Who makes up Digital 50 ?
Digital 50 is a community of business owners and of executives from various types of company:
- firms recently acquired by ENGIE, which in the past three years has acquired many companies contributing technologies which are important for our strategy.
- certain of the companies in which the ENGIE New Ventures fund has acquired a minority interest.
- companies formed or managed by ENGIE employees, such as TEO, Please or 50five
- those in charge of the various ENGIE Digital platforms.
- certain ENGIE managers supervising big digital projects.
- the Managing Director of ENGIE Fab.
The operational activities involved cover all our market segments: B2B, B2C and B2T, and 15 different nationalities are represented!
Watchword: growth
The watchword for Digital 50 is growth. All these companies have two things in common: they are managed by people with an entrepreneurial profile and they are growing rapidly. For ENGIE, digital activities are increasingly important: 4000 people work in Digital or IT.
As Yves Le Gélard (Executive Vice President & Chief Digital Officer) says, « ENGIE's strategy partly depends on our ability to increase our digital skills ».
It was important for those responsible for these activities to have access to a forum where they could meet, discuss, express their needs and develop synergies, both among themselves and with other elements of the Group.
An intense first edition
This first edition of Digital 50 was in two parts: one day of workshops and discussion, and the next day, participation in the Good Day organised by ENGIE in the Saint Cloud park. The first day was structured around objectives and themes previously specified by the participants, namely:
- governance
- growth
- HR issues (recruitment, turnover, etc.)
During the morning the participants addressed the questions, issues and problems they encounter, and especially their suggestions on how to work better, both together and with ENGIE.
The afternoon was devoted to speed-dating. Everyone had been asked to select the other participants they wished to meet, and the idea met with keen enthusiasm: we had to deal with 200 dating requests! Each participant finally took part in 4 or 5 « dates » during the afternoon.
A scale was used to evaluate these encounters: at the end of their conversation, participants specified whether it was a « perfect match » (projects to develop together rapidly), a « match » (less immediate interest), or a « no match » if there was no common interest.
We were pleasantly surprised by the results: there were 32 « perfect matches » and only 9 « no matches »!
Gettting acquainted to develop synergy
The day's experiences confirmed that it was worthwhile to establish this new community and its encounters, to complement existing communities and organisations. We were impressed by the commitment shown by the participants, who proposed themes they considered important right from the preparation phase.
All in all, it was a day of intense cooperation and dialogue, which revealed both the need to get acquainted and the potential synergies which exist.
The next day, several participants were exhibiting or pitching during the Good Day, which gave them the opportunity to meet Isabelle Kocher and the press.
What are the next steps, after such a promising start?
Indeed, this was only the beginning! Immediately after the Summer, we intend to organise thematic web meetings among the members, at their request, and organise interchange and the life of the community in an ongoing way. A certain number of tools are to be developed to facilitate communication; a newsletter was especially requested.
And the guideline for tomorrow? The slogan we used for the first day: « Let’s shape the future together »
