Sitting with an Alumnus Interview with

Laurent Manca, AEHL 1997

Please introduce yourself.

LM: My name is Laurent Manca, a former EHL student from the class of 1997. Since then, I’ve been blessed with three children and am happily married, now splitting my time between France and Switzerland.

Throughout my career, I have worked for various multinational corporations, and have also established several successful companies in diverse fields and industries.

What was your first job after EHL?

LM: Upon graduating from EHL, my first job was as a cost controller for Sandoz Hotels (Holding Beau Rivage Palace) in 1997. Following that, I worked as the manager of the McDonald's restaurant in Crissier, Switzerland in 1999.

While my first job was in finance, I realized that my true passion is in creating value and excelling in growth. This is to say, I consider myself an architect who builds and creates, not a consolidator or controller.

Connect with Laurent manca on linkedin

I then had a successful career at N espresso where I reorganized the N espresso Switzerland Club, developing its CRM and ERP solutions. Thanks to EHL I was able to push an ultra consumer centric approach and strategies, holding several positions focused on B2B initiatives and expansion at a global level. We successfully and collectively did an opening of 10 bouti q ues and 8 countries. It was during this time that I was poached by Philip Morris to develop a new ecosystem, which is now known today as I QO S.

In 201 6, I left Philip Morris and co founded a company with my current wife, focused on a SaaS linked to blockchain technology. We developed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for sports administrations, supported by vertical marketplaces and private social media, from the federation to the players. Unfortunately, the COV ID 19 pandemic severely impacted our business as we relied on license fees, and the sports industry was, at the time, heavily impacted by the pandemic .

During this period, I co founded several vape companies in the USA under the holding company called Sky X , which continue to operate successfully. Since 2021, I have been working as a non executive advisor, focusing on helping companies growth via transformation, digitalisation, and innovation.

You went from luxury hotels to fast food, then to consumer products, tobacco, ICT and finally to spatial biology. How did one lead to the other?

LM : M y career p ath was not a p lanned p ro g ression. I was p oached for each o pp ortunity, and I never had to create a CV until 2020.

In addition, it’s worth mentioning that I also had a mandate for a well-known start-up named Lunphore, where I worked as Business Development Director with the main mission to move the company from an R&D company into a scale-up company. Spatial Biology is a very niche complex space and in one year I reached my limits (Peter principle) and you have to know when to “drop the mic”.

How did you decide to transition from one industry to another? Could you discuss the factors that motivated you to take on different jobs and projects?

LM: The idea of innovating and bringing in something disruptive in the constructive sense has always piqued my interest. I’ve always been naturally curious and, each time I entered a new company, I was intrigued by the challenge of taking over positions where everyone told me it was impossible to succeed. And proving them wrong has been the driving force behind my career. Peerspoint showed potential but, unfortunately, the COVID pandemic hindered our progress right at the beginning when the seed was beginning to sprout. It was very difficult because it was my first experience of failure, even though external factors played a big part. But I believe in acknowledging failures and learning from them. It’s not about giving up, rather, about restarting and entering a new phase with a stronger spirit of determination.

On the subject of innovation, during my time working with IQOS, we conducted extensive consumer research worldwide. Our team of researchers traveled extensively, and I always emphasize on the importance of looking beyond the immediate needs of consumers. Through interviews and conversations, we identified fresh emerging needs or trends that customers might not yet be aware of but were still important.

Creating a real need is the key to the success of a product/ecosystem. The goal is to make future users and consumers aware of a need that they were not aware of before. Fulfilling an existing need is a recipe for failure because it means you haven't created anything new, no one will pay a premium, and you'll quickly be replaced because you have not delivered a winning product/ecosystem, you are not the dominant design. Without momentum, you'll rapidly disappear.

Overall, across my career I would like to thank all colleagues and superiors that teached me so much, alone you cannot succeed.

How did your serial entrepreneur background shape your desire to create and innovate in each of your endeavors? What motivates and incites you to constantly push for new projects and ideas?

