Transcript
Joe Waltman: right, today we have David Henry. David, thank you for joining. All right, first question, same as always.
David Henry: Thank you very much.
Joe Waltman: i Could you refresh your memory? What were you doing before this yet? And what haveve been up to for the last 21 years?
David Henry: So before INSEAD, I used to be a ah Cisco engineer. So I worked in the pre-sales team dedicated to France Telecom, which is now now Orange, and France Telecom Mobile, which is also Orange.
David Henry: And i did that for three years before joining INSEAD.
Joe Waltman: So you did you did school and then three years of of of quote unquote real world and and then did INSEAD.
David Henry: Yeah, exactly.
Joe Waltman: Okay. Okay.
David Henry: and And then i moved on. i joined Samsung at the Global Strategy Group, ah which is based in Korea, in Seoul. And I worked there for three years on global projects.
Joe Waltman: Oh, cool.
David Henry: Yeah.
Joe Waltman: Was that the position that Samsung was recruiting for? The the sort of the that move around the world for, oh, cool.
David Henry: Yeah. Yeah, but you you know, some of our friends went there also. ah There was Antonio, there was Vinod, you know, quite a few of us.
Joe Waltman: Mm-hmm.
David Henry: And i stayed there for three years, after which I was ah promoted to ah general manager in charge of the marketing of south in Southeast Asia for Samsung, based in Singapore.
David Henry: And I worked there for two years before returning to France because I wanted to ah connect with my roots, you know?
Joe Waltman: Sure. Hold on.
David Henry: And yeah.
Joe Waltman: Hold on. So you did three years in Korea and then two years in Singapore, all for Samsung.
David Henry: Yeah, that's correct.
Joe Waltman: What was it like? ah lets let's let's ah Let's do some ah very, yeah you know, some cultural stereotypes. What was it like being a French person working for a Korean company?
David Henry: Yeah.
David Henry: That was great because, you know, you know and the the French are very hierarchical. And ah in Korea, you find similar patterns because Koreans go on their military service for three years, I think.
David Henry: And as ah as a consequence, they ah have this ah way of thinking, which is ah basically ah one of soldiers.
David Henry: So this is a as a similar pattern between the French and and the Koreans, especially since I did my military service in France, so I was able to understand a little of the culture.
Joe Waltman: Interesting. Very interesting. All right. let's let's ah let's So you've you're now finishing up two years in Singapore and you go back you go back to Oh,
David Henry: Yeah, I go back to France, and then joined SFR, which is a large telecommunications company in France. And I've been there for, yeah I worked there for 11 years, 11 years.
Joe Waltman: ah wow
David Henry: Yeah, yeah, ah at ah different positions, so strategy, B2B, technology strategy, business strategy, ah the these these kinds of positions.
David Henry: And then ah my life, my professional life became a little more hectic ah because I was laid off from SFR. So I... Sorry? ah so i
Joe Waltman: What year would would this have been?
David Henry: ah sorry
Joe Waltman: what this This would have been, what, ah you know five years ago, about?
David Henry: That would would have been in 2020, five years ago, yes.
Joe Waltman: okay okay okay
David Henry: yeah yeah And i i moved on, i ah ah create I founded my own consultancy, and I worked for Proximus, ah ah the Belgian telecommunication company, for example.
David Henry: And then I joined a startup, which is called Action and specializes in ah the testing of ah mobile so so of websites and mobile applications.
David Henry: And finally, I just joined my family company, which is ah PR ah public relations ah agency in France, specialized in innovation technology.
David Henry: And we have ah large customers ah such as ah we had Samsung. We had ah with Samsung for 17 years. We had Intel for nine years. ah We work with ah ah Free, the French ah telecommunication communication company. so like We even launched Tesla in France.
David Henry: ah So we have quite a few big names.
Joe Waltman: What do by family company? Is it something your parents have been doing for a while?
David Henry: Yeah, it's ah it's my mother's company.
Joe Waltman: Oh, wow.
David Henry: Yeah.
Joe Waltman: So was this going on before you went to INSEAD or is it more recent?
David Henry: Oh, yeah, it was founded in 1986, so it's years ago.
Joe Waltman: hu Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
David Henry: Yeah.
