J.-F. P. : In the journey through life of companies and individuals alike, it's action that counts. You have to be able to see failure as a stage in a building process. This is what we can learn from sport - particularly rugby, which is dear to my heart and to my roots in the south of France. You have a goal, you train, you give all you've got, and in the end the match may be won or lost, but there's always going to be another one. Transposing this concept to management gives us what we call the "Kering effect", meaning the combination of individual responsibility and teamwork, whereby DEVELOPING the strength and expertise of the group is put to work in support of each brand's expansion. We tell our teams, "You're responsible for what the client sees, and we won't interfere in your domain." But when it comes to our shared commitments - best practices, skills, industrial tools - we play as a team! Kering, a family-controlled multinational, is listed on the CAC 40 index. A world leader in apparel and accessories, Kering markets a number of major and renowned brands in two domains: • Luxury products (Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and more); • Sport & lifestyle (Puma, Volcom, Cobra and more). Founded in 1963 by François Pinault as a wood and construction material business, PPR Group (as it was then known) expanded into the retail sector, rapidly becoming one of its leading players. The acquisition of Gucci in 1999 and Puma in 2007 helped propel the company into its current business. Led by François-Henri Pinault since 2005, the company changed its name to Kering in 2013. 21 I SOCIETE GENERALE 2013-2014 D. V. : At the managers' seminar that I mentioned at the beginning, one of the participants was from Bangalore, India. He told us, "In my culture, we first explain what is working and then we explain what isn't working, and at the end we say thank you, whereas you French people tend to start off by talking about what isn't working, and you forget to say thanks." It's always interesting to be confronted with other people’s points of view, and this is one of the benefits of globalisation - using different standpoints to enrich the corporate culture. D. V. : This is exactly what we have done at Societe Generale with our retail networks in France. Each one retains its own identity, its unique way of managing its client relationships and its own potential for differentiation and innovation. At the same time, we have pooled our platforms and tools. Everyone wins in terms of flexibility, and we achieve economies of scale that al low us to reinvest. So I certainly won't disagree with you about team spirit. We believe strongly in team spirit at Societe Generale, both in terms of relationships with our clients and in our internal dynamics. This drive to work together has become a strong part of our company's culture, which has significantly helped us in withstanding and overcoming the crisis. SHARING ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
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