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NEWS & FEATURES |
Interview of the Month – December 2001: Hervé Blanquart (ESSEC 1988)
Q: What is your background ? I am Vice-President of Operations of Motul USA Inc, the sole distributor and marketer of the Motul lubricants and chemicals in North America. We are working on niche markets of the Powersports industry: motorcycle, Jet-Ski, Snowmobile, car racing. I joined Motul in 1992, after my military service, as Export Area Manager for Greece, Russia, Lebanon, and the West Indies. I started to work on the North American market the following year, and became an employee of Motul USA Inc. in Los Angeles in January 1994. The company was doing poorly and the following two years were definitely a turn around experience where my job was concentrated on tight purchasing, controlling and accounting. Once the systems were in place, I convinced our parent company to add Canada to our territory and to let me in charge of sales there. Motul USA Inc. is a small company and my background is definitely that of a generalist: accountant/controller, purchasing manager, manufacturing and logistics supervisor, sales and marketing for Canada, but also receptionist and forklift operator after hours! When I can manage it, I also sing professionally in local opera companies… Q: Why did you decide to come and stay here? I did my military service as a “business draftee” (VSNE) with Vallourec Inc. in Houston, Texas. I really enjoyed my time there, and shortly before I had to go back to France, I became very fond of a young Texan lady who ended up coming to France with me. Before she arrived, though, I felt compelled to find a job that could take me back to the US… Just in case. It was obviously not the only criteria, but it was a big one when I chose to accept Motul’s offer. A few months later, it seemed obviously easier for me to live here that for her to live in France. In a too-perfect coincidence, Motul’s CEO decided that it was time to shake things up at Motul USA Inc… Et voilà. Delia and I got married in Houston in September 1994. Q: What advice would you give to ESSEC graduates who would like to come to work here? To first know exactly why they want to come here: if it is just a chore they feel they have to do “because it looks good on the resume”, they’ll probably feel miserable here! This being said, even with the best reasons to want to come to the US, they have to measure how much they want to come compared to other “priorities”: work, love, family, personal development... I always thought that sorting out my various priorities made it very easy for me to decide what to do to accomplish each of them. With a little bit of luck, it all works out. Amen. Q: How do you think your ESSEC background helped you to be where you are? ESSEC is a very good diploma to have in France and with French companies. It helped me to get interviews, and it helped me to be hired. Since I have been with the same company for almost 10 years now, I would say that professionally, the ESSEC lift has stopped a long time ago. Here, I get help from the Essec network simply by getting me out of my box and visualizing how people with fairly identical educations veer in all kind of directions, mostly professionally, but also personally. To me even without meeting people of the same “promo”, Essec alumni social events share some similarities with family reunions. I do not always want to hear what my long forgotten aunt has to say, but I still think I should hear it. Q: What do you consider as you role in the ESSEC family? The network here is “in construction”. I see myself as an ESSEC in California a little like the 1910 Essec graduates must have felt. Probably nobody had heard of ESSEC around them, but some years later, ESSEC ended up being a good name. How did that happen? I would think that their building an alumni network had something to do with it. I also think that to be successful, Essec Alumni events in the US must put forward personal rather than professional relationships. In France (maybe New York?), it might make sense to come to an Essec meeting to find a future customer or a future employer. Here in Los Angeles, it is silly! We are just too small. Participating in Essec alumni events here should be to meet nice people and have a good time. That is already a lot to ask for. Good things will then happen! Thank you ...
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