A conversation with
Manuel Diaz
A few rays of sunshine finally break through the Parisian sky. We're in the buzzing Montorgueil neighbourhood, where Manuel welcomes us into the Emakina offices, the company he founded in 1997, which rapidly grew into one of the largest independent digital communications groups in the world.
Hello Manuel. Who are you?
Hello, my name is Manuel Diaz, I'm an entrepreneur, author, and a bit of a YouTuber.
2020 was an unusual, difficult year for everyone: what will you take away from it, both professionally and personally?
The past year was unusual in that it put us all under pressure. It tested, I believe, the modernity of businesses, that is to say their ability to keep working despite geographical distances, and for me it was the true year of digital transformation. We’d had the tools to work remotely for years, but we never really used them. We had to put them into practice, make them our own, and learn to work with today’s instruments.
Would you advise an 18-year-old today to launch into entrepreneurship, despite the current climate?
I think that when you throw yourself into entrepreneurship, it has nothing to do with context. You're driven by a force so powerful that you simply have to pursue your vision, your project, your energy…
So yes, context matters, but if you're aiming for excellence and carried by the strength of your project, there's no such thing as a perfect or terrible moment, there's just the momentum you create to get there.
What does it take to be a good entrepreneur today?
For me, being a good entrepreneur means recognising that you’ll need to bring together strengths and diversity around a project, a vision, and that you won’t be strong enough to do it alone. You’ll do it as a group, and it’ll be far more fun, far more enjoyable, and far bigger by doing it together. So I think we need to distinguish the desire for freedom from the desire to build a business, which are two different things.
So for you, being an entrepreneur necessarily means having a partner, and therefore a team? You can't go it alone?
Of course, you can go it alone. But you're also an entrepreneur within an ecosystem: you can be an entrepreneur while working with freelancers, subcontractors, partners, and so on. But being an entrepreneur means having that driving force which brings others along with you, whatever the nature of your contractual relationship with them. Your project is strong enough to rally people around you and make them want to serve it as well as you do, that's what being an entrepreneur means.
« Being an entrepreneur means having that driving force which carries others along with you. »
Which By Charlot plant best represents the entrepreneur of tomorrow? And which one is most like you?
I'd like to say L'Élégante, because entrepreneurs can be a bit of a bulldozer and sometimes lack elegance. But what resembles me most isn't perhaps a plant but rather a candle, in the By Charlot range, which would be The Sophisticate. I do like refined things, subtlety.
You describe yourself as shy, and yet you take part in plenty of press features, speak at conferences and appear on television. How did you work on that?
I'm still a bit shy, but I'm working on it! I mostly try to put in the work to build my own convictions and share them, or test them against opposing views, because that's how we grow. And I've come to realise that reasoning alone doesn't get you very far, so in the end, it's interacting with others and the wider world that helps me grow the most.
To master or tame your fear, do you turn to techniques like yoga or meditation, so fashionable at the moment?
So, I'm really hopeless when it comes to yoga or meditation. I know it's a very West Coast sort of approach. All my mates in Silicon Valley are into it, but I'm not terribly receptive to it myself. I do a lot of sport though. I try to reconnect with very concrete things, like pain, sore muscles, that sort of thing. It's important not to forget that we're not just minds, we're also connected to a physical body. All of that makes you very humble, reconnecting with material things, with your own difficulties and goals. It teaches patience too, so that's that: I do fitness or crossfit because I like being rigorous about the body.
In your view, "nothing stops innovation, it swallows everything, transforms everything and everyone." That can be rather daunting, can't it?
It’s not my line, but it’s true that innovation devours everything in its path. Human nature tends to take the path of least resistance, or to put it more simply, the easy way out. Nowadays it’s very tricky explaining to a teenager that they’ll have to wait for a precise hour on a precise day to watch the next episode of their series. They’ve been raised, broadly speaking, on the delinearisation of media, on Netflix and the like. And that, well, we won’t be able to undo it, because now it’s here to stay. And with innovation, it’s exactly the same story.
Do you find that worrying?
