The apprenticeship approach and encouraging mistakes: an emancipating corporate culture!

MySmartJourney was created five years ago, with great ambitions and small means. Pure bootstrapping: a lot of pressure and a need for accelerated learning! Since there is no one who really specializes in our niche, we had to quickly develop the skills of this growing team. This was one of the first conditions for growth.

We quickly realized that success would depend first and foremost on the quality and commitment of the team. We therefore had to put in place processes for developing individuals (know-how AND interpersonal skills), as well as for recruitment, onboarding and retention.

In my personal history, work has been a place of emancipation. As a leader, I took the gamble that personal fulfillment would create business success, and vice-versa. The development of each team member is one of the company's deliverables, just like the services we sell.

On the conference menu: error as a lever, teamwork and ownership, the round-table principle and its variable hierarchy, constant revisiting of job descriptions, what isapprenticeship, etc.

Our team is now made up of a dozen people, multicultural and working remotely most of the time. The skills and methods we've developed can be applied just as much in the context of a fledgling start-up as in a service team in a very large company.