ECLECTIC, adj.1. Deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources
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Provincial by origin and by taste, I was born in a family of traditional fine good manufacturers who, from a simple village saddler became exclusive subcontractors for a national icon of the international luxury industry, la Maison Hermès. In haste, I initially fled that remote region of Auvergne which in my teenager's eyes seemed to crystallise boredom and monotony. After a brief stint with the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of the rue Saint-Guillaume in Paris, I decided to pursue my studies in Scotland, thirsty for scenery and for a desire to come to terms with the tongue of Shakespeare or rather that of Robert Burns, the national hero of this part of the UK where the consonant "r" gets rolled as naturally as fish in breadcrumbs or sausages in fluff pastry.
Between
drams of whisky and furious ceilidh nights in the arms of beautiful Scottish girls whose thirst and tolerance to alcohol seemed inversely proportional to the length of their (short) skirts, I eventually manage to pocket a joint degree -
crowned by a good mark - in economics and history : the pragmatic and the cultural, so to say, happily combined. After a short internship at Newsweek magazine in London, socialising with the journalists from the office below gave me the desire to become one myself. This is the press group Jane's (named after its founder, John Frederick Thomas Jane), a global leader in defence press that threw me my first professional bone, offering a paid partnership as a freelance in place of an internship. Still unconscious but decidedly daring, I started freelancing.
Returning to France as a correspondent for Jane's, I then bubbled in the midst of armed forces and the defence community for more than 5 years, strongly encouraged to provide images in support of and as a valuable addition to my papers. Henceforth armed with this new skill, still unassuming but resolutely bold, I bombarded copiously all the regiments, ships and military bases in France with letters requesting permission to visit them, a notepad and a camera in hands. A young unrepentant greenhorn, I managed to board tanks, helicopters, aircraft carriers, stealth frigates and other
nuclear submarines without an accreditation, with patience, a wee bit of unconsciousness and when necessary, a soupçon of doggedness...
Called by a fantastic communication challenge in a luxury manufacturing business, suddenly shifting gear on new growth paths, I decide to broaden my skills to business communication. Meanwhile, I begin to write occasionally for the Revue de la Défense Nationale, which today is an authority in France on defence issues. At the same time, it gave my experience a slightly more academic turn, also allowing me to keep one foot in the defence community while starting a new professional life. One of those articles gave me the opportunity to speak at a seminar at the Ecole Militaire in Paris in May 2009, on the invitation of the former president of the Defence Committee at the Assemblée Nationale (French Parliament).
In 2009, the business is sold to a new shareholder who, after training me as an operations manager, propose me the direction of a 30-employee factory. Flattered by the proposal of my new direction, and also naturally curious and open, I seized the opportunity offered to me. I move men and machines on the new site, take hold of the premises and set up the new organisation and new manufacturing processes. But while I enjoy management, it seems to depart too much from communication and I will eventually return to it in 2010, this time in its institutional and political form.
In 2009, the business is sold to a new shareholder who, after training me as an operations manager, propose me the direction of a 30-employee factory. Flattered by the proposal of my new direction, and also naturally curious and open, I seized the opportunity offered to me. I move men and machines on the new site, take hold of the premises and set up the new organisation and new manufacturing processes. But while I enjoy management, it seems to depart too much from communication and I will eventually return to it in 2010, this time in its institutional and political form.
