What is your professional background?

When I started working for the La Table de Cana social integration enterprise, I realized that it was possible to reconcile social objectives, management objectives and "fun" (parties, events, etc.). I then wanted to see if this could be applied to other sectors, in this case ready-to-wear and textiles, and then to a large company. My guiding principle is: "How can we use economic activity as a means to an end?

I came to ESSEC wearing the dual hats of social entrepreneur and former director of sustainable development at L'Occitane. Today, I run the Centre for Social and Ecological Innovation. Our role: to support social entrepreneurs to help them optimize their impact; to develop the notion of performance so that it includes social and ecological issues; to participate in the training of future business leaders so that they naturally integrate the analysis of social and environmental impacts into their decision-making.

In your experience, is it possible to achieve impact in any type of organization?

The question of time comes into play. The room for maneuver is different between a listed company judged on its quarterly results, a mutual group founded to insure people rather than make a profit, or a family-owned ETI that takes a long-term view.

The mother of all battles lies in defining what impact is, what performance is? Like the reflections on GDP, which is not necessarily the most relevant measure for assessing living standards, we need to define precisely "that better" that we call positive impact. Since 2017, this is precisely the mission of our impact assessment laboratory, which offers, for example, assessment reference frameworks by business sector (relevant indicators, methodology, examples...), to enable companies to take charge of this major project of defining performance.

"It's about valuing social and environmental impact on the same level as economic and financial performance. Not opposing them, but giving them the same importance.

Because economic, social and environmental considerations are not mutually exclusive. The challenge is to find systems where social and economic aspects are compatible, for example through a model such as the circular economy, or through the valorization of positive impact. The ideal situation could be: "the more impact I create, the more market share I gain, and the more long-term my company becomes".

Another fundamental question is: "Who pays for the impact?" It could be costs avoided for the community, or the end customer who agrees to pay more, or the shareholder who accepts lower interest, or even the employees who are ready to lower their pay because it makes sense. In any case, someone has to finance this orientation, if possible the one who benefits from it.

What qualities and skills do you think an impact manager should have?

Rather than a typical profile of an impact leader, I prefer to talk about openness and knowledge of the world. I love the approach of ESSEC's Bachelor Act program "Learning to lead transitions", which aims to train leaders who will be the agents of change. In addition to essential management skills - and not just profit-oriented ones - they must above all be able to understand the diversity of the people they deal with, and be able to create links between very different people.

It also depends on the role models they are given and choose for themselves. A few years ago, the leaders who spoke at business schools at the start of the new academic year were standards of financial success. Today, they are leaders who have managed to strike a balance between their professional and personal lives, or to give meaning to their careers.
However, I don't think we can speak of a generation of impact leaders. While awareness of social and environmental issues is certainly on the rise, they still don't represent the majority of business school profiles, and the criteria used to rank business schools take too little account of these dimensions.

Today, no one is unaware of CSR and ESG criteria, and that's all to the good. But if we reason in cycles, we've gone from a focus on the digital revolution to awareness of climate change and commitment to impact. Now, AI is becoming the big concern. If it all adds up, great! On the other hand, if one fad replaces another and social and ecological transition issues are forgotten, that would be catastrophic!

What are the conditions for a successful positive impact initiative in a company?

As with any change, the crux of the matter is to get teams on board by reassuring them on the one hand, and showing them how they will be able to achieve their objectives on the other, whether these be economic, financial, image or attractiveness objectives. Lecturing doesn't work.

One way of doing this, for example, might be to say: "We're going to work in a different way, and that's going to feed into our employer brand, so save us a considerable amount of time in recruitment times." Or: "highlighting our positive impacts will help build customer loyalty". Or: "new standards are going to arrive, so it's better to be a pioneer than a follower, to anticipate than to suffer."