Castandet’s book on the history of skiffs in Martinique. G2J lost his father at the age of 9. May he rest in peace, and if it is true that there is something beyond, then no doubt he will meet mine.
As for G2J’s mother, orphaned at 14, she trained to become a teacher. She passed on the knowledge she had acquired to the children. From G2J, I got a lot less detail about his mother’s life. I think I noticed this phrase more than once: “My mother was a fighter!”. I deliberately didn’t dig any further. The place of women in some cultures is important. It is not only her vocation to give birth to children and to be the “wife”. It is above all she who takes on a statutory role in the home, who educates, disciplines or not, keeps accounts. In short, whether you are a husband or a child, it is in your best interest to make an ally out of her, otherwise you will no longer have the affection you have longed for.
As I was listening to G2J, I realized that a singularity was emerging. The parental couple as such. Imagine that you want to build a house, it collapses a few days before it is finished. G2J told me that rather than attacking the craftsmen, her parents simply decided to rebuild it without asking more questions than that. This seemed very strange to me, because we could have imagined this couple in a process that would have consisted at least in implementing actions against the craftsman, while rebuilding. In retrospect, is it any wonder? For months, you watched your house rise up out of the ground. A certain sympathy has inevitably developed with your craftsman. I imagine that the failure of the project (the collapse of the house) becomes a collective failure because you took part in this construction. You assume the result. It is only long after I understood this philosophy that characterizes G2J: never get lost in useless fights and take the events upon yourself as soon as you have taken part in them.
You’re not born with a philosophy of life. It’s being constructed. I wanted to know how G2J was constructed and of course, if it passes through the family home, it also passes through social relationships. For a child, school is a melting pot of social relationships. From that point of view, it seems today that G2J has not had any luck…. But it has nothing to do with luck.
1.1.2. Difficult school years
G2J’s school years were not easy. It seems today that he was a very industrious child. “School was a pain for me!”. It took him six years to complete his studies from 9th grade (aged 14) to 11th grade (aged 16), taking each class twice. This gives you an idea of G2J’s ordeal as a child. As a child, you must want to be and be recognized. Your grades, teacher ratings are just a few of the many ways you can be proud of yourself. But for G2J, the journeys marked out were just an antithesis of his deepest sense of self.
School predestines us, based on grades, to allow ourselves to do things or not to do things, or at least to believe that we can or cannot do them. Imagine that from the 6th grade (aged 11), a whole educational system is there to tell you in substance that you won’t make it to the 9th grade (aged 14) and that if by chance you make it, receiving the BAC diploma, you shouldn’t dream. An ordeal that is likely to break a young spirit and ruin his life. G2J was telling me that someone he knew talked about school as “learned helplessness”. How to give a child the intimate conviction of being useful or useless, or even to comfort or panic him about his own future, and this on a completely simplistic basis: his grades.
This was G2J’s fate: “I had my bag on my back without knowing where to find it”. This picture is very beautiful. He had in a well-defined object (his backpack) the knowledge (his books). This knowledge he carried on his back as a burden that he could not access, because it was not in front of him. He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there. He wanted it, and the young G2J was going to develop on his own in his corner the means to grasp this knowledge.
1.1.3. An asserted curiosity
He already went beyond that, with his hands, he dismantled and reassembled electronic tools. At the time, many radios could already be picked up in the islands. Listening to one of them meant that G2J could listen to all of them. So he tinkered and found a way to get radios from all over the world. While he didn’t like to read, the radios were there. He “ate” all kinds of information to the point where he didn’t sleep much. Thus, G2J became aware not only that he could create his own modus operandi to move forward in life but also that because his modus operandi was convincing, he too could have a certain self-esteem … despite the opinions of educators.
Maybe he didn’t understand what the teachers were saying. But he was able to invent his own method of learning and adapting to his environment. Discreetly, if he had good ideas, he would not talk about them because he thought they would not be taken seriously. How could having such poor grades add value to classroom exchanges? What’s the point of trying to answer questions from teachers for whom everything is conditioned in advance and who put you in a box…. G2J wasn’t trying to shine, but was looking within himself for the resources to act in this strange world far too marked out for his inventive and visionary spirit. Was G2J already a child entrepreneur? I can’t say. One thing is certain: he already possessed all the attributes, a bit like a spark that only asks to meet a situation that would ignite the flame.
