Translator: Mohand Habchi Reviewer: eric vautier
One day, a man enters a boxing gym to register,
the coach asks him if he has already practiced,
and the man answers, “No,
but I have already done combat sports and I am motivated to become a champion. “
The coach smiled at him. Then the man starts to look around him,
in particular, posters of famous boxers hung on the wall,
he points to one of them and says to the coach:
“You see him, give me a few months to become like him. “
There, the coach laughs, says:
“Listen, even if you want it very hard, you’re not about to get there,
but still start coming to train with us. “
Imagine a similar situation in the business,
imagine that man is a creator of start up
and that the coach is an investor.
Imagine that the startupper goes to the investor and says:
“Look, here I am, I have a business idea,
with my business degree, I think I can do like Google
and to get started, I would need a million euros. “
Imagine that the investor supports him in this idea
and even give him money.
In fact, no need to imagine that because it really exists.
Just go around some incubators
and some investment funds to find out. And what is it?
It gives a start up ecosystem made up of clones,
mostly men, white graduates of grandes écoles
to whom money is often given without any economic rationality,
all because this beautiful world is like itself.
But reality ends up catching them.
This is the case of these start-ups who have been given millions of euros
who ended a few months later by finding themselves in recovery.
And when you ask their creators what happened,
he explains that he did not know how to manage stocks,
he did not know how to manage an accounting,
some say you have launched without a business model.
And others tell you:
“If we could do a 2nd or 3rd fundraiser,
we would have arrived without problem. “
When I hear all this, I ask myself a question:
how is it possible that in an area like sports,
in particular, amateur sport, we have more sense,
more discernment, than in business?
Especially today, we are introduced to entrepreneurship
as tomorrow’s job, as a credible solution to unemployment.
If this is the case, it should still be made more efficient,
make it more transparent and above all more meritocratic.
How?
With my partner, we thought about a concrete solution,
it’s about sporting the business.
What is sportification?
It is the fact of applying mechanisms of learning, of realization
and sports practices in business.
So what are these mechanisms?
And what problems in the business
these mechanisms can solve?
The first mechanism I’m going to talk about is the detection mechanism.
We agree that we are in an era
who celebrates entrepreneurship,
just look in the kiosks,
in political programs, in university programs,
what does it talk about ? It’s about startups, fundraisers, unicorns,
it speaks of entrepreneurship for all.
But when you look good,
there are already people who express economic potential
from scratch,
this is particularly the case of street vendors.
You have street vendors selling water,
ears of corn, roses, magic trees.
So, it’s people who start from nothing,
who are still able to produce something
and to generate wealth.
These people also manage to create new models,
new ways of consuming, distributing, promoting,
but it is not for them that BPI offers funding.
Incubators do not offer them support either.
Yet these people, these economic potentials,
they inspire large groups.
They inspire large groups that imitate them but ignore them.
And so, these economic potentials, we know that they exist,
they are entrepreneurs of their own, but we exclude them.
What happens on the side of the sport?
So on the sport side, precisely, in fact,
campaigns are organized to recruit potential.
And there is one example that has marked me is that of Jamaica,
who organizes every year the biggest championship of the world,
the largest sports athletics school championship.
And what is the idea?
It is to bring all the young people of the island,
whether they come from shanty towns or beautiful neighborhoods,
whether they have nice sneakers or not, and make them run
and to see if among them there are future potentials of athletics.
And we do not care who they are, where they come from,
what matters is what is displayed on the stopwatch.
And from there, we decide whether or not we give them the opportunity to be trained,
to be accompanied
Which brings me to the second mechanism, which is training.
I do not know if you know, but more than 50% of companies,
all sectors,
do not exceed five years of existence.
And when you ask entrepreneurs who have failed, “Why? “
Most of the time – and studies confirm it –
they explain to you that they missed accompaniment and especially training.
Yet there are a number of devices,
schools, business schools, MOOCs,
many things to help you start your business,
to become an entrepreneur and to do business.
And the first thing we teach you? It’s a business plan.
It’s about financial tourism,
go see all the banks and all the investment funds,
instead of developing your product, finding customers
and focus on your sustenance.
Instead, simply, act, learn and start over.
