6. Executive Director of EDHEC Alumni Martin Barbier on Course Croisière, career pivoting at senior levels and how the EDHEC community is caring, sharing and daring through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Hello, bonjour, ni hao and salut. Welcome back to the Impact around the World podcast. I'm Cassandra Pittman, edech's country manager for the UK and Ireland and host of the show. Joining me today is Martin Barbier. Before graduating from EDHEC with a Master's in management in 1988, he served as the president of the 20th Cours Crozier Edhec. Did I pronounce that right, Martin?

You did.

He then went on to have a 20 year career in consumer goods, including senior management roles with Kraft Foods, now Mondelez International and E health pioneer Medicimo. We're now fortunate enough to have him back in a leading role at edec where he is executive director of EDEC Alumni. Welcome, Martin. How are you doing today?

Thank you, Cassandra. I'm very happy to have this chat with you. It's a pleasure to join this program around the world close to you, and I'm honored that you chose also me to get involved. So thank you for that.

Well, I think that you just have such a unique vision to offer and experience to offer because obviously you were an EDX student, you were very involved and you were involved in what is still, I would say, probably our flagship student organization. I mean, we have many amazing student organizations, but our sailing club is really world class. I mean, it's like running a business. You know, the budgets are huge, the results are amazing, and students have such a wonderful bonding experience with it as well. And then you went off to have really what is like the ideal typical edtech career, living around the world, working with with global teams, and have now returned back to the school and are setting direction and strategy and activity for our global community of alumni around the world. And so I just really wanted to get your perspective as an alumnus yourself and also as the person helping to set the vision for the community and its future.

Yes, it's like I've circled back to edhec and EDHEC was definitely formatting for me, of course, its curriculum. But most obviously what happened with the redeeck. And I thought at the time it was big responsibilities, big budgets, big, huge organization. But then when I came back to EDHEC, I went to the 50th edition. So 30 years later I was kindly invited. We were the different presidents of the number one edition, 10th, 20th, myself, 30th, 40th and 50th, and we made a crew all together to participate in the final race regatta of the Corporatie Redec two years ago. And then I realized how far it had ground, it had grown and how far, how big it had become, the impact. And it's absolutely huge. So again, I thought it was huge at the time, but now it's gone even beyond. And it's fascinating to see how the students every year have grown it. But for sure, what happened then for me at the deck influenced my life somehow. And for instance, when I joined Mondelez, first of all, I wanted to travel the world. Just after that, I did a world tour of a year and a half and then I joined Craft, which became Mondelez, and I joined in marketing about three years after marketing, I thought, I don't want to do marketing all my life. I want to live again what I had lived at the Corsois La Dec with a team of people, with something that was bigger than us, with this and the regatta. And I wanted to join teams, lead teams, and have a goal that was bigger. And then that's why I wanted to join sales. So I moved the marketing to sales. And that influenced my career within CRAFT at the time, because marketing was kind of the leading path to general management and higher position, the organization. And Seattle was not at the time, but that was the right move. And then, yes, I did live abroad in the UK and in London and in Chicago for three years at both times. And that was fantastic experience. But yes, so I've circled back again to. To EDHEC three years ago now, taking my role. But actually I was doing 25 years very far from EDHEC. I'm married, I got kids, I joined again that craft business. And, you know, there was no room for edec apart from some of my very, very best friends, who are still my very, very best friends today. And what happened is that on the 25th anniversary of our class, our promotion, there was, you know, the class festivities.

Reunion. Yeah, the reunion. Yes.

And Leela in the new, at the time, very new campus, which was not the one I had made my studies in Yield. And I say that school has grown up so much and it's moved on so much so far and so nicely. So I started to be a jury member for oral competitive examinations and then getting closer to people of my class. And after that, after I joined that startup medicine you mentioned, I didn't go far and spend six months in that startup. And I was looking for a job. And during that time I looked for a job for over a year, which is going to be a long time, but I felt that there was something for me and I didn't expect at all that this would bring me back to edec.

So in this podcast series, we've been talking to alumni who are around the world. We've talked to alumni in California, in London, in China, in India, and you are our very first alumnus that we're speaking to in France. I'm wondering if you can give our listeners who maybe are not in France just a little bit of a sense of what life has been like in Covid, and then also a little bit of insight into how the school has responded. I think people will be aware in the news of the unique challenges the higher education sector and universities are faced with the pandemic. And I think it would be helpful for our listeners just to get a little bit of a perspective of what we've been doing on the ground there in France, on campus.

