Earlier this year, Page Up Chair Umayma Abubakar had the opportunity to interview Étienne Thobois, the Paris 2024 CEO, about the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games at our Spring Seminar. For this episode, we bring you their conversation, which covered topics ranging from stakeholder engagement, project management and cross-cultural collaboration. Their tête-à-tête was rife with insights for leaders and communicators, Olympic or otherwise.
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Later this month, Paris is hosting
the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Last spring at our 2024 PageSpring
seminar, which was in Paris, we closed
out the conference with a fascinating
conversation between Etienne Thobois,
the CEO of the successful Paris 2024
Olympic Organizing Committee, and
Umayma Abubakar, Director of Executive
Communications and Corporate Center
at Mubadala and the Chair of PageUp.
In this episode, we're revisiting
that conversation, in which Mr.
Thobois shared his journey in bringing
the Olympics back to France, with stories
of the challenges and triumphs, and
Giving us some unexpected lessons in
the crucial role of communication and
stakeholder engagement in planning events
at a global scale from how to keep an
organization's DNA and vision intact when
onboarding over a hundred people a week
to why sometimes you have to lose to win.
I'm Eliot Mizrachi, and
this is the new CCO.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you for staying with us.
Mr.
Thobois, thank you for being here with us.
It's a great pleasure.
Thank you.
Very impressive.
We heard just from Joseph just now that
you've been trying to bring the Olympics
to France for a couple of years now.
So, We want to spend a bit of today
talking a lot about, your journey
from being an athlete to the CEO in
your current position, and hopefully
we can spend a lot of time unpacking
the parallels and the similarities
between the sport world and also the
corporate world, which is why so many
communications people are in this
room here today just trying to figure
out their role and their part in it.
But maybe if you can start us off with
talking about why has it taken it so
long to bring the Olympics to France?
Yeah, well, you know, it's been,
it's been a long journey for France
to welcome back the Summer Olympics.
for the first time, the Paralympic
Games, which is very important for us.
It's been a hundred years.
So yes, we've been trying in 92.
We tried with Lille in 204, 208.
We're beating Monde, and we lost
by two votes to London in 2012.
Finally, we're here.
actually maybe the fact that, we lost
to London in 2012 was, was a blessing
because we learned a lot from, from that
journey also, from London and, you know,
when our authorities went next door to,
to see the games in London and see the
impact that it could have, on society
and globally, We might give it a last
try and this time it worked and I think
it worked because we had a plan that
was not just a plan about ourselves.
Some kind of a project for the development
of Paris and the region, but more a
plan around sport and the development
of sport and the place that sport
could have in society, where we could
actually engage, on a much broader scale.
A question of the, why did we need
the Olympic and Paralympic Games,
but also why would the IOC or the
IPC want the games to come to Paris?
And here we are, 120, I think
it's five days today, changes
every day, tic tac, tic tac.
From from that nice opening.
No pressure.
From that, that fantastic opening ceremony
on the Sand River on the 26th of July.
You talked a little bit about, you've
tried this a couple of times and it
took a while before we got there.
For those of us who don't fully know
what goes into the, The numbers or the
measurements or how do you get the points
to be able to host something like this?
What is it that the
organizers are looking for?
Well, you know, you have to convince
a hundred people in the IOC that
your project is the best for the
IOC for the Olympic Movement and for
the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
So you talk to people that are around the
world with different agendas, different
views on what the Olympics should be.
Some are international
federation presidents.
They are focused on their sport.
Some are, you know, NOC's representative.
They look at, you know, their
country and the place and the
medals they could win and et cetera.
So everybody has its own perspective.
And that's what is fantastic about
this project, this huge project, a
project like that, is you can do.
So many things around the
Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Definitely, it's a sports program, it's
a s And, and, you know, at the helm of
the organization, we, I got a president,
which is three times Olympic champion.
I am myself an Olympian, lost first round.
Twenty five kilos ago, more or less.
there are things that we
got from our sports career.
Their, their first one is You
might lose on your weaknesses,
but you win on your strength.
And I think we reviewed that bid
and the project of Paris 2024
much more based on our strength.
Then you, you don't win
by trying not to lose.
Playing defense is necessary sometimes,
but you need to be ambitious.
I think it's, it's it's a quote I like
to, to say from Daniel Burnham, which
is the big architect that built Chicago
who says, don't make little plans.
They have no magic to stir men's blood.
So, you know, dream big, be ambitious.
And I think the success
that we have so far.
But, but we got, you know, 70 percent
of the public opinion behind these
games, which is unprecedented.
