Olivier Pujol - COO - France 
Summary Surveys show that, in average, mergers and acquisitions destroy value. Highly publicized successes are not sufficient to compensate for disastrous operations. Yet, it is relatively easy to set the rules of good acquisition practices. M&A professionals know them well, but seem to keep breaking the rules: make acquisitions beyond the scope of their strategy, … Read more
For 20 years, I have practiced innovation in all sorts of organizations, from the smallest (2 people) to the largest (>100.000). I have seen failure and success, and sometimes, I have participated, to failure and to success. I have studied in detail most of the standard theories and applied several: Blue Ocean, Open Innovation, TRIZ, … Read more
Export is nowadays not anymore a “nice to have”, but a necessity for innovative SMEs. It goes through building an international export culture and contracting local executives. The Global Innovation Index 2011 indicates that countries like France and Italy are lagging behind other equivalent countries in terms of innovation. However, these countries demonstrate a capability … Read more
Consultants with experience and hindsight can help executives make the right decisions and implement them for success “Success is 51% good decisions versus 51% bad decisions”. But actually, when making the “post mortem” analysis of a failure, few business decisions can be singled out as “bad”. Some weaknesses in the decision processes may explain how … Read more
Towards a new form of consulting? The future of SMEs goes through their ability to develop innovation and international business. This requires from top managers in these companies to be more aggressive and take more risks than ever: new offers, new products, new subsidiaries or acquisitions in foreign countries, new partners… Taking risks is inherent … Read more