And this triptych, we find it in sport, everywhere,
and in particular in certain territories
which we do not necessarily bet on.
I do not know if you know the Ulis,
it is a city located in Essonne,
in the Paris region.
25 000 inhabitants with football fields everywhere.
And there is a football club out there that does not look like
who has very little money,
and yet, this football club has seen a world champion pass,
a five-time finalist in the Champions League
and an attacker who cost 80 million euros.
And at the Ulis club, it’s very simple,
young people are introduced to football at an early age,
we train them, we train them,
So who says training, says warm-up, technique, game,
we confront them, there is competition.
Who says competition, says championship, says ranking.
They train on Mondays and Saturdays, there is a competition.
On Sunday, they have their results, [they make] adjustments
and then [they leave] on Monday to improve [their] ranking, etc.
So, in Ulis, what are we doing? We act, we learn and we start again.
And there are a lot of young people, doing that,
that could be spotted by professional clubs
which allowed them, finally, to perform.
Which brings me to the third mechanism, which is performance.
There, I would like to pay tribute to invisible people in the economy,
to often self-taught entrepreneurs,
who performed in their corner,
who managed to have great economic successes,
but who were confronted with a glass ceiling.
At a glass ceiling because they were self-financed,
they did everything alone, but after that it was no longer possible.
These include some brands of streetwear
who were born in the French suburbs.
You may have heard of some of them.
There was Airness, Billal Wear, Adedi, Bullrot, Unkut,
some still exist, others have disappeared,
and in fact, what is dramatic is that today –
it’s brands that existed in the 90s –
today, we pay tribute to brands that make streetwear,
but which ones?
It’s Kenzo, Vuitton, even Lacoste, who make streetwear, years later,
who did not understand in 90 that there was a turning point
which was that fashion was back in sport and vice versa.
So, it’s business, you’ll tell me,
but that does not stop us from paying homage to people
who did not necessarily have the means of their ambitions.
How is it going on the sport side?
Well, in sports, in fact,
when you are good and you show a result,
you are taken to another level.
So when you’re in the amateur level,
we try to get you into the pro level.
Which is great,
it’s that notion of performance and progression,
we find it in fact, even in learning.
There are tools that come to materialize the progression.
When you enroll your child in fencing,
he will pass the blazons.
When you sign up for boxing, you have the gloves pass.
In the martial arts, you have the belt pass.
And that allows you to confront yourself,
to measure yourself, to situate yourself and to perform and to advance
and not to be alone in your corner like a number of entrepreneurs.
So, you’ll understand after all that I just told you
that the sportification, it goes beyond the simple improvement of the business.
Sport is one of the few areas in which
the social elevator still works.
It is also an area in which
entertainment, diversity, money, competition go hand in hand.
Just look at the billions of dollars the industry generates.
And unfortunately, in France,
we look a little high the middle of the sport.
One even comes to make fun of the French of some footballers.
Because we have a very intellectual approach to things
and we even have it in the business.
When a kebab seller sells kebabs, they say he’s a kebab seller.
Even though he has ten restaurants running at full speed,
he is a kebab seller.
On the other hand, a young person from a business school
who sells burgers or cupcakes, what do they say?
Well, it’s a startupper.
A startupper who ubérise the gastronomy, which disrupts the fast-food.
So, you will understand me facing all this,
I could not remain inactive.
So, the idea of sporting the business is good,
but the sportsman really was better.
So with my partner, we created a method,
the “Sport” method,
that allows us to take anyone, to detect the economic potential –
so, we go in the shisha, under the halls of buildings,
at Pôle Emploi, in the local missions –
to train them, whatever their language level, their degree,
to connect them to an economic reality, a need, a virtual or real market,
and then, to make them perform, to make them productive,
to ensure that their activity is sustainable.
And finally, in fact, the idea is to take a person,
to turn it into a business person and turn it into a business athlet.
Recently, I was asked if there was a personal reason
which motivated me to sport the business,
because indeed, I have quite convincing arguments, quite objective,
which show the utility and relevance of doing so.
Indeed, I realized
that the only time I was not asked where I came from,
why I was a woman – because I was asked why –
the only time was in sport.
And we focused on what? On my productivity.
On my results and on nothing else.
