Читать книгу Open Innovation - Pascal Latouche - Страница 69

Her studies at the IFM made the difference, and she was taken on an internship basis. This allowed her to design a whole training program for employees. A very nice challenge for Lise who experienced it as a first achievement. During this internship, she met all the major players in the company, marketing, engineers, etc. Professional life became meaningful because it could bring together both the desire to be involved in creation and exchanging with others. There is probably nothing more beautiful than bringing to Others, and it is probably at this moment of the interview that I understood her depth. At the end of the internship … she was recruited on a paid basis as make-up product manager.

“It has always been natural for me to unite people around a project and I am a creative woman”. Lise’s career with this major cosmetics group was to be a dazzling one. First in consumer product make-up, as product manager, then as Marketing Manager. She was then entrusted with the most beautiful luxury brands, which she improved for some and raised to the rank of number 1 for others. In total, 10 years on international make-up brands, serving beauty and femininity.

She was then entrusted with the Global Marketing Department of Travel Retail, with the aim of federating and structuring the business of products sold in airports worldwide, thus strengthening her assets as a manager of very interdisciplinary projects and its international dimension. Around 2008, a time when many major groups, including her own, were making innovation a priority. She was offered a major new opportunity: to imagine and create the Make up Innovation Department for the whole world.

Her objective: to build the 5-year innovation plan for all make-up brands. “It was fabulous to start from a blank canvas, to invent tomorrow and to identify the best levers with the 600 people in R&D and interface packaging”. Very driven by the desire to create and very respectful of people, it is in the collective that Lise passionately grew this Innovation Department and it has led to many great innovations. The strength of her convictions and her internal network enabled her to sometimes succeed in the impossible, for example, by initiating major and transforming developments in the Chinese make-up market, then barely emerging.

However, it was not a long quiet journey: “I have always mobilized a lot of energy and commitment, a very powerful driving force”. “I’ve been hit in the face, too”. A trademark of Lise’s, no doubt about it, as her frankness and authenticity must have disturbed more than one. Innovating is not always easy, and if you don’t meet the right people at times, it’s not surprising that you have to defend obvious approaches. And these approaches you will certainly defend to the strength of your faith. Lise’s is great….

After 20 years of focusing on brands, international in retail, and innovation, Lise felt like she had more or less gone around the block, arriving at a crossroads… This led to profound questions about the meaning of her life, her usefulness to others. “A real challenge that must be addressed face to face”. “It takes courage, but it’s the only real solution”. All of these were triggers for her departure towards entrepreneurship.