Ville-valides#2: To spot talent, disabled or not
I did a little research and found out that at an adapted enterprise 80% of the employees were disabled. It scared me a bit, I said to myself “well, I am not disabled at all, so let’s see what it gives”.
An interview with Nathalie Koné-Denot from Séquences Clés Productions

Kasia Lechka: From a trade school to an ‘adapted enterprise’. Not a typical path…
Nathalie Koné-Denot: My education has basically nothing to do with disability. I graduated from a trade university and wanted to work on art and culture. I did a one-year specialization on creative industries management. When I was looking for an internship, the TA responsible for the specialization forwarded me an offer from the person who is my boss today. They were looking for someone to manage fundraising. I started the day my boss officially took over the steering wheel. I was part of the renewal. I entered the company without knowing anything about disability or what an “adapted enterprise” (fr. entreprise adaptée) was. I was telling myself that this is an audiovisual agency, this is what thrills me and let’s see how it goes.
Kasia Lechka: You didn’t know it was an “adapted enterprise”?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: I knew it was one, but I had no idea what it meant. I did a little research and found out that at an adapted enterprise 80% of the employees were disabled. It scared me a bit, I said to myself “well, I am not disabled at all, so let’s see what it gives”. At the very beginning — when I entered the company — there were very few people, the previous management didn’t have the marketing gut. The videos were not of high quality and the clients that would hire us would do it clearly as an act of charity: we will let the disabled do the work. Then the new team arrived: my boss, some youth, including me, and other interns. We became more professional, we became a company that works well.
It’s maybe a bit sad that almost the entire team was replaced, but we gained in quality. Today, we have 80% disabled employees but they work really well. It’s all about knowing how to spot talent, disabled or not. The objective is not to create a ghetto: we hire you because you are disabled. It is really like: disability… this happens, but I really hire you because you are talented.
Kasia Lechka: So how do we spot talent, disabled or not?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: I think it depends on luck. Our sales director tried to work with us for one before he was finally hired. The previous management didn’t want to hire him, so we are lucky that he was really motivated to work with us, kept on trying and finally we realized he was very good at his job.
We also have an apprentice in montage. After she was hired she told us we were her last chance. She was trying to find a position for two years, after this time you cannot try anymore. If we had told her no, she would have had to change her career plans. Good thing we took her, she is very good.
Some people are more productive than others. The goal is to make all of us work well together, make sure everyone finds their place. In an adapted enterprise, it is more difficult to tell someone that their work is bad because you don’t know how they will react. Very skilled people add balance to the atmosphere. People I work with are above all passionate. Their passion comes before their disability.
Kasia Lechka: Is there any impairment that you target in particular?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: We welcome all kinds of disability, whether motor or mental. We don’t really have anyone on wheelchair at the moment, we have people with hearing impairments, with bipolar personality disorder, with diabetes…
Kasia Lechka: When you hire someone, will your boss really look at the percentage of disabled employees?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: Yes! Sometimes we had applications from talented people and had to refuse them because they were not disabled. In France, an adapted enterprise is a type of company, it’s like a label — you must have 80% of disabled employees. I know that recently we hired a production manager that is not disabled, so it is like a bet, our three future hires will be people with impairments.
Sometimes we have new arrivals who are not disabled, but we still need this 20% of employees! It is somewhat limiting. When there are people who apply for an internship, I am responsible for managing these hires, and I have to ask this not too common question “Do you have an impairment?”
Kasia Lechka: You ask this over the phone?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: It depends, but it happens. There are some periods during the year where we have many applications, so I have to do it. In general, people who have impairments say it.
Kasia Lechka: Like right away?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: Yes, or they write it in their resume. People who are not disabled and apply to our company usually don’t know that we are an adapted enterprise, they think we are a production agency like any other. So, right from the start we say, “actually, we are not a standard company and we prioritize hiring people with impairment or chronic illness.”
