Valérie Bobo, founder of Mona Lisa : create bridges between art and entreprises

Could you tell us about the genesis of Mona Lisa?

The formal establishment dates back to 2003 but it was preceded by a slow maturing personally and professionally. Initially, I followed a classic strategy consulting route at Bossard Consultants, rather in the field of consumer products and distribution.

But deep inside, I knew I was eager to create someting on my own, around art and creation that could get me closer to my true passions. So I made a big jump first starting in Italy where I was Director of Marketing of a perfume bottles company. I then held equivalent positions in other companies in which the last was the famous Petit Bateau brand.

I wondered how to combine my passion for art and my knowledge of business models and practices ?

I considered four meaningful factors :

• As a consultant and manager, it became clear to me that for a company the key issue of its creativity could be enriched by other approaches, less conventional. No doubt at the time that the reflection on the importance of innovation and the transition to an economy of intangible was barely emerging but I felt this issue of creativity would be a huge challenge in the 21th century global economy.

• I realized, for having used those traditional management tools, that they were not always adequate. To use the metaphor of electric energy, it seemed to me that conventional management was eventually focusing more on the process - ie the electrical wires - than on the production itself of an energy capable of inventing new concepts, new products.

• Being part myself of major change management processes within companies, I found that the consideration of the rational factors alone was insufficient to positively modify human behaviours and it was needed to take an emotional approach into consideration. 

• Last but not least, I had observed, with great attention, the mechanisms of creation in art. I realized that a number of methodologies and findings were likely to be transferred to corporations. In addition, the artists are as lookouts to outposts of society; through their acuity of perception, their sensitivity, their unconscious, they capture emerging trends. Knowledge of these movements represents for companies an important source of inspiration that will foster innovation.

How did you go from this initial findings to the setting up of a company with a business model and a range of services?

At first, I wanted to validate my initial assumption through real cases. I have undertaken research and read a lot of literature, particularly Anglo-Saxon, on the productive interactions between creation and management. I identified a wonderful case study in the UK at Unilever, which was very enlightening for me. I met with the project team to see how they had used art in their managerial practices, in connection with their corporate culture.

Our first service delivery was based on creativity in two directions: first to expand the sources of inspiration for managers in providing contents, a second working specifically on the mechanisms of creativity.

Since the beginning, I had in fact formed a team of artists and art historians. With one of the artists in particular, we have developed a model for analysis and restitution of the creative process. In her own artistic practice, she was confronted with the complexity of the creative process with its stop's and go's. By integrating also the contributions of cognitive science, we have developed an effective creative process model inspired by art mechanisms and applicable in the field of management of people and organisations.

Our range of services had matured schematically around three areas: education, consulting and training. But these categories are restricted because very often, when assessing the needs of clients, I realize that they are at the crossroads of these three components. Therefore most of the time we are talking about innovation with complex parameters that are sometimes irreducible to a traditional category.

To sum up, however, we operate in two major fields : one is stimulating creativity which I mentioned earlier, the other is about "team building".

Strengthening cohesion of teams through art is a relatively new territory and very interesting. By amplifying emotions, it breaks the silos mentality and create productive interactions between human beings. Within Mona Lisa, we manage this process according to different time sequences. It can range from one day to an entire year as we did for the Leclerc distribution group in a project aimed at creating a collective art work.

Can you tell us more detail of this project. What was the issue and what the client accompanying process do you have in place?

SIPLEC, an entity of the group Leclerc, was preparing a major move to a bigger headquarters. This was an important moment in the company's history. In a context of very strong growth that justified the move, the CEO felt the need to create more transversal links between the teams and also to strengthen cohesion and support for the group values

I met the CEO who is an open and curious man. His intention was to produce an art work capable of aligning employees and values through an "out of the box" process. It was thus a project over time to reconcile artistic and managerial expectations with the ultimate goal to make employees proud of this team work. If  I do emphasize high artistic standards, it is because it would have been purely anecdotal to produce ephemeral creations solely on the basis of shared pleasure. We wanted to go further with an art work  that has a purpose and a meaning for the company. 
   
