Marc Timmerman was the guest at Lunch at the Circle on October 3. Here is a short interview with Marc:
Marc talks about talent management in fast changing environments with a particular focus on the technology sector; on the challenges of identifying and developing top talent, the trends for the future and the increasing complexity for leaders, and which solutions are key in making an organization be more attractive as an employer of talent.
Before joining Axiom consulting Marc was Executive Director of the European Talent Management practice of Hudson Highland group. Previous to that he led the HR consulting practice of De Witte & Morel, and was a Partner at Ernst & Young in Belgium. More information on Marc and on Axiom here: http://www.axiomcp.com/
Growing your business outside your home country without burning your fingers, with Tom Thorelli, founder of Thorelli & Associates
The US market in particular, but also other foreign markets, are a challenge. It is easy to make mistakes, to think that things work as “at home” when you do business there. Many business that try and penetrate the US market, or other foreign markets, make simple and silly mistakes that can be avoided. Tom Thorelli has worked with many French (and European) companies to help them get established and win business in the US – without getting fingers burned – by taking the market and the competition seriously, by understanding contracts and legal issues, by knowing how to negotiate, and how to protect one’s interests. Tom will explain do:s and don’t:s based on his practical experiences from helping many foreign companies to success in the US.
Tom Thorelli is founder and managing partner of the Thorelli & Associates Law Firm in Chicago (Illinois). Tom is of Swedish origin (yes, again; I don’t do this on purpose!) and currently lives in Paris. And two days after this Lunch at the Circle event he will try to run the Paris marathon.
More info on: www.thorelli.com. “The law firm has five lawyers, four of which are located in Chicago. The focus of the firm is in protecting intellectual property rights; negotiating contracts; structuring companies; providing a full array of immigration service; and dispute resolution.”
A previous Lunch at the Circle event was on “security” Joseph Graceffa, co-founder and CTO of Advens.
Information security in a world with both traditional IT and social networking: it’s all about people.
Today it is not enough with “IT security”, it is really a question of information security, both for companies and for individuals. Wikileaks, l’affaire Renault, a Dutch web site that collects information from Facebook and blogs to show which houses are empty (to burgle) since the inhabitants are on vacation, someone “looses” (really?) a smartphone with the company’s entire client list on it…
On one side you need to avoid unauthorised access to your systems and information by having proper protection. On the other side you need to give people good tools to work with, especially when everyone is travelling or working from a home office: smartphones, remote VPN access, webmail etc. And then you have the “social networking” aspects: Today business is more about sharing and collaborating than what it was a few decades ago. And also about using Facebook, blogs, Twitter and other tools for the benefit of your company. But all this leads to security risks.
Information security is about technology of course, but it is also, and increasingly so, about people, their behaviour and awareness of the issues.
Joseph Graceffa, co-founder and CTO of Advens, will give us an introduction and insight into these questions.
Joseph Graceffa is co-founder and CTO of Advens, an information security company. Advens provides a full range of security services to medium and large enterprises in France and across Europe. Before creating Advens some 10 years ago he was in charge of network security at Decathalon and a consultant with Bull. More info: http://www.advens.fr/
The next Lunch at the Circle event will be on Thursday February 16 with Emilie Gobin, CEO and co-founder of Usine á Design:
A design and web entrepreneur: “how I created l’Usine @ Design”
Emilie Gobin is co-founder and CEO of Usine-à-Désign, an e-shop that sells custom made designer furniture directly to consumers at affordable prices. She will tell us her story: from how she started the company, over the challenges of raising over a million euros in capital to get it off the ground, to dealing with designers (you know!). In short, the story of how a young and successful French entrepreneur manages to survive! Emilie will speak in French.
The next Lunch at the Circle event will be on Monday October 3 on Talent Management:
Talent management in technology, challenges and solutions, with Marc Timmerman
Marc Timmerman is partner at Axiom Consulting.
Marc will talk about talent management in fast changing environments with a particular focus on the technology sector; on the challenges of identifying and developing top talent, the trends for the future and the increasing complexity for leaders, and which solutions are key in making an organization be more attractive as an employer of talent.
Before joining Axiom consulting Marc was Executive Director of the European Talent Management practice of Hudson Highland group. Previous to that he led the HR consulting practice of De Witte & Morel, and was a Partner at Ernst & Young in Belgium. More information on Marc and on Axiom here: http://www.axiomcp.com/
When & How
Time: Monday October 3, 12.15 (we will sit down for lunch at 12.30). Lunch ends at 14.00.
Location: only on invitation
Cost: only on invitation/
(Salade de canard confit, vinaigrette ‘poireax’ | Daurade sauvage poêlée, petit ragout Paimpol | Quetsches rôties & rafraichis, fine semoule au lait vanillé | bon vin | eaux pour ceux qui résistent | Café Balthazar – If you have “special dietary requirements” please inform me before/ the event.)
