"Change - A new way of talking business" IÉSEG Magazine - Issue #10
FEBRUARY 2025
AND RESEARCH
The city as space -time /P.16
Objective time, experienced time /P.19
NICE TO MEET YOU
Romuald Gorenflos, head of the Western Territorial Group at SDIS de l’Oise /P.22
THEY CONTRIBUTED TO THE PRODUCTION OF THIS ISSUE... THANKS TO:
• Thomas Bronnec
• Éric Dor
• Andrea Furlan
• Romuald Gorenflos
• Melvyn Hamstra
• Nicolas Henry
• Bruno Hervein
• Thomas Leclercq
• Paolo Mazza
• Carlos Moreno
• David Robbe
• Maud Van Den Broeke
• Kevin Viehweger
• Francis Wolff
NUMBER 10
The magazine that looks at business in a different way.
IÉSEG
3 rue de la Digue - 59000 Lille
1 parvis de La Défense - 92044 Paris www.ieseg.fr
February 2025
Publishing director: Caroline Roussel
Chief editor: Laure Quedillac
Editorial board: Alexandra Briot, Antoine Decouvelaere, Laetitia Dugrain-Noël, Manon Duhem, Andrew Miller, Victoire Salmon, Vincent Schiltz, Laure Quedillac
Design: alcalie.fr
Editing: alcalie.fr
Photo credits: Thomas Baltes, Aurélien Dheilly, Éric Dor, IÉSEG, istock2024, Furlan Marri, m.zazzo, NUNC / AOCDTF, OuestFrance, @Withings - Victor Habourdin A BETTER SOCIETY When
“Training future minds, capable of thinking in both the short and the long term, is ultimately what it’s all about: not opposing two timeframes, but combining them”
Caroline ROUSSEL Dean of IÉSEG.
GIVING TIME TO TIME
In a world characterized by a true tendency for immediacy, how can we prepare our students to manage short and long time, immediacy and projection? At the heart of today’s pedagogical challenges, these concerns require us not to oppose these temporalities, but rather, to articulate them.
How can we do this? First and foremost, by focusing on concrete teaching methods. Our courses must enable students to understand that all our decisions have both short-term and long-term consequences. Abandoning combustion engines obviously makes sense in terms of reducing fossil fuel consumption. But how do we manage the recycling or scarcity of metals needed for electric vehicle batteries? Our teaching staff play an essential role here, encouraging students to think globally about these issues and to think with a long-term perspective. The close links between our courses and the world of research do the rest: academic work is based on time, evidence and scientific method. Teacher-researchers embody this demanding temporality. Their presence in higher education establishments is fundamental to transmitting to future managers and leaders a rigorous methodology, a critical mind and an ability to think beyond immediate imperatives.
However, it would be illusory to ignore the specificities of the younger generation, if only in terms of their overall relationship with studies. At 17, looking ahead to five years of study can seem daunting, and the success of shorter courses - particularly our three-year Bachelor’s degree - is proof of this. But students’ expectations are also changing in the classroom. Our teaching formats take this into account by placing interactive approaches, which stimulate engagement, at the heart of learning. This shift reflects less a change in the relationship to time but rather general adaptation to more fragmented attention spans - for younger generations as well as their elders.
After all, what is a school if not the centre of an experience that varies from person to person? At 17 or 18, some arrive with specific plans, while others explore, experiment and adjust their choices over time. Our role is to nurture and support these different paths, which vary according to individual maturity, personal aspirations and experiences. In the final analysis, this is what it means to train developing minds capable of thinking in both the short and the long term: not to oppose two temporalities, but to combine them - an ambitious challenge. In these times, it is essential to prepare new generations to act with discernment.
A BETTER SOCIETY
“TIME
IS INDEFINABLE”
It’s a passage from Bilbo the Hobbit that will have frightened millions of readers: Bilbo, lost in the dark, plays out his life in a deadly game of riddles against the terrifying Gollum - if he doesn’t find the answer, he dies. One, in particular, gives the little traveller a hard time, as he has to guess what ‘this thing all things devours: birds, beasts, trees, flowers; it gnaws iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to powder; kills kings, destroys cities; and brings down high mountains.’ Bilbo escapes in extremis and by pure chance, begging for a little extra time - the right answer. Tolkien leaves us with a lesson: defining time is not easy. But there’s nothing to stop you trying, in the company of Francis Wolff, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure.
HOW DOES PHILOSOPHY DEFINE TIME, OR RATHER TEMPORALITY?
From antiquity to the 17th century, the question was strictly philosophical, and Aristotle’s definition of time as the “number of motion” remained dominant. What it means is that, just as space allows us to measure objects and weigh up their size, time allows us to measure changes and compare them. They are greater or lesser, they ‘last’ more or less. Apart from this issue of definition, the major questions that philosophers have asked themselves are whether time has a beginning or is eternal; whether it is continuous or discontinuous; whether it is the same on earth as it is in heaven... Philosophy was then dispossessed of the question of time, as it was of many others, with the scientific revolution of Galileo and Descartes. The first ‘law of nature’, the law of falling bodies, introduced the parameter of ‘time’ in mathematical terms: the speed at which a body falls is proportional to the time it takes to fall, and not to
the weight of the body, as had previously been thought. From then on, metaphysical questions were gradually abandoned, as time became the sole domain of physical science. This monopoly has only become more pronounced since then, with Newton, Einstein...
ARE PHILOSOPHERS ABANDONING THE QUESTION OF TIME?
Unable to define or analyse time itself, many have taken refuge since the early twentieth century in what is known as ‘temporality’, in other words the effects of time on human consciousness. This is the dominant trend in ‘phenomenology’: Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty... Others, such as Bergson, have tried to reconcile an analysis of the pure experience of time, which he calls ‘duration’, independent of any misleading spatial representation, with scientific theories, in particular special relativity. On this last point, it cannot be said that he succee-
“Don’t think the past is past. It’s still there. You’re the one who drove past it. If you drive through a city, it’s always there in the rearview mirror. Time is a road, but it doesn’t fold up behind you. There’s nothing finished because it’s past.”
Terry Pratchett, The Adventures of Johnny Maxwell, T2. L’Atalante, 1995.
ded. In my latest book*, I try to find a third way between the time of physicists and the time of consciousness. I want to reintegrate time itself into philosophy, leaving aside our awareness of it.
TIME IS A TERM WITH MANY MEANINGS. DO WE REALLY KNOW WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT IT?
Time is indefinable: we can never reduce it to other, more primitive concepts. Yet the word is not so ambiguous. We can talk about it as a quantity - ten seconds, ten minutes, ten days, ten years - or in general terms, as an environment in which everything happens. But everyone knows what it is without the slightest ambiguity. Time is the fruit of a very simple thought experiment: it is what remains of the experience of the world when all its content has been mentally removed. When we abstract everything we perceive from it, what remains is space. When we mentally remove it, what remains is time. And this time, it is impossible to do without it, because every single mental operation itself presupposes time.