1.2. The little voice inside
G2J is someone who doesn’t ask unnecessary questions and goes for the simplest, most concrete. He constantly analyzes what his losses may be and whether they are acceptable. From my understanding, several events seem to me to be structuring to explain that this prudent daredevil has come true and is still being realized every day.
1.2.1. The journey of awakening
His mother brought him to Côte d’Ivoire when he was 12 years old. Imagine (and I didn’t know it), there’s a whole Caribbean community in this country. Its particularity: it was a community of entrepreneurs who saw the big picture. This community conceived of existence only to undertake and constantly push back the boundaries of the impossible. G2J lived within this community and developed the taste, the desire to do, to see things in a big way. This was a very special moment in G2J’s journey from my point of view.
I can well imagine the paradox of the child and his questions. He was always told he wouldn’t make it. He had had to endure, as we can imagine, at least reproaches from his teachers, and at worst mockery from his classmates. The school world can be cruel to atypical children. Yet, with his curiosity and his capacity for work, he knew he could create. He met this community and there he discovered an environment that told him that anything was possible if he wanted to take the time. “I saw their pineapple field. I had never seen anything as vast as the sea…”. This sentence sums up perfectly the cue that I guessed to be G2J’s one.
The possible thus became what he could conceive of what he saw and he could now see as vast as the sea…. All that remains was to build! “Think outside of the box” we say today. It’s a nice marketing slogan, but let me tell you that people young and old, of all races, faiths, … had to think outside the box for our beloved humanity to move forward. G2J is one of those, I say it because I mean it.
1.2.2. Reconciliation
G2J did a BTS1 Marketing Action Co. Contrary to his arduous journey through junior school, it was during this stage of his student life that G2J discovered an obvious taste for business. A BTS is not only learning, it is above all very operational, case-based learning.
This period of his life proved to be a decisive and structuring period for learning how to build a project. In his BTS Marketing Action Co, he was no longer working on the abstract, but on the concrete: searching for information, cross-checking it, analyzing it, drawing conclusions and finally building a case. Perhaps this was not obvious, as I can imagine that the teaching methods always remained somewhat conditioned. But, uh…. Never mind, G2J was more mature. He then had a base of knowledge and experience that allowed him to begin to be appreciated by teachers. G2J also helped his classmates a lot. He was older than them and I think he was probably taking a “leadership” role. He told me that, in addition to his own case studies, he was also involved in those of many of his classmates.
You can summarize the kid’s ideas, his sound and even his big ideas with a little structuring, and it’s probably the alchemy that made him, not very confident in himself, that nothing predestined him to do that, turn out to be a serial entrepreneur. His self-confidence, he drew it from doing it.
1.2.3. Values
The main point is that G2J’s personality is the tidal wave that carries his action forward. G2J is not a complex man. He doesn’t care what other people think of him. It is what he builds with respect for others that is most important. He doesn’t envy others. The simplicity and spontaneity with which he told me about his journey is just extraordinary.
Once he knows something is possible, then nothing discourages him and he will act. His action is always marked by many of these values which we could say are from another time, but which we would all gain from preserving within us: honesty, listening, diversity, respect, etc. Everything that many parents and the education system teach children and that life experiences often destroy. In the case of G2J, I believe he has indeed preserved all these values. Why? It is not the system that forged G2J, it is its own experiences with the system!
He has forged himself into a formidable business man, one you enjoy listening to because they always have something to share with you. The following anecdotes will give you an idea.
1.3. The fool with the hands full
The title of this third section is not mine. It’s G2J’s own to define himself I admit I was very amused to hear him define himself this way. As I listened to him, I finally understood why such a nickname.
1.3.1. A network
First of all, let’s talk about the G2J network. It renders many services by having a permanent approach of “connecting people”. Of course, when you help a lot of people, there are returns when the time comes, even though there can be a lot of wastage. Far from being a calculated approach, it is rather someone who naturally has his heart on his sleeve and who sincerely does things without expecting anything from it. Doing things for people means forging and constantly growing a network of at least those who know how not to forget it when the day comes. G2J always starts by giving the “mother’s example”.
A little anecdote amused me a lot about his absolute weapon to manage his network. G2J confessed to me at the time that they were walking around with kilos of directories to make sure they could always contact the right person at the right time. For example, he told me about his trip to the USA (Florida) to start a business. He also brought his directories with him. As a child, he told me his mother locked away the phone to avoid large phone bills. Today with WhatsApp, it’s easier….
