Public Sénat and eToro present Masterclass. The market is a conversation. Know who is worth listening to. eToro. No better. I'm finding friends.
Is that what you know? There is for now.
Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. How are you doing? Glad to see you again. I recognize the faces. Is everything okay?
Well, today is a masterclass that will be a little different from the others, and you'll understand pretty quickly why. Everyone knows Fnac Darty.
Anyone who doesn't know Fnac Darty? No. Okay, a few quick questions. The revenue of Fnac Darty, let's see a bit.
Yeah. How many stores? Several. How many stores in the world? Many.
Ah. Not acting so smart now, are we? 1,500, 1,500 present in Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, and Spain. And he himself is Spanish, he is the most Iberian of French bosses. Well, as a matter of fact, here he is, I'm going to welcome him. I'll go get him. Enrique, how are you?
Very well, very happy to be with you.
Yeah, likewise. Come on, come on, let me introduce you to them. Hello. You have Enrique Martinez, the CEO of Fnac Darty, the big boss of Fnac Darty. If you want a video game, a book, a concert ticket, friends, now is the time to ask, right? Nothing what.
Ah, GTA 6 obviously. It's coming. Well, did I forget anything on the Fnac Darty CV?
No, no, the main thing is the 30,000 employees who bring the group to life every day. That is what is most important. Also, you didn't forget the countries we are in and the over 70 years of history.
70 years of history. And when I said you were, because I address you informally, since you address everyone informally, I don't know if I should... Why, why not use the formal "you"? Why the informal "tu"? Even with employees, he addresses everyone informally. I don't know, it's very likely very cultural, Spanish, very direct. I like it.
Yeah, I think it breaks down barriers.
Yeah. Spanish that, that, I can be formal if you prefer.
No, no, no, let's stick to informal, we agree, but I think it allows for a more...
Yeah, by the way, I said Spanish, a Spanish boss and French now for a little while.
Well, Enrique doesn't know your questions. For him, it will obviously be a surprise. Alright, let's get started with the masterclass by Enrique Martinez, CEO of Fnac Darty. Come on, come and take a seat. Come on, get settled. In real life. And it's normal, students and big bosses never meet. There are no opportunities to meet, it's normal. Everyone is busy with their own tasks. You student friends, you are obviously focused on your studies to successfully earn your degrees, and it's not easy. And then the leaders, well, they lead, that's the job. They run large groups with 30,000 employees and sometimes even more. Here at Public Sénat, what we want is for all of you to be able to meet like this and speak freely about the subjects our youth deem a priority. We obviously thank the Institut de l'Engagement for connecting us and doing so every month. Enrique, we have a photo of you. It's 1998. That's not Fnac. We aren't at Fnac yet here. And it's a store.
It's Fnac. And so you are a store manager.
In Portugal. I had just arrived, in fact, you see, you have the films, the release of the Titanic film.
Titanic. So what department is it? It's the department, uh...
Here we are... "banda sonora" means music in Portuguese. So we are next to the music section, and I am with my IT manager, probably organizing an event, and so...
Store manager in Portugal. Why is this photo important in your career?
It makes me reflect a lot on my path. I was very young there; I'm still young, but there I was even younger. And I discovered this company that I became passionate about. I was the manager of these stores and also helped the Portuguese team structure itself for growth later on. But that was my first Christmas. So those are the emotions of a position, a challenge, an incredible project that still makes me vibrate today. When I see these photos, it makes me think a lot and search in my gut for what has always been important to me.
Is it still possible today? Because I wonder, can you start as a store manager and end up the big boss, the head of Fnac Darty?
Well, it's quite possible in retail as well. In large stores, we welcome people with multiple experiences and skills. We have people who spend their entire career with us. Yesterday, we celebrated the retirement of someone who had just completed 40 years. He started his job as a repairman and ended up as one of the top managers in the service department. He put in 40 years, and now he has retired. So yes, it is possible. I am not an exception; I represent the rule all the time.
