Looking back in the mirror, I realized that my professional experience articulates around 3 different periods, first as “Marketing Technical Expert” for Atos and Apple, second as “Strategist-Business developer” for Gemalto, Newscorp and Adobe, and third as “Digital Business Designer” for different organizations among which Valtech and Groupe La Poste.
Since years, I rely on Design Thinking, to drive my clients to adopt the use of our technologies, in the frame of their business activities, around the 3 axis desirability (for human individuals, creating experiential innovation), feasibility (leveraging technology to create something new, sometimes disruptive), and viability (building economical viable business in the frame of an ecosystem).
The unifying thread in my professional journey is the arrival of digital technology in existing ecosystems (Information Technology, Media, Mobile, Television…). It started with the migration of analog press production systems to full digital (Apple); the ignition of mobile internet (Gemalto) with a key role of the smartcard (SIM in GSM) to enable new business models with Nokia, Orange and Vodafone; the analog-to-digital evolution of television with new services like catch-up TV and video on demand (VOD), bringing new challenges for content protection (Conditional Access System and Digital rights Management), and requiring new user experiences and interfaces (to navigate and leverage 200+ digital channels, and not feeling like “drinking at the fire hose”); new content distribution and monetization models over the open internet, way beyond the usual proprietary networks, with BBC and RTL (Adobe); and more recently with La Poste and its profound digital transformation, in a very large group started back in 1477 under king Louis XI.
Marketing Technical Expert (1987-1998)
During 3 years with Atos as system engineer, my focus was to interconnect micro-computers with mainframes (IBM 370, Cluster of VAX…), to feed desktop applications from SQL databases and enterprise transactional systems. It’s at Apple’s technical division which I build a growing a new expertise by taking the marketing turn, and promote Apple technologies developed in California (Apple Europe), partners certification to sell it, such as Newton, Pippin and other solutions during 9 years in total. At the end of my Apple years, I’m focused on publishing business activities, and I lean all about public presentations and how to make it theatrical with for whom I become the keynote show director in november 1998 during Apple Expo Paris.
Strategist - Business Developer (1999-2012)
At the end of my Apple period, I am focusing on publishing market development activities. I join Gemalto early 1999 where I develop the whole business development activity for the telecom business unit of the group, before taking responsibility of its strategy.It’s with Gemalto that I work with mobile telecom operators (Orange, Vodafone…) and device manufacturers (Nokia, Motorola…) in the frame of the standardization bodies (GSMA, W3C, ITU, ETSI…) on the creation of new standards, I manage a European Union program (T2R), which objective is to architecture an ecosystem enabling new mobile internet services with actors such as banks, distributors, media...
I continue on this path combining strategy with business development and technology mastering when joining Newscorp, where I mix cryptography technologies (CAS, DRM), with the middleware for set-top-boxes that permit the deployment of digital TV for Pay TV operators.
When I join Adobe, it’s again the combination of technology and business development which I manage as the European representative of Adobe HQs in California, as strategic alliances director with 3 representative industries leaders, BBC, Bertelsmann (RTL, Grune & Jahr) and Publicis, with the vision to "change the world one screen at a time", thanks to the TV-PC-Mobile convergence with Adobe solutions.
Digital Business Designer-Developer (2012 to date)
Since 2012, I assist individuals and organisations willing to use digital as a lever for their development. I eventually replicated the model that my-coworkers at Adobe appreciated, of leveraging collaborative tools (unified messaging, unified communications, remote meetings solutions, online training…), on a daily basis and across multiple geographies (Europe, USA, India) during my 5 years with Adobe, to increase our efficiency and responsiveness, leveraging small teams of experts, and facilitating projects' crew on-boarding and off-boarding.
I also worked on the definition and pivot of business models leveraging Groupe La Poste assets, to create a platform which for a new ecosystem, and modernized the existing infrastructures.
Now, depending on your digital maturity, I provide operational advisory services combining 3 levers, which are attractiveness (using digital as a way to enhance value proposition and business models), differentiation (focusing on your clients emotional experience during all interaction moments and micro-experience with your brand and your products and services, to create enchanting experiences), and competitiveness (leveraging your ecosystem’s collective intelligence combined with economic intelligence, to empower you).
