"What if France finally entrusted its ministries to those who truly know how to manage a team, a risk, a balance sheet? I propose names in Success is Possible"
She arrives with classic elegance, precise, without ostentation. A sober silhouette, a confident demeanor, a way of entering a room that evokes those controlled presences we thought were reserved for Hitchcock films. Nothing theatrical: rather a style, a care, an attention to both attire and speech.
Portrait of a Singular Voice
On the occasion of the release of her new book, Success is Possible, we meet Sophie de Menthon for Ecostylia Magazine again. The book extends a commitment she has long claimed: to highlight real entrepreneurs, their trajectories, their doubts, what concretely involves building a project. Where others stick to general speeches, she chooses portraits, episodes, daily experiences to illustrate what she considers the vitality of the entrepreneurial spirit.
Throughout our meetings during interviews, on the sidelines of economic events, in those places where decision-makers and public actors cross paths, an impression emerges: behind the sometimes simplified media figure, there is an attentive interlocutor, quick-witted, always precise in her approach to a subject. Her straightforwardness is not calculated provocation, but a desire to clearly articulate what she thinks, even if it sparks debate.
Her trajectory sheds light on this stance: Sophie de Menthon, a young entrepreneur who later became president of ETHIC. Before presiding over ETHIC, the employers’ movement she embodies today, she founded, managed, and sold her own telemarketing company. She is also the originator of the I Love My Company day, which has become a lasting part of the French professional landscape. These initiatives are not mere titles: they reflect a constant conviction that a company is also a place of human relationships, learning, and sometimes emancipation.
When she addresses issues related to women, men, and social relations, she distances herself from global categories. She does not align with dominant patterns, nor does she seek to impose a single interpretation. Her discourse, whether one agrees with it or not, is rooted in a logic of individual responsibility: encouraging everyone to act rather than define themselves by supposed determinisms.
Her freedom of dialogue, especially with political leaders of very diverse orientations, regularly provokes comments and criticism. She embraces this method: for her, meeting those who draft laws does not imply ideological proximity or endorsement. It is a choice of pedagogy and consistency, which she claims as a way to contribute to democratic debate without excluding any interlocutor a priori.
Behind this firmness, Sophie de Menthon also evokes her private life: her family, her son, Sophie de Menthon and her husband, her children and grandchildren, her dogs, or the pleasure she finds in sports and chocolate, which she knows with a gourmet’s precision. The intimate then takes on a softer, almost modest tone, hinting at what, far from the spotlight, structures her balance.
The often-described "aristocratic" demeanor attributed to her is not fixed. It is more about personal rigor than a taste for staging: rigor in argumentation, in conducting debates, in rejecting convenient consensus. This rigor coexists with a sense of the concrete, nurtured by decades spent in contact with entrepreneurs.
The following text does not seek to soften or amplify the contrasts that make up her personality. It offers a faithful reading: a way to reveal a structured, sometimes unsettling, often stimulating, always assumed thought. Whether one adheres to her positions or not, one thing is clear: her consistency in defending a direct voice in a public space where it is becoming increasingly rare.
Interview with Sophie de Menthon at the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée (end of 2025)
Pierre-Antoine Tsady: Your new book is titled Success is Possible. In France, where the word "success" is sometimes suspect, what did you want to assert with this title?
Sophie de Menthon: I wanted to highlight what a true entrepreneur is. They are always asked about their turnover or cash flow; I wanted them to talk about themselves, their energy, their doubts, what drives them to start over when everything goes wrong. Success is possible, no matter what happens: despite politics, despite the lack of money, despite bureaucracy. It’s primarily a mindset.
What is striking is that this title has become provocative. Saying today in France that success is possible is almost an act of resistance, at a time when entrepreneurs feel under pressure and can no longer stand being led by people who don’t know what a business is. I would like to be able to write a volume 2: it would mean that we haven’t given up on entrepreneurship.
P.-A.T.: This book also extends your show Patrons en questions. What has struck you the most about the two hundred business leaders you have met?
S. de M.: It’s an adventure book, almost a serial. I chose about forty paths among profiles that have nothing to do with each other: the self-taught person who sells Mousline mashed potatoes worldwide, the young woman from Pôle emploi who invents a recruitment platform, a major optician, a farmer…
I didn’t want "the company and the money," but the entrepreneur in flesh and blood. What connects them is that "no" is never an answer. When the door closes, they go through the window. And you, reader, if a story bores you, you turn three pages: the next one might make you want to start your own business.
P.-A.T.: Among your recent encounters, you often mention Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange. What does she embody for you in terms of female leadership?
