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MARCH/ APRIL 2015

I N F Ot h e m a g a z i n e f o r a n g l o - f r e n c h b u s i n e s s

MARCH/ APRIL 2015french chamber of great britain www.frenchchamber.co.uk

I N F Ot h e m a g a z i n e f o r a n g l o - f r e n c h b u s i n e s s

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info - march / april - �

editorialPresident,

French Chamber of Great Britain, and Chairman, Department for Transport Franchise Advisory Panel

Richard Brown

For personal and professional reasons, Arnaud Bamberger has taken the decision to step down as President and resign from the Board of the Chamber. Arnaud has given the Chamber more than 20

years of service, both as a Director of the Board and for the past two years as President, and we would like to thank him for his hard work and dedication. Following his decision, the Board asked me, as Deputy President, to step into the role of President until the next Annual General Meeting, which takes place on 25 June, when a new President and Deputy President will be elected. I am honoured to do so, and in taking up the reigns will do my best to continue Arnaud’s good work and attend as many events as possible, at which I look forward to meeting members.

While we say goodbye to Arnaud Bamberger, we are pleased to welcome four new members to our Board: Stephen Burgin, Regional Vice President Northern & Central Europe, Alstom Power; Paul Kahn, President of Airbus UK; Helena Kavanagh, Managing Director of JC Decaux; and Olivier Morel, President of CCE UK and Partner & Head of International Corporate Investment at Cripps LLP. We have no doubt that their contributions will enhance our Board, helping to give direction to the Chamber.

As the Ambassador noted in her Brief to Patron and Corporate Chamber members in January, this is a crucial moment for the UK with a general election imminent, the outcome of which has never been more uncertain. Hinging on this will be the decision to go ahead with a referendum on the UK’s position in the European Union, which is of great importance to business and industry, particularly members of our Franco-British community. We will be watching the results of 7 May with interest and concern.

Coming back to this issue of INFO, the theme of its Focus is Women in Leadership – timely not only because it precedes the launch of a Women’s Club at the Chamber, but also because 2015 is the year in which all eyes are on Lord Davies’ 25% target for Women on Boards, putting businesses under scrutiny for their gender diversity. The articles reveal that companies are tackling the issue in a number of ways, but it is clear that in order to have women in leadership, a whole culture change is needed to ensure that women are recruited, mentored, trained and retained throughout their careers to feed the all-important talent pipeline. We would particularly like to thank two of our own Board members – Carolyn McCall, CEO of easyJet and Estelle Brachlianoff, Senior Executive Vice President UK & Ireland of Veolia – as well as the many leaders, both men and women, of our member companies, for contributing their insights into the topic.

In the meantime, I look forward to meeting many of you at one or more of our forthcoming Chamber events. I

We would like to apologise for any unintentional offence or hurt that may have been caused by our omission to mention the tragic loss of life in the attack on the kosher supermarket in Paris that happened soon after the Charlie Hebdo attack. The editorial was being written as events were unfolding and in the rush to get the magazine to press it was not updated to include this second attack, which, of course, we regard as just as abhorrent. We would like to reiterate that as a Chamber, we stand against such intimidation of the values of freedom of expression and belief, and uphold those of peace, tolerance and respect.

Available in English on Freesat / Sky / TV PlayerAnd in English and French on Virgin

WORLD NEWS

MADE IN FRANCE

FRANCE24.COM

F24_AP_TourEiffel_197,4x279,18_PP.indd 1 15/12/14 10:50

Contents

5 minutes with... 6 Ursula Morgenstern,Atos

News in the City 9 AturningpointforEurope

11 Profile:Eric Verleyen,GlobalCIOofSociété Générale Private Banking

News 12 Capgemini launchesCybersecurityGlobal

ServiceLine

13 Colas RailsignsfreighthaulagecontractwithTotal

14 Renaultlaunchesnewgenerationofdealerships

15 Bouyguesannouncesastringofmajorcontracts

16 Schneider ElectricranksninthMostSustainableCorporationglobally

20 Schools

22 Lycée français Charles de Gaulle100th

anniversarycelebrations

23 NewFrenchschoolnamedLycée International de Londres Winston Churchill

SMEs & Start-ups25 Briefs

29 Profile:SOFYNE

Focus: Women in Leadership 31 MadameAmbassador: Sylvie-Agnès

Bermannonbeingawomaninleadership

32 Lord DaviesonWomenonBoards

34 Viewfromthetop:womenleadersonwomeninleadership

36 Advancingwomeninaman’sworld

39 Genderquotasoncorporateboards:culturaldifferencesacrossEurope

40 Quotasvs.avoluntaryapproach–acaseofrealequalityoranumbersgame?

41 WhyNEDsratherthanEDs?

42 Womenontop:whymentorandcoachwomenleaders?

43 Women’sbreakfastsarenotenough

44 Dofemaleleadersreallycooperatewithotherwomen?

45 Nosilverbullet:thesystemicapproachtochangingcompanyculture

46 ‘Havingitall’withtheagileworkplace

48 SharedParentalLeave:potentialforthebiggestimpactyet?

49 Tacklingtheexecutivepipelinethroughpolicies

50 Womenaregoodforbusiness

51 WomeninTech:thenewrevolutiontocome

53 AglobalperspectiveonWomeninLeadership

Culture 54 Paris-LondonTANDEM2015

57 Bookreviews

Eat, Drink, Stay58 Goût de France / Good France

60 Bread-makingatPAUL

61 Cheese&WinePress

News at the Chamber 64 Newmembers

65 Hello/GoodbyeandHatsoffto

66 Chambershorties

Events 67 Ambassador’sBrief

68 CrossCulturalQuizEvening&InterculturalTrophy

69 Rendez-vouschezAubaine

Rendez-vouschezL’Atelier des Chefs

70 LuxuryClubBreakfast

Forum & Clubs 71 WelcometotwonewChairs

72 HR Forum:Internationalmobility

73 SME & Entrepreneurs Club:Thepowerofnetworking

74 ForthcomingForums&Clubs/Events

Advancing women in a man’s world�6 Goût de France / Good

France58

60 Bread-making at PAUL

Managing Director: Florence Gomez

Editor-in-Chief: Keri Fuller

Corporate Communication Executive: Marielle Fraize

Graphic Designer: Katherine Millet

Advertising & Sales: Suzanne Lycett

Publications Assistant: Jeanne Mattei

Subscription: INFO is published every 2 months

Printed by: CPI Colour

Contributors: Severine Balick, Scarlett Brown, Eric Charriaux, Sarah Churchman, Emma Codd, Geraldine Fabre, Véronique Forge, Claudia Jonczyk, Thibault Lavergne, Nadia Mensah-Acogny, Isabelle Minneci, Guillaume Molhant Proost, Emmanuelle Ries, Melanie Stancliffe, Gisèle Szcyglak, Sian Vernon

Cover artwork: Katherine Millet

Distribution: French Chamber members, Franco-British decision makers, Business Class lounges of Eurostar, Eurotunnel and Air France in London, Paris and Manchester

Editorial and Publishing Office:French Chamber of Great BritainLincoln House, 300 High HolbornLondon WC1V 7JHTel: (020) 7092 6600; Fax: (020) 7092 6601www.frenchchamber.co.uk

Madame Ambassador�1

5 minutes with Ursula Morgenstern6

Lord Davies on Women on Boards�2

Lycée centenary22

issue 217 / March - April 2015

6 - info - march / april

Ursula MorgensternCEO, Atos UK & Ireland

As CEO of Atos UK & Ireland, a leading IT services company with 10,000 employees under your responsibility, how would you define your role?Firstly, my focus is on delivering value for my clients – especially at a time when technology can be at once a great enabler and very disruptive.

I also define the direction for the business in the UK and Ireland, and make sure that we are all working towards shared goals. I need to ensure that we stay aligned to the market and are agile enough to continue to compete in an extremely competitive and fast-paced industry. That can be hugely challenging in such a large and diverse business. It is certainly not something I could achieve alone, so part of my job is ensuring that I have the right team around me and that they are all effective in managing different areas of the business.

I am also very involved in our Well-being at Work programme as we are primarily a people business. I want to make sure that, as a company, we are not only delivering to all our clients but also a great place to work for our employees.

Atos UK & Ireland has a very diverse range of public and private sector contracts from the rail network to HM Revenue & Customs, hotel bookings to Premier League football fixture lists. What are some of the most interesting contracts you have undertaken?A huge highlight for me was working with the Olympic Delivery Authority on the Olympic Park and venues as the IT provider. It was amazing to experience the Olympics from the early stages to the actual close down. It also allowed me to work in close cooperation with our colleagues from the major events team who deliver the IT for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Atos has been their technology partner for over 25 years. Obviously with this comes the challenge of ensuring you have faultless systems in place. If there is a problem on

such a high-profile, global stage, it could be incredibly difficult, so it was an intense project but ultimately, hugely rewarding.

Atos has a partnership with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) until the end of 2016. What does this entail and how else is Atos involved in sport?We’re incredibly proud of our relationship with the IOC. Atos has been the Worldwide IT Partner for them since 2001 and this contract will continue until 2024. We are also the Worldwide IT Partner for the IPC and have been since 2008. These are long-term relationships for us.

We help to deliver the massive IT infrastructure that makes the Games happen, including the systems to process 200,000 accreditations; recruit 70,000 volunteers and distribute the results to the world’s media in less than a second. Since London, Atos has successfully delivered the Sochi Winter Games and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It is now focused on Rio where for the first time in a Summer Games, the core planning systems will be delivered over the cloud including the systems for accreditation, sport entries & qualification and workforce management as well as the volunteer portal, which was launched in August this year.

What about smaller clients – do you work with SMEs?We do. In fact we have set up the Atos SME Harbour programme to enable a simpler, safe and transparent way for Atos to partner with small and medium-sized enterprises. It offers a range of support services to SMEs including coaching to help them better understand the Government’s commercial arrangements and terms and conditions, advice on understanding Government structure and working practices, information on risk management and access to market trends and research. Practical support may also be available through access to IT infrastructure and office space.

5 minutes with. . .


5 min u t es w i t h Ursul a Morgenstern

Atos is currently reaching out to the wider SME community and are forming relationships with a range of academic institutions, innovation hubs and clusters in order to partner with organisations who will offer cutting-edge innovation and solutions to customers across the public and private sector. We believe our partnerships are a hugely positive differentiator for us in the market.

Is Atos UK & Ireland distinctive in any way from the wider group? How is the company evolving?We are part of a really strong and important industry in the UK – digital contributes about £70bn to the economy, represents 3% of the UK workforce and is growing five times faster than the wider economy. The public sector is really pushing the digital transformation of services forward and there is a fantastic role for private providers to play in delivering this and also in helping to find efficiencies.

We have invested heavily in our UK business and a brand new flagship data centre is due to open for our clients this month. It is best in class in terms of security, efficiency and environmental impact. We have also opened our London Business Technology Innovation Centre and are bringing clients in to demonstrate the innovation we can deliver to them in the areas of Big Data, Mobility and Connectivity.

What of the future in terms of new projects?We acquired French IT Company, Bull Information Systems, at the end of last year which brings with it real specialism in cybersecurity and there is a planned acquisition of Xerox IT outsourcing operations which needs to be integrated into our UK operations as well.

Does the fact that the IT sector is in a constant state of rapid change pose challenges for your business? Like most companies, we are in a time of significant industry change and we need to adapt our organisation to the new reality. So making sure that we keep up with that change is a key challenge. Atos is an extremely agile and fast-moving company.

Through our Cloud business, I’ve really been at the forefront of that change, so I understand the opportunity that the new digital world brings, and the fragility that comes with that for our customers.

You became CEO within 7 years of joining Atos, and have been ranked in the 25 Most Influential Women in IT UK (Computer Weekly). What was your experience in getting there?Fortunately, when I took over the role at Atos UK &

Ireland, I already had significant experience at the company, having joined back in 2002 as a result of the acquisition of KPMG Consulting. In the intervening time, I have held a series of high-profile roles including head of various departments and latterly chief operating officer, all of which stood me in good stead in my current post. I now have nearly 25 years business and technology experience in total – I’ve seen the industry develop at a fast pace. The technology industry is fantastic to be a part of. It is young and fast moving with great opportunities. It would be great if more women would join this industry and benefit from it as I did.

Atos spearheaded an initiative to encourage women to consider a career in IT. Why do you consider this important for the industry?A diverse workforce makes absolute business sense. Digital transformation is about understanding how technology can make a business work better, be more efficient and accessible and give customers a better experience. We need the knowledge and insight that comes with a diverse workforce in order to deliver this for our clients.

The other big challenge and, of course, opportunity in our business is how to help balance the work/

family equation. Being a technology company, it is easy to support a wide range of working styles such as working from home. Using technology to make it easier for women and all parents to work flexibly is an opportunity.

The organisation, of course, needs to support this with the appropriate processes and culture, including an inclusive culture around promotion.

We have several on-going initiatives focused on recruiting more women, including changing the way we recruit to ensure that we are a desirable employer for women. We also undertake a number of school visits each year to tell school children about how exciting a career in technology can be. For me this is the key, as women seem to be self-selecting out of STEM subjects before they even reach university.

What does Atos get from being a member of the French Chamber?I really value our relationship with the French Chamber. We are a European brand with our corporate centre in France and it is important to maintain those roots. I also enjoy the opportunity to meet with my peers through your organisation and read about their news in INFO. I Interview by KF

The technology industry is fantastic to be a part of. It is young and fast moving with great opportunities. It would be great if more women would join this industry and benefit from it as I did.

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news in the cit y

A turning point for Europe

With Greece refusing to take its medicine, a Grexit may be the best cure for the Euro’s ills, writes Guillaume Molhant Proost, Principal of GMP Wealth Management

The talks around a ‘Grexit’, poll gains from extremist political parties in Europe such as Podemos in

Spain and Le Front National in France, and calls for a referendum in the UK on its continued membership of the EU indicate a profound malaise for Europe at a time when populist parties are making false promises about state-sponsored welfare and standards of living firmly entrenched in EU lifestyles.

Greek Syriza party supporters need to realise that without the Troika-led rescue package, the Greek economy would have already collapsed and there would have been no talks about rescuing Greece. In a low economic growth environment, painful adjustments represent the only way to balance Greek public finances, whereas promises for increased public expenditure and employment are irresponsible political tactics aimed at gaining votes and based on expectations that the other Eurozone members will foot the bill.

Recent talks about a possible third bail-out for Greece worth €30-50bn indicate that there is no alternative to EU solidarity for Greece, which urgently needs an additional arrangement after the current programme expires and until such time its new government is able to access the financial markets. However, the notion of a third bail-out, and the reform conditions attached to it, is highly contentious in Greece, with new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisting that the country will not seek a third rescue programme.

This calls into question the rationale for the current monetary policy that is only delaying the necessary structural adjustments dictated by market mechanisms to bring the EU economy back on a sounder footing. According to a recent report released by McKinsey Global Institute, global debt has increased by $57 trillion since 2007 to stand at $199 trillion, equivalent to 286% of world GDP, which leaves capital markets vulnerable to a new crisis as any attempt to normalise monetary policy will disrupt the world real economy. The fact that a third of the Eurozone’s sovereign debt market trades with negative yields illustrates this current extreme risk aversion, which is in sharp contrast to leading equity

market indices reaching all-time highs. It should not be too long before a clearer picture of the real state of the world economy emerges.

In the meantime, as demonstrated by the Greek election outcome, the effect of artificially maintaining borrowing costs at ultra low levels for weaker Eurozone members is that local populations do not comprehend that in a normal environment, the funding cost for their government and economy would be significantly higher. They should wholeheartedly embrace reforms and make the necessary adjustments while benefiting from cheap

funding that eases the pain inherent to implementing such reforms.

There is a strong possibility that a Grexit may materialise as Berlin will most likely oppose any substantial debt alleviation plans and send a clear message

that euro membership requires fiscal discipline and commitment towards balanced public finances in order to avoid creating an open ended liability for the more disciplined members.

A Grexit may turn out to be the antidote to the euro’s ills and will be closely watched by all EU members, most importantly the UK, facing the crucial question of whether to join the common currency in the future or be marginalised in an increasingly integrated EU. I

In a low economic growth environment, painful adjustments represent the only way to balance Greek public finances

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News in t he Ci t y

Shorties

The ups and downs of UK employment

||| Another fall in the number of people out of work in the UK puts the unemployment rate at 5.7%. This means that in the three months to December 2014, the level of people in work was 73.2%, matching the record high in 2005. Wages are also on the rise, with growth higher than inflation for the fourth consecutive month. Total average weekly earnings

are 2.1% higher than a year ago, although this is thanks in part to Christmas bonuses. When bonuses are stripped out, average weekly wages actually dipped to 1.7% from 1.8%, suggesting that labour productivity is still languishing. In addition, these positive figures must be tempered by the rise of zero-hours contracts, which are becoming deeply ingrained in the

UK labour market, with recent official data showing their use has jumped nearly 26% since last year – a lingering cause for concern in the overall picture of economic recovery. Nevertheless, with inflation tumbling – from 0.5% in December to 0.3% in January – workers will have more money in their pockets to spend. And that’s always a boost to confidence! I KF

||| Has the spectre of deflation been stirred with the Bank of England’s inflation report warning that inflation could ‘potentially turn negative’ in the Spring? Not according to the Governor Mark Carney. He explained that falling oil and food prices might have a temporarily negative effect, which would be ‘generally good news for British households’, but that prices were likely to rebound, and the Bank was aiming to return inflation to its 2% target within

the next two years. Should global growth flag or low inflation persist, the Bank ‘could adjust the pace and degree of Bank Rate increases, expand the Asset Purchase Facility, or cut Bank Rate further towards zero’, he said. He stressed that the UK has ‘stronger underlying dynamics’ which will determine its output and inflation in the longer term. ‘In the United Kingdom, output growth remains solid and domestic demand growth robust,’ he said. I KF

The D-word

||| Boosted by the robust labour market and pay figures, February saw the pound at its strongest against the euro in more than seven years and about 10% stronger than it was a year ago. Although it raises the prospect of cheaper foreign holidays for Britons, the stronger pound pushes down UK import prices, reducing costs and therefore inflation, but it also makes UK exports more expensive and can reduce demand in important markets, particularly the Eurozone. It can also make or break companies’ fortunes. EY reported that adverse currency movements were behind more than 20% of UK profit warnings in the first half of 2014. Those that have to translate foreign earnings back to pounds stand to lose millions in revenue, while it is becoming increasingly harder for British manufacturers to remain

competitive and hold profit margins. Luxury retailers in particular suffer from a strong pound as tourists opt to shop for high value products in eurozone capitals

rather than London. Conversely, British subsidiaries reporting back to European headquarters are in the money, as their Sterling earnings are converted back to euros.

Yet, Sterling’s performance is mixed against other currencies. It is weaker against the dollar, and as Jonathan Eley of the Financial Times points out ‘in the longer term, the picture is one of relentless decline against virtually all currencies.’ The forthcoming UK General Election may yet have a dampening effect on Sterling, if its dip around the time of the Scottish referendum is any indication, especially if the results are ambiguous. I KF

In the money or taking a pounding?

info - march / april - 11

News in t he Ci t y

Profile

Eric Verleyen

Being curious about the world is essential for

a fund manager,’ says Eric Verleyen. It is certainly a trait he has, undoubtedly nurtured by an expatriate upbringing in some unusual places – Japan, where he moved with his family aged

nine, Ivory Coast, where he spent his teenage years, and Luxembourg, where he completed his schooling. French by birth and citizenship, Eric only actually lived in France for the first two years of his life, and his surname gives away his Flemish origins, but not the fact that he also has Polish and Hungarian ancestry – a true European in other words.

Following in the footsteps of his father, who was a banker, Eric studied finance and management at Louvain School of Management in Belgium. But his international outlook shaped his path from the outset. Not only did Eric return to Japan for a year during his studies, but also, intending to leverage on his Japanese language skills and knowledge, began his career in a Japanese bank – Sakura – albeit in Luxembourg. Working in a trading room was exciting for the young graduate and Eric cut his teeth on currencies and interest rates.

Two years on, he moved into the ‘even more exciting’ world of equities and fund management, joining the KBC Group as a junior fund manager, specialising in healthcare and biotech. ‘This was really where I learnt how to select stocks and identify opportunities,’ Eric says. ‘I was lucky enough to have a very demanding boss who challenged me on every decision. It was tough, but valuable because it made me strong on process.’ Eric’s boss also pushed him to take the very difficult CFA* exams. ‘I am a big fan of the CFA Institute,’ he says. ‘It is a great addition to an academic background, and a way to help young people to grow. I am now pushing my young portfolio managers to take them too.’

At KBC Eric began covering the institutional desk in addition to high net worth clients and headed a team of portfolio managers which was a lesson in how to get the best from very different, strong characters. ‘Diversity actually creates the best kind of team,’ he remarks. ‘It is when you have people who see things from different angles that you can take the best decision.’

Eric was then approached to manage the discretionary business of Société Générale Private Banking in Luxembourg, and within four years was made Chief Investment Officer. In this capacity he also handled teams in the advisory business and took on greater responsibilities such as being on the executive committee. In 2011, he was asked to move to London to join Société Générale Private Banking Hambros as Group Chief Investment Officer. ‘Initially I had wanted to go back to Asia, but thought London would be good too. I did not realise at the time how good!’ Most fascinating for him has been watching the strong return of confidence. ‘When people are confident they are ready to invest in their own and other businesses, creating value and jobs, and of course that makes the financial environment and the wealth management world of which I am part, very exciting,’ he comments.

Eric finds investing money for private individuals an interesting mix of pure investments and client contact, combining technical with relationship skills. ‘You have to take into account that you are dealing with people who want to understand where their money is going and want you to help grow their knowledge,’ he observes. This human dimension requires what he calls ‘the extra filter’ in the process. ‘The more the client understands, the more you will be able to provide him with opportunities he is comfortable with, and so add more value,’ he explains. But he is quick to acknowledge that it goes both ways: ‘As entrepreneurs, they have fantastic stories; you learn how they have managed their businesses and the opportunities and trends they see in their own industries. It’s a very rewarding part of the job.’ With this level of commitment to the client relationship, it is no surprise that Eric was singled out for the Private Banker International Global Wealth Award in 2011.

Eric’s job has, in fact, just got a bit bigger as he has been appointed Global CIO of Société Générale Private Banking overall, covering not only the UK, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, but also now France, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco and Luxembourg. ‘We have decided to concentrate on our core market, which is Europe,’ he says, ‘and we need to adapt to new technologies, so I am looking at how we can work in a more digital way.’ In this, as in Eric’s investment style, it is about finding the best intrinsic value for the business. I KF

Eric Verleyen is Global Chief Investment Officer of Société Générale Private Banking

* Chartered Financial Analyst: professional credentials offered internationally by the American-based CFA Institute. Considered extremely difficult, the CFA Charter is benchmarked as comparable to a Master’s Degree by the UK National Academic Recognition Information Centre.