IT IS OFTEN SEEN AS A LINE RUNNING FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTURE. IS IT POSSIBLE TO THINK OF IT DIFFERENTLY?
There are other representations of time than this idea of linearity, but cyclical time is contradictory. It’s certainly clear that many cultures, like us, are sensitive to the recurring nature of certain natural phenomena: the movement of the stars, the return of the seasons. We can also believe in the cycle of births and deaths, or ima-
A BETTER SOCIETY
gine the repetition of the same events at regular intervals, or adhere to the myth of the “eternal return”. We can therefore imagine that events are cyclical, but this would only prove that time is not! For if the same event is repeated several centuries or millennia later, or even every day, as in the film Groundhog Day (1993), this proves that phenomena are cyclical, but that time itself continues to flow linearly throughout the cycle: it has to be linear for identical events to be repeated in two distinct instants. If time itself were cyclical, this would imply that the same instant repeats itself at regular intervals. And if it’s really the same instant, it’s confused with the previous one, the two instants are indistinguishable, the two events take place at the same time, so it’s one and the same event. Each event would simply be the infinite repetition of itself at the same time, which is absurd. The idea of cyclical time, like that of “eternal return”, is incoherent.
CAN TIME CEASE TO EXIST?
Neither more nor less than the world, because time is a constituent of the world.
TECHNOLOGY SEEMS TO BE ACCELERATING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TIME. DO YOU THINK THIS IS CHANGING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF TIME?
Perhaps events, history and progress are accelerating. It’s not just a question of technology; it’s also inherent to the capitalist system, which is based on growth and must therefore always create value. The notion of acceleration can be applied to many temporal phenomena, but not to time itself. Time has no speed of its own, since it is used to measure speed. Technological advances and economic and social upheavals are undoubtedly changing the way we use time - the constrained time of work, the obligatory time of daily tasks or the free time we use as we please - but they are not changing time itself, nor its philosophical understanding or the physical theories that can be put forward.
*Francis Wolff, Le temps du monde. A study in descriptive metaphysics, Fayard, 2023.
THE MYSTERIOUS 60
Why 60 seconds in a minute, and not a hundred? Like angles, the measurement of time is based on a sexagesimal system that dates back to Mesopotamian times. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, Mesopotamian scholars came up with the idea of defining the second as the sixtieth part of a minute, which in turn is the sixtieth part of an hour. A clever calculation that owes nothing to chance: the second represents 1⁄86,400 of the average terrestrial solar day. While the Revolution imposed a decimal base for its metric system - one centimeter is worth ten millimeters, one liter ten centiliters - the measurement of time escaped the reformers. On the other hand, time is no longer measured on an astronomical basis, but on a physical one: the second is equivalent to 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation, corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom. You didn’t finish this paragraph for nothing.
Francis WOLFF, professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure.
TIME, A LEVER FOR PERFORMANCE
In the professional world, time management is much more than just a technical skill, whether we’re talking about our own time or that of others. A complex managerial art, the organization of work time determines the success of an organization, whether in industry or the service sector. It’s an issue of productivity and competitiveness.
Bruno Hervein, Head of Healthcare Sales, Public Sector and Higher Education at Orange Nord de France, sheds light on four points.
SHORT TIME, LONG TIME
“In a sales function, time management is a major criterion. Our objectives are quarterly: every three months, the counters are reset to zero. We may have had a very good quarter, but we have to get back to work the very next day at least the same pace, because our targets rarely drop... It’s a constant race against the clock: you have to play on the short term by constantly fuelling business volumes, without forgetting the long term. The main pitfall in this business is burn out. It requires a great deal of personal organization, as well as a balanced lifestyle. Working hard is all very well, but you have to set yourself limits.”
MANAGING WITHOUT INTERFERING
“My team consists of nine sales people. Everyone has a certain amount of freedom to organize their time, but there is a framework. I recommend that they start early in the morning, and certainly not after nine o’clock. This avoids spending the whole day chasing the clock. At the Villeneuve d’Ascq site, which is the regional headquarters, I meet people from many different entities. In the morning, in the cafeteria, these are real moments of exchange: in fifteen or twenty minutes, you can discuss a lot of subjects with people you’d have trouble reaching during the day. It’s an informal but precious time that allows us to build real serenity in our
Bruno HERVEIN, head of healthcare sales in the public higher education sector at Orange Nord de France.
WORK
LESS, LIVE BETTER? THE SLOW REDUCTION IN WORKING HOURS
The fight to reduce working hours did not begin with the Industrial Revolution. Three centuries earlier, in his Utopia, Thomas More laid the theoretical foundations for a fairer distribution of work in a 16th century marked by social inequalities. A philosopher and jurist, he denounced the risks of an industrial society in the making and proposed another ideal society, where property was held in common. Since everyone worked and created wealth, the average working day ‘could be reduced to six hours. In the 19th century, mechanisation and the industrial revolutions changed all that. To make the most of machines that were more productive than the human hand, but costly, companies employed their workers ten, sometimes twelve, hours a day, seven days a week, including children. Some manufacturers* are devising alternative models based on a reduction in working hours. In France, the ‘ten-hour law’ passed in 1848 was quickly abolished. Although a number of laws eventually reduced child working hours, it was not until 1919 that the 8-hour working day was introduced. In 1936, Léon Blum’s Popular Front introduced the 40-hour working week, which was reduced to 39 hours in 1982 and 35 hours in 2000. From around 3,000 hours a year in the 19th century, the annual working week now stands at between 1,500 and 1,600 hours in Western societies, where new demands show that the debate is as lively as ever. The idea of the four-day week is a case in point.
*Including the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Godin, with the Familistère de Guise mentioned in Change no. 9.
work. On a day-to-day basis, I rely heavily on the notion of trust and I don’t spend my time looking at what others are doing. Teams is an essential tool, and my team members’ professional diaries must of course remain open in consultation mode. I expect everyone to be easily reachable, even if it means calling me back when someone is momentarily unavailable, simply because they’re in a customer meeting. In meetings, I’m also careful to ensure that no one allows themselves to be polluted by increasingly intrusive tools, led by the smartphone.”
TIME FOR SETBACKS
“I’m not going to teach you anything by saying that between what you plan to do in the morning and what you’ve done in the evening, there’s a gap. The unexpected happens every day. To manage this, two questions seem essential to me. The first is to rapidly determine what is important from what is less so. The second is to identify the best person to deal with this or that contingency: it could be me, another member of the team or someone from outside who has the right information, the right contact... To gain peace of
mind, the notion of networking is essential. If everyone just does what they’re supposed to do, we won’t get very far. This is one of the keys to the successful integration of new recruits. A new employee who reaches out to others and quickly builds up an internal network has a decisive professional advantage. A sense of team spirit is not an incantation, it’s a reality: whatever the size of the structure, it helps to avoid isolation, and over the long term at least, the team is always more effective than the individual alone”.