Kasia Lechka: Are there disabled people that contact you because they are creatives with impairments?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: We have many cases: creative professionals who are not disabled who contact us for a classic position; creative professionals who are disabled who call us because we are an adapted enterprise and this is where it works; and then disabled people who contact us but have nothing to do with audiovisual production. We are an inclusive company but we are looking for skills and we will not take a novice. I think that the company was a little bit like this in the past, they were hiring the disabled…
Kasia Lechka: … mostly because they were disabled? It’s quite limiting, you don’t recognize the person, you just recognize their impairment.
Nathalie Koné-Denot: Exactly! It is even against the values we try to promote.
Kasia Lechka: I want to ask a few questions about your personal experience. You never worked with people with impairments before?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: No, never. I didn’t know the world of disabilities at all.
Kasia Lechka: So how did your first experience go?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: In the very beginning, it was not too visible, apart from my boss’ partner, Ryadh Sallem. He’s a Paralympics champion, he went to Rio. He is crazy about sports. He was at the office on the day of my job interview: super impressive, on a wheelchair, and he shakes your hand — there you know you are in an adapted enterprise.
Then on an everyday basis it would not be too visible because our offices were detached. I was in the management office. Back then, the 20% of the non-disabled were the management team…
Then we moved to an open space and there you can see how the moods change. It happens that someone has a bad day, and we even had some slamming doors. You can feel it, but it’s rather rare. It’s more like funny anecdotes later on. I think this is like in a standard company, but the moods are more visible.
Kasia Lechka: What about the outcomes? Are your clients satisfied?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: Yes! The clients are very satisfied because our technical director puts a lot of effort to assure everything goes well. We also have replacements. We have an excellent graphic designer, really amazing, who is deaf. As a result, obviously he is genius but it takes more time to explain to him what the client wants, it’s just the way it is. So, or the project takes more time, or we have no choice and we hire a supporting graphic designer and we have to deal with the costs. You can have a bipolar colleague who will not put together a scene because it was not their day. There is always this little anxiety but until now it has never been any problem.
On the contrary, the work quality increases. I think the more the quality increases, the more we attract people who dare to tell themselves “there, I am disabled, but it doesn’t mean my work should be shitty, I can express my skills the way I want”. Honestly, the outcome of the videos is comparable, sometimes even better than a standard agency. It just takes a lot of energy to give birth to this baby!
Kasia Lechka: Do you see any impacts on yourself, the way you see things?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: It helped me put things into perspective… reflect on oneself, on one’s life. Then in an adapted enterprise you are the minority and disability is the norm. An ideal solution for me would be to work in a company 50/50, because sometimes it is difficult: I cannot complain because I am not disabled. You need to find a golden middle: we recruit talented people, they are disabled. And with these disabled talents there are some better and some worse days. It is quite funny, it’s a micro society that totally inverses the society we live in. And I am the minority. And as a minority you sometimes feel a bit forgotten.
Kasia Lechka: Does it make you think of how people with impairments feel in society?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: Yes, it’s clear. For example, one of our directors says he didn’t have a single manic episode since he started working with us. That proves the importance of being integrated, just to have stuff to do and to be recognized for your value.
Being in an inclusive company brings this intimate side, like a family. We go through this together. We are quite close and can easily put ourselves in the other person’s shoes. It made me aware of accessibility in cities. I was going back home with a colleague once, she uses a crutch. We enter a tramway and only an obese person gets up. It makes you realize that it’s already in people’s heads.
Kasia Lechka: What about your future jobs?
Nathalie Koné-Denot: It depends. I have a dream to come back to my initial passions: art and culture. Or thinking about fundraising, I could pass on to the other side of the mirror and work for a foundation: to give money instead of asking for it. I will surely continue to contribute to the social economy world. If you take a scope bigger than disability, the world of social economy has different rules, there is no productivity first and foremost. Of course, productivity makes the numbers, but productivity happens through the flourishment of people, disabled or not. I think that if you get to know this world, you can’t go back.
To find out more about Séquences Clés Productions, check out their website at: https://www.sequences-cles.fr/