What was your career path as head of Norsys?

Norsys developed very early on according to the virtuous model of global performance, which I wanted to push as far as possible. The turning point came in 1998, at the time of the 35-hour working week law. At the time, the IT sector was preparing for the transition to the year 2000 and the Euro - a very lucrative but one-off market. This prompted me to think about the future. Without being clairvoyant, I had the intuition that the balance between professional and personal life was going to become essential. I proposed to the employees a project capable of absorbing the financial impact of 47 days' CP and RTT. As an IT service provider, this necessarily meant adding more value. We developed our first training programs along these lines. These decisions were decisive for Norsys, as this level of training and expertise is still the company's trademark today. In fact, we have created our own Corporate University.

How did the perma-company concept come about?

The world of work quickly locks you into a professional network, especially when you become a manager. It's important to stay in touch with the field and with others. My path towards perma-business is correlated with a series of personal realizations linked to my involvement in the associative world, whether it be with the Réseau étincelle that I created, at the Centre des jeunes dirigeants (CJD) that I chaired, within Greenpeace that I preside over, or by joining the Conseil national du développement durable.

"This commitment has given me a clearer view of the problems facing our society.
It's only a short step from lucidity to action.

As early as 2005, we committed ourselves to the fight against discrimination, with anonymous CVs, training on prejudice, the overhaul of decision-making processes and, of course, equal pay for men and women. The carbon footprint followed in 2007, and so on.

In 2019, I asked a working group to challenge the concept of permaculture in an attempt to apply it to Norsys. Then I consulted former CEOs of foundations committed to preserving the planet about the benefits of such an approach. They told me to go for it.

Perma-Company is based on three ethical principles: caring for people, preserving the planet, setting limits and redistributing the wealth created. From these principles flow 23 impact objectives with thresholds to be reached. This approach is symbolized in the Norsys logo by the three interdependent rings: red (human), blue (economic) and green (environmental). In concrete terms, for each project, we must ensure that each ethical principle is implemented.

"Through this model, I'm trying to demonstrate that by anticipating change
and adopting a global vision, the company wins sooner or later.

The best example of successful anticipation is telecommuting. This development was not self-evident, since some of our employees work at our customers' sites. Nevertheless, we took the plunge in 2016, as it represents a major lever for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. By 2019, 40% of our employees were already teleworking. So at the start of the lockdown, when many companies had to close for several weeks, we hardly had to do anything, and 2020 was a very good year for Norsys.

What's your recipe for anticipation?

It's not so much a question of vision as of research and decoding. The challenge is to accumulate and analyze information in a decompartmentalized way. What is happening to us with COVID was predicted as early as 2003! Access to knowledge is therefore crucial. It saddens me to see young people only reading titles and subtitles on social networks. On this point, I believe that the company is the 3rd stage in access to information and knowledge, after the family and the world of schools and universities.

What resources do you draw on to exercise your leadership and convince your teams or peers?

More than the energy deployed or the method used to get a group on board, what counts is the credibility and confidence you inspire as someone who dares to do things or dares to do things differently. This is gradually acquired through experimentation and results. In 2019, in the early days of permaentreprise, some employees said: "Sylvain has already done this to us. At first, we don't understand anything, but each time, it gives Norsys incredible strength".

What's your current challenge?

It is my hope that I will be able to encourage leaders to adopt a different development model. Jean Mersch, the founder of the CJD, once said: "It is not the masses who make history, but the values that act on them through convinced minorities". This is what I'm trying to bring about through the perma-company model.

"My guiding principle is to open people's minds to a different way of positioning the company, so as to break away from the deleterious one-size-fits-all global thinking around profit maximization."

What message would you like to send to young and future corporate leaders?

I'm a great believer in the power of young people, like the 30,000 signatories of the Manifesto for an Ecological Awakening, whose determination scared the big corporations.

"So I say to them: don't be afraid to be very demanding.
Your demands will change the world of business.

In a few months' time, for example, when the world is less constrained, some companies will be tempted to turn off the telecommuting tap. I'm convinced that if young people leave these companies, they'll get the ball rolling.

Can perma-companies be applied to the world of associations and NGOs?

The perma-company model can also be applied by associations and foundations, such as Réseau étincelle, which will soon be experimenting with perma-associations. On the one hand, everything can be built on the ethical principles of perma-business, including a personal project. On the other hand, only a global vision of the issues at stake, with varied and interdependent objectives, is likely to move things in the right direction.