At 51, still prefers to stay behind the scenes and let his brother handle the press. But this time, it’s Dominique who sat down with Paperjam to tell us about his career.
Steel Shed Solutions is among Luxembourg’s most successful scale-ups. Shortly after 2000, Dominique decided to join his father, who was already active in the sector, in the metal frameworks trade. The entrepreneur decided to shed all intermediaries and become a direct distributor. The result? Batimentsmoinschers.com, Easysteelsheds.com, Guenstigehallen.de, Tolesmoinscheres.com--the group has prospered.
But the story wasn’t always going to unfold like that…
Paperjam: What was your first job or contact with the world of work?
Dominique Lyonnet: It was a summer job as a labourer in my father’s company, in the Grand Est, during the summer holidays. A very good memory. I was a lot younger then, and it was my first taste of so-called real life. There was the pleasure of making something with your hands, as well as the pleasure of learning about things other than what was being taught at university. I’ve always enjoyed visiting factories, workshops and suppliers. I like being hands-on.
What led you to take the plunge?
I have a degree in economics from the University of Strasbourg. I really enjoyed what I did. I thought that the logical next step for me would be a bank, a financial institution. That’s why I came to Luxembourg. But I very quickly realised that I didn’t like it and that it wouldn’t suit me.
What was wrong?
It was too abstract. Finance, figures… I thought those things would nourish me, but it wasn’t the case. When it came to the practical side of things after my studies, it just wasn’t what I had pictured.
So what triggered your slide into entrepreneurship?
It was an external trigger. In this case, 11 September 2001. The attack triggered a mini-financial crisis and the bursting of the internet bubble. My employer at the time--a bank in the financial centre--offered employees the chance to put their careers on hold, while remaining on the payroll and receiving a certain percentage of their basic salary, with the possibility of taking up another job, provided it wasn’t in the same sector. Once I’d received my small allowance, with the help of my father, I opened a metal construction outsourcing business in Eastern Europe. I developed a circuit of customers, and my father helped me with his own network. That was the starting point. It’s cynical to talk like that but it’s true: 11 September accelerated things for me.
Could you talk more about your father’s influence?
My father didn’t have the chance to go to secondary school. He started working in metal at the end of the 1970s. It’s a field he knew because he had been a lathe-mill operator, but it turned out that he was a better salesman than an employee or worker. He quickly saw the different sides: “I produce parts; or I employ people to produce them; or I buy them and sell them.” And that was that. As soon as the Berlin Wall came down, he visited Eastern Europe. In 1989-1990, he was already in Czechoslovakia, in the former GDR, in Poland, to see if there were any opportunities to be seized. There were.
The first time I went off to the former Eastern Bloc countries to look for subcontractors for manufacturing customers I had in France and Belgium, I felt an incomparable sense of freedom.
How did it feel, going from Luxembourg’s financial centre to the metal trade in former communist frontiers?
It was a leap in the dark. But because of my father’s help, I jumped with a parachute. It was a bit less scary that way. The first time I went off to the former Eastern Bloc countries to look for subcontractors for manufacturing customers I had in France and Belgium, I felt an incomparable sense of freedom. Being on the road, meeting people, visiting their facilities, I felt like I belonged. I still have this image of myself at the wheel of my car in the Moravia region, in the former Czechoslovakia, visiting a supplier and thinking deep down: “This is where I belong. I’m in the place I was meant to be!” I was 28 or 29 years old.
Do you count that as your first achievement?
Yes and no. Yes, because the feeling was strong. No, because I didn’t have all the keys, I didn’t have all the clients, it could all have gone wrong. Despite the fact that I was parachuting in, there was a certain amount of risk-taking--if not total risk-taking.
What’s your relationship to risk?
I’m not much of a gambler in life. On the other hand, when I sense things, I have an unshakeable conviction and confidence in the fact that something is going to happen. The outline of what would become Steel Shed Solutions as we know it today was not defined. It was more a case of tinkering. The real start came later, when my brother Vincent joined us.
And before that?
I was gathering experience, I was gathering things, I was meeting people, I was meeting suppliers, but I was missing a little something to get it off the ground. My father and I even had a funny experience… In 2007 or 2008 we won the exclusive right to distribute DVDs in cinemas in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I don’t know if you remember, but these were films that could be rented from vending machines for 24 hours. Should we diversify? Should we move into something else? At the end of the day, I realised that my preferred field was still steel, trade and metal construction, so we had to refocus. We abandoned these machines, which never caught on because the Czechs and Slovaks went straight from VHS to streaming without going through DVD. Then came the subprime crisis in 2008. Everything came to a halt for the companies that had entrusted me with productions to be made abroad, so everything came to a halt for me too. No more clients, no more suppliers. That’s when I came up with the idea of going direct to customers, without any intermediaries.
What happened next? Was this the arrival of your brother Vincent to the scene?
Yes. His arrival was a decisive turning point. My father, who had his own design office, took charge of this aspect, and it was he who started the standardisation process. My brother took charge of marketing and digital. Hence the name of the original site, batimentsmoinschers.com, given that at the time there was no referencing. We had to come up with a catchy name to be first in the Google algorithm. As for me, I took care of sourcing and product development once the groundwork had been done by my father.
Another mistake, perhaps, was not detecting earlier the actions of a bad employee who ended up leaving the company by stealing and taking documents with him.
