ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022 - 12

News ❙ Tribune
By Stéphane Distinguin (97) Chairman of the ESCP Alumni Board and Fabernovel CEO
Groundhog Day
changed. I am now convinced that " teleworking " is useful and
productive, even more so when properly combined with office
working, which remains essential especially when you must
learn something new.
Here is an important article published late 2020 in the New York
Stéphane DISTINGUIN (97)
Chairman of the ESCP Alumni Board
Fabernovel CEO
ver the past few months, I have had two mantras. The
first one is that in the absence of certainty, you need
convictions. Unfortunately, I don't need to emphasise
and explain what it feels like to fly by the seat of your pants
as it is what we have all been doing since March 2020. This
feeling has been growing for one simple reason: we have all
been subject to the same decisions and despondency. The
health crisis has created new habits. In other words, we have all
been in the same situation. I really realised how bad the situation
was and that complete lockdown was unavoidable when
ESCP executive president Frank Bournois sent us a message
announcing that the Turin campus was closed, 10 days before
France. Since then, the world has fragmented; everyone experienced
lockdown their own way, every organisation took their
own decisions. And it was much easier to anticipate what the
government would do in March 2020 than a year later... I am
not putting the blame on anyone; I am just sharing what I had
to deal with as a company head. For lack of anticipation, I had
to be true to myself and be confident, especially under crisis
time. It may seem trivial, but during lockdown, I would send
a message to my employees and change my profile picture
first thing every morning; I adapted the picture to my mood of
the day. It could range from Bill Murray in Groundhog Day to
Bernard Hinault struggling in a mountain stage. I tried to stay
in touch in a different way, to show that I was there for each and
every one of them, more than ever.
When there is no certainty, conviction is about experience
and thinking. It is also the best way to be brave. Courage with
no conviction is just recklessness. Plus, through such cloudy
times, you can discuss, debate on, or decide not to share your
convictions... and convince yourself and one another. It is hard
but key to stay in line with your employees as a boss. Your
convictions can change. For instance, my convictions on work
organisation in general, and remote working specifically, have
O
Times, entitled The 2010s were the End of Normal. It reads:
" The biggest casualty of the decade was trust. According to a
Pew survey earlier this year, only 17 percent of Americans trust
the government to do what is right 'most of the time' or 'just
about always. "
We - (often) rightly or (too often) wrongly - question things. It
is also extremely difficult to create consensus. Being exemplary
is a constant fight, and I think it is exactly what a leader is there
for in these times of crisis; they should be leading their team
towards a common goal and remain exemplary.
My other mantra is: " Never let a good crisis go to waste. "
Some say it is Churchill's, some say it dates back to Confucius
or Talleyrand and might therefore be apocryphal. Still, it shows
that instead of waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel, and
that is what my grandmother (we all have a grandmother who
is the Churchill of the family) meant by " every cloud has a silver
lining " , you must find your antifragility, which is Nassim Nicholas
Taleb's concept. It goes beyond resilience and consists in becoming
a better version of yourself through a crisis. You must find
this something and hang on to it, because I am convinced that
it is where a new form of certainty lies.
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ESCP Alumni Magazine Special issue ❙ 2022
ESCP Alumni Magazine Special issue ❙ 2022
ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022

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