COMMUNICATING TO AVOID WASTING TIME
“The correct transmission of information remains a crucial issue in a team, particularly in terms of not wasting time. Anticipation can prevent many setbacks. In the world of sales, the initiatives that work best are those that have been carefully prepared in advance, when you have taken the time to explain to your teams what is expected of them. In a way, you have to be prepared to lose time in order to gain time.”
THE ART OF JUGGLING WITH TIME
Tick-tock. The omnipresent pressure of time is already a burden when it comes to picking up the children from school or not missing a train. What about in the professional world, when the clock is ticking and crucial decisions have to be made? Melvyn Hamstra, Professor of Leadership at IÉSEG and Doctor of Behavioural and Social Sciences, explains.
Melvyn
HAMSTRA, professor of Leadership at IÉSEG and Doctor of Behavioural and Social Sciences
“There is every reason to believe that an experienced manager feels less stress and can reason in a more composed manner than a novice, but there is also a risk of relying on habits and preferences when making decisions.”
FIND MORE ANALYSIS, PERSPECTIVES AND RESEARCH FROM THIS EXPERT ON IÉSEG INSIGHTS:
“Time is one of the determining factors in decision-making: it’s the main resource for evaluating different options before making a decision”, sums up Melvyn Hamstra. But how do you manage the passage of time when making a decision involves considering a whole series of options? ‘Many experts distinguish between two ways of forming a judgement, one or the other being used depending on the circumstances. In Thinking Fast and Slow, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman distinguishes between ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ thinking. The former allows us to move forward quickly, the latter implies a more in-depth approach’. In an emergency, the natural tendency is to take the fast track. At the risk of forgetting the many biases that affect human judgement to a greater or lesser extent: emotions, context, stereotypes, etc. Does urgency necessarily play a systematic role? Not necessarily. ‘Prolonging deliberation unnecessarily and multiplying research to delay a decision can be costly. In contexts where the costs of indecision are higher than any other option, and where the consequences of the decision are low, it is often preferable to decide quickly’, observes Melvyn Hamstra.
THE WEIGHT OF EXPERIENCE
We know that stress is rarely as intense as the first time you face a particular situation. Does experience protect against a sense of urgency? ‘It’s a tricky question, because so many factors come into play. What is stressful for one person is not necessarily so for another. There’s every reason to believe that an experienced manager feels less stress and can reason more coolly than a novice, but there’s also a risk of relying on habits and preferences when it comes to making decisions. It all depends on the complexity and nature of the problem,’ adds Melvyn Hamstra. The question of teamwork also comes into play. Consulting the rest of the team takes time, but can be essential: ‘Intuitively, any collective decision requires more time, which can lead a manager to limit consultations. But asking for other opinions becomes essential if you don’t have the necessary knowledge and if the problem is complex. Even under pressure, asking yourself one or two simple questions can prevent major errors’, explains the researcher. ‘The main problem with time pressure is our limited ability to process information. To compensate, it is useful to concentrate fully on the decision to be made, eliminating distractions. Some research suggests that talking about the problem can be beneficial. By combining this approach with an analysis of the situation, we can establish priorities. So take the time to do this, but above all concentrate.
A BETTER SOCIETY
WHEN TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
When it comes to marketing, La Fontaine’s fable still applies: there’s no point in running, you have to start on time. But what is marketing’s relationship with time? Thomas Leclercq, professor of marketing at IÉSEG and a specialist in digital marketing and customer experience, explains.
From the life cycle of products to the question of the best time to launch them, not forgetting the need to innovate or capitalise on trends, marketing is intimately linked to the notion of time, opportunity and momentum. But what else?
THE KEYS TO “TIME TO MARKET”
In a nutshell, “time to market” can be summed up in one phrase: “fast, but not any time”, explains Thomas Leclercq. Launching the right product at the right time has always been one of the keys to marketing strategies. There’s an instinctive tendency to think that speed is of the essence, but that’s not always true. Some companies will tend to launch their new products quickly, while others will look at what already exists on the market to see if they can capitalise on what already exists. In the car industry, developing a revolutionary model is extremely expensive. A manufacturer may prefer to let a competitor develop it, even if it means
offering a better-performing competitive model at a later date. The advantage of starting early is that it creates a competitive barrier: once you develop expertise that works, it becomes difficult to catch up’. But this can also lead to failure: when developing its Google Glass, the American giant counted on the competition to maintain emulation - without success, in one of the most spectacular crashes in the firm’s history. Conversely, Nespresso capsules remain a textbook case: “thanks to the patents they filed, it took the competition a long time to be able to challenge them”.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE LATE TO THE PARTY?
But what do you do when you’ve missed the boat and are late to a saturated market? “In a saturated market, the challenge is to stand out from the crowd by offering added value, either through a reduction in production costs or through a striking technological innovation”, Thomas Leclercq points out. With its Unfold models of foldable smartphones, Samsung is banking on incremental innovation to capture a mature and demanding public.
THE FALL OF NEWTON
If the history of marketing is full of resounding failures, Apple’s Newton is a textbook case of bad timing. Launched in August 1993, the device had everything to seduce fans of the Apple brand, with features that heralded those of the iPad fifteen years ahead of its time: a tiny, ultra-light computer (450 grams, a masterpiece at the time) without a keyboard, equipped with a touch screen and stylus, capable of recognising handwriting... A complete personal assistant, presented as an essential productivity tool. However, the Newton was a failure on the market: plagued by repeated bugs and unable to deliver on its promise of handwriting recognition, it was also rather expensive - $700, or $1,100 today. Abandoned in 1998, the Newton’s failure was not entirely in vain: Apple reused some of its technology to produce the iPad.
Thomas LECLERCQ, marketing professor at IÉSEG and specialist in digital marketing and customer experience.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS EXPERT’S ANALYSIS, PERSPECTIVES AND RESEARCH ON IÉSEG INSIGHTS:
POSTPONING A PRODUCT
RELEASE: CAUTION OR A BAD SIGN?
Ubisoft’s share price took a tumble in September when the French video games giant announced that the release of the next instalment in its flagship Assassin’s Creed series had been postponed until 2025. The company is thus missing the Christmas period and sending out a worrying message. Should the game have been launched earlier, even if it was imperfect? A tricky question, explains Thomas Leclercq: “Video games are a fairly specific category in that consumers are sometimes prepared to accept imperfect products - chasing bugs can even become a plus. The question is who you’re targeting: the general public, or gamers prepared to pay more for early access in order to be the first, even if the product isn’t finished”. But delaying the launch represents a risk, particularly that of losing consumer confidence or seeing the competition take the lead.
