Our interview with Raphael Beziz, co-founder of YouMeO.

YouMeO is a consulting firm specializing in strategy and innovation, founded by Raphael Beziz and Martin Mayer six years ago. Their small team joined the large Bearing Point firm at the start of 2021. This new collaboration enables YouMeO to broaden its horizons, expand their team and enrich their skills. We talk to Raphaël Beziz about the world of post-covid consulting, changes for the industry, for employees and in general in the workplace. In this interview, YouMeO's founder talks about his vision of what's happened recently and his outlook for the future.

"Congratulations on your partnership with Bearing Point!

Thank you. We won't be the only ones to get closer to another consulting firm in 2021. I'm inclined to believe that these merger projects will accelerate. In the innovation market, we've really been through the whole cycle: there have been lots of small pureplayers created, including us, and some have held up better than others. There are a lot of players who start out, and some who die. There isn't room for everyone, and some manage to remain autonomous, while others prolong their growth by being bought out.

Does the context of last year accelerate this kind of situation?

Yes, because it can put small players like us in difficulty, and that's where opportunities arise. For the big players, it's an opportunity to buy companies that are a little below their value.

Can you tell us about YouMeO?

We're a small agency specializing in innovation. We set up six years ago with a team of around ten people. We provide support for all aspects of innovation in organizations - from innovation strategy (where to innovate? What are the opportunities?) to more operational support for innovation projects in the upstream emergence phase. In other words, from a detailed understanding of customer needs to a concept that we have prototyped and tested with users.

We don't provide support for the deployment and implementation phases; Bearing Point does that, and they're capable of doing that part, hence the merger. We're really in the upstream part of the emergence of new projects. These can be new services: physical or digital, new customer experience paths, new sales areas, new products, etc. We're really in the upstream part of the emergence of new projects.

Thirdly, we're working on the organization of innovation. As a company, how do we structure ourselves to encourage innovation? Should innovation be everyone's business? How can we create a culture of innovation? What reflexes need to be created? How do you encourage this over time? It's more about processes, training, management methods and culture...

You tend to work with large groups ?

Large groups, yes, essentially 90%. We also work with smaller companies. This year we worked for Blablacar and Photomathon. We work for SMEs and start-ups, which aren't really start-ups anymore. I can give you a few names of major groups like SNCF, Société Générale etc.

Has 2020 created a breakthrough in your business?

From what we've been able to observe internally: there's a real challenge in our operating methods, and that's the pre-sales phase, because we're in a business where you have to build up trust quickly; we sell intellectual services. It's rarely our methodology or approach that sets us apart. But it's really through these first exchanges that we understand a customer's problem, help them structure their project and show them that we can bring them value. It's a real challenge not to be able to see each other, not to be able to have lunches during which we can talk it over, not to be able to create that human link in the initial phase.

We need to find new ways of creating this link. For the time being, we're capitalizing on what we've already got: we already have other customers and prospects who know us, which helps. The batteries were full a year ago, but they're gradually emptying, and there's a real need to refill them in a world where this link is going to be harder to create.

We have to reinvent ourselves in the way we manage customer relations, and find other ways of creating links (webinars are rather limited), such as word-of-mouth to make ourselves known to people who are not in our first circle.

The drop in the number of projects after the crisis has given firms time to produce white papers and content. The challenge is to stand out from the crowd, because everyone is doing very intelligent things. How can we bring a different angle to the table? How can we make our own mark? There's a lot to be done in terms of content, form and substance, finding more interactive formats. We need to seek out customer challenges to show that we have interesting things to contribute.

There are quite a few challenges in the life of a project, especially for us, because we're in a special position to " make it happen " or " work with it ". We're in the business of creating conditions for collective intelligence, facilitating high points and cross-fertilizing ideas to come up with new concepts. This used to involve a lot of time when we really got together to bounce ideas off each other. Today, there's a real barrier, even if platforms like Team, Zoom help a lot to stay efficient. But for innovation, there's a loss in remote working. We need to reinvent ourselves in this area. There are plenty of tools to support creativity, but I find that they're less effective than face-to-face time. We need to reinvent collective time.

Is it possible to go back to the way things were, or is there a rupture?

It's hard to say, but I think we're heading for something hybrid. I have the impression that new reflexes have taken hold, because we've realized that all these remote tools make it possible to be efficient. Where do we draw the line between efficiency and innovation? There are often tensions between the two in companies. Being highly efficient is sometimes incompatible with looking for the next good idea and preparing the next move.

We can also talk about exploitation and exploration. Exploitation means doing better than what we're already doing today, going after more market share, more customers, greater process efficiency. Exploration means seeking out new fields. What works well is exploitation; we have more difficulty in exploration. We have a battery and ideas, but we need to recharge the battery. Boxes have become aware of this. We've all become aware of the limits of chaining remote meetings back to back. A lot of lucidity has been created around these working methods. We'll probably reach a compromise between the two.

The time spent together will be reoriented, and we're going to give priority to quality time, so as to have time for collective intelligence, to work on in-depth subjects and new topics. There will perhaps be more maturity about what we can really do at a distance and what we can do when we meet in the same place.

What major changes are there in your customers' expectations (in terms of digital transformation)? :

A lot of things didn't come to a standstill during the lockdown, subjects were de-prioritized and, as always, the brakes were put on anything that seemed ancillary in order to concentrate on essential functions and survive in a moment of great turbulence. But I feel that things have already started to pick up again since September, and even more so since January. Customers are reinvesting their time to ask themselves more in-depth questions and evolve their business model?

There's been a digital fad for a long time, and now customers are waiting to see the results. They're looking to do fewer things, but with more impact. We're back to a time when reason is important. It's back to basics. What do we want to offer our customers? It would be beneficial to refocus on something that has more impact for customers, companies, society as a whole...

Tell us about the merger with Bearing Point:

It all started with a desire to have a greater impact. We were frustrated by the fact that we were supporting projects at a very early stage, but we'd give up when it came time to take action. We couldn't always see the tangible results of what we were doing. So we asked ourselves, "How can we go all the way? We wanted to get closer to firms who knew how to do this, so that we could cover the whole value chain of the project.

By joining Bearing Point, we lose a little freedom and autonomy, but we gain a lot in terms of impact. With Bearing Point, we can take on bigger projects while retaining our autonomy at resource planning. This project goes hand in hand with strong growth ambitions and a desire to grow the team.

Do you have any advice for people starting out, who want to create their own consulting company?:

Don't spend too much time thinking about offers, but spend time with customers, understanding their needs. From there, think about what we can offer them. I often see this pitfall of wanting to make a great offer, a great website, but there's a big risk of completely missing the point. The best investment of time in the first few months and years is to start from the customer's needs, to discuss in concrete terms the issues and projects in progress, and the subjects on which they need support. Unlike other types of start-up, where the offer and the product are very important, in consulting it's more or less the opposite logic that prevails.

TO FIND OUT MORE: Read our article on how the consulting industry has been affected by the crisis in 2020 and its prospects for the future.