Yeah, I'll speak a little more about France maybe, because actually every European country has reacted in different way. The first country that was hit was Italy, then Spain, then France came very quickly, and then the COVID spread in all European countries. But the response was really country to country, and there was no such European response to the disease. But if we focus on France, on March 17, actually a lockdown was announced by the President Macron, and that took over two months. So people had to stay at home, had to have the school for the kids at home, and sometimes, of course, in difficult situations where there was no room for that, and had to work also from home. So there was a very difficult adjustment to all the communities. But that sounds very familiar to most of the people around the world. I mean, the lockdown was, was. Was difficult adjustments as far as I was concerned. Actually, I caught Covid very early around that same period, and my wife as well, we were not too badly hit, apart from fevers and coughs and stuff like that, something like that. So it was really like say, light. But we had friends, of course, family more badly hit, but no terrible things in our close relationship community. But it hit, of course, some people within the community, in the alumni community. And then the country reopened like early or mid June and then started, you know, having possibilities to move around again and come back to work and the kids could go back to school during the summer holiday. You know, the French have roughly, I would say four weeks, which is many people are jealous about. So those four weeks in average took place very in a high proportions in France rather than in foreign countries. So my wife is Portuguese, but she has family in. In Spain. So usually we go to Spain. We didn't. And we chose like a region where we were not. You used to Go to. Which is Dordog, which is famous for people, money for English and which is a very nice region. But all together, the country was, yes, shuffled or shaken by the COVID And what happens right now with again, the number of people who have the disease rising, people entering hospital and rising again. And we talk about in the second wave about drastic measures again starting early Monday next week. And that's. They're not the same in every city or every region in France. It's more like according to the local situation. Yes. This kind of not frightening. That would say it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. So we know that the sanitary situation has turned now to an economic impact. Of course, that's going to be definitely impacting people, of course, looking for a job, but also people who have jobs today and who are in sectors that are badly hit with the. With economic situation, entertainment, travel, of course, and so on. And they might be in France. We're good at that. In a social impact, of course, with a social turmoil around that. So we are in the middle. We don't know where it's going to lead.

Can I just stop you with the understatement of the century in France? We're good at that. We're good at the social impact, the social unrest about things. Yeah, yeah. In my brief time living in France, I remember a few train strikes and.

On Ambassador's Day where we were stuck here in Paris, we could go out because of the Gillet Jones crisis.

Yeah. So can you provide some insight into how you personally have managed your team through this crisis?

Actually, we were luckily enough kind of acquainted with the fact of working remotely. So part of the team is in Paris, Part of the team is nice. Part of the team in Nice. And I'm also working with you and other country managers around. Around the world. So we're familiar to working remotely, but nevertheless, this time it was working remotely, but adding an additional dimension, which was working from home with your family members, with your partner, with your kids who were also impacted. So it was an adjustment for. Definitely. And I found it also in terms of management more difficult to, you know, to get the momentum to sometime give energy and try to make people move forward because you had to take into account all those, you know, unusual elements that were impacting everybody's life. So I found it difficult. But all together, the team was amazing and. And we really moved, you know, at EC alumni, we have a lot of events that take place that were really most of them, whether they take place in France or internationally were 95% of them physical in a working space. And we had to turn online. And that was done with what we called an alumni summer session that took place from 20th of June to 20th of September, with events throughout and that we centered that alumni summer session on working and the adjustments to finding the work or getting on the market for the first time or, you know, moving in your career to a new position or changing jobs. And. And that was. We had more than 1,000 participants, single participants, with over 30 sessions. And we also moved into more what we call caring in our three pillars, Share, care and dare. We were good at share events, but then the caring was to take care about the people who were most badly hit at the time or even tomorrow, especially the young graduates who are going to look for a job. So we set up a job support. Program with both mentors and mentees. Mentees are definitely young graduates who are going to look for a job. And the mentors were alumni with the organization. And within two weeks, we had over 200 mentors who entered the program. And throughout the three months we had the program running, before the summer, we had over 250 pairs that were made between mentees and mentors. And there it is really about, you know, the mentor helping the mentee, reassuring the mentee about how to approach the job market, asking questions about what could be the right fields to go in and insights. And sometimes you had people within the mentors who already lived crisis like this one, where they. When they themselves graduated. That was the time that was true in 1993, 2008. So those mentors were also of very good advice to reassure and say, you know what, I've been through that same situation 10, 15 years ago. That was very difficult at the time, but now I've got great position, I've got great curriculum, great Pat, so don't worry, you know, it's going to be difficult to start with, but then it's fantastic. And that won't impact career for your lifetime.

Yeah, yeah. I think support like that is so important and that perspective is so important. I mean, I really try to. Well, it doesn't. I mean, try to is probably not the right way to put it, but I have just so much empathy for this group of students who is graduating now or is in school this year. Because when you're a little bit older, you know, I'm 40 now, so, you know, a little bit older, you forget how it feels to be just young and starting out. And, you know, if you think a year ago, the economy was growing worldwide. You know, in most places, the prognosis was very good. There was lots of reasons to be hopeful about your career and your career development. And it will be really scary for a lot of those students who don't yet have job offers facing this and have never lived through a crisis like this as professionals. So, you know, we know that this will pass. I mean, this is a unique crisis. None of us alive have lived through a global pandemic like this. But we've certainly lived through difficult economic times. And so I think that that perspective alone and that source of support and that show of empathy can be really powerful in times like this.

