Open Innovation. Pascal Latouche
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was not very well developed in some companies.
All these experiences of paid work, of “prison”, were finally summed up very well by Cindy: “I took everything there was to take with the goal, one day, of launching my business”. And it was with a strong value component, attention to others and above all remaining accessible, that she launched herself into entrepreneurship very early on.
Her first “solo” entrepreneurial experience was when she was still a student. It is with professional precision that Cindy explained to me in detail the reasons for the failure of this first experience. Such hindsight is quite rare; believe my modest experience with entrepreneurs.
2.2.2. Full-time entrepreneurship
A few years later, a digital marketing agency was forged at a time when the only thing that interested the prospect was setting up websites. Nothing very exciting for Cindy who wanted to go much further: to train people in digital marketing, to make them understand the subtleties and potentialities that it offers.
No doubt this was what she wanted to do and launched Naïas, an extension of her digital marketing agency, initially as a subcontractor. By getting personally involved as a trainer, she took the bull by the horns and built up a real network of trainers in the digital field. I say network and it’s a word chosen when we know that Cindy lived in Amsterdam, while having training centers in many cities in France.
Why Amsterdam? It seems that Cindy was looking for some kind of peace and quiet at this point in her life to run her business. “Paris is nice, but frankly where I lived, every five minutes I would run into people I knew from work. I couldn’t take it anymore. So I decided to run my business from elsewhere”.
Naïas spread its wings. Was that the objective? After all, Naïas was doing well, Cindy was the main shareholder, there were more demands than there was capacity to meet them. Cindy and Naïas mastered the mysteries of training laws extremely well. So what else?
2.2.3. Naïas, a means and not an end
“Naïas is a way,” it seems. I must admit that the answer disturbed me somewhat and also pleased me a lot. Many would just take the time to consolidate this achievement and make a good living out of it, in short, to make it a goal. This is not the case with Cindy whose goal is quite different. It’s about Cindy using Naïas as an annuity to forge other start-ups, other businesses, here and elsewhere.
Here again, in order to give a good account of what I understand of her projects/dreams, a summary is necessary. Cindy’s objectives: speak the following seven languages: English, Italian, Chinese, German, Russian, Arabic and sign language. She has ticked off 3/7 and by accident she speaks Creole and is nearly fluent in Dutch; seeing a maximum of countries in the world, she has already seen more than 30 of them; having a nice apartment in …Paris and spending the months of the year in the countries she likes according to the season; becoming a black belt in Taekwondo; being totally free in an entrepreneurial way and she’s in the 2/3 stage of that plan since Naias has yet to become an annuity. This will allow her to get involved in causes that are important to her.
All the best!
Question 2: what do you think about Mrs. Cindy Dorkenoo’s journey?
Figure 2.1. Mrs. Cindy Dorkenoo. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste.co.uk/latouche/innovation.zip
1 1 These are French higher education establishments. They are prestigious and have been attended by some of French society’s most influential, including French presidents.
2 2 French equivalent of a master’s level degree.
3 3 BA level equivalent degree.
3
Mrs. Elodie Sarfati, a Brownian Journey!
Before this interview, I didn’t know Elodie at all. She was introduced to me by a colleague who had noticed this entrepreneur. This colleague, following my LinkedIn post encouraging entrepreneurs to provide their testimonies, told me that according to her, Elodie was an atypical profile that deserved to be listened to. In other words, within a few days, contact was established between Elodie and myself and I explained my project to her. She joined without hesitation. I remember listening to her during this first contact and thinking that it might be difficult to get her to tell her story, as she seemed, despite her assertive tone, somewhat shy and not necessarily sure of herself. It was half a mistake on my part. Elodie, although I see her in retrospect as somewhat shy, is nonetheless someone whose determination is admirable. Her reserve is not linked to shyness, but to well-considered choices that are always in line with herself.
This is so true that after our interview, or any context of acceleration, I put her in touch with some of my good contacts from my internal and external corporate network. For all intents and purposes, I think it will be useful for her. But let’s come back to Elodie, the one who in my opinion is moving forward permanently, that has made her progress to the point where she is now the CEO of a very nice start-up.
3.1. Context
Her grandfather, a Tunisian Jew of very good social status, chose like many others to flee the country at the time when independence was asserting itself in the Maghreb. So it was penniless and having given up almost everything that his grandfather arrived in France. If I leave the story of her grandfather, it’s because this immigration had consequences. The family was taken from a social condition that must have been very comfortable to a modest social condition.
3.1.1. A modest and open environment
Elodie comes from parents who divorced at a very young age and has one sister. Elodie was raised by her mother in a very modest suburb of Paris. With great sincerity, Elodie told me about her parents, her family and how she perceived them.
“My mother is a role model for me”. In her eyes, her mother is a model of courage. Brave, the latter was so because she was a freelance nurse for years, she managed to climb the ladder in the medical field and is currently the director of an elderly care home. “My mother’s desire has always been an example to follow”.
“For years my father did things he didn’t like to do”. In Elodie’s eyes, her father’s a resilient guy. He’s been looking out for himself for a long time. He is currently a lead salesman in a ready-to-wear fashion store.
Let the reader make no mistake. These words were not pronounced as value judgments by Elodie, but with much of the love she received from both her parents. The suburbs, far from being perceived as a difficult area to live in, seem to have brought Elodie some contentment. The cultural mix, the popular environment, even in modest circumstances, provided Elodie with an environment that opened her mind to others. “I’m better off now and I’m very afraid that my children won’t have the opportunity to get to know this working-class environment. It is a form of wealth”.
One of the singular points of Elodie’s childhood is an early conviction instilled by her mother. It’s the belief that no matter how modest a household she was in, she could do anything. Feeling “capable of anything”, this conviction carried Elodie through life, and even