Institut Paul Bocuse

Kristina Petro
July 13, 2014
I am extremely proud of what my team accomplished in Lyon. Our client,
Jeffery, the Admissions Director of Institut Paul Bocuse, asked us to help him identify
ways to manage change in the organization. The Institute has been run the same
way for decades. While their methods have served them in the past, many of their
ideas and attitudes were not progressing with the times and are not helping IPB
compete in the international market. For example, students at IPB were accustomed
to being slapped in the kitchen. While this is still common in some French kitchens,
its not the way many international kitchens operate, nor would this behavior fly
with American international students. Additionally, students are treated with kid
gloves rather than respected for being young adults. This also may impede their
growth as professional chefs as they may not have the skills necessary for growing
their own businesses when they graduate.
Our mission was to come back to IPB with ideas to help Jeffery, the lone
American expat and self-proclaimed outcast, be heard. He was hired for his deep
expertise in curriculum management, but was having difficulty getting his ideas
implemented without good reason. He was often hearing, Thats not how we do
things, rather than, Thats an interesting idea, lets discuss! My teams method
was to formulate an agenda, then break off into silos (chosen by each student) to
get the work completed. While each person created his/her slides, we worked
together closely on the final output before it was given to the client.

Project worked well in the following ways:

Methods kept us on track and work was completed in a very short turnaround

time
Output was well researched and presentation was compelling
Research was interesting to each student as topics were self-selected
IPB felt we provided ideas in the requested two key areas

Project could have been improved:

Increased collaboration-we should have helped a teammate who was

struggling to find answers

More time and additional research on competitors, other firms breaking into a

global market and advances in classroom teaching technique

Increased time with the client and time with other administration and faculty
members
My particular role on the project was to find examples of other firms that

grew out of adversity and changed the way business was done in their industry. I
choose to focus on the positive examples and highlighted businesses that
survived rather than focus on those that failed. My slides were a bit more
storytelling in nature as I wasnt giving Jeffery actionable steps, but more of a
rallying cry to show him we heard and understood his situation. We even
celebrated a small win when Jeffery told us his CEO decided to create an
organization chart after he had been asking for it for two years.
Admittedly, I was a bit focused on external challenges, and while I didnt
let that impact my deliverable, I was not as engaged as I would have liked to be.
Jeffery truly tugged at my heart strings. He was the lone American in the close
knit organization and was not well liked, in part because of this. The CEO told
him to hang out in expat bars to be with his people. While I think that was
intended to be an encouraging sign of the CEO believing he was helping Jeffery

branch out, it was not well received. I felt sad leaving him on the last day as I
think he felt understood by us. Im optimistic that he will be able to effect
change in part because he knows most of his ideas are backed up by data.
As far as how I showed up on the team, I was highly in task mode and was
driving project organization and efficiency. Upfront I told my team the one
norm I wanted to establish was no drama as I personally was not in a place
to deal with emotions outside of our clients needs. My POV changed in two key
ways as a result of going to Lyon. The first is that I connected on a personal level
with our client and truly wanted to help him. Showing Jeffery that my team
understood his plight and believed he was on track made me feel like in the
short time we were in Lyon, we made an impact and gave him suggestions for
moving his organization forward.
The most profound change was that of needing medical care whilst in
France and being somewhat helpless as I didnt know my way around or the
language and didnt have a means of paying since France uses a government
funded health care system. As a Libertarian, I feel that governments should not
create a culture of entitlement. In my scenario, the hospital bent its rules to
provide care for me and charged me minimal fees. I cannot imagine a US based
hospital caring for someone in my position unless they were a charity hospital. I
also received a unique perspective into the culture in Lyon. So many strangers
helped me navigate the system. Despite the stereotype of the French being
dismissive of Americans, I learned that the French are highly sensitive, helpful,
loving and in no way rude. This taught me to check my assumptions and to be
more caring and less focused on steadfastly adhering to rules. At times, they are
meant to be broken! I was very ready to come home at the end of the trip and

returned to the states a week earlier than planned, but left with a very positive
view on the French people and an understanding that I need to be less rigid.