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For the occasion, let's lift the veil behind the scenes of everything  beginnings of the adventure, between confidence and audacity.  Flashback.

September 24  2001 - September 24, 2021.  In the life of a company, there are dates that make history  : being 20 is - definitely - one of those  ! 20 years… and still the same passion for this amazing and demanding job as a consultant. And the intact desire to reinvent it constantly  ! It's that  that animates us (always) and inspires us (still). For once, on this special day, we want to celebrate our roots. 

September 2000 : Can an e-mail alone sound the death knell for a certain conception of the profession of consultant?  ? No, on the contrary, it can be the starting point  !

November 2000 : L'Atlas, a Moroccan restaurant on Boulevard Saint-Germain, the five co-founders of Kea & Partners, even if they don't know it yet, talk over a good dinner. The idea is launched: what if we were independent? And  if we gave ourselves the means to exercise our profession as we see fit? The meetings begin and the number of consultants ready to join the adventure increases day by day. See you at dawn, endless evenings, Amélie Poulain's soundtrack, code names (l'Ardennais, Freedom, Gadget, Prof, Crustacé, Cruella, Germain, Ovive, Dormeur...) and yes, Kea already at the time it is a whole folklore, with its traditions and rites!

September 2001 : In nine months, the project came to life and that's it, everything is ready to found a consulting firm not quite like the others. And everything is accelerating… unimaginably! On September 11, the twin towers collapsed in New York before our incredulous eyes and in October, the Enron affair broke out, bringing with it the fall of a large consulting and auditing firm. Two completely inconceivable events. The first shakes the global balance. The second discredits the consulting profession and will reshuffle the cards of players in the sector. Not to mention the bursting of the Internet bubble. Is it the right time to start a consulting firm?

Yet on September 24 precisely, Kea & Partners was born (we will not denounce the one who chose his personal birthday date for this memorable day). The shareholders' pact is the foundation, expressing the values in which everyone recognizes and commits (humanism and commitment, convictions, free will, excellence, rigor, openness, respect for time and also simplicity, conviviality).  It's all there already  ! As of October 1, around ten people have signed their employment contract. Employee P001 is the youngest of all,  fresh out of the woodwork and barely out of training, the P002  acts as temporary President to deposit the statutes, the P007 tricks  to assign himself this code (again, we will keep his name secret…).

The 50 who come on board for the next 3-4 months all do so at the same (low) salary - "le rabot". Despite this and the external context, the firm is bursting with joy and energy. The feeling of carrying out a singular consulting project and of belonging to a team is strong. We were able to rent premises, a feat when we had neither SIRET number nor balance sheet proving our reliability, in a context where many start-ups have already gone out of business. Of course, as good consultants, we had drawn up a map of everyone's homes to find the ideal place, the center of gravity that would suit everyone. Against all odds, we disembark at Malakoff! So here we are in our first premises: a large open space, 2 meeting rooms, carpet tiles to be glued to the floor, second-hand office furniture to reassemble ourselves and even Toshiba kits that we have to assemble. .. It's all taking shape fast, so fast  !

And the first contracts and missions begin. We have such a desire to reach for the moon that our interlocutors are conquered: if some know us, others meet us for the first time and  don't even be surprised that we don't have a business card yet  ! Even more incredible, we leave very quickly  on ambitious international projects, high stakes for our customers  : restructuring of a fine chemicals division, merger of two very recent acquisitions in the United Kingdom and creation of the subsidiary in five months... This is a test and 20 years later, the common adventure is still going on  ! We also have good fairies: "Beau  project  ! It makes you want to  work with you. Give me 15 days I find you a subject", "Your vision speaks to us,  we want to work with a firm over the long term".  

The pioneering spirit that inhabited us at that time allows us to win missions that are a priori impossible, by installing confidence, without a business card, without a brochure.  but by word of mouth, desire and audacity. Impossible is not Kea  ! And the 20 years that followed have definitely proven it!

For our 10 years, we projected ourselves, already imagining our 20 years. And  that's it, here we are. 10 years later, what remains of the 3 pillars drawn on a wall  ? All 3 are intact. Passion for the profession, style and audacity: a trademark that endures and makes us unique on the market.

  • The transformation of companies is (always) our driving force, the salt of our practice of the profession of consultant as demanding as it is exhilarating. Because even if everyone talks about it today, transformation is not change and few practice it as a strategic discipline, aiming to align business & culture, figures & People. Learn more

  • If our customers are won over to the change of method and the time ahead that we bring them, they also recognize us as a signature of our own, which is difficult to summarize as the personalities and talents are so diverse at Kea.  ! However, all of them have a common denominator  : Free-Spirited Excellence.  Learn more

  • 20 years old, the age of everything possible, especially with a little audacity and ambition. And that's good we have some to spare  ! The proof with DareWin, our 5-year growth plan, supported by a fundraising of 23 million, in order to become the first multi-specialist consulting group of French origin. Learn more

And tomorrow  ? The cap  is clear: "who dares win" !

We dedicate this story to all those who believed in the Kea project from the start, who supported us financially, commercially, morally, friendly and who made the adventure of a firm not quite like the others  possible. And because life is not a long calm river, we have a very special thought for our loved ones who left far too soon (Jérôme, Jean-François, Jean-Christian, Mallory, Térésa).

Finally, a huge thank you to all those who have trusted us over time: the keists of yesterday and today, the customers of the first hour and those who have followed since, the partners, the candidates and all the others who have crossed  our path and who will recognize each other.

We look forward to building the sequel alongside you!  

Kea - Partners for transformation

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