URGENCY AND RARITY
Marketing also plays on urgency to encourage purchases, by creating a feeling of ephemeral opportunity - this is the principle behind sales, boosted by algorithms for online sales and their incessant reminders. Limited-time promotions and exclusive editions have become classic tools for motivating quick purchases by playing on the fact that there is a benefit in reacting quickly,’ says Thomas Leclercq. This works well on the immediate behaviour of consumers, but it doesn’t really help to reinforce a brand image’. Not to mention the phenomenon of attrition: with the proliferation of ‘Black Friday’ type offers, the ‘shooting window’ effect is attenuated.
TIME, A GUARANTEE OF AUTHENTICITY
Time can also be a powerful marketing resource for establishing the idea of authenticity and age. Some brands capitalise on their history to reinforce their image. In the luxury sector, fashion houses such as Chanel and Dior emphasise their longevity to appeal to consumers seeking timelessness - the wine, watchmaking and tourism sectors also play on this. ‘If you buy a Longchamp bag, you know that the brand has been around for a long time, that there is a history behind it, and therefore a certain symbolism’. But this authenticity has two sides: age can become a handicap if it becomes synonymous with conservatism, with brands perceived as obsolete or old-fashioned. Once again, it’s all a question of strategy...
NETFLIX, TA-DUM!
With 270 million subscribers worldwide, Netflix continues to rival entertainment giants such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime. This is no mean feat for a company whose first business, in 1999, was renting physical DVDs on a monthly subscription basis. Ten years later, the company realised that the rise of broadband would lead to the explosion of a new way of consuming films and series: streaming. The service arrived at just the right time, and was able to adapt to its customers’ expectations: no advertising, no limit on consumption, no commitment. By exploiting customer data, the brand can personalise the experience and recommend works that it often decides to produce itself to add to its catalogue. Another stroke of genius: offering entire seasons in one go to avoid frustrating viewers. This was the birth of binge watching, reinforced by an ability to internationalise its offer by adapting to each new territory that it tagerts.
“Marketing also plays on urgency in order to
encourage purchasing, creating a sense of ephemeral opportunityit’s the principle of sales, boosted by algorithms for online purchases and their incessant reminders.”
A BETTER SOCIETY
IN POMPEII, THE DAY WHEN TIME STOOD STILL
One morning in 79 AD, Vesuvius awoke. 36 hours later, Pompeii was no more. Twenty centuries later, the site remains the most striking example of a city wiped off the map in the blink of an eye.
Everything in Pompeii is linked to time. Firstly, the short time of the disaster, the few hours that wiped out the city. Then there was the long period of oblivion: for sixteen centuries Pompeii disappeared from memory. Finally, time was rediscovered: for almost two centuries now, excavations have been taking place there, providing an insight into the daily life of a Roman city in the 1st century.
BLACK OCTOBER
In the 1st century, Pompeii embodied a form of dolce vita. Nestling beneath the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, the city stretched across plains covered with fields of wheat, vines and olive groves. On the morning of 24 October 49*, everyone was going about their business in the city. The shops were open, as were the workshops. The bakers were supervising the baking of the bread, the labourers were unloading cargo into the warehouses and in one of the most beautiful houses in the city, a small team of painters was working on a fresco. Around midday, they stop: an explosion has just sounded. Sur-
prised, one of the workers let a bucket of lime spill into the room - a splash that archaeologists found 2,000 years later and that shows the immediacy of the disaster. Three hours later, the plume rose to a height of 30 kilometres, while tens of thousands of cubic metres of debris buried the region under a layer of pumice that reached fifteen metres in places, the height of a five-storey building. Sixteen centuries later, in 1689, the excavation of a well on the outskirts of Naples brought to light an ancient inscription: Pompeii. Europe was stunned to discover an almost intact Roman city.
TIME CAPSULE
The monuments, the houses, the shops, the taverns, the brothels, the warehouses: it’s all there, right down to the graffiti and election posters - and the bodies too. In the 19th century, the spectacular sight of plaster casts being removed from the stone encasement that surrounds them, reinforces this striking impression of time travel. Each body tells a story, including those of animals such as this dog (see
opposite), whose corpse alone illustrates the fate of Pompeii. A prisoner of its chain, it climbed the numerous layers as long as possible before dying. A major tourist attraction today, Pompeii remains above all an extraordinary archaeological site. While it invites us to reflect on the fragility of human achievements, the site continues to invite researchers to reflect on the long term. Today, a quarter of the ancient city has yet to be excavated - a deliberate choice that leaves it to future generations to explore these areas with the technical resources of the future. Pompeii has not finished talking.
*While the disaster was long dated to 24 August, recent research has established that it actually occurred two months later.
MINUTES, HOURS AND WATCHES
When we think of Switzerland, we usually think of banks, chocolate and luxury watches. Launched in 2021, the French-speaking brand Furlan Marri is one of the young startups that is shaking up the watchmaking world.
In 2021, Furlan Marri was still just a young brand trying to break into the Swiss watch market. Geneva-born Andrea Furlan gambled on participatory financing with remarkable success: in forty seconds, watch in hand, the initial target of 75,000* Swiss francs (CHF) - enough to produce 500 watches - was reached on Kickstarter. The CHF 500,000 mark was passed a month later, for a final figure approaching 1.2 million Swiss francs. Four years later, 25,000 models have been sold. This success was no miracle: the operation had been patiently prepared by the two co-founders with their networks of enthusiasts. Another target was the media: rather than a standard press release, journalists received a paper journal, in keeping with the brand’s vintage feel. The final stage of the rocket: social networking, patiently nurtured over many months. In spring 2021, Furlan Marri can count on an entire community intrigued by its original storytelling and total transparency. Components, assembly, manufacturing, origins of parts, lead times - everything is accessible. The gamble paid off: the snowball effect is
Andrea FURLAN, designer and co-founder of Furlan Marri.
working at full speed with a community seduced by a brand that has no physical sales outlet.
AN INTIMATE OBJECT
In a Swiss landscape renowned for its models that are inaccessible to ordinary mortals, Furlan Marri’s originality is based on a clear desire to appeal to both
“In a Swiss landscape renowned for its models that are inaccessible to ordinary mortals, Furlan Marri’s originality is based on a clear desire to appeal to both the general public and seasoned collectors”.
the general public and seasoned collectors. And how do we do that? First, by outsourcing part of the production: the Mechaquartz line (70% of sales) is the result of a partnership with Seiko, while the other two lines carry the ‘Swiss made’ label. The result is models starting at between CHF 600 and CHF 2,500 for the Mechaquartz collection, and up to CHF 30,000 for the top-of-the-range model in the line, a secular calendar with a highly complicated mechanism. But nothing could work without adding a little extra soul, explains Andrea Furlan, designer and co-founder: “the idea was to take inspiration from those old watches that their owners never took off’. A textbook case, the second model in the Mechanical Line, released last summer, is a deliberate reference to a famous model from the 1930s to the 1950s, the ‘Disco volante’ (flying saucer). And the tribute goes beyond the design: Furlan Marri’s Disco volante is powered by the Peseux 7001 calibre, a benchmark for connoisseurs.