So there you go, it is possible. No, it's important to hear it from his own mouth. Uh, now, it's the students' turn to ask you some questions. They all have different student backgrounds, but they have one thing in common: being engaged. Most of them have done their civic service or volunteer work. And so, we are going to discuss the topic. It is their area of concern, they are the ones who decide. First question from Kelvin.
Hello, Mr. Martinez. Hello. Let me introduce myself, my name is Kelvin, I am a business school student. You have been at Fnac Darty for over 28 years, much respect. And throughout your career, which quality in your opinion most helped your ascent to becoming CEO?
What helped the most in your rise, in your career? What kind of quality? Quality, skills, human qualities? The quality, yes, that led to the success, let's say, of the difference.
Well, I have had a lot of fun, that already counted for a lot for me. I have—it's 28 years of a career, but so many projects and teams I was lucky enough to surround myself with, and what probably helped me keep up this endurance and stay is that I had a lot of fun and a lot of challenges. Uh, we are in a world, you live it every day, it changes a lot. We are in a constant revolution that changes our jobs, our lives, our products, and everything behind the organization. So you must always be capable of making things evolve and change. And for that, you have to love what you do a lot. And I think that is my engine. It was the passion and the pleasure that I had and that I continued to have doing my job.
There is no ideal career path. We often think of a trajectory, a career, and you don't have a traditional, classic career of a big Parisian executive either.
No, I think that everyone builds their own a bit. It's good to have a background, your studies, have your tools, and give yourself the means to enter the job market under good conditions. I think that's important. Where you are, where you've been, but then you enter the world and you discover projects. Sometimes it's good to have an idea of what you want to do, but sometimes you also have to seize opportunities and have the courage to take risks. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes it doesn't. Uh, for me, I took my first risk the first time I agreed to change countries. I was Spanish, and at a certain point in my career, I had the opportunity to move to another country. My life probably would have been completely different if I had ultimately decided to prioritize my personal life and my friends, because my family would ask, "Why are you leaving? Aren't you happy in Spain?" Yes, I was very happy in Spain, but I considered it a unique opportunity, and there you go. So, in your careers, in your lives, you are going to have these little moments. They are tipping points, moments that change your life, for better or sometimes for worse. You have to accept that, too. And so, I think you have to be ready when these moments arrive, to be able to seize them and take the opportunities as they come.
Hello Mr. Martinez, my name is Nada, I am a business school student, and you lead a large group like Fnac Darty with over 30,000 employees in 14 different countries. My question is, what in your background best prepared you for such a responsibility, and more importantly, what had you not anticipated beforehand?
Well, by definition, thank you for your question. By definition, today, when I entered the world of retail, the world was completely different from what it is today. So by definition, you don't anticipate much. We had just discovered the internet, and today we are in a world of AI, so you have to accept that you need to be able to live in this world and be able to adapt to it. So what helped me a lot in my career is what I said earlier: passion, pleasure, and a lot of curiosity. You never—and you are very young, but even when you are 20 or 30 years older, you must never believe that you have figured it all out, because, in fact, you never figure it all out. You have to keep that sense of curiosity and desire to learn because that is what allows us to continue preparing for the challenges of the future. It can be through training or it can be by reading a lot. It can also be by taking an interest, by meeting people who can give us the keys to understand how the world is evolving, because we are agents of change, but for that, you also have to be ready to change.
So, Mr. Martinez, uh, Steve Jobs said, "Excellence is in the details." You are a big boss too. What is the level of detail when you are a boss on a daily basis? Yes. When you make a decision, the level of precision.
Yes, we... actually, it's interesting, but in retail, we say, "Retail is detail." In the end, it's execution, that's what counts on a daily basis. It's interesting to be capable, and I always have this vision of being able to have a helicopter view, because obviously, we are a group present in many businesses and fields, we have 300,000 people, so no one expects me to be responsible for everything down to the last detail. So, having this helicopter view of major trends and big... but also being able to take an interest and being able to dive down when needed to support teams on a subject that is important. So having this ability to do micro but also macro visions is critical.
