Pascal Latouche - Open Innovation

At this stage of Elodie’s journey, I really wondered what I could still discover. So many very rapid changes, not surprisingly, left me somewhat perplexed. But what did Elodie want? What was she looking for after all?

The essence of the project was to evaluate retirement homes. This project developed with her mother was not an easy one. Elodie’s mother hadn’t given up her job and therefore had time on her hands. As for Elodie, although she was involved in the latter, she nevertheless conducted parallel studies. Elodie, passionate about history, did a bachelor’s degree in history, then a master’s degree in the same field, then a second year master’s, broadening her field of knowledge towards Ethics, organization, CSR, in short, a more sociological field of knowledge.

Elodie, however, became heavily involved in this business with her mother at the same time. “ I had done everything in this company with my mother ” : business development of the company, project management, organizational audits in health care institutions, consulting, processes, communication, finance, etc. The list would be too long to enumerate. The life of an entrepreneur in fact, especially in a structure where there are only two employees….

But the two ladies, maybe they had different goals. “ My mother was interested in retirement homes, and I was interested in project management ”. The business was dropped after about three years and Elodie returned to the workforce. “ My mother understood it very well, my studies in addition to this company, I was just washed out… ”.

After a very short experience at the Revue Fiduciaire, a fiduciary magazine, unsatisfied, she was recruited at the Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Vieillesse on the difficult project at work. “ That was real ”. This mission seems to me to be one of Elodie’s many experiences, the one that really fascinated her. “ I had responsibilities and the atmosphere was excellent ”. On this experience, she seemed to have found her way. An alchemy between project management and a sense of what it did. I then imagined, listening to her, that this experience had continued for a few years anyway, at least for more than three years. Indeed, her missions were broad and exciting for a profile as open as hers. Setting up a Tough Prevention Account system, deploying it in the network of regional old-age funds and understanding all of its businesses, their development, the laws associated with them, useful training, etc. are all challenges that Elodie took care to describe to me. I admit I learned a lot.

But she still changed after a year and a half… “ It was clear that I was going all the way, I was not saving myself ”. Elodie gave everything and I sometimes think that time passed before her. In fact, another reason beyond having mastered her position motivated her departure: the restructuring of the department. “ I didn’t like this restructuring. I didn’t fit in ”.

And here’s our Elodie now consulting for a new company in the Défense region of Paris. “ Being hired as a consultant in a company without having gone to business school was a confirmation for me ”. The result: a new social status rewarding her studies, and a much higher salary. “ I approached my spouse’s social level and that made me happy for a while. But I quickly remembered that the priority for me wasn’t there ”.

This did not last…. Because of her husband’s transfer after a year, Elodie had to head south. She then took the time to reflect on her “ fighter’s journey ”. From all these experiences, she drew a major lesson: “do today’s companies know how to recruit to meet the challenges of our society?”. After all, she had to face very different situations in her journey, situations that her profile had not prepared her for. She had succeeded in doing so, however, thanks in particular to the open-mindedness of some of the companies that recruited her. In Elodie’s eyes, this is not what happens to a good number of profiles which, if they don’t correspond to a certain format, will be rejected by the company…. It was only one step away from setting up a start-up that had to deal with this problem.

Elodie launched everything in 2017 while being pregnant and made sure from the outset to acquire legitimacy in her sector (HR) through corporate proof of concept. The company is called People In.

Elodie’s solution: “People In offers an innovative and relevant recruitment method. It pre-selects candidates via a digital tool that tests a key skill associated with the position. The tool allows us to check candidates’ aptitudes before the interview while opening the search to different but relevant profiles. Better adapted to new recruitment issues. More reliable. More efficient”.

Why: “ Knowledge is quite readable in a CV, but not know-how or interpersonal skills ”. Elodie works very closely with the corporate client. The latter expresses a need, and Elodie assesses what the soft skills useful for the position should be. By prioritizing the most important skills, a practical case study can be developed which candidates will be asked to complete during the recruitment process.

Provocative as I am, I couldn’t help but ask her if her solution might not lead to the reinforcement of the well-known corporate molding. Indeed, from the moment a candidate wishing to fill the position does not pass the internal analysis such as it is a case of defining the know-how and skill, then according to me, there can be a risk of reinforcing a certain “mental consanguinity”. I confess I was very amused to ask her this question, I was almost wearing the hat of a start-up accelerator, trying not to evaluate flaws, but to understand the value proposition. I didn’t wait very long to get the answer…. And I felt very amused by this question and eager to give an answer….

In essence, there is no direct artificial algorithmic intelligence in this solution. Based on the candidates’ answers (written or oral), there is an anonymous evaluation by the recruiter who has access to the platform. If the recruiter evaluates a candidate positively, he will find it difficult, unless there is a bad reason, not to welcome the candidate. “ These people who wouldn’t have been given a CV have a better chance of getting an interview if the corporate is honest with its ratings”. But the test must absolutely be done before the CV is submitted ”.

From my point of view, this platform makes sense. It’s not just HR for recruitment. It also carries all of Elodie’s values and embodies all her experiences. “ I think my entire journey, all the experiences, in the end, had only one goal: to launch People In ”…. She’s in the know! (If I may say so myself).

All the best!

I retain two essential points from Mrs. Elodie Sarfati. The first is a quote: “Those who think it is impossible are asked not to disturb those who are trying…”. The second point is an invitation to readers: “Follow your own path. And nobody said it had to be straight!”

Question 3: what do you find inspiring about Mrs. Elodie Sarfati’s journey?

Figure 3.1. Mrs. Elodie Sarfati. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste.co.uk/latouche/innovation.zip