Anglicity was delighted to attend its first
meeting as an Active Member of the French Chamber of Great Britain. This first
session was entitled: ‘From Scratch to
Success: Business Stories’. President Estelle Brachlianoff introduced the
panel of 3 visionary entrepreneurs and chair Eric Albert, City Correspondent
for Le Monde. It was an inspirational
evening providing welcome respite from Brexit discussions and uncertainty. It
proved that you can succeed no matter what the odds.
 |
| The French Chamber's panel of entrepreneurs at the French Institute |
Alain Afflelou is
one of the best-known entrepreneurs in France. He is a trained optician with a
good eye for business. His name is closely tied to the French optician chain
that he founded and now runs as CEO. He is
the face and brand in his company’s advertising.
Alain’s
description of his faltering beginning was highly entertaining. An initial
refusal from the bank to finance his optician business did not stop him. The
cheeky 20-year-old complained that they were ruining the dreams of two people –
his and the man who wanted to retire. He ended up with a larger bank
loan than his initial approach and bought the building.
 |
It rapidly became
apparent that here before us was a shrewd operator. Alain recognises
opportunities, drives a good deal and is an instinctive salesman.
Jean-François Cécillon
Jean-François
Cécillon talked us through the highs and lows of his career. He relocated to
London at a time when it was not so commonplace for a Frenchman to live and
work out of London. He tagged along socially too with his British colleagues as
their token ‘Frog’. The move did not make sense to his colleagues back in
Paris. Jean-Francois relished the chance to travel the world. He showed us a
video of all the stars that he worked with during his career at EMI. He made
things happen, managed creative egos and used his gut instinct tellingly.
The most memorable
moment was his description of a shirtless 20-year-old standing on his low
coffee table, reciting some words. That young man was Robbie Williams. Those
lyrics became the hit Angels. The rest
is history.
Jean-François’
career at EMI became history too. He was not downed for long. Too young to
retire, he has proudly fought his way back.
Ning Li
At 32 Ning Li was
the youngest entrepreneur present. His tale was no less extraordinary - if not
more so. He arrived in France for his education at the age of 16 from China. His
parents could have done their homework better. He didn’t speak a word of
French. He set about the task by learning the dictionary from cover to cover - page by page.
In order to help
his parents out financially, he decided to look for a job. Where can a Chinese
boy with little spoken French get a job? He headed for Chinatown and struck lucky. He
found a family of Chinese immigrants with a bakery from his home region. As
well as passing his BAC (just, so he says), he became a trained baker by
working in all his holidays and spare time.
Ning could have
settled for the safe career that his French higher education often provides. His
admiration for that immigrant family pushed him towards life as an
entrepreneur. The desire to buy an expensive sofa resulted in him co-founding
his online furniture business Made.com.
There were
mistakes along the way – such as using nude women to sell furniture to a
largely female target audience. He admits the mistake. Yet, sometimes bad press
gives you a higher profile than you could otherwise achieve. The resourceful
Ning now gets customers to volunteer their homes as his showrooms.
Three very
different men. Three different career paths. All three inspirational.
The above event was the third in the series
that form part of the French Chamber of Great Britain’s drive to recruit more SMEs.
At the end Managing Director, Florence Gomez announced a special publication is
planned in response to Brexit.
Photo credits (except 2nd photo from top): Joana Saramago and with kind permission of the French Chamber of Great Britian