S. de M.: When you take the helm of Orange, when you are entrusted with the strategy of a key group in the era of artificial intelligence, it’s hard to say you’re not an entrepreneur.
I asked her: "Do you think, like me, that being a woman is a real advantage?" She answered yes. We hear a lot about the glass ceiling, about women who don’t dare… It’s true that some don’t dare, but it’s not a fatality. In my entire professional life, I have experienced being a woman as an asset: I can say certain things because I am a woman.
An example: I challenged Alexis Kohler [former Secretary General of the Élysée, Ed.] by saying with a big smile: "How did you manage to put France in this state?" He smiled. A man, I’m not sure he could have allowed himself that…
P.-A.T.: You are very critical of a certain form of feminism. How do you reconcile defending women and refusing to consider them as victims?
S. de M.: I don’t believe in systems: neither patriarchy nor matriarchy. I believe in free, unique women who refuse to be assigned a victim role. What I observe is that some feminist networks, with good intentions, have created a form of new "matriarchy": they have put women on one side, men on the other, as if men became the enemy. And for a woman, having "men" as a category of enemies is the worst thing.
Helping women succeed is not about confining them to the narrative of permanent trauma. Yes, there are violences, discriminations, and they must be fought. But we must also tell women: you have a share of responsibility, you can dare, surround yourself, work on your confidence. I deeply believe that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, with differences that we should assume serenely instead of denying them [reference to non-binarity, Ed.].
P.-A.T.: You signed the manifesto on the "freedom to bother" alongside Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Millet, and Brigitte Lahaie among others. In hindsight, how do you view this debate on seduction and harassment?
S. de M.: It was Brigitte Lahaie [radio host and former porn actress, Ed.] who called me: "I’m sure you’re going to sign." She was right. The text was very beautiful, nuanced; it said something other than "long live harassment."
But we have changed eras. When I was young, a whistle in the street could be awkward, sometimes charming, sometimes heavy, but we didn’t yet talk about harassment as we do today. My daughters, they experience certain remarks as something frankly disgusting, with contempt and vulgarity.
I remain attached to a culture of gallantry, where a man could stop you in the street to very politely ask "how to have the opportunity to speak to you." But I also understand that we put clearer words on what constitutes aggression. The challenge is not to confuse everything: neither puritanism nor laxity.
P.-A.T.: You spent three years of your childhood in New York. What did that America change in you?
S. de M.: I was seven, eight, nine years old, and it marked me for life. I was already earning my living: I walked dogs. I would have lunch alone at the local McDonald’s, I discovered television which didn’t yet exist in France. This very concrete freedom, this natural relationship to work and autonomy shaped me.
When I returned to France at ten, I felt like the door to paradise was closing: whole days sitting in class, little sport, a country I found narrow… after musicals, Broadway, American effervescence. I kept from those years a very simple idea: no one owes you your life. You build it. That’s probably where my liberalism was born.
P.-A.T.: You had your first child at 20 and started your business at the same time. How does one become a business leader at that age?
S. de M.: I quickly completed an English degree because I was expecting a baby. And while I was having babies, I started my telemarketing company. It was very simple: I needed to work, I loved the phone, I made it my profession.
There was no "start-up nation," no pitching to funds. There was an address book, clients to convince, invoices to send. Only then came the employers’ organizations, then ETHIC [employers’ movement of human-sized companies, Ed.], which I preside over today. I never separated my life as a mother and my life as an entrepreneur: they were built together, sometimes in chaos, but always with the same idea: to be free of my destiny.
P.-A.T.: You say that "it’s on the side of the company that things happen." What has changed in the French relationship to work?
S. de M.: We surveyed the French: 80% say they love their company, their colleagues, and even their boss. And 80% think that "anyone" would do better than a politician… We are far from the image of the grim factory. When I launched I Love My Company, it was almost provocative to love your company. Today, we can see that this is where people think they can enrich themselves, progress, learn.
Of course, not everything is rosy. But the center of gravity has shifted: the company has become a place of human adventures again, not just a paycheck. That’s why I fight: so that we stop opposing the company to society, as if one was plundering the other. The company is men and women trying to do something together.
P.-A.T.: What worries you the most today about how companies are managed in France?
S. de M.: I don’t believe in a single right way to lead. A company resembles its leader, its character. What has really changed, however, is the relationship between the entrepreneur and their employees. Before, the boss was the leader; sometimes excessive, but the authority relationship was clear.
Today, if you dare to say "what you did yesterday wasn’t good," you’re told the person can go on sick leave. People immediately demand telework days, adjustments, assuming that "the employee is always right." We’ve put them in this position from school.
