Benjamin Lauzier: belief

Transcript context

…Interesting. So, the cultural differences you spoke of, do you think they're rooted in the fact that people don't move jobs often, or is it culture? People just don't learn to work in the way that people learn to work in the U.S. in the product role? What do you think is the root of why things are so different? I'm not quite sure, it's a good question. My take, and I think this is I'm sure very naive and reductive, and I know this is one of my core principles, so I'm sure I also have a tunnel vision on this a little bit. But to me, one of the biggest difference that I see is really around this concept of ownership and accountability. Whereas in the U.S., and again, I saw it, I'm sure you saw it at Airbnb, you see it at a lot of companies, not everywhere, but a lot of companies will hire you, give you a big chunk of the business, and it's up to you to prove yourself out. Where you have six months, you have a year, it's up to you to show impact. I think the French employment model is less conducive to this type of dynamic, because employment is much more rigid. So, you have much less of this hire now and prove yourself out, it's much more of prove yourself beforehand. And if you've made a bad hire than as a founder, you become perhaps a little bit cagey about your vision. You want to be more hands-on because you made a bad hire. It's not like someone perfect, then he'll make you work but it means you'll be more hands-on in the work of PMs daily, and perhaps we'll think like, "Oh, maybe I don't need product managers who want on my vision, I'll hire project managers," or something like that. So, it's perhaps slightly more conducive to those types of dynamics. And you're saying that's in part because it's harder to fire people in France and in Europe?…

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