A STORY TO TELL
With their impeccable mechanics and retro design, the brand’s models play on a certain taste for vintage, multiplying the nods to watchmaking tradition and the imagination of past decades: ‘We don’t simply design a product that we like, and we’re not going to bring out a new model just to change the colour. A watch is not just an object. We like to create stories, to tell something. There has to be that little something extra, a reference to evoke. That’s what creates a bond with the watch,’ concludes Andrea Furlan.
*Nearly €80,000. 1 CHF = €1.07.
HIGH-SPEED TRADING
The old saying that ‘time is money’ has never been truer than in the world of High-Frequency Trading (HFT), where transactions are concluded in micro or nanoseconds. Paolo Mazza, professor of finance at IÉSEG and director of the Asset and Risk Management major (PGE Masters), takes a closer look at a practice that is as widespread as it is controversial.
WHAT IS HIGH FREQUENCY TRADING?
HFT is a bit of a catch-all term, but by definition its principle is based on speed. It’s not a long-term investment: you don’t bet on the growth of companies, you don’t capitalise on a sector, you aim for a monetary gain on quick buy and sell positions.
TECHNICALLY, HOW DOES IT WORK?
As finance is undoubtedly the most fertile ground for implementing new technologies, stock market players did not wait for AI to automate the match between supply and demand: computerised order execution has been practised since the 1970s. However, the spread of highspeed broadband has made it possible to access much faster execution speeds throughout the world. But the key to gaining a decisive advantage is to be as close as possible to the heart of the exchange’s central server. Trading firms are investing a lot of money to be as close as possible to the exchanges. Being able to rely on a
few metres of fibre optic cable rather than several kilometres makes all the difference. As for AI, it doesn’t really change the game in terms of physical architecture or network operation, but it does speed up information processing.
WHAT IS THE LOGIC BEHIND THIS ACCELERATED TRADING?
It is based on a paradigm: never hold a security for too long. As securities are offered on different platforms, a high-frequency trader can buy on the platform where his asset is listed at the lowest price, only to sell it instantly on the platform where it is listed at the highest price, before ensuring that he no longer holds any assets when the exchanges close. It’s a way of limiting exposure to risk. Take the case of an airline: if one of its planes crashes during the night, the share price is likely to fall in the morning.
MAZZA, professor of Finance at IÉSEG and Director of
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Paolo
the Asset and Risk Management Major (PGE Masters).
ECONOMIC CYCLES: THE ETERNAL RETURN?
Every
first-year student knows that the economy goes through cycles and crises. Does the pace of these cycles change?
This is the view of Éric Dor, economist, professor at IÉSEG and Director of Economic Studies.
Éric DOR, Economist, Professor at IÉSEG and Director of Economic Studies.
ARE REGULATORS SUPERVISING THESE HIGH-FREQUENCY TRADING ACTIVITIES?
There is a reporting obligation because high-frequency trading is notorious for its lack of transparency. The ‘flash crash’ of 6 May 2010 served as a lesson: on that day, the Dow Jones collapsed by nearly 10% in ten minutes. 800 billion of stock market valuations disappeared momentarily before returning to normal half an hour later. The investigation by the stock market regulators pointed the finger at HTF’s responsibility, at least in part, and regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in France reacted. In Europe, for example, MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) has been in force since 2018.
DOES HFT RAISE THE QUESTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICS AND FINANCE?
I am not one of those who think that high-frequency trading is the devil incarnate. The speed and lower cost of transactions make markets more fluid and ‘liquid’. Of course, not everything is perfect, but generally speaking and on average, high-frequency trading is quite safe and sound: on a global scale, it smoothes out the global financial picture in real time. The question of transparency arises, but technology can play a role by, for example, requiring traders to record every transaction they make using blockchain.
ARE WE WITNESSING A DISRUPTION OF ECONOMIC CYCLES?
The recent succession of closelyspaced crises might give that impression, but the length of cycles is actually tending to increase. In the United States, we are seeing a lengthening of the interval between two recessions. This is also the case in Europe, albeit with some differences. For example, the continent experienced a further recession after the financial crisis because of the austerity policies that over-indebted countries were forced to implement. Generally speaking, there is less international decorrelation of cycles than differentiation of potential growth. In Europe, growth has been slower than in the United States for years, due to lower productivity gains and less investment in new technologies. This gap could widen with rising energy costs and de-industrialisation. In China, an ageing population is likely to slow growth.
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ARE THESE CRISES DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS ONES?
The confinement crisis was atypical: it was deliberately provoked for health reasons, but most reproduce well-known mechanisms. The recession of 2008 and 2009 resulted from a drastic reduction in the supply of loans: weakened by their losses on toxic assets, the banks found themselves in default. The recent inflationary crisis, linked to soaring energy prices, is also classic.
COULD THE FREQUENCY OR INTENSITY OF CRISES INCREASE IN THE FUTURE?
Climate change could intensify the frequency of crises by damaging harvests. Extreme events damage infrastructures, disrupting supply chains. Geopolitical instability adds to this volatility. Europe could therefore face difficulties in the face of regions that are accumulating competitive advantages.
Maud VAN DEN BROEKE, professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at IÉSEG.
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IS R&D TAKING TOO LONG?
R&D spending is exploding: in Europe, it will reach 352 billion euros in 2022, an increase of 48.5% in ten years. But this increase is not always yielding the expected results, explains Maud Van Den Broeke, professor of operations and supply chain management at IÉSEG.
How can R&D productivity be made profitable? In many sectors, this is becoming a crucial issue. Manufacturers, in particular, have to adapt their offer in the face of regulatory changes. The tech industry, for its part, is constantly being turned upside down by technological breakthroughs such as AI. But the more complex products become, the longer it takes to design them, with no guarantee of success: a giant like Apple spends more than 30% of its net income on R&D without seeing its profits grow at the same rate. “To get round this difficulty, some companies are betting on open innovation,” explains Maud Van Den Broeke. The idea is to work with external partners - companies, suppliers, even competitors - to share costs and speed up processes. In the automotive industry, alliances are multiplying, as illustrated by the collaboration between BMW and Tata Technologies or Honda and IBM.
