Pascal Denoël, boss and adventurer at the same time, Success Story
How do you manage to reconcile your desire for adventure and running a business?
Whether it's this summer in Iceland, crossing the island on foot from south to north, or in my many expeditions to the four corners of the planet, I always try to surpass myself, to "challege" my physical limits. and especially mental. If these adventures respond to a personal quest, I also do it to inspire my collaborators. Each time, a flag in the colors of my group covers my backpack.
The media coverage of these expeditions also aims to increase my group's notoriety and send a message to my suppliers and my customers. I show them that our group has strong values, that we know how to face up to difficulties, that we are reliable over time and therefore worthy of trust. Rather than signing a check to sponsor a sporting event, I prefer to "wet the jersey" and set an example
Last May, you wanted to climb Everest. You were prevented from doing so due to bad weather conditions. Disappointment ?Yes, I am horribly disappointed. In order to complicate the exercise, I wanted to climb this mythical mountain without oxygen. The local decision-makers prevented us from doing so when I was ready to take my risks, even if I am far from being a daredevil, an irresponsible person. I am all the more disappointed that my collaborators had instructed me to deposit at the summit - 8,849 meters above sea level - a small monolith of ice weighing 400 grams, an "object" totally respectful of the environment, therefore engraved with a universal message.
How was born this vocation of adventurer?I have always been very athletic. Until my adolescence I practiced handball at a very high level in Nantes where I grew up. I was running, without training - 11 seconds per 100 meters. Handball taught me team spirit and physical courage, qualities that are very useful in the business world. Ultraperfectionist, since that time, I pay attention to the smallest detail, like the top athletes I would have liked to be part of.
PORTRAIT - Pascal Denoël, in the Himalayas, on behalf of his teamsIn 2005, while trekking with a friend in the Hoggar, a mountain range in southern Algeria, I had a revelation. It was right after my divorce. I was at the bottom of the hole. This contact with the great outdoors invigorated me, made me feel fully a citizen of the world. Since then I have chained expeditions, climbing in the steepest places on the planet.
In 2015, your expedition to the North Pole represents a moment that you describe as decisive in the construction of your group's identity?Indeed. I wanted to make this event the decisive act of the official birth of the ZeKat group. I left for eleven days on an expedition with a friend, sleeping in a tent, on the ice floe in the middle of nowhere. It was a fantastic experience. Unfortunately, I was able to see in situ the disastrous effects of global warming, with this ice floe fractured in many places.
I made a film out of it that I like to show in the conference-debates to which I am invited. This expedition inspired me with the five values of my group - Audacity, Commitment, Performance, Collective, Humility - of which I am the guardian of the temple. To each of my collaborators, I like to ask. “And what is your North Pole? So I help them to live their dreams instead of dreaming their lives as the great Antoine de Saint-Exupéry professed. The name ZeKat alludes to the cat, which according to popular wisdom, “always lands on its feet”. It is indeed a metaphor for the vicissitudes of business life.
Have you always wanted to become an entrepreneur?I have always had a deep sense of freedom. Which can represent an exact definition of entrepreneurship. During my studies at Arts et Métiers, I created my first apartment greenhouse company, with my father and my brother, both engineers like me. If technically we could be proud of our "baby", we never managed to sell anything, except to our circle of friends (laughs). I had neglected the commercial part. Technique is not enough.
In the early 1990s, with a friend, we started a video cassette distribution business. Unfortunately, the Gulf War got the better of our ambition. The company filed for bankruptcy. Finally, I joined a technology company in which I learned the commercial dimension that I sorely missed. Following the famous HEC MBA allowed me to integrate two essential aspects of business development: strategy and finance. Finally I joined Sapelem, a robotics SME with 30 employees based in Angers, which I bought five years later, before forming my group thanks to an external growth policy.
At the end of the 1990s, did you suffer two serious disappointments?Yes. In the Angers and Le Mans companies that I had bought, I was naive in bringing in a partner out of friendship when I didn't need one. The association went wrong… Not to mention a pitched battle with the unions at the same time. It was very violent. We had to file for bankruptcy.
ANALYSIS - The liberated company: Covid HR management at NicomaticI had to start from scratch and lost millions of euros in this adventure. Unfortunately, I experienced the 3 Ds: bankruptcy, depression, divorce. It toughened me up. And in 1999, I had a serious car accident. I remained in a coma, I was close to death. I recovered from these two ordeals. It made me stronger. I learned that you only live once.
How would you define your management style?I work on trust, while always aiming for performance. I will not claim the notion of liberated enterprise, but I have been practicing it, in fact, for twenty years. Many of my close collaborators have always lived in towns other than the group's Angers headquarters, and work from home. Agility is in my group's DNA. I prefer eleven, agile and fluid companies that cooperate rather than a one-piece company, necessarily more rigid.
Do you value the start-up spirit for your group?Yes and no. I have already created and bought start-ups, but I deplore the excessive reverence they receive from decision-makers and territories. Even though innovation funding is necessary, some start-ups receive, in a way, free money. This does not promote entrepreneurial accountability and sometimes generates a distortion of “free and undistorted competition” compared to manufacturers who work on these same issues, but without subsidies!
Do you still feel free, that state of mind you were looking for when you left your studies?Not really. Because because of my responsibilities, I have to assume many obligations. Furthermore, firmly convinced that an entrepreneur is a key player in living well together, I am very involved in various employer and institutional bodies in the Pays de la Loire region. But I have purposely appointed autonomous general managers who possess strong entrepreneurial qualities. This leaves me more time to develop the group's strategy and to continue to dream, to push my limits, to think of new expeditions... And to carry them out!