Compiled by Marielle Fraize

n e w s

Companies

Capgemini launches Cybersecurity Global Service Line

||| Capgemini recently launched a new Cybersecurity Global Service Line which brings together the group’s established capabilities in cybersecurity, including 2,500 Capgemini professionals with proven cybersecurity skills and a broad ecosystem of technology partners. With plans for high double digit growth over the next 12 months, this new portfolio of leading-edge security services is designed to allow organisations to embrace digital transformation securely and leverage the power of SMACT technologies – social, mobile, analytics, cloud and internet of things (IOT) – with confidence.

‘We are developing a full portfolio of c yb er se cu r i t y

services to enable organisations to protect themselves against cyberattacks and internal malicious behaviour for IT, industrial systems and IoT products,’ commented Franck Greverie, Global Head of Cybersecurity at Capgemini Group. ‘To many executives, cybersecurity is a mystery, which is often why it is an afterthought. The increasing number of external interfaces means that enterprise data is more accessible and therefore more prone to attack. Capgemini’s new consolidated offer will enable organisations to embed security at the beginning of their digital transformation journey, covering the cybersecurity spectrum from the infrastructure and endpoints right through to the protection of applications, users and data.’ I www.uk.capgemini.com

Aviva steps up digital innovation with virtual health service partnership

||| Aviva is bringing the latest digital technology to some of its customers by signing a partnership with babylon, a leading UK-based mobile health company.

The deal sees the roll-out of an innovative virtual health service, the babylon app, to some of Aviva’s UK customers, starting with key corporate healthcare clients. Through babylon, customers have quick and convenient access to family GPs, specialist consultants and state-of-the-art health monitoring and treatment.

David McMillan, Chairman Global Health Insurance and Chief Executive Officer, Europe at Aviva, says: ‘The partnership with babylon highlights Aviva’s commitment to pioneering new digital services for customers. We see huge potential for this innovation to improve our customers’ access to primary health care and ultimately their overall health.’ Iwww.aviva.co.uk

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BNP Paribas and Natixis renew electronic banking partnership

||| BNP Paribas and Natixis recently renewed their Partecis partnership agreement, designed to provide clients with a common IT platform to manage all e-payment transactions, with no country or format limitation. Partecis is the publisher of the software solution,

developed jointly by the two banks.

‘We are happy to renew this partnership with Natixis. By joining the forces of two major European banking groups like BNP Paribas and Groupe BPCE, we are committed to better serve our clients and to

make them benefit from the best innovations on the market. This allows us to thoroughly prepare for a future full of new opportunities,’ said François Villeroy de Galhau, Chief Operating Officer of BNP Paribas, Head of Domestic Markets. I www.bnpparibas.com

||| Leading rail freight and rail infrastructure services provider Colas Rail has recently signed a five year freight haulage contract with Total UK. Colas Rail Freight now provides haulage for bitumen from the Lindsey Oil Refinery to Total UK’s Preston production plant.

Stephen Haynes, Managing Director of Colas Rail Services said: ‘We are delighted that Total has awarded us this rail freight haulage contract. Colas Rail Freight is committed to providing a safe, high quality service to

Total in a collaborative approach.’ Richard Laden, Managing Director of Total UK said:

‘Colas was the outstanding candidate for supply of bitumen by rail to our Preston plant, with a clear focus on safety and reliability. Total UK is very much looking forward to embarking upon this new partnership with Colas in the UK’. Both companies are Patron members of the French Chamber. Iwww.colasrail.co.uk

Colas Rail signs freight haulage contract with Total

Colas Rail Ltd.’s first Total aviation fuel train from Lindsey Oil Refinery to Colnbrook serving Heathrow Airport. This is the heaviest train Colas Rail Freight have operated to date - 3000 tonne hauled by a Class Super 60

easyjet confirms move to single terminal at London Gatwick

||| easyJet plans to consolidate its full operation at Gatwick to a single terminal (North Terminal) in

autumn 2016 with the aim of creating an easier and improved travel experience for passengers travelling from London Gatwick.

Commenting on the consolidation Carolyn McCall, easyJet’s CEO said: ‘Alongside the consolidation to one terminal we also plan to continue to grow at Gatwick through increasing our destinations, further improving our schedule and by deploying larger aircraft as we replace smaller A319s with 180 seat A320s and, from 2017, A320Neos.’ I www.easyjet.com


www.renault.co.uk

The official fuel consumption figures in mpg (l/100km) for the All-New Renault Twingo SCe 70 Stop & Start are: Urban 56.5 (5.0); Extra Urban 76.4 (3.7);Combined 67.3 (4.2). The official CO2 emissions are 95g/km. EU Directive and Regulation 692/2008 test environment figures. Fuel consumption and CO2 may vary with driving styles, road conditions and other factors.

SMARTPHONE INTEGRATION INCLUDING NAVIGATION

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Alstom to build state-of-the-art automation facility in Stafford

||| International engineering company Alstom plans to build a new facility in Stafford to house its Automation

division. Alstom will retain a number of its existing locations in the town and build the facility at the Redhill Business Park, with the aim of opening it by the end of 2016, when the company’s UK Automation activities will move from its current location at its St Leonards site.

Terence Watson, Alstom’s UK President, said: ‘This is an exciting development for the Grid business which has been operating out of its existing premises for over half a century. The new facility will be state-of-the-art and will be fit for purpose, as well as better reflecting the high tech nature of our business.’ I www.alstom.com

Renault launches new generation of dealerships

||| Renault is transforming the way that customers experience their UK dealership network through the comprehensive roll-out of a new visual space identity concept called Renault Store. The changes will be implemented at all UK dealer sites by the end of 2017 and reflect changes in the way that consumers research their vehicle purchase and their expectations of a retail environment. The updated Renault Store showrooms will cater for this with more engaging displays, improved customer flows and interactive discovery zones.

Darren Payne, Sales Director, Renault UK commented: ‘As part of our GO5+ strategy the Renault and Dacia volumes continue to grow at a faster pace than the UK market, so it’s essential that our brand

image keeps pace. Reflecting this, we are rapidly deploying Renault Store across our dealer network in order to maintain the positive momentum we currently have.

‘We chose the Lookers’ Chester site to begin the extensive Renault Store roll-out due to a long and successful relationship we have enjoyed with them, and our plan is to complete the Renault Store format across 60% of the Renault dealer network by the end of 2015,’ added Payne. I www.renault.co.uk

Eurotunnel orders three new freight shuttles

||| With the British economy continuing to grow and cross-Channel traffic flows concentrating on the shortest routes as a result of environmental constraints, the market in the strait of Dover is set to grow over the coming years.

In order to reach the target of transporting 2 million trucks per year in 2020, Eurotunnel announced the order of three new freight shuttles to add to the 15 in its existing fleet.

These additions to the fleet will enable Eurotunnel to increase its capacity by 20% and to run up to eight departures per hour at peak, compared to six currently.

This immediacy of departure added to the established speed of crossing is a major differentiating factor which will enhance the attraction and the competitiveness of the Eurotunnel service.

Michel Boudoussier, Chief Operating Officer – Concession of Groupe Eurotunnel stated: ‘As the world leader in the rolling motorway industry, Eurotunnel has been able to draw upon its 20 years of experience in the design of these third generation shuttles. The consultation that we led confirmed that we are at the leading edge of railway development’. I www.eurotunnelgroup.com

The new Renault Store concept

Artist’s impression of the new facility at Redhill

16 - info - march / april www.delahayemoving.com | Tel: +44 208 687 0400

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Arsenal stars pay homage to 60 years of DS

||| Arsenal Football Club first team players Laurent Koscielny, Mathieu Flamini, David Ospina and Theo Walcott recently took part in an exclusive photo shoot to celebrate 60 years of the original DS.

The football stars, including French internationals Flamini and Koscielny, embraced their club’s heritage by donning the iconic red and white kit that their legendary predecessors would have worn 60 years ago in 1955. In this same year, the original DS was launched

at the Paris Motor Show – marking the arrival of what would become an icon of automotive design and engineering. Bekir Hassan, DS Brand Director in the UK, commented: ‘2015 will be a full year of celebrations as we mark the 60th anniversary of the original DS. Whilst we pay tribute to our illustrious past, it’s great to see the Arsenal team getting into the spirit too and sporting retro kits from the era.’ Iwww.citroen.co.uk

Arsenal footballers pose with the original DS and the latest version

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Bouygues announces a string of major contracts

||| Bouygues UK and Bouygues Development recently announced a string of major contract wins, bringing in around £370m in three months.

Bouygues Development was rewarded for its work on the first phase of a major regeneration project in Canning Town, East London, with a £130m contract to deliver the programme’s second phase.

Bouygues UK’s £55m deal with Taylor Wimpey for a new 150-home scheme in Paddington, central London, was followed by another 150-home development in the Welsh capital, Cardiff. The contractor has a strong presence in the west, winning around £90m worth of recent new business.

The company also confirmed deals to deliver two exclusive boutique hotels in Shoreditch, East London: one for the man behind the renowned Gansevoort Hotel Group, Michael Achenbaum; and another for consumer-led chain, citizenM. Iwww.bouygues-uk.com Artist’s impression of the CitizenM Hotel in East London


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||| Saint-Gobain, the world leader in sustainable habitat, has officially launched the fifth edition of its Innovation Competition. Since its inception in 2008, this competition has aimed to reward start-up companies that aspire to develop and commercialise the most innovative solutions in the fields of habitat, energy and the environment such as construction products, advanced materials, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. The competition is organised and sponsored by Saint-Gobain’s NOVA External Venturing group and offers prizes totalling $100,000.

The competition was officially launched in Shanghai (China), during an Innovation Day organised in conjunction with the opening celebrations for Saint-Gobain’s 350th anniversary.

‘Saint-Gobain takes a keen interest in working with start-ups because we believe they are at the source of many exciting innovations that could be brought onto our markets. By entering the NOVA Innovation Competition, a start-up will have the opportunity

to be evaluated by Saint-Gobain teams and, where there is a mutual interest, to work with our activities on potentially significant business opportunities. Thanks to the competition, the finalists and winners will also enjoy wide public exposure,’ commented Didier Roux, Saint-Gobain’s Vice President of Research and Innovation. I www.saint-gobain.com

Saint-Gobain launches NOVA Innovation Competition 2015

The Saint-Gobain Innovation Centre, opened in March 2013, in Central London, exemplifies Saint-Gobain’s desire to innovate, co-develop and collaborate with others

Schneider Electric ranks ninth in the 2015 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World

||| Schneider Electric has been ranked ninth in the 2015 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World (‘Global 100’) Index, released by Corporate Knights, the Toronto-based media and investment advisory company. Companies ranked in the Global 100 index are the top sustainability performers in their respective industrial sectors, selected from a starting universe of 4,609 listed companies with a market capitalisation greater than $2bn. The Global 100 is determined using 12 quantitative sustainability indicators, including the amount of revenue companies generate per unit of energy consumed and lost-time injury rate.

‘Schneider Electric ranks in the top 10 for the second consecutive year; this is a strong recognition of our continued commitment to sustainability. On a daily basis, Schneider Electric seeks to prove that economic, environmental and social interests are convergent. To have a significant impact and initiate lasting change, a performance measure

is required. That is why Schneider Electric has defined specific objectives and measures its results each quarter using the Planet & Society barometer,’ said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO of Schneider Electric. I www.schneider-electric.com

www.delahayemoving.com | Tel: +44 208 687 0400

DEL000_ad2_197.5x46.5mm.indd 1 20/10/2014 13:42

CONSTRUCTING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

At VINCI Construction Grands Projets, we engineer solutions that are not only financially competitive, but also work in a way that is sustainable for the planet.

Sustainability goes beyond the care we take in protecting our people and our environment. It’s also a commitment to offer new solutions to our clients and stakeholders.

We nurture Innovation.

Every two years, the VINCI Innovation Awards get increased entries, reaching 2,075 in 2013. These awards reflect the core values of the group and we are proud at VINCI Construction Grands Projets that the Lee Tunnel project (Thames Water) was awarded the Grand Prize in the UK & Ireland.

To learn more please visit www.vinci-construction-projects.com/british-isles

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Covéa Insurance kits out disability football team

||| Covéa Insurance is proud to support the Halifax-based Greetland Goldstars football club and has confirmed it is sponsoring football kit for four new teams – two junior and two adult squads – for players with disabilities.

Greetland Goldstars recently opened its doors to over 20 players with disabilities, providing them with the opportunity to play and train as part of a mainstream club, rather than be singled out as part of a specialist club.

Covéa Insurance, a major employer in the Halifax area, was keen to get involved and support the disability teams because of its partnership with local special needs school, Ravenscliffe High, where one of the support assistants is a coach for Greetland Goldstars. A number

of pupils at R a v e n s c l i f f e have joined the disability squads and are already participating in tournaments.

Dave Collins, Business Development Manager at Covéa Insurance, who helped secure the funds for the kit said, ‘Covéa Insurance is genuinely committed to supporting worthwhile causes in the communities local to its business. We are pleased to support disability football and wish the Greetland Goldstars every success.’ I www.coveainsurance.co.uk

Greetland Goldstars

AXA UK and Ireland earnings rise by 40% – the fourth year of double digit earnings growth

||| AXA Group in the UK has published its full year 2014 results, which show underlying earnings up 40% to £250 million. General Insurance revenues rose by 3% to £3.8 billion with notable growth in Commercial Lines (+8%), UK Direct Motor (+8%) and Healthcare (+5%).Commenting on the results, Paul Evans, AXA UK & Ireland Group Chief Executive said:

‘AXA UK has once again delivered strongly in 2014, achieving revenue growth whilst continuing to improve the quality of underwriting, contributing to a

40% rise in profitability – the fourth consecutive year of double digit earnings growth despite the evident challenges from economic and market headwinds over that period.

‘The turn-around of UK operations is progressing ahead of plan. AXA Wealth, retained from the disposal of AXA Life in 2010, is now profitable and well placed to take full advantage of the retirement reforms in April; the Commercial business now exceeds £1 billion of GWP at a current year combined ratio of 94.6%; and the

Direct Motor business has returned to growth with a current year combined ratio of 97.7%.

‘We are entering a period during which product and service model innovation will be crucial to success across all our markets. We are therefore announcing an initial commitment of €20 million to provide start-up finance, primarily to British entrepreneurs, aiming to bring innovative ideas to market that could have relevance to our customers. The commitment will be managed by a new AXA Group entity, AXA Strategic Ventures, which will deploy up to €200 million in start-up finance across Europe.’ Iwww.axa.com


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Schools

Callan School appoints new CEO Bérénice Lévénez

||| Callan School London has recently announced the appointment of Bérénice Lévénez as its new CEO.

Having worked in the healthcare sector for many years, Bérénice’s new ambitious tasks will include reshaping the Callan School London brand identity whilst celebrating its strong heritage.

The school mainly aims at expanding its brand awareness in the UK and more particularly within the native French speaker population.

Strengthening the school’s social media presence as well as building new corporate relationships will be the strategies deployed by the school.

Callan School London has also recently created new classes including Exam Preparation, Conversation and English for Business courses. Other plans include the launch of Callan for Kids, job workshops and pre-university classes. Iwww.callanschoollondon.com

EM Normandie launches new Women’s network Réseau EquiLibre

||| Launched at the end of 2014 by the EM Normandie alumni association, Réseau EquiLibre is a women’s network aimed at promoting female talents by fostering gender diversity in companies and by encouraging more female students to develop their natural leadership and to access senior positions.

Réseau EquiLibre is led by Frédérique Clavel, a former EM Normandie student, founder and president of the association ‘Pionnières’ aimed at promoting female entrepreneurship.

As a new think tank of influence, Réseau EquiLibre will be offering exchange events on various topics

including the relationship to money or how to seize power, as well as mentoring programmes and partnerships with diverse companies and associations.

Besides this initiative, EM Normandie has also signed the official male-female equality charter of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles and the Convention régionale pour l’égalité

entre filles-garçons in upper Normandy in order to spread awareness about gender equality issues amongst its student population. Iwww.ecole-management-normandie.fr

Bérénice Lévénez

HEC Paris sets out Summer School programme

||| HEC Paris Summer School will open its doors in Jouy-en-Josas over June and July 2015 to current students and recent graduates from around the world. HEC Paris professors will oversee a suite of six intensive two-week programmes which include: Business & Geopolitics, International Finance, Inclusive & Social Business, Luxury & Fashion Management, Sports & Entertainment Management. The Summer School experience includes discovery through work in the classroom, teamwork and interaction with expert lecturers. Team sports and multicultural exchanges among students are essential components. Students who successfully complete the programme will earn academic credit

as well as a Certificate of Attendance. The decision to launch the programme was made following the success of the 2014 Summer School Programme attended by students from over 20 nationalities, with an average age of 24. According to Director of Summer School Programmes, Elyse Michaels-Berger, ‘Summer on the HEC Campus is vibrant and intellectual. Students come to study at HEC Paris from around the world.’ I www.hec.edu

Summer School Program, HEC Paris 2014

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Congratulations to ESCP Europe for winning 2015 Intercultural Trophy

||| ESCP Europe Business School is delighted to have won the French Chamber’s Intercultural Trophy, sponsored by AXA. It is the first time the prize has been awarded to an educational establishment, and recognises the School’s shared connections and heritage with France and the UK.

The business school was established in Paris in 1819 by a group of economic scholars and businessmen, including economist Jean-Baptiste Say (famous for Say’s Law of Markets) and trader Vital Roux who saw the need for formal training for businessmen in the techniques of commerce, and conceived new teaching methods, including business simulation games. ESCP Europe pioneered the ‘business school’ concept.

By 1824, some 30% of the students came from abroad, with 15 nationalities between them, establishing a multiculturalism in the School’s DNA, and students had to study at least three of the 10 languages taught there.

Some 150 years later, responding to EU enlargement in the 1970s, its owners, the Paris Chamber of Commerce, added campuses in the UK and Germany, creating the first cross-border business school in 1973. Working and studying across cultures at ESCP Europe became and remains part of the daily life of students, staff and faculty.

The School aims to train its students to be able to meet the challenges of an increasingly globally connected business world. The beautiful Intercultural Trophy, designed by Cartier, acknowledges its success in doing so. ESCP Europe would like to thank members of the Chamber for their votes. I www.escpeurope.eu

L to R: Yves Masson, CEO, AXA Direct & Partnerships; Peter Alfandary, Head of French Team, Reed Smith LLP and VP French Chamber; Chris Halliburton, UK Director, ESCP Europe; Arvinda Gohil and Michael Heap, CEO and Chairman, of Emmaus UK, respectively

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The Executive MBA is an 18- or 30-month part-time programme with a range of international study tracks, electives and seminars.

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PARIS | LONDON | BERLIN | MADRID | TORINO


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Celebrating a century in London: Lycée français Charles de Gaulle

What have been the key stages of the Lycee’s development since 1915?

London’s first Lycée was founded by Marie d’Orliac to educate the children of Belgian and French refugees during the First World War. Later it became a French Lycée, catering for the children of diplomats, professionals and artisans who lived and worked in London. Its

location moved from Victoria to Cromwell Gardens, and finally, in 1936, to its present site off Cromwell Road. The Second World War saw the Lycée becoming the headquarters of the French Air Force. Pupils and staff were evacuated, initially to Cambridge and then the Lake District for the duration of the war. Other notable stages in the school’s development were in 1948, when the head Antonin Gaudin first opened it up to British pupils – we have many well-known British alumni from this period, 1980, when the school was named after Charles de Gaulle, and the 1990s when, in response to the growth of the French community, satellite sites were established in Clapham and Ealing, as well as Fulham in 2008. This has meant our intake has become predominantly French because we are essentially a French state school, under the aegis of the AEFE (Agence française pour l’enseignement à l’étranger). However, we do have a British section, established in 1952, and pupils opting for this stream do GCSEs and A Levels.

What about the book the Alumni Association is publishing to mark the centenary?The book tells the story of the Lycée, which has been

pieced together by historians from archives in France and here, press cuttings, local records, old photographs and even personal contributions from past pupils. People will be very surprised to learn how rich a history it has! It will be a beautiful coffee-table book that many with an association with the Lycée or an interest in the evolution of the French community in London will want to have as a record or souvenir. It will be launched during our three-day centenary celebrations in May, but can be pre-ordered at a special discounted price before then from https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/D5B3RTQ

What else is planned for the May celebrations?The commemorations start internally with staff and parents on the 20th but the official ceremony at which a plaque will be unveiled takes place on the 21st. Also on that day, we are organising a colloquium involving academics from French and British universities at the French Institute, with panel discussions on Franco-British topics in both languages. In the evening, pupils from the Wix school will put on a song concert at Cadogan Hall. Everything culminates in an open day on 22 May, when the public can view the exhibitions – one historic and one a cartoon (bande dessinée) history created by the pupils – as well as enjoy a variety of musical concerts featuring French and English music from the last century. Pupils will be on hand to show visitors around the school grounds and facilities.

What is the purpose behind the commemorations?All these events have been designed to acknowledge and celebrate the important part the Lycée has played,

Headmaster Olivier Rauch, and Jihane Korban Schmitt, Head of the Alumni Association, tell INFO how the Lycée will be marking its 100th anniversary, looking back as well as forward

A bird’s-eye view of Lycée Charles de Gaulle today


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not only within the French community, but also as part of London society. In the course of organising these events, we have discovered just how attached people are to the Lycée, even if they only spent a short

time here. We have received many emails and letters from past pupils all over the world, and a number of alumni are making a special effort to be here in May. Some of the oldest attending were amongst those who were evacuated to the Lake District during the war, and all alumni will have a chance to meet up again at the Centenary Dinner that brings the celebrations to a close. For further information please contact: [email protected]. IInterview by KF

New French school named Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill

||| The new French international school, which is to open in north-west London in September 2015, has officially been named Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill in honour of the former British Prime Minister. The name was announced by the French Embassy and the Board of the Lycée on 24 January, the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death.

Rarely is a French lycée named after a non-French figure but this particular choice seemed natural for several reasons. Churchill is widely considered to have played a crucial role in the liberation of France and in the victory of the Allied forces in the Second World War, and with the other French lycée in London named after French leader General Charles de Gaulle, it seemed fitting to acknowledge the historical partnership the two great men had at a critical time for both their countries and the important place they share to this day in history books.

Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill will have an initial intake of 500 to 600 students from years 1 to 11 (Grande Section to Seconde), increasing to its capacity of 1,100 students through year 13 (Terminale) by 2017, with the possibility of further expanding to 1,300 students. The school will occupy the extensive five acre site of the former Brent Town Hall with 12,000 square metres of newly refurbished and purpose-built teaching space, including the Grade II-listed 1930s building, the basement of which was the evacuation centre for the borough of Brent during the Blitz.

The campus will have its own multiple on-site sports facilities such as a running track, two sports pitches and a gymnasium, as well as specialised areas for arts, drama and music. The purpose-built Annex will boast a large number of modern science classrooms. Throughout the campus, students will enjoy bright, modern, spacious classrooms and common areas. Works by contractor Bouygues UK on both the legacy building and the Annex are progressing well and are

on schedule for the September 2015 opening. An independent school offering bilingual French

and English teaching programmes, the Lycée will be part of the 494 educational establishments that form the worldwide network of the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE). In addition to teaching the French Curriculum, the school will offer Anglo-American style pastoral care and provide students with an international education in a modern campus setting, preparing them for an ever-changing globalised world.