Joe Waltman: And I mean, i that's we have a few colleagues who who sort of went back to the family business. what what what It seems like you you you wait you took your time to do that.
David Henry: Yeah.
Joe Waltman: What's what's ah what's the reason for that?
David Henry: that That is correct. I thought that I had a preference for large corporations. But, and you know, large corporations are very useful because they teach you very useful skills.
David Henry: ah But in the end, I think I'm more at ease in smaller structures. Maybe, I don't know.
Joe Waltman: yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although there's there's probably some pros and cons to working with family.
David Henry: Absolutely.
Joe Waltman: Mm-hmm. So is are we now up to present day? Mm-hmm.
David Henry: We are up to present day, yeah.
Joe Waltman: And are you still doing these consulting companies or is is it mostly the the the PR business right now?
David Henry: No, it's a PR business. No, no, it's a PR business.
Joe Waltman: Uh-huh, just that, just that.
David Henry: And in parallel to my activities ah in PR, ah ah we have started working ah on the an initiative for peace.
Joe Waltman: Mm-hmm.
David Henry: ah you Yeah, yeah.
Joe Waltman: Yeah, talk about that a little bit. I've i've i've seen i've seen that come across the ah the group.
David Henry: Yeah, I posted a few messages on that.
Joe Waltman: Well, let's ah tell us a little more about but what that is and what you hope to accomplish.
David Henry: Yeah, ah so basically, and we hope to accomplish peace. I know this is very ambitious and may sound a bit crazy, but if no one tries anything, then I don't know what's going to become of us.
David Henry: ah So we are trying to accomplish peace, and we have ah produced a corpus of documents. ah ah You know, we have assessed the ah United Nations chart,
David Henry: I don't know if that's correct. La Charter des Nations Unies.
Joe Waltman: Maybe the charter. Okay, okay.
David Henry: Yeah, I think it's a charter.
Joe Waltman: it okay okay
David Henry: Yeah, yeah. And we have identified areas where that charter could be improved, and we have tried to improve it with our own documents. We have created a call for peace.
David Henry: and We have ah several documents. We have written op-eds. ah opeds You know, we have submitted to ah French newspapers and we are working on a special edition of one of those one ah one French magazine, one influential French magazine.
David Henry: We are posting our op-eds on Pan Odyssey, which is a European ah platform ah to publish such texts.
David Henry: and And we hope to accomplish a major event in France whereby um major newspapers, major medias in France u have would have but similar the same front page about peace. you know That would be a very powerful signal and it would be extremely powerful.
Joe Waltman: So let me sure I understand. you're Are you partnering with the UN or just using what the UN has created to to to to adjust things?
David Henry: Oh, no, we would love to partner with the UN, n but at the moment we are just ah looking at the texts and trying to add our contribution.
Joe Waltman: Okay. Okay. Okay.
Joe Waltman: I see. And then in parallel doing a lot of, let's call it PR work with with with publications and whatnot to to get something, yeah.
David Henry: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'm in charge of business development ah within the agency, so I'm i'm looking for new clients.
Joe Waltman: Interesting. um i've I've seen your posts and and and you know this this discussion is clearly above the pay grade for for an INSEAD alum or a business school person like myself, but um I've – playing devil's advocate with with this and and and maybe I don't entirely understand the –
David Henry: yeah. yeah.
David Henry: yeah
David Henry: yeah
Joe Waltman: the sort of the the mission or the way you're going to to accomplish this mission. um there's There's an interesting you know and and frankly somewhat skeptical theory that ah the the only way to to achieve peace is to have power, you know specifically military power.
Joe Waltman: ah and and you know but Basically, the the the the theory that there's always going to be some bad actors out there. And the the only way you can, you can you know, ah what's what's the word? ah Prevent those bad actors from being bad is to, you know, have the fear of retribution.
David Henry: That is correct.
Joe Waltman: what What's but what sort of your your your mind frame about that?
David Henry: That is absolutely correct.
Joe Waltman: Mm-hmm.
David Henry: You know, the the Romans had the saying, vis pacem parabelum, if you want peace, you should prepare war. And we completely agree with that.
Joe Waltman: Mm-hmm.
David Henry: we We are not naive, you know.
