HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER
In 2001 when Daft Punk created this song, newspapers and TV were the chosen sources of sharing new media. Post dot-com bubble, the Internet has created an enthusiastic feeling and has inspired hope for the future… and here we are, it’s November 2014, and it’s just the beginning! Nowadays, we can not imagine our life without Internet, wifi, and/or mobile, especially in New York, being that you can find wifi everywhere (Free Wi-Fi Finder app). Everyone is connected in streets, subways, central park, shops, and more… It’s common, and not in a bad way. Even if the city is over connecting, it has become easier to keep in touch with people, rather than the lack of wifi and social networking in Paris. American culture is radically different from anywhere else. From whatever part of the world you are from, or from whatever way of life you came, you feel welcomed as an immigrant in America. You feel a part of the “multicultural” society, it is probably why one feels at home so quickly here. There are about 60,000 French expatriates living in New York, I was surprised to discover so many French people in the New York Village too. What a big difference between Havas, New York vs Puteaux:
WORK IT HARDER
In NY office, our colleagues have almost 10–15 days off for holidays (vs 5 weeks in France), they start around 9AM and finish by 6PM (except for pitch or client presentation). You don’t stay at work long, you have to be efficient and productive. In France we can finish late, especially for creative, account and media people.
Here, most of people don’t have breaks, it is unusual, or it is only a coffee break. Also, they schedule a lot of meetings during lunch… in fact, you never waste time. « Work it, make it, do it, makes US ! »
MAKE IT BETTER The New York village is full of inspiration and ideas. Transparent walls between meeting rooms offer space and freedom. There are also many breakout places, a lot of innovative design furniture… it is a charming and cosy place to work.
The Village really focuses on people, if you want to be efficient you have to work in a comfortable context. It is probably why you have so many coffee/tea machines, free food, even a beer engine (I can’t imagine this in France) in each floor and working in the best condition. When they have hard/tuff meeting they always have over lunch to calm bad spirit. Co-workers collaborate often by emails, chat, confcall, visio… to make their work better than before. Also, they conscientiously follow new hire by proposing trainings, lunch meetings, afterwork drinks… You have to be part of the team you cannot work on your own.
DO IT FASTER Everything changes so fastly in US, especially in NY.
You have to be faster than your competitors! ‘The world is changing’ being an attractive agency means introducing new technologies, new solutions, new ways of thinking, follow trends, and more… It is definitely not a static position. It is more difficult to project the future than before, it’s an exciting feeling, we can feel this positive energy in the agency. They quickly identify the value of digital technologies and uses this to seek out opportunities (Mobile, Content creation, Digital Native… even for specific target like Hispanic audience). In France we have a different culture of thinking. We need to be 100% confident before developing any project or collaboration, especially in media.
MAKES US STRONGER
“If you want to go fast go alone. if you want to go far go together” the proximity between entities, I mean, creativity, digital, analyst, financial, and social people create consistency in NY village. It’s easy to chat with just about anyone, in the elevator, the corridor, at the coffee machine… even if it’s for just the small things. In fact, they share a lot of informations about people and business, everyone needs to know latest news and figures. Here, they create many intern events (showing documentary, celebrate Halloween, Birthday, new client…) to engage everyone within the company.
OUR WORK IS NEVER OVER
With this experience I realized that Puteaux is a big village and sometimes you don’t realize how the network is large and rich. Lea, Gwenaelle and Nicolas helped me to understand their own structure (Les Gaulois, Havas Paris, Affiperf) even if we are not doing the same business we share the same vision and hope for the group. So now, I know more about account executive, digital strategic and trader media . Next week, Gemma, Rhiannon and Lauren will introduce us their work. Finally, I would love to compare Havas Village to Daft Punk we share common values: creativity, collaboration, innovation, surprise and success.
Have a nice weekend !
