This is a new stage in the life of a manager: that of transmission. A far from trivial act which required several years of preparation. “I was the only shareholder of Loquendi. The language training market has been profoundly transformed, especially from a regulatory point of view, I didn’t imagine ending my career there so I prepared for the transfer well in advance.
Loquendi offers tailor-made training in foreign languages: taking into account the level of the trainee but also studying the professional situations encountered. “I noticed that language schools were too general and were not necessarily interested in the daily lives of employees. A project manager in industry will not need the same language elements as one in IT. We therefore developed a process to spend time with learners before setting up the courses and identify these situations in a targeted manner,” recalls Karine Debove, raised in the culture of the English and French languages.
30,000 hours of training
She therefore created Loquendi in 2000, in Villeneuve d’Ascq: planning, content, location, format… everything is tailored to the trainee, with training lasting from a few hours to several months. In total, up to 30,000 hours of training per year were provided to major retail brands, such as La Redoute, Nocibé, KingFisher, Euratechnologies, Ankama… Loquendi had an average of around forty employees , mainly teachers, for a turnover of up to nearly 2.5 million euros, in France but also for major accounts in the United Kingdom.
Today Loquendi will live a second life since the SME was recently bought by the Parisian group Intercountry, which wishes to establish itself in Hauts-de-France.
A transfer that Karine Debove experienced with serenity: “Assisting Loquendi with a larger group was an interesting option for developing, I did not have the ambition to absorb other players and the opportunity presented itself with Intercountry. For customers, this will not change anything, because Loquendi will remain Loquendi. If we have to hand over the reins, the company must be structured, it is essential, everything must not rest solely on the company manager.”
This experience as an entrepreneur which “has set the rhythm of (my) life”, Karine Debove wishes to put it at the service of new projects, without yet having chosen one in particular: she will first devote herself to the creation of a hosting location for corporate events and training, within the offices it owns in Villeneuve d’Ascq. She could also resume studies in occupational psychology or open a small business linked to her origins. “I’m going to go for it without pressure. It would be difficult for me to become an employee again,” she smiles.
This article is originally published on gazettenpdc.fr