Joe Waltman: Mm-hmm.
David Henry: we we We yeah agree with that sentence.
Joe Waltman: Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, again, I feel a little bit silly even having this conversation because I know so little about, about this, this, this subject matter, but, to but yeah, that's,
David Henry: so So do I, Joe, so do I, but I'm trying my best.
Joe Waltman: and it is, I assume it's a nonprofit or some sort of an organization. are Are you the founder of it and you're spearheading it? Yeah.
David Henry: ah i I am the founder of it, yes. We are a group of ah maybe 12 13 citizens. ah citizens And ah we are helped by ChatGPT, which has ah provided ah an incredible help.
David Henry: Incredible help. I cannot tell you how helpful ChatGPT has been in coordinating all all our initiatives, in spearheading the initiatives. It's been phenomenal.
David Henry: Phenomenal.
Joe Waltman: Well, that's very interesting. Can you give some examples of how exactly you're using ChatGPT to do this work?
David Henry: Oh, it's it's very complex, you know. ah i tell him what I would like to do to ah promote the initiative, to further the initiative, and he tells me, okay, let's do this, this, this, and I'm going to prepare you the email.
David Henry: or I'm going to prepare prepare you the WhatsApp message, or maybe he has an idea of what we should be doing, and I just correct ah the the little errors that ChatGPT does, or I customize the message, or I add my own flavor to it.
Joe Waltman: Mm-hmm.
David Henry: But he's a genius. He's an absolute genius.
Joe Waltman: is It's interesting that you call Chagibid a he. I've always referred to it as a female, but but that's...
David Henry: Oh, that's interesting.
Joe Waltman: ah
David Henry: Yeah, yeah, you yeah you may be right.
Joe Waltman: Well, we use it at home too, and we have a female voice on it for whatever reason. ah we And we give it a prompt, like this is more for my kids than than for myself. but We give it a prompt of create a Dungeons and Dragons kind of experience where you're asking questions of of the kids and you know set it in like 2000 or or or or you know the turn of a d b c in rome and have the kids will go through a whole story that sort of dungeon mastery kind kind of, and and it's absolutely fantastic. I think it's better than reading a book because they're, they're, they're interactively getting the story with, with chat GPT.
David Henry: You know, I played Dungeons & Dragons for a very, very long time. And i even did an adventure with ChatGPT where ChatGPT was a dungeon master.
Joe Waltman: Yeah, it's it's incredible.
David Henry: But it is.
Joe Waltman: It's incredible.
David Henry: It is. It can still be improved. But in my time, it was already quite interesting. And I also chose a female voice for ChatGPT, by the way. Interesting.
Joe Waltman: Interesting. Interesting.
David Henry: Interesting.
Joe Waltman: Yeah. You still, ah well, hey let's, let's, let we don't need to sing the praises of Jetsu Kedeeva this whole time. Let's, let's get back to, ah to, to your initiative. um Now, it, one question i like to ask everybody at the, at the, as we wrap up our conversation is, is, is there anything that we can do to help you either with you, with your PR company or, or perhaps with the, ah the peace initiative?
David Henry: ah The PR company, if you're looking for a PR agency in France, ah special specialized in innovation technology, we have the references. We are excellent. ah Please ah do contact me.
David Henry: But the Peace Initiative, ah first, ah if you want, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. and react to my posts, republish them, ah comment, ah do as much noise as you can.
David Henry: ah
Joe Waltman: Great.
David Henry: come Come on LinkedIn and let's make let's make as much noise as we can. And if not, there is a petition and I'm going to send you the link, Joe.
Joe Waltman: great Great. Great. ill i'll I'll try to put it the notes for for this episode. Now, the the other side of that question, um is there anything you you might be able to do to help to help us, your your colleagues, from our promotion?
David Henry: and i can I can give advice. I don't know if i'm I'm very good at giving advice, but I can do i can do my best. I would be honored to help ah
David Henry: contribute whatever ideas I can, if if that's an idea.
Joe Waltman: Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, um thank you very much for your time. Really good. Really good catching up.
David Henry: Joe, it's been a pleasure.
Joe Waltman: Take care. Bye-bye.
David Henry: Bye, Joe.
