Genesis
In 2008, in the United States, in response to the subprime crisis, investment funds called on trained serial entrepreneurs (who had taken the financial risk – not senior executives) to help the CEOs of the companies in which they had invested to secure their growth. Operating Partners was born.
The Americans’ legendary pragmatism and results-oriented culture led them to call on these new-style partners, with their 100% entrepreneurial DNA. And it worked!
Operating Partners have played an important role in helping companies recover and perform. The crisis was therefore a real gas pedal for the function, which has now been democratized across the Atlantic, and has continued to play a key role for business leaders over the past 15 years.
Birth of the Operating Partners Academy
The critical and uncertain economic context, coupled with far-reaching transformations in business models and practices, make it more necessary than ever to provide operational support to senior executives from those who have already experienced it (peers) and who are able to commit to results.
Franck ROGER, a former Director at KEDGE Business School, has been in touch with various players in the economic and financial ecosystem to understand the needs and the business, as well as exchanging ideas with international Operating Partners to understand the challenges of the Operating Partner profession.
Having been in the field himself, Franck ROGER understands that good candidates are hard to find, not only because this pragmatic approach is still new and little recognized in Europe, but also because Operating Partner is a profession that cannot be improvised.
This gave rise to the idea of the Operating Partners Academy, which federates major players in the economic ecosystem in its governance and speakers, to train top-level European Operating Partners.
