From Polytechnique to Ardian: Dominique Senequier light our way to collective success | Impossible-Possible (English version)

Description

“Inner light is essential to guide our choices”. In this captivating episode of Impossible • Possible, Dominique Senequier, Chairman of Ardian, takes us on an exceptional journey. Gifted in mathematics and physics, Dominique Senequier was destined for a career as a teacher, following in her grandmother’s footsteps. Her admission to Polytechnique, under the Debré Law, changed the course of her destiny. Decisive encounters then marked out the path of this entrepreneur in the reinsurance sector. Ardian’s success illustrates the power of teamwork and the transmission of knowledge. A touching and inspiring testimony.

About the podcast Impossible • Possible

For its 160th anniversary, Societe Generale wanted to celebrate the relationship of trust with its clients and partners, without whom nothing would have been possible. Thus, was born the Impossible • Possible art project. Marco D'Anna, a photographer, produced a series of 75 portraits of these men and women on behalf of the Group: entrepreneurs, doctors, financiers, families, volunteers, musicians, industrialists... We decided to go beyond the images... Discover these human stories, where the impossible becomes possible, these authentic testimonials where the protagonists reveal their paths, their visions, their passions.

AI generated audio from the original french version

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Transcription

Dominique Senequier
I did a very large part of my studies in Toulon. I was particularly good at mathematics and physics. I had a grandmother who was a mathematics teacher, so it seemed completely natural that, ultimately, my career would be like my grandmother's. I should have taken the classes, the degree, maybe the aggregation, in Aix-en-Provence and stayed in the South of France. And what happened was a bit of a destiny. Things are not always as you plan or think they are. Since in April 1972, when I was in special mathematics classes in Marseille, the professor told us that Michel Debré had passed a new law, because he was a feminist, and that he had opened the entrance exam to Polytechnique to women. So, the professor asked us: do any of you (there were a few girls in the class) want to apply? And so, I said yes. And then, I would say that chance had it that I was accepted on the first try. I think my life completely changed direction compared to a path that was somewhat laid out, in which I wasn't questioning anything. I was nineteen years old. It was magnificent, we were pioneers. I believe that we were caught up in the action and didn't realise it. Looking back today, with 52 years of hindsight, I think : Dominique, you should have savored every second... But I enjoyed it nonetheless. There were state institution branches. The first graduates entered the Corps des Mines, the Corps des Ponts, the Corps des Télécoms. I joined a small branch, which had two or three polytechnicians a year, called the insurance control branch. I had chosen it to have a quieter life. And then, in fact, after five years, I said to myself: Dominique, look at yourself in the face. You do not have the soul of a controller. I am someone quite lively, dynamic. And so, I went to see a headhunter. He told me, listen, you have already learned five years in insurance, so go into insurance! And there, I was immediately hired because there was little or no women. And so, I joined the GAN company. There was a 65-year woman who was retiring. And the general management was terrified of not having another woman with potential to enter the management team. I entered reinsurance. And it is a subject that I liked. When you insure, you insure everything. When you reinsure, you reinsure everything. You reinsure large life insurance contracts. I always tell the story that happened when I was in this reinsurance company, once I was on duty on December 31 and I received a telex, there were still telexes at the time. It was the life insurance policy of Sammy Davis Jr., the jazzman. And I was told, do you want to reinsure 10 million francs on the insurance policy of Sammy Davis Jr.? You take a piece of this policy, which was maybe 50 million francs or dollars, I don't remember. Do you want to take it? And I did not have