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
2025
Le design de la recherche
in Méthodes de recherche en management., R.-A. Thiétart et al. Ed., Dunod, pp. 168-201, 2025
Paper presented in a Conference
2025
Le difficile apport de la recherche sur les outils de gestion aux pratiques : panorama des recherches et perspectives dans le domaine de la santé
in Journée de recherche « Nouvelles perspectives sur les outils de gestion », 2025, Nancy, France
Journal Article
2025
Le management de la diversité confronté aux populations invisibles, mais pas indifférentes , Le cas des catholiques pratiquants en France
REVUE FRANCAISE DE GESTION, 2025
Other contribution
2025
Leader Generation: The art of values-based leadership
2025, BBC
Paper presented in a Conference
2025
Leadership and the Role of Cultural Intelligence in Hybrid Virtual Teams
in Academy of Management (AOM), 2025, Copenhagen, Denmark
Chapter
2025
Learning to Succeed
in Symbiotic Business: a celebration of life, not of money., Frank Birkin Ed., Business, 2025
Journal Article
2025
Les difficultés rencontrées par l'expert de l'article 1843-4 du code civil relèvent-elles du juge du fond ou des référés ?
REVUE DES SOCIETES, 2025
ESCP Impact Papers
2025
Les imaginaires de l’IA : Une déconstruction nécessaire à l’action managériale
2025, ESCP Impact Papers
Journal Article
2025
Les postures des entreprises face aux « nouveaux sujets » liés à la religion au travail
THE CONVERSATION, 2025
Chapter
2025
Les start-up et licornes ont-elles inventé un nouveau modèle de GRH ? Entre exemplarité et mirage
in Le Management Désenchanté., Lionel Honoré et Marie-Noëlle Chalaye Ed., EMS Editions, pp. 175-192, 2025