And usually six months out, it's all
about security, transport, cranes,
catastrophe, everything goes wrong.
There's a bit of that in the press.
But we got 70 percent of the
public backing these games.
We got people involved from
all kinds of, of origin.
Joseph here is a big, you know, blue
chip company representing the sponsors,
but that was yesterday in front of 650
people from the social businesses with
Professor Mohammed Yunus, who, Nobel Prize
26 2006, invented the micro, microcredit.
But those guys, they engaged behind
Paris 2024, and we made sure, you
know, those games wide open, which
is our slogan actually could happen.
And, and, and what we're trying to deliver
is It's coherent and consistent with that.
That's why we have that opening
ceremony on the Seine River.
It's not just because we want to
show, you know, the best architectural
and cultural aspects of France.
We will, through the ceremony.
But it's also the opportunity to have
five times more people participating.
With, with the opportunity on the
Operbank to come and be invited to
the party free of charge and, and
to be part of something special.
We have the Marathon for All.
For the first time, we'll have 24,
000 runners that will be able to
participate in the Olympics in the,
in the conditions of the athletes, and
that's the first time it's ever done.
We've opened our volunteer program
to 45, 000 volunteers coming from all
over the world, 180 nationalities.
We, we want these games also to be
opened through a big engagement program.
We've, built probably the
biggest digital sports club, 4.
7 million people.
Connected to the games on a day
to day basis through that digital
club, et cetera, et cetera.
So we've made sure that whether it's
through our procurement processes,
whether it's through our selection
processes for volunteers, for
Torchbearer, for everything, we have
those games as wide open as possible.
So there is something for
anybody that wants to connect.
with these games.
we understood very early that people
just didn't want to be spectators.
They want to be actors.
So the question was, what is
there for me in your thing?
that thing, which is quite
big, so people know it's there,
they want to be part of it.
And if you don't give them the
opportunity to do so, and not only
through 13 million tickets for the
Olympic and Paralympics, which is
already quite a lot of tickets to sell.
And actually, if you want
to buy some, don't hesitate.
Lots of tickets still to sell for,
for, especially for the Paralympics.
We get a big, big focus
on the Paralympics.
We want those, first time we host the
summer Paralympic Games in France.
And it's a fantastic opportunity to draw
attention on, on people with disability,
which is something that is, you know,
for the whole society, 15 people.
of the world population has
some kind of an impairment.
We don't talk about it.
We're sometimes, keeping
distance around it.
But we actually need to embrace and
engage with the world of disability.
And, and, and definitely these great
events are a fantastic opportunity
to show, to draw attention on
those big issues that we live in.
Because I'll keep on talking, yeah?
Yeah, please go.
As you can see, we're quite passionate
about the project, because another
thing is, you want to be connected
with the world you live in.
It's not just about 333 medals.
It's not just about a sport event.
It's also about gender parity.
It's about health.
It's about education.
It's about inclusion.
And this project is fantastic, because
there is not that many projects
where You can do something, move
things with a positive project.
We're all talking about sustainability
because if we don't do anything,
we're gonna hit the wall.
And everybody has to get on board,
but it's more of a, You know,
it's, it's an obligation here.
We, we can address so many of
those society issues through
something that is positive.
But that's a great point you're making,
but how do you get people around that?
Right.
So you're trying to address a
lot of societal issues gender
imbalance sustainability, et cetera.
How do you get everybody to
come rally around the cause?
Cause it's a great event.
It's a great initiative that you're
doing, but does everyone understand?
the common purpose.
Well, everybody's got different
perspective on a lot of things.
and, you know, we, we
pretend to welcome the world.
So you got to, take a
lot into consideration.
You were.
mentioning the number of
stakeholders we've got to deal with.
I can tell you there are a few,
stakeholders to deal with the
National Olympic Committees, 206 of
them 32 international federations,
80 sponsors, not to mention every
agency in the national, regional,
local governments, and you got so many
people involved and that you need them
actually to deliver such a project.
So timeframes are different,
agendas are different.
So you need to have some kind of
a DNA that everybody understand.
You need to have an ambitious
goal that everybody understand.
Then from that, You discuss, you learn,
you try things, you fail, you learn
again, you adapt, you adapt, you adapt,
but you never compromise on what is
essential to you, on what is your DNA.
And we spent a lot of time
explaining what we were trying to do.
And, and we spent, you know,
we, we recruit right now between
70 and 130 people a week.
So we bring them on board.
I spent, every Monday morning, I spent
half an hour explaining what our DNA is.