A question from Quentin now. An inspiring question.
Hello, sir. An inspiring question that makes me wonder about your daily life. Uh, what are, concretely, the aspects of your life as CEO that inspire you most today?
On a daily basis. On a daily basis, it's simple: it's meeting the teams. That's probably what makes up the, the moments when I review the week; I very often keep memories of meetings, exchanges, visits, sharing, meeting a project team that shares a project they are working on, how they are investing themselves, moving forward, the challenges, sometimes things that are progressing less well. So it is very often linked to collective energy, to the human aspect, to the people who are working. I have the chance to travel; I have the chance to be in many countries. It is very interesting. It allows you to open up to new cultures, not to lock yourself into our daily Parisian, micro-Parisian, French life. It's also about being able to find inspiration elsewhere.
Now for Elsa's questions.
Hello. Hello. Uh, I would like to know, as a leader, are there decisions that are economically good for your companies but that you refuse to make for reasons of employment, environment, or because they are bad for society?
Ah, good question. Thank you very much. Actually, when you make a decision, there is always an enormous amount of information to gather to understand the context, the applications, and also the consequences. The economic aspect is important, but it is not the only one. There are consequences for the ecosystem, for reputation, for teams, for projects, and for many other things. So it is multifactorial, and it is rare that only one prevails over all the others. Unless there is a huge gap between an economic criterion and the others, but normally things are quite coherent and decisions are always made by taking the total impact into account. Yes, the economic aspect is important because we are in a capitalist economic society: we must create results. And believe me, if it is only economic, I think we will strive to find alternatives to either reduce the impact on everything else or find another solution that can provide the same or near-economic levels without having a negative impact.
So you have never taken, in the group, decisions that were profitable, lucrative, but which were contrary to the interests of society or to morality or to...
Consciously, no. And why? Because short-termism sometimes has a price that is much higher. It's if you make a decision without taking into account the consequences it will have on reputation, over time, on the teams. Yes, you might get an immediate result, but you will probably pay for it much more dearly in the long run.
Orian has a question for you.
Hello, my name is Orian, and so my question was the following. What are the skills and qualities you look for in young professionals?
There isn't just one, it probably depends on the field of expertise. I like this saying that in companies, you normally get in through your skills. You have a background, you have an academic track, you have had some experience or not. And very often in job interviews, there are subjects about skills. Do you know how to do this? And so that is what will allow, it's important, super important. So, competence for hiring, but very often what makes your career a success or not and that's what sometimes causes your failure, it's your behavior. I've said it, I've always said it, we hire people for their skills and sometimes we let them go because of their behavior. And so, in a job interview, it's just as important to understand your technical background as it is who you are. What is your relationship to work, to the team, to commitment? What are your ambitions? How do you relate to the world? What are your values, your ambitions? When I hire someone, obviously, I usually work on very high-level positions, so these are people who arrive with a lot of experience. I put a lot of weight in the discussion on who is the person I am dealing with and
what question, what question do you ask them then?
I don't have a magic question.
Yes. Yes. No, but what are the questions about soft skills? We are talking about soft skills.
It's a lot about understanding. It's interesting to have discussions that sometimes go in every direction, but it's interesting to understand how people relate to others overall and how they have done in their past to succeed in projects. What is their take on collective work? Uh, lots of things. Experience makes it so that you let the discussion progress and then at some point you feel it, you want to work with these people. Do you want to? And I always think about this when I hire someone, I say, would I want to have them as a boss? Even if they won't be my boss by definition, would I want to go to work for them every day? And that is a determining question because that is what will make their success, because if their collaborators don't want to work with them, it's impossible for them to succeed alone.
Hello, sir. So, my name is Noé, I am 20 years old. If you were in my place today, what advice could you give me to better succeed in the world of tomorrow?