I don’t find that worrying at all. What can be worrying is the behaviour it brings about. Innovation and technology are exactly like a tool. With a hammer, you can be a magnificent sculptor, or a murderer. It’s up to you to decide what you’ll do with it. So the more innovation there is, the more it calls on us to show even greater morality, humanity and education towards the younger generation. But it’s not by holding back innovation that we’ll protect ourselves from the risks, no, it’s by being better human beings, more enlightened and more intelligent, that we’ll be able to make the most of the opportunities and limit the risks.
Is it important to you to feel good in your office? Did you take care of the decor yourself?
Yes, this matters enormously to me, whether at my desk, at home or in the places I spend time. I believe that, much like plants, we're highly receptive to our surroundings, and this shapes behaviour that can shift depending on the context we live in. So I pay very close attention to it, I look after the design and décor of all these spaces, this office but also other places I frequent that matter to me. I even have a few obsessions, I must confess… Like needing things to be properly tidy, or being surrounded by the books that have meant something to me, so I can glance at them now and then to remind myself of 2-3 things. I need these markers in my environment.
« I believe that, much like plants, we're highly receptive to our environment, and this shapes a behaviour that can vary depending on the context in which we live. »
Actually, I noticed you read a great deal, isn't there a risk that an entirely digital world will sound the death knell for beautiful books, for paper?
Certainly not! I think books are doing very well, art books especially. There's a bookshop I adore in Paris called Librairie Gallieni, and it's a truly extraordinary place. I think we no longer read certain books, novels for example, in quite the same way, as they can be read in all sorts of different formats, on a tablet, a Kindle, or on paper. But when it comes to art books, paper is irreplaceable. The feel of the book, the relationship with the paper, the quality of the printing which gives a particular character to the photographic work, for instance... It's fascinating.
If we rummage through your bookshelf, are there any books you'd recommend to us?
Plenty! Across plenty of different fields… If you want to talk entrepreneurship, I'd mention L'art de se lancer by Guy Kawasaki or Start with Why by Simon Sinek. If you're talking photography, I'd point you to any photo book by Karl Lagerfeld. If you're thinking design or vision, I'd recommend Doug Menuez's book on Steve Jobs. In short, there's so much to read, it's fascinating.
« There's something quite humbling about reconnecting with material things, with their challenges and their goals. »
Do you spend more time at home or at the office? In digital detox mode, or glued to your screens?
So it's very simple, even a touch pathetic really: if you take 100% of my time on Earth, I spend 90% of it at my desk or at home. So you understand the importance of these two places. That leaves only 10% of the time elsewhere... Often out in nature, travelling to places I adore, like Japan or others. So yes, I spend a lot of time at the office or at home, and I like having technology around me when it's useful. It lets me save time or access things that would otherwise be harder to reach. I love elegant technology, so I'll be surrounded by screens, but they won't systematically be bang in the middle of the room, glaringly visible or permanently switched on. At home I have 10 HomePod minis, they're tiny, you barely notice them since they're tucked away, but I love being able to say to my HomePod, "Go on, play me this podcast" or "Put this song on", that's both useful and elegant.
But don't you ever feel the need, on holiday, to switch off completely from all things digital?
Switching off completely does happen to me now and then, but after a while I do feel a bit anxious. It’s not about staying in touch with the rest of the world, it’s more that I use technology for all sorts of things. My Apple Watch, for instance, tracks my sporting performance and helps me train better, push further. So I find it hard to part with technology altogether, but I’ve got no trouble switching to Do not disturb mode now and again.
Do you have any passions or interests far removed from the world of entrepreneurship and new technology?
Loads of things. I love craftsmanship in general, so I spend a lot of time visiting friends who are bakers or tailors. I find them fascinating, really, because they make things with their own two hands, whereas in tech, apart from a keyboard and a mouse, we don't actually make much of anything. We're a bit useless when it comes to real life!
Do they teach you their trade secrets?
They give it a go, but mostly they just have a laugh!! I've got mates who are bakers and "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" champions, so we're talking proper artistry here. Or other friends who make clothes designed just for us, beautifully cut and lovely to look at. It really is a magnificent trade...