And I wouldn't miss that for,
the world.
And, and, because it's important.
And we take great pride and, and,
in onboarding our people so that
they do understand what is our DNA.
And we've done a lot of work
they call it the vision.
But, you know, that game's wide open
thing, that means a lot, for instance.
And people need to connect to that.
So, we can, we can discuss, we can.
We can do a lot of things, but then
we got some kind of a, I guess a
fishbone that is clear for everybody.
And then I think that's
a condition for success.
This group here spends a lot of time
talking about culture and talking about
how do you infuse your organization
culture within the organization
and the employees, et cetera.
And you talk about onboarding
that many people weekly.
How does it go beyond just the
words that you say to actually
people feeling it and living it?
Well, yeah, in the world of
organizations, you got two ways
if you want to be efficient.
My humble experience is that either
everybody looks alike and think
alike, and that's very powerful.
not very innovative, but very powerful.
And then on the other side, you got
people coming from all over, different,
you know, origins, backgrounds, and
they mix together, and that budget can
be really innovative, really powerful,
but only if they have common values.
Only if they are drawn back by something
that actually, you know, drives them.
And that's what we're trying to do.
So that's why, again, the vision
needs to be very clear, no compromises
on what we think is important,
but from that on, Go on, be
innovative, take chances, take risks.
we accept people are failing
within the organization.
How can you ask people to be
innovative if they don't take risks?
We tried to limit, obviously.
Yeah.
And the closer we get to the games,
we try to get focused on, on processes
and procedures and at the end of the
day it's only, you know, square meters,
seconds and, and, and dollars, huh?
But the whole process was
to give people initiative.
Again, a project that size,
if you don't delegate.
Your day, then.
So, so, we need to trust people that
they are going to be consistent and
coherent within, you know, walking
the talk of what we are saying
at the helm of the organization.
Leadership is very important
also to be consistent.
But, it works.
When you take the time to explain and,
and, and people adhere and connect.
And again, we need to be consistent.
It's, it's about walking the talk.
It's about.
setting the goal and, and, and be
coherent throughout and consistent.
And I think that's also why people
do connect because gentleman
before me talked about trust.
I couldn't agree more.
It's, it's all about trust, but to be
trusted, you know, people need to know
where you stand and what you do and that
what you do is connected to what you say.
And I think that's, that's part of the.
Again, so far, success of Paris 2024
is, we've been walking the talk.
I'm curious, you talk about trust and
you talk about delegating and, you know,
allowing people to be the best versions
of themselves so you can be successful.
What does your leadership team look like?
Who do you, who do you surround
yourself with that enables you to
be focusing on the right stuff?
We've got a very interesting team.
Some come from sport background
and a huge sporting event.
they, you know, they've eaten the dog
and, and, and they're really good at
anticipating and allowing the others
to, to speed up the learning curve.
we've got maybe one third of
people that come from the industry.
The French.
It's very mature in terms
of sports organization.
Got a lot of, Big events whether
it's sport but also around
entertainment, culture, et cetera.
So they bring their particular skills
and, and their understanding of the
market, of the agencies, et cetera.
And then, and then you got people
that come from very different
background, but that, that are very
good in their area of expertise,
technology, finance, accommodation.
Logistics, transport, you
name it, we got everything.
and they challenge the others.
Why did you do it that way?
And how do you compare, et cetera?
And that mix of people actually is
very powerful, because they, they try
to set a new blueprint understanding
the, you know, the standards, and
what's been done before, and try
to, to take it to the next level.
Quite international it's an international
team, especially the ones that you
know, what we call the event junkies or
roadies that's the way they're called.
They go from event to event,
but we got, we got 150 some
nationalities already within the team.
So you know, we speak Fringlish,
our own dialect, which is IOC
related with all kinds of acronyms
everywhere, you can imagine.
but the, the language, the,
the language we have is, is the
common language is games wide open
sport is also about excellence.
It's about delivering,
it's about performance.
We're all conscious of that, and,
and, and it's a one, you know, it's a,
it's a once in a lifetime opportunity,
and, and we know there is going
to be only one 26th of July 2024.
Now you don't have a second chance, huh?
We are not going to do the
opening ceremony on the 27th.
That's not gonna work.
. So time is not a factor, which is
when you look on those projects.
So we got, you know, few aphorism
to put people into, you know, we
don't take anything for granted.
Mm-Hmm.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Don't leave anything to chance.
The devil is in the detail.
And anyway, Nothing ever happens
as planned, so be ready for
whatever will come at you.
