Two-tiered France, a Decline in Organics, and the Future of Education...ESSEC in the News

Business leaders in France and overseas, committed citizens, experts and entrepreneurs ...ESSEC is making waves in all fields! Press review

Business leaders 

In La Tribune, Olivier Sichel (E89), Managing Director of the Banque des Territoires, announced the commitment of more than €90 billion ‘to counter a two-tiered France’. This subsidiary of the French Deposits & Consignments Fund (CDC) operates notably in the areas of environmental transition, reindustrialisation, social housing, access to public services and the energy mix. ‘We support thousands of projects throughout France.’
Read an extract (in French)

On France Culture, Jean-Noël Tronc (E93), MD of the CNED, presented his view on the future of education and training. ‘We are seeing a revolution. The CNED is not just a substitute people turn to when they cannot physically go to class, but a benchmark complementary institution. This year we have 42,000 students enrolled on our new platform for short à la carte courses, which allows them to follow a subject not covered by their school or offer a replacement solution when their teachers are absent.’
Listen to the programme (from 1 hour 26 mins) (in French)

Les Échos praised the achievements of  Fabien Versavau (EXEC MBA 13) at the helm of Rakuten France. On taking over the struggling e-commerce platform, he succeeded in turning it into a profitable business. ‘Our approach, inspired by Japanese methods, doesn’t aim for disruption. We’re not looking to dismiss what already exists. We offer assistance to companies in their digital adaptation. We’re like a department store which is home to a myriad of brand corners.’
Read an extract (in French)
Listen also to his Commencement Day speech.

Le Monde paid tribute to Christophe Deloire (E94), Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, who died after a sudden cancer. ‘Ambitious and motivated, the young fifty-something succeeded in moving on “from the Ménard era” and even managed to transform the association into an “international champion for the protection of journalism”. In a statement, the NGO hailed his “relentless fight across the globe for freedom, independence and plurality, in a context of informational chaos.”’ 
Read the article (in French)

Commitment

In Le Monde, Laure Verdeau (E08), Director of the Agence Bio [for organic produce], warned: ‘The surface area reserved for organic farming declined for the first time in France in 2023.’ The explanation for this loss of 54,000 hectares, combined with a movement by farmers to deconvert, lies in a turnaround in consumer trends in the last two years, due to the dual effect of inflation and the confusion caused by greenwashing.
Read an extract (in French)

In Le Monde, Antoine Marvier (E23), co-founder of the charity Les Ombres, regretted that ‘child welfare aid has never been so ineffective; a quarter of homeless people have come from this system.’ He put forward six measures to counter these huge difficulties in social integration.
Read an extract (in French)
See also our interview (in French)

On the Carenews website, Élise Ginioux (E06) reveals the results of a survey on the vocational integration of people forced in to exile, carried out by The Human Safety Net (THSN) foundation, of which she is president. ‘Contrary to certain preconceived ideas on asylum, many of the refugees who arrive in France are highly qualified. 25% have a higher education degree and almost 50% were self-employed in their country. It takes an average of 10 years for a refugee to recover their initial standard of life.’ 
Read the article (in French)

On Channel News Asia, Jacques de Maistre (E25) and Joseph Serdet (E25) described their journey from France to Singapore by bicycle to promote soft mobility. This 14,800-kilometre expedition called on their adaptability, to deal with technical mishaps and a roadside fire!
Listen to the programme

On CB News, Julien Malaurent (M09 & PHD 12), academic co-director of Metalab ESSEC, asserted that ‘AI can act as a trigger for positive transformation.’ To illustrate this claim, he added ‘in the healthcare sector, AI enables us to individualise drug treatment, improving patient outcomes while reducing costs. For the environment, AI helps to optimise renewable energy use, thus contributing to lower carbon emissions.’ 
Read the article (in French)

Experts

On the HelloWork website, Stéphane André (E70), founder of the L’École de l’Art Oratoire [School of Public Speaking] in Paris, offers his advice for enhancing your eloquence during job interviews. ‘Stop worrying about gestures which are supposedly frowned upon. Don’t write a speech you’ll be a slave to, either. You can’t prepare or anticipate everything, we have no almighty power over others... whether they’re a recruiter, classmates or a conference audience. Jouvet used to say you have to like your audience. Liking your audience means first and foremost showing an interest in them. Having interest only in yourself is contrary to the art of public speaking. You must be guided by the audience you are addressing.’ 
Read the article (in French)
See also our interview

On the Actionco website, Rémy Gerin (E84), Director of ESSEC’s Mass Market Chair, takes stock of the relations between retailers and distributors. ‘Shelf space is becoming a rarity and retail negotiations are increasingly tense.’ Among the reasons for this change, he points to the pressure on purchasing power, the trend to ‘consume less but better’ and the shift of volumes to alternative circuits such as Action, Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
Read the article (in French)

Entrepreneurship

In Les Échos, Antoine Fruchard (E09) describes how his family does business. ‘Five siblings, five companies created together...without tearing each other apart!’ What’s their secret? ‘Being a brother or sister mustn’t be the only motivation for teaming up. You have to work together for the right reasons first, and tap into synergies. Within our family, there is the stable one, the creative one, the literary one, and so on. This calls for a great deal of introspection to recognise everyone’s strength.’ 
Read the article (in French)

On BFM TV, Alexandre Martin (E12), co-founder of Colonies alongside François Roth (E12) and Amaury Courbon (E12), presented his solutions to solve the housing crisis and manage the environmental transition of the residential sector. ‘We have to densify the city, renovate existing structures and adapt to new uses.’ 
Watch the programme (in French)

In a TEDx conference, Baptiste Laurent (M10) explained how he fights against urban heat islands with his start-up Vertuo. ‘With a clear focus on adapting cities to climate change, we restore value to rainwater by developing the first planting system which is autonomous in watering needs all year round. Nature thus becomes the simplest and most effective air conditioner!’
Watch the conference (in French)
See also our article (in French) 

On Les Inspirations ECO website, Badr Hemras (EXEC M19), co-founder of MintHR, praises the contribution of AI to human resources, while pointing out an overlooked fact: ‘80% of the world’s labour force operates out of traditional offices. However, just 1% of company investments in technology is devoted to these 2.7 billion deskless workers, which results in 56% of those workers feeling disconnected from their employer.’ He thus develops specific solutions for this target.
Read the article (in French)

Les Échos devoted a feature to Thomas Jonglez (E92), the globetrotter who ventured to China, Afghanistan, Bolivia and Gabon, and now publishes travel guides and themed atlases. ‘Jonglez publishes 200,000 books in five languages every year, and employs seven people across France, Germany, Italy, the Philippines and Brazil.’ 
Read the article (in French)
See also our interview (in French)

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