A conversation with
Manuel Diaz
A few rays of sunshine finally appear in the Parisian sky. We're in the bustling Montorgueil district, and Manuel welcomes us into the offices of Emakina, the company he founded in 1997 and which has quickly become 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 a special and difficult year for everyone. What are your thoughts on it, both professionally and personally?
The year was unusual in that it put a strain on all of us. I believe it tested the modernity of businesses, that is, the ability to continue working despite geographical distances, and for me it was the true year of digital transformation. We'd had tools for working remotely for years, but we hadn't really used them. We had to implement them, take ownership of them, and learn to work with today's tools.
Today, would you advise an 18-year-old to start a business, despite the current context?
I think that when you start an entrepreneurship, it has nothing to do with the context. It's that you're driven by a force that's so powerful that you can't help but pursue your vision, your project, your energy...
So yes, the context is important, but if we aim for excellence and are driven by the power of our project, there is no very good or very bad moment, we just have to create the momentum to get there.
What does it mean to be a good entrepreneur today?
For me, being a good entrepreneur means recognizing that you're going to need to bring together strengths and diversity around a project, a vision, and that you're not going to be strong enough to do it alone. You're going to do it as a group, and it's going to be much more fun, more enjoyable, and much bigger when you do it with others. So I think you have to distinguish between the desire for freedom and the desire for entrepreneurship, which are two different things.
So for you, being an entrepreneur necessarily means having a partner and therefore a team? Can't you start out alone?
Yes, of course, you can start out alone. But you can also be an entrepreneur with an ecosystem; you can be an entrepreneur by working with freelancers, subcontractors, partners, etc. But being an entrepreneur means having this driving force that brings others along with you, regardless of the nature of your contractual relationship with them. Your project is strong enough to unite people around you and make them want to serve it as well as you do; that's what being an entrepreneur is all about.
« Being an entrepreneur is having that driving force that takes others with you. »
Which By Charlot plant best represents the entrepreneur of tomorrow? And which one most resembles you?
I'd like to say L'Élégante because entrepreneurs can be a bit of a bulldozer and sometimes lack elegance. And what most resembles me is perhaps not a plant but rather a candle, in the By Charlot range, which would be Le Raffiné. I like refined things, subtlety.
You say you're shy, yet you give a lot of interviews, speak at conferences, and appear on TV shows. How did you manage this?
I'm still shy, but I'm a shy person who's getting better! I'm especially trying to work hard to form my own beliefs and share them, or to confront these beliefs with opposing points of view, because that's how we progress. And I realize that reasoning alone doesn't bring much, so ultimately interacting with others and the rest of the world is what makes me progress the most.
To control or tame your fear, do you use techniques like yoga or meditation, which are very fashionable at the moment?
So, I'm really bad at anything to do with yoga or meditation. I know it's a very West Coast approach. All my friends who are in Silicon Valley do that, I'm not very receptive to it, but I do a lot of sports. I try to reconnect with very concrete things like pain, aches, etc. Don't forget that we are not just spirits, but that we are also connected to a corporeality. All of this makes you very humble to reconnect with material things, with your difficulties and your goals. It also teaches patience, so there you go, I do fitness or crossfit because I like to be rigorous with my body.
In your opinion, "nothing stops innovation, it swallows everything, transforms everything and everyone." That can be scary, right?
It's not me, but it's true that innovation devours everything in its path. Human nature tends to take the path of greatest slope, which is simply called ease. Today, it's very complicated to explain to a teenager that he's going to have to wait for a specific time and a specific day to see the next part of his series. He was raised roughly in the delinearization of media, in Netflix, etc. And well, we're not going to be able to undo that, because now it's installed. And in innovation, it's exactly the same thing.
Do you find this worrying?
I don't find it worrying at all. What can be worrying is the behaviors it induces. 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 choose what you're going to do with it. So the more innovation there is, the more it requires us to express even more morality, humanity, and education towards younger people. But it's not by slowing down innovation that we're going to protect ourselves from risks; no, it's by being better humans, more enlightened and more intelligent, that we can take advantage of opportunities and limit risks.
Is it important for you to feel good in your office? Did you take care of the decor?
Yes, for me it's very important, whether at my office, at home or in the places I frequent. I believe that, like plants, we are very receptive to our environment, and this induces a behavior that can vary depending on the context in which we live. So I am extremely attentive to it, I take care of the design and decoration of all these places, this office but also other places that I frequent and that are important to me. I even have some obsessions there, I must confess... Like the fact that things are well organized, or being surrounded by books that have been important to me so that I can take a look at them to remind myself of 2-3 things from time to time. I need these points of reference in my environment.
« I believe that, like plants, we are very receptive to our environment, and this leads to behavior that can vary depending on the context in which we live. »
I just saw that you read a lot, won't a totally digitalized world sign the death warrant of beautiful books, of paper?
Definitely not! I think the book industry is doing very well, and art books in particular. There's a bookstore I love in Paris called Librairie Gallieni, and it's an extraordinary place. I think we no longer read certain books in the same way, like novels, for example, which can be read in many different ways, on a tablet, a Kindle, or on paper. But on the other hand, for art books, paper is irreplaceable. The feel of the book, the relationship to the paper, the quality of the edition that gives a particular aspect to the photographic work, for example... It's fascinating.
If we look at your library, do you have any books to recommend?
Plenty! Across many different sectors... If you want to talk about entrepreneurship, I would mention The Art of Getting Started by Guy Kawasaki or Start with Why by Simon Sinek. If you're talking about photography, I would talk to you about any of Karl Lagerfeld's photography books. If you're talking about design or vision, I would recommend Doug Menuez's book on Steve Jobs. In short, there are plenty of things to read, it's fascinating.
« It makes you very humble to reconnect with material things, your struggles and your goals. »
Are you spending more time at home or in the office? In digital detox mode or full screen mode?
So it's very simple, even a little pathetic: if you take 100% of my time on Earth, I spend 90% of that time at my desk or at home. So you understand the importance of those two places. That only leaves 10% of time elsewhere... Often in nature during trips to places I love like Japan or others. So yes, I spend a lot of time at the office or at home, and I like to have technology around me when it's useful. It allows me to save time or access things that would be harder to reach without it. I like sleek technology, so I'm going to be surrounded by screens, but they're not going to be systematically in the middle of the room, ultra-visible, or always on. At home I have 10 HomePods mini, they are very small, you don't see them much since they are hidden, but I love being able to tell my HomePod "Hey, play me this podcast, or put me this song...", that's useful and elegant.
But do you ever feel the need to completely disconnect from everything digital on vacation?
Disconnecting completely happens to me from time to time, but I still get a bit anxious after a while... Not with the aim of communicating with the rest of the world, but because I use technology for so many things. My AppleWatch, for example, will tell me my sports performance, and it helps me train better and go further. So I have a hard time separating myself from all the technology, but I don't have any trouble putting myself in Do Not Disturb mode at certain times.
Do you have any passions or interests that are unrelated to the world of entrepreneurship and new technologies?
Plenty. I love crafts in general, so I spend a lot of time visiting friends who are bakers or tailors. In fact, I find them fascinating because they make something with their ten fingers, whereas we don't do much with new technologies, apart from a keyboard and a mouse, and we're a bit handicapped in real life!
Do they teach you their trades?
They try, but they mostly laugh!! I have baker friends who are "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" (Best Craftsman in France), so we're at a level that's an art. Or other friends who make clothes designed for us, which will be pretty and well cut. It's still a wonderful profession...
