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.
Journal Article
2026
Silver Economy Influencers: Unlocking the Untapped Potential of Mature Content Creators
CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW, 2026
Journal Article
2026
Social Entrepreneurship and the Power of Informal Institutions in Postcolonial Societies
JOURNAL OF ENTERPRISING CULTURE, 2026, vol. 34 (1), pp. 1-45
Journal Article
2026
Social entrepreneurship mechanisms for systems change: A structuration approach
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS VENTURING, 2026, vol. 41 (2)
Journal Article
2026
Social Exchange and Reciprocal Integration Between Migrants and Locals at Work
Forthcoming HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
Edited Special Issue
2026
Social Good under Transformation: New Contexts for Social Entrepreneurship
2026, EUROPEAN MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
Journal Article
2026
Socio-Economic and Attitudinal Diversity in Ex-ante Versus Ex-post Studies of Climate-Policy: A Systematic Literature Review
JAHRBUCHER FUR NATIONALOKONOMIE UND STATISTIK - JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS, 2026
ESCP Impact Papers
2026
Space for food and food for space: A dual perspective on innovation, sustainability, and business
2026, ESCP Impact Papers
Journal Article
2026
Spillover effects of foreign takeover restrictions on corporate investment of peer firms: Evidence from CFIUS denials
INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2026, vol. 86, pp. 106332
Other contribution
2026
Start-up vendue, identité du fondateur perdue : la lourde question du leadership et du « défi de l'après »
2026, Les Echos
Textbook
2026
Stratégique, 14e édition
2026, Pearson, France