the capacity, you see, to take the 10 million francs on the company's balance sheet. I could not. So, I had to find someone to share with. So, I asked London, the Lloyds, and they replied: “more than two bottles of whiskey a day is not insurable.” Isn't that beautiful? So, I have memories like that, anecdotes that make a life. I believe that life is about encounters. It is nothing but encounters. I have been in the same company since 1996. Simply, it is the shareholders who have changed. From 1996 to 2012, it was AXA. And now, it is us, the shareholders. All the employees of the company and the managers own about 50 percent of the company. And we found institutional investors and family offices for the other 50 percent. And we have grown a lot since then. It is a huge success, I should say. Since when we left AXA in 2012, we managed 32 billion dollars. And today, we manage one 170 billion dollars. So, it is a very large progression in 12 years. In fact, I think I share the satisfaction of all entrepreneurs. I saw that Xavier Niel gave a speech at the Olympia about his life as an entrepreneur. I read the comments in Le Figaro, in Les Echos. It is an extraordinary life path. It is the greatest French career. So, simply, I can see the satisfaction in his mind. I understand it, even if our success is not on the scale of Xavier Niel's. In our asset management profession, we have become the first Europeans, or among the top three Europeans, and thus extremely recognized across the Atlantic, in the United States. Ardian is a well-known, respected name in New York, in California, and it is a great satisfaction because, starting from nothing, we have created a company that matters in the world... We matter to our clients in Asia, in China, in Japan, in Korea. We have clients in Abu Dhabi, in Saudi Arabia. So, it is a huge satisfaction to have had a collective success, all together, because it is never the success of an individual. And that is very interesting. There are many researchers in sociology who have done research on the springs of collective success. Why people are happy to work and succeed together? I think it is rather analogous to a soccer or a rugby club, or even to an orchestra. In the orchestra, you have the first violin, who is often the first to stand up. It could be for us what I would call the 'head of buy-out'... I am sorry, I will get into a bit too technical language, the 'head' of secondary activities. And you have also the one that goes cling cling from time to time on the timpani. Well, if there is no cling cling on the timpani, the piece that Wagner wrote will not be the same. It is this collective work. It adds its little touch to the excellence of the interpretation of a symphony or an opera. So that is what is fascinating. I have never had any career plan. Even now, I do not have a life plan. I have a somewhat of a Buddhist approach on this subject. You must focus every day to do your best at what you need to do, especially on a moral and ethical level. So, I do not have a life plan. I think that life flows, the sun rises every day, sets every day, and that tomorrow is another day. I am particularly happy about the last step, which was the choice of the people who will succeed me. I think that is the thing that, I hope, in the long future, will honor me the most because it is an extremely difficult step. You must know how to gradually withdraw. I think that is the most beautiful thing we can offer to the young, to show them that we know we have reached a stage of great maturity and that we need to pass it on. In fact, while I was active, I always passed on knowledge. I passed on skills, that is different, I trained them. I love teaching, and so everything I had learned, I was happy to give back. But now, it is different. It is all that they have learned: to realize that they have the complete ability to take over. A great leader can only become a great leader with an inner light of justice, fairness, and kindness. Even in what I have experienced recently for three years, the preparation of my succession, I must have this inner light to make, without a doubt, the best choice. And at the same time, to have this light for myself, to be able to live differently, being less attached to following the daily routine of our company. So, this light is very important, directed outward and inward.

