2006-02-17T14:57:00.000-08:00

2006-02-16T09:34:00.000-08:00

Jean-Pascal Lion

2006-02-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

After 35 years of actively practicing marketing in various organizations, it stuck me that a high level of personal ethics is not only possible but even more is a key ingredient to business success....I need to believe in the value equation associated with the products or services I market. Only services and products that do provide the right perceived value for what consumers are asked to pay for can be successful on the long range. As a marketing manager for Renault, in the 70's, and especially during the first oil crash in 77, I was motivated to sell the Renault 5, a very fuel efficient car that was also a fantastic car in the snow, and a very reliable automobile to the point that the dealers were complaining because they were not making money servicing it....in a second life, as VP marketing and sales for Videotronhttp://www.videotron.com, Canada's no2 cable operator, offering reception quality and channel diversification first, then interactive television and videotex services second, was a key motivation to market cable services...In my third life, as VP e-directories for Yellow Pages Grouphttp://www.yellowpagesgroup.com, providing online presence for all Canadian SMEs, and enabling them to survive in times dominated by the Wall Marts of this world is also what prevents me to enjoy an early retirement. What drives me is also what pushed me to make my key career moves...I resigned from Renault when I had to market unreliable cars such as the Renault 18 and when Renault decided to buy AMC in order to capture a better share of the North American market, which was a pathetic strategy. I also resigned from Videotron when I was told that the company did not believe in a digital terminal that would deliver IP-based services to its customer, but preferred an analog solution, and told me that I was loosing time learning what the internet was about ( that were pre-mosaic time, when hypertext markup language was just released and Veronica and Gopher were still hot topics, and my email account was with Prodigy). I definitively link my career path to my ethic choices.

Which brings me to the next topic: entrepreneurs vs mercenaries....As an entrepreneur, you need to have a dream and you also need to have the drive and the talent to pursue your dreams. Usually your dreams match your ethic values. If not, you are a crook and sooner than latter you will pay for it. As a condottiere, an option you might follow in your carreer if you do not have the traits of an entrepreneur, you have the luxury to select for whom you want to fight...of course this is true if you have enough inner strenght to do so, because in the other case you are nothing but a paid mercenary...I am a condottiere. I do not want to be extremely rich, to own a company..I am not attracted by power nor do I need to take a revenge in life... I just want to be properly rewarded to lease my talent to a company fighting for a business combat that is inline with my values. That is the essence of my work philosophy: markethics
I know that many executives have followed similar path, but unfortunately I never read academic researches correlating carreer successes and alignment with personal ethic. This is an invitation !