In Bordeaux, this KEDGE Alumna launched AXENTIEL, a training and consultancy firm.

Her background

Nothing is more formative than on the ground experience: Edwige Dupebe (ESC, class of 2002) learned this first-hand, very quickly. During her studies, this KEDGE Alumni had planned on working in the human resources sector, since she was very interested in human relations within the professional sphere. However, during her end of studies internship with the HR Department at Bouygues Construction, she discovered that there is a huge administrative component to the job, where she preferred to work in a more operational position. 

"I decided that I wanted to work in the field in order to live out the strategy of the company, to incarnate it and share it with the collaborators" she explains. 

Professionally, her background began to centre around two main areas: business and management, which Edwige was passionate about. "At Auchan, where I had my first experience as Section Manager, I discovered the fast-paced world of mass distribution, where you always have to make new offers and surprise the client! I liked the high requirement standards when it came to managing the linear, the TG, the OP, the stocks, and the Board. A well-rounded experience that provided me with the tools I needed to be a manager. My approach at the time: remain humble in front of a team that had been established well before I arrived (and who could provide me with a lot of valuable information) while slowly but surely getting them to rethink their organisation and methodology. Get them to do things differently to achieve better results." 

At Fagorbrandt, an appliance manufacturer, she then developed a taste for BtoB sales. She was then in charge of a sales sector for the brands Brandt and then De Dietrich, where she practised - and learned to love - the art of negotiation, but regretted the lack of management in her position. So she decided to join Armand Thiery and its clothing retail shops. "I worked as Regional Director and was able to bring together my two passions. I was in charge of 13 shops in a fourth of France, and within my sector I put in place a rather unusual management style for Armand Thiery: listening to my collaborators, expressing my expectations, evaluating each person individually, working through difficulties, sharing best practices, and transmitting a common vision for success. That also meant requiring that certain rules be respecting, including making an effort to lift oneself and others, and work as a team."

She saw very positive results: the region she was in charge of had the best results in the network during her time there, and they are still growing. "I had the pleasure of leading teams that were motivated, involved, and stable, including several collaborators who were promoted internally. Each person evolved in their position. Armand Thiery had an entirely different vision and practice when it comes to management and the role of supervisors. This fracture from my personal values is why I decided to leave and create a completely different project: to share these best practices in management, which benefit everyone and lead to positive results, on a wider scope."

Axentiel, her new Training and Consultancy firm

In January 2017, Edwige created the Training and Consultancy Firm AXENTIEL, based in the Gironde region: "I specialise in an operational management approach (which fits my nature). Being pragmatic and provide concrete tools that each person can appropriate and use once they have been trained. I share these tools with a national professional network that I joined (Impulsion Consulting)." It brings together independent firms, which develop innovative concepts, some of which have been registered with the INPI:

• managerial techniques 
• a TOP'M 100 ranking of managerial profiles 
• illustrative mini-videos of situations
  
  

"We share a common vision, a concept: EXILLANCE. It's the contraction of the French words EXIGENCE (high level of requirement) and BIENVEILLANCE (goodwill). The requirement for results that are regularly surpassed and goodwill for sustainable and long-term relationships. The idea that management is efficient when it balances these two notions because requirements without goodwill cause pain and goodwill without requirements results in losses." 

She provides four types of services: training, recruitment support, diagnostic advice, and individual support. They all have as common basis EXILLANCE. The network enables her to also offer national coverage to her clients who wish to put in place the same service on several sites at the same time, without incurring travel costs from the consultant. 

What she gained from her degree at KEDGE

"At KEDGE, I learned to be open-minded and reflect on myself. I haven't stopped asking myself "are you in tune with yourself in this moment? Does what you're doing fit with who you are?" ever since. The answer to these questions has often guided my choices. I strongly believe in the connection we have with ourselves. The student I once was refused to see herself as an entrepreneur. It didn't fit with my nature at all. Fifteen years later, my background and my values have led me here and I am living it fully. One piece of advice: stay true to yourself and who you are at this moment. That is what changes in the end..."

For more information:

Bordeaux Contractor Entrepreneurship PGE Start up

2 comments

You must be logged in to leave a comment.

Connection

2 Comments

Laurent GENIN (BEM Programme Grande Ecole / ESC, 2004) 04 May 2017 à 20h58 Bon courage Edwige pour l'aventure. La gestion de la formation chez DV aura donc été un choix déterminant pour la suite !

Edwige DUPEBE (BEM Programme Grande Ecole / ESC, 2002) 17 May 2017 à 10h00 Merci Laurent. DV fût un prémice de l'aventure il faut croire...