Description

About the podcast Impossible • Possible

AI generated audio from the original french version

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Dominique Senequier
I did a very large part of my studies in Toulon. I was particularly good at mathematics and physics. I had a grandmother who was a mathematics teacher, so it seemed completely natural that, ultimately, my career would be like my grandmother's. I should have taken the classes, the degree, maybe the aggregation, in Aix-en-Provence and stayed in the South of France. And what happened was a bit of a destiny. Things are not always as you plan or think they are. Since in April 1972, when I was in special mathematics classes in Marseille, the professor told us that Michel Debré had passed a new law, because he was a feminist, and that he had opened the entrance exam to Polytechnique to women. So, the professor asked us: do any of you (there were a few girls in the class) want to apply? And so, I said yes. And then, I would say that chance had it that I was accepted on the first try. I think my life completely changed direction compared to a path that was somewhat laid out, in which I wasn't questioning anything. I was nineteen years old. It was magnificent, we were pioneers. I believe that we were caught up in the action and didn't realise it. Looking back today, with 52 years of hindsight, I think : Dominique, you should have savored every second... But I enjoyed it nonetheless. There were state institution branches. The first graduates entered the Corps des Mines, the Corps des Ponts, the Corps des Télécoms. I joined a small branch, which had two or three polytechnicians a year, called the insurance control branch. I had chosen it to have a quieter life. And then, in fact, after five years, I said to myself: Dominique, look at yourself in the face. You do not have the soul of a controller. I am someone quite lively, dynamic. And so, I went to see a headhunter. He told me, listen, you have already learned five years in insurance, so go into insurance! And there, I was immediately hired because there was little or no women. And so, I joined the GAN company. There was a 65-year woman who was retiring. And the general management was terrified of not having another woman with potential to enter the management team. I entered reinsurance. And it is a subject that I liked. When you insure, you insure everything. When you reinsure, you reinsure everything. You reinsure large life insurance contracts. I always tell the story that happened when I was in this reinsurance company, once I was on duty on December 31 and I received a telex, there were still telexes at the time. It was the life insurance policy of Sammy Davis Jr., the jazzman. And I was told, do you want to reinsure 10 million francs on the insurance policy of Sammy Davis Jr.? You take a piece of this policy, which was maybe 50 million francs or dollars, I don't remember. Do you want to take it? And I did not have the capacity, you see, to take the 10 million francs on the company's balance sheet. I could not. So, I had to find someone to share with. So, I asked London, the Lloyds, and they replied: “more than two bottles of whiskey a day is not insurable.” Isn't that beautiful? So, I have memories like that, anecdotes that make a life. I believe that life is about encounters. It is nothing but encounters. I have been in the same company since 1996. Simply, it is the shareholders who have changed. From 1996 to 2012, it was AXA. And now, it is us, the shareholders. All the employees of the company and the managers own about 50 percent of the company. And we found institutional investors and family offices for the other 50 percent. And we have grown a lot since then. It is a huge success, I should say. Since when we left AXA in 2012, we managed 32 billion dollars. And today, we manage one 170 billion dollars. So, it is a very large progression in 12 years. In fact, I think I share the satisfaction of all entrepreneurs. I saw that Xavier Niel gave a speech at the Olympia about his life as an entrepreneur. I read the comments in Le Figaro, in Les Echos. It is an extraordinary life path. It is the greatest French career. So, simply, I can see the satisfaction in his mind. I understand it, even if our success is not on the scale of Xavier Niel's. In our asset management profession, we have become the first Europeans, or among the top three Europeans, and thus extremely recognized across the Atlantic, in the United States. Ardian is a well-known, respected name in New York, in California, and it is a great satisfaction because, starting from nothing, we have created a company that matters in the world... We matter to our clients in Asia, in China, in Japan, in Korea. We have clients in Abu Dhabi, in Saudi Arabia. So, it is a huge satisfaction to have had a collective success, all together, because it is never the success of an individual. And that is very interesting. There are many researchers in sociology who have done research on the springs of collective success. Why people are happy to work and succeed together? I think it is rather analogous to a soccer or a rugby club, or even to an orchestra. In the orchestra, you have the first violin, who is often the first to stand up. It could be for us what I would call the 'head of buy-out'... I am sorry, I will get into a bit too technical language, the 'head' of secondary activities. And you have also the one that goes cling cling from time to time on the timpani. Well, if there is no cling cling on the timpani, the piece that Wagner wrote will not be the same. It is this collective work. It adds its little touch to the excellence of the interpretation of a symphony or an opera. So that is what is fascinating. I have never had any career plan. Even now, I do not have a life plan. I have a somewhat of a Buddhist approach on this subject. You must focus every day to do your best at what you need to do, especially on a moral and ethical level. So, I do not have a life plan. I think that life flows, the sun rises every day, sets every day, and that tomorrow is another day. I am particularly happy about the last step, which was the choice of the people who will succeed me. I think that is the thing that, I hope, in the long future, will honor me the most because it is an extremely difficult step. You must know how to gradually withdraw. I think that is the most beautiful thing we can offer to the young, to show them that we know we have reached a stage of great maturity and that we need to pass it on. In fact, while I was active, I always passed on knowledge. I passed on skills, that is different, I trained them. I love teaching, and so everything I had learned, I was happy to give back. But now, it is different. It is all that they have learned: to realize that they have the complete ability to take over. A great leader can only become a great leader with an inner light of justice, fairness, and kindness. Even in what I have experienced recently for three years, the preparation of my succession, I must have this inner light to make, without a doubt, the best choice. And at the same time, to have this light for myself, to be able to live differently, being less attached to following the daily routine of our company. So, this light is very important, directed outward and inward.

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