The Lycée will be governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by Arnaud Vaissié. The Head (Proviseur) is Mireille Rabaté, who was previously Assistant Head and Middle School Principal at the French American International School in San Francisco, California.

Sylvie Bermann, French Ambassador to the UK, Arnaud Vaissié and Mireille Rabaté have all strongly supported this unique but significant choice of name for what will be a long-awaited and greatly needed addition to the network of French schools in London. I

The school site

Lycée founder Marie d’Orliac


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Digital start-up Vabble selected for EY Foundation Accelerator

||| Vabble, a digital start-up founded by Polytechnique and HEC Paris graduate Kahina Belaid, has been selected to be part of the ‘2015 Accelerate Programme’, the EY Foundation Accelerator Programme for social entrepreneurs in the UK. Vabble.co is an innovative web platform that combines learning, recruitment and talent pool management. At Vabble.co, recruitment is based on a person’s achievements on various projects, open questions or case studies shared online by companies themselves. Young talents can prove their value, improve and showcase their skills, whatever their background, origin, experience or diplomas. Companies are offered a new way to identify talents, build efficient talent pools, smooth their future recruitment needs and be involved in unlocking talents. Accelerate Programme helps promising enterprises with a strong social impact to grow by providing business mentors, tailored workshops, networking events and investment panels. I www.vabble.co

Kahina Belaid

FrenchConnect London launches to boost French tech scene in London

||| More than 140 people, entrepreneurs, investors, and journalists met at IdeaLondon’s HQ in Shoreditch on 29 January for the launch of FrenchConnect London.

FrenchConnect London is the brainchild of four thirtysomething digital entrepreneurs – Severine Balick, Stephanie Bouchet, Alexandre Sagakian and Albin Serviant – to promote French entrepreneurship and digital innovation in London.

‘The purpose of the Club is to actively promote networking among high-profile French players in London, who often don’t know each other, but also to encourage business opportunities,’ explained Severine Balick, Co-founder of MyGoodness.com. As a private, members-only club for the most influential French tech entrepreneurs and investors in London, it will offer exclusive events,

workshops and VIP dinners around key tech leaders. Members are carefully vetted to ensure the highest calibre of entrepreneurs and investors, as well as guarantee confidentiality and a high standard of debate.

Guests at the first event included Fred Destin, Partner at Accel, Gerard Grech, CEO of TechCity, Julien Codorniou, Director of Platform Partnerships at Facebook, Nathalie Gaveau, CEO of Shopcade and Philippe Gelis, CEO at Kantox, among others.The panel talked about TechCity’s ability to foster start-ups, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of Paris and London ecosystems and gave its views on the most promising new French start-ups and future unicorns in Europe. The four co-founders of FrenchConnect London have envisioned the club becoming a bridge between the London and French tech scenes to promote best practice and foster French dynamism and entrepreneurship on a global scale. I www.frenchconnectlondon.com

Panelists at the launch of FrenchConnect London

s p o t l i g h t o n s m e s & s ta r t- u p s


Olystix and Shared Experience join forces for presentation workshop

||| Management consultancy Olystix is partnering with Shared Experience, an internal communications and design agency, to launch INSPIRE, a ‘3 Ds’ approach to stakeholder presentations. Based on numerous years servicing clients across multiple industries, the two companies have identified that effective presentations are always built on the three key principles of develop, design and deliver. Bringing together an experienced mix of designers, copywriters and communication consultants, Shared Experience and Olystix aim to provide a solution for every possible hurdle in effective messaging. They will offer five intensive workshops, in which business presentations will be developed to their fullest, designed to engage and deliver with confidence. I www.olystix.com

OSF Global Services partners with Mobify for mobile shopping tools

||| Cloud technology consultant and technology integrator OSF Global Services has formed a new strategic partnership with leading mobile shopping platform, Mobify. Mobify works with leading retailers and brands to deliver highly engaging shopping experiences to customers using mobile devices.

Mobify launched its partner program in 2013 to collaborate with leading solutions integration companies in retail and ecommerce. Operating as a strategic mobile partner for retailers, Mobify’s mobile shopping platform works with retailers’ existing web infrastructure to quickly and effectively engage customers on mobiles and tablets, through web and app touchpoints, for both online and in-store, omnichannel experiences. I www.osf-global.com

Managing Partner of Acosphere receives Woman in Leadership Award

||| Nadia Mensah-Acogny, Managing Partner of Acosphere Ltd, received a Woman in Leadership Award in Benin last December. This award complements Acosphere’s launch of an African Strategy in 2014 and celebrates 30 years of Nadia’s contribution to raising the profile of Africa. Acosphere has delivered extensive transformational training programmes over the last few months to clients in West Africa across sectors.

Acosphere’s training is in high demand, particularly in the financial sector and the healthcare industry. The most recent programmes have focused on leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and world-class presentation tools, all bespoke to clients’ needs.

Nadia Mensah-Acogny is also a Member of the Board of Trustees at the Africa Centre, London, and a renowned business columnist for Forbes Afrique. She consults worldwide and acts as an advisor to women in business and in leadership positions. I www.acosphere.com Nadia Mensah-Acogny

Global executive search firm DHR International acquires Veni Partners

||| DHR International Europe has bought Veni Partners LLP, the London-based European executive search and advisory firm specialising in Board and Financial Services. The deal became effective 1 February 2015.

DHR International, which is independently owned and has a strong presence in both the US and Asia, with over 55 offices worldwide, continues its growth in Europe. The acquisition of Veni Partners will further bolster the company’s existing Financial Services arm with this expansion into the European Financial Services market. Veni’s Managing Partner and Head of Financial Services, Stéphane Rambosson has joined DHR International as Managing Director

Financial Services Europe. ‘We are excited at the prospect of being able

to offer our clients this additional expertise in the increasingly competitive financial services market across Europe and beyond. The acquisition of Veni Partners is a very good fit in terms of where we want to grow in Europe. Their long and successful tenure in the European financial services world as well as their international European backgrounds further complements the already diverse team we have,’ said Frank Smeekes DHR’s European Managing Director who oversaw the acquisition. I www.dhrinternational.com



||| London and Paris law firm Crefovi recently organised in partnership with ialci (International association of lawyers for the creative industries) a seminar on ‘Intellectual property: how to protect, manage and monetise the know-how, intangible capital, brand image and reputation of luxury maisons and fashion brands’.

The Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) made from the presentations delivered at the seminar, are now viewable on Crefovi’s website (crefovi.com) and offer insights and practical solutions for protecting, enforcing and exploiting intellectual property rights, including:

• How to achieve maximum protection and enforcement strategies, within the constraints of a legal budget• How to combat online and off-line counterfeiting across a portfolio of brands• Non-legal tools for fighting against online intellectual property infringements• How to protect personality and images in the UK and Rihanna’s passing off claim against Topshop• A concise guide to enforcing intellectual property rights across Europe• Strategies for monetising the intangible property of luxury and fashion brands. I crefovi.com

Crefovi luxury seminar MOOCs available online

Customers flock to Emmaus shop opening

||| Queues of people turned up to see the opening of a new Emmaus shop in Poplar, East London. The shop, selling secondhand furniture and clothing, raises

money to support Emmaus’s charity work. Customers at Emmaus East London can also buy upcycled items which have been refurbished by creative volunteers, or buy a pedal powered coffee, thanks to We Walk the Line, a social enterprise that helps unemployed people to set up their own coffee business. Mark O’ Brien, project director, said: ‘Sometimes furniture donated has seen better days. Items are refurbished to make them beautiful and original pieces.’

Emmaus now has 65 shops across the UK, providing meaningful work for the 630 formerly homeless people who live at Emmaus communities. I www.emmaus.org.uk

The Emmaus shop in East London

OVH raises millions to accelerate international growth

||| OVH, a specialist in cloud computing and Internet infrastructures, announced plans in early December to invest €400 million over the next three years to bolster its continuous growth. This investment will be made possible largely through the funding of €267 million, which the company successfully raised by securing a revolving line of credit of €160 million

with a syndicate of banks, and bonds of €107 million. OVH intends to take on large American competitors by investing this money in building new data centres and improving current ones; expanding into new territories, such as Germany, the US and Asia; and strengthening its public and dedicated cloud solutions. I www.ovh.co.uk

Sony Music uses b-pack solution

||| b-pack, which provides software and computer services to help companies optimise their purchasing and spend management, has been selected by Sony Music Entertainment, one of the world’s biggest music corporations, to provide its Procure-to-Pay solution. The b-pack solution is being used by Sony Music to control variable marketing expense and make its procurement processes more efficient. It has already been rolled out in multiple European regions and is now being deployed in North America. During this project, the b-pack cloud solution has been significantly improved to match Sony Music’s requirements I www.b-pack.com


Profile

||| SOFYNE is a service provider that partners with, among others, Dassault Systemes, a French software vendor to multi high-growth industries requiring sophisticated and innovative software programs.

‘As the software is primarily for product lifecycle management, our customers have to be manufacturers of something,’ company founder and CEO Stéphane Lusoli explains. He has worked for many years with Dassault and other software vendors in France, where their clients range from Valeo, an automotive equipment supplier, and EDF Energy to L’Oreal and Rolex, an indication of the wide spread of sectors and the major players involved.

So what exactly does SOFYNE do as a service provider? Taking a car manufacturer as an example, Stéphane explains how Dassault’s software would be used to manage technical data in the R&D, design and testing phase, as well as in the manufacturing process of each and every part, not only for the marque but also right down the supply chain and during the assembly. ‘And if there is a problem, they will call us,’ he says. SOFYNE’s team of engineers are on call 24/7 to deal with technical issues from all over the world – wherever their customers have manufacturing plants. But they are more than just troubleshooters. ‘We do the software evaluation for customers, deploy the software, provide the support, conduct training, implement upgrades and with 10 years’ experience, we are able to advise on best practice,’ says Stéphane. ‘We can help customers improve quality, return on investment, time to market and capacity planning.’

Being a customer service-oriented supplier, Stéphane’s vision was to service the business community in English, the language of business, so he sought to build a team of proficient communicators. This proved difficult in France, so he looked to the UK, and with the help of UKTI, London & Partners and the French Chamber, has relocated his headquarters to London, from where he considers it will be easier to build a global business. ‘The way our customers are growing, we knew that if we could build a service centre and sales & marketing office in London, then we could expand globally,’ he says. Apart from its Paris and Lyon offices,

SOFYNE already has one in Thailand, set up in response to regional customer demand. Similar demands are now being made to set up offices in the US and the Far East within the next two years, and UKTI is already involved in facilitating the US set up in June 2015.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, SOFYNE has ambitions to double its current workforce of 65 by 2016. SOFYNE’s engineers often come from the sectors they service, but the company invests heavily in training them in the skills needed to serve particular customers. Such skill sets do not really exist in the UK at present but Stéphane is in the process of creating a service centre of excellence here, backed up by the company’s well-established competence in France. SOFYNE’s support centre in Uxbridge has already established links with UK universities such as Reading, Uxbridge and Brunel and plans to start running work placement programmes for Computing, IT Systems and Engineering graduates. It has also just hired its first graduate. ‘Analytical and technical skills are obviously a requirement,’ says Rick Tolfrey, SOFYNE’s Managing Director, ‘and we can build their technology stack, but there also has to be a character fit: they must be customer-service oriented and able to build relationships. That is essential for our business.’ A willingness to be mobile is another requirement, for although graduates may start in the back office, before long they will be servicing customers on site all over the world. This was another reason for coming to the UK: Stéphane found UK-based staff were more receptive to global deployment and mobility.

Now that it has established itself here, SOFYNE is working on acquiring its first UK customers. ‘We have two goals,’ says Rick. ‘One is to serve customers relevant to our current experience in automotive, aerospace, industrial equipment and nuclear. The other is to sell Dassault licences as a VAR (Value Added Reseller) to prospective customers.’ Other UK offices may follow, depending on customer location.

These are exciting times for SOFYNE, a company whose pioneering, go-getting, customer-oriented positivity is summed up by its name – an acronym for ‘SOlution For Your NEeds’. I KFwww.sofyne.co.uk


We do the software evaluation for customers, deploy the software, provide the support, conduct training, implement upgrades and with 10 years’ experience, we are able to advise on best practice

Stéphane Lusoli Rick Tolfrey


Just under two years ago, INFO had a Focus on Women in Business.

At the time, we commented on what a vast, multifaceted and complex

topic it was, so in revisiting it for this Focus, we have chosen to hone in on

Women in Leadership. This was to some extent influenced by the fact that

the Chamber is working on launching a women’s club this year, aimed at the

chief executives of companies – watch this space! It is also a timely look at

the progress that has been made, a consideration of whether the debate

has moved on at all, and a dive down into how companies are walking the

walk rather than just talking the talk. Yet the mere fact that gender parity at

any level is still a topic of discussion is indicative that it is an issue that is far

from resolved.

2015 is the year in which the target of 25% women on boards of listed UK

companies was set to be reached by Lord Davies, who led the initial review

into Women on Boards in 2011. As he tells us in the interview that follows,

he is confident that this is still achievable and the business-led approach is

working. If it does not, quotas may yet be introduced as the Davies Report

has warned, especially if a proposed EU Directive imposing a 40% objective by

2020 is enforced.

The pace of change is another matter. According to the Chartered Institute of

Personnel and Development (CIPD), there has only been a 1.8% increase in female

representation on boards since 2012. Dianah Worman OBE, Diversity Advisor at

CIPD, recently told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that energies have to be

focused on introducing systemic change in businesses. There is no short-term fix.

Building a talent pipeline is critical, as well as ensuring that female representation is

not just at non-executive, but also executive level. CIPD has proposed a separate

target of 20% for Executive Directors, ‘otherwise progress is camouflaged’. These

are all issues that are identified in the articles and interviews that follow. Some delve

into the nitty gritty of the barriers that still exist, no matter how much company

policy trumpets diversity, others describe how real progress has been made in

specific companies, especially in terms of confronting the issues women face in

trying to get to the top and making systemic changes to deal with them. The thread

that runs through all of them is that to achieve gender parity at the top, changes

have to be made much further down and time allowed for them to work through.

In seeking opinions and solutions, we interviewed numerous female leaders

– including Carolyn McCall, one of the five female heads of a FTSE 100 company

and Board member of the Chamber – and male leaders too, to ensure a balance.

That is, after all, the end game! I KF

focus


focusAs France’s first female Ambassador to the UK, you are a woman in leadership. Do you think your career path has been different or more difficult from your male counterparts because you are a woman?I have had to follow a very long career path in order to eventually become the first female French Ambassador in a member state of the United Nation’s Security Council, first in China and now the UK. I have occupied a wide variety of positions at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from being Deputy Director of the Asia and Oceania Department to heading the UN International Organisations, Human Rights and Francophonie Department. This ‘long march’ to the position of Ambassador, after having been counsellor in Moscow, the French Representative to the UN in New York, and permanent French representative at the Political and Security Committee in Brussels, was a real challenge for me, when I clearly experienced the existence of a glass ceiling. Despite the objectivity of ranked examinations and age-based career progressions, a tangible difference unfortunately remains in the quality and importance of the positions that men and women occupy.

I was at first very sceptical about voluntary measures aimed at promoting the presence of women in the professional sphere. But as a result of my experience, I have come to the conclusion that competences and merit do not necessarily suffice; that there are certain habits and mental reflexes that need to be tackled. This is why I was very pleased that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently nominated my colleagues Catherine Colonna as France’s Ambassador to Rome, Maryse Bossière in Mexico and Anne-Marie Descôtes as Head of the Globalisation and Development Department in Paris. This clearly illustrates the President’s and the Ministry’s pleas for voluntary action in this domain.

France and the UK have very different approaches to increasing gender diversity on boards – quotas versus a voluntary business-led approach. This has put France ahead at 30.3% (CAC40) versus 22.8% (FTSE100) women directors, but there are no female heads in the CAC40 compared to five in the FTSE100. What do you think the merits and shortcomings of the quota system are compared to the voluntary approach?I understand that the campaigns to get more women on company boards are yielding fruit in the UK, albeit less than in France. The risk for the UK’s business-led approach is to ignore the use of legal texts, which may well respect equality on the surface, but in reality stop

women short in their career progression. The biggest case for quotas is their effectiveness at cracking glass ceilings. It is true that quotas risk undermining the perception of women in senior positions. But this only means that women have an important responsibility to prove that it is not just the quotas that got them in that position, but that the quotas only allowed them to fulfil their legitimate professional career. I am convinced they live up to these expectations.

Quotas are being used to address the gender issue at the boardroom level in France, but are there any initiatives to address gender disparity at executive level in companies?Quotas were put in place by an Act of Parliament on 27 January 2011, and only apply to executive boards in private companies. They have also been implemented in local elections (Act of Parliament of 17 May 2013) and in the senior civil service (Act of Parliament of 12 March 2012). Outside this ambit, no imperative tool has been used to incentivise companies to respect gender parity in terms of representation. In such domains, France effectively has a business-led approach, similar to the UK, notably via media campaigns or publicly communicated rankings that affect the companies’ market image. However, a number of texts have been enforced, such as the Decret of 18 December 2012 to ensure equal pay, for example.

What was the situation in China where you were formally Ambassador?Mao Zedong had said that ‘women carry half of the sky on their shoulders, and they still have to conquer it’. Women already represent more than half of the Chinese firms’ top managements, and those I have met in universities are eager to engage in demanding career paths so as to be a successful part of the business world. However, their representation in terms of China’s political life is yet to be realised. In this respect, it is a land of opportunities. I Interview by KF

Sylvie-Agnès Bermannon being a woman in leadership

Madame Ambassador


fo c u s

Since the Women on Boards report was launched in 2011, women’s representation on boards has increased from 12.5% to 22.8%, but this is still 2% off the target for this year. Are you satisfied with the pace of change and do you think this figure is still achievable?Yes, the 25% target by the end of this year is still achievable. We now need fewer than 25 women to be appointed to reach our target.

Of course we would all like things to move faster, but overall I am satisfied with the pace of change since 2011. We have now almost doubled the number of women serving on FTSE 350 boards and have made history with no all-male boards in the FTSE 100. When we published the review there were 152 all-male boards in the FTSE 350, now there are just 24. This is significant progress by any measure and shows that the voluntary approach we have adopted in the UK is working.

To what extent do you think the Women on Boards report itself has effected this change? What else has driven change over the past four years?The Women on Boards review, we understood, acted as a catalyst for change after more than a decade of very little improvement in women’s representation.We are now seeing a real culture change take place at the heart of British business. Companies now see

for themselves and understand the benefits of a diverse board.

We have achieved this with 10 clear recommendations for action, and an inclusive, business-led approach across all stakeholders. The change has been driven by:

An inclusive all-stakeholder approach to fixing the problemA clear, business-led framework setting out actions for all stakeholdersSupportive Chairmen really getting behind this, showing leadership and peer pressureThe women themselves and role they are playing at the top table, now speaks for itselfRelentless media pressure; unflattering light they shine on those not doing their bit.

What do you say to the call from some women to introduce quotas as a temporary measure in order to speed up progress?The overwhelming response from the call for evidence showed a support for voluntary measures, rather than quotas. I respect the views of others to put quotas in place, but quotas will only create a short-term fix – it will not deliver sustainable change. We have had to work very hard with a voluntary approach to understand the multiple and compounding barriers to women’s progression. Many FTSE organisations are now investing heavily to dismantle these from the workplace and put in place effective frameworks to deliver a true and long-term sustainable change. In addition, countries that have adopted quotas – Norway included – are watching the UK with interest, keen to learn how we have opened up the female talent pool to appoint 360 largely new, first-time appointed women, to our biggest boards in four short years.

Barring quotas, do you think there are any other measures that would have an impact on facilitating change?No, I feel the voluntary approach we have adopted has been the best way to facilitate change. However, it’s important that companies continue to work on the executive talent pipeline. They need to look at their succession planning, remove unconscious bias from

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In 2010, at the invitation of the government, Lord Davies of Abersoch undertook a review of gender equality on boards of listed companies, which was published in a report entitled Women on Boards in 2011 and has subsequently been updated annually. He spoke to INFO about the effects of the report, progress thus far and his expectations for the future

Lord Davies on Women on Boards

IntervIew


their selection and remuneration processes and ensure they have clear measureable objectives in place to increase the presence of women in senior management positions.

Do you think the Government may have to take a greater role in this, and if so, what would you recommend?In the UK we have been fortunate to have huge support from the Government, despite the Davies Review being an independent review body. It is essential that Government works together with business on this, but avoids the temptation to legislate.

There are still only 8.3% women executive directors in FTSE 100 companies. In retrospect, do you think the emphasis should have been on getting more women into senior executive positions in companies rather than on boards? We had to start somewhere. It was always anticipated that the number of women executive directors would take longer to increase. I agree that it’s still low across the FTSE 350 but the number of FTSE 100 Executive Director positions has reduced by 10%, since 2010, with often only the CEO and Finance Director now occupying positions on the board.

Against this backdrop, the number of Executive Directors who are women has almost doubled since 2011. Additionally, the number of Executive Director appointments going to women needs to be set in the context of turnover, with Non Executive Director vacancies coming up more often than Executive roles and the very senior nature of these roles, making them hard for women to secure.

What do you see as the ideal situation for women in companies and the most significant changes that still have to take place to achieve this?The ideal situation would be when we no longer need to discuss this issue, where women are offered the same roles and opportunities as their male counterparts, where it’s much easier for a woman to move up the career ladder in the organisation, where childcare is readily affordable and equal pay gap no longer exists.

There are a few things that we still need to do, such as fixing the talent pipeline especially the leaky pipeline in mid-career when many women drop off the ladder, continuing to create a culture change within the business, flexible opportunities for all and showcasing the companies that are making great strides. Promoting role models, offering mentoring and sponsorship opportunities to women as well as men is also important.

Although we have made significant progress, one woman on a board is not enough; three to four women on each board and we are moving towards gender parity, which has to be the longer term goal.

In reality, how do you expect the situation for women to evolve in British business in the next few years?We are gradually seeing more and more women take their rightful seat at the top table and many more women entrepreneurs contributing to the UK’s economic growth. The key role they are playing, as well as skills and attributes they bring is selling itself. We will soon reach tipping point, where women will have an equal voice and equal representation in the boardroom. I Interview by KF

UsefUl infor m at io n o n fr ance

France has had legislation (‘Loi Copé Zimmermann’) in place since 2011 with the following parameters:

40% women on boards for companies with 500+ workers by 201740% women on boards for companies with 250-499 workers and >€50m turnover by 2020.

France supports the EU Directive for an objective of 40% female non-executive directors on publicly listed company boards by 2020, and agrees with current drafting changes but is clear the text should not be watered down any more.

