And it is this fear that projects launch ever

Tanned, talented, rich, engaged, married and father of four children... Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux was the ideal son-in-law! Forty-four years, he sold The Phone House, which he founded in 1996, and he comes to ally with the tycoon British Richard Branson at the head of Virgin Mobile France. But after classes at Essec and Dauphine, he seemed destined for a comfortable career at l ' Oréal, where he spent ten years. "In France, we have a very straight course vision." From the moment where you have a large school, you are destined for such careers. But I did want to kick in stretchers. "The opportunity takes time to come: it emerges in the middle of the 1990s, with the development of the mobile phone. "I had the chance to see one little before the others, and ç' has been fabulous! Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux do not hesitate: he resigned from l ' Oréal, while he led a subsidiary in Poland, and returned in France. His friends take for a madman. "With a partner, Pierre Cuilleret, it it is launched at a time where everyone said could not live from the sale of portable, because no one imagined that it would become." At the time, mobile were sold either in garages as car phones, or in the distribution. This remained a very marginal activity. "One day in October 1996, the duo opened his first store Phone House in Paris, avenue de Wagram. Thirty-four years, this decision is a founding act for Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. "I left a result salary, stock options...". It was a risk-taking, even at my age it was limited.

The beginnings are difficult. The first day, the only two people to subscribe are his brother and brother-in-law. "We have done the opposite of what recommends"the manual of the contractor": I was associated with someone I did not know, we we're launched very quickly, on a sector which was not much...". "But very soon the doubts fade, and openings of stores are cycled through.

Take risks It is the leitmotiv of Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. "The fear of failure is very French." And it is this fear that projects launch ever. However, there is a nursery of talent who bored to die in large companies! "In growing more, which he was elected President in 2005, it is with people"who take risks and create employment"is working. To defend his ideas, he does not hesitate to take a position. This winter, is stated in the SCE. "I would like to be able to change the image that the French have the company:"what is good for the company was not for the French".". The patterns have a real responsibility, because the French have the image of leaders that they send them.

Commitment and values he reconciles with his financial success. By 2000, he feels that the mobile phone market returns. He sold his company to the British in Carphone Warehouse. What he then affected are today worth about EUR 40 million. "Of course, it is much more money that I could not to dream." But the important thing is what you do. Me, I have reinvested it in other companies, including Virgin Mobile, I have created jobs. Then is this too What undeserved I do not think, because I took risks that others did not.

In April 2006, he started a new adventure, that of Virgin Mobile. "It is a small citizen struggle...". It is not normal that the laptop that everyone uses, is confiscated by a few large boxes!

Find the "selected comments" already appeared on and the entirety of the interview to 12 and 16 hours on BFM in "Saga of power" of Hedwige Chevrillon.