The art of generating achievements

Saint-Exupéry wrote that in order for people to make boats one had first to arouse in them ‘a passion for the sea’. This philosophy is an apt metaphor for Jacques Civilise’s most unusual talent. He brings together people around a project and makes them enthusiastic about it despite any concerns that they may have. He removes formalities and taboos, and brings together personalities in unusual collaborations. Sometimes the individual personalities are so powerful that they endanger the end goal. Throughout his career Jacques Civilise has been able to bring in some well-needed fresh air. He is a business manager who is both iconoclastic and modest. He enjoys facing challenges when he is well prepared for them and shares this pleasure with his team. It is now his son, Ronan Civilise, who is following in his father’s footsteps with the same enthusiasm for expanding the business, but achieves this with rigour rather than instinctively like his father.