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The ideal situation would be when we no longer need to discuss this issue, where women are offered the same roles and opportunities as their male counterparts, where it ’s much easier for a woman to move up the career ladder in the organisation, where child care is readily affordable and equal pay gap is no longer exists.


fo c u s

View from the top:

women leaders on women in leadership

In a world where the number of women heads of FTSE 100 companies can be counted on one hand, being a

woman business leader is still something remarkable. Carolyn McCall, CEO of easyJet and one of those five women, recognises her own experience as ‘fortunate’ in that she did not encounter any barriers or discrimination. ‘I will always support and develop women but I believe in meritocracy,’ she says. ‘I am a CEO and my gender isn’t relevant to doing that job.’ Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia’s Senior Executive Vice President of UK & Ireland acknowledges that perceptions and mindsets need to change, particularly in some industries. ‘One of the biggest blockers in equality is the way we “market” these so called traditional business areas,’ she says. ‘It isn’t “typical” to see a female CEO of a waste or resource management company, especially a French female CEO in the UK, just as in the past it wasn’t “typical” to see women following so-called STEM careers. Of course that doesn’t mean it isn’t right – so we have to work harder to promote these areas and make it “typical”.’ Others circumvent any gender obstacles by becoming entrepreneurs. ‘That is the beauty of founding and managing a company: there is no glass ceiling since you are in the top job!’ says Nathalie Rachou, who set up her own company Topiary Finance.

Regardless of their own experiences, these women leaders recognise that there are barriers to women advancing to the top. One of these is mindset. ‘Sometimes women do not have an image of themselves as natural leaders – they’ve “got it”, but they just don’t realise it,’ says

Estelle Brachlianoff. Nathalie Rachou concurs: ‘Women themselves sometimes doubt their own ability to seize a challenging opportunity and are not as demanding as men regarding promotion or career development.’ For Ursula Morgenstern, CEO of Atos UK & Ireland, women can be put off from entering a field because they wrongly perceive it is a difficult place for a woman to progress. ‘I actually encourage women to look at the flip side of being in the minority – you automatically stand out and in my experience being a woman can be a great advantage and lead to a very successful career.’

But all agree that the company culture and policies have to be right too. ‘Management, as a whole, needs to be more proactive regarding gender, up to positive discrimination so as to change the mindset,’ says Nathalie Rachou. Estelle Brachlianoff cautions against ignoring the ‘elephant in the room’, saying ‘Men and women tend to be different professionals! By ignoring this difference, and speaking only about equality, we are not addressing the pertinent questions at stake and are not progressing quickly enough.’ She advocates making job prospects more attractive to talented women, as well as ‘leading by example, promoting women into leadership roles and supporting them with coaching, training and development.’ For Carolyn McCall, the biggest problem is losing women from middle management. ‘If we continue to lose women from work when they have children, it is not only costly but reduces the pipeline of women who will be put on executive committees and then boards.

Four very different women business leaders share their insights into their own experiences, what they recognise as challenges for other women to get to the top and what they are doing to help women advance in their own organisations

Carolyn McCall Nathalie Rachou Estelle Brachlianoff Ursula Morgenstern CEO of easyJet Founder & CEO of Senior Executive Vice-President CEO of Atos UK & Ireland Topiary Finance of Veolia UK & Ireland


Companies have to be far more open and agile to how women may need to work – the focus should be on productivity, talent and output, not how many hours are spent at a desk,’ she says.

All see board experience as a positive, both for personal development and the company. ‘In my experience, Non Executive Director (NED) roles can be a really great learning opportunity – some of mine, like my time as a NED at Tesco, have provided a fantastic opportunity to learn in different industries,’ Carolyn McCall comments. She is currently an NED for Burberry. Ursula Morgenstern notes that three or more women on a board can create a tipping point for the team. ‘In my first executive role I was the only women and while I did not experience any problems, the dynamics certainly shifted when a second woman was promoted shortly after.’ Nathalie Rachou, who is a NED on the boards of Société Générale, Veolia and Altran, concedes that aside from her own competence, being a woman probably helped secure her second and third positions because of the quota system introduced in France. None feel isolated as women on boards: as Nathalie observes, ‘If you feel overwhelmed by being one of the few women around the table, then you cannot be a good NED because you need complete confidence to play that role.’

While all these women are concerned with increasing the number of women on their boards, nurturing the executive pipeline is a particular focus. ‘I think we need to concentrate on executive and senior management layers of an organisation and not limit our thinking to the board level,’ says Ursula Morgenstern. ‘Executive and senior managers are a lot more visible to the workforce on a daily basis and can therefore be positive role models and far more accessible. They can take a very hands-on approach to shaping the organisation.’ Carolyn McCall sees the executive pipeline as key. ‘Put simply, the most sustainable way to ensure that we have more women in non-exec positions is to ensure that we have more women holding executive positions. They can’t get to those positions without there being a strong pipeline of talented women in the company,’ she observes. Estelle Brachlianoff is forthright about the issue: ‘Arbitrary quotas are meaningless – by having the right culture and policies you create the conditions to allow people to progress to executive positions whatever their gender.’

In a position to drive change, all these women are doing something about it in their own organisations. ‘We need to treat giving women the opportunity to rise to more senior positions as a project in itself and put it at the top

of our business agendas,’ says Estelle Brachlianoff. ‘My position enables me to ensure we have both a culture and policies that truly back diversity. My responsibility is to ensure that I can both be a good example for others to follow and to create the conditions that can allow women to progress,’ she adds. At easyJet, Carolyn McCall is working hard ‘to create an environment where women have the opportunity to build careers in all communities and at all management levels of the organisation’. She points out that ‘women are actively encouraged and supported as they progress through the organisation. In particular, action has been taken to make it easier for people to have flexible working arrangements, we have signed up to the “Think, Act, Report” campaign* who are doing great work in encouraging organisations to use an evidence based approach to help them overcome inequality. We also have a women’s network which supports and inspires our female talent.’ For Ursula Morgenstern there is much to be done in the area of recruitment and promotion. ‘It is easy to hire and promote in our own image, so if we’re not careful we might create hidden biases in our organisation,’ she says. ‘We also need to be mindful that women put themselves

forward for promotions less regularly than men, so we must encourage women. Sometimes this means being active in their career development and making sure we are providing the opportunities which will be

most helpful to build their career.’ She adds: ‘We work very flexibly at Atos. I would hope this makes it easier for any of my employees juggling home and childcare commitments.’

While there is a lot more to be done, progress has been made. ‘Now 29% of executive directors at our UK Board level are women,’ says Estelle Brachlianoff. ‘Beyond this, female graduate applications are up to 38% and at 31%, female apprentice applications are well above the industry average. Finally, 83% of women are staying in employment over a year after maternity or adoption leave. The answer is simple. It is more efficient in terms of business to have diverse management teams. This is not a personal belief or experience, but a reality based on facts and numerous studies.’ At easyJet 30% of positions in middle and senior management are held by women, and five out of 11 of its management board are women. Carolyn McCall sums it up: ‘More balanced companies will better reflect the needs of their consumers – a large proportion of whom will be female. They will have a broader range of leadership styles and be more agile and flexible to cope with an ever-changing world. This is simply good for business and good for GDP.’ I KF

Put simply, the most sustainable way to ensure that we have more women in non-exec positions is to ensure that we have more women holding executive positions

* Launched by the UK government in 2010, the Think, Act, Report campaign provides a simple step-by-step framework to help companies identify issues around gender equality in the workplace, take action to address those issues and report on progress to share best practice and case studies.


fo c u s

How do you promote and create opportunities for the leadership of women in your company?

Terence WatsonWe have a ‘Women in Alstom’ steering committee, which is represented at our UK Senior Management team meetings. We are going through a process of looking at the language and images that we use to better represent our workforce; joining a wider range of industry groups such as Business in the Community (BITC), Women in Rail, Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) and POWERful Women, as well as supporting the Your Life campaign. And we are making changes to the way our business operates to ensure that once women join us, they want to stay in order to develop their careers with us too. Our gender equality survey in February 2014 was the first step for raising awareness and really addressing this issue with data. A number of recommendations were made to the management teams ranging from the practical – for example a review of our personal protective equipment – to policies such as our maternity, paternity and flexible leave policies. We are working with BITC on mentoring opportunities to help our female employees to be better role models and encourage more women into the engineering sector as a whole. Our top 75 UK managers will also undergo unconscious bias training.

Marc MourreWe are very focused on the senior female leadership pipeline and our CEO annually dedicates a Global Operating Committee meeting to the topic, discussing high potential women, their platforms, growth opportunities and their sponsors. This is preceded by divisional meetings with each Global Division Head analysing metrics progress and a deeper dive discussion on the diverse talent bench. Career progression profiles are regularly discussed

and follow-up actions tracked. Our CEO in EMEA is championing a Senior Mentorship Programme, strategically matching high potential female Managing Directors and Executive Directors with members of the European and Divisional Management Committees. We also run a host of leadership/career development programmes for our women including a workshop for our senior women on getting Board/Trustee positions.

Ken RamirezAt Renault UK, we champion internal employment and career development. Doing this gives women that are already proving their skills the confidence

and opportunity to move up in the company and assume management roles. This is the case for many women at Renault UK, who have contributed to a multitude of departments and gone on to manage teams with ease.

Victor ChavezAs a company we are very focused on diversity and track gender diversity closely. We have a range of initiatives from internal networking and

communication events to active support of external professional organisations such as WISE. We have women in key positions at all levels throughout Thales, including three members of our UK Management Board. We also have an active apprentice scheme across our UK sites and I’m pleased to say we currently have a number of female apprentices working on key programmes, including the sonar systems for the incredibly complex Astute Class submarine.

What do you recognise as the main barriers to women advancing to management in your company and industry, and what do you do about it?

Terence WatsonThere are two challenges that we face. One is that the talent pool simply isn’t there in the numbers we need

Advancing women in a man’s world

Having women in positions of leadership is not just important to women, but also to men. Men are still predominantly at the top of companies and therefore responsible for setting the culture, influencing mindsets and bringing about change. Four company heads told INFO what they perceive as the issues and what they are doing about it


to recruit from. The second is that the industry doesn’t do enough to attract and retain women in the first place. So we need action at every level. From an outreach perspective, Alstom supports the ‘Girls into STEM’ initiative, and we have over 150 STEM ambassadors engaging in local schools with specific messages to encourage female candidates. Internally we set up our Women in Alstom network so that women at different stages in their career can advise each other on how to ‘lean in’ without compromising who they are in a male-dominated environment. We are looking at how we deliver our mentoring and training – both for hiring managers and for female candidates themselves. And we have looked at the proportion of male / female graduates we employ as well. We don’t operate a quota system, but this year we had very strong graduate candidates and hired 50% male and 50% female.

Marc MourreThe main barriers can be categorised as lack of access to senior leadership, visibility and profile; manager support, feedback and guidance; stereotypes, assumptions and biases about what is required for leadership and success; positive self-promotion and assertiveness – women are often less explicit about expressing their ambition; current platform, scale and scope and pressure of competing demands.

Examples of our initiatives include continued roll-out of inclusive leadership and unconscious bias training and embedding of key points in our Leadership Curriculum, a Role Model Speaker series and career development offerings for women at all levels organised by our women’s network – the Women’s Business Alliance. We also run divisional mentoring/reverse mentoring programmes to enable the development of sponsorship relationships and to simultaneously educate senior male colleagues on the challenges women face in the workplace.

Ken RamirezHistorically, the automotive industry has been male-dominated. At Renault UK we aim to break down these barriers by promoting a workplace that recognises the talent and business acumen of its employees regardless of gender and the importance of diverse and creative leadership teams, better reflecting our customer base.

Victor ChavezOne of the fundamental challenges we face in our sector is the lack of women studying science and engineering at university, so we work closely with organisations such as WISE and Engineering UK to try to persuade girls of the merits of pursuing a career in the technology sector. Within Thales, we stress that career advancement is open to all and run a number of events and fora to allow female employees to share their personal experience of career development. For example, last year we ran our first ever ‘Women in Leadership’ event as part of the run up to International Women’s Day on 8 March. Over 90 women attended the event to promote leadership opportunities for women at Thales UK. There was a strong turnout from women across the full breadth of experience levels – from graduates to board members, and with careers spanning a few months to multiple decades. Over 2,000 women from the wider business also showed an interest in the event, paving the way for similar events and for the creation of a Women’s Network.

What do you think would help to change things faster or have the most impact?

Terence WatsonBusiness and government need to work together, and educators and parents really need to get on board as well. There are some success stories. Crossrail for

Terence Watson Marc Mourre Ken Ramirez Victor Chavez President, Alstom UK Managing Director, Managing Director, CEO, Thales UK Vice Chairman Commodities Renault UK and Africa, Morgan Stanley


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example has a 29% female population – around twice the industry average. But even an iconic project like that struggles to get women into the engineering roles. I think the industry needs to get better at engaging with people outside of it. We need a shift in the public’s perception of what a career in engineering is – and the roles that women can enjoy within it. We need the world’s best minds on these issues and it’s inexcusable that we are losing them to other industries or to only select from the same talent pool. It’s never been more important to get the best and the brightest into engineering – regardless of gender or ethnicity.

Marc MourreVisible hands-on senior leadership, continued manager education and robust talent management are all key to progress. A detailed metrics analysis as to where the issues are and ensuring that the appropriate focus is applied there is important too. The biggest lever is accountability.

Ken RamirezFundamental changes in the way organisations work, increased flexibility and maximising the use of technology will make the difference in attracting and retaining top talent, regardless of gender. Focusing on output and contribution to results rather than hours spent physically in the office is the way forward and will benefit all, not just our female population. The future generation of employees will not, in any case, work in the way we have done and businesses must move quickly to embrace these changes or lose out.

Victor ChavezWe all need to work hard to create more female role models by communicating strongly about their success to inspire others. For example, in 2014, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) presented one of our leading safety experts with the prestigious Guardian Angel Award for her contribution to the workplace. Sarah Tack is Head of Safety in our Ground Transportation Systems business, an incredibly demanding working environment spanning road, rail and tram. Sarah joined us in January 2012 and it has been her inspirational leadership of her team that completely transformed our safety culture. To have her professionalism and leadership recognised by such a nationally recognised external body sends out a clear external message that Thales is committed to employing and developing the highest standards of women leaders. I Interviews by KF


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Gender quotas on corporate boards: cultural differences across Europe

Scarlett Brown from the Department of Management, King’s College London looks at the rationales behind the different approaches to increasing the number of women on boards and considers the cultural underpinnings

Since Norway’s introduction of a gender quota of at least 40%, other countries have followed suit or

chosen different approaches to increasing the number of women on boards (WoB). This has sparked much debate about the use of public policy initiatives such as quotas and voluntary codes. With the EU entering into these debates and indication that quotas may be brought in if the share of women on European boards does not increase, it is important to acknowledge differences between countries. Country culture can drastically affect the implementation and subsequent success of WoB initiatives.

Rationales for increasing WoB draw on either a business or social justice case. The former establishes the benefits that businesses gain for appointing WoB: pointing to the value of women and of board diversity. In contrast, a social justice rationale highlights the problem of having power concentrated in a narrow demographic, and argues for correcting representational injustice and addressing bias in the appointment process. These are not always polarised, and often arguments include elements of both, but the rationale will influence which solutions are offered and how successful they are.

In Norway, the justification for quotas is social justice: as one of the most gender-equal nations in the world, they sought to bring boards in-line with other areas of employment. While there was initial scepticism about its implementation (for instance, fears it would create ‘Golden Skirts’), overall the quota has succeeded in increasing the number of WoB. This is in part due to enforced sanctions for non-compliance, but largely supported by high levels of gender equality in Norwegian society, a pipeline of talent that supports the increased demand for WoB, and a culture that helps women to get to the top.

In comparison, Italy is one of the least gender-equal countries in Europe, and women’s participation in the workforce is relatively low. It is perhaps surprising, then, that they have had a quota since 2012 (stating women must hold at least a third of board roles by

2015). This has resulted in little change to the number of WoB, which currently stands at 9%. The push for quotas in Italy was highly individualised and business-focused: lobbyists and individuals, mostly in the form of board-ready women, were the prime instigators, and

it has not been supported by a commitment to gender diversity in the appointing boards or other stakeholders.

Patterns like these can be seen across Europe: both France and Germany have had slightly more success with quotas and voluntary measures, respectively, and

this is reflective of the cultural attitudes towards women in business. In this sense, the success of quotas is similar to voluntary measures – they both depend on wider societal belief in gender equality in order to succeed long-term.

In the UK, the rationale for increasing WoB is based on the business case, emphasising financial benefits and largely sidestepping arguments about ‘equality’ or social justice. Arguably this has contributed to its success, as neutralising feminist arguments has brought in powerful business and political stakeholders. Most famously, Lord Davies’ report emphasised the business case and set a voluntary target of 25%, which is likely to be met by December 2015.

Although encouraging, the problem with a purely business rationale is that it relies on establishing a direct connection between WoB and company performance – something that depends upon a narrow understanding of the role of corporate governance. Even presuming such a connection could be made, a business case is inherently fragile as it could be reversed, should ‘proof’ emerge that appointing women leads to poor financial performance.

Business arguments can be seductive, as they allow us to advocate changes to boards without challenging the culture, both inside the boardroom and in wider society. For quotas or voluntary measures to be most effective they have to be supported by genuine commitment to gender diversity and desire for change. I


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In recent years, the mere handful of women on the boards of British listed companies has become a

good number. This trend is broadly similar in France where quotas were introduced in 2011 to address gender balance in boardrooms. A proposed European Directive is also lurking with the goal of providing for a minimum objective of 40% female non-executive directors (NEDs) in publicly listed companies by 2020.

Britain has resisted the introduction of a mandatory quota system. A key recommendation of the Lord Davies Review of Women on Boards (the Davies Report) was that publicly listed companies should aim to have 25% female boardroom representation by the end of 2015. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills published its third annual report on Women on Boards with updated statistics as at October 2014 (the 2014 Report1). Last October, women made up 22.8% of the boards of FTSE 100 companies and 17.4% of the boards of FTSE 250 companies showing good progress over the past year.

A significant improvement in reducing the number of all-male boards was also reported. In particular, it was noted that there were no all-male boards in the FTSE 100 (compared with 2 in March 2014 and 21 in 2011). There were also 28 all-male boards in the FTSE 250 in October

Quotas vs. a voluntary approach –a case of real equality or a numbers game?

Geraldine Fabre, corporate lawyer at Russell-Cooke LLP considers the latest progress made in France and England

2014 (compared with 48 in March 2014 and 131 in 2011). In France, as at 1 June 2014, women made up 30.3% of

the boards (‘conseils d’administration’ and ‘conseils de surveillance’) of CAC40 companies, compared with 28.3% in 2013 and only 10.7% in 2008, according to statistics provided by the French Ethics & Boards Observatory. There are no all-male boards in the French CAC 40.

Executive Directors vs. Non Executive DirectorsDespite these improvements, the number of female executive directors and CEOs remains low in both countries, with women representing (1) in the UK, 8.4% of executive directors on FTSE 100 boards and 5.1% on FTSE 250 boards in October 2014; and (2) in France, less than 4% of executive directors on CAC 40 companies with no women currently in the post of CEO at those companies.

In the UK, according to a board review prepared by Quoted Companies Alliance, Norman Broadbent and BDO in June 20142, boards of newly listed companies last year were more male-dominated at the top table than established ones. It was also found that women remain significantly under-represented at the boards of Alternative Investment Market (AIM)-listed companies.

The recent reports and surveys show differences in the length of board tenures (which is for women shorter than men by an average of two years3) and appointments at executive positions, which are still lagging behind. Over the past three years, just 6.6% of new NEDs on the boards of AIM-listed companies were women although the numbers of executive female jumped to 2% in FTSE 100 and 1.6% in AIM-listed companies.

Listed companies are likely to remain in


1. Source: Women on Boards Davis Review Annual Report 2014 (March 2014)

2. NB: Board Review 2014, by Norman Broadbent, BDO and Quoted Companies Alliance (June 2014)

3. The Female FTSE Board Report 2014 – Cranfield University (26 March 2014)

Why NEDs rather than EDs ?

In 2011, the UK government called on the UK’s 100 largest companies

(the PLCs) to make a voluntary commitment to ensure 25% of their board of directors were women, by the end of 2015. With ten months to go, these companies seem to be on track – just over 20% of directors are now women. That figure is, however, misleading as executive directorships remain overwhelmingly male, with most women on PLC boards being non-executive directors (NEDs).

This is, perhaps, unsurprising. There are many reasons why women are under-represented at executive director level. Direct discrimination is increasingly unacceptable, but has not been eradicated, and unconscious bias, with existing (male) directors making and approving appointments ‘in their own image’ is still harder to eliminate, because those responsible may be entirely unaware of it. The lack of affordable childcare in the UK (in comparison with European neighbours, France in particular) causes some women to take time out of their careers in their twenties and thirties, at a time when their male colleagues are rapidly climbing the promotion ladder. For other women, their entrepreneurial nature leads them to prefer being

an often part-time role as a NED, to holding an executive function. Those women who do advance to senior levels can be faced with damaging preconceptions about how they are expected to behave – a degree of initiative and ambition commendable in a man, can be perceived as an ‘aggressive’ or ‘difficult’ trait in a woman.

There is no doubt of the resulting ‘talent gap’ in the highest levels of leadership. Selection to the board of PLCs requires not only ability and drive, but also the industry connections, directorial sponsorship and experience of previous senior positions of responsibility. The latter is a ‘chicken and egg’ obstacle – fewer women have experience at director level so they are less likely to be appointed – preserving male over-representation.

Successful and stable companies, as PLCs generally are, will also have established directors in executive positions, with proven track records. A board which, in 2014, had all male executives, even if it began to practice perfect equality, would need to replace half its members (if the new intake is equally composed of men and women), to achieve 25% female directors in total. Eradicating

the effects of prejudice takes time. No self-respecting person wants

to be appointed to a role just to make up a quota and appointments made for political reasons will not improve gender balance in business. No quotas would be needed in a world without a history of sexism. However, in the real world, creating an expectation that women are visible at the highest level is vital to make discrimination a thing of the past. Fast-tracking the appointment of women is no more than putting talented people in the positions that they would already be in, but for previous unfair disadvantages.

At first sight, it is disappointing that PLCs seem to be obeying the letter, rather than the spirit, of Lord Davies’ report by appointing women but as NEDs. The growing presence of women directors in FTSE 100 companies is to be welcomed if it is a stepping stone to greater equality. The acid test is whether women are increasingly trusted with executive director positions as the pool of female talent grows and new appointments are made.

Melanie StancliffeThomas Eggar LLP incorporating Pritchard Englefield

the spotlight to address gender imbalance on their boards for the years to come. Further targets are to be expected in the UK whilst gender and diversity is considered by the investor and stakeholder community as an important corporate governance matter and its disclosure as equally important. The 2014 Report warns that legislative requirements, such as quotas, may still be introduced if self-regulation fails to meet the objectives of the Davies Report.

Although gender balance in boardrooms across

Europe is rising, this rise is still perceived as slow by many commentators making the case for the European Commission’s proposal for a directive to speed up the process despite the recognised criticisms of the mandatory quota approach.