I am not advocating for a return to paternalism. But I notice that many leaders are almost afraid of their teams. Yet without demands, without confrontation, there is no possible progress: neither for the company nor for the employees themselves.
P.-A.T.: You are sometimes described as "controversial" because you engage in dialogue with all parties, including the National Rally [Rassemblement national or RN in French, TN]. Where do you stand?
S. de M.: I meet with everyone: from communists to liberals, from the radical left to the RN. My obsession is to explain what a company is to those who write the laws. Some, in the RN, listen more to what we have to say about the economy than other parties that think they already know everything. On the left, there is a refusal to view the company as anything other than through the lens of social struggle.
That said, I state clearly: I will never vote for the National Rally. Their economic program is, in my eyes, statist, even communist! I do not share this vision. But I will not boycott any elected official: if tomorrow LFI [La France Insoumise, a French left-wing party, often described as far-left, TN] comes to power, I will also go to explain the reality of entrepreneurs to them. This is my consistency: to speak to everyone, not to deny myself for anyone.
P.-A.T.: Following the last dissolution, your name circulated online as a possible Minister of Economy. What is the reality?
S. de M.: Despite the rumors that may have circulated, the only person who ever offered me a position in the government was Alain Madelin [former Minister of Economy and a figure of French liberalism, Ed.], if he had been elected President of the Republic; but I would have declined. I prefer to remain free, an "influencer" in the noble sense of the term, rather than being confined in a ministerial office.
However, I had fun imagining a "government of entrepreneurs," drawing from the personalities in my book Success is Possible:
For the Economy, I would see Christel Heydemann [CEO of Orange, Ed.]. For Culture, Jacques Garcia [architect, decorator, and scenographer, Ed.]. For Transport, the head of G7, Nicolas Rousselet [leader of the Rousselet Group and G7, Ed.]. For Urban Affairs, Thomas Derichebourg [leader of the Derichebourg group, Ed.], and for Housing, Charles-Marie Jottras [president of Daniel Féau, Ed.]. For Employment, I would appoint Jenny Gaultier Vallet [co-founder of the Mercato de l’Emploi, Ed.]. For Agriculture, the farmer-communicator Bruno Cardot [breeder and content creator on the agricultural world, Ed.]. For Health, I hesitate between Tracy Cohen Sayag [CEO of the Clinique des Champs-Élysées, Ed.] and Philippe Veran [founder of 53 companies, including Biotech Dental, Ed.]. I would see Gonzague de Blignières [co-founder of the investment fund RAISE, Ed.] as Secretary of State for Economic Development, Rodolphe Hasselvander [founder of Blue Frog Robotics, Ed.] for New Technologies, and, for Sports, Michel Corbière [president of the Forest Hill clubs, Ed.]. Finally, for Heritage, I would entrust a portfolio to Hervé Lecesne [serial entrepreneur committed to the preservation of sites like Grignon, Ed.].
This is obviously not a government program, but a way to show that we should entrust more public responsibilities to people who know what it means to manage a team, a risk, a balance sheet.
P.-A.T.: In this rising generation, you speak highly of Sarah Knafo [Reconquête! MEP and partner of Éric Zemmour, Ed.]. What do you see in her?
S. de M.: I find that she has a lot of qualities: she is hardworking, very competent, cultured, intellectually honest, and courageous. She knows what she wants and she goes after it. One can disagree with her ideas – that’s normal in a democracy – but one must acknowledge the seriousness of her work.
What I like about her is this way of taking politics as a demanding profession, not as a constant performance. More broadly, I watch with interest this generation of highly trained young women who are entering public life with a real backbone. I hope they will be numerous, at all levels of the political spectrum, not just on one side.
P.-A.T.: Let’s talk about the woman behind the media figure. Internet users want to know: who is Sophie de Menthon in private?
S. de M.: I am happy to answer a few questions, but I have no desire to expose my life like a reality show. I have two children, Guillaume and Alexia, and six grandchildren of whom I am very proud. My husband’s name is Nicolas Crespelle. And I maintain very good relationships with the men I have loved: life is simpler that way.
My passion is dogs – at the moment I share my daughter’s dog – and sports: I play tennis every Saturday, I get around by bike, I ski whenever I can. I am very fashion-conscious, I pay attention to what I eat since at twelve I weighed seven kilos more than I do today!
And then there is chocolate: I am a founding member of the Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat and I wrote their gastronomic guide. We tasted every week, you can imagine the liver crises… but not a kilo more: after chocolate, we have a light dinner!