AI CHANGES THE GAME
AI applied to R&D also offers new perspectives. ‘Some studies show that the use of AI could reduce development times by 60%, thanks to processes such as predictive design generation or automated patent management. But these promises are still theoretical, especially as there is a gap between what the technology allows and what the teams can deploy.’ Many companies are therefore choosing to ‘buy’ innovation by swallowing up start-ups: Apple, for example, is multiplying its acquisitions at a frenetic pace. But integrating these new entities is not easy, especially as the process can make product portfolios more complex. One thing is certain: the ‘ambidextrous’ companies, capable of combining radical progress with incremental innovation, will undoubtedly be the ones to come out on top.
THE CITY
Scientific director of the ‘Entrepreneuriat Territoire Innovation’ chair at the IAE Paris-Sorbonne, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Franco-Colombian urban planner
Carlos Moreno is proposing a new way of organising urban worlds that breaks with traditional urban planning approaches, based on a central idea: the quarter-hour city. Here are some explanations.
WHAT ARE THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE QUARTERHOUR CITY CONCEPT?
The vision of local, humane and sustainable urban planning is not new. In 1903, the sociologist Georg Simmel wrote that “living in the city is not the same as inhabiting it”, emphasising the importance of services in the urban experience. The quarter-hour city is inspired by the work of Jane Jacobs, who advocated mixed-use urban planning, with pedestrian-friendly streets. Henri Lefebvre defended the importance of prioritising the needs of residents, as well as equitable access to urban facilities through the ‘right to the city’. Jan Gehl emphasised the human scale and the need to design cities for their inhabitants, giving priority to walking, public transport and social interaction.
WHAT IS THE KEY IDEA BEHIND THE CONCEPT OF THE QUARTER-HOUR CITY?
It’s based on creating an urban environment where all the essential needs of residents - work, food, healthcare, relaxation, education, culture - can be met within a short distance thanks to low-carbon mobility: walking, cycling, public transport. It promotes employment and the local economy by encouraging short supply
AS SPACE-TIME
Carlos
MORENO,
urban planner and scientific director
of the “Entrepreneuriat Territoire Innovation”chair at IAE Paris-Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
chains. Technology makes it possible to mix local and remote work, so more useful time and less forced travel.
THIS MEANS REORGANISING CITIES AROUND SEVERAL CENTRES. IS THIS POSSIBLE IN URBAN SETTINGS MARKED BY HISTORY?
A certain degree of polycentrism is indeed necessary. It is easier to implement the quarter-hourly city in cities that have historically been built in this way, as is the case for many European cities. For this to work, the concept needs to be adapted to each situation, taking into account the existing situation and the target trajec-
tory. In historically non-polycentric cities, the emphasis will be on diversifying uses, bringing services, jobs and housing closer together, and improving the quality of public spaces. Portland and Vancouver are good examples of this.
THERE’S A FEELING THAT THE CITY OF THE QUARTER-HOUR IS OPPOSED TO THE CITY OF THE ALL-CAR. IS THIS TRUE?
Yes, the functionalist urban planning of the last 60 years has shown its limitations, with serious consequences in terms of pollution and public health. It’s time to propose other ways of building cities.
BUT ADAPTING INFRASTRUCTURE IS EXPENSIVE…
The initial investment required to move away from the ‘all-car’ approach in densely populated areas may be substantial, but the medium- and long-term benefits are considerable. Let’s not forget that the infrastructure we build today is the infrastructure that will determine usage over the next 50 years.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN BARRIERS TO THIS TRANSFORMATION?
Transforming a city takes time. It takes consultation, finding the funding, carrying out the work, etc. Another obstacle is that the quarter-hour city is part of a global vision, whereas the various players involved often work in a non-collaborative fashion. Finally, cultural resistance can be an obstacle - mobility is an obvious example.
CAN ALL CITIES ADAPT TO THIS MODEL?
The concept is more easily applied in densely populated areas, large towns and medium-sized cities. Offering a wide range of services, shops and public facilities presupposes that there is sufficient demand to maximise their operation and use. However, the general idea can be adapted to less densely populated areas - I propose the idea of the ‘half-hour territory’. This different scale requires specific adjustments to encourage the use of public transport and soft mobility. This idea is also gaining ground in France, and I’m delighted about that.
HOW CAN WE GUARANTEE A CERTAIN MIX IN THE CITY OF THE QUARTER-HOUR, WHILE
AVOIDING ANY RISK OF GENTRIFICATION?
For me, maintaining a social mix has more to do with the cost of living and housing. It is vital to retain social housing in the town centre. It is essential to support local economic activity, particularly the companies rooted in the social and solidarity economy. Like any urban organisation in attractive areas, the quarter-hour city cannot do without inclusive public policies.
IN STRASBOURG, THE COMPAGNONS DU DEVOIR LOSE TIME IN ORDER TO SAVE TIME
In Strasbourg, the premises of the Compagnons du Devoir had become dilapidated and, above all, too small. Since June 2023, the students have been able to take advantage of a brand new space, capable of accommodating 850 apprentices who have come to train in various trades: building, crafts, bakery, pastry-making, etc. The premises were built in record time, thanks to a number of decisive choices, explains Nicolas Henry, the project manager for this landmark site.
Build or redevelop? In Strasbourg, the dilemma did not last long when it came to designing a site suited to the many students who come to study there. The old building was dilapidated, too small and unsuited to modern standards, so it was incapable of meeting the growing demand for training,’ explains Nicolas Henry. Starting from scratch was both more appropriate and less expensive. With a total surface area of 6,325 m², the two-storey building inaugurated in February 2023 provides an additional 1,500 m² for the Compagnons, but the extension is only the visible part of a project that came into being very quickly, explains the project manager: ‘the challenge was to move quickly without compromising our ambition to build a site
that is connected, innovative, attractive and adapted to the digital, energy and environmental transitions, while attracting young people to the trades offered by the organisation.’ Quiet and well insulated, the site has around a hundred photovoltaic panels on its green/vegetated roofs, is supported by a wooden framework and is cooled by micro-droplets from the ventilation system.
METICULOUS PLANNING
So as not to leave students and teachers without a solution, the work only took sixteen months, a record time for a constrained site, located between a motorway exit, a tramway line and a cycle path. Nicolas Henry points out that this success can be attributed first and foremost to rigorous planning. ‘In concrete terms, we chose to extend the design deadlines in order to save time on site, by defining a BIM (Building Information Modelling) digital model at execution level. Once on site, everything was ready. The result was a jigsaw puzzle that was both complex and ‘simple’ for the teams to put together, from the shell to the networks and right through to the finishing touches - it took just three days to fit 300 m² of prefabricated roofing cut to the millimetre, just like the interior joinery.
ANTICIPATION AT EVERY LEVEL!
A real tour de force, all the more so as there were a number of material and financial contingencies: “We had to deal with everything on this site, from Covid to the Ukrainian conflict and inflation in the price of energy and materials. All these complications were offset by meticulous preparation, not to mention a few daring gambles: ‘to save on certain materials, we decided to place certain orders very early on. I had to sign a €400,000 release, but we were right”, smiles Nicolas Henry. Delivered on time, the building has since won numerous awards, including the Health & Comfort Prize at the Green Solutions Awards 2022-2023.
