March 22 and 23, SKEMA’s Lille and Sophia  Antipolis campuses, Daniel Chaffraix, former CEO of IBM France, and current IBM managing director for SNCF was on both campuses over two consecutive days to share his experience and advice with SKEMA students.

Chaffraix discussed his personal and professional experiences throughout his business life and gave students some job-search advice.

To start the session, Mr. Chaffraix emphasised the importance of being open-minded when looking for job opportunities.

“Globalisation is not coming; globalisation is now”.

He explained that throughout his professional life he had given himself just ten seconds to make up his mind regarding whether to pursue –or not– an advertised job opportunity. This unusual method has taken his career in exciting and unexpected, yet successful, directions.
 
According to Chaffraix, it is important to understand what is happening in the world and to live a life of constant learning. He urged students to read at least two newspapers per day; he gets through 40 a week (he has a long commute)!

Chaffraix also argued that today’s graduates are in a war of talents where they need not only to be good but to demonstrate they are the best.

The IBM managing director highlighted the importance of looking for the right job. For this purpose, Chaffraix encouraged students to undertake an internal analysis of their interests before looking for work.

He also discussed topics like stress at work, the necessity to experience failure, and the importance of Sales in any enterprise.

According to Chaffraix selling is the oldest profession in the world, and is perhaps the most important in any enterprise. “The relationship with the clients determines everything in an enterprise”.
Marketing, Finance or Accounting departments would not exist if there were no clients. 

He pointed out that France is severely short of good salespeople, and recommended students develop their careers in this direction.

Following his presentation, there was a Q&A session which students took advantage of.

Daniel Chaffraix ended by highlighting the importance of what SKEMA is doing through its merger by making more worldwide opportunities available to its students.