Digitalization? old story…

Network organization, online documents, social networks, videoconferencing, task management, remote management, homeoffice and more… in 2008 I was already using all of this… change, the only constant that we know for sure… In 2008, I launched a consultancy company specializing in mergers and acquisitions, one sell-side deal as a unique experience, no financial background, only a vision, a conviction and a post-2008 financial crisis positioning on which we were doing "TSF" (understand "All Except Finances" in french)…

"You're crazy"! 2008 Networks: I was already using Viadeo and Linkedin, beta-tester in France, very few contacts, but handpicked and each with a series of keywords, today "tags" ... then I built a network of consultants in over 15 countries in Europe, Asia and South America… visiting each consultant one by one…. An impressive investment in time and cash ... digital and virtual were not so popular in the strategic area of ​​mergers and acquisitions ...

Videoconferencing: very difficult to set up, low bandwidth, complicated downloads, nobody really made an effort and the customers told me "When you come to the office we will see that together" Online documents and collaboration: I then work on smartsheet.com a kind of online XLS and I integrate all my business processes, my databases to share my to-do-lists, sophisticated enough to share with my customers and my colleagues…

"You're crazy", it will never work HomeOffice: not always wanted to go to customers' sites, shared meeting room always full, offices sometimes on the outskirts of Paris, 3 to 5 hours by car, sometimes 5 hours by train or 3 hours by plane to just do a follow-up meeting…

Then I invented some trips to force my customers to connect via videoconference .... 2014 Great move towards Central America, I was looking for fresh air while Europe was suffocating by its societal unrest (no nation project, psychology in the socks, political scandals in all areas, elections without voters, refusal to see ecological failure, old cleavages and cliches dating from 1 or 2 centuries…) in short, I wanted to change air…

I boost digitalization to 100%. Project management, time tracking, invoicing, banking, conference, communication…. Impossible to say that I live in Central America, otherwise no one would consider me able to do business with them ... But you can read this post with my different projects, (here) , I have not been unemployed: business plan, corporate development at regional and international level, strategic plan, construction of factories, private public alliance, a new innovative company in the middle of a socio-political crisis when 300 people died, I trained 20 engineers …. Without ever having met my clients once face to face (oops sorry just once to launch a 9 month project)…. Unique problem? low valuation of my services, thus forcing to see my pricing to lower version of "offshore" 2020 - COVID19 - deliverance When the crisis that we know as COVID19 arrives, I ask myself: what I will become? I think many of you are still asking it ... Well SURPRISE! no need to justify my location, no need to explain the need for online management project, remote management, videoconferencing ... even no need to explain to my contacts how to download zoom, skype or teams… just a calendar invitation with a link and go ... And even more fun, many customers or friends, knowing my taste for technology, ask me how you did it? Can you help me ? etc… here I am in a few days transformed into a “digital social educator” ;-) Even better, I am offered a job as a partner in an SME to boost its development and organization, so how do I get started? Remote and 100% technology of course ;-) by integrating all the required human and behavioral ingredients that I learned during this decade… My favorite solutions that I let the curious discover? www.teamwork.com , www.rocketreach.co , www.hubspot.com , www.ayoa.com , www.zoom.us , googledrive, www.dropbox.com , www.mentimeter.com , www.canva.com but above all and always: "adapt my solutions to the digital culture of my contacts and interlocutors" then create human ties despite the digital and virtual dimension of the relationship ... But now that everyone has understood the well-known concept of “digital or die” that I presented in 2008 to my clients as an introduction to my methodology, what are we going to do? I don't know what you will do, but from my side, I have been studying and learning about the artificial intelligence revolution in the field of consulting and business management for 2 years already.