Nicolas HENRY, project manager for Compagnons du Devoir.
OBJECTIVE TIME, EXPERIENCED TIME
David Robbe is Director of Research at Inserm and head of the ‘Cortico-Striatal Circuits and Behaviour’ team at the Mediterranean Neurobiology Institute. He talks to ‘Change’ about our brain’s perception of time and its impact on our daily lives.
David ROBBE, head of the team “Circuits corticostriataux et comportement” at the Institut de neurobiologie de la méditerranée.
HOW DOES THE BRAIN CONSTRUCT ITS PERCEPTION OF TIME?
There are really two aspects to the experience of time. There is the time that we measure and which, by definition, should be the same for everyone and not change. This is clock time. This time is not just a cerebral construct because it is closely linked to objective external changes such as the Earth’s rotation. And then there’s experienced time, the time that allows us to perceive a continuous sequence of events. For example, when we listen to music, we don’t perceive the notes separately, but we hear a melody. This ‘thick’ perception is made possible by our brain, which remembers past sounds and joins them with present ones. It seems to me
that it is experienced time that is most interesting for neuroscience. For example, when we are faced with an emergency, time becomes precious. Events that last too long (a child taking too long to get dressed) annoy us. This value of time will be specific to each of us (the child won’t understand our irritation because he was taking ‘his time’). This changing value of time explains impulsive behavior or, at another extreme, depression. The latter is characterized, among other things, by the fact that time loses its importance. While time is a force and a lever for action, it no longer acts. Meeting a deadline, securing an appointment or arriving on time no longer make sense.
ARE THERE OTHER FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE OUR PERCEPTION OF TIME?
Acting takes effort and the way we manage it changes, for example, with age. Older people know that they have less physical power than younger people. If some seniors seem impatient or are always ready to leave before others, it is in some cases because they cannot decide to run or accelerate at the last moment to get their train. And that affects their way of apprehending time because they have no margin.
ARE THERE “DEDICATED” TIME ZONES IN THE BRAIN??
There is no neural clock that would allow us to measure the time that passes, even if cyclic mechanisms cause the organism to fall asleep in the evening and wake up in the morning. What is striking, however, is that certain areas of the brain play a role in the value we attach to time. The latter is associated with rewards: if I arrive at the store first during the sales, I will be able to buy the jacket of my dreams at a good price. But when these areas stop functioning, then people don’t care if the reward is available or not, to the point that they are sometimes no longer autonomous.
SOMETIMES IT SEEMS THAT TIME IS EXPANDING, FOR EXAMPLE IN A CAR ACCIDENT. WHY?
On this point, one must be wary of a certain impression in hindsight, but when we walk or drive, we are used to seeing things moving around us at a certain speed. In the event of a fall or accident, the brain is suddenly confronted with a deviation from this norm. With a sudden surge of hormones, it is possible that it orients its resources to change the way we interact with the world and better manage what is happening. It is a form of extreme concentration, reminiscent of that of a tennis player capable of returning a service at 230 km/ h when we would not even see the ball go by.
MEDIA TIME
From the invention of radio to television and the web, the history of journalism has always been affected by technological developments. But how can one think about information when the clock is ticking? Now working as editor-in-chief of “Ouest-France”, Thomas Bronnec has participated in the launch of the website of “L’Express” before co-piloting the digital desk of France TV Info. For “Change”, he goes back to the complex relationship between media and time.
CAN WE DISTINGUISH DIFFERENT TIMES IN THE PROCESSING OF INFORMATION?
Three different temporalities can be identified. The first is factual immediacy, for example the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. It is the time of raw information, published in a few minutes and then updated continuously. In “Ouest-France”, the teams take turns covering the news 24 hours a day. The second is that of putting time into context. Moving from raw information to a more structured approach, such as reviewing what is known about a criminal investigation. These contents take various forms: analyses, testimonies, summarized in five questions... This type of article can require one to three hours of work.
AND THE 3RD TIME?
It is the one of depth. It encompasses both the anticipation of major eventselections, sports competitions... - and the production of in-depth content, at the initiative of the editorial staff: reports, investigations, background files. Production time can vary from a few days to
several weeks or even months, depending on the initial ambition and available resources.
WHEN DO WE KNOW IT’S TIME TO PUBLISH?
The golden rule is simple: publish when you are sure of the information. This can be confirmed by various sources, ranging from agency dispatch - the information is then considered as verified - to official statement, including of course direct observation on the ground. There are of course failures, but they remain extremely rare. The priority is reliability, even if it takes ten minutes to check.
DOES THE PRESS STILL HAVE THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS?
Social networks are not media in the strict sense. Although many politicians, institutions and companies tend to bypass the mainstream press by publishing their reactions or announcements directly, it remains a communication tool where the content is not always sourced or reliable.
For journalists, social networks are first and foremost a monitoring tool, a starting point that requires checks.
OUEST-FRANCE IS A PRINT NEWSPAPER, A WEBSITE, A BROADCASTER OF PODCASTS AND WILL SOON HAVE ITS OWN TELEVISION CHANNEL. IS THIS A WAY OF MANAGING DIFFERENT TEMPORALITIES?
It’s more of a way of occupying all media spaces. Each medium attracts a different audience. The subscriber who receives his paper newspaper in his mailbox is not necessarily the one who consults
Thomas BRONNEC, chief Editor of “Ouest-France”.
the podcasts or the website. The gateways exist, of course, but each channel has its own audience and its own production pace.
EVERY DAY, OUEST-FRANCE PRINTS 600,000 COPIES THAT HAVE TO BE SHIPPED ACROSS A LARGE REGION. HOW DO WE MANAGE THE QUESTION OF DEADLINES?
It depends on the editions, printing locations and delivery times. The further away the printing site is from the distribution location, the more anticipated the deadline must be. The first deadlines take place around 9.30 pm, the last around midnight.
IS THERE STILL AN APPETITE FOR LONG FORMATS?
Yes, it is even a strategic lever. Long formats, whether they are reports, surveys or testimonials, help to retain a demanding readership ready to subscribe for this type of content. In “Ouest-France”, the Nos Vies section is a notable success: no article is less than 10,000 characters long and yet it is one of the most read sections*.
On the web, long formats require special attention. The audience is volatile, competition is fierce with other content that arrives on our smartphones, but the key to its success is the quality of the story.
*For comparison, this interview takes up approximately 4,000 characters.
READINGS ON THE WRIST
With the democratization of
connected watches, each of us can constantly measure how our body works - sleep time, heart rate... For what purpose and how far?
