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.
Chapter
2016
Start-up Inkubatoren als Ansatz digitaler Transformation etablierter Unternehmen - Darstellung am Beispiel hub:raum der Deutschen Telekom
in Digital Leadership - Erfolgreiches Führen in Zeiten der Digital Economy., Petry, T. Eds, Haufe, pp. 419 - 430, 2016
Journal Article
2016
Stock Market Efficiency Under the Cost of Carry Model. Evidence from the IBEX 35
JOURNAL OF INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, 2016, vol. 2 (2), pp. 18-33
Journal Article
2016
Strategic Planners in More Turbulent Times: The Changing Job Characteristics of Strategy Professionals, 1960–2003
LONG RANGE PLANNING, 2016
Chapter
2016
Stratégies internationales - de développement durable - des distributeurs
in Marketing et Développement Durable., Laure Lavorata Ed., ECONOMICA, chap. 6, pp. 102-114, 2016
Journal Article
2016
Study of the current incentive rules and mechanisms to promote biofuel use in the EU and their possible application to the civil aviation sector
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART D TRANSPORT AND ENVIRONMENT, 2016
Journal Article
2016
Studying Organizational Creativity as Process: Fluidity or Duality?
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, 2016, vol. 26 (1), pp. 5-16
Chapter
2016
Studying Social Software Adoption by Management Consultants: Use and Application Categories for Knowledge Management.
in Innovations in Knowledge Management., Liana Razmerita, Gloria Phillips-Wren, Lakhmi C. Jain Eds, Springer, pp. 101-126, 2016
Journal Article
2016
Supermarché La Louve, le dernier né de la conso alternative
THE CONVERSATION, 2016
Published Case Study
2016
Surf Shop Royan ou le management stratégique des coûts
2016, CCMP, Paris, France
Review of a book; an article; a research
2016
S’allier avec un grand groupe permet aux start-up de faire face à l’incertitude
2016, ECHOS (LES), France