GAËTANNE, WHAT WAS YOUR CAREER PATH?
I spent twenty years in finance and insurance field. While working in the consulting company for corporate finance, organization, and strategy, I had an opportunity to also assist NGOs which were raising funds and seeking external competences. This is how I crystallized my core values and became aware of my passion for helping others. I realized that value creation is actually how useful one can be to the world and the society. At this point I proposed Decathlon to collaborate and brainstorm how to create societal value together, and it has been 4 years now that I co-create at G’IMPACTE.
WHAT WERE THE BEGINNINGS OF G’IMPACTE ?
It all started in India where Decathlon committed themselves to making its sports products accessible and useful to the many. For this it was important to find out the needs of different stakeholders of the local ecosystem first. I was convinced that cooperation was an essential ingredient for creating inclusivity, but also a committed management that seeks better future and sustainability for everyone. Today, G’IMPACTE proves every day the benefits for those organizations which have a societal mission at the heart of their actions, where performance is beneficially linked to social commitment.
WHAT IS YOUR MISSION AT G’IMPACTE ?
To help companies of tomorrow to act differently and create more than only economic value, I use financial tools. I believe we are now at the end of one cycle where companies are being pushed by their ecosystems and need to re-humanize themselves. I provide them with means to be proactive in this transformation process, not just simply stand the trial. Today I implement this mindset while working with other entities of AFM group, both in France and abroad.
In other words, G’IMPACTE provides a new singular approach to managing an organization, based on contributions rather than results. We do not consider a company as an ex-nihilo structure, but more like a living entity with its place in the ecosystem. This is a genuine culture shift.
ANY EXAMPLES OF YOUR PROJECTS ?
I appreciate taking part in modeling the “House of Entrepreneurs” project together with our regional authorities and other stakeholders, I find it so meaningful! We are creating a tool to help people adjust their individual employability needs and solve unemployment challenges in a different way. We believe we will boost individual and collective competences which later most certainly encourage more innovation, and also new economic models, novel services, products and thus new professions.
WHAT MAKES YOU PROUD WHILE WORKING AT G’IMPACTE ?
Organizations that we work with have already co-opted the concept of circular economy in their activities. For example, eco-conception is more and more integrated in new product creation processes. Waste recycling and second life is more systematic now, products find a new life as donations to NGOs which support inclusivity projects of community members or through solidarity stores like the one we are creating together with Catholic University of Lille, as an example.
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOR YOU IN G’IMPACTE PROJECT?
This is my way to take care of others. Human beings are the major catalyst of transition, for this reason we must first support people if we want to later succeed in making ecological, digital and organizational change.
Through G’IMPACTE I share my experience while helping men and women to find the right place in this world. I am convinced that the revealed potential will make them happy and will sparkle the flame of a positive change.
CONCLUDING REMARKS ?
G’IMPACTE is a temporary entity, the idea is that this structure will disappear in a long term because we seek that every individual and every organization think differently, are able to collaborate successfully and work in sustainable economic models while respecting our planet and humanity. The indicator of our success would be the fact that G’IMPACTE becomes a new norm in running organizations in general, with sustainable economic, social and environmental indicators.