Boardroom quotas or not, it is clear that the numbers game is not enough; gender equality on boards needs to go hand-in-hand with education and policies that support equal opportunities at work for women to advance to executive roles and board positions. I


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Women on top: why mentor and coach women leaders?

Dr Gisèle Szczyglak, Executive Coach, CEO and Founder of WLC Partners looks at the reasons why women leaders need mentoring and coaching

Women leaders need to be mentored and coached for two main reasons.

Firstly, it is a question of performance and adaptation to organisational culture. Being a leader requires the same professional skills for both men and women. Being recognised and valued as an effective leader implies a solid professional training and is related to a professional career path, a high position, managerial responsibilities and expertise. Leadership is a universal concept and should neither be understood nor perceived as a male prerogative utilised by male managers who want to put themselves forward for the top positions and hold on to them as long as possible! Leading is attractive; it is synonymous with power and status. Men rarely want to share power and the governance of organisations with women. Even amongst men, competitiveness can be difficult. Organisational in-house culture is often close to Darwinian Theory: the struggle for positions has replaced the struggle for life.

The second main reason for coaching and mentoring women is that they have to face double competitiveness: natural competitiveness in the workplace and competitiveness linked to their gender. The concepts of glass ceilings, sticky floors and leaky pipelines can be explained by the existence of this double barrier. Women are trapped in this metaphorical language: they cannot break through the glass ceiling and reach top positions, which is why they are said to be stuck to the floor of organisations. Glass walls can also keep them from moving to the side. Women are visible in the areas of HR, communication, marketing and law, but are seldom present in high-stake business, technical or managerial positions. Very few women are members of boards of directors.

The leaky pipeline phenomenon describes how women drop out or fail to advance further at key stages of their career. This could be due to a number of factors: organisational barriers; the difficulty of managing the dual career; a lack of self-confidence and strategic

networks, and a reluctance to seize opportunities and take risks.

Women want professional recognition and a professional identity, however, they are all too often viewed according to a biological and stereotyped gender identity. This is a huge issue, as women cannot behave as if they were not women. Male and female gender identities make up humankind and not acknowledging one’s gender identity is effectively denying that you are part of humankind. This is impossible! The only way to escape from this paradox is to consider oneself, first and foremost, as an individual in the professional arena.

Men tend to an abstract, positive and rewarding universality whilst women are considered as biological individuals without a positive or a universal dimension. Double competitiveness is a combination of general

competitiveness and this definition of the two biological genders of humankind that during human Western history has resulted in unequal and asymmetric social genders.

Mentoring and coaching potential female leaders boosts

women’s careers within organisations because it allows women to go beyond double competitiveness by raising men’s awareness of women working in leading positions. When female leaders and future leaders – women in middle management or in the talent pipeline – are mentored by men through peer mentoring programmes, men are keener to consider women as positive contributors. Women are valued in the workplace, and organisations can make the most of female talent. Reverse mentoring – women mentoring men leaders

– and collective mentoring in mixed groups of both men and women can bring about positive change and better performance within organisations.

Through individual coaching women are more able to be aware of double competitiveness and be in a position to work on how to gain leading roles. Organisations are more balanced and efficient when they succeed in creating an ecology based on diversity of all talents. I

Women have to face double competitiveness: natural competitiveness in the workplace and competiveness l inked to their gender


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Women’s breakfasts ARE NOT ENOUGH

Professor Claudia Jonczyk from ESCP Europe Business School, London campus, questions whether corporate gender diversity initiatives are just window dressing for a very different reality

The last 15 years have seen a considerable rise in awareness about the under-representation of

women at senior organisational levels accompanied by a vivid debate on how organisations can increase the number of women at middle and top levels. Yet while women have been outperforming their male peers in educational achievements and are well represented at organisational entry levels after graduation, the statistics remain rather bleak. For example, men are 10 times more likely to make partner in a City law firm and three times more likely to make it to the top in one of the big accounting firms. Resembling a ride on a snail, the numbers are creeping along at staggeringly slow pace.

The overall impression that this generates is that there is a lot of talk yet not that much real action. One legitimate question that the dire statistics raise is how much of the corporate initiatives for better female representation are first and foremost marketing tools. Two of my former fellow male students and good friends with whom I graduated from business school many years ago – both now partners at prestigious global consulting firms – concede over an informal lunch talk that ‘to be honest, compared to when I started in consulting the situation for women has not really changed much’. Interestingly, one of my partner friends was hung up about the fact that a direct competitor ‘is just so much better in marketing their women initiatives, while in reality, I know this for sure from people inside, they are as bad as we are’.

You may object that this is rather anecdotal, yet it fits a broader picture: while women start their careers with an even stronger desire to make it to the very top (43% for female graduates versus 34% for male graduates) this ambition and self-assurance evaporates within five years into the job (only 16% of women still aspire to make it into top management while the percentage of men aspiring to top management positions is stable). Interestingly, typical avenues of explanation such as females’ initial lack of ambition or career breaks for having children could be out ruled in Bain & Company’s ‘Everyday Moments of Truth’ study.

Key factors identified for this drop in top management aspiration are masculine/male dominated career patterns, the lack of role models and a lack of support from (male) bosses. On this latter point, the study reports that 64% of female job starters felt supported by their boss, yet this figure fell to 44% within the first five years. Again, the values for men were much more stable (from 59% at the start to 56% after five years). The results of this study did not surprise me as they resonate with lots of other research findings and accounts of female work experiences. For example, it has been shown that day-to-day managerial decisions involving allocating challenging work, training and development, and career encouragement result in women accruing less organisational development, ironically based on their managers’ assumption that female subordinates have a lower career motivation. However, I was truly taken aback by the comments of one of Bain’s senior European partners on their own findings stating that they were ‘surprised to find that the course is set at such an early career stage’ and, as he continued, ‘I am really surprised how important the support of the immediate superior is’. For a business whose core competence is the appropriate assessment of their clients’ situations, it seems rather disturbing to show such a striking lack of knowledge about the professional realities of half of the workforce. If we assume that a lot of corporate ‘women’s initiatives’ are more for marketing than for real change, one side effect is that young female graduates these days enter the corporate world truly convinced that they do not face any more hurdles than their male peers. In spite of the dire survival statistics, they will be inclined to think that they were just not good enough.

Certainly, as a professor at a business school, I agree that business education will also have to play its part if we want to see credible change. More diversity among business school professors, cases featuring female leaders and the questioning of stereotypical male leadership models are only examples of what business schools need to contribute to build the foundation for more diversity and inclusion in the corporate world. I


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Do female leaders really cooperate with other women?

‘There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women’, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once said. Dr Gisèle Szczyglak, CEO and Founder of WLC Partners asks if and why this is the case, and suggests that professional communities are one solution

It is often said that within professional networks and

women’s groups, women in top positions do not help other women break through the glass ceiling. Is this a fact, an individual opinion, an isolated case or a rumour? We could start by considering pioneering female leaders. When women began to get promoted and to gain more senior positions within organisations, they had little support. The rules were made by men and opportunities for women were scarce. They had to adopt a stereotypical masculine manner when conducting business and leading. They had to be tougher than men to prove themselves and succeed. Pioneering women who over-compensate to conform to male leadership behaviour are sometimes not perceived by other women as being as helpful and empathetic as they should be. On one hand women often say: ‘I don’t want to be like her. The way this female leader is behaving in the work arena isn’t who I am’. On the other hand the same women say, ‘but I would like to reach a senior leadership position too!’ Generally speaking, women are aware of the lack of female role models in top management and senior positions. Women’s expectations of female leaders are very high and they think that cooperation between women should prevail over competitiveness. The reality, however, is somewhat different. What matters most within organisations is the business game and competitiveness. Pioneering

women in top positions have had to really fight to reach the top, regardless of the gender of the people they came up against. They strive to be exemplar leaders and might be tougher with other women because they don’t want it said that they have favoured women over men. They want first and foremost to be seen as excellent leaders – and not regarded as female leaders. Many women leaders want

to hold on to their position and do not want to share the status they have with other women and men. Not only do women have to face natural competitiveness in the workplace and competitiveness linked to their gender (women versus men), but also there is a third type of competiveness: women against women. This manifests itself as a lack of cooperation to help other women to achieve. It could stem from upbringing and education – the way little girls learn to manage conflict. They take it too personally and too many emotions

are attached. Women are not educated to consider other women as partners in the way that men do. Men think along the lines of: ‘you do me a favour and I will do you a favour’. This could be referred to as ‘a boy band culture’. Conversely, in an attempt to get ahead, women tend to work alone and not ask for favours from other women. They tend to be less opportunistic and do not adapt the same strategy when advancing in their careers. In their private lives, women are known to be collaborative. This, however, does not apply in the workplace. It is only fairly recently that women have begun to make communities in the professional arena. The successful emergence of so many professional networks for women demonstrates the great need for strong communication and collaboration among women. These communities operate as think tanks and address topics such as change management, leadership models, governance and the work/life balance, and are of benefit to both men and women. This collaborative approach, which allows women to share expertise, experience and offer advice, is highly constructive in the quest for women to help other women to advance in their careers. Women’s networks also employ collective intelligence and empowerment strategies to engage more effectively with men, and to bring about a positive change in culture and to help eliminate gender competitiveness within the workplace. I

[A] col laborative approach, which al lows women to share expertise, experience and offer advice, is highly constructive in the quest for women to help other women to advance in their careers.


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No silver bullet: the systemic approach to changing company culture

Open any report on the subject of diversity written within the last 5 to 10 years and the introductory

paragraph will probably state something along the lines of ‘the business case for diversity is clear …’. Whether or not an organisation can show a positive correlation between the number of women on their board and EBIT performance, or some other financial measure, the fact is, diversity matters!

Diversity matters because we live in a diverse world that has become deeply interconnected. Customers expect to see diversity in an organisation’s workforce as evidence of the breadth of knowledge and experience required to offer them value. And a lack of diversity in senior roles in any organisation brings into question the integrity and fairness of its people processes and indeed its culture. For these reasons alone, and there are plenty more, diversity matters and there are very few CEOs who would say otherwise; indeed in the 18th CEO survey conducted by PwC in the UK, 57% of respondents said they had a diversity strategy which had a positive impact on their business.

But this begs two questions: if the benefits are clear, why does it only matter to 57% of UK CEOs compared to 64% globally? And if it matters, why does progress seem so slow? Despite the considerable focus on gender diversity in the board room, the target set by Lord Davies in 2011 for FTSE 100 business leaders of 25% female board members by 2015 is unlikely to be reached until possibly the very end of this year.

The one lesson we have learned at PwC over the past 10 years as the focus has shifted from equality to diversity to inclusion is that there is no silver bullet. But equally taking a scatter gun approach of many interventions, programmes and initiatives, whilst keeping lots of people busy, has failed to speed up the pace of change. So how do we make sense of all of this?

What we have learned is that, if equality is the goal and diversity our reality, then inclusion is our challenge. Some of the best insights to creating inclusive working environments come from the world of behavioural economics and the work of Daniel Kahneman, renowned psychologist and Nobel Prize winner. Kahneman’s research established that our behaviour and decisions are heavily influenced by subconscious, instinctive and emotional thinking (he defined as System 1) and not controlled by our rational and deliberate thinking (System 2). This, along with wider research in the field of social psychology, goes some way to explain work place behaviours and attitudes which are influenced by unconscious bias. As someone said to me recently ‘unconscious bias is the price we pay for being human!’ It is also a formidable barrier to women (or any other minority) in the boardroom.

In the workplace, the most common forms of biases are implicit stereotypes, in-group favouritism and out-group homogeneity. In 2005, PwC therefore took the lead in delivering unconscious bias awareness training to leadership, the thinking at the time being that simply raising awareness would minimise the impact of bias. This, of course, we now know is not entirely true, which is why a systemic approach to changing company culture is required as that culture will be a mirror of the attitudes and behaviours of the people therein, specifically those who successfully navigate to positions of power and influence.

A robust approach to diversity therefore requires

How to convert the talk into a walk? Sarah Churchman, Human Capital Director - Diversity & Inclusion and Employee Wellbeing at PwC considers how to implement a real culture change


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‘Having it all’ with the agile workplaceAn understanding of why women drop out mid-career or fail to progress to leadership led Deloitte to implement a policy on work agility that enables women to balance work and family without compromising their careers, as Emma codd, Managing Partner for Talent, explains

While it is both inspiring and exciting to see the business community taking the topic of gender

diversity in the workplace so seriously, we still have some way to go until we no longer need summits on gender diversity or talk of quotas in the boardroom, when people are judged purely on their talents and when discrimination – conscious or unconscious – is a thing of the past.

I’m optimistic that such a vision is attainable. There is an ever-increasing understanding of the issues that hold women back in the workplace and the ways in which we can best tackle these. Not only has the UK introduced legislation on flexible working and shared parental leave, but businesses are also proactively bringing in many great initiatives to foster change – in both standards and culture – and sharing their experiences with others – it’s a real collective action.

However, to fully enact the gender diversity change needed in our businesses, we need a combination of factors, including: strong leaders who walk the talk, visible female role models, an absolute belief that a more diverse organisation is a more successful one, and a workplace that provides women with the ability to have a successful career alongside a family life. We

need to recognise what is causing women to leave the workplace or fail to progress through to leadership roles and address this head on – through a combination of programmes, leadership actions and, most importantly, cultural change.

As Managing Partner for Talent at Deloitte, I am responsible for a critical area of our firm, yet most weeks I work one day from home and leave work early so I can pick my children up from school. I am open about it and believe my colleagues judge me on output and

results rather than whether I am at my desk in the office at all hours. This has been a key driver in enabling me to maintain a balance between my family life and my career. It’s important to me and the firm’s leadership that others believe they can achieve that balance without having their careers written-off – that’s why we launched our Agile working initiative.

Agile working: trust, communication, outputDeloitte launched its agile working initiative – WorkAgility – in the summer of 2014 with an objective of providing our people with choice around when, where and how to work. WorkAgility is founded on

We need to recognise what is causing women to leave the workplace or fai l to progress through to leadership roles and address this head on – through a combination of programmes, leadership actions and, most importantly, cultural change

a change management or systemic approach with the following essential elements:• Vision: a clear vision based on a robust business case• Data analytics: a few clear targets or goals based on good data analytics• Targeted interventions: on their own, interventions targeting minority groups tend to have limited impact but within the context of a systemic programme they flourish and deliver. Employee resource groups, minority leadership programmes, mentoring and sponsorship programmes become critical to systemic change.

• Accountability: governance and responsibilities need to be clearly defined as delivery of any targets requires collective effort• Constant focus on inclusion: everyone needs to help each other to be open minded and tackle unconscious bias.

So organisations with a commitment to diversity should keep up their great efforts, and not be disheartened; this is difficult and requires continued focus. It will feel uncomfortable, there will be disruption and people will start questioning ‘why’ and pushing back. Tough as that is, it means you’re making progress – change is never easy – so keep going! I


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three key principles: trust and respect, open and honest communication, and judging on output.

While all three of these are central to the success of WorkAgility, much boils down to one principle – that of trust. Leaders need to ask themselves: do you trust your people to do their job when you’re not watching them? Do you trust people to deliver high quality work, regardless of whether they are sitting in your line of sight – that is, do you value results over presenteeism? If the answer is yes, the foundation is there to achieve an agile culture.

Communication has also been key to the success of WorkAgility – from the outset, we encouraged teams to communicate openly and honestly about their expectations of each other and to be open with colleagues and clients about their working arrangements. Those that did this have been more successful in adopting the culture required.

While we are just at the start of our journey, ultimately we believe WorkAgility will not only enable us to hold on to the very best talent – both male and female – but will help us retain female employees who are considering how they can achieve their career goals without compromising their family life.

What’s in a name?From the outset, it was important to me that the word ‘agile’ replaced ‘flexible’ in any communication on our programme; this was due to the long-held (and incorrect) assumption by many that flexible working is something that is done only by women who want to work part time. To us, our programme is about trusting all our people to work and deliver in a way that works for them, our firm and our clients – whether through formal arrangements

or informal working practice such as working from home.

When Deloitte asked employees what they have used WorkAgility for, many of our women noted how valuable it has been in giving them time to pick up their children from school – they told us that just that extra hour a day has made a huge difference to them. Others said they could now also care better for their elderly relatives or do charitable work or sporting activities. Our Time Out initiative, which enables employees to request one month off, unpaid, every year in addition to their annual paid holiday entitlement – without giving a reason, has

also provided a way our women can redress some of the vital career/life balance.

While it has been popular with a cross-section of our people, these women have been clear that it gives them some all-important time with their families without the feeling they are compromising their career progression.

The value of modernising the workplaceWhile we know that an agile workplace is not the sole solution to our gender diversity challenges, we do believe that it is a big step in ensuring that we can attract, retain and develop the best female talent. We invest heavily in the people we recruit and to have some of the best leave us because they believe they can’t achieve a balance between life and their career is something that we must rectify. The workplace can no longer be about the hours you are sitting in one location; it must be about a modern and agile environment within which people are trusted to work in a way that balances the needs of the business with the needs of the individual. Only when companies have achieved this will they make real progress on retaining our best women and ensuring they progress to leadership positions. I

I am responsible for a critical area of our firm, yet most weeks I work one day from home and leave work early. . . I am open about it and believe my colleagues judge me on output and results rather than whether I am at my desk in the office at al l hours

Emma Codd


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How does SPL work?For eligible working parents, shared parental leave and pay – up to a total of 52 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay – will entitle a mother to bring her maternity leave (and pay) to an early end so that the balance can be shared with her partner. This means that fathers may take more time off with their child in its first year of life (or adoption). Conversely some mothers may find that they return to work earlier because their child’s father is taking leave in their place. Parents may decide to be off at the same time, or to take it in turns to have periods of leave to look after their child.

Each employee will be required to give a minimum of eight weeks’ notice of their intention to take each separate period of parental leave. Employees will only be able to take three separate sets of leave, or make three changes to the planned dates, during the 52 weeks. Employers will not be able to refuse leave, but they will be able to insist that leave is taken as a single block. New fathers will also get a new right to take unpaid leave to attend up to two antenatal appointments.

Given that, to make the system work, both parents are likely to be liaising with two employers, which may have very different needs and approaches to granting SPL, there is plenty of scope for confusion, lack of coordination and difficulty in this new system. Managed effectively however, the introduction of shared parental leave would build employee engagement and loyalty, as well as provide opportunities to achieving equality in the workplace and enabling more women to proceed into senior roles.

Low take up projected unless…The government anticipates that up to 8% of fathers will take up the new scheme from 2015. Currently, under 10% of men take more than two weeks of paternity leave after the adoption or birth of a child. Under SPL, employers will not be required to offer enhanced paternity pay in cases where they offer enhanced maternity pay, though they may choose to do so if they wish. Inequality of pay is a key

Shared Parental Leave:potential for the biggestimpact yet?

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) is a new, optional entitlement for employed parents to share childcare responsibilities during the first year of their child’s life (or placement, in adoption cases). Many hope that these new proposals will encourage more men to share childcare, drive gender equality in the workplace and eliminate discrimination around maternity leave, as Emmanuelle Ries, Managing Partner at elb miller rosenfalck explains

factor that has impeded the uptake of paternity leave and is certain to limit the appeal of SPL to cash-strapped new parents. It also projects a cultural expectation that women will be the only ones taking extended periods away from the workplace, which may halt their career progression, stopping the flow of female talent. If organisations are serious about realising the benefits of gender diversity and encouraging more women into senior roles, one crucial step will be to ensure any remuneration above the statutory minimum is offered equally to mothers and fathers when on leave.

By comparison, in France, women on maternity leave receive their full salary for 16 weeks (26 weeks if it is their third child and up to 34 weeks for multiple births). Fathers are entitled to 11 consecutive days of paternity leave with no loss of pay.

…a significant cultural shift is encouragedThe Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) survey on the introduction of SPL notes the stark contrast between individuals’ support for the new proposals and the clear perception that their employers are less supportive of shared leave of over two weeks. Both managers and employees suggest their employers will have a fundamental problem accepting extended periods of leave shared between two parents.

While maternity leave is well established and embedded in UK organisations, and is therefore a known entity, paid paternity leave is relatively new and uptake has been very low. As a result, organisations have had little experience of dealing with extended paternity leave, are unsure of how to manage it and have been somewhat lax in promoting it to their employees.

The Financial Times reported on 16 January 2015 that Citigroup, PwC and Deloitte are among those planning to push new fathers to take a large slug of paternity leave. Let’s hope many more follow suit as SPL may well be the best chance we have of building workplaces where men and women are equally represented. I


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Tackling the executive pipeline through policiesWhile L’Oréal attracts a lot of female talent, it has had to go the extra mile in its policies to ensure it retains women all the way to the top. UK & Ireland HR Director Isabelle Minneci describes some of the measures implemented in response to what women have told them

Some were not returning from maternity leave because they did not feel flexible working would be supported. Others felt isolated on returning to work and wanted more support in the transition. Flexible working was also important to our younger talent striving for work/life balance. While we always offered a flexible work environment, it clearly was not visible enough. We launched an official flexible working policy called ‘work smart’: driving culture change, training managers and employees to shift focus from ‘input’ – where and when people work – to ‘output’ – getting the job done, respecting both where and how people work.

While we already offered mothers enhanced maternity leave, child care vouchers, coaching and mentoring programmes, we realised we needed to go a step further, and so established a parental network in partnership with Parental Choice and now offer a wider range of support, including bespoke childcare search and payroll services, as well as employment contracts for nannies.

Certification and accreditation also play an important part. By the end of 2015, half of L’Oréal’s subsidiaries will have received a gender equality certification. We are regularly audited by the Gender Equality European Standard (GEES) to measure our progress. Outside Europe, we work with EDGE: Economic Dividend for Gender Equality. Last year, L’Oréal USA became the first company in the US to be EDGE certified. We are now working on accreditation for others, including Brazil, Russia, India, Australia, Philippines and Canada.

It’s also not just about tackling the pipeline for our own company. In 1998, L’Oréal partnered with UNESCO to develop the For Women In Science programme to promote greater participation of women in science. The programme recognises the achievements of exceptional female scientists and gives them fellowships to help further their research. To date more than 2,000 women in over 100 countries have been recognised for their research and received funding to further their careers.

The beauty business is diverse in nature – there’s no global standard of beauty across all countries and cultures. If we are to succeed, we need a workforce that represents our consumer base. Female talent plays a huge role in this. I

It will come as no surprise that L’Oréal is a talent magnet for women. But while we employ a large number

of women, we are working hard to foster balanced representation across the whole organisation, in all markets. Gender balance at all levels is a business driver for our company. For example, one of our goals is to have 50% women in our management committees by the end of 2015. Today they represent 48%.

Gender balance is not just about having women on boards. Creating diversity in management and in the way business operates is just as important, and that’s what really creates a culture shift. This means creating an environment that ensures female talent can thrive in every market. Thus our project ‘L’Oréal By Women’ was born to try and get to the heart of what our business needed to do to develop this culture. Focus groups were held with female employees on every continent, discussing professional and personal lives, challenges and views on how we could adapt to ensure we were able to retain talent, and attract more. Common themes emerged – balance, confidence, flexibility, career mobility, inclusion – around which we are now building programmes both internationally and at local subsidiary level.

