It rocks under the mango trees

In April last year, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar which brought together all the Pentalog managers in Orleans (see the seminar video and the video of the visit to the Château des Hauts Orléans, both in French). I think I took the longest trip of all the participants to get there. At the same time, I was impressed by the efforts made to gather all of us there and touched by the fact that, in compensation for my long flight, I was given the chance to share the room with, let’s say… a very inspired partner. This was the first time I attended a “seminar”, to my mind a fairly vague concept which seemed somewhat close to training. To say the least, I was surprised to take part in several think tanks on motivating topics which go beyond day-to-day work issues.I don’t think that a quarter of half of the subjects discussed could lead to anything concrete, I dare say. I do not refer to my colleagues and I, idle people when it comes to writing our action plan at the end of these workshops, but to the topics discussed themselves, too far-flung and broad for a group, should it be extremely motivated, to produce decent results in 1 day.And I think this is what makes the gesture even more beautiful. As I cannot stop myself from thinking of the financial extent of this event and from pondering the resulted “wealth”, I realize that the scales are constantly tipped in one direction. It is a bit as if the “kg” of meat sold at the market in Vietnam were weighed with real balance.The administrator in me sees a costly event we could easily do without, but this administrator didn’t understand a thing. I am pleased that the Pentalog management does not restrain itself to cold-blooded calculations.For the first time in my career, the identity of the company I work for clearly takes shape. When hearing the Pentalog’s “family spirit” mentioned, for once, I won’t join you in your mockery, my old friends at the back of the room, you who are completely closed to the concept of “corporate communication”.Yes, one has to admit there is this little something different in P5. Do not be afraid of self-promotion which can put off grumpy people like me, as it is made in genuine sincerity. In spite of the peak of 800 employees reached, these people are doing their best to achieve the results while maintaining profoundly human values. Wanting to share these values is honorable and very legitimate.On a small scale, we are trying to use the same formula in Vietnam and I am positive it will bear fruit. But this exercise isn’t easy. How can we stand out from our competitors when the family spirit is in fact the norm, when people leave the company for another to follow a colleague? Clearly, the “P5 identity” must be reconsidered in a Vietnamese context.We have also organized our first seminar at Pentalog Vietnam last June. The chosen topic was: “Pentalog loves … collaboration”. Teamwork, collaboration, is obviously one of the success keys for our projects. And, given our multi-site work environment and the time difference, our Vietnamese employees are particularly faced with this issue.Besides the various workshops and games with the common topic of proving that good organization / communication within a company is useful, the focus also shifted to our company’s values in Vietnam, and the results are highly interesting. Our top 3 values are :- Communication- Integrity / professionalism- Team spiritWe are perceived by our employees as a company where communication and integrity prevail and I am not surprised by these results. As we have already noticed this during many interviews with applicants, people come to us to look for this transparency, this environment where the difficulty is not hidden and where the effort is rewarded.Using an original formula, we alternated leisure with training through games and self-criticism and we rest assured that Pentalog manages to stand out from its competitors in Vietnam. The exercise is conclusive and we are going to repeat it towards the end of the year on another topic.Here are several photos of the event and a special mention to all our employees who, in spite of the heat and the attractive environment, have managed to stay focused and make several improvement proposals.See also the video of the IT development advantages in Vietnam and a dialog between Sophie Lelarge, sales manager and Marc Charbit, delivery center manager for Pentalog Vietnam.Download the offshore price catalog and compare nearshore and offshore offers in terms of price and skills.