Thank you for your attention.
(Applause)
One day, a man enters a boxing gym to register,
the coach asks him if he has already practiced,
and the man answers, “No,
but I have already done combat sports and I am motivated to become a champion. “
The coach smiled at him. Then the man starts to look around him,
in particular, posters of famous boxers hung on the wall,
he points to one of them and says to the coach:
“You see him, give me a few months to become like him. “
There, the coach laughs, says:
“Listen, even if you want it very hard, you’re not about to get there,
but still start coming to train with us. “
Imagine a similar situation in the business,
imagine that man is a creator of start up
and that the coach is an investor.
Imagine that the startupper goes to the investor and says:
“Look, here I am, I have a business idea,
with my business degree, I think I can do like Google
and to get started, I would need a million euros. “
Imagine that the investor supports him in this idea
and even give him money.
In fact, no need to imagine that because it really exists.
Just go around some incubators
and some investment funds to find out. And what is it?
It gives a start up ecosystem made up of clones,
mostly men, white graduates of grandes écoles
to whom money is often given without any economic rationality,
all because this beautiful world is like itself.
But reality ends up catching them.
This is the case of these start-ups who have been given millions of euros
who ended a few months later by finding themselves in recovery.
And when you ask their creators what happened,
he explains that he did not know how to manage stocks,
he did not know how to manage an accounting,
some say you have launched without a business model.
And others tell you:
“If we could do a 2nd or 3rd fundraiser,
we would have arrived without problem. “
When I hear all this, I ask myself a question:
how is it possible that in an area like sports,
in particular, amateur sport, we have more sense,
more discernment, than in business?
Especially today, we are introduced to entrepreneurship
as tomorrow’s job, as a credible solution to unemployment.
If this is the case, it should still be made more efficient,
make it more transparent and above all more meritocratic.
How?
With my partner, we thought about a concrete solution,
it’s about sporting the business.
What is sportification?
It is the fact of applying mechanisms of learning, of realization
and sports practices in business.
So what are these mechanisms?
And what problems in the business
these mechanisms can solve?
The first mechanism I’m going to talk about is the detection mechanism.
We agree that we are in an era
who celebrates entrepreneurship,
just look in the kiosks,
in political programs, in university programs,
what does it talk about ? It’s about startups, fundraisers, unicorns,
it speaks of entrepreneurship for all.
But when you look good,
there are already people who express economic potential
from scratch,
this is particularly the case of street vendors.
You have street vendors selling water,
ears of corn, roses, magic trees.
So, it’s people who start from nothing,
who are still able to produce something
and to generate wealth.
These people also manage to create new models,
new ways of consuming, distributing, promoting,
but it is not for them that BPI offers funding.
Incubators do not offer them support either.
Yet these people, these economic potentials,
they inspire large groups.
They inspire large groups that imitate them but ignore them.
And so, these economic potentials, we know that they exist,
they are entrepreneurs of their own, but we exclude them.
What happens on the side of the sport?
So on the sport side, precisely, in fact,
campaigns are organized to recruit potential.
And there is one example that has marked me is that of Jamaica,
who organizes every year the biggest championship of the world,
the largest sports athletics school championship.
And what is the idea?
It is to bring all the young people of the island,
whether they come from shanty towns or beautiful neighborhoods,
whether they have nice sneakers or not, and make them run
and to see if among them there are future potentials of athletics.
And we do not care who they are, where they come from,
what matters is what is displayed on the stopwatch.
And from there, we decide whether or not we give them the opportunity to be trained,
to be accompanied
Which brings me to the second mechanism, which is training.
I do not know if you know, but more than 50% of companies,
all sectors,
do not exceed five years of existence.
And when you ask entrepreneurs who have failed, “Why? “
Most of the time – and studies confirm it –
they explain to you that they missed accompaniment and especially training.
Yet there are a number of devices,
schools, business schools, MOOCs,
many things to help you start your business,
to become an entrepreneur and to do business.
And the first thing we teach you? It’s a business plan.
It’s about financial tourism,
go see all the banks and all the investment funds,
instead of developing your product, finding customers
and focus on your sustenance.
Instead, simply, act, learn and start over.
And this triptych, we find it in sport, everywhere,
and in particular in certain territories
which we do not necessarily bet on.