A family business, then… any personal consequences? Can you talk of a “before” and “after” in terms of your relationships?
We’re still my father’s sons, so that doesn’t change. What changes is how you develop professionally, how a father sees his children develop, gain experience, challenge things in directions he wouldn’t have gone. The relationship with my brother has only been strengthened by this. Vincent used to work in advertising sales in the Paris region. We see each other every day and we’ve grown closer. We don’t agree all the time, but we’re driven by the same DNA. On certain subjects we may have positions that are opposed, but what always brings us back to a balance is the fact that as brothers we have the same reflexes, a common childhood, a common culture, a common ground.
What early-career mistake would you like to have avoided?
Several mistakes…!
The first: I spread myself too thinly in those DVD distribution machines, as I mentioned before. It’s a job in its own right, which proves that sometimes it’s better to stay in the job and the field you know, and forget about diversifying. If I diversify today, I’m going to do it around building, construction, metal, profiling and subcontracting.
Another mistake, perhaps, was not detecting earlier the actions of a bad employee who ended up leaving the company by stealing and taking documents with him before setting up a competing company in Luxembourg. This competition lasted several years before the bankruptcy of this person, who has since been convicted. It took a very long time. It was like a movie. At the time, I couldn’t bring myself to say that it was happening. We were writing a story together, I sincerely believe in the goodness of people, I couldn’t imagine something like that. I’ve matured a lot since then. I’ve realised that there’s no point in trying to hold on to people against their will, but that we can try to help build up the employees who come through our door. Today, we often get feedback from former employees who pop in to say: “It was good, I learnt a lot of things, it then enabled me to do this or that…”
What techniques have you developed for overcoming tough times and setbacks?
My temperament is not to give up when disaster strikes. If I’ve got nothing to reproach myself for and I’m convinced that I’ve done everything and tried everything, then what has to happen happens… I don’t have to complain. To come back to the previous situation, one of my priorities over the last few years has been to pass on my experience to young employees, to welcome them, help them grow, train them and give them a glimpse of what a company can do in terms of management and support. After that, if they want to continue elsewhere, they continue elsewhere. It’s not for nothing that we’ve changed our catchphrase to “let’s build your future.” This applies to customers and employees alike.
What are you most proud of in your career?
Family, my father, my brother… that we’ve come this far. But what I’ll be most proud of is yet to come.
Meaning?
Yes, it’s the mutation and transformation of society. The factors that have enabled us to get this far are not the same as those that will take us even further. What I can be proud of in the future is having been able to adapt my mindset to a new size of company, a new level. I don’t want to be the last old fart in the company. The one who says no to every project, every possible development. We’re in a major phase of structuring in terms of personnel and organisation to achieve ever more ambitious goals. It’s good to look in the rear-view mirror, but I don’t like to dwell too much. I have a tattoo on my arm that reminds me of this every day. It says “move forward.” [Lyonnet rolls up his shirt sleeves to reveal the ink on his skin.] Always move forward.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Know how to surround yourself with skills in areas where you don’t have them. Trust people. Accept that you don’t know everything, that you’re not an expert in everything.
And which criticism was the hardest to take?
At a time when the company was starting to grow in size and people were leaving us with knowhow under their arm--at one point I showed a certain mistrust, a certain rigidity. I was told about it. And I regret it. An episode like that… I didn’t want it to disrupt or pollute my relationships with the current employees who had nothing to do with these indelicate people.
If I could change anything, it would be to be a little more present for my two eldest when they were still small, in primary school.
Have you ever made decisions on the spur of the moment? Is it in your temperament?
Being impulsive is very much in my temperament, yes. Today, we’re surrounded by a lot of specialists in society. When I put forward an idea and it turns out that I’m wrong, I accept it readily and willingly. I don’t mind backtracking or adapting my decision.
What has your career taught you about yourself?
It taught me that I wasn’t who I thought I was. I thought I was someone who was rather shy, anxious or distressed, and a bit cold. In the end, I find myself enjoying human interaction with my colleagues in a friendly atmosphere. I also find myself resisting stress, with a certain resilience to pressure that I’d never imagined. I discovered this through experience. With age, I’ve learned to work on that.
What would you like to say to the Dominique Lyonnet of 20 or 25 years ago?
Don’t hesitate to ask for advice or support. And don’t hesitate to call in specialists when the need arises. Not so that these specialists can make the decision for you, but so that they can contribute to your thinking. We always think better with two or three brains alongside our own.
And what would the former economics student think of you now?
He’d be proud of what he’s achieved. He’d sign up with both hands if someone said to him: “You can manage to achieve all this…” Deep down, I think he knew that’s what he wanted.
Anything you’d want to have been different about your journey?
Every experience has its place. Good or bad, it has contributed to something else. I’m the father of three children. If I could change anything, it would be to be a little more present for my two eldest when they were still small, in primary school. I was there. But I could have been there more.
And finally, is there any moment you’d like to relive again and again?
Two field visits. The first was a trip to the Ivory Coast to meet customers with whom we’d previously only had contact by telephone, video or email. We have buildings there that they were using. The second moment was when I went to visit a major customer in French Guyana. He had designed a commercial activity zone with around ten buildings, a Midas car centre, a crossfit gym, a supermarket, a technical inspection centre, shops… a whole new life was created and it was us who provided the shell to accommodate all these activities. Until then, it was just plans, just paper. When you come to the site, it’s concrete.
This article in French.