Boosting their teams, encouraging them to strengthen their sense of leadership—many companies, whether large groups, fast-growing organizations, or SMEs, call on Seven for these topics and choose to launch “The Manager’s Toolbox” with customization for each company.

The co-founders of Ouidou specifically chose Seven to implement personalized management tools. This Digital Services Company (ESN) designs, develops, and maintains scalable solutions tailored to its clients’ needs. Created in December 2017 by Alexis Rousset, Kefah Seyed, and Nicolas Durandière, the company has been structured around three strong pillars: technical expertise, proximity, and commitment to results. Thanks to the passion and investment of all their employees, Ouidou has maintained its commitment: to offer a tailor-made and above all high-quality service to its clients.

Internally, this company values the involvement of all its teams and applies the most optimal and most suitable management practices for its employees. So when the HR department approached Nicolas Durandière, Co-founder and CEO of Ouidou, to gather his opinion about Seven with a view to launching a major training plan in all the regions where they were established, Nicolas recommended Seven without hesitation—and even strongly advocated for it. He knew unique and unforgettable experiences would be offered to his teams. At the beginning of 2023, he also took part in several workshops, allowing him to test, experience, and validate the Seven method. We met with him and are delighted to share the outcomes of our conversation.

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Ouidou: adaptation as a leitmotif

The journey of Ouidou is interesting. This Digital Services Company, created in 2017, has more than 100 clients, generates 55% growth, and posted revenue in 2022 of €14M. In less than 5 years, it grew from 3 to more than 180 employees, and is now established in 5 offices in France (Paris, Lille, Nantes, Strasbourg, and Lyon). How can such growth be explained? By the constant adaptation Ouidou has managed to maintain, both toward its clients and its employees.

Their choice of “tribe”-based management

To manage the impact of this growth on their organization, Nicolas Durandière, Co-founder and CEO of Ouidou, explained to us that he set up intermediate management intended to bridge Executive Management and the teams. Thus, since 2021, Ouidou’s teams have operated in “tribes,” each with a “Tribe Leader.” “The objective being to entrust each Tribe Leader with responsibility for managing a team (between 5 and 10 people on average).” Because of this new “tribe” organization, Nicolas told us, it is necessary to ensure high-level support for our managers by giving them access to a range of tools that both improve their management and help their teams grow.” That is why, “we chose a long-term training program made up of 12 modules and called at Seven ‘The Manager’s Toolbox’.” Sharing concepts, concrete and personalized exercises based on situations encountered, discussions about best practices, experiences and issues, listening and reflection were part of every Seven workshop.

Sharing concepts, concrete and personalized exercises based on situations encountered, discussions about best practices, experiences and issues, listening and reflection were part of every Seven workshop.

• de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats theory

• SMART objectives

• the sociodynamic matrix

• the Golden Circles

• listening skills

• the laws of influence

• situational management

• the DESC method

Concepts that help deepen knowledge of oneself, one’s environment, and one’s circle. If you too are interested in working on these points and strengthening management practices within your company, feel free to contact us. We will take the time to discuss and design tailor-made training programs with you.

From manager training to director training

Our support at Ouidou is a good example of how the same Seven training can be adapted for different audiences.

In February 2022, we began with Ouidou by training 9 managers. Having been won over by the Seven workshops (read their feedback on the Seven workshops conducted in 2022), they likely influenced the rest of the directors’ team, since in January 2023, the “Manager’s Toolbox” training was launched for all executives. The objective: accelerate their skills development so they can adapt, decide quickly, and above all make sound decisions.

“Still with the idea of being as well prepared as possible, we chose Seven to support our Executive Committee. These are dedicated moments that foster team cohesion as well as communication. The goal is to facilitate exchanges to help each of us make the best decisions. There are team sessions and individual coaching,” Nicolas shared with us. What a pleasure it was to support a united leadership team, all guided by the same “Why”, , namely growing the company, their clients, and their employees.

Committed to collecting the fairest and most sincere feedback from our participants, and believing we can always go further and offer more, we asked Nicolas what he thought Seven’s added value was. The answer was the method. “Thomas, thanks to his experience, already knew our issues and the topics to address; it was clearly easier for him to help us discuss them. He also knew how to use that experience to lead his workshops efficiently and precisely, turning them into tailor-made sessions,” said Nicolas.

Strong development prospects for Ouidou

We were curious to know Ouidou’s major upcoming projects. From our discussions with Nicolas, it is clear that there are many:

• Ensuring the continuity and sustainability of their commitment to results

• Increasing the number of clients in France

• Providing premium support to their employees through external and internal training via the Ouidou Academy

• Moving into new offices in Paris, Nantes, and Lyon

• Celebrating Ouidou’s successes

• Celebrating their 5th anniversary

Great projects on the horizon that we are eager to follow, and for which we look forward to supporting Ouidou through new Seven training programs!

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“The Manager’s Toolbox” is one of Seven’s flagship training programs. We are committed to always customizing it according to each company’s issues and challenges. The example of Ouidou, an ESN for which we launched this training with managers from all departments and members of senior management, shows that the Seven method is aimed at all audiences, including experienced ones.

Ouidou, which has been moving at lightning speed since its creation in 2017, has managed to preserve its commitment to service excellence thanks to its strong capacity for adaptation and the unwavering commitment of its employees, all driven by the desire to grow their company and convinced of the benefits of “tribe”-based management. It has been a pleasure to support Ouidou since 2022 and a joy to continue following them today in their rapid progress, and to challenge with them the greatest management concepts in order to adapt them to today’s world.