LM: I cannot stand routine. I like to tell myself every day that we are going to do something different. So I try to get out of the routine as much as possible. I see this as a strength because it allows me to innovate and create 24/7 at home, at work, even when doing an activity, a sport, I need/must try something new. I need a shrink, as an example, I can’t take the same road twice to go to a restaurant, I always want to discover new roads, insights, surprises

My nickname at Philip Morris was "Maverick," like in Top Gun, because they would bring me in to try new things. The truth is, people like me aren't suited for routine jobs because it would kill our creativity. A reality that I can share with all is that if you are an innovator, you MUST be ready to get fired or replaced, because the company is here to make money and deliver growth, there is no sentiment in business. Therefore, you must always think about what is the next project, product, because as soon as the risk is reduced and your project/product/ecosystem is commercialized, a company will need another type of leader to consolidate and move from learning to standardization (SOPs, governance, etc..). Two things that all innovators must have always in the back of their head are: the pareto law principle and the innovation adoption curve. Always know where you are on the curve and how much value can deliver your innovation.

Let's discuss IQOS, which is considered a flagship product of Philippe Morris. Can you tell me about how the idea for IQOS came about?

LM: Throughout my career, I was always recruited by management team members who understood the need for change from outside. Nespresso, Philip Morris are both companies that understood that organic growth will only come by disrupting their mature industry by introducing products that are reducing complexity or arm in society.

When I joined PMI, I had no idea that I would be responsible for inventing heat nor burn (HnB) and as a consequence the IQOS ecosystem –. Thanks to the funding and talents provided by PMI, we were able to completely invent from a white page a full ecosystem, incorporating new technologies and filing numerous patents related to reducing the harmful effects of tobacco when compared with combustible cigarette. I am today owner of 40+ USPTO patents.

With this, PMI generated $ 10+ billion in revenue by 2022 alone (source: PMI annual report 2022). But this wasn’t a one-person job; we were an incredible team of 400+ people working on this project, and a hefty investment of $ 1+ billion over 9 years. Of course, I was fortunate to work in a company that embraced my intrapreneurial spirit.

In 2016, as my role at Philip Morris became less hands-on, I realized that I didn't want to just sit back and collect a paycheck. Despite being offered a comfortable position, I decided to start my own company instead. That's when I co-founded Peerspoint with my wife.

Can you provide 2-3 tips for people who are interested in launching their own project or getting into entrepreneurship, especially for those who may find it difficult to navigate through all the information available?

LM: Being an entrepreneur requires you to learn how to be alone, truly alone, which is arguably the most difficult aspect.

Entrepreneurship is 99% failures and disappointments for 1 smile. Hence, learning to cope with setbacks is the hardest part of entrepreneurship.

Plus, dealing with rejections leaves you with the belief that your idea will never work. You need to learn how to handle the disappointments that come along the way. According to former start-up managers and CIOs in Switzerland, entrepreneurship is 99% failures and disappointments for 1 smile. Hence, learning to cope with setbacks is the hardest part of entrepreneurship. Switzerland is a very tough nation to get financed except in the hospitality and disciplines that are main stream at the EPFL and EPFZ.

Also, from experience, fundraising is not the main concern when it comes to entrepreneurship. The hardest part is accepting that you may lose a lot of money (a lot!), weeks/months/years of stress and anxiety, and the realization that most of the sacrifices you make are invisible to others.

The reports and interviews with successful entrepreneurs usually portray them as happy and content, but the reality is rather different. Many sacrifices are made, and the road to success is often paved with failures. Sacrifices often include giving up time with family, financial stability, and even mortgaging one's house to obtain loans to keep the business running. The ICT industry, in particular, requires substantial resources and a great deal of patience.

So, aspiring entrepreneurs should be aware that the path to success is not an easy one, and they should be prepared to make significant sacrifices to achieve their goals. This is definitely not what you see across medias and social medias.

To illustrate, it took me a year to raise 100,000 CHF in Switzerland, despite having a large network and attending many VC meetings across Europe. In contrast, I was able to raise $ 1,000,000 in one week in San Francisco with no connections, my backpack only. This experience further showed me that Europe is far behind in terms of fundraising in D2C ICT and that, if you want to launch an app/ web-based/SaaS company, you should consider going to the United States. Note: even after the SVB bankruptcy, New York, Boston and San Francisco are places where you must continue to go.