Definitely. And the reaction of the alumni community was very positive. And we know that's not going to be just for a couple of months. It's going to last for a long time. We know that September, December will be a difficult time, but also starting in January again for those young graduates. And we're not only talking about people who have graduated in 2020, but even graduates who have graduated about one, two, three years ago, it's going to be difficult. And even if people are already been working with several, sometime some experience and will be hit by the economic situation themselves with a company and we'll have to shift positions or shift jobs and sometime be looking for one. So we decided to of course do a season two of that job, you know, job hunting job support program that we launched in, in, in June until the, and until the end of July or May until the end of July. So we're going to do season two and we're launching it as we speak, from September, December, and we'll do season three, you know, already from January to April at least. And we'll, we'll see moving on and we'll support all those young graduates as long as it is needed. And I've seen how it worked and the enthusiasm of all the alumni who graduates who got involved into the program to give help. It was fascinating. And we've just asked all the ones that participated, are you ready to do season two? And I don't have exactly the results yet, but I've got many people. Of course I am going to join and of course I want to support and hoping to be in a position to help other students. So it feels really free, all students to join and get support. And that's not only for French students, it's for all students from everywhere in the world who are young Eddie graduates.

Okay, then my last question.

Sure.

So as we look forward, and I think in these times, it's almost harder to look too far into the future because it's true that we're in a bit of a crisis mode, right? And when you're in crisis, you have to solve the problem in front of you before you can spend that much energy and that much time thinking too far in the future. But to the extent that we can think about the future, what would be your greatest hope or your greatest vision for the EDEC alumni community, let's say in 20 years from now?

My dream is that people realize very during the student life that that network, that community is just there at their fingertips. And then when they leave school, the Sinsley School, then they. And when they have time and there is no answer to when it is, it's really according to any kind of people. They just join that community, they take whatever they want from it and they bring to it. But that can Happen not in 20 years, that can happen now, already now. So that way we raise the percentage of people who actually get involved either to take again from that community, to take something that gives them added value, but also to bring some value to that community as well. Whether it's as a jury, whether it's a donator or donor, whether it's as a member, as an ambassador, locally, whether it's as a speaker for an alumni event or in front of students, whether it's a mentor role and so on. There are so many options to get involved. Today. We roughly have 14 to 15% of our overall community of 46,000 students and graduates who are involved within the community. We can bring that level to in 20 years. I would say 30% would be a dream. You can't imagine to have 100% of people involved around EDEC. We all have other responsibilities and stuff, but nevertheless, at least, you know, helping someone, donating, just participating to an event, or even mention edec when you do a podcast or a press interview and say, you know what? I graduated from headache and I'm proud of it, you know, getting more pride of what headde has become. And I really feel extremely confident with the direction that has taken and is right now taking move it forward for 2025. And that's only five years from now, but it could still be true in 2040. It's going to be one of the leading business school or schools because it's not necessarily only business in the future, in the world within 20 years. And my dream is that it has even more impact on our society. It has impact on bringing future leaders in positions where they can have both an Impact socially and environmentally. Didn't say it right, but environmentally, yes. Thank you. And in, you know, taking the right decisions in businesses, taking the right decisions in association where they work, taking the right decisions in there also own private networks so that, yes, we make this place a better world. And I'm really sure that our community can have a strong influence and impact on this. So, yes, that's maybe my dream for the next 20 years.

Amazing. Martin, thank you so much for joining us today. Today, if people want to learn more about the EDH alumni community, or indeed about you, where should they go? What should be their first stop?

They can of course, join me through LinkedIn. Martin Barbier B A R B I E R. And of course they can get on our website, which is Alumni Edec. Edu and that's our EDDEC alumni website, where they can get a lot of information and also they can get all the contacts within the operational team I'm running. And it's a fantastic team. So we'll be very happy to answer your questions, to find ways you can get involved if you wish to. If you wish to, and also let you know more about what we're doing to make this community thrive.

Amazing. Merci beaucoup.

Merci. Cassandra, it's been a great pleasure. Thank you so much.

Pleasure's all mine. Thank you. Impact around the World is an initiative of the pioneering EDHEC delegations team and EDHEC alumni. A huge thank you to my fellow country managers, Patricia in California, CC in China, Nilesh in India and Joyce in Singapore for helping to make these interviews happen. We're committed to building a community beyond the classroom for you, our 46,000 alumni in over 125 countries. Follow us on Twitter @EDech alumni or visit the alumni website at Alumni Edec. Edu to find out more about how you can connect with the EDEC community close to you and around the world. World, thanks for listening.