So what does this look like in the UK and Ireland? 69% of our employees are female, 61% of our key senior roles are held by women, and 80% of our new hires are female. However, our focus groups showed that we were at risk of losing some of our most promising stars, because we were not making it clear enough how work/life balance could be achieved, and we were not vocal enough about the investment we make in our female talent.

Female leaders told us they wanted more time to learn from their peers, and our younger talent wanted to build their professional confidence, not just competency. In response, we launched a partnership with an organisation called An Inspirational Journey, which develops women at all levels for leadership in the corporate world. As part of this, some of our mid-level female managers become part of their ‘Pearls’ initiative. This year-long programme includes training and networking events for the ‘Pearls’, who can then share what they have learnt and mentor junior female employees, our next generation of leaders.

Mothers told us they found themselves at a crossroads.


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At a time when the issue of women in business is firmly on the agenda, Renault UK is taking positive steps to

not only bring attention to the issue, but to also break down the perceived barriers women in business face today. Many initiatives have already been put in place to facilitate this, such as the flexible benefits package, which has been designed to enable every employee to fit their work schedule to their lifestyle as best as possible. Other measures include enhanced maternity leave, summer hours and ‘working from home’ opportunities. The latest big step we have taken here at Renault UK in the continued drive towards gender equality in the workplace is to establish a UK branch of the Group’s global Women@Renault network.

Women@Renault (UK & Ireland) was launched in December 2013, with the aim of providing a forum for the female population of Renault UK and creating an environment where, through working together to bring about new initiatives, better representation of women at all levels across the business and especially senior management, can be ensured. Female representation at a managerial level had been severely reduced following the downsizing in 2010, so it was important to put something in place to proactively tackle this.

Three clear objectives were set to allow us to pursue this goal in the best possible fashion: looking at the professional and personal challenges facing women such as career development and work/life balance; looking at the strategic issues that face Renault UK and formulating innovative solutions; and actively working towards changing male and female mindsets on the place of women in the company and economy.

It was important that Renault UK put in place some tangible targets so that progress towards these objectives could be monitored. Renault, corporately, already had in place a number of key performance indicators which the UK team have now incorporated into their own objectives. Firstly, they want to see at least a 15% increase in the number of women in key positions. Secondly, they want to ensure at least one woman is included in the succession plan for every key post. Thirdly, every piece of external recruitment undertaken in the UK has a 50% female applicant base as a target. Locally, by refreshing

Women are good for business

and rethinking the way in which the company goes about its recruitment, Renault UK is broadening its reach and aiming to attract more female candidates to think about the automotive industry generally and Renault, specifically, as a real career choice.

Very early on, the Women@Renault network in the UK launched four focus groups, each aimed at generating discussion and solutions in response to four relevant issues: recruitment, retention, tackling barriers and making a contribution to the business/broader social community. The retention focus group, for example, saw the examination of career paths of women in managerial roles at Renault UK to demonstrate career development, and has resulted in the decision to introduce focused training programmes and to facilitate the building of networks to help women achieve their true potential.

During 2015, a series of workshops, discussion groups and other events are planned as well, open to all employees of the company, irrespective of gender.

Two years on, Women@Renault is more visible, with regular meetings leading to topical discussion and the creation of further initiatives. This year Renault UK has modified its recruitment advertising to encourage more female interest, with specific focus on its university placement materials. New posters have been designed to ensure that non-technical women are also attracted to the company – ‘You don’t need to be a petrol head, just have a head for business’ is a key strapline of the 2015 campaign. The key to ensuring more women at all levels of the company lies at the front end, in increasing the appeal of the industry and the brand. The 2015 campaign material features an image of the current crop of university placement students – more than half are female, which is a positive sign of progress in itself.

Feedback across the whole business has been really positive – women are saying they are proud to be a part of the Renault UK family and the male population is truly supportive of what we are doing – everyone knows it’s the right thing for society and the right thing for business. Having such clear support, from the top, for this initiative is great. The progress we have made is certainly a step in the right direction, but with much further still to go, I look forward enormously to seeing what Women@Renault can achieve in the coming years. I

‘Hiring and promoting women is good for business and good for the global economy,’ said Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, Carlos Ghosn, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2015, in Davos. Sian Vernon, Director of Human resources at Renault UK holds up a mirror to what renault is doing for women in its own business

You don’t need to be a petrol head, just have a head for business


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Women in TechThe new revolution to come

tech has long been a male domain, but there are signs that things are starting to change. Véronique Forge, CEO of Businessofeminin.com and Severine Balick, CEO of MyGoodness.com delve into the reasons for their erstwhile absence and look to a more female future

In a global economy, which becomes more and more digital, the tech industry remains a ‘male’s club’. A

recent study by the law firm Fenwick & West found that 45% of tech companies did not have a single female executive. A common explanation for tech’s gender disparity is the so-called pipeline problem: the percentage of female computer-science graduates has almost halved since the 1980s. More worrying, a 2008 study found that more than half of women working in the industry ended up leaving the workforce.

In the UK, women represent 17% of the tech workforce, a decrease despite the double-digit growth of the sector. According to Boston Consulting Group’s report,1 the UK Internet economy will represent 12.4% of GDP by 2016 and will need to attract massive skilled workers, among them women!

Major players in tech such as Google, LinkedIn and Facebook are now very much concerned about this gender imbalance and taking measures to address it. As Jeff Weiner, CEO at LinkedIn puts it: ‘This isn’t just a problem for tech companies. It’s a problem for everyone. Without balanced working groups that reflect the breadth of perspective among all people, we’re not able to develop our best ideas and advance innovation that can generate economic growth’.

Gender Equality and Diversity are also good for business. A recent study from McKinsey2 found that the organisations with the most diverse executive teams had dramatically higher returns on equity and earnings performance than those with the least diverse teams. Sarah Drinkwater, Head of Google Campus in London could not agree more. She leads a team of women but is aware that it is an exception. ‘There is now a need for every team to be cross gender’, she says. In the London Campus, women account for 30% compared to 9% at Tech City. This underrepresentation of women is reflected in the lack of women graduates

in STEM3: only 13% of the overall UK STEM workforce is female.

The shortfall is hardly surprising for Wendy Devolder, CEO at Skills Matter: ‘Women of my age and below are not encouraged to pursue careers in tech and study subjects like physics and computing at schools which are key to pursue a career in IT.’ After intense lobbying, the UK government finally introduced the IT Computer Curriculum in schools and support for teaching coding last year. ‘It’s a first step but there’s not enough public funding so it’s our responsibility to support charities

which also bring support and training in schools like CAS4 and Apps for good,’ she says. Wendy Devolder also points out that this sector is very welcoming and supportive for women and that as a CEO of one of the largest network of coders and developers (65,000) she never experienced any discrimination

as a woman.Nathalie Gaveau, Founder and CEO of the fashion

Tech start up Shopcade is also very positive about what London tech scene offers: ‘The sector is very opened to young talents and women definitely have a major role to play as they’re the first consumers online’. It’s no surprise that more and more young female graduates favour working in the digital industry rather than in Finance or Marketing. A good choice, as the sector is probably the only one where ‘equal pay’ is a reality5 but women still face challenges to close the gender gap.

The scarcity of female role models in this industry remains one of the main issues. ‘We need to raise the visibility of women in technology to make change happen!’ says Lora Schellengerg, Head of Girls in Tech UK. In order to encourage more females to join the tech industry, the network runs monthly events around inspiring women leaders who share tips on fundraising or how to run a successful start-up.

Mentoring is also critical to encourage more women in tech. Companies such as Facebook and LinkedIn

1. BCG, The Connected World, The Internet Economy in the G-20, March 2012

2. Women Matter: Women at the top of corporations: Making it happen. Desvaux, G., Devillard-Hoellinger, S. and SancierSultan McKinsey Report, 2010.

3. STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths

4. CAS: ComputersAtSchools

5. Glassdoorresearch


have recently partnered with Sheryl Sandberg and the Anita Borg Institute to launch a new global chapter of Lean In Circles to support women in computer science and engineering. Their aim is to give young women a support structure to help them navigate the important turning points and decisions about their university choices and early professional careers.

Internally, LinkedIn tackles the tech gender disparity and invests in mentoring to promote women’s careers. Some of their top managers in the US initiated a programme called WALY,6 which is now in every country and all major cities. ‘With this initiative women get the opportunity to network more efficiently, exchange ideas and receive mentorship, including from women in different jobs and geographies,’ says Laurence Bret-Stern, Marketing Director EMEA at LinkedIn. The organisation also teaches some of their partners how to leverage networking and mentorship and helped CityGroup to create Connect, a network which brings together their 410 000 women employees.

Google is also devoted to engaging with its women workforce and started to support mum entrepreneurs, a key period for women, explains Drinkwater who started Campus for Mums London: ‘After they have a baby, women tend to reassess their life and priorities.’ This new initiative, first launched in Tel Aviv, is a nine-week intensive bootcamp for women to launch their

start-ups, where they learn how to write a business plan and design, while keeping their baby with them. The programme has already proved to be successful as some of their start-up graduates sold their businesses for a total of $20 million!

The digital economy is definitely a land of opportunities for women willing to start their business. Sadly, they rarely make it to the venture capital stage as only 5% of women ventures receive funding. Karen McKormick, Partner at Beringea and investor in women-led companies like Monica Vinader or SkillsMatter may have an explanation: ‘There are more women in the seed investor stage but fewer in growth and later stage. Women are sometimes afraid to ask and are not hungry enough, contrary to men who think big and don’t hesitate to oversell themselves.’ Yet, she noticed that companies with female founders are often more profitable. Research by Google shows that women-led companies have a 35% higher return on investment and are 12% more profitable than male-led companies.

Women can benefit from this digital revolution but they need to knock down barriers and learn to develop the attitudes and behaviours as well as seize the opportunities and resources to become successful leaders. It’s high time to ‘Lean In’ and prove that ambition and success can also be feminine! I6. WALY: Women at LinkedIn

Top 10 most improved FTSE100 Boards for gender balanceAt an event co-hosted with Lord Davies of Abersoch at Barclays in February, Business Secretary Vince Cable revealed the top 10 most improved companies for representation of women on their boards. ‘Seeing the enormous progress made by these 10 top FTSE 100 companies demonstrates that the UK’s voluntary, business-led approach is working,’ he said. ‘Our target of 25% women on boards by 2015 is in sight. However, the threat of EU mandatory targets remains a reality if we do not meet it. Businesses must not take their foot off the pedal during the final stretch – if we are to avoid action from Brussels we must continue to demonstrate that our voluntary approach is the right one and is working… British businesses must keep up the momentum and alarm bells should be ringing in the ears of those FTSE chairs who are not yet doing their bit to improve gender diversity.’ The event provided FTSE chairs with the opportunity to network with a number of aspiring non-executive women, showcasing the extensive talent pool of capable women available to take up boardroom positions. The Board of Chamber member HSBC currently has one of the highest levels of female representation at 37.5%, a 20.8 percentage point increase since 2010. I KF

Femalerepresentation

in2010 by2014 ariseof

1 Old Mutual 0.0% 38.5% 38.5% pts2 Aggreko 0.0% 30.0% 30.0% pts3 Glaxosmithkline 7.7% 35.7% 28.0% pts4 Wolseley 0.0% 27.3% 27.3% pts5 Land Securities Group 8.3% 33.3% 25.0% pts6= Associated British Foods 0.0% 22.2% 22.2% pts6= Capita 22.2% 44.4% 22.2% pts6= Petrofac 0.0% 22.2% 22.2% pts6= Weir Group 0.0% 22.2% 22.2% pts10 HSBC 16.7% 37.5% 20.8% pts

Source: www.gov.uk/government/news/cable-reveals-most-improved-ftse-100-companies-appointing-women-to-their-boards Data for the top 10 most improved FTSE 100 companies was sourced from: The Female FTSE Report 2010; Women on boards: 6 month monitoring report - October 2014


For its 10th Anniversary in October 2014, the Women’s Forum in Deauville brought together an array of

very impressive leaders. IMF’s Christine Lagarde swept the floor in conversation with MSL Group CEO Olivier Fleurot. World Food Programme Managing Director Ertharin Cousin gave an emotionally powerful insight into her role and how being able to find funding keeps her awake at night. ENA’s Director Nathalie Loiseau spoke about her book, Choisissez tout!, in which she questions the reasons women believe they constantly have to make sacrifices and choose between a successful career and a family life. She, for one, has always believed we can have it all as long as we accept not to be perfect in every role. Lebanese journalist May Chidiac related how she survived a car bombing and reconstructed her body, mind and soul through a journey back to life, only to go back and fight for more women in leadership in her region.

Mazars launched the results of Women’s Planet, an interesting study about gender equality that covers three generations (W, X, Y), 2,382 women in 108 countries. I was part of a panel representing all regions of the world to discuss the outcome. Among the key findings, the need for freedom (61%) and respect (60%) came first. Education was identified by 72% as crucial to achieving gender equality internationally, whereas work came first (52%) on the same topic nationally. The average score given to the level of gender equality in their country by survey participants was 6.13/10. And 57% of them considered that employers should play a role in supporting better work life balance.

There is still room for improvement as I would have liked to see more diversity. More men. More ladies from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. With all due respect and gratitude to the Orange Foundation who rewarded African women making a significant change in their local communities, I strongly felt that Africa was very much under-represented in its leadership. At a time when the continent is thriving with talents, it would have been appropriate to give a larger number of leaders an opportunity to share the major changes and challenges they deal with and how they make it happen. In the May 2014 edition of Forbes Afrique Magazine, I ranked the 100 most influential Women in Africa. This is

the first ever ranking of its kind. It was by all standards a fantastic, eye-opening enterprise. From heads of states to scientific researchers, from media moghuls to central bank governors, from stock exchange CEOs to mine owners, from multiple Grammy Award winners to Oscar winners, from astronauts to technology champions, from oil queens to billionaire business women, they are taking control and making a significant impact.

Since 2003, women in the Gulf countries are more present in public life, in business and in education. Leading the way is Bahrain where they have the greatest degree of freedom. Bahrain and the UAE have set a precedent in appointing women judges in 2006 and 2008. Kuwait and Qatar have put in place major government policies to improve women’s status. In 2005, Kuwaiti women obtained the right to vote and run for office. Qatar and the UAE have codified family law.

Despite having elected Isabel Perón, Michelle Bachelet and Dilma Roussef as Heads of State, Latin American countries remain male dominated and quite intimidating for women. Currently, between 17% and 53% of women in the region are victims of violence and nearly 92% of these crimes go unpunished! The professional glass ceiling is still very thick and access to C-level positions is scarce. Nonetheless, corporate Latin American women are now mentoring their younger high potentials in a quest to break those barriers.

In Asia, the situation varies, with South-east Asian women gaining increased access to education and better employment opportunities, while those in Central Asia still face high levels of domestic violence and a lack of representation in decision-making bodies. Yet, we all remember Prime Ministers Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Indira Ghandi and Benazir Bhutto. Today, new prominent figures like Sheila Dikshit and Shraddha Shridhar, at the head of the cities of Delhi and Bombay, are leading transformational changes in their societies while trying to accommodate culture, traditions and talent loss through women choosing the go back to housewife status as soon as they have their first child.

We must watch this space and follow their progress as women from around the world come up with new solutions to improve their status. I

A global perspective on Women in Leadership

A panelist at the Women’s Forum and herself a recipient of a Woman in Leadership award from her native benin, Nadia Mensah-Acogny, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Acosphere gives an overview of the women’s positions around the world

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||| Paris and London, two world capitals of art and culture, are sharing their cultural riches with each other through the Paris-London Tandem 2015, initiated by the Institut Français and the City of Paris, in partnership with the British Council and with the support of the City of London. From March to July, Londoners will

be able to see artists and their creations from Paris and vice versa. Many disciplines will be on show, including music, theatre, literature, the visual arts and cinema, as well as a special platform for emerging artists and young people. The following are some of the highlights not to be missed:

PARIS-LONDON TANDEM 2015:

||| This is one of the top French exhibitions in London in 2015, and the first major retrospective devoted to Sonia Delaunay, a key figure in the Parisian avant-garde, whose vivid and colourful work spanned painting, fashion and design.

Organised by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the exhibition brings over 400 of Delaunay’s works together – including the iconic Bal Bullier and Electric Prisms. The show illustrates the breadth of her vibrant artistic career, from her early figurative painting in the 1900s to her energetic abstract work in the 1960s. Revealing the diverse inspirations behind Delaunay’s work, from the highly personal approach to colour which harked back to her childhood in Russia, to the impact of her years in Spain and Portugal, the show also explores the inspiration provided by modern technology throughout her career. It includes her vast 7-metre murals Motor, Dashboard and Propeller, created for the 1937 International Exposition in Paris and never before shown in the UK. I

15 April – 9 August 2015 - Open daily from 10am to 6pm and until 10pm on Friday and Saturday/Full price: £16.00

Electric Prisms 1914 - Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris

The EY Exhibition: Sonia Delaunay

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||| ‘Inventing Impressionism’ is the first exhibition in the UK devoted to Paul Durand-Ruel, the greatest art dealer of the 19th century, who discovered the Impressionist painters and invented the modern art market as we know it today.

The show includes around 85 works, among them a number of Impressionism’s greatest masterpieces which have never been seen in the UK before. These pictures – the vast majority of which were dealt by Durand-Ruel – are borrowed from the key European and American collections he helped form, as well as from Japan.

The museum also presents a series of rarely seen portraits of the dealer and his children painted by Renoir and exhibited in the country for the first

time. Other highlight paintings include paintings from Monet’s Poplars series, which Durand-Ruel exhibited together as a group for the first time in 1892 and will be exceptionally reunited in London.

The culmination of ‘Inventing Impressionism’ evokes an exhibition Durand-Ruel organised in London in 1905 at the Grafton Galleries, which has remained to this day the largest show of Impressionist paintings ever attempted anywhere. The exhibition was the dealer’s last major effort in a campaign that had begun in London 30 years earlier, and reflected the dealer’s now established position in the art world.

This exhibition was organised by Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais in collaboration with the Musée d’Orsay, the National Gallery and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I4 March – 31 May / Open daily 10am to 6pm / Fridays 10am to 9pm / Full price: £18.00

Pierre-Auguste Renoir The Cup of Chocolate, about 1877-8 Private Collection

Inventing Impressionism

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||| Celebrated stage and screen actress Juliette Binoche plays Antigone in a contemporary version of Sophokles’s tragedy, translated afresh by TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Anne Carson. The production is directed by Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove, renowned for the revelatory nature of his work, who first enthralled London audiences with his ground-breaking Roman Tragedies at the Barbican in 2009.

When her dead brother is decreed a traitor, his body left

unburied beyond the city walls, Antigone refuses to accept this most severe of punishments. Defying her uncle who governs, she dares to say ‘No’. Forging ahead with a funeral alone, she places personal allegiance before politics, a tenacious act that will trigger a cycle of destruction.

This Barbican co-production has its world premiere at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg in February followed by the UK premiere at the Barbican in March. It then embarks on a major international tour including runs in Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris, Recklinghausen, the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival and New York. I 4–28 March / weekdays 7:45pm, Saturdays 2:30pm and 7:45pm, Sundays 3pm Barbican Theatre (in English with French subtitles). Price: £16–55 plus booking fee

Juliette Binoche in Ivo van Hove’s Antigone

Antigone by Sophokles, directed by Ivo van Hove

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||| This is the first major exhibition in the UK to present the fascinating personal collections of post-war and contemporary artists, including Arman, Peter Blake, Hanne Darboven, Edmund de Waal, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Dr Lakra, Sol LeWitt, Martin Parr, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Andy Warhol, Pae White and Martin Wong/Danh Vo. Their collections range from mass-produced memorabilia and popular collectibles to one-of-a-kind curiosities, rare artefacts, and natural history specimens. Curated by Lydia Yee, the exhibition presents a selection of objects from the collections of the artists alongside at least one key example of their work to provide insight into their inspirations, influences, motives, and obsessions. I Until 25 May Open Saturday to Wednesday 10am to 6pm, Thursday & Fridays, 10am to 9pm/ Full price: £12

Cookie jars formerly in the collection of Andy Warhol

Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector

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||| The Royal Academy of Arts presents a survey of Richard Diebenkorn’s figurative and abstract works to a UK audience for the first time in almost 25 years. Celebrated as a post-war Master in his native United States, the exhibition serves as an opportunity to discover the importance of Diebenkorn within the canon of American painting.

The exhibition is a focused exploration of the artist’s ever-changing, always

compelling career across four decades, shifting from the abstract to the figurative in both painting and works on paper. It brings together over 50 works with significant loans from public and private collections in the US and Europe. I Until 7 JuneOpen daily from 10am to 6pm, until 10pm on Fridays and until 10pm on Saturdays from 14 March to 4 AprilFull price: £11.50

Richard Diebenkorn

royal academy of arts, london

w h at’s o n : a s e l ec t i o n o f ot h e r e x h i b i t i o n s i n lo n d o n

||| Serpentine Galleries presents the first solo show in London by Cameroon-born, Belgium-based artist Pascale Marthine Tayou. The exhibition includes new work made specifically for the Serpentine and introduces audiences to a range of works that demonstrate the artist’s unique ability to combine issues of individual and national identity and global consumption.

The exhibition, his first in the UK since 2008, will see the Serpentine Sackler Gallery populated by a diverse mix of sculptural forms that demonstrate Tayou’s unique visual language based on archetypes, made and found objects and traditional craft. Mysterious human forms and fantastical beasts – such as the 100 metre snake of Africonda – incorporate materials such as cloth, wood, plastic, glass, organic matter and consumer waste combined with an artisanal skill. I Until 17 May / Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm/ Free admission

s e r p e n t i n e s ac k l e r g a l l e ry, lo n d o n

Ocean Park #116, 1979

Things Fall Apart, 2014 (metal structure, painted grasses, masks, wood sculptures, notebooks)

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b o o k r e v i e w s

These books, recently translated into English, were selected by the French Institute

||| Kosher sushi, kebabs, a second hand bookshop and a bar: the 19th arrondissement in Paris is a cosmopolitan neighbourhood where multicultural citizens live, love and worship alongside one another. This peace is shattered when Ahmed Taroudant’s melancholy daydreams are interrupted by the blood dripping from his upstairs neighbour’s brutally mutilated corpse.

The violent murder of Laura Vignole, and the pork joint placed next to her, set imaginations ablaze across the neighbourhood, and Ahmed finds himself the prime suspect. However detectives Rachel Kupferstein and Jean Hamelot are not short of leads. What is the connection between a disbanded hip-hop group and the fiery extremist preachers that jostle in the streets for attention? And what is the mysterious new pill that is taking the district by storm?

