“The key to making your business successful in an ultra-competitive world has a name: strategy.” This publication is above all proof of this, with the testimony of an eminent CEO. It is also the story of Xavier Fontanet’s exceptional career. He is the iconic leader of the ESSILOR group, which he brought, under his leadership, to 5 billionS € in turnover while increasing its market value a hundredfold. His interviewer, Pierre Pupier, himself an entrepreneur-investor and a leading figure in private equity, reveals each stage of Xavier’s professional life, which are all examples of “strategy” that “applies in the field in real situations and allows you to master changing and complex situations, or at least to adapt to them. The strategic concepts used and presented in this book “remain universal and apply equally to SMEs and mid-caps as to large companies… “
The major issues reviewed by the authors – profitability, growth, team motivation, etc. – will be of interest not only to business leaders, but also to economics students and executives looking for inspiration and a model of success in and through business. By closing this book, the reader will undoubtedly have understood that strategy can also be an exciting game and that choosing to become an entrepreneur, despite the many negative connotations that are too often attributed to these central figures of the economy and the risks that accompany them, can ultimately prove to be a “very happy” experience.
This is what emerges from this “true novel” of the life of Xavier Fontanet, a great business leader, who continues to have fun by becoming a publisher, creating the game “STRATHENA” which allows the user to put himself in the shoes of a company’s CEO facing his competitors, which remains a good way to test and develop his knowledge of strategy.
Education, Xavier Fontanet’s other great battle, “should start at the school level… as early as the fifth grade”
Xavier Fontanet: CEO of Essilor for nearly 20 years. Director of major groups. Pierre PUPIER: 15 years of private equity, founder of several companies.
Note by Jean Louis Chambon
