I later did a postgraduate diploma in business and changed career completely, working in roles including marketing and fundraising for two big charities and procurement for healthAlliance, which provides services to District Health Boards.
In between that I set up two charities and was awarded France's highest honour, Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, for setting up the Petit Lascars playgroup for children and Frenz School, which implemented the French bilingual unit at Richmond Road Primary school in Ponsonby. And recently I was elected for the second year as president of the French New Zealand Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Can you tell me about FNZCCI?
It's first of all a networking organisation. We help our members and potential members to build their own business networks to create opportunities for their businesses. Another role we play is to pass on queries or business leads we may receive to specific businesses in our membership, and then answer those queries or requests for the contact.
From a French perspective, we're the organisation that best knows the local New Zealand market so we feel that helps us guide our members to the correct customers, or clients with accuracy. Another important detail which allows us to do that is all our board members are bilingual and have had international careers.
What are some of the trends you see among your membership, in terms of the kinds of businesses being set up by French entrepreneurs here?
We've experienced an increase in membership from highly qualified professionals, such as auditors, accountants and IT specialists, and also a recent higher number of queries from people qualified in the building industry and managing large building projects.
The people coming here often have young families and are motivated by the better opportunities they see here than in Europe. Worldwide there's a shortage of skilled people, particularly in technology and a lot of people in France are qualified in those areas.
France is a country that doesn't just produce bread sticks and wine, but also a lot of high technology and nanotechnology. And of course there are strong links between the two countries that people identify with like rugby, and the wine and maritime industries.
What are some of the challenges you've observed French entrepreneurs encountering when starting businesses here?
The new immigration laws are a big challenge when starting a new business in New Zealand, as well as the new regulations to obtain entrepreneurs visas or business visas. A lot of people who approach us are in a catch-22 situation - they're highly qualified, but can't get a visa because they haven't got a job offer.
Are the business cultures of New Zealand and France very different?
My perception of the difference between doing business here and in France is that in France it can be very formal. The business etiquette there doesn't allow for a lot of mistakes. It's not a consensus-based business culture, whereas in New Zealand embracing the opinions of the people around the negotiation table is important.
I used to work in an organisation here years ago that used to start meetings with a simple karakia. That's something that does bring people together and helps them focus on why they're there.
We held a workshop at the Chamber on cross-cultural management recently. The idea was to explain the background of the use of different phrases in each culture, or the reactions and behaviour that might occur in certain situations due to some cultural differences.
In France, for example, it's important to know the language very well if you're doing business there, but in New Zealand I have taken part in difficult negotiations speaking with a French accent, and it's been perfectly acceptable.