In this debut novel, Karim Miské demonstrates a masterful control of setting, as he moves seamlessly between the streets of Paris and the synagogues of New York to reveal the truth behind a horrifying crime. I

ARAB JAzzby Karim Miské

Published by MacLehose Press

Translated by Sam Gordon

Original title: Arab Jazz

||| In 2011 alone, the US deployed one drone strike every four days in Pakistan. Drone Theory is a rigorous polemic against the increasing use of robot warfare around the world. Drawing on philosophical debate, moral lessons from Greek mythology and transcripts of conversations between drone operators, Drone Theory re-evaluates the socio-political impact of drone warfare on the world and its people. Chamayou takes us through Nevada, Pakistan and arresting philosophical terrain to reveal how drones are changing the landscape of war theory and to highlight the profound moral implications of our own silence in the face of drone warfare. I

DRONE THEORYby Grégoire Chamayou

Published by Penguin

Translated by Janet Lloyd

Original title: Théorie du drone

||| Kurt Krausmann, a recently bereaved Frankfurt doctor, is persuaded to join his friend, wealthy benefactor Hans Makkenroth, on a humanitarian mission to the Comoros. The journey helps him begin to confront his loss, but soon misfortune strikes when their boat is hijacked in the Gulf of Aden and the men are taken hostage.

Held in a remote hideout, the prisoners suffer harsh conditions and the brutality of their guards; self-styled warriors, ex-army captains and even poets drawn to banditry through poverty or opportunism. When Hans is taken away, Kurt sinks deeper into despair, but fellow inmate Bruno, a French ethnologist, attempts to show him another side to the continent he has taken to his heart. I

THE AFRICAN EqUATIONby Yasmina Khadra

Published by Gallic Books

Translated by Howard Curtis

Original title: L’équation africaine

||| Franz Kafka, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, contributed greatly to existentialism, and the term “Kafkaesque” is now synonymous with the literature of the surreal, the complex and the illogical. However, in Kafka, Angry Poet, Pascale Casanova looks past the customary analyses of Kafka’s work and dives deep into his mind, examining his motives. She bravely asks the question, What if Kafka were the most radical of social critics? What if he had actually attempted to pull the wool over our eyes with narratives that are, in fact, subtly deceptive? The hypothesis she develops is that Kafka began with an awareness of the tragic fate of the German-speaking Jews of early 20th-century Prague and was subsequently led to reflect on other forms of power, such as male dominance and colonial oppression. The stories produced as a result were traps for the unwary, throwing the reader off the scent with the use of unreliable and even deceitful narrators. Through her detailed research, Casanova shows us a combative Kafka who is at once ethnologist and investigator, unstintingly denouncing all forms of domination with the kind of tireless rage that was his hallmark. In so doing, she sheds light on the deep-seated reasons for Kafka’s anger. I

KAFKA, ANGRY POETby Pascale CasanovaPublished by Seagull BooksTranslated by Chris Turner Original title: Kafka en colère


A worldwide celebration of French gastronomy

stay.•

drink•

eat

We wanted to showcase the essence of A la in Ducasse’s cuis ine for th is specia l evening dedicated to French gastronomy. The f ine combination of tradit ion and innovation is the source of A la in Ducasse’s inspirat ion and cul inary creativ i ty. With our Goût de France / Good France menu we wanted to feature some of the tradit ional and signature dishes l ike the ‘Sauté gourmand’ of lobster, truf f led chicken quenel les which has been on our menu s ince the opening of the restaurant, but re interpreting them especia l ly for the event.

AlAin DucAsse At the Dorchester

I am tru ly del ighted that Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons is one of the UK Restaurants par t ic ipating in the Goût de France celebration of French cuis ine. Le Manoir ce lebrated our 30th bir thday last year and my team and I are very proud to have stood the test of t ime and del ivered French cuis ine for th is amount of t ime. I do hope you are able to jo in my team and I at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.

Raymond Blanc

BelmonD le mAnoir Aux QuAt’sAisons

On 19 March, the eve of spring, 1,300 French chefs will be serving a French-style dinner across 150 countries in all five continents and French embassies. This unique event is ‘Goût de France / Good France’, an initiative led by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development in collaboration with Chef Alain Ducasse to give French gastronomy – a vibrant, open and innovative cuisine – the prominence it deserves in the world.

‘France’s heritage is its cuisine, its wines... The gastronomic meal of the French has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2010, but it is a heritage that should not simply be contemplated, glorified and savoured; it is a heritage that should be built upon and showcased,’ explained French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius during the official presentation of the project last December. It will be the first time France has leveraged its gastronomy to promote the country and stimulate tourism on a global scale.

A committee of international French Chefs has selected participating restaurants, among which 21 are located in the UK, and several are Chamber members. On the day, each Chef will offer a French-style menu in their restaurant with a traditional French apéritif, a cold starter, a hot starter, fish or shellfish, meat or poultry, a French cheese (or cheeseboard), a chocolate dessert, French wines and liqueurs, while remaining free to highlight their own culinary traditions and cultures.

We asked our Chef members to comment on this event and the menus they have chosen. I JM

GOûT DE fRANcE / GOOD fRANcE:

Hot s tar ter : Sauté gourmand of lobs ter, t ru f f led ch icken quenel les

Desser t : Tr io of choco late of Grand Cru

Park Lane, London W1K 1QA +44 (0)20 7629 8866

Church Road Great Mi l ton OX44 7PD +44 (0)1844 278 881


A worldwide celebration of French gastronomy

I am tru ly del ighted that Club Gascon has been chosen as one of the UK Restaurants to par t ic ipate in the Goût de France celebration of French cuis ine. Club Gascon aims to defend and promote the cuis ine of South-west France to a wider audience; i t is our essence, what we stand for and I am very happy and excited that we can br ing our corner of France – and French cuis ine in general – to people’s at tention on the 19 March. I t wi l l be a lot of fun and a new means of demonstrating to people what we are a l l rea l ly about.

Pascal Aussignac

Club GasCon

The Goût de France / Good France values of shar ing, enjoy ing and respecting good food are those we showcase at Rivea London. Our Goût de / Good France menu highl ights the c lassic f lavours and v iv id colours of the Riv iera, with a focus on s imple creations using the best seasonal ingredients l ike turbot, asparagus and morels.

A lexandre Nicolas

Rivea

The Gri l l’s cuisine is innovative, generous and gourmet, qual i t ies which are also at the hear t of French cuisine. I am very happy to be one of the many chefs par ticipating in an international event that pays tr ibute to gastronomy. I just f ind it fascinating to see how everyone is celebrating French gastronomy around the world.

Christophe Marleix

The GRill aT The DoRChesTeR

l’aTelieR De Joël RobuChon

Goût de France gives me a wonder fu l oppor tunity to show just how dist inctive French cuis ine can be, and how chefs a l l over the wor ld can showcase the ir own interpretation. At L’Ate l ier de Joel Robuchon in London we pr ide ourselves on prepar ing contemporary French cuis ine which is uncompl icated, beauti fu l ly presented, combining c lassic French inspirat ion and the best possible ingredients del ivered dai ly. Our specia l Goût de France menu is a good example of the inspirat ion I get f rom using the wonder fu l seasonal foods that are avai lable in the UK and fur ther af ie ld.

Hot s tar ter : Spr ing tu l ip pr imavera

Meat or poul t r y : Free range quai l s tu f fed wi th fo ie gras and mashed potatoes

Cold s tar ter : Mar inated sea bream, c i t rus

Cold s tar ter : The Gr i l l ’s ‘pâté en croûte’

57 West Smi thf ie ld EC1A 9DS London +44 (0)20 7600 6144

13 -15 West Street WC2H 9NE London +44 (0)207 010 8600

Bulgar i Hote l & Residences, 171 Knightsbr idge SW7 1DW London +44 (0)207 151 1025

Park Lane, London W1K 1Q +44 20 7317 6531


BReAD-MAKInG AT PAUL

Turning, drawing, folding, proving, cutting, dividing and scoring are words that would not be out of

place in a maths lesson, but they are, in fact, part of the bread-making process. In truth, making bread is a mixture of maths, science and art. Or, as our master class instructor, one of PAUL’s master bakers, told us, a bit of ‘magic’! At the Bankside bakery, where evening master classes are held on alternate Tuesday evenings (Covent Garden being the other venue), he inducted our small group into an ancient tradition that has remained relatively unchanged for centuries.

Although all bread is the combination of four simple ingredients – flour, water, yeast and salt – French bread, as we discovered, is distinctive because of the flour used, the small amount of yeast and a much longer prove, which gives it its light, open crumb and crisp crust. The quality of French flour of the type that PAUL uses is down to consistency of climate and soil, and we were given different types feel, from silky soft to slightly coarser stoneground varieties.

The bread-making class is hands-on all the way, and before long we were up to our elbows in dough, trying to copy the slick movements of the kneading technique, and cutting and shaping our own loaves from already proved dough. All the while, we learnt about the science behind what we were doing – how the gluten molecules have to line up and bind to form a strong elastic network, and what exactly happens when the dough is left to rise. At the last stage, we gathered in the kitchen to turn out and score our loaves (those patterns on loaves have a purpose and even special names for each type) before using long, wooden paddles to shimmy them into place in the hot ovens.

The unexpected highlight of the evening was the chance to taste the fruits of our labour, hot, crisp, steaming

and smelling delicious, with cheese, charcuterie and wine laid on in true French style. Eventually we were sent home laden with loaves, dough, recipes and above all the know-how to hopefully become bread artisans in our own kitchens. I KFVisit www.paul-uk-classes.com to book a PAUL bread master class


Lancashire BomB by la cave à fromage

||| Classic French cheeses are the usual fare in this column, but the time has come to celebrate a jewel of modern cheese from Great Britain, the Lancashire Bomb.

This rather provocative cheese is coated in black wax in the shape of a bomb tied on top with a ribbon. First made 30 years ago by the Shorrock family in Lancashire, it was originally offered as a gift to friends moving out of the country, tightly wrapped in muslin and then dipped into wax, allowing it to stay fresh for longer periods of time.

Nowadays, no one would dare board a plane with such a suspicious looking package, but it is well worth seeking out this wonderfully rich, creamy, slightly acid cheese, which matures for a minimum

of two years. It comes from a very long tradition of cheese making in Northern England, where

farmers would mix curds over several days to make a whole cheese. Benefiting from

both the industrial and farming industries, Lancashire was and

remains a magnificent reservoir for quality foods.

My tip for enjoying a Lancashire Bomb is to consume it at room temperature, as soon as it becomes smooth, oozing with delicacy. To add an extra

touch of ‘Britishness’, serve it with some walnuts and apple

slices. Iby Eric Charriaux

E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)845 108 8222

W: www.la-cave.co.uk

Your wine with Lancashire Bomb by wine story

- CHEESE & WINE PRESS -

||| The selection of a cheese coated in black wax, a process which helps to retain the moisture within the cheese and protect it from external mould while the cheese is aged, reminded me of a very good Australian blue cheese that I discovered during a wine tour of the southern Hemisphere many years ago. And I may be one of the rare French men who returned home with cheese in his luggage instead of a didgeridoo. This was made possible due to the wax coating.

To come back to our friendly Bomb from Lancashire, I invite you to try it with wines from the Domaine de Nizas in the Languedoc region close to the traditional

market town of Pezenas. This Domaine founded by the American John Goelet in 1998 (a descendant of the famous Bordeaux wine house Barton & Guestier today owned by the Castel group) offers fantastic ripe white and red wines representative of the new Languedoc.

A good red wine to have with it would be the Mazet de Sallèle IGP Pays d’Oc, a blend of Syrah and Cabernet grapes with scents of cherries and red fruits and liquorice and a smooth palate. But for me the ideal match is the Nizas Languedoc AOC, a blend of 46% Roussanne, 36% Vermentino, 18% Viognier. This wine has a pale gold colour with green hints. Its bouquet is very intense with aromas of citrus, white peach and wild fennel. The palate is well-balanced, clean and crisp, expressing all the aromas in a fresh complexity and lingering finish and will be ideal with the creaminess and the acidity of the cheese. Iby Thibault Lavergne

E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)7921 770 691W: www.winestory.co.uk


LONDON BRANCH

Patron Members of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain

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alidation DA/DC

alidation Client

Date : 31/05/11

Nº dossier : 20110049E

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10 25 25 40


News at the Chamber

With only weeks to go until Britain votes for its next government, there has never been so much

uncertainty about the country’s political direction and position in the European Union. These were the themes picked up by the Ambassador in her first Brief to Chamber members on 20 January, but her clearest message was that France’s preference is for the UK to stay in the EU.

Our first Cross-Cultural quiz Evening, held not long after that, certainly exemplified the strong ties between our two nations, as numerous Franco-British teams competed in a spirit of friendly rivalry to outdo each other in cultural knowledge. Ultimately it was the Momentum team that triumphed – well done to them! It was also the ideal occasion to present this year’s Intercultural Trophy, which by popular vote went to ESCP Europe Business School, not only the oldest business school in the world, but also established in London since 1973. Congratulations to a well-deserved winner!

Since the start of the year, four new Directors have joined the Chamber’s Board and two new Advisory Councillors have also been co-opted. We would like to thank them for making this commitment to the Chamber. We have also welcomed 15 new members, including three Corporates and 12 Actives. Our Forums & Clubs have also been busy, holding several very interesting and informative sessions on a range of topics – you can read tasters of these in the following pages. We are also pleased to welcome new Chairs to the HR Forum and SME & Entrepreneurs Club.

And it’s been a long time coming, but the HR Forum’s Guide has just been published. Written by members of the Forum, it provides an overview of the particularities of employment law and HR practice in the UK, and will be especially useful for companies setting up business in the UK or UK subsidiaries of French companies which, from time to time, have to clarify the differences between British and French HR practices for their French Hqs.

Our Climate Change Forum has also been conducting a climate change opinion survey amongst member companies, the results of which will be presented at a conference we are co-organising with the French Embassy and the European Commission Representation in the UK, on the role of business in the fight against climate change, in London on 30 March. The goal of this conference is to contribute to the momentum towards a deal at the COP 21 United Nations Climate Change Conference which will be held in Paris at the end of the year.

Also hot off the press is our annual Franco-British

Trade Directory with the most up-to-date contacts of all Chamber member companies as well as other useful and essential contacts. But rather than looking them up, you will have the chance to meet lots of fellow members face to face at our popular Member to Member Cocktail & Exhibition on 25 March. Held for 16 years running, this event is an ideal occasion for extensive networking as well as a chance to find out more about member companies’ products and services. We look forward to seeing a wide array of our members there! I FG

DISCOvER the French Chamber:

payslips were generated by our Accountancy Service in 2014

3,548


3 NEw CORPORATE MEMBERS

12 NEw ACTIvE MEMBERS

n e w m e m b e r s

InterContinental London Park Lane | HotelRepresented by valentine Semeria, Business Development Manager - Luxury Division | www.parklane.international.com Situated at one of the capital’s most prestigious addresses, InterContinental London Park Lane reinvents traditional luxury to present modern and flexible sophistication in the heart of Mayfair. Inspired by its location overlooking the Royal Parks, the hotel delivers elegant natural interiors and award-winning seasonal cuisine. The flagship property combines exemplary service with insiders’ experiences that bring London to life.

My Goodlife | First portal for services dedicated to health care Represented by Karl Auzou, CTO | www.my-goodlife.co.ukMy GoodLife is a company that provides a remote medical observation service for people suffering from chronic physical conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cardiac insufficiency or cancer. Not only does My GoodLife specialise in developing and integrating remote, real-time monitoring systems, but also supplies related equipment (podometers, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), blood pressure monitors, glucometers, pill organisers) and personal coaching in the areas of mobility, physical exercise, nutrition and well-being.

visconti | Executive coachingRepresented by Gilles Avenel, Partner | www.visconti-coaching.comVisconti assists executives and their teams in all phases of company development (start-up, growth, plateauing, decline) and at each stage of their personal evolution (taking up a position, performing, evolving to another position). All coaches in Visconti, based in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the UK, are themselves highly experienced executives. Visconti coaching is based on its own methodology, developed in-house, to meet the whole range of key personal, management and strategic challenges, in various professional, cultural and linguistic environments.

Audencia Nantes School of ManagementManagement schoolRepresented by Françoise Marcus, Director of Corporate and Alumni Relations Departmentwww.audencia.com

Banque Chaabi du MarocTransfer of moneyRepresented by Monir Toutouh, Director of Subsidiarywww.chaabibank.co.uk

Barkston Consulting LtdBusiness consultingRepresented by Elisabeth Markart, Managing Director

Champagne Duval-Leroy LtdSales of ChampagneRepresented by Emmanuel Taupin, Sales Managerwww.duval-leroy.com

Do it in LondonLondon hot events by La ParisienneRepresented by véronique Constantinoff, Founderwww.doitinparis.com

Eiffel EngineeringStructural engineering companyRepresented by Benoit Cauvin, Directorwww.eiffelengineering.co.uk

EnzaManagement consultingRepresented by Mathieu Parratte, Managerwww.enza-consulting.co.uk

FIRE - First Invoice Recovery LtdDebt recovery / collection agency for SMEs / training in invoicing managementRepresented by Corinne Dieudonne, Directorwww.firstinvoicerecovery.co.uk

Jeff de BrugesConfectionery - chocolate shopRepresented by véronique Marvian, Directorwww.jeff-de-bruges.com

My French Communication AgencyCommunication consultant for the French marketRepresented by Jennifer Raimond, Directorwww.my-french-communication-agency.com

My Wine Cabinet Expert in wine cabinets and accessories Represented by Philippe Rodriguez, Managing Director www.my-wine-cabinet.co.uk

Pictawall Digital marketing tool Represented by Charles van Overmeire, International Development www.pictawall.com


h e l lo / g o o d by e

Philip Harris has been appointed CEO of Credit Suisse UK Private Banking and tasked with building on their Top 10 position in the UK. Philip joined Credit Suisse from the Royal Bank of Canada where he was Head of Private Client Wealth Management UK. Prior to that he spent five years at UBS as the Head of UK High Net Worth. Philip co-founded Scott Goodman Harris, an Independent Financial Advisory boutique, in 1998 and previously spent nine years working in a number of blue-chip financial businesses including Equitable Life, Scottish Widows and AXA. Before joining the financial services industry in 1989, Philip served in the British Army, achieving the rank of Captain. I

Philip Harris

h at s o f f to

Carolyn McCall has been ranked in the top 20 in the 2015 Debrett’s list of the 500 most influential people in the UK. As the CEO of easyJet since 2010, Carolyn McCall has been responsible for improving punctuality and introducing innovations in the airline. Under her leadership, easyJet has reached a landmark of 60 million passengers annually, and the company entered the FTSE 100 in 2013.

Prior to joining easyJet, Carolyn was Chief Executive of Guardian Media Group plc. In 2013 she was voted City AM’s Personality of the Year, is a former president of Women in Advertising and Communications London and the 2014 winner of the Business Achievement Award at the British Travel Industry Hall of Fame Awards. I

Marie-Pierre Seyfried joined the HEC Corporate Relations department as Deputy Director in January 2015. Supported by the HEC London Office, she is particularly keen at developing the international recognition of HEC through partnerships with non-French companies and organisations. Marie-Pierre was previously managing key accounts and international in-company training programmes for HEC Executive Education. She has a proven track record of expertise in developing new business opportunities and long-lasting client relations, as well as managing complex management training programmes. Her predecessor, Bérangère Pagès, has joined Cartier as International Internal Communication Director, and we would like to thank her for her support for the Chamber. IMarie-Pierre Seyfried

Tanuja Randery has been appointed UK & Ireland President of Schneider Electric. Tanuja was formerly President of Strategy, Marketing and Transformation at BT Global Services, when she was ranked in the 2014 Top 50 Technology Professionals by Institutional Investor. Prior to that she held a number of leadership roles in global technology and telecommunications firms both in the USA and Europe, including CEO of MarketPrizm and Managing Director of Benelux and the UK & Ireland at Colt Technology Services. She started her career in the USA with McKinsey, where she spent seven years as a consultant. Her predecessor, Stuart Thorogood, has moved back to New zealand to take up a new role at Schneider Electric as Community Leader for the Country President and Business VP groups. We would like to thank him for his support for the Chamber. ITanuja Randery

Stéphane Le Guével has been appointed Director General of Peugeot Citroën Automobiles (PCA) UK Ltd with overall responsibility for the Peugeot, Citroën and DS brands. Prior to this appointment in January, Stéphane had been Managing Director of Peugeot Motor Company in the UK since April 2014.

The UK played a significant role in the improvement of the Group’s results in 2014. With the new Peugeot 308 crowned ‘Car of the Year 2014’ and the Citroën C4 Cactus runner-up for ‘Car of the Year 2015’, along with the creation of the DS brand as a standalone entity, 2015 is set to be another exciting and successful year as Stéphane leads his UK teams on the road to recovery. I


c h a m b e r s h o rti e s

The Chamber recently welcomed four new members to its Board of Directors: Stephen Burgin, Regional Vice President, Northern & Central Europe, Alstom Power; Paul Kahn, President, Airbus Group UK; and Helena Kavanagh, Managing Director, JCDecaux ; and Olivier Morel, Partner & Head of International Corporate Investment at Cripps LLP and President of CCE. The Board is the supreme governing council of the Chamber, responsible for guiding the Chamber’s policies, taking major decisions regarding the Chamber’s strategy and increasing its effectiveness by actively participating in and leading its activities.

The Chamber’s Advisory Council also co-opted two new advisory councillors: Guy Wieynk, CEO, Publicis UK & Nordics and Jean-Pierre Mustier, Partner, Tikehau Investment Limited. I

New Board members and Advisory Councillors for the Chamber

The 2015 Franco-British Trade Directory has been published and should be landing on the desks of all members any time now. It lists more than 1,650 contacts and allows searches by sector, company name or representative’s name.

In addition to a comprehensive list of members’ contacts, it has many other useful contacts in both the UK and France, including for the first time, all the other foreign Chambers in the UK. The online version, which is updated regularly, can be accessed at www.frenchchamber.co.uk/membership/search-for-members I

The 2015 Franco-British Trade Directory is out!

£12

a practical approach to human resources in great britain

New to HR in the UK?

Written by members of the French Chamber’s HR Forum, this guide provides an

overview of Human Resources practices and law in the UK, and is full of valuable

testimonials, tips and advice. A particularly useful reference tool for those seeking

to set up a company in the UK, it will also help French subsidiaries in the UK to clarify

the differences between UK and French HR practices for their French headquarters.

AREAS COvERED INCluDE: How to recruit - The legal framework - What salary and benefits? - Payroll, taxation and other charges - Working conditions

Stephen Burgin Paul Kahn Helena Kavanagh Olivier Morel


We are pleased to announce that Roxane Certner has recently joined the Chamber as the Head of Membership / Patron & Corporate Relationship Manager.

Roxane brings over seven years of global experience in various positions, specialising in finance and public affairs. She started her career at Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking in the equity derivatives sales team after graduating from EDHEC Business School. In 2010, she moved to London, bringing both her technical and commercial skills to the economic department of the French Embassy. Within the Embassy, she was responsible for organising the French government’s official visits to London and liaising with the CCE network, which put her in contact with representatives of major companies. She has been very successful in developing an outstanding network in both the private and public sectors in France and the UK, and has been praised for being hardworking and having outstanding networking skills.