But, you know, we got that
into, into our state of mind,
and and we move on from that.
Go from there.
So maybe bringing you back slightly, we
talked about The power of sports, right,
and more and more companies today that
we're seeing are investing in sports.
They're including sports as part of
their sponsorship strategies, primarily
to help them increase their brand
visibility, build brand reputation, etc.
What's your view in terms of how companies
are integrating sports today as part of
their agenda, as part of their priorities?
And during break we talked
about terminologies,
greenwashing, sportswashing,
what's your view about that?
You should invest in sport.
That's my No, I think Greenwashing is
something you have to do anyway if you're
not green, because otherwise customers
are not going to buy your product today.
I'm sorry to say and to be as blunt.
So you better be green.
It's good.
But if you're not yet, Well, do greenwash
a little bit, and then by the time you get
organized, you'll be selling your product.
It's not the same with sport.
People are not gonna, not gonna buy
your product because, because you're not
sponsoring whatever club or whatever.
So for me, sport washing
is a bit different.
I think the time where You know,
the head of the company liked to
play football and was sponsoring a
football team is, is, is over, or if,
if it's not over, it's not enough.
But there is plenty of reason
to connect with a sports world.
First and foremost, sport is
about emotions, and I think that's
what makes sports very specific.
You might be, I think you, you guys
might go to the Louvre this afternoon.
If you are in front of the Joconde
and start to go like, in front of
the Joconde, people will look at you
with emotion that comes with culture
is a bit more of an inner thing.
You know what I mean?
While in stadia, you know, it's a, it's an
outer thing, but it's a very strong thing.
The emotions that connect you
with sport is very strong.
So obviously, if you can connect
your values again, the philosophy
of what you're doing through
sport, it can be very powerful.
We were talking with Joseph about,
you know, the reasons why Sanofi
joins the Olympic and Paralympic
Games, very, very different from.
Coca Cola.
One is really much motivated by
having a project that can bring
the company together which could
give a, a pride within the company
It's almost a human resources program.
Well, for Coca Cola, it's, it's
a commercial, you know, going
to the general public So the
activation is very different.
know, my answer would be around how do
you activate your sponsorship program.
You got things, obviously, you know, the
PR and everything that, that's a given.
But, there is a lot of power into
sport to actually say a lot of
things, on wide variety of issues.
And it could be around education.
It could be around performance.
It could be about excellence.
It could be about HR and
inspiration because you've got
so many role models into a sport.
It could be about exposure,
direct, blunt exposure.
There is a lot of ways, but
you need to think about the why
you would join a sports club,
But, but definitely when I look at
those 80 companies that are connecting
with Paris 2024 and how each of them
activate, sometimes very interesting,
but there is none that I've told
us today, I regret my investment.
None.
They're all connected, they all try
to activate, and, and they find value
in to connecting with that event in
particular, but globally with sport.
Do you work with these companies
in order to figure out the
right angle of activations or?
Do they come to you already knowing that?
Depends.
Depends on their maturity in
respect to how they address sport.
Obviously the Olympic and Paralympic Games
is a special beast, but you got the top
sponsors, the ones that are signed by the
International Olympic Committee that are
here every year, so Coca Cola I think has
been on the games for almost a century.
Procter Gamble's been there for some time.
so there are some repeat
programs, and then there are
things that they try to innovate.
And then for the ones that are
more, like we said, the domestic
program actually, you know, we
talk about a fair chunk of money.
So there is a bit of discussions before,
which actually help us understand what
the real motivation is their side and
understand what the project is and
what they can find here and there.
So some of them are really much focused on
the sustainability approach of Paris 2024.
Some are very much approach on the
volunteers and some are interested about
the way that we are going to go around
France with the torch, for instance.
Some others focus on the Paralympics.
Some are on the
educational side of things.
With everything we do with the Olympic and
Paralympic weeks in school, for instance.
Eight edition, three million
kids connected with the game.
So, it, it really much
depends on, on each company.
And again what is there in our
project, and then we try to discuss
and creatively find solutions to, to,
to get the best possible activation.
just a question for you what's
the legacy you want to leave?
I think the legacy has been at the
heart of what we do from the first day.
I wouldn't be consistent if I
didn't talk about the emotions.
We want to leave fantastic emotions,
and thanks to the athletes, I'm sure
there's going to be performances
that are going to blow our minds.
If they can do that under the
Eiffel Tower or on the Chateau de
Versailles, on the Aix en Valide,
Place de la Concorde, all the better.
