Innovation mindset:5 lessons for managers from the Paris metro
By Enrico Giubertoni
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An innovation mindset is the set of values, rules and habits that leads a company to solve its customers’ real problems, and technology comes after it as a consequence. I saw an excellent application of it during a trip to Paris, through RATP: the Paris transport company, which runs the metro, trams and buses. The Paris metro, opened in 1900, is among the oldest in Europe and in the world, and the company that runs it behaves with a surprisingly modern culture.
A mindset of this kind can be trained. To train it I often recommend Paul Arden’s book on contrarian thinking, and in this article I explore what RATP teaches managers and decision makers, in five lessons.
What happened on arrival in Paris
From Charles de Gaulle airport a shuttle train reached a stop that connected the airport to the metro network. At the exit, inside the paid area, there were about ten young women and men in uniform: the uniform made clear that they were consultants for tourists.
They stopped people and asked them, in English, German and Spanish, where they needed to go. Then they said whether to take the metro or the tram, or whether to walk, pointed them in the right direction and explained which line to take.
They did this above all with a precise target: the people least used to digital. They relied on experience to approach those who had more difficulty using a transport app.
The lessons below start from this episode.
How companies born before digital build an innovation mindset
In episode 41 of my Italian podcast I start from RATP as a clear example of a human-centric innovation culture managed well. Here I share the five lessons I took from that analysis, useful for anyone who wants a stable and lasting culture of innovation.
Effective innovation grows from the values and the culture of a company, which produce good actions. Adopting technology is the logical consequence of that mindset.
Enrico Giubertoni
Lesson 1: innovating is a cultural choice
The help I have just described is a quiet innovation. Technology played no leading role here. The leading role belonged to a company culture you could feel. What did this innovation consist of?
Trained, multilingual staff in uniform, placed in the key areas.
Practical advice tailored to each traveller.
A human, empathetic approach, built around the needs of travellers.
This attention to the customer is what an innovation mindset looks like in practice: understanding what the target needs and building processes and services that answer those needs. Real innovation starts from this attitude.
Lesson 2: a mindset is values, rules and organisation, in digital too
I felt I had to clarify what I mean when I say that digital culture comes before digital tools. Tools, apps and platforms are only its surface. Underneath there is a set of values that show up in the choices and behaviours of a company.
So “digital” behaviours, or better, behaviours that come from a proactive mentality, can be adopted even without heavy use of technology. What matters is:
Care for the customer.
Speed in giving answers.
A habit of continuous innovation.
Technology comes in only when it is needed, as a tool serving this way of working. This is the condition for anyone who really wants to change the mindset of a company, and it is the ground on which digital transformation succeeds or fails.
Lesson 3: a fair give and take with the customer makes a mindset agile
Another thing I appreciated in the Paris metro is the balance between welcome and discipline, a mark of an agile and well structured mindset. During a ticket check with electronic devices, I felt that respect for the rules was part of the brand culture. The RATP example shows that:
Welcome makes you feel followed and protected.
Respect for the rules rewards those who behave correctly.
Those who break the rules are fined, within a context of clarity and mutual respect.
This balance is the heart of a healthy company culture, and it is what makes a mindset fit its specific context.
Lesson 4: technology seen as a service to the customer comes from a dynamic mindset
Technology does have a central role where it offers concrete added value. One example is the multilingual announcements against pickpockets on the trains: a simple solution that clearly improves the customer experience. Another is the Bonjour RATP app, designed to plan routes across the city with geolocation. Here the company innovates for real usefulness, guided by a culture and a proactive attitude focused on the customer.
Lesson 5: a traditional company can change its mindset and keep its identity
Many managers ask whether a company born before the digital era can really innovate and change its mindset without losing its soul. My answer is yes. An innovative mindset can take root even in the most established companies, respecting their history. Often the most authentic innovation comes from rediscovering the founding values and reading them for the present. I have seen it with clients I follow as a consultant: innovating means evolving, with the identity intact. The path has five steps:
Start from the founding values of the company.
Identify the real, current needs of customers.
Build innovative services and processes from those values, making clear the rules that govern them.
Bring in technology only when it is truly needed and strengthens the company mindset and the service.
Conclusions: innovating is an act of care and of culture towards customers and people
The RATP journey taught me that real innovation rests on values, on culture and on concrete attention to people, the core of a winning mental attitude. Technology only strengthens that attitude. Companies born before digital can and must still lead change, as long as they stay true to their identity and open the door to services that solve the real problems of customers. This is how an innovation mindset turns into a digital mindset oriented to the future.
