Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking
See this page in
[FR]
The Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way.
It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the "improbable" to think like creators. Through a unique method called "Art Thinking," developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.
A few words from
Guillaume Houzé
Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group
“The Improbable Chair is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way. It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the ‘improbable’ to think like creators. Through a unique method called ‘Art Thinking’, developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.”
Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group Photo Credit: ©Lucasziwel
A few words from
Sylvain Bureau
Professor at ESCP Business School
Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair
“Our initial belief was simple: to make creation accessible to as many people as possible. To achieve this, we developed a method called Art Thinking, which characterises how artists, entrepreneurs, and scientists go through similar steps in the creative process, such as gift-giving, deviating, destroying and drifting. For 15 years, our Art-Thinking seminars have trained thousands of students, entrepreneurs, managers, and researchers across a dozen countries and twenty universities and schools. Partnering with Galeries Lafayette group, a company with a strong entrepreneurial DNA, our chair combines theory and practice to amplify this approach and promote creators and creation in the broadest sense.”
Professor Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair
Objectives
The Chair has two major complementary goals:
- Support scientific research to better understand creative practices
- Teach the Art Thinking method and spread the Improbable pedagogy worldwide
Art Thinking not only helps participants unleash their innate creative potential; it also promotes collaboration, listening, leadership, negotiation, and constructive dialogue. Participants learn to question themselves, leverage failure, establish partnerships, and develop an agile approach to uncertainty.
Three areas of activity
- Scientific publications
- Doctoral theses and final dissertations
- Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
- Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
- Designing initial training in Art Thinking
- Training Art Thinking instructors
- Conferences and workshops on Art Thinking
- Exhibitions and Improbable openings
- Improbable residencies (artist/scientist/entrepreneur triads)
“This Chair is the story of an encounter between visionary creators who understood early on how future generations of students and entrepreneurs would need artistic and creative practices to prepare for the world of tomorrow. Through this collaboration, ESCP is grateful to the Galeries Lafayette group for opening up new playgrounds for unprecedented and improbable creations!”
Pascale Pernet, Director of chairs and corporate sponsorship
ppernet@escp.eu
Focus on...

Article
On Tuesday, 19th March 2024, Léon Laulusa, Dean and Executive President of ESCP, Jean-Stéphane Arcis, President of the ESCP Foundation, Philippe Houzé, Chairman of the Management Board of the Galeries Lafayette group, and Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group, signed the first Chair dedicated to artistic and entrepreneurial creation.
Conference Proceedings
2026
Reshoring under turbulence: evidence from French manufacturing in the post-Covid era
in 35th Annual Conference, IPSERA, 2026, Helsinki, Finland
Journal Article
2026
Responsible ontological work
Forthcoming ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT LEARNING AND EDUCATION
Other contribution
2026
Rethinking Business Education in the Age of AI: ESCP’s Experiment in Progress
2026, THE EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW
Journal Article
2026
Rethinking religion in organizations: Unpacking the interplay between visible practices and invisible mechanisms
EUROPEAN MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 2026
Contribution on blogs and Social Networks
2026
Rethinking workplace energy: Why our assumptions can lead to burnout
2026, World Economic Forum
Edited Special Issue
2026
Roots: a SEED manifesto for early career research. Introducing budding perspectives
2026, QUALITATIVE MARKET RESEARCH: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
ESCP Impact Papers
2026
Sceptical by design: Why responsible AI needs institutionalised doubt
2026, ESCP Impact Papers
Journal Article
2026
Served by a cyborg: insights into how human enhancement technologies impact consumer response to frontline employees
JOURNAL OF RETAILING, 2026, vol. 102 (1), pp. 114-131
Journal Article
2026
Shifting stages, evolving social bricolage: advancing social value creation by social entrepreneurs in Kenya and Rwanda
JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 2026, vol. 38 (1), pp. 1-25
Journal Article
2026
Silence as a discourse regime in professional interactions within hospitals
SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE, 2026, vol. 402/2026, pp. 119310