I was very chocked when I met a consultant and investor for showing him the new marketplace which I have developed for entrepreneurs looking for their right exec team (ideasvoice.com), who told me that people can’t be good entrepreneurs after a career of over 20 years for corporate. But why a such belief? Are we so formated that it is impossible to learn a new decision-making process for taking risk?

Is it really true for anybody?
What is your opinion?
Do you have testimony?
I am more optimistic and think that we can adapt ourselves depending on the situation and develop skills that are necessary for the situation.

1. know yourself,
2. estimate your contribution, your added value for the project,
3. define the kind of co-founder you need : his/her skills, his/her achievements, objectives that he/she should reach, his/her future contribution in theory,
4. prepare your pitch to sell your project and convince the interest of it,
5. communicate and look at all channels, including social internet networks for entrepreneurs that will help you to connect to other people such as www.ideasvoice.com. You will save time even if those sites are quite new and have little traffic for the moment,
6. once you are in contact, learn to know the other person, his/her personality and assess the chance of success to work as a team,
7. share a common vision,
8. assess the potential contribution of your future co-founder,
9. test for a certain period the viability of the partnership,
10. prepare the “marriage” without forgetting the exit: the shareholders’ agreement.

And you, do you have testimony?

1. se connaître soi-même,
2. estimer sa contribution, ses apports pour son projet,
3. evaluer de quel type d’associé on a besoin, ses compétences, ses réalisations, son objectif, sa contribution souhaitée,
4. préparer son discours pour vendre son projet et convaincre de l’intérêt de son projet,
5. communiquer et rechercher sur tous les canaux, y compris les réseaux sociaux internet pour entrepreneurs qui font les mises en relation comme www.ideasvoice.com, cela fait gagner du temps même si ces sites sont jeunes et ont encore peu de trafic,
6. une fois en contact, connaître l’autre, son caractère et évaluer les chances de succès de faire équipe,
7. partager une vision commune,
8. évaluer la contribution potentielle de l’autre
9. tester pendant une période la viabilité de l’association
10. préparer le “mariage” sans oublier la sortie : le pacte d’associés.

Et vous, un témoignage?

CUP OF IDEAS VOICE - 19th of March 2012 – Session BUSINESS DEVELOPER – PARIS, Fr

Entrepreneurs who are looking for business developers to join their team, will pitch their project. Business developers who are looking for projects to join, will listen to them and then give their feedback.

You are in Paris, make a stop for 1 hour to join us.

In the recent past, working for innovative projects in insurance, I discover how simple it is to have plenty of ideas to bring more comfort to the clients and to lower the risk. If you put in a room few experts in insurance, you will finally be able to gather many interesting thoughts. However, to transform them into project will encounter many barriers. Among them, I see 2 important ones that need to be solved in priority:

• Competition that will limit collaborative project
• Opposite interests from the different stakeholders that require important negotiation and tremendous effort for mobilizing the right sponsors.
  For example, sharing data with my insurer is not obvious that it will bring me lower premium, or sharing data between insurers will benefit to the one that is in advance.

Those both factors slowdown the process of innovation, threatening efficiency and profitability of the project, demanding more funds than it should.

Therefore, in an innovative project in the insurance industry, lobbying and committing powerful sponsors are keys and should be address beforehand!

The French cluster Finance Innovation is launching a RFP for projects in Insurance that address one of the prior topics listed in the white paper published on July 2010.

More than 26 topics in Insurance have been listed and are looking for solutions that would bring tremendous value to the customers and the insurance industry.

Therefore, if you have a project or already a solution, don’t hesitate to apply at http://www.finance-innovation.org/news0000219.htm

Good luck!

Any Department of Innovation of a corporation has 2 main responsibilities:

1. Leading internal innovation
2. Sponsoring external and independent innovation

1. Leading internal innovation may include:

• Animation of the Ideation process (ideas box, ideas transformation to projects)
• Innovative projects Management and Execution
• Preparation of the commercialisation of the solution
• Follow-up of the ROI of selected projects

 2. Sponsoring external and independent innovation

• Sourcing innovative projects bringing added value for the company directly or not
• Building the alliances
• Supporting the executions and the commercialisations
• Follow up the projects and their life cycles.

And you? 
Which missions have your Department of Innovation in your company in the Financial sector?
Are you proud of their achievements?

See also “Craft a precise definition of innovation’s role in the overall corporate strategy based on the company’s industry, market,and competitive environment”  (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1417)

In France, mass consumer access different families of products for investment and saving. Apart from real estate, individual savings are generally roughly split between securities accounts (especially PEA –  a securities savings plan driven by tax incentives) and life insurance contracts (Euro, UC – unit-linked contract…).

In this environment, one can wonder what the value proposition of the unit-linked contracts is. If you compare this product with the PEA, clients are taking the same risks whereas they pay significant fixed administrative fees.

If you are looking quickly on google for finding articles on advantages of unit-linked contracts, you will have a poor result, which means that a large place for innovation exists in the futur, combining marketing and design areas.

Therefore, I am very interested to discuss with you about the value proposition of such product in France or similar one abroad. Why mass consumer should buy them?

Patricia Egard
Founder of Ever Up, Consulting in Strategy and Entrepreneur
For continuous profitability in Financial Services

Is Entrepreneurship in innovation in France more difficult than in USA?

According to Daniel Zumino and Jacques Birol in the article “Let the entrepreneurs innovate in peace», HEC magazine, France has several success stories in innovation. However, investors are usually more reluctant to take risks and more demanding on fast returns than those in USA, making the Silicon Valley apparently the heaven of start-ups.

In fact, the comparison is not so obvious: USA is attractive and therefore a huge competition among project exists, France has few government incentives and a large capital in research capabilities, enabling the launch of projects and ideas, but encountering difficulties to raise large amount of funds.

One solution to boost the capacity of developing innovative projects in France is to diminish the risk adverse culture by educating investors and financial institutions. The effects will be in long term. At the same time, the government has a major role in regulating the Private Equity, promoting them or not in the funding of innovative projects.

See also an article on French business angels with Daniel Zumino

Patricia Egard
Founder of Ever Up, Consulting in Strategy and Entrepreneur
For continuous profitability in Financial Services

Therefore the McKinsey Global Survey results on what successful transformations share should be considered with attention by Solvency 2 leaders. Key lessons can be sum up in 7 main issues to be addressed.

1. Create clear, stretching targets and define a clear structure
2. Focus on your employees’ mind sets and behaviour
3. Put a priority on finding efficient and scalable ways to engage employees
4. Do not focus only on problems, but also on your strengths and opportunities
5. Broke down the process of the transformation into specific small initiatives
6. Build leadership capabilities to maintain long term organizational health
7. Emphasize collaboration and co-creation

Patricia Egard
Founder of Ever Up, Consulting in Strategy and Entrepreneur
For continuous profitability in Financial Services