So we try, our job is to make, you
know, these possible through a fantastic
concept of operation, incredible
sceneries and we hope again that those
opening ceremonies, whether it's the one
on the Seine or the one on the Champs
Élysées and the Place de la Concorde
for, for the Paralympic Games, will are
going to stay in the mind of people.
So definitely memories is a first legacy.
A tangible legacy also not the biggest
part of our project, but you know, we will
have a new Olympic and Paralympic village.
That's 300, 000, 500 homes in an
area that needs those apartments.
So that will be, again, a new
Demerhard innovative for, for the
next for the next hundred years
same with the Olympic Media Village.
We got two sports venues that
were built for this and, and,
and a lot of things that were,
again et cetera, training venues.
There will be nine new basins for people
to learn how to swim in Saint Saint
Denis, which is one of the poorest
departments in France, where kids, half
of the kids, don't know how to swim by 11.
That's a tangible legacy.
But the most important, definitely,
is the intangible legacy, is how
We make people work together, maybe
the way they didn't do before.
I was talking about the
social business yesterday.
I mean, we, through our procurement
strategy, we made sure that, you know,
social business could have access to
those Olympic markets connecting with
much bigger companies working together.
And that happens, and I think
that will leave a legacy.
So it's more on the how, you know, how
we do things, the way we do things.
Obviously, have a bigger place for sport.
In society, because we are, we
believe that a better world through
sport, Olympism is possible.
So that through our programs in
education, again, inclusion the fact
that, you know, we have half women,
half men for the first time in athletes.
in the Paris 2024 Olympic
is important for us.
We got a gender parity
in our volunteer program.
We have gender parity in our bid marathon
for all program in the, in the staff.
We're trying to, again, set a
new footprint on how to organize
those big projects and hopefully
there will be a legacy for that.
Etienne concluded by spending some
time responding to audience questions.
We wanted to share one that we felt was
most relevant for comms professionals.
The audience member asked how
Etienne handles planning a global
event during global crises and what
role crisis communications plays.
There is always something popping up.
I don't, you know, by the time I
talk to you, there's probably two
things that I've popped up already.
So we also need to be careful on things
that are happening with respect Russia and
what's happening in the world definitely.
That's more serious issues, et cetera.
You know, we try to again, stay focused
on, on, on what we want to discuss
and have some kind of a journey,
and then, and then we, we adapt and
we react when necessary, when it's
justified, and then we try to stay calm.
There was, one journalist last week who
I started an article with, you know,
the security issues, the transport
issues and then I said, Paris?
They said, no, London
2012, four months out.
And if you look at the 1924 the official
report of the 1924 games, if I look
at it, except that communication
was not communication, Propaganda
They used a real name at the time.
It is all the same.
It is all the same.
Transport, security, right?
So, you know, we are addressing
things the most seriously we can,
and I can tell you security on that
opening ceremony, I've walked out.
You know, the six kilometers along
the Seine, many times with the Prefet
police, every square meter has been
scrutinized, every window is known, every
building has been you know, plans and
architectural things has been studied.
We're working on things and you
know, we're trying to stay focused.
Polymix, I guess, is part
of the game literally.
we focus.
And I think at the end of the day,
I said that it's at the end of the
ball that you pay the musicians.
So far, so good.
Infrastructures are delivered.
The ticketing is a fantastic success.
The unions are making the
plan, and we have discussions
with them every six weeks.
Around the table.
Everybody's on board.
I'm not saying, I'm not telling you that,
you know, everything is going to be fine.
I'm just telling you that we are
You're making a longer journey
stay focused on the finish line.
Probably we are sports people.
We know that until the finish line
and until the last athlete is or
journalist is in the plane after the
Paralympics the story's going on.
But you know, we, we try to be
again focused, determined, and,
Confident, I would say, in what we do.
I think you need to
believe in what you do.
If you believe in what
you do, people feel it.
And and you also have a great leadership.
I'm blessed with a president who
is three times gold medalist.
A fantastic guy who
believes in what he's doing.
Who, you know, he's the face of the games.
Who, Actually, that people
trust and that's very important.
I can see there are more
questions, but we're out of time.
Thank you very
much.
Thank you for listening to
this episode of The New CCO.
We hope you enjoyed the conversation
with Etienne Taubois and gained
valuable insights into the surprising
intersection of sports and communication.
We also hope that you enjoyed watching
the games a little more after hearing
about what's gone into it, about the
legacy that they're looking to leave.
It's a great reminder that
global events, even ones that
pit country against country.
Can bring us together too.
I'm Elliot Mizrahi and
this is the new CCO.