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How did you come across ADL?
While I was working as project manager for the European Commission, I followed evening classes in Business Administration at Solvay Business School. One of the professors was a partner at Arthur D. Little. When I decided to leave the Commission (I had initiated an internal reform program which had been brought to a halt by a new conservative, bureaucratic DG), he invited me to apply to Arthur D. Little.

How did ADL differentiate from other consultancy companies?
ADL senior partners who interviewed me really listened to me, to what I wanted to learn and achieve in the long run. Other consultancies were interested only in my capacities and "potential", not in my dreams, my inner aspirations

Why did you finally start working for ADL?
As I wanted to develop managerial skills to help reform public administrations, I was offered to work evenly on assignments both for private and public companies and to learn how I could transfer lessons and experiences from one to another. That was exactly what I was looking for. I had left the Commission as a junior civil servant pushing for reforms but without the power to succeed. My aim was to develop and, after some years of consulting, to go back to the world of public administrations but through the "big door", i.e. at a position where I could really influence reforms.

What did you enjoy most during your career with Arthur D. Little?
I enjoyed every minute I spent at Arthur D. Little and were it not for my silly dream to help modernize public administrations, I would still be there. What makes Arthur D. Little so great is that it allows people to be themselves. It teaches you rigor and intellectual discipline but doesn't try to make you fit according to a straightjacket. On the contrary, it stimulates your creativity and originality. All ADLers are strong "characters". The work atmosphere was the best I have ever known and probably the best I will ever know: competent, rational, creative, dynamic people putting their brains together to solve complex managerial problems, without prejudices, without hidden agendas or internal politics. Working at Arthur D. Little was extremely stimulating; no routine; no gossip; pure dedication to complex casework and demanding top clients; pure happiness. You'll ask me then: why did you leave? Well, I guess one must follow ones dream, even if that means to follow a bumpier road.

What did you learn from Arthur D. Little?
I learned to feel confident enough to undertake to solve any strategic or organizational issue, whatever the sector, by "thinking out of the box", by daring to ask even the silliest questions, by questioning even the obvious. I also learned to formalize my ideas and arguments in order to convince or stimulate others to undertake some actions. I discovered that sometimes the "form" you use to convey your ideas might be as important as the "content", the ideas themselves. Even more, I learned that, being strict with the "form" (i.e. applying some rules such as MECE or the Pyramid principles) always helps you to improve the "content. To summarize, I learned to fight, conceptually, in order to convince both others and myself of the soundness of my proposals.

What advice would you give to a young consultant at Arthur D. Little?
Try to "choose" casework in function of the partners or senior managers on the case, whatever the sector or type of clients. Try them all, compare them, learn from them. They all have different styles. Follow especially those whose approach appear very different from yours. For example, although on our first assignment we did not get along too well, I learned tremendously from working with Frederic Wirtz, the Arthur D. Little Benelux managing partner and probably did my best casework together with him, precisely because we had complementary approaches.

What have been the highlights of your career after Arthur D. Little?
As Director General in charge of HRM for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, I developed and initiated an important reform program, aiming at transforming the organizational structure of the Ministry and insuring more "transversality" in policy-making. Although I left the Ministry (to become chief of cabinet of the Minister), the reform program went on and is currently being implemented. I consider this a proof that the foundations laid for the reforms were robust. What gets done when one is not around is often a good measure of managerial success.

What do you enjoy most in your current position?
What should be the rules that help us best to live happily together, to create and share wealth, to give each person the most opportunities to develop, to blossom? These questions have always fascinated me, not only because one feels morally compelled to try to answer them but also because they represent a formidable intellectual puzzle. I enjoy trying to solve them through concrete applications, which may take the form of decrees, arrests, policies, incentives, the creation of public bodies or the suppression thereof. Above all, I get my drive from the obvious need to find ways to reduce to the maximum the "human waste" (the loss of potential human development) created by dysfunctional public bodies or laws.

What are your interests besides work?
Philosophy. Reading and writing about philosophical issues. If policy-making often deals with the "how" and is centered on finding pragmatic solutions, philosophy rather deals with the "why" and is more interested in formulating questions and wondering about the marvels of life than finding solutions. Philosophy works for me on one hand as a "safety valve" to take some distance, relativize and realise how all our agitation is fundamentally vain, how insignificant we all are, how everything passes by and on the other hand as a fuel" to fight for a better society. A tragic wisdom it may be but, so far at least, it is one that seems to me worth to pursue.