Lunch at the Circle meeting February 24: ’Strategic investments in technology and environment by the French sovereign wealth fund – an inside view’
With Marc Julien, investment director at the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI).
Marc Julien is director of investments at the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI). FSI is the sovereign investment fund launched by the French government a few years ago to promote development and entrepreneurship in French companies. Marc is focusing on the FSI’s investments in the areas of technology and environment. Marc will talk both about the overall strategy of the FSI and specifically about investing in “his” sectors. Marc was previously SVP at Schneider Electric and a consultant at LEK and Estin & Co. Marc has an MBA from INSEAD. More on the FSI here: http://www.fonds-fsi.fr/
This is a video interview from the Lunch at the Circle event on November 17 with Lindsay Adams.
Lindsay Adams speaks on Teams that work: “Teamwork as we knew it in organisations is dead”.
In this presentation Lindsay focuses on the elements that are now needed to work in “Teams That Work”. In the sixties and seventies academic researchers formulated models around teamwork that some companies today are still following at their peril. Lindsay will share his current research that shows teams now function in entirely different ways.
In today’s fast paced business environment business owners and leaders have to take into account a different set of factors when addressing the make-up and management of their teams. With organisations downsizing, resizing and remodelling it is imperative to have the right tools to manage the key to your organisations success, your teams!
You will learn how you to build effective teams while taking advantage of the constantly moving talent pool in your organisation.” Lindsay is founder and director of Teamocracy, a company helping corporations work more effectively by doing better teamwork: http://www.teamocracy.com/.
Lindsay is Australian and comes to Paris for a few speaking engagements, one of which is L@C. He is also president of the Federation for Professional Speakers. Lindsay comes to speak at L@C thanks to David Ednie.
To make it easier for you to find them they are now “tagged” with the tag “video”. In the right had column you have “Popular Tags” where you can find ‘video’. Click on it and you get all posts with video.
(We have moved to hosting the videos on YouTube so you can now also find them on www.youtube.com/eventival.)
(There are still two videos missing, with Louis Nagues and Carlos Escapa, but we hope to get them up soon too.)
L@C May 30: Selling your ideas to technology-agnostic decision makers
— The 4 vital questions you must ask to create rapport, build trust and get the outcome you want in every situation — with David Ednie, founder and President of SalesChannel Europe
David talked to us about “Selling Your Ideas. The Art of Persuasion” with a particular focus on how to sell technology to “technology agnostic” C-level managers. This is how David describes the theme: “Selling Your Ideas transcends selling products or services, your company, or even yourself. Selling Your Ideas is the most critical skill you need today to succeed in business and in life. In this interactive discussion you will learn how to:
• Leverage the Psychology of Change
• Ask questions in colour
• CREATE insights in others
Learn how to master the 3 steps to Selling Your Ideas. The Art of Persuasion and make them work for you.”
David is an expert in sales performance and motivation and President of SalesChannel Europe (http://www.saleschannel-europe.com/, http://saleschannel.blogspot.com/). He has previously worked in various senior management roles in the technology sector, e.g. as Vice-President of International Sales at Genuity Inc. and at BT. He is also one of the founding members of the French Professional Speakers’ association. And a familiar face to many of you who come to Lunch at the Circle!
Strategies for success in promoting your business on the internet in the next 18 months
with Gifford Morley-Fletcher, Strategy Director, Skive
Gifford Morley-Fletcher
Gifford will approach this subject from two angles: the fabled “SEO” and the power of broadband. SEO is one of the buzz words that basically just means “how do you get your site noticed by search engines and thus by customers”. It is critical for any web site to take into account how search engines rank web sites. It can, literally, be a matter of life and death for a business web site if you are on the first page or the tenth for search engine results. And it is not just a question of “build it and they will come”. You have to know how to attract search engines, and customers. The second aspect is that the increasing uptake of broadband has changed the way to build web sites and make people notice them – today you can offer “rich media”, video, animations, sound etc, in a way that was not possible just a few years ago.
And if you don’t believe that it’s important how you manage your web presence and think about how to appear from a search engine perspective, consider this: What do you think you will find if you do a Google search on “miserable failure”? You’ll be surprised. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm)
Gifford Morley-Fletcher has worked in New Media since 1994, making him a bit of a ‘web dinosaur’. He is currently based in London as Strategy Director at Skive, an award-winning digital strategy and design agency based in London, responsible for developing interactive web sites, games and promotions for brands such as Reebok, Playstation, McDonalds and Gillette. During his career, he has worked in all areas of web development and online marketing, most recently spending 4 years in Paris where he was a founder of LSF Interactive, specialists in SEO, Paid Search and online lead generation.