What was according to the value-added of this project ?

Both managers and employees have experienced ultimately great pride in this achievement to the extent that they had followed an unknown path with a significant risk taking. We knew the overal methodology - even if in the course of process we have been forced to invent new ways - but it remained unclear what kind of art work employees would choose and what sort of artist profile they would select to create the art work.

The feed-back of employees has highlighted several significant benefits:

• The first is about breaking the Chinese walls. This has enabled them to meet each other differently beyond status and positions.

• The second is the increased sense of belonging with great pride for having dared

• Finally, a personal accomplishment by the discovery of a new territory, for some very different with its related sensitivity and imagination. This has awakened a further curiosity. The apprehension of contemporary art is not as easy a process as it sounds. They realised that behind colors, shapes, there was a logic and a way of thinking that could serve their business practices.

For me, this project represented a further validation of my initial intuition. This validation is even more conclusively that the client was not operating in the luxury sector where proximity to the art world is more common. Moreover, the entire group Leclerc is renowned for its very rigourous and profit driven management style ...

But above all, it was a great human adventure between the different partners: the team Leclerc, the designer Stephane Calais chosen by the staff to carry out the work and my team. The real key to success was that everyone trusts each other in their field of expertise and that risk-taking was assumed and shared by all parties.

Is there, in your opinion, huge differences between Anglo-Saxon and French approach of creation ?

In France, there seems to be still a romantic approach with a sacred nimbée of aura. This makes it all the more difficult to translate into words. It still refers to the idea of "creative spark" which carry a kind of disembodied genius. While in the Anglo-Saxon approach, the act of creation is seen as a work process, even if not in the sense of a pure model.

In the future, what do you foresee as possible fields of interaction between art and business ?

The underlying trend is that companies gave far more attention to boosting their creative process. For some, such as Apple, this concern is included right from the beginning in their DNA. Companies in the fashion or luxury industry are confronted permanently with this issue; for them, creativity is the driving factor
at the heart of value creation.

But for others, they must take into account a radical change: in our global economy, the market is now driven by the offer rather than by the consumer demand. Also for these companies be able to capture and to anticipate market trends is vital. Especially as, in our advanced economies, all primary needs are largely met. Therefore, to stimulate consumer desire you need to leverage other factors : design, uniqueness, emotions. I believe that this trend should go only grow with a significant limitation, however: the consumer today is more knowledgeable and can tell the difference between pure marketing and value-added functions, source of tangible benefits in his everyday life. Again the example of Apple is interesting. The Ipod is a well designed product with a high social status attached, but its utility function has been greatly expanded.

Lastly, creation goes far beyond design and production of goods, it covers a much broader dimension. It is all about carrying a certain vision of the world "eine Weltanschauung", an ability to take risks and explore unkown territories.

I noticed in your blog that you take great interest in the question of inspirational spaces for creation. Are there particularly fertile places of creation and it is possible to consider the possibility to create within corporations spaces dedicated to foster creativity ?

The creation thrives on confrontation, exploration, random and sometimes incongruous. If we want to stimulate this type of dynamic within the company,
interior architecture is essential to design some creative spaces as well as spaces of retreat to enable employees isolate themselves. Some companies have fully integrated this dimension; Silicon Valley is a perfect illustration, the "Google play" at Google's HQ with open and convivial spaces as well as "bubbles" where you can take refuge. In our seminars, we select very unique spaces that can help break the traditional rules and behaviours and stimulate the participant's creativity. For instance, we recently organized a seminar at the Guggenheim Fondation in Bilbao.

If I were an entrepreneur - for example in the field of new technologies - and I give you "carte blanche" to revitalize creativity in my business, what solution would you suggest ?

Today, there are many opportunities for very productive cooperations between art and science-technology. The digital art, for example, is being developed considerably. Artists are very curious and savy about new technologies to the extent that they like to divert their primary usage. They can thus significantly enhance designs developed by the developers or marketing managers. A good example is the Bauhaus when new concrete technologies were initially recovered by artists. A combined approach between technology and artistic, emotionnaly driven processes can be extremely fruitful.