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NEWS & FEATURES |
Interview of the month - March 2000: François Grouiller (ESSEC 2004) Q1: Tell us about your background and current job. What are your responsibilities? I’m working as a strategic planner in the NY office of EURORSCG, HAVAS Group. Strategic planning is a peculiar and tremendously exciting discipline, somewhere between marketing, sociology and psychology. I have a background in literature and political sciences and I recently graduated from the ESSEC MBA. During my “Apprenticeship” program in France I worked as an account executive for the advertising agency BETC EURO RSCG. There, I helped managing the communication of three Lu brands and several Peugeot models. Q2: Why did you decide to come and stay here? At the end of my mission with BETC, my manager offered me a job. Unfortunately I hadn’t completed my 3-month international experience, now required to graduate. Fortunately, agency’s executives helped me to get an internship in a foreign country. As a fan of Celine (and Sex and The City), I chose New York. At the end of my 6-month internship, the NY office offered me a position. That was the job I wanted, so I accepted. Q3: What advice would you give to ESSEC graduates who would like to come to work here? Since it’s getting amazingly difficult for foreign graduates to work in the US, I would say that you should either marry an American (it’s the taxi drivers’ strategy) or someone who works in the French State Q4: How do you think your ESSEC background helped you to be where you are? Interestingly enough, few people care I graduated from ESSEC. First it is because they don’t even know what ESSEC means (and I’m not talking here about the spelling). Then, because in my workplace, what you achieve is more important than what you did in the past. For example, some of the people in my team are former comedians. In an environment where technical skills are important but not essential, my difference comes more from my Frenchness than from my MBA. Of course, it doesn’t mean that the time I’ve spent in Cergy was useless: paradoxically it taught me how to forget my MBA and be more adaptable. Q5: What do you consider as your role in the ESSEC family? As a New Yorker, I'm tempted to answer that I'd love to be the Godfather. But for now, I would go for the role of a big brother and will be happy to help - as far as I can- any ESSEC that want to try something in NYC, especially in advertising. Q6: Why do you think people should participate to the fundraising? Fundraising is essential because ESSEC receives fewer subventions than any other business schools it has to compete with. If we want our school to keep on well performing, we need to raise more money. It’s one of the solutions to keep alive our unique values. But even bankers would agree with me: using money relatively can make us do better with less. So let’s keep on thinking different. Thank you François…
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