Built in Paris: Arnaud Lelache on Turning Around a Family Company and Facing the Emotions Behind Hard Decisions
Twenty years ago, Arnaud Lelache took over his father’s company at a moment when it was losing cash. Today he leads Affi, a software publisher for public services with around 120 employees, and he is one of the founding members of EO Paris.
He Took Over a Struggling Family Company and Rebuilt Its Product Lines
When Arnaud joined, the company had about forty people and was losing a good deal of cash. He hesitates to call it flourishing today, but he describes it as sustainable and growing well. Several product ranges that were barely embryonic when he arrived have been rebuilt, and he has acquired competitors along the way.
His Forum Helped Him Enter an Acquisition Negotiation With a Cool Head
EO reached Arnaud through a business partner, a schoolmate who was an EO member in Shanghai and told him it had helped. A forum, the group of EO members who coach each other once a month, became a place to step back from difficult decisions.
He remembers acquisition negotiations as one of the first occasions. Lawyers advised him against going ahead, and sellers did not always share every piece of information. His forum helped him approach the table knowing his priorities and his limits.
Sharing Experience With Peers Reveals the Emotion Behind a Stalled Decision
Arnaud sees the forum as a room of peers who have each lived through situations that put them in a similar emotional state. Hearing eight entrepreneurs share openly how they reacted, he says, is like reading eight books at once.
Jason Barnard pointed out that emotion is rarely what anyone expects from a CEO. Arnaud sees that as a strength of the EO method, which asks members to put a finger on what they feel. When a decision stalls, he explains, the cause is rarely technical. It is usually fear, anger, or impatience. Once he faces that reason, he can decide with a cool head and far more grandeur.
Arnaud Lelache is the CEO of Affi and a founding member of EO Paris. Watch the full interview above, part of EO Paris’s Built in Paris series.