Lastly, it’s key to avoid the "my baby" syndrome. As an entrepreneur, one must keep in mind that sooner or later the business will be sold. From experience, once the company enters the late maturity phase, it's best to move on to avoid destroying its value and hampering growth. To let a new CEO (a.k.a., innovation adoption curve) take over because at the end he/she will accelerate where you will have failed because you are to close from the original concept that needs now to pivot/adjust/change. There is a say in tech startup owners “It is better to remain with 5% of a company valued at 100M USD then owning 80% of a company valued at 100K USD”. When I used to lecture at Geneva University the Nespresso Business Model & Success Story, we must always keep in mind the smartness of Nestlé CEO to appoint the right Nespresso CEO of the right company phase (innovation adoption curve), if students or company want to know more about it, they can contact me at anytime.

What are you currently doing?

LM: I’m seeking board or executive roles to assist companies with growth, turnaround or digitalisation. On the side note and with a super high caliber tech friend, we have about 6 to 7 webapps to be launched. I would love to lead startups that are moving to a scale-up phase, also VC, banking funds for startups and/ or or hospitality that I still love so much. To some extend, making turnaround of hotels or scouting opportunities and DD for hotels chains or family office can be a superb venture.

I have moved aways from long term complex ICT projects, it takes too much time, it is too slow and you are almost obsolete when you launch. I mean overall, if you think about the tech we used to know is reaching its maturity phase. I am now accelerating stacking to deliver products desired by end users at a fast pace. An ICT product should not take more than 90 days to be at a POC level and we will now monetize as soon as we reach MVP. I have learned from our past mistakes and will aim for a much simpler approach, less people, less money, more revenue, more funding to accelerate and not only to create.

Also, I’m a principal consultant in the areas of innovation and value creation, both upstream and downstream, as well as growth, expansion and company turnaround (innovation/digitalisation is often the only real driver to go back to revenue and growth). Since February, I’ve been serving as a senior company transition manager for multiple European leaders at X-PM and Valtus.

Finally, I’m also a sports agent which is a hobby of mine that I have been able to monetize from time to time.

It’s safe to say that retiring is something that I have never wanted to do. While everyone is free to choose their own path, I’m determined to do everything possible to avoid retiring, ever!

Of course, it’s important to note that, right now, I’m prioritizing the preservation of my time, mind, and family. Therefore, I’m being extra selective with my commitments and will continue to work only for mandates that are filling this complex matrix. I am quiet interested to continue to reduce arm and have a focus now towards :green H2, water use reduction, waste management..

What advice would you give to alumni on starting a new business or concept?

LM: While we tend to help each other when we cross paths, we could do more to support each other s careers. I believe this type of support is lacking in our network, with the exception of those who were close during our time at the hotel school. I m specifically referring to a more robust network at the level of American Ivy League universities, such as Harvard.

The level of support and collaboration amongst Harvard alumni is truly remarkable. In just two workshops, they were able to secure access to a client base with impressive speed and e ffi ciency. Personally, I was shocked by their e ffectiveness.

In contrast to European culture, the Harvard alumni network operates differently by allowing its members to connect and interact without interference. The network is accessed through a closed platform where alumni enter their alma mater and engage with each other on various topics, but always business first.

Although the network has moderators to ensure appropriate language and behavior, Harvard refrains from intervening in the interactions between its alumni. This approach is made possible due to the significant amounts of money and privacy involved. They also have landmark locations to meet that are simply amazing. The one in Manhattan is simply stunning. EHL could do such Alumni Private Club at the Campus. A closed club to make business between us and why not even do interview with students to hire them straight before even they get their diploma, and or pitch their ideas, projects, concepts, company. It must feel heavy and woody, it must deliver respect and the weight of the history of the institution, it must give us pride and that is why we love to be alumni of EHL.

Also, this is our family momentum and I teach them and repeat them to my kids non stop: “Non deficere” translate as “Never give up”.