G2J’s awareness of his environment seems obvious to me as I listen to him talk to me about the business he does. Always actively listening and if there is something he doesn’t understand, then he questions and beyond that he digs by himself by mobilizing his contacts wisely.
1.3.2. Convictions
I can also tell you about the way he conducts his business. In business, three basic beliefs carry G2J. The first is to always respect his signature whatever the price: “I was not raised with the soul of a victim, but that of a fighter”. The second is to be an entrepreneur who builds and never a predator who destroys: “You have to be willing to seize opportunities but never by ruining others”. The third: to put oneself at the mercy of the project to be carried out: “Yes, I am afraid sometimes, but I know how to control this fear to make it a strength. The joy of building is stronger”.
He wonders about the resources at his disposal, but nothing more. He mainly looks at the business, thinks big and then optimizes. As an example, G2J shared with me the fact that one day he bought a server capable of holding a load much greater than its immediate needs. He just paid for the best and then gradually optimized his purchase. Of course, it’s reassuring enough for a client to realize that his supplier (G2J) had the capacity to do so in the short, medium and long terms.
G2J’s had some setbacks. At one time, he had no penny to his name. I was surprised to learn that, despite his more than questionable finances, he was once able to afford the “luxury” of an office a few steps from Place Vendôme. How? G2J explained his project to the owner without hiding the difficulties. Well, the landlord, a chartered accountant, thought that G2J’s business would be very profitable and would allow him to honor the rents. G2J himself had doubts. I think the transparency and sincerity of his remarks did the job. When you are in front of someone who is honest and you are honest yourself, in general, the interaction is likely to generate value for each stakeholder.
1.3.3. A thirst to move forward
Probably the most surprising point for me was to realize that this serial entrepreneur (four Tech companies assembled in less than 20 years) had never actually studied Tech. G2J is not an engineer. How did he do it? Did he have partners? No, far from it. On the one hand, he’s an information overeater, he’s a self-taught techie. Every time he finds something, he takes the time to dig it out through hours and hours of hard work. “I’m a fast learner, and once something’s learned, then I can do it”. On the other hand, many people in his network were always there to advise him. Finally, the quality of his services made and make that it is the clients themselves who encourage him to move forward.
I would be remiss if I didn’t describe in a few words G2J’s various endeavors. His first company was named Datavoice. The purpose of this start-up was to sell value-added services via premium-rate numbers to the many bettors in horse racing. His second company was called First Telecommunication (in the USA) and was designed to be resold at a discount price, international telecommunications minutes previously purchased wholesale in the USA. His third company was named G2J.COM. From its creation in Martinique to its subsidiaries in China and the USA, this company has symbolized the excellence of secure videoconferencing services, delivering to the closed world of major principals (all the G7 central banks in turn, Orange, EDF, Danone, etc.). He then created LabNoo Technologies (Lab Network Open Online). This is (because we are in the present), a holding company that has carried and is carrying company projects such as Meetnoo.com and minority shareholdings.
All these companies have one thing in common: data management. It’s a leitmotif for G2J. He explains it by being an islander. For him, remote data management was always essential. Digital technology and its potentials have indeed freed creativity and the world from many constraints.
There is one point I wanted to save for the end of the discussion on G2J. Please note that G2J has always worked on a salary basis until G2J.COM was able to do without it. In short, the entrepreneur G2J has spent a large part of his life working as a paid employee and as an entrepreneur. You can imagine how much energy it can take. His life was, is a whole without boundaries between the private and the professional. It’s just his adult life with this attention he told me for the well-being of his children. Moreover, he made the switch to the world of 100% entrepreneurship at the time he considered that this security had been achieved.
Currently G2J is in Rwanda for business and as far as I can judge … the adventure continues!
All the best!
I retain two essential points from Mr. José Jacques Gustave. The first is a quote: “Ideas are worthless, what counts is execution!”. The second point is an invitation to readers: “There is no such thing as risk, it’s a lack of imagination, so go see for yourself!”
Question 1: what do you find inspiring about Mr. José Jacques Gustave’s journey?
Figure 1.1.Mr. José Jacques Gustave. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste.co.uk/latouche/innovation.zip
1
A BTS is a French advanced technician’s certificate, a
Brevet de Technicien Supérieur.
