We have followed through on that ambition in our collaboration with Keymatch, which builds bridges between university training and businesses. The idea is to have students in the same class compete against each other and encourage them to think about the issues of companies today within a very short timeframe.

As such, in September we organized two matches at Université Paris-Dauphine on participative financing and the development of a culture of innovation among our employees. The rules of the game were simple. The students were briefed by our jury of employees on Tuesday, the students handed in their work on Saturday, and the final was held on Monday in front of the jury. Time was precious in the final, with students allowed just 90 seconds to make an elevator pitch, start-up style, followed by 15 minutes to present their ideas in more detail.

The profiles of the students are highly inspiring for our business. With a clear focus on the customer and entrepreneurship, they developed simple and eminently practical solutions. Their work was so impressive that we had the winning teams present their projects to our Executive Committee and employees. These last particularly appreciated the idea and submitted a range of ideas for the themes of future matches.

Beyond the quality of their recommendations, which will be useful to RCI Bank and Services, this type of event helps us to explain who we are, the richness of our activities and the careers that we propose. Through this approach, we are showing that we are an innovative group, open to external ideas, and we hope to trigger ideas of future professions in the minds of these talented young people.