I do not know if you know the Ulis,
it is a city located in Essonne,
in the Paris region.
25 000 inhabitants with football fields everywhere.
And there is a football club out there that does not look like
who has very little money,
and yet, this football club has seen a world champion pass,
a five-time finalist in the Champions League
and an attacker who cost 80 million euros.
And at the Ulis club, it’s very simple,
young people are introduced to football at an early age,
we train them, we train them,
So who says training, says warm-up, technique, game,
we confront them, there is competition.
Who says competition, says championship, says ranking.
They train on Mondays and Saturdays, there is a competition.
On Sunday, they have their results, [they make] adjustments
and then [they leave] on Monday to improve [their] ranking, etc.
So, in Ulis, what are we doing? We act, we learn and we start again.
And there are a lot of young people, doing that,
that could be spotted by professional clubs
which allowed them, finally, to perform.
Which brings me to the third mechanism, which is performance.
There, I would like to pay tribute to invisible people in the economy,
to often self-taught entrepreneurs,
who performed in their corner,
who managed to have great economic successes,
but who were confronted with a glass ceiling.
At a glass ceiling because they were self-financed,
they did everything alone, but after that it was no longer possible.
These include some brands of streetwear
who were born in the French suburbs.
You may have heard of some of them.
There was Airness, Billal Wear, Adedi, Bullrot, Unkut,
some still exist, others have disappeared,
and in fact, what is dramatic is that today –
it’s brands that existed in the 90s –
today, we pay tribute to brands that make streetwear,
but which ones?
It’s Kenzo, Vuitton, even Lacoste, who make streetwear, years later,
who did not understand in 90 that there was a turning point
which was that fashion was back in sport and vice versa.
So, it’s business, you’ll tell me,
but that does not stop us from paying homage to people
who did not necessarily have the means of their ambitions.
How is it going on the sport side?
Well, in sports, in fact,
when you are good and you show a result,
you are taken to another level.
So when you’re in the amateur level,
we try to get you into the pro level.
Which is great,
it’s that notion of performance and progression,
we find it in fact, even in learning.
There are tools that come to materialize the progression.
When you enroll your child in fencing,
he will pass the blazons.
When you sign up for boxing, you have the gloves pass.
In the martial arts, you have the belt pass.
And that allows you to confront yourself,
to measure yourself, to situate yourself and to perform and to advance
and not to be alone in your corner like a number of entrepreneurs.
So, you’ll understand after all that I just told you
that the sportification, it goes beyond the simple improvement of the business.
Sport is one of the few areas in which
the social elevator still works.
It is also an area in which
entertainment, diversity, money, competition go hand in hand.
Just look at the billions of dollars the industry generates.
And unfortunately, in France,
we look a little high the middle of the sport.
One even comes to make fun of the French of some footballers.
Because we have a very intellectual approach to things
and we even have it in the business.
When a kebab seller sells kebabs, they say he’s a kebab seller.
Even though he has ten restaurants running at full speed,
he is a kebab seller.
On the other hand, a young person from a business school
who sells burgers or cupcakes, what do they say?
Well, it’s a startupper.
A startupper who ubérise the gastronomy, which disrupts the fast-food.
So, you will understand me facing all this,
I could not remain inactive.
So, the idea of sporting the business is good,
but the sportsman really was better.
So with my partner, we created a method,
the “Sport” method,
that allows us to take anyone, to detect the economic potential –
so, we go in the shisha, under the halls of buildings,
at Pôle Emploi, in the local missions –
to train them, whatever their language level, their degree,
to connect them to an economic reality, a need, a virtual or real market,
and then, to make them perform, to make them productive,
to ensure that their activity is sustainable.
And finally, in fact, the idea is to take a person,
to turn it into a business person and turn it into a business athlet.
Recently, I was asked if there was a personal reason
which motivated me to sport the business,
because indeed, I have quite convincing arguments, quite objective,
which show the utility and relevance of doing so.
Indeed, I realized
that the only time I was not asked where I came from,
why I was a woman – because I was asked why –
the only time was in sport.
And we focused on what? On my productivity.
On my results and on nothing else.
Thank you for your attention.
(Applause)
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