Originally known to the general public for its connected weighing scales, the French company Withings has launched watches that respond to a fundamental consumer trend: to follow the functioning of their own bodies. Watches are just one of the objects that make it possible to meet these expectations, recalls Kevin Viehweger, marketing director at Withings. After the connected scales, we developed blood pressure monitors, thermometers, a sleep analyzer or smart watches. All these objects collect health data that is then analyzed in the “Withings App”, with a 360° approach offering a global and connected view of health parameters.
A PREVENTIVE APPROACH
Withings watches rely on this complementarity to distinguish themselves from the smart watches of Apple or Samsung. “Duration of sleep, heart rate... These measures are a way to encourage everyone to take care of their health, says Kevin. If these tools detect a high heart rate or low sleep score, the app will offer personalized recommendations such as appropriate diet or more exercise. These metrics are part of a preventive approach, but for it to work, it must be established over time, which means encouraging our customers to wear their watches every day and over the long term, while wearing a beautiful object that is easy to use. Our watches combine elegance and technology so that wearing them on a daily basis can be easily integrated into all lifestyles. From installation to navigation in the application or use of the product on a daily basis, everything should be simple. This is one of the reasons why our batteries are designed to last 30 days, while competing models need to be recharged every day.”
“These
metrics are part of a preventive approach, but for it to work, it must be established over time, which means encouraging our customers to wear their watches every day and over the long term, while wearing a beautiful object that is easy to use.”
Kevin VIEHWEGER, marketing director at Withings.
THE SIRENS ARE CALLING
Major Romuald Gorenflos has seen his fair share of night duty and emergency calls. Now head of the Western Territorial Group at the Oise SDIS, he talks to Change about the raison d’être of the firefighting profession. While the profession is evolving, with increasingly complex missions being carried out in perilous environments, one invariable factor remains: yesterday, as today, the speed of response remains the determining factor. Let’s take a look at a profession where no one ever loses sight of the stopwatch.
WHAT ARE THE MISSIONS OF THE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES (SDIS) TODAY?
The first fundamental area is obviously risk prevention. Firefighting is obviously the most emblematic of the missions we are entrusted with, but it is not the most important in terms of volume (see inset), because the bulk of this relates to the concept of providing assistance to people, which accounts for around 80% of our actions. We also respond to traffic accidents and what are known as various and multiple operations, such as floods or major storms and bad weather. Despite a common core, our profession is extremely varied, due, in particular, to our specialities: water rescue, chemical and nuclear risk management, search and rescue in dangerous environments, etc. In some cases, we unfortunately intervene in exceptional circumstances such as
attacks or situations of urban violence. These operations are then carried out in partnership with other security services, such as the gendarmerie, the police or the army. That said, not everything falls within our remit. When it’s a question of capturing a dog running loose on the public highway or destroying a wasp nest that is not an emergency (in a child’s bedroom, a nursery school or a sensitive public place), you don’t need to call 18.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE A TEAM OF FIREFIGHTERS?
You can’t be an individualist in our profession. You have to enjoy working as part of a team, which is our strength, because it’s the group dynamic that makes us effective. It’s a job based on mutual support and the ability to work together, whatever
Romuald GORENFLOS, head of the Western Territorial Group at the Oise SDIS.
WHO ARE THE FIREFIGHTERS?
In 2022, there were 254,800 firefighters in France, including 43,000 professionals (17%), 198,800 volunteers (78%) and 13,000 military personnel (5%). One in five “firemen” was a woman (21%). In the same year, 4,968,500 interventions were recorded, approaching the 5 million mark at the end of a year marked by a sharp rise in the number of interventions (+6.2%). Contrary to the traditional image of the profession, fires only accounted for a small minority of responses (286,600), the bulk of which were medical emergencies, with 4,284,900 rescue operations. In 2023, there was some good news: after several years marked by an increase in assaults, these fell by 7.1% in 2023. However, 555 firefighters were injured while providing assistance.
the circumstances. We work as a team, with all that that implies in terms of joys, but also constraints.
HOW DO YOU PRIORITISE EMERGENCIES AMONG THE CALLS YOU RECEIVE?
When you dial 18, you are taken in charge by the fire brigade’s Alert Processing Centre (CTA in French), which handles calls for the whole county. This operator role is essential and far from trivial. Responding effectively and with the necessary distance requires experience in the field. The rest is a matter of relentless training, with regular training sessions and simulations to ensure that operators can develop their skills. They also rely on reading grids and IT decision-making tools with a few specific questions.
IN THE FIELD, WHAT RULES DO YOU FOLLOW TO AVOID CONFUSING SPEED WITH HASTE?
Our priorities are clear: the protection of human life comes first. We distinguish between emergencies, which involve immediate danger, and non-emergencies. Take the case of a traffic accident in which a person is trapped in a vehicle that starts to catch fire. Even if there is a radioactive risk nearby, our priority will be to extract the person immediately. If, on the other hand, the victim has got out of the vehicle by himself and is at a safe distance, we will first secure the area before treating the risk with the appropriate equipment. It’s always a question of prioritising according to the immediate dangers.
ON SITE, THE PRESSURE IS CONSTANT. HOW DO YOU MANAGE IT?
Through daily training, the right equipment and the commitment of the whole group. Training allows us to acquire automatisms. The more natural our movements become, the easier it is to concentrate on the situation rather than the technique. Secondly, we’re lucky to be well equipped, with appropriate personal protective equipment. That’s very reassuring. The strength of the team does the rest: in a team, there may be days when one person is less fit, but the others compensate. This collective resilience is essential.
TIME IS CRUCIAL IN CERTAIN INTERVENTIONS. TO WHICH TYPES OF INTERVENTIONS DOES THIS PARTICULARLY APPLY?
Every intervention is important, but when a human life is in immediate danger, time becomes absolutely critical. The faster we act, the more effective we are. It can make all the difference.
DO YOU TIME YOURSELF A LOT IN THIS JOB?
Constantly. Timing starts with physical preparation. Then we measure everything: the time that elapses between a call being picked up and the emergency services leaving, the time taken to mobilise a team, response times, etc. This data is important during operations, but also in the long term, when we need to assess and improve our performance. In the Oise department, the average time taken to process an alert is 2 minutes 50 seconds. The first machine leaves the scene in 3 minutes 20 seconds. This monitoring enables us to identify areas for improvement in our various structures, whether urban or rural.
DO MODERN TECHNOLOGIES HELP YOU SAVE TIME?
Absolutely. Drones, for example, enable us to carry out rapid and secure reconnaissance of intervention areas. They are useful, for example, for assessing the extent of a forest fire or measuring the extent of pollution in a river without having to cover the whole area on foot, which is sometimes impossible. Thermal cameras are also invaluable for removing doubts about an extinguished fire, particularly chimneys or insidious fires. They save us from having to go back to the scene of a fire. Finally, Satnav technology has enabled us to evolve our practices, especially in unknown environments or in difficult conditions.
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