Roxane will be your point of contact to answer your questions, optimise your membership and facilitate any introductions you may require. Contact: [email protected] / +44(0) 20 70 92 66 35 or +44 (0)7802 866 208 I

Meet the Chamber’s new Head of Membership / Patron & Corporate Relationship Manager: Roxane Certner

r ec e nt e v e nt s

HE Ms Sylvie Bermann became the third French Ambassador to give this privileged briefing to

Patron and Corporate members of the Chamber at the French Residence, since the Ambassador’s Briefs were set up five years ago by the then President of the Chamber, Arnaud Vaissié, who was present on this occasion to give the introduction.

Ms Bermann chose to give her perspectives on the forthcoming UK elections and the UK’s place in the European Union, noting that she had started her Ambassadorship in the UK at an interesting moment

just before the Scottish referendum took place. Now with pivotal General Elections taking place in May, she observed that they are considered extremely hard to call by everyone she has spoken to, with nine possible scenarios as an outcome.

On the prospect of a referendum on EU membership, the Ambassador made it clear that France did not want a ‘Brexit’. For France, the presence of the UK within the EU is crucial, not only to balance the relationship with Germany, but also because of bilateral military cooperation. I KF

ambassador’s brief 20 JanUary


Organised by the French Chamber and sponsored by PwC, the first edition of the Cross Cultural Quiz Evening was a chance for Chamber members to test their French and British cultural know-how as well as to celebrate the new winner of the 2015 Intercultural Trophy

cross cultural quiz evening & intercultural trophy5 FeBruary

Pressure was mounting on participants as they gathered for the very first edition of the Cross

Cultural Quiz Evening in PwC’s Embankment offices. While some were already asking for bonus points when picking up their name tags, others sized up the competition over introductory cocktails and canapés, which in keeping with the theme were distinctly French and British. Guests then proceeded to their tables, which had been carefully arranged with an equal number of French and British players to ensure the fairness of the game.

Peter Alfandary, Vice President of the French Chamber, Chairman of the Cross Cultural Forum and author of the quiz, kicked off this sold-out event with the first round of the quiz, entitled ‘Our two countries’ including various general knowledge questions about France and the UK such as giving the number of cheese varieties produced in France versus the UK within 50 cheeses. This set the level of the quiz from the start. Guests were instantly drawn into the game, all determined to bring victory to their table as well as enrich their Franco-British cultural know-how. A Franco-British buffet dinner offered participants delicious culinary escapes for the main, cheese and dessert courses between each quiz round.

While scores were tight, in a playful yet rather competitive atmosphere, the quiz evening ended with the announcement that team Momentum, the customer service provider for Eurostar, had swept the board. The victors took to the stage to receive goody bags filled with luxurious gifts, courtesy of Vranken Pommery, Ladurée, Maille and Nuxe. I JM

Competition was intense between the teams

The 18th

InTerculTural Trophy

The evening also provided the occasion for the presentation of the Intercultural Trophy, designed by Cartier and sponsored by AXA, with Yves Masson, CEO of AXA Direct & Partnerships introducing the 18th edition of this award.

This year’s winner was ESCP Europe Business School for their continuous efforts in

strengthening Franco-British relations. ESCP Europe’s UK Director, Chris Halliburton took the stage to receive the trophy from last year’s winner, Emmaus, saying, ‘We are genuinely thrilled at winning this award and honoured to join the distinguished

roll call of former winners, especially as the first educational establishment. The trophy represents for us a great success in working across cultures wherever ESCP Europe is located, particularly in Britain where our students and workforce are truly international.’

Yves Masson

Chris Halliburton


2015 started à la française with the second edition of the ‘Galette des Rois’ event, held in the cosy and stylish High Street Kensington

Aubaine restaurant, privatised for the occasion. Around 60 Chamber members from a wide variety of sectors gathered to celebrate the beloved French tradition around a delicious ‘Galette des Rois’, offered as an authentic frangipane version as well as a more daring apple variant. As French custom dictates, a queen was crowned after finding the ‘fève’ and she, together with the winner of the evening’s lucky draw, received a voucher for a dinner for two at Aubaine. Galettes were served by Aubaine’s attentive staff alongside a beautiful selection of French pastries and canapés (‘sucré/salé’). Members enjoyed networking in such a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere and everyone left with gourmet goody bags. I JM

rendez-voUs chez aUbaine 15 JanUary

The tenth edition of ‘Rendez-vous chez…’ took place at

l’Atelier des Chefs cooking school in the basement kitchens of their Wigmore Street shop, in Mayfair.

This sold-out event was the perfect chance for Chamber members to enhance their culinary skills and sample their own creations while networking with fellow members from various sectors, in a

relaxed, convivial setting. On the stainless steel tables

of the school, with dedicated chefs to instruct and guide them, members set about making perfect homemade dumplings, sushi and mini burgers among other tasty and wonderful ‘Street Food’ dishes. The hands-on cooking class extended to the preparation and tasting of some exquisite desserts and cocktails,

including lemon meringue pies, date and orange samosas as well as apple strudel Martini cocktails.

The evening’s lucky draw winner received a voucher for a cooking class for two at L’Atelier des Chefs. All guests left armed with great new recipes and an apron from L’Atelier des Chefs to keep up their skills at home and impress their family and friends! I JM

rendez-voUs chez l’atelier des chefs 10 febrUary

Preparing ‘street food’ at L’Atelier des Chefs


The New West End Company is essentially the marketing and management company for the

West End, which has the objective of driving footfall and sales in the retail heartland of London that includes Bond Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street and 22 surrounding streets. Richard Dickinson flagged up three developments with a potentially significant impact on retail: Chinese visas, Crossrail and the Bond Street Improvement Plan.

Chinese visasNoting the huge disparity between Paris and London in attracting Chinese tourists – a factor of 10 to 1 – Richard pointed to the UK visa position as being the main constraint. The lobby group UK China Visa Alliance has sent a clear message to the government on this issue with ‘marginal improvements’ as a result: numbers have crept up from 133k in 2011 to 293k in 2014, but are nowhere near Paris’s 1.2 million Chinese visitors. The root cause of having a separate UK visa rather than being part of the Schengen has not been addressed. Currently the UKCVA is working with the Home Secretary Theresa May on a ‘one-stop shop’ principle of having two visas issued from one application and an announcement is expected shortly.

CrossrailCrossrail – the high frequency, high capacity railway currently being built east to west across London – will be a gamechanger in terms of demand. Costing £14bn, it is the largest infrastructure project in Europe, designed to cope with London’s population, which is projected to reach 10 million by 2030. As an example,

96k people currently use Bond Street station daily – Crossrail will double this amount by the early 2020s. It will transform the West End, but also put 7 million square feet of additional retail space into London, posing both a challenge and an opportunity. Managing this volume of people will be the main challenge, and market research is currently underway into the profile of shoppers, their likely destinations and purchases. The West End itself will likely shift northwards eradicating the disparity in rents. D-day is December 2018 when Crossrail trains will start running, and this is bringing focus to plans to maximise the success of the West End for the long term.

Bond Street Improvement PlanBond Street has fantastic shops, but to reflect a proper luxury offer, a refurbishment of its streetscape is being planned to create a high quality, contemporary and competitive space for the best retailers in the world. The carriageway, lighting, pavement and street furniture will all be transformed, commercial vehicles will be limited and traffic flows will be changed, in order to create a better atmosphere for customers, increase footfall, attract new tenants and improve ROI. Funding for the multi-million pound scheme is being sought from property owners, Transport for London and the Westminster City Council.

TrendsTurning to higher-level trends, Barratt West, Managing Director of Tiffany & Co, acknowledged that 2014 had been a challenging year for a lot of brands, driven by the unexpected challenges of tourism. 2013 was strong, thanks to the uplift from the events of 2012, but since

lUxUry clUb breakfast 11 december

Members of the Luxury Club listen to Barratt West giving an overview of trends in the luxury sector

Breakfasting at the sublime Bulgari Hotel, Luxury Club members heard from Richard Dickinson, Chief Executive of New west End Company and Barratt west, Managing Director of Tiffany & Co on topical issues and global trends affecting the luxury sector


then, geopolitical issues have led to a sharp decline in Russian tourists, high spending Chinese tourists seem to have been replaced by a more middle class profile and Middle Eastern customers have eschewed London, partly because of the impact on pockets of a plunging oil price.

Nevertheless, a recent report predicted that the UK will become the number one luxury market in Europe by 2018 (it is currently behind Italy and France). The reasons are that it is a fairly stable, safe environment, there is a migration of investment to London, particularly in property, significant infrastructure development is taking place with Crossrail, the French and Italian economies are not in good shape so spending there will be constrained, and UK visa restrictions are being reduced. If all those factors come together over the next three years, the opportunities will be very significant. I KF

L to R: Barratt West, Managing Director, Tiffany & Co.; Arnaud Bamberger; Executive Chairman of Cartier;Richard Dickinson, Chief Executive, New West End Company;Sylvain Ercoli, General Manager, Bulgari Hotel and Residences London; Beverly Aspinall, Managing Director Bond Street, New West End Company; Bertrand Michaud, Managing Director, Hermès GB and Chair of the Chamber’s Luxury Club

Mark Pautz becomes the new Chair of the HR Forum

Jennifer Westen is stepping down as Chair of the HR Forum as she is being relocated to Singapore, so we are pleased to announce that Mark Pautz will become the new Chair. Mark joined International SOS as Human Resource Director for Europe in February 2015. In this capacity, he reports administratively to the Regional Managing Director Europe and functionally to the Group Director, Human Resources. He is also a member of the European Executive Committee.

Before joining International SOS, Mark spent over 20 years with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu where he held many positions, including Global Talent Director for Deloitte Analytics, Global Director of Workforce Planning & Analytics and Regional HR Director for Deloitte Central

Europe. He has also been based in a number of locations including Johannesburg, Prague, London and Princeton. Mark has an extensive background and long history in the field of Human Resources and Talent Management, and brings knowledge of HR strategy, policies and procedures, project management, performance management and employee engagement. Mark holds a Masters degree in Commerce and is a registered Industrial Psychologist. We wish to thank Jennifer for chairing the Forum for the past seven months. I

Arnaud de Montille becomes new co-Chair of the SME & Entrepreneurs Club

Arnaud de Montille will become the new Co-chair of the SME & Entrepreneurs Club as Sébastien Delecour steps down after two years in the role. Arnaud de Montille founded Merci Maman Personalised Gifts with his wife in 2007, joining the company full time in 2013. He was previously working in Risk Management at Deutsche Bank in London. His main role is Finance, Administrative and Operations Director and he is also strongly involved in business development. In 2014, Merci Maman more than doubled its turnover, and was the recipient of the Franco British Business Award in the SME category.

We wish to thank Sébastien for co-chairing the Forum since the beginning of 2013. I

- Welcome to two new Chairs -


hr forUm 12 febrUary

The increasing need for a centralised global mobility process The trends highlighted above entail unprecedented challenges for HR and mobility teams who need to adapt and rethink their procedures and policies – sometimes from scratch – in order to have access to the best talents worldwide. When entering new growth markets, most companies struggle with payroll compliance with tax authorities worldwide. Complete and accurate data collection is another key challenge they need to face in order to manage their compensation processes and cost structures appropriately. The need for HR teams to implement a centralised global process offering a comprehensive overview of their programs and policies across the globe was highlighted.

International SOS: champion of global mobility Global mobility functions play a critical role especially at International SOS, the medical and travel security risks services company which hires doctors in over 80 countries where medical care of an international standard is unavailable, or where cultural and language barriers make it difficult to receive appropriate care.

As the business grew bigger, the company had to adapt their assignment procedures to various local requirements and specificities, most countries in Africa having no tax system in place for instance. In an effort to establish clear guidelines and standards for international assignments, International SOS set up a centralised global mobility business unit, composed of 40 employees all based in Singapore. Interestingly, the creation of new missions across the globe led to the creation of new roles within this unit. Studying the lifecycle of each assignment, this unit has been a key success factor for International SOS in keeping their cost structures and international assignment procedures consistent and operational. I JM

Global mobility trends: growing assignee numbers, shift toward growth markets and changing demographicsGlobal employee mobility has drastically evolved and increased in the last decade, across countries, cultures as well as genders. Due to globalisation and technology advancements, the world has become more interconnected than before, allowing companies to considerably expand the reach of their activities all around the world. The recent economic recovery has also led to increased international employee mobility, as companies can gradually afford to hire more expats than locals.

More particularly, EY Global Mobility’s latest annual survey has identified three major trends impacting the global workforce mobility landscape:• Assignee numbers have significantly increased over the last decade and are expected to grow further in the years to come. Short term assignments especially, which are more business focused and can last up to 6 months, are predicted to experience the biggest growth. • Companies are increasingly sending assignees to new growth markets (usually identified as China, Brazil or India but also the US and the UK), as opposed to other locations.• Changing assignee demographics is another important phenomenon. Assignees now look for assignments much earlier in their careers and have very different needs and expectations compared to those of previous generations, smaller families implying smaller housing requirements for instance. They also come from different cultures and new emerging countries. A shift in gender demographics has also occurred as increased global mobility naturally implies an increasing number of women taking on various roles across the globe.

International mobility

Lee Scott, Senior Manager and Alexis Friedlander, Consultant at EY Global Mobility Compensation Services gave a presentation on the impact of globalisation on international mobility trends and the challenges for HR teams. The case of International SOS, presented by HR Group Director Jennifer westen, showed the critical importance of having centralised HR and mobility structures for businesses to attract, retain and deploy talents globally


sme & entrepreneUrs clUb 27 JanUary

A survey by Small Business News revealed that over 35% of small businesses consider networking

activities to be ineffective, while on the other hand academic research shows that SMEs lack the skills to network effectively. Unlike large corporates, who tend to use networking for relationship building with existing clients, for SMEs, it is essentially a sales activity to build their business, get a sense of the market, monitor competition and gather information. There is also a huge difference between networking in France and the UK. Here it is a war game, and having the right strategy is all important. So how do you make your networking powerful and effective?

1. Build a strategic networkYour networking strategy should start well before a networking event. Build lists of your top 50 contacts, your active network, your lost network and your future network, and fill in information that you find out as you go along so that you have a clear vision. Don’t forget the lost network – it may be more of an online activity but remember that networking is not just face to face – it is a state of mind. If you have done your homework, you would have researched those who are attending an event and know who to target and the kind of contacts you want to make.

2. work your network strategicallyIt is no coincidence that networking contains the word ‘work’. If you have the planned objective of attending a physical event, there are four steps to doing this:

Well beforeYou need to be equipped to network in every situation, for example by being armed with business cards at all times, but for a specific event, you should prepare a ‘toolbox’. This does not mean having a 60-second ‘elevator pitch’ because if you spend all your time talking about yourself, you are losing opportunities to gather information. Instead you should come prepared with a set of ‘killer’ questions, customised

by function and industry, for those you wish to talk to. If and when you are asked about yourself, make it as natural as possible using everyday language rather than marketing strap lines. Have a collection of little stories to tell, scripted but adaptable to every situation, and make people laugh so they will remember you. You should also have in your armoury prepared responses to common objections, such as dealing positively with comparisons with a competitor.

Just beforeTime block half an hour the day before an event to tweak your strategy, rehearse your lines and scan your list. If you don’t have a list, work on your objectives. That might be to find one new client, to meet all the actors in a certain sector, or to target three CEOs. Whatever it is, be clear about it and stay focused.

At the eventArrive 10 minutes before the start so that you can scan the room and find those you want to speak to. Important people usually arrive on time and leave early, so that is the best time to talk to them. Don’t spend most of your time with people you already know – you can always catch up with them later! And if you attend with a business partner, don’t stick together – divide and conquer! For breaking into a group, preparation is again imperative: find your style, be natural and prepare questions. Having an exit strategy is just as important – again, have your script but make it natural.

AfterTime block an hour the following morning or even up to 36 hours after the event. Connect with people via LinkedIn, add them to the appropriate list and follow up. Keep in mind the building of your future network and be realistic in your expectations. Some connections bear fruit immediately, but other relationships need to build trust over time and may take much longer. I KF

The power of networking:unlocking and creating business opportunities

Effective networking is a matter of strategy and preparation, as Jeanne Monchovet, Founder and Principal Consultant at Olystix, explained


Indulgence at le PaIn QuotIdIenWhere: Le Pain Quotidien, The Piazza, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8RF Organised exclusively for Personal Assistants – by invitation only Free of charge Dress code: Smart casual

Indulge in organic wine and canapés and awaken your taste buds at a traditional Belgian bakery in Covent Garden. This event will be the perfect opportunity to network with your professional counterparts whilst sampling selections from the latest catering menu, designed for office deliveries and large events. Places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Contact Anne-Claire Lo [email protected] / 020 7092 6643

f o rt h co m i n g f o ru m s & c lu b s

SME & Entrepreneurs Club co-chairs: Sophie Mirman, owner and founder of Trotters Childrenswear & Accessories, and Arnaud de Montille, Finance, Admin and Operations Director, Merci Maman When: 24 March, 8.30-10.00am theme: Implications of cross-cultural communication in business for SMEs Open to all SMEs and Entrepreneurs

Human Resources Forum chair: Mark Pautz, HR Director for Europe, International SOSWhen: 18 March, 8.30-10.00am theme: Flexible working.

When: 29 April, 8.30-10.00amtheme: The implications of cultural differences for HR Managers.By application only

All forums and clubs take place at the French Chamber.

Legal Forumchair: Olivier Morel, Partner, Crippsdeputy chair: Ken Morrison, Legal Director, EurotunnelWhen: 25 March, 9.00-11.00amtheme: Employment Law By application only

Cross-Cultural Relations Forum chair: Peter Alfandary, Head of French Team, Reed Smith LLP, Vice President of the French Chamber When: 2 April, 9.00-12.00pm theme: Workshop on cross-cultural skills by Peter Alfandary, Reed Smith LLP and Alan Palmer, InteractifsBy application only

Climate Change Forum chair: Richard Brown, CBE, Chairman, Department for Transport Franchising Advisory Panel, President of the French ChamberWhen: 14 April, 10.00-12.00am theme: Energy storage: how new batteries can unlock the renewable market By application only

f o rt h co m i n g e v e n t s

16March

18.00 - 20.00


MEMBER TO MEMBER COCkTAIl AND ExHIBITION 2015Where: Pullman London St Pancras, 100-110 Euston Road, London NW1 2AJcost: £40+VAT per person; £60+VAT – special price for two Dress code: smart casualPartners: Pictawall, PowerVote, ServicePoint

Held for 16 consecutive years, the Member to Member Cocktail and Exhibition has continued to be a success, last year drawing over 200 participants and 21 exhibitors. As the Chamber’s largest cocktail, this event gives companies the opportunity to promote their products and/or services in person to other members and key players from the Franco-British business community. It also provides extensive networking opportunities with representatives and exhibitors from very varied sectors and companies of all sizes from SMEs to blue-chips.

Stands booked so far: Artelia, Asendia, CEI/Centre Charles Péguy, Citroën, Club Med Groups & Incentives, Delahaye Moving, DS, Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane, HL Trad, Institut Français, La Belle Assiette, La Maison Médicale, MoveInPeace, My French Communication Agency, PAUL UK, Pullman London St Pancras, TheWesley and Witam Multi Family Office

contact Sonia Olsen: [email protected] / 020 7092 6642 or Suzanne Lycett: [email protected] / 020 7092 6651

25March

18.00 - 20.30

TRAINING: PuBlIC SPEAkING & MEDIA INTERvIEWS Where: French Chamber of Great Britain, 300 High Holborn, London WC1V 7JH Guest speaker: Olivia Penichou, Founder & CEO of O2P and Etienne Duval, Director and Founder of NewTownVisioncost: £290+VAT / Early bird offer until Friday 20 March: £220+VAT per person Non-members: £580+VAT / Early bird offer: £440+VAT per person

The Chamber is launching a series of practical training programmes on different topics relevant to businesses. The first training programme will focus on public speaking and media interviews and will be conducted by two experts in communication and media, Olivia Penichou and Etienne Duval.

Who should attend? Anyone who needs to improve their public-speaking and presentational skills, whether for presentations, conferences, media interviews or corporate videos: Business leaders, Entrepreneurs, Communication Directors / Spokespersons

What to expect? This practical workshop, which combines theory and practical exercise, will be conducted in English with a small group of six participants. It will explore different ways of communicating effectively in a variety of real-life and cross-cultural situations.

Olivia Penichou worked for three years with Christine Lagarde, then French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, as a communication advisor. She now advises corporate clients in both Paris and London.Etienne Duval is a bilingual and bicultural professional who has worked for the BBC World Service and has reported for many radio and TV stations, including Europe 1, Arte, TV5 and Swiss TV.

contact Anne-claire Lo Bianco: [email protected] / 020 7092 6643

28April

9.00 - 13.00


luxuRY DINNER WITH GuEST SPEAkER luCY YEOMANS Where: Claridge’s, Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1K 4HRGuest speaker: Lucy Yeomans, Editor-in-Chief NET-A-PORTER.com & PORTER magazineWine partners: Les vins de Graves, les vins du Médoc, les vins de Pessac-Léognanchampagne partner: Laurent-Perriercost: £210+VAT per person; £1,900+VAT for a table of 10; £2,200+VAT for a table of 12Dress code: Black tie

This prestigious black-tie event promises high-level networking with 200 top players from the luxury sector in exquisite surroundings, offering opportunities to expand your network of contacts, stren-gthen existing business relations and entertain key clients and colleagues.

luCY YEOMANSLucy Yeomans is Editor-In-Chief of NET-A-PORTER.COM and the company’s game-changing fashion magazine, PORTER.

One of the highest profile magazine editors in the UK, Lucy joined the NET-A-PORTER Group in 2012 from Harper’s Bazaar UK where she was Editor-in-Chief for twelve years and responsible for the magazine’s award-winning transformation from society title to fashion bible. As Editor-in-Chief of NET-A-PORTER.com, Lucy has played a crucial role in the development and launch of the company’s new full-scale publishing division. In 2012, she was responsible for revamping the company’s editorial strategy followed by the launch in 2013 of NET-A-PORTER’s unrivalled luxury weekly online magazine, THE EDIT which, since launch, has been translated into four languages – German, French, Mandarin and English. In February 2014, Lucy launched NET-A-PORTER’s first global consumer magazine - the innovative 300-page luxury title, PORTER – which is published six times a year. Since launch, PORTER has gone from strength to strength

under Lucy’s editorship. The magazine is now sold in 60+ countries worldwide and is available in both print and digital versions. Coverstars have included some of the most high profile women in the world from supermodels Gisele Bundchen and Christy Turlington, to music phenomenon Lady Gaga and Oscar-winning actress, Cate Blanchett.Lucy is a recipient of the highly coveted BSME Editors’ Editor award and sits on the boards of Natalia Vodianova’s Naked Heart Foundation and Film Aid.

contact cécilia Gonzalez: [email protected] / 020 7092 6641

Wine partners:

23April

19.00 - 23.00

Proud